THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
PRACTICE, practice, practice.
It's the punch line of an old joke, but it's also become the truth for Bruce Hornsby. As the Williamsburg singer/songwriter/pianist has played a series of solo benefit concerts over the past few months, he's found his skills as both an improviser and single-handed time-keeper have strengthened.
``I've been really working at it,'' said Hornsby, who will appear Saturday night at Harrison Opera House in support of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. ``I've been developing some things that I've been doing for twentysomething years, however long it's been.''
Hornsby credits a number of factors for improving his work at the keyboard. Among them are his occasional sideman work with the Grateful Dead, his jazz-inflected 1993 and 1994 tours behind the ``Harbor Lights'' album, and the recording of that disc itself.
The prospect of Pat Metheny's sitting in on ``Harbor Lights'' was, Hornsby said, ``a catalyst for me to get off my ass and start 'shedding. I thought, `Man, I'm gonna be the dog on my own record if I don't start woodshedding. It's amazing how much a good, concerted effort will do.''
Concentration on ``being the band in the left hand'' - letting the left hand play rhythm as the right hand carries melody and improv - has been a major area of Hornsby's one-man workshop sessions. He cites Keith Jarrett as his role model, while noting that the repertoire will consist of ``the solo version of what I do on my band gigs.'' That should include such Hornsby staples as ``The Way It Is,'' ``Fields of Gray'' and ``The Valley Road.''
``Obviously, solo I can really do what I want,'' Hornsby said. ``Who knows? I have some sort-of set arrangements, but I always end up changing them. I don't know why.''
A cry for help, it is suggested.
``A cry for help,'' he pondered, laughing. `` `Help me!' ''
Local concerns prompted Hornsby to choose the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Virginia Special Olympics as benefactors of his two Virginia shows this weekend. (The Special Olympics gig is tonight at Richmond's Carpenter Center.) The foundation's environmental protection work dovetails with the message of ``Look Out Any Window,'' his 1988 hit about the watermen who rely on a clean Bay to feed their families.
On a national level, much of Hornsby's charity work has concentrated on the Southern Poverty Law Center and its efforts against racial-hate and neo-Nazi groups.
``The latest issue of this paper they put out, Klanwatch, had a story about the Michigan Militia last month,'' he said. ``So I was watching the news the other day, and they were talking about this group I was reading about last month.''
Another social issue, that of nuclear power, is alluded to in the title of his forthcoming album, ``Hothouse,'' due in July.
`` `Hothouse Ball,' '' he said, ``is a song about the nuclear power plant across the water from us in Surry. It's really sort of an odd version of `1999' by Prince. We live around here. It's really not a serious song at all.''
Hornsby cast his net for supporting musicians even wider on ``Hothouse'' than on the previous ``Harbor Lights.''
``A lot of my sort of usual suspects are on it,'' he said. ``Metheny is on it a lot, even more than last time. Bela Fleck is on it, and Jerry Garcia is on one song.
``But we also have Chaka Khan, whom I'd never worked with before. She called and asked me to write a song with her. So I asked her to come to Williamsburg. I wanted to do it because she's so great. So we did that pretty quickly, and she said, `Hey, we've done that; can I sing on your record?'
``And we've got three members of Teddy Riley's band Blackstreet. It's the first record that's ever had Garcia and Blackstreet on the same song.
``It really is the first time we've captured some of the exuberance and the festiveness of our live shows, which has always been a source of frustration to me. You go see some bands and you think, `Wow, this song sounds so much better than it does on the record.' This is the closest we've come yet.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Bruce Hornsby
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW by CNB