Groove globally, act locally with Delta Nove

ILLUSTRATION by JOE MCGARRY

After blowing past rest stops outside Las Vegas, Lawrence and Boulder during a summer-long national tour, Long Beach jam men Delta Nove returned home to . . . play a two month weekly residency at the Blue Café. Voluntarily. Some people get hooked on West Wing re-runs; time off for Delta Nove—Bobby Easton, Heath Bennett, Rob Covacevich, Viking and Dominic Feedam—means booking nine free-form improv shows with more than as many guests, including Blackbyrd McKnight (George Clinton and P-Funk), Greg Ginn, Marc Ford (the Black Crowes, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals), Norwood Fisher and Ikey Owens, plus what Easton describes as a “full-on Brazilian night” with eight samba dancers and Brazilian martial artists. “Delta Nove is a metaphor for the manifestation of your mind through music,” Easton says. “We want to give you a euphoric musical experience and tickle your mind and booty at the same time.” And here I thought that was just my secret place.

The District Weekly: Your two month residency has seen collaborations with everyone from Greg Ginn to Ikey Owens. What does this say about your band—not just as musicians but also the music you play?
Bobby Easton: We love to play with other musicians—we don’t feel or want to be confined to any particular genre, because all of our different tastes are what spawn new ideas and sounds. Also, we take chances—we’ve opened up for a lot of improvisation with generally no rehearsal with any of the guests. Now we’re under the influence of each guest—and they’re up in the middle of our groove.

To play such different shows each week—some might look at this and wonder if you’ve reached a point of stagnation. Is it boredom? Or are you just showing off?
We wanted to slow down from playing so much outside of Long Beach and out of state. Since we were going to be home for a while, we thought ‘What can we do that would be new and exciting, fun and different?’ It didn’t really start off as an idea like ‘Let’s get the most varied kinds of guest musicians we can,’ but more like ‘Let’s get some of our friends who have made a good name for themselves over the years—get them out to play with us in a different environment, our environment, and just let loose and have fun.’

The way I wanted to approach it was to ask each guest what they would like to do with us: Did they want to bring a couple of their songs? A couple covers? Learn some of ours? Or just purely improvise? I wanted to leave it up to the guests. And our guests have been incredible and it’s been an honor to have each of them play with us.

What local band do you wish more people knew about?
Horace Deloris, from back in the day—one of my first influences when I started playing in a band. They don’t exist now, but I wish more people knew about them.

Is the band concerned about the recession?
People definitely aren’t spending as much during these times, but people still need live music—people need music, period. I do know that gas prices kicked our asses on tour this last summer! This has been another good reason for us to do the weekly show at the Blue Café—stay local!

All I can afford lately is a cheap bottle of wine and a DVD.
There are nights I want to stay in with a cheap bottle of wine and watch a DVD! But if I know something really cool is going on down the street, I’m gonna go check it out. When we started the series, I knew it was going to be unique and fun, but as it’s turned out, each Wednesday has been really fun and exciting, both for the audience and the musicians. It really has surpassed what I was hoping for. Our guest this week on Nov. 19 is Justin Porée, percussionist from Ozomatli, and we’re hoping for a couple other members of Ozo. The final show on Nov. 26 will feature Jason Hann, percussionist from String Cheese Incident. We’re expecting great music and great crowds for these last shows and it’s only $10 for a rare chance to see these guys playing locally in an intimate setting. And we’ll definitely push them to play a lot more funky than normal!

DELTA NOVE AND SPECIAL GUESTS PRESENT THE COLLAB LAB THE BLUE CAFÉ | 210 THE PROMENADE | LONG BEACH 90802 | 562.983.7111 | THEBLUECAFE.COM | WED NOV 19 & 26 8PM | $10

Tags: delta nove, Long Beach, Music, the blue cafe