Press for “The Spirit of Venice, California” (CD/Mp3)
Billboard Magazine – August 1, 1992
Sweeping Passion of Street Performance
Earlier this year, Rhythm Safari Records had the sharp idea of releasing “Spirit of Venice, California,” a collection of the best street musicians from the West Coast cultural outpost, produced by Harlan Steinberger. The concept ought to be explored in cities around the world.
But there’s also a threat to the freedom of street music. As public gathering places give way to those privately managed “festival marketplaces” and malls, a new level of bureaucracy and control comes between artists and passersby. And there’s already enough bureaucracy elsewhere in the music business.
Meanwhile, the best street tip I can offer: Stop, listen, and drop a few bucks in that open instrument case.
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L.A Style Magazine – May, 1992
Off The Boardwalk
For decades, one of the chief attractions of Venice Beach has been the many street musicians who play on the boardwalk for donations. Folk rockers, bluesmen, reggae artists, just in town or beachfront denizens for decades, they place themselves along the pathway and entertain the throngs who gather throughout the year. Now the best of these musicians have been collected on an album, The Spirit of Venice, California ( Rhythm Safari). Producer Harlan Steinberger a longtime Venice resident and supporter of the boardwalk scene, recorded more than a dozen musicians-including Sonny, a dreadlocked blues-rocker who has survived such friends as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison; Harry Perry, the turbaned minstrel who rollerblades along the boardwalk toting an electric guitar and amp; Limpopo a Russian folk band who emigrated to Venice just last year; Dr. Geek, a rapper who carries a huge boom box and offers a spontaneous rhyme to whoever will listen; guitarist Ted Hawkins, whose “Watch Your Step” was a hit a few years ago in England; and octogenarians Uncle Bill and Daisy, both of whom have been performing on the boardwalk for more than a decade . The album is studio-crisp but still soulful, a fine tribute to those who make the Venice Boardwalk one of the most inviting attractions in L.A.
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Los Angeles Times – March 4, 1992
Boardwalk Beat; Recording Captures Free-Spirited Sound of Venice’s Beach Musicians
Sonny, better known on the boardwalk as the King of Venice, can usually be found playing his tie-dye guitar and singing the blues on a grassy spot in front of the Fig Tree Café.
It’s a popular spot. Boardwalk musicians swear that you can find the spirit-a magical energy that, over the decades, has drawn hundreds of performers from around the world to Venice Beach.
Then there is Daisy, the 80-year-old crooning gospel on a bench, a lost look in her eyes; there’s Peter Demian, a Canadian with a guitar and dreams of a pink Mercedes, and Ted Hawkins, whose haunting soul sound makes tourists cry.
And of course, there is Dr. Geek, with his spontaneous rap: “What you gonna do? When the vibes of Venice getta hold of you!”
These free sprits have been brought together on “The Spirit of Venice,” a record that will be available in stores this week. It is the first-ever collection of some of the performers who, over the years, have given the Venice Boardwalk its wacky and wild melody. “We are giving the world a document of a real interesting part of California culture,” said Hilton Rosenthal, president of Rhythm Safari Records, the label that is marketing the recording.
The same spirit that moves the artists seems to have touched producer Harlan Steinberger.
Steinberger, himself a wild-haired drummer, tried to keep the recording sessions in sync with the world of his artists. He found a studio at the top of a mountain in Topanga Canyon “where you could step outside and see the stars.” He gave the artists, some of whom had never set foot in a recording room before, herbal tea for their nerves. One of his most difficult tasks, he said was persuading one of the artists to leave his cart full of possessions for a few hours.
Special sounds, said Steinberger, are as much a part of the boardwalk as the sight of musclemen and girls on skates and the smell of churros and suntan oil. So in between the songs, he has included the beat of bongos and boomboxes, the cries of children, peddlers, and sea gulls, and the roar of the tide.
Included on the release is a song crooned by one man who is said to be the first artist to sing for his supper on the boardwalk.
When he took the Blues of North Carolina to Venice in 1946, “Uncle Bill” Crawford recalled recently, the boardwalk was a gambling mecca crowded with young GIs like himself. Before long, the gambling moved to Las Vegas, and more and more young musicians moved to the boardwalk, where Uncle Bill says he gave guitar lessons to Rickie Lee Jones and Janis Joplin. A generation of musicians continued to drink and play hard, to dress in platform shoes and beads and to test the limits of an artistic freedom that soon came to be synonymous with Venice Beach.
“It was one big wild party,” recalls Janie Segal, a singer on the album who once donned a bikini to belt out her songs next to a piano on wheels. After someone took a baseball bat to the piano, Segal went on to record with Ian McGlaglin, Richard Perry and Desmond Child. But many more musicians stayed behind.
Some, like Sonny, live and sleep on the beach. He keeps all of his belongings in a cart attached to a blue bike, a rejection of the pounding life of drugs and rock ‘n’ roll that nearly ruined his career.
The fame that could come with the release is nothing new to blues singer Ted Hawkins, who is well-known in England.
Hawkins says he has survived stints on drugs, in prison, on skid rows and a nervous breakdown. He thinks redemption will only come when he has made a name for himself in this country. “I’m willing to sit here and sing until I die,” he said.
In recent months police, under pressure from nearby neighbors and merchants, have been cracking down on some of the musicians, ordering them to move from their favorite spots.
The musicians also complain about competition from more commercial acts, like the look-alike Madonna with the amplifiers who drowned everybody else out last summer. And the Chain Saw Juggler who just last weekend overpowered Daisy, sitting nearby with a grocery bag of donated dollars.
Hawkins and at least two other performers on the album now prefer to play at the Santa Monica Promenade, where they say they are allowed to solicit donations that can total $100 a day.
The musicians warn that it is they and the kind of music captured in the new release that have helped to give Venice its spirit-and that if they are pushed out of the neighborhood, the boardwalk will suffer. “People come here for us,” Sonny said.
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The Outlook – March 5, 1992
Under The Boardwalk Label: Recording of Venice Musicians Gets National Release
Daisy does gospel. 81-year old Uncle Bill plays the blues, Swami X gets mystic and Dr. Geek does ad-lib rap.
Yes it’s finally happened. The street musicians of the Venice Boardwalk have gone and made their own CD.
Brought together by music producer Harlan Steinberger, the boardwalk regulars have collected the rock, soul, rap, reggae, folk and other eclectic sounds of their music on the Rhythm Safari label. The record titled “Spirit of Venice, California,” will be released nationally on CD and tape this week.
“The whole idea is like a dream come true,” said Sonny, a dread-locked boardwalk guitar-player who has lived on Venice Beach for more than a decade. On the album he sings an original tune, titled “Scarlet May.”
The boardwalk sounds, said Sonny, “represent a lot of diverse cultures – reggae to Russian pop. You can just about hear any kind of music represented here.”
The album cover design , by expatriate Hungarian artist Tibor Jankay , is available on a T-shirt sold through the album jacket. Proceeds from T-shirt sales go into a fund to fix the musicians teeth.
“It’s what they wanted.” Steinberger shrugged.
A boardwalk resident for 10 years. Steinberger said he came up with the idea for the album after producing a successful benefit concert at the Venice Pavilion in 1988, Í was inspired. These are some of the most talented musicians. They love to play on the Boardwalk.” he said.
Some have recorded individually or had guest spots on other musicians records, but to everyone’s best recollection a compilation of the boardwalk regulars has never been done.
Originally, Steinberger simply wanted to record the musicians, produce the album himself and sell it to tourists. But record company president Hilton Rosenthal heard about the project and decided it was just what Rhythm Safari was looking for.
“I felt it was like a piece of history that should be recorded.” Rosenthal said.
“It just captured what the spirit of Venice is about. It’s part of the cultural heart of Los Angeles.”
The Rhythm Safari label brings reggae, African, Latino and other world music and ethnic sounds to the mainstream marketplace. Rosenthal coordinated the recording sessions for Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album and has produced African artists Johnny Clegg and Savuka.
With visions of Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin in their heads, the 22 musicians recorded on the Spirit of Venice are thrilled to be a part of Rhythm Safari’s latest effort.
“I feel very honored and glad for the opportunity.” Said Dr. Geek, a rap-like “spontaneous wordologist,” often found under a larger-than-life sombrero embroidered with sequins.
Also on the album are:
Uncle Bill, who has been performing on the boardwalk since 1946 and is said to have taught Janis Joplin to sing the blues;
Limpopo, a band from Russia who play an upbeat drinking song.
Ted Hawkins, a guitar player who had a number two hit on the British charts in 1986;
Tommy Jordan, and his homemade Tibetan horn and percussionist Taumbu , who takes up the bamboo flute;
Slavin’ Dave, a Venice native, who calls himself a living legend.”
There’s even Harry Perry, the turbaned, roller-skating guitar player, giving a speech against efforts to license boardwalk street vendors. Steinberger also included ocean sounds.
“It is long overdue, definitely.” proclaimed Bill Dreyer. An El Segundo resident who stopped to listen to various musicians as he roller-skated down the Boardwalk on a recent Sunday afternoon.
“They are just hard-core Venice musicians. I am definitely going to get the CD.”
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The New York Times – September 4, 1992
Where a Boardwalk is a Battleground Over Rights
“What’s happened, unfortunately, is they’re trying to change Venice, to control the west side of Venice,” said Harlan Steinberger, a musician who has performed on the boardwalk for the last decade.
Mr. Steinberger recently produced “The Spirit of Venice,” a cassette collection of the work of boardwalk performers, including Ted Hawkins, a blues singer; Dr. Geek, a rapper; Lampopo a Russian folk-and-roll band, and Harry Perry, a turbaned roller-skating sikh who plays an electric guitar.
They come to be free and there’s a spirit that allows that,” Mr. Steinberger said. “No matter what they try to do in the physical land, I feel sorry for them because in the end, the spirit’s going to win.
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Village View – September 4-10, 1992
The Spirit of Venice CD is a Celebration of Venice’s Street Musicians and the Freedom of Speech
A bit of the boardwalk came to Abbot Kinney Avenue recently, as vendors, musicians, and artists brought their wares, songs, and crafts to the street some locals consider Venice’s version of Melrose Avenue.
Officially known as the 9th Annual Venice Arts & Crafts Summer Festival, the event celebrated the “Spirit of Venice” and indirectly, the compilation record of the same name that pays homage to the street musicians who populate the boardwalk and several clubs throughout Los Angeles. The 21-track collection was released earlier in 1992, the dream of a local Venice musician and entrepreneur who yearned to document the thriving community of artists that continues to make Venice a Unique experience for locals and tourists alike.
Uncle Bill Crawford-one of eighteen street musicians represented on Spirit of Venice, California-has been singing the blues at Venice Beach since 1946, Janis Joplin andRickie Lee Jones, among others, sought Crawford’s tutelage early in their careers. As Crawford and his harmonica-playing partner Dave march toward their allotted performance corner on Abbott Kinney, Crawford shyly enjoyed his status as local hero.
“Hi Bill,” one couple called from an arts and crafts booth. “Where are you playing today? We want to come see you.” After arriving at the corner of Abbott Kinney and Aragon Court . Crawford enjoyed lunch as more well-wishers stopped by to say hello and chat. Crawford laughed and joked with friends before eventually jamming with Dave and other assorted musicians that stopped by throughout the day.
“Everybody wants to come and see Venice.” Crawford beamed. “It’s the best place in America where you can walk up and down the beachfront.”
That kind of pride inspired Harlan Steinberger to record street musicians in the area, seeking not only to document the music of Venice Beach, but to help define the unusual, implicit “spirit” of the community as well.
“There is a very strong community in Venice,” Steinberger explained. “There’s something about this place that has very little to do with the physical, although the ocean’s very beautiful. There’s something spiritual down here.”
Steinberger elaborated, “I look at the constitution of the United States and the Founding Fathers-they wanted America to be a place for free thinking, free thought. It really doesn’t seem like there are too many places like that left in America. [But] if you want to stand on a bench here and just recite your poetry, no one’s going to stop you. It’s a good place to try out ideas.”
Venice’s most visible figure, roller-skating guitarist Harry Perry, used his track on Spirit of Venice to stress the same point. “Do you know what freedom is?” Perry begins his spoken word piece, urging listeners to “come to Venice Beach” and witness freedom. “Venice Beach,” Perry concludes , “shall be the liberation front for all fronts everywhere, so that all can sing, sing from their hearts and collect money freely.”
The Ubiquitous turbaned musician rolled back and forth on the boardwalk on a recent Saturday. Asked to elaborate on his spirit,,, cut, Perry quipped, “Betsy Ross didn’t give her flags away. She sold her flags.” On a serious note, Perry commented, “Just like the Los Angeles Times, [street musicians] have the right to disperse our information-and collect money.”
While commerce and freedom often clash, some local businesses have helped invigorate the Venice community. Tom Looney owns the eccentric coffeehouse Van Go’s Ear, where many of Venice’s street musicians perform four nights per week. But hawking coffee and desserts is just part of Van Go’s operations.
Since opening in February 1991, the small café has become host to Alcoholics Anonymous and Neighborhood Watch meetings and occasionally lends a phone to folks who can’t afford one. A Venice native since 1986, Looney grimly remembered , “This [corner] used to e a crack spot.” But a smile swept over his face as he recognized that since Van Go’s opened, things have changed. “My roommate and I used to throw eggs at the buyers,” he laughed.
Street musicians, Looney said, “have a chance to get people to pay them to do what they love to do.”
Steinberger added, “A lot of people on the record are street musicians as a conscious choice. They’d rather play on the street.”
Capturing the colorful community of dedicated musicians, Steinberger drew from early private donations that gave the spirit,,, project its first legs. Steinberger then teamed up with Boom Shaka’s Trevy Felix to use Felix’s recording studio.
Originally, Steinberger was content to offer the record to boardwalk travelers, but an interesting plot change developed.
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The Argonaut – March 26, 1992
Street musicians brought together in new recording.
Producing a record album is an inherently difficult task, with raising money, negotiating contracts and dealing with temperamental artists only a few of the pitfalls.
But producer Harlan Steinberger of Venice had a highly unusual set of problems. He wasn’t working with musicians who refused to answer their phones. Some of his artists didn’t even have a phone – or a home, for that matter.
But Steinberger took on the daunting task of trying to capture the elusive, untamable “spirit of Venice” by recording the street musicians of the Venice Beach Boardwalk,
The result is appropriately, “The Spirit of Venice,” a just-released recording of Venice street musicians on the Rhythm Safari label that is being distributed nationally in Tower Records stores.
The album’s artwork is by longtime Venice resident Tibor Jankay, who is chairman in the art department at Pepperdine University in Malibu.
“Making the record was a chore, I have to admit, “Steinberger says. “But it’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.”
The idea of recording Venice street musicians and other sounds of the boardwalk came to Steinberger in June. He turned his inspiration into reality by raising the necessary capital from private sources.
He says doubts that he would succeed seemed to disappear while viewing last summer’s total eclipse from Cabo San Lucas.
“It was so awesome,” he says of the solar phenomenon. “The universe always takes care of itself.”
Steinberger, a ten-year local resident who was dubbed “The Prince of Venice” by his musician friends, says he was “basically trying to capture the spirit of Venice” on the recording and raise money for the musicians, some of whom are badly in need of funds.
Steinberger had the digital recording basically completed when he met Rhythm Safari Records president Hilton Rosenthal, who was interested in marketing the album.
As a result of the project, “all kinds of stuff is brewing,” Steinberger says, including a possible television appearance, a concert and maybe even a European tour.
Among the performers on “The Spirit of Venice” is turbaned, guitar-playing Harry Perry, who has helped popularize the Venice Ocean Front Walk in movies and on television.
The music is viable art, “Perry says of the Venice Beach scene. It’s an important of our culture and I think it should be protected.”
A boardwalk regular since 1974, Perry believes that “artists and musicians should be allowed to collect donations on Ocean front Walk without being treated like criminals.”
Contrary to some claims, Perry believes that musicians and artists actually help the rent-paying vendors by drawing huge crowds to the beach.
Also featured on the album is Sonny “The King of Venice” Zorro, who played his first gig here in 1969 at the Venice Pavilion.
Sonny, who got his start performing in San Francisco coffeehouses, says he was the ghost-writer for Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” and made friends with Bob Dylan, members of The Doors, Lind Ronstadt and other prominent musicians.
“I’m just doing what I love to do, “says the dreadlocked Sonny, who is homeless and has lived on the beach for the past ten years.
Sonny says Venice Beach is “a lot better now” in some ways than it was two decades ago. The old Venice jail, for instance, is now occupied by the Social and Public Art Resource Center.
But Sonny is worried that creeping commercialization could possibly”kill the art colony of Venice.”
As for the album, “It seems like a dream come true, “Sonny says. “He (Steinberger) just took the idea and made it real.”
Another album contributor is 81-year old Uncle Bill Crawford, who has been performing at Venice Beach since 1946.
Crawford, who says he taught the late rock star Janis Joplin how to sing the blues, acknowledges that he has “never been mistreated in Venice.”
Has it gotten more competitive on the boardwalk over the years?
“You better believe there’s a lot of competition down here,” Crawford says.
Recalling the early days, Crawford tells about “wide-open gambling” on the boardwalk, taking a boat ride for 50 cents, and riding the old Red Car down Pacific Avenue.
Another boardwalk regular is Daisy, an 80-year-old woman who came to Venice in 1980 from Springfield, Illinois.
Inspired by Mahalia Jackson, Daisy plays gospel music, clapping and singing the Lord’s Prayer and other numbers. Daisy says she enjoys seeing all the people on the boardwalk, and adds, “I’m looking to catch me a boyfriend down here.”
Folk and rock guitarist-vocalist Peter Demian of the Street Smart band says he loves Venice “for the freedom, the weirdness of it all. This is the last street on the western continent. To me it means Open Freedom Walk.”
It’s also where “the debris meets the sea,” he says.
Demian was drawn to Southern California by the lure of Hollywood. Reality eventually set in, however, and Demian was reduced to sleeping in his car and being rousted by cops.
But an officer did Demian a favor, telling him about “a place called Venice, California, where you can go and play forever.”
Eleven years later, Demian is featured on “The Spirit of Venice” album.
“I thank Harlan profoundly for giving us all a chance, “Demian says. “Every 20 feet is a story” on the boardwalk, he adds.
It’s not always romantic out here,” he says. “It can be devastating.”
“Slavin David” Breitman, “the white Chuck Berry on the boardwalk,” grew up in Venice and played with such bands as the Venice Canaligators. He moved from the street scene to club work in 1988, emphasizing that “12 years on the beach was enough.”
“It’s a great place to grow up,” Breitman says. He recalls the “hippie invasion” of the 1960s and then the roller skating craze of the late 1970s that helped make Ocean Front Walk an international tourist attraction, said to rank second in popularity behind only Disneyland in Southern California.
“A lot of people came down and we made a lot of money,” he says of the growth years. “But it was the beginning of the commercialization. It’s too nuts to play there now.”
Will the street musicians eventually be driven away? Slavin doesn’t think so.
“I don’t think you can out down the spirit,” he says. “Venice is still Venice. Street performers don’t walk away easily.”
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Pulse Magazine – April, 1992
And finally…for years, tourists in Southern California have flocked to the Venice Boardwalk for it’s concentrated bowlful of L.A. nuts’n’flakes, characters and street entertainers: a guy who juggles an operating chainsaw, a bowling ball and an apple; another who plays “How High the Moon” on water glasses; another in a turban on roller skates, who plays electric guitar through a Pignose amp attached to his waist…you get the picture. Rhythm Safari Records has released a 21 track compilation, The Spirit of Venice which samples the boardwalk’s polyglot sounds, from blues and folk forms to reggae riddums, spoken word and even a Russian folk song. Oy.
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CMJ New Music Report – April 17, 1992
For years, California’s Venice Beach has been a haven for iconoclasts and to misfit souls that don’t seem to fit in anywhere else, a stomping ground for a vibrant cross section of street musicians, performers, artists and all-around general characters and weirdos, historically roamed by the likes of Jim Morrison, Henry Rollins and countless others. The idea here is an innovative one: to record the various artists one might encounter on the Beach, either by bringing them into nearby studios or, even better still, recording them directly in context on the Boardwalk while the seagulls screech and the surf roars behind them. While a couple of the performers sound like they’ve been out in the feel-good SoCal sun for too long, and others lose their charm when put into a sophisticated studio, for the most part it’s a wonderful compendium of some of the world’s best street performers. Only on the Boardwalk: Harry Petty (the original white-, turbaned roller-skating electric guitarist of Venice Beach), the Latinate Polyrhythms of Taumba & Felizidad, Tommy Jordan’s spooky percussive jam, and best of all, the rootsy, bluesy cuts from Uncle Bill and the gospelish, wonderful Daisy.
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CMJ New Music Report – April 10, 1992
Field Of Roots…
As long as we’re in the street beat mode, take a walk on the boardwalk of Venice, California. For two decades the scene in Venice has been the epitome of grassroots. From Uncle Crusty and the Venice Canalligators to the liberation poetry of Harry Perry, the musicians of this seaside burg have always been an iconoclastic lot. The famous Venice sound has finally been collected on a disc, The Spirit Of Venice, California (Rhythm Safari, 5430 Van Nuys, Suite 305, Los Angeles, CA 91401/800-424-4863). Perry’s poetry, the folk blues of Ted Hawkins and the pop reggae of Manazart’s Alexander Bernard are recorded live on the beach and canned in the studio, side by side with the spiritual flakes and political activists that make Venice, California, the marvelously weird place it is.
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CU Denver Advocate – April 8, 1992
New Album Gathers Works of Venice Street Musicians
Some events in the music world are once-in-a-lifetime phenomena: Woodstock, The Monterey Pop Festival, the performances at our tow n Telluride Bluegrass Festival. One thing which all these events have in common is that they shake the surface of music and are gatherings which will never happen again.
If you have ever wandered through the Tabor Center in Denver or the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, you have surely seen the street musicians who play to make enough money to live. Rhythm Safari has recorded the music of musicians who perform every day on the beaches of Venice, California. The album is called The Spirit of Venice: A collection of Venice Street Musicians.
This came about through producer and Venice resident Harlan Steinberger, who has been named The Prince of Venice by the people of Venice Beach. This album, the most unique of its kind to emerge in a long time, is an audio documentary. It has musicians playing all kinds of music, in the studio as well as audio scenes from the beach and spoken words about Venice Beach by Harry Perry, a long-time resident of the Oceanside.
Goodies include Dr.Geek, who plays “Venice Beat,” an earthy rap track, and Daisy’s “I’m listening,” a gospel track which has a passively attractive delivery. Other tracks include Limpopo, an evolved Russian folk band, that donates “Gop Stop” to the collection hat.
The most exciting track is Uncle Bill’s “Don’t Come Here Running.” The music is closest to that of 30s blues performers Leroy Carr and Robert Johnson. Uncle Bill is recognized as the first person to perform on the Boardwalk and has been there for well over 45 years.
The Spirit of Venice album offers many styles of music from musicians who only care about playing their music freely for everyone to enjoy. It’s the first documentary recording of the 90s to offer such a colorful extensive look at Venice Beach. This, along with the fact that money from the sale of it will go to the performers, may be further incentive to check it out.
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URB Magazine – 1992
Various Artists
Rhythm Safari
Where’s California, Venice, California, that is? Go west young man and you’ll find a world with a beat of it’s own. Different faces from different places that make a zesty blend of world culture and craziness. The Spirit of Venice captures that unique blend of the boardwalk’s multitude f street performers.
From folk to blues to African Rhythms, and reggae with a dash of spoken word and ‘boardwalk sounds,’ this album takes us to a place where the spirit is free to express itself in any manner that it chooses. But don’t be alarmed!! While we’ve all seen some of the insanity that takes place on the sometimes seemingly blunted boardwalk, this is truly world beat in the sense that Venice is a world with a culture all its own. The Spirit of Venice is a co-mingling of cultures that all speak the same tongue. Harry Perry explains it best on “Speaking Live on the Boardwalk,” ‘ …come to Venice Beach, you’ll see what freedom is…but we gotta’ fight for this…all these artists are viable artists…we are freedom…Venice Beach shall be the liberation front…so that all can sing from their hearts…and collect money freely.” I guess street artists gotta’ get paid too!
All in all, this album is something to give a listen to if you’re a member of the world beat vibe tribe.
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Sunday Star Ledger – March 29, 1992
California Beach Musicians Produce Exciting Sounds
The Spirit of Venice, California. Various artists (Rhythm Safari/Priority Records). This collection, recorded and produced by Venice resident/street performer Harlan Steinberger at a nearby (Topanga Canyon) recording studio, is full of charmingly eccentric performances. Contributors include the cryptic folksinger Sonny (a homeless man known as “the King of Venice” who claims to have written “Purple Haze”), “spontaneous rapper” Dr. Geek who makes dog sounds that fall somewhere between a bark and a howl, and Limpopo, a Russian folk group whose use of trombone and accordion gives the music a bizarre Dixieland twist.
Except for some unnecessary recordings of people on the boardwalk and of the ocean itself, and two frustratingly brief spoken-word segments, there is hardly a dull moment on these 21 tracks.
Not all the numbers are offbeat. Jaime Segel’s “I’ve been searching” is classy piano-bar fare. 80 year-old gospel singer Daisy contributes the uplifting “I’m Listening.” and Ted Hawkins who has a large following in Europe and a cult following in the United States, contributes a gruff but infinitely soulful number called “Groovy Little Things.” Tommy Jordan’s dreamy, hypnotic “Rhythm Of The World” sounds like it could be a No 1 hit for Crosby Stills & Nash.
Now how about an equally well produced street performers’ compilation from New York? Or Boston? Or London? As anyone who has ever waited for a subway in any of those cities knows, there is plenty of good street music to be heard.
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Music Retailing, VOL.2, No.14
Spirit of Venice, California – A Collection of Venice Street Musicians
Cities like Seattle, Athens, GA, and Austin, TX come to mind when naming American musical meccas. Though not generally acknowledged as a hotbed of new talent, Venice Beach has seen the likes of Jim Morrison, Dennis Hopper, Bob Dylan, and Rickie Lee Jones as part of its boardwalk culture.
This collection aims to “capture on tape the spirit of Venice.” The proceeds of T-shirt sales (which can be ordered from the CD booklet) will be donated to provide medical care for the region’s street musicians, a sampling of which are gathered here. Sound bites of beach life can be found interspersed within an assortment of blues, rap, folk and world music performers.
Some proudly sing of their home; all are earnest, talented artists who can no doubt gather a crowd when playing on a sunny day. Highlights include the steel drum-embellished “The Rhythm of the World” by Tommy Jordan, the British born Alexander Bernard’s “Eclipse My Soul,” and “the world-famous roller-skating musician” Harry Perry’s monologue on Venice life- which makes a great case for giving up the day job and joining this spirited crew.
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BAM, LA’s Music Magazine - April 23, 1992
Spirit of Venice – Sidewalk Café, Venice
What a perfect location! None of the bands will have to travel far to make the show! The Spirit of Venice project brought together the best of the beach street performers, and it’s a moving musical document that chronicles the talent of those mostly overlooked musicians. Some of these folk, rock, and reggae players offer performances that rank with the best on the club scene-and tonight’s concert should showcase them in their element. This one’s a must-see.
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Los Angeles Times/Calendar – Feb 9th, 1992
If you’re looking for a souvenir of that trip to Venice Boardwalk, try “The Spirit of Venice,” a compilation album of various boardwalk performers and sounds that L.A.’s Rhythm Safari label will release next month. Among the tracks are a performance by bluesy singer Ted Hawkins, some spoken word extracts and some aural documentary sounds of the scene.
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Burrelle’s, Peterborough, NH – July, 1992
CD Review
Spirit of Venice, California attempts to capture the eccentric atmosphere of L.A.’s Venice Beach, where street performers, tourists, surfers, weight lifters, roller skaters, and cops clad in shorts coalesce in a colorful, artistic social stew. Many of the musicians represented here-a wide range of beach-side troubadors, including “Sunny,” who purportedly wrote Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”-make their living singing on the boardwalk, and Spirit of Venice is as much a benefit recording as it is a chance to expose these artists, as evidenced by Harry Perry’s spoken word track regarding the ability to play the beach for pay, a perennial fight for rights these musicians face.
Most of the recordings and performances sound rough and ragged, made up primarily of standard blues, reggae, and folk (and a couple of pedantic snippets about freedom). Interspersed with the noises of the boardwalk, from children playing to basketball court dissin’. If none of it quite evokes a jam-packed hot summer walk down this alternative beach scene, several tracks do stand out, notably a couple twists on the reggae form. Dr. Geek’s “Venice Beach” raps to a reggae beat, while Wadada’s “On the Road to Your Life” offers a pleasant folk/reggae hybrid. Geek billed as “the spontaneous rapper,” throws barks, yelps, and some obvious unplanned rhymes into his vibrant rap.
The best tune here is Tommy Jordan’s “Rhythm of the World,” a sweetly sedate celebration on which Jordan resembles a street- bred Johnny Nash, and the arrangement features some weird off-key horn parts.
As uneven as a compilation of this kind can be, Spirit of Venice remains a pretty entertaining, if not enlightening, package.
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Dirty Linen – August/September ’92 #41
Various Artists Spirit of Venice, California [Rhythm Safari PS 57177 (1992)] This collection of performances by street musicians of the Venice boardwalk vividly captures the essence of busking and the spirit of music performance for the love of music, not money. From the reggae of British born Alexander Bernard to the spontaneous rapping of Dr.Geek to the gospel renderings of 80-year-old Daisy, diversity makes this album interesting. Limpopo recently moved from Moscow, turns in an excellent Russian folk song, and Ted Hawkins (who had a #2 hit in the British charts in 1986) finishes off the album with a blues number. Amidst the musical performances are bits of boardwalk sounds, the ocean roaring, and philosophical speeches by a roller skating musician and an astrologer/mystic man. [Rhythm Safari/5430 Van Nuys Blvd, suite 305/Van Nuys, CA, 91401]
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Streetsound, Ontario, Canada – May, 1992
Label: Rhythm Safari
Venice resident and album producer Harlan Steinberger, known as “The Prince of Venice”, collected some of the most famous boardwalk personalities to create an eclectic collection of street performers. Noting that none of them are “into it for the monetary gain” the compilation is led by a performer called Uncle Bill, who first taught Janis Joplin to sing the blues. Steinberger says “this is not a collection of homeless musicians looking for a lucky break” and “none of these people are thieves, criminals, or drug addicts”. Styles range from rap and reggae to R&B and rock. Artists include the white-turbaned Harry Perry, spontaneous rapper Dr.Geek, 80-year-old Daisy, a guitarist named Sonny who was the ghostwriter on the Hendrix tune “Purple Haze”, Peter Demian who believes “people should have a guitar in their closet instead of a rifle under their bed”, and Tommy Jordan, “famous for blowing his homemade Tibetan horn”.
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The Argonaut – April 30, 1992
Inside Venice Beach
Freedom, cultural diversity, politics, crime add to Ocean Front Walk mélange:
VENICE RAP ARTIST – Dr. Geek, a Venice Beach street performer who was features on “The Spirit of Venice” compilation album, is now appearing on a television commercial for BluBlocker sunglasses that is being shown in the United States, Canada and Europe. A native of Detroit, Dr. Geek came to Los Angeles in 1986. The “wordologist” typically performs Thursdays through Sundays at Venice Beach, improvising rhymes while wearing oversized hats.
“I’ve never seen it (Ocean Front Walk) more packed,” says record producer and Venice resident Harlan Steinberger.
“There’s so much happening, so much entertainment – which is great.”
Steinberger, who produced “The Spirit of Venice“compilation album featuring local street musicians, sees Ocean Front Walk as a place “where people come to discover who they are.”
“You can shed some of your scripting and socialization,” he believes. “A lot of young people move here, and not all of them are from poor families. They want to know what it’s like to live life on the edge, to get to their true essence and discover who they might be.
“It’s almost like a vision quest.”
Steinberger came to Venice from Wisconsin ten years ago to get into the music business. He eventually hooked up with a band on the boardwalk and started playing clubs and making recordings.
But it was his producing role on “The Spirit of Venice” album that has been his most successful career move so far.
“Every major record store is now carrying it, “he says of the album, which features 16 Venice street performers.
The musicians were recently featured on an HBO television special that was shown in 20 countries, a concert is being planned for this summer, and there is talk of a European tour next year.
Locally the street musicians will present a free “Spirit of Venice” show at 9 p.m. Friday, May 1st, at Congo Square, 1238 Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
“It’s been a real positive experience for everybody so far,” says Steinberger. He says the album has been doing “extremely well” on college radio stations.
Why has a record by Venice street musicians gotten such exposure?
“The Spirit,” Steinberger immediately answers.
“We’re living in a time now (a recession) when people want to hear something that’s real. L.A. is like a city with lipstick. And Venice definitely does not have lipstick.
“This is what’s happening. This is real life experience. I think the country’s just in the mood for that.”
Steinberger says he would eventually like to produce a second album of Venice street music.
“There’s so much talent, and I wasn’t able to get everyone on. If you do something that gives you some form of popularity, a lot of people are going to love you but a lot of people aren’t.”
“I’m getting a taste of that now.”
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Daily Bruin. – May 18, 1992
“Spirit of Venice“ – Street Music In A Spiritual Sense
There’s something blowing in from the ocean, the Venice Beach locals will tell you- something which brings a sense of oneness to the local beachside community of street vendors, artists and musicians even while the rest of L.A. sits huddling impatiently on the side of the freeway, waiting for the smog to lift while nervously chatting away on a cellular phone.
The Venice Beach locals speak of this something –“the spirit of Venice” – with the sort of reverence used to describe such sacred places as Mecca or the Wailing Wall. The Spirit is always there, they’ll tell you: You just have to listen for it.
For 10 years, Venice resident Harlan Steinberger had been listening to the Spirit, hoping to share its peaceful message with the world. Hanging out at the Fig Tree Café, he became friends with the various musicians who had chosen to make the Venice Beach Pier their home, workshop and performing space.
After a long time spent building his respect for the street musicians and their work, Steinberger approached a group of them last year with a proposition to record their songs for a concept album he wished to produce. He brought them all into a studio together and out of this came the material for “Spirit of Venice, California,” a compilation CD released last month on worldbeat specialist Hilton Rosenthal’s Rhythm Safari label and distributed nationally by Priority Records.
Since the mid-1940s, the Venice Beach Pier has been a popular spot for artists and musicians trying to make a street living, something which gives those working on the Boardwalk a common thread, a sense of belonging. “People come back to Venice because they want to come back, “explains Sonny, the undisputed “King of Venice” and one of 17 artists featured on the compilation.
Legend has it that the guitarist-who moved from San Francisco to Venice Beach in the ‘60s after doing studio work with the Paul Butterfield Band and Big Brother and the Holding Company-was the ghost writer for the Jimi Hendrix song “Purple Haze.” After 23 years of performing on the pier with his tie-dyed guitar, Sonny remains one of the Boardwalk’s true survivors, still firmly convinced of the street artist’s needed place in the Venice Beach community.
“What we’re doing is real art-it’s not commercial art,” he emphasizes. “It has real material value because this is the way we make our living. It’s our life. All the artists give 100 percent, no matter what they’re doing. And you’ll find that they’re all in touch with the Spirit, ‘cause it’s everywhere around them…That’s why the idea of a ‘Spirit of Venice’ (album) was such a dream for me. It serves a higher purpose than just selling something to make money.”
Although the names on the compilation may sound unfamiliar, chances are good you’ve heard at least one of the performers if you’ve spent any time down on the Boardwalk. Included on the disc are contributions from 80-year-old gospel singer Daisy, rapper Dr. Geek, the Russian folk group Limpopo, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Princess” Jaime Segal, Slavin’ David (who recorded with Ray Manzarak in the ‘60s), blues guitarist Ted Hawkins (a huge legend in Europe) and some spoken word recited by Harry Perry, the turban-clad, roller-skating guitar guru whom you may remember having seen in one of several films set in Venice.
The album’s line up of musicians reflects the artistic diversity of Venice Beach, a quality which Steinberger says fueled the project from the start. In keeping with the compilation’s local flavor, Steinberger asked ex-Hungarian artist Tibor Jankay (head of the Pepperdine art department and a Venice Beach resident) to supply the album’s cover art. The painting, entitled “Guitar Player,” can also be found on a “Spirit of Venice” T-shirt. Funds from the sales of the T-shirt, as well as from the album sales are being used to cover medical costs for the street musicians.
Uncle Bill, who came to the Boardwalk in 1946, is reportedly the first person to have ever performed there. The 81-year-old guitarist, who taught Janis Joplin to sing the blues, remembers when there weren’t so many tourists floating around the pier, when Venice had streetcars rolling through town and the air was much cleaner. But times really haven’t changed all that much, he says. The musicians are still out there playing each day, even though the music itself has become more eclectic.
“All the musicians do there own thing,” he says. “You can’t tell them people how to play, ‘cause they’ll just end up playing what they want to play anyway.” His secret for longevity is simple: “If you give up too early then you die early. You have to get out there each day and play.”
Steinberger, a professional musician who attended UCLA as an n undergraduate, admits that the album’s nationwide sales (in L.A. you can find it at most retail outlets including Tower) have been much better than he anticipated. And a recently aired HBO feature on the Venice street performers should bring the “Spirit of Venice” album to the attention of listeners around the country.
“Sonny will actually speak of a real spirit that lives here, a positive, feminist spirit which is centered in front of the Fig Tree,” says Steinberger. “It’s true. There is definitely something here, something very spiritual, which you don’t find anywhere else in the world.”
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