Renaissance & Rebellion - Flipbook - Page 91
STRANGE BREW: LOS SAVAGES
AND THE CALIFORNIA LOCOS
NUMBER OF YEARS AGO my good friend Dave Tourjé
Segue to another Locos show in Chinatown a couple years later. Dave had the
idea of adding drums and a full horn section to the improvisational brew. With Bryan
Head on washtub and percussion and ace trumpeter Jim Grinta leading a three-piece
horn section there came a new eruption of cacophony in the crush of downtown
revelers – a little Dolphy, New Orleans Second Line and Locos magic dust.
was having an opening of a one man show at a small
gallery in Beverly Hills. I suggested to Dave that we create
a little music to spice up the evening as people filtered in.
So, it went in Virginia Beach, Santa Monica, Venice and Frogtown.
Unheralded and unruly, we became Los Savages.
–IAN ESPINOZA
This page: Los Savages – Jim Grinta, Dave
Tourjé, Bryan Head, Ian Espinoza and Toby
Holmes, 2014;
Bryan Head and Ian Espinoza
Opposite, top to bottom, L-R:
Los Savages, Cafe NELA, Cypress Park, 2016;
Los Savages with Norton Wisdom live painting,
Harvelle’s, 2016;
Ian Espinoza, Cafe NELA, 2016
CALIFORNIA 176
LOCOS
As Dave and I share a love of Blues music – I felt
that sounds which conjured up an array of dark primitive energy, along with the
reverb-drenched “Surf’s Up” vibe of two guitars would work well with the themes
in Dave’s paintings.
A big highlight was working up a version of Lynn Foulkes’ “Ghosts of
Hollywood” on which Mr. Foulkes sang and played an instrument of his own
invention – a kind of a whacked-out oboe sounding horn fashioned from a
vacuum cleaner hose.
Dave showed up with his rig and a large metal washing tub with a rubber
mallet and with no more planning or forethought we set up and started playing.
And as if the visual fireworks of the Locos weren’t enough – there was the
contribution of local legend Norton Wisdom’s live improvisational lightbox
paintings which morphed to the sound waves in real time.
My wife, Carol and Locos Bluesman Gary Wong took turns beating the tub
as Dave and I took a ride through an imaginary California delta. Somehow it
worked – a small space with art, music and a close group of art followers and
curious strangers competing for air space.
As with many Locos' happenings, the line between the disciplines was
disregarded, allowing a place where converging views on the SoCal cultural
experience could commingle in a new and funky gumbo.
RENAISSANCE
177
REBELLION
