At 8AM on Monday, August 18, 1969, Jimi Hendrix woke the massive crowd at Woodstock with his now-classic rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. A year later, Hendrix was gone, and a year after that, a young man was born in South Florida of two Haitian parents. By age 5, Daniel Bernard Roumain figured out he wanted to play the violin, a decision, he said, that could get a young black boy beat up. Little did anyone know that the spirit of Hendrix would one day be manifested in the minds, the fingers and the work of Roumain, known as DBR, and that forty years hence, people who heard him play his violin would rise up, not to strike him down, but to offer a standing ovation as they did not once but twice during his concert event at Tri-C’s fabulous new black box space on the Metro Campus in the Center for Creative Arts on 2/26/11.
Accompanied by DJ Scientific, (Christian A. Davis) who beatboxed on the mic, spun sick grooves and scratched away at two turntables and an Apple laptop, the classically-trained DBR layered his two effects-laden electric violins on top of Scientific’s meticulously mixed samples, often using super-clean 48 kHz digital master files, pumped through the Black Box’s state-of-the-art 5.1 digital sound system. The genius of this set-up was the mash-up of a totally tricked-out room and an artist who knew how to jump on it. The imaginative LED lighting array, directed by Leslie Coffey, and the live digital sound mix by Thomas Jeffries had an appropriately experimental feel, creating a “live” improvisational space that so many performers lack the confidence to play in, instead preferring to regurgitate well-rehearsed and polished routines to an audience trained to know what they like and like what they know. Rather, DBR diverged from the printed program and at times, his own agenda, and took the willing audience on a cathartic journey.
In a perfect melding of emotional and relevant fantasies and digressions on themes of family, politics, and contemporary life, DBR (he prefers to be called Daniel, but DBR is so much more appropriate) humbly stood tall in the center of the black box, surrounded on all four sides by his “accompanist” DJ Scientific, the audience and Tri-C technical assistants, and did what so few artists dare to do. More than just letting his hair down, DBR had recently shorn his meter-long dreadlocks just weeks earlier, inspired by the birth of his first child and his own 40th birthday, and he used that that act as a reverse Samson moment to give himself the strength to peel away even more layers separating him from his audience, his family, his work and his message. With works entitled, Sonata for Violin & Turntables, Simone (his mother’s name), JMDL (his father’s initials which he finally learned late in life), Etudes4Violins&Electronix and Spaceships Over Haiti, DBR pushes classical music beyond it’s comfort zone, and infuses Hip-Hop with a sensibility that rises above the street.
So instead of a grand entrance, DBR began talking with the audience before the first note was struck, and never stopped. Part “schtick” (his word), but more extemporaneous and heartfelt than most performers, DBR’s between-number patter broke down the imaginary fourth wall that usually both elevates and isolates artists on a stage. Instead, DBR went deeper with each selection, explaining the genesis of each piece, even previewing sections on his handmade six-string violin for better comprehension. He treated the audience, seated mere inches from him and his array of guitar effects pedals, as collaborators, inviting them into his “living room,” and dispensing with the cliched convention of an encore by noting that never has an audience not asked for one more song at the end of a concert. His first encore took My Country ‘Tis Of Thee, and improved it to Our Country ‘Tis Of Thee, an emotional political cry. His final number, Amazing Grace, performed unplugged in lighted areas at four corners of the space (which he said represented the various campuses of Tri-C), built to an emotional and cathartic climax, with the raw sound of bow scraping against strings bouncing off the concrete walls, and included a quote from The Star-Spangled Banner, with DBR at one point kneeling in front of an elderly black woman in the audience, while she smiled and clasped her hands.
One reason this project could be called the musical event of the year, is the remarkable ability of DBR and Tri-C to attract a wide range of audience and collaborative partners and to offer a glimpse as to how classical music could, if it chooses, find new relevance and a transfusion of new blood. A four-year old African-American boy, in attendance with his parents and grandparents, was encouraged by DBR, who told the boy, “We’re going to jam someday…” Dozens of elementary and high school kids were in attendance, and by the look in their eyes and their comments afterwards, it was obvious they had never seen anyone play a violin like DBR, and they totally dug it.
Why do we lament the aging audiences and increasing irrelevance of classical music, when the answer is right under our noses. One might make the case that DBR could be in residence at classical music institutions such as The Cleveland Orchestra year-round, working on commissions to be premiered at Traditional classical music venues, attracting young multi-ethnic audiences and the next generations of performers. Fortunately for Cleveland, DBR is comfortably collaborating with Tri-C artists, faculty and students, as well as a wide range of the Cleveland community, artists and technical personnel. His repeated comments during the concert about the quality of Tri-C personnel, facilities and opportunities spoke volumes to the vision of the Center For Creative Arts.
DBR has worked with artists ranging from Philip Glass, to Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lady Gaga, and DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, and is known to Clevelanders from his collaboration with video wizard Kasumi during IngenuityFest. He was in town all week on a residency to create the year-long Gilgamesh Project, an open-ended commission by Tri-C to be premiered sometime next year. He’ll be back in a few months, and back again next year. We’re dying to see what he and his new best friends come up with. Our suggestion: be there.
Listen to the exclusive Cool Cleveland interview with DBR here.
The next performances from Tri-C Presents include Take 6 on March 19, and the upcoming Tri-C Jazz Fest, April 28 to May 8 http://www.tricpresents.com.
Review, photos and interview by Thomas Mulready
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The decking on the valley side of the building hints that there’s more to the Emerald Necklace Inn than a general store. The inviting entranceway feels more homey than commercial, and inside the Tea Shoppe one could be in a former parlor except for the tea and teapots on display. To the left of the front door is a Victorian parlor where tea is served in a corniced room of white table clothed tables.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia Taller, whose book Ohio’s Lake Erie Wineries will be published by Arcadia next spring. Her passion for words has led to creation of the Lakeside Word Lover’s Retreats, an outgrowth of her work with Skyline Writers. Her favorite foods are red wine, salmon, ice cream, and chocolate. She loves to read, write, tour wineries, ride her bike, ease into yoga, and cook gourmet meals for friends. Find her at 
Alan, a media expert who, in addition to his dining establishments also teaches Art of Story at Tri-C, has a feel for what the locals crave, especially after a hard day at work — whether the office or the classroom — and offers up the specialness, in generous abundance: a welcoming environment, flavorful appetizers and a wide selection of spirits, all presented with the friendliest service.
Alex Sukhoy, a globally-networked creative and business professional with nearly 20 years of corporate management experience, is founder and manager of 
MANSFIELD: Seeking Donations for Chateau Hough
Seeking Donations for Chateau Hough
As soon as the weather breaks we plan to begin hosting training classes in viticulture for neighborhood youth at the half-acre vineyard we established on Hough Avenue. We’re seeking any donations of usable gardening tools (rakes, hoes, pruning shears, loppers, etc.). I’ll pick them up and give you a form to deduct the donation off your taxes since we operate as a non-profit organization. I can be reached at 216.469.0124. Thanks.
Close, but not Quite
The walking, talking piece of excrement known as Denny Obermiller (who killed his grandparents and raped his grandmother in the process) committed deeds so vile and despicable he certainly has forfeited his right to live … but I still don’t want his life taken in the name of the People of the State of Ohio … because I’m one of those people.
While Obermiller’s crimes were so horrific I’m tempted to abandon my principles of the death penalty in this case … state-sanctioned murder (no matter the method of dispatch) still is murder, and it still is wrong. And, as sure as this man, this time, is guilty beyond any doubt, we just as assuredly will execute an innocent man by mistake sooner or later as long as we continue to engage in this barbaric practice.
Statistics reveal that 138 individuals convicted and sentenced to death have been exonerated since 1973 when the death penalty was reinstated in America. How many were wrongly executed is a figure no one wants to know.
But in the Obermiller case there is another way. The obvious solution for this sick puppy (who fought for the right to be executed and won) is suicide. Why doesn’t a guard slip a belt into his cell when no one is looking, or teach him how to make a noose out of his bed sheet? Hell, I’ll volunteer to show him how to do that, and even help him to climb up on the top bunk. What I won’t do is push him off.
This coward – for once in his miserable life – needs to do the right thing. Trust me, no one is going to rush into his cell to stop him, and no investigation will be done after the fact.
And the faster he does it the better so we can quickly forget him … lest we be forced once again to examine the flawed child welfare system in America that produced this monster … and continues to produce many more like him. Denny Obermiller (tortured and twisted man that he is) didn’t raise himself … somewhere along the line we, as a society, failed him.
I spend a good portion of my time working in the field of prisoner reentry … attempting to keep people from recidivating. And I submit that if our prison system was not overcrowded with low-level, non-violent offenders officials could do a better job with the Obermillers in the system.
Sources within the prison system have told me that everyone who came into contact with this dude (from prisoner staffers to other prisoners) knew that he was a dangerous, walking time-bomb, but, nonetheless he – a). by and large went undiagnosed and untreated, and b). was let out to make room for someone else.
America’s prisons have become the largest mental institutions on the planet, and do an inexcusably abominable job of treatment … simply because guards are not mental health professionals. Due, in large part to overcrowding, the system broke down in Obermiller’s case … and the proof of it are two recently buried bodies.
Portsmouth and Points South
Due to its proximity to the state lines of Kentucky and West Virginia, Portsmouth, OH has become the epicenter of downer addiction along the Ohio River. The area is also home to an increasing number of meth labs.
The Academy Awards-nominated film Winter’s Bone is chillingly accurate in its depiction of a drug culture that is rapidly expanding in this country. And as opportunities for working-class Americans continue to dry up more and more young people in rural areas will do what inner-city youth have been doing for decades: Escape the pain of living without a future by self-medicating.
But this new wave of addiction is indeed more challenging: If these were black and brown youth, the hammer of incarceration would swiftly fall, just look at our prison system nationwide … which is overcrowded with drug abusers of color.
However, these are overwhelmingly young white people who are being welcomed to hard times with open arms by the twin devils of uppers and downers – and law enforcement in America is simply not as swift to drop that hammer of a felony conviction on this demographic.
The treatment of choice when the crack epidemic hit America was incarceration, but the treatment of choice now that primarily white kids are the addicts is going to be common-sense substance abuse programs that negate the need for incarceration and branding for life with the scarlet “F” for felon… just watch.
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Posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011, in Civic Affairs, Commentary, Green, Help, Mansfield Frazier, News, Politics | 1 Comment »