The Cinema Bar is a tiny place in Los Angeles close to the 405 freeway, a small friendly bar where everyone seems to know each other. I had never been there but when we entered the place, it was as if we were stepping into someone’s living room, a living room where musicians meet to play music just for their own pleasure.
Before Dafni, Tom Mason, a do-it-all man from Nashville who would deserve more attention, did a wonderfully eclectic set of country, blues and pirate songs, as a true entertainer who sings his tales with a theatrical mise-en-scene, impersonating magical characters like the ‘Amazing Lorenzo’ or a tough pirate who wants to go down with his ship. I thought he was a sort of a gypsy-pirate of the country music, who can play bluesy slide guitar or conga drum with the same ease. He played with some of Dafni’s musicians, as well as Trent Moyer, another musician from Nashville who was playing a solo set when we arrived. Actually he was doing a nice rendition of the Johnny Cash’s classic ‘Rings of fire’ when we stepped in and was wearing a Cash cap, as both men are involved in ‘Ring of Fire, The Music of Johnny Cash’, an onstage tribute to the man in black. The ambiance was so friendly Dafni joined the band on some sort of bongo for their last song.
It was a perfect introduction to Dafni’s music, which is injected with jazz and country but is also very personal. Her voice reminds me at times Madeleine Peyroux’s, probably because of the jazz influence and the quiet serenity that transpires of her music sometimes. Also if you need another connection with Peyroux, Dafni did a cover of ‘My Myself and I’ and ‘I cover the waterfront’, two songs by Billie Holiday, whom Peyroux has been compared to in about any review.
But Dafni has a crush on Chet Baker, this is what she declared just before singing ‘Honeysuckle rose’, explaining it is a safe crush after all since he is no longer with us, I am paraphrasing a little, but when you listen to her music, you completely understand the jazz connection. And she wants to jazz up even more her songs as she proudly said she has bought a mellophonium (the correct word to design what people commonly call a mellophone) which is used in place of the horn, an instrument she has not played for 20 years. She said that next time we’ll see her she will be playing the Mellophonium, ‘her new love’! She actually recorded herself playing it and posted it on youtube.
She shared the stage with Mark San Filippo on drums, Geoff Rakness on bass, who were already playing with the previous band, as well as the inspired Peter Kavanaugh on lead guitar. She referred to them as her ‘brothers’ since they have been playing together for 5 years already.
Her upcoming album, ‘Sweet time’, is produced by her friend Dan Janisch, who, Wednesday night, did the back-up voices on the gorgeous ‘Under the blue skies’.
She jumps from one genre to another with great ease, from the playful ragtime jazzy ‘Dimes’, to the nostalgic and more jazzed up ‘Sweet time’, to a truly beautiful country ballad like ‘Under the blue skies’ whose melody you miraculously catch right away, to the atmospheric and slow paced ‘Anything at all’. Some of her songs are a complex mix of jazz, pop, old country tunes and even 30’s music like ‘Save me’ that she introduced as a gospel tune, whereas ‘Walking out the door’ borrows to rhythm and blues and country rock. Trent Moyer jumped on stage with a trumpet for this last song, adding even more fun to the song. As Iman said her songs are actually country music that doesn’t sound like country music for the most part.
Dafni plays her wide range of sounds with precision and inspiration, and her eclectic music infused with jazz and country could lead to a comparison with the acclaimed LA artist Eleni Mandell whom I think she admires.
On October 30th there will be a release party for ‘Sweet time’, which Dafni graciously gave me a copy of, and, as this is just one day before Halloween, she has promised some pumpkins!
The set list was:
Dimes
The best that I can do
Save me
Sweet time
Honeysuckle rose
Under the blue skies
Everywhere I go
I cover the waterfront
Rattlesnake boy
My Myself and I
Anything at all
Walking out the door