Cary
Kanno stalks Midwestern music venues embodying no fewer than three
personalities. Sometimes he's the guitarist of the hip hop band Abstract Giants. Sometimes his strings weave depth into the grooves of the funk outfit Doko Benjo. And still other times he's the supercool acoustic cat that makes your girlfriend let you stick around for one more drink.
Long an advocate of Chicago's live hip hop scene, and an instrumental figure in the release of two celebrated Chicago Drop compilations, Kanno recently released his first two solo albums, projects, he announced by email, that he hopes will help him fund his ongoing music recording addiction.
"My goal is not to make a ton of money on these albums, but rather [I'm] trying to lose a little less," he wrote.
At a price of only $15 for both CDs, he's not asking too much.
When I caught up with Kanno, he explained that several months
ago he started going through the solo songs that he'd recorded over the
years.
"It turned out that I had about 50 songs," he said. "Half of
them were on this hip-hop-funk kind of vibe and the other half were
like acoustic rock, venturing into alt-countryish territory. They just
wouldn't have worked on the same album."
So, the decision was make to break the project up into two CDs, titled, simply enough, I and II, or Bum One and Bum Two.
The first CD offers Kanno's unplugged rock side. The second gives his funky side.
"They
represent my musical interest, and I think a lot of people are like
that. A lot of people listen to Pearl Jam and Mos Def, or grew up
listening to both."
At the core of all of Kanno's music is a rhythm
that makes his listeners move, whether that movement be a slight head
bop or a full body swing.
"I've always gravitated to using the
guitar as a percussive instrument. The first day I got a wah-pedal I
sat there a full day just making funky rhythms with the wah-pedal. I
just love making really rigid, accurate, rhythmic music."
Making music drives him so much that he turned the second bedroom of his house into a recording studio.
"I have
a lot of solid equipment in there, that's were I do all of my writing,
but I have a lot of artists coming in, too. I go to a lot of the
studios around Chicago and what I like about my studio is that I can
really take the time and work on the tracks. If you're paying
$85 an hour you're not really going to experiment."
Playing
around Chicago, he said, there is never a shortage of talented
musicians to play with. "I have been blessed because so many of my
friends are talented instrumentalists and vocalists. Whenever I see an
artist who is awesome with their instrument, I have to find a way to
coax them into my studio."
While Kanno has released his first two
solo projects, for the time being most of his stage time will be spent
with his bands and while that doesn't yet afford too much space for
incorporating all of his sides, he hopes someday it may.
"Some day I'd like to incorporate a show with everything. I actually have done a little of that. I was on Chicago Acoustic Underground
and I mixed it up. I did an acoustic alt-country song and then I had
Ronnie Physical, and Andy Lempera and Jake Samson from the Abstract
Giants, and we did some more hip-hop stuff. But yeah, I would love to
do that eventually."
In the upcoming weeks, Kanno, in all of his forms, can be found in Chicago. On February 13, Abstract Giants will open for Buckwheat Zydeco at the House of Blues in Chicago. On February 18, he'll perform a free acoustic show at Wrightwood Tap in Lincoln Park, and on March 20, Doko Benjo will place Piece.
To listen to samples of music visit www.carykanno.com.
Oh my god! He is great! Seems like a really nice guy as well as a talented musician. I wish he could play out here in California more often ... will definitely try those eggplant rolls ...
Stephanie Wegner
San Rafael, CA
Posted by: Stephanie K. Wegner | February 06, 2009 at 12:15 PM