2018-19 Guide To Yellow Springs

6 the Guide to YelLow Springs y 2018 - 1 9 Y e l l ow S p r i n g s N ews Comedian Dave Chappelle joined in with harmonica player Frédéric Yonnet and The Band with No Name at the May 2018 Juke Joint, held at a barn at Whitehall Farm. It was the third local Juke Joint presented by Chappelle; the event offered locals and visitors a night of music and dancing. y  Juke Joint: Chappelle’s gift to YS  y to share this experience with his hometown,” said Chappelle’s manager and Juke Joint event producer, Carla Sims. “The idea of bringing this caliber of talent into a market they would not otherwise touch is what really brings a lot of joy to him.” A barn dating from the 1920s at the historic Whitehall Farm provided the requisite “shoddy confines,” even though it was decked out with professional lighting and surrounded by pristine rows of young corn. Historically, juke joints popped up in the South after Reconstruction as informal places of music, dancing and drinking by and for African Americans barred from other establishments due to Jim Crow segregation. Blending the improvisation of jazz with the potent rhymes of hip-hop and soaring soulful vocals of R&B, Chappelle’s Juke Joint is a kind of remix of a century of black music and the other popular music it influenced. It is at once a shout-out to the originators and a call to the next generation to create anew in • Submitted Photo by Matieu Bitton By Megan Bachman “Musically speaking, the Jook is the most important place in America,” wrote Zora Neale Hurston in 1934. “For in its smelly, shoddy confines has been born the secular music known as blues, and on blues has been founded jazz.” The list of genres tracing their roots to the historic Jook — or Juke — Joint would now include rock ’n’ roll, soul, R&B, funk and hip-hop. And in a barn outside of Yellow Springs on Memorial Day weekend in 2018, a modern Juke Joint celebrated this lineage and the legacy of African-American music. For the third time, comedian and local resi - dent Dave Chappelle threw a star-studded barn party in the village. The Juke Joint, as curated by Chappelle, is a night of copious covers, musical improvisation, surprise guest stars and hot and sweaty dancing. In interviews, attendees shared peak moments and told of frustrating ticketing glitches. Most expressed gratitude for Chap - pelle’s local offering. “It was a gift,” said Sarah Buffy, who trav - eled from Cincinnati for the Monday concert. “[Chappelle] opened with gratitude for his hometown. It was so beautiful and heartfelt.” “Why Not Ohio?” Chappelle asked audi- ence members from behind the DJ booth at the start of both nights. Though Chap- pelle has organized Juke Joints in London, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Los Angeles and other big cities, he keeps bring - ing it back to the place he started in 2015 — Yellow Springs. “Dave does this really because he wants spur-of-the-moment solos. Stevie Wonder’s one-time backup band, The Band with No Name, led by harmonica player Frédéric Yonnet, held down the stage both nights, playing for more than four hours, until after 2 a.m., and mixing planned with improvised pieces. Cycling in to sing or rap with The Band with No Name were a slew of prominent old school ’90s and 2000s hip-hop and R&B musicians: Jarobi White, formerly of A Tribe Called Quest; R&B and neo-soul singer- songwriter Jill Scott; underground hip-hop artist Pharoache Monch; Taleb Kweli, one half of the hip-hop duo Black Star; Martin Luther, who starred in the Beatles musical, “Across the Universe;” Doug E. Fresh, the “Human Beat Box;” Wayna, an R&B and soul singer; Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall; Cincin - nati producer Hi-Tek; DJ Cipha Sounds; and DJ D-Nice, aka Derrick Jones, who began his hip-hop career in the mid-1980s with the group Boogie Down Productions. Rounding out the celebrities in attendance were comedians Amy Schumer, Hannibal Buress and Donnell Rawlings and Hollywood film and television producer Stan Lathan. Then there was Chappelle himself, who has managed to pick up both an Emmy and Grammy over the last year for his stand-up comedy, but who many locals just know as “Dave.” Chappelle, the son of the late Bill Chappelle, who was on the music faculty at Antioch College, spent time in Yellow Springs in his youth. His mother, Yvonne Seon, lives in town. He lives with his family in a home just outside the village. The mystery surrounding the Juke Joint lineup adds to the excitement, according to Paul Herzog, who attended both nights. Rumors flew that anyone from Stevie Wonder to Lauryn Hill might show up, which may have led to “out of whack expectations” among some attendees. But the moment nationally known singer Jill Scott walked onto the stage unexpectedly on Sunday night was amazing in its own right, Herzog said, and was a highlight of the weekend. Scott’s appearance on Sunday night was a happy surprise to many, and her eagerly hoped-for return on Monday was met with equal delight. The Philadelphia native is a respected singer-songwriter, having risen to fame on a 1999 collaboration with The Roots, “You Got Me,” a Grammy Award- winning song she co-composed, and with her debut album the following year. When Scott laid down a spoken word and song rendition of the national anthem on Memorial Day, the audience stood rapt. 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