by Tucker Petertil
While Rock ‘n roll – and Indie Rock in particular – seem to get the lion’s share of love in Olympia, you just have to look a bit deeper to find all manner of music from classical to jazz thriving in this town.
The band that is most well known for Latin jazz in these parts is Ocho Pies. No, their name is not some extravagant nacho creation, but rather Spanish for eight feet. Made up of guitarists Paul Hjelm and Steve Luceno, percussionist Michael Olson and vocalist/accordionist Connie Bunyer, the foursome has been going strong since 1994 when they formed as a more manageable offshoot of the legendary funky jazz-jam octet Obrador. Obrador (who in 2006 played their last gig in Sylvester Park,) was hugely influential over the course of their 30 year career and also gained notoriety for their many blockade-defying trips to Cuba to bring musical instruments to impoverished schools there.
Ocho Pies members have lived and worked on and off in Latin America and those experiences all combined to influence the direction that they would ultimately take, one firmly rooted in cross cultural exchanges and many different musical traditions.
Currently the band tours around Western Washington when they can align it with their various day jobs as music teachers. Teaching is very important to them all as they’re committed to passing musical knowledge onto their students, “When kids study music they do better in other subjects, it really opens up their minds” Michael commented.
And when asked about their advice to musicians just starting out, Paul said “open up your ears, don’t be hung up on one thing, if you’re a heavy metal guy that’s fine, but there’s some salsa stuff that’ll blow your mind.”
Another pet project of Michael’s is his work with the Olympia Arts Commission and Evergreen graduate students to study how music economically benefits Olympia’s business community.
Now Ocho Pies have just released their second CD, “Tropical Footprint” on Seattle’s Pony Boy record label (PonyBoyRecords.com) and it’s full of music that will transport you to a different mindset, a less hectic summertime world full of garden colors where all stress can be put off till manana.
It features many songs from Cuba, Brazil, Haiti and the Caribbean and Connie sings in French Creole, Portuguese, African as well as in English and Spanish on her own composition “Viva la Vida”. I asked Michael why the band doesn’t translate the lyrics to English and he said, “It doesn’t work, it loses the integrity of the music, those romance languages are so melodic”.
Meanwhile they’re still collecting instruments for their next Cuban trip and playing gigs around the Northwest. Locally they’ll be playing at OysterFest and the Farmer’s Market. ◙
For more information about Ocho Pies, visit, www.oly-wa.us/ochopies.