Hardcore Composer

Daniel Bernard Roumain, 2/9/07

Those folks interested in getting young folks interested in classical music have touted Daniel Bernard Roumain for years, since the composer-violinist forges original works from classical, funk, rock, and hip-hop and puts on a good show too. D.C. got a taste of DBR (as he calls himself for professional purposes) on Friday, February 9, 2007, when he visited the echt-classical Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress. He brought along his bandmates ("The Mission"), a composition receiving its world premiere, and a lot of energy and goodwill.

DBR's compositions make the connection between classical and hip-hop through minimalism. In the second string quartet in his Civil Rights Reader, a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., the "SQ Unit," an amplified string quartet consisting of violinists Earl Maneein and Matthew Szemela, violist Jon Weber, and cellist Jessie Reagen, played repetitive melodic cells that began lyrically before surging into homophonic beat-driven jams. Keyboarder Wynne Bennett (who also serves as the Mission's music director) spread decorative electronic twinkles on the texture, while DJ Scientific laid down hip-hop beats heavy on the kick drum, so as to leave the treble undisturbed. And DBR soloed, either with his violin or with his voice. When the voice prevailed, the Mission became a funk band at full boil, with strings bowed rather than strummed.

Two other string quartets from the Civil Rights Reader showed some different moves. The third and strongest quartet, dedicated to Adam Clayton Powell, featured the SQ Unit by itself, with Reagen steady pluckin' out the bass line. Here the minimalist cells wound themselves up until the music stood on a vertiginous tipping point between classical development and full-blown hip-hop, as harmonic progression and groove solidification battled it out in a purposefully (and deliciously) inconclusive battle. The fourth quartet, a tribute to Maya Angelou, had the whole band back again, for a more lyrical approach that nevertheless made time for some wicked Scientific beats and DBR thrashing above the sonic clouds.

DBR still has some things to work out as a composer, mostly because he has compassed all his favored genres but has not mastered them. For the most part, his classical-style melodies aren't catchy enough to merit the repetitions they often receive (unlike, for example, the melodic cells in hip-hop songs like "The Message" or "Big Pimpin'"). He amplifies this problem occasionally by having the string soloists simply double each other, which has a great visual effect in live performances (here the artists entered the stage one by one before taking up the same part) but enforces tedium musically. The Mission plays a tight groove, but DBR has it run mostly straight ahead, with few of the kind of changeups that first bring you up short and then lock you in. The whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts (especially in the Powell quartet), but the whole would be even greater if the individual parts were more imaginative and compelling.

But DBR knows how to tool around on his amplified violin and has a more-than-pleasant voice, and he leads performances so forceful and exuberant that one readily overlooks the flaws in his music. He dropped solos full of classical virtuoso flourishes, rock-god stringed histrionics, and even tapping on the body of his instrument to amplify his beat, sometimes in the same passage. He also talked to the crowd, describing his goals for his compositions in vivid, ecstatic terms and even trying to get the crowd pumped up, which doesn't happen much at the Coolidge.

An example: Before presenting his premiere, "Numerical Music For Violin and Keyboard in Four Movements," Roumain related how he had, earlier that day, toured the Library and held in his hands manuscript scores by Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. "And as a good Catholic," he said in breathless, soft tones, "I hope I'm worthy. I hope this music - 'Numerical Music' - is worthy." It was cheesy, but affecting nonetheless.

More abstract (and thus "classical") than the string quartets, "Numerical Music" suffered in this performance from its instrumentation: an amplified violin by itself, with its plangent sound variously mollified by amplification effects, just does not command the same tonal beauty as an acoustic violin. The first movement, too, seemed overdedicated to showing DBR's compositional device (briefly, notation with pitch numbers rather than with staves), with its short quick repetitions that never got quiet enough to create a sense of occasion. The remainder ventured into longer units and more exotic timbres, with Bennett employing a Rhodes patch on her keys at one point to add color to her eloquent playing, but the music never really (pun coming) added up to much. Like his other compositions, it's hard to image "Numerical Music" surviving without DBR's advocacy.

Still, like Gilbert Arenas, DBR has phenomenal swag, and a little postlude proved it: An LOC functionary brought him the Kreisler Stradivarius violin to play after the rest of the Mission left the stage. Roumain thanked the library before noting that the violin is worth about $5 mil, which is the first time I've heard that number thrown out in the Coolidge. Then he noodled virtuosically for a few minutes, separating double-stopped versions of tunes like "Amazing Grace" and "We Shall Overcome" with Paganini-esque flaming-fingers figurations. Just as classical virtuosos like Fritz Kreisler used to do, and just as MCs do now, DBR chose to close with a brazen, arresting display of skill. It was both pointless and pretty awesome.

'CAUSE MY TRACK RECORD'S LONGER THAN THE DC-20 AIRCRAFT

This program had the most awesome biographical notes of any program ever printed for any Lib o' C concert, and I feel perfectly confident stating that without have read all the other ones. For example, the biographical notes informed the audience that Jessie Reagen created the Hustla Symphony Orchestra, which apparently played the string parts from Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt at the 10th anniversary concerts for that album; Matt Szemela was its concertmaster, and Jon Weber was the principal viola. Earl Maneein "is currently working on Resolution 15, a thrash metal/hardcore solo project for electric violin."

But the all-time champion biographical note ever belongs to Wynne Bennett, and I am not just saying this because she is built like the proverbial brick house. (Though believe me when I say I appreciated it.) Here's the list of artists she's performed with: "James Carter, Konstantin Lifschitz, Philip Glass, Joan Tower, Akim Funk Buddha, Slick Rick, Little Brother, and Mobb Deep." Just imagine those folks getting together for "a project," in the current parlance! Joan Tower and G-Unit might have some beef over misogyny, but as my man Tyler Higgins said, you can imagine Slick Rick rhyming over a Glassy beat.

Anyway, for her bio, Wynne Bennett officially has earned the Spam-O-Matic Designation of Awesomeness, which entitles her to dinner next time she's in town. Call me!

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