I have always subscribed to the theory that you can find out as much about someone through their record collection as you could ever want to know. I could start a dating service based on what is in the record collections of single men and women, and virtually guarantee success. Some people predict criminality through craniology, but I stake my reputation on too many Daniel Johnston records.

When Martha Mendenhall was thinking about the idea of Wunderkammer, a multifaceted arts carnival profiled in C-VILLE just last week, she picked longtime Zen Monkey Dance Troupe member Zap McConnell to take the reins as artistic director. McConnell has been involved in many different aspects of performance art, from theater and dance to studying clowning in Mexico. When I talked to her, Zen Monkey was in preparation for their seventh annual Summer Dance Intensive, which hosts students from all over the region, and I got to ask Zap about her influences.

Bahlmann Abbot grew up in Fayetteville, in southern West Virginia. His grandmother was a picker and singer and his father played music as well. Abbot says, “It was in the storyteller tradition, sitting on the front porch and passing the guitar around.”

Talking to Tim Reynolds, you get the sense that he eats, sleeps and breathes music, and in reality his whole life, family, politics and everything else gets reflected back into his art form.

Apart from the music, of course, the best thing about Robin Tomlin’s "Soulful Situation" show on WTJU (every Monday from noon to 2pm), is the amount of history that he provides with the music. "Bad musical history really pisses me off," he says. Tomlin moved to the States from England in 1986 to see live […]

There are those who view hip-hop as a commercial entity, and those who see hip-hop as a way of life. The latter is how Rob Jackson, a.k.a. Blue Black, looks at hip-hop culture in his own life. Jackson, who grew up in The Bronx, met fellow MC Asheru when they both lived in Charlottesville and they began recording together as The Unspoken Heard. The Heard released two CDs that were well received. While Asheru and Black have relocated to the D.C. area, they have landed some great gigs. Asheru has written the theme song for “The Boondocks” TV show now airing on the Cartoon Network, and also has a new mix-tape release, While You Were Sleeping, which is available online.

The thing about the popular local burritto restaurant Atomic Burrito is that there is often a band, always a crowd, and usually the crowd is as diverse as it gets. Part of the secret to Atomic’s success, according to bartender and music booker Josh Lowry, is that the staff really loves music. Typically, the bartenders will make the call on which band plays the bar on the nights that they work, and the resulting live shows cover everything from country to hip-hop to garage rock. Lowry, who heads The Hillbilly Werewolf and Bucks and Gallants (recently recorded at Monkeyclaus), gave me some of his personal favorites, live
and otherwise.

Fans of piano jazz know Evan Mook from his gigs tickling the 88’s around town. Mook, who toured with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra for two years, was a student of local Suzuki method teacher Kay Pitt. When Pitt decided not to take on more new students, Mook became the Suzuki instructor for piano in town. Although it’s unusual, he has dedicated himself as much to jazz as classical music. In fact, Mook has gradually spent more time teaching jazz music to advanced classical players and musicians with a rock background. Local rocker Brian Kingston, whose music has appeared on MTV, and also been written up internationally, has been studying jazz with Mook over the past year.