Three Stars: Alfonso Velez

Visit him at: MySpace.com/AlfonsoVelez

See him next: June 30th at Jammin' Java, 8pm.

Questions for Alfonso:

Why did Monopoli call it quits? Do you guys still play together on occasion?

I don't ever quit anything, except cigarettes, and I've quit those a million times… As for Monopoli it was just time. Everything is always a choice and it was time for me to play this music and speak this very specific language in my songs. Where I am, I have to be alone. We did great things as a band and it's an important chapter in my book. We haven't played together since, but we frequently see each other and look out for each other's best interests. Everyone that played in Monopoli is a career musician, so we're bound to play together again.

Have you always been more interested in folk/blues?

When I was a kid my Father played Scott Joplin Rags on the piano and I could always pick 'em up by ear. Folk and blues music is about feel and flavor. My Mother was born in Cuba and my Father's a Mexican man so they put a lot of spice into bringing me up to play how I am. It's True music… unbeatable and uncompromising. But you don't need to go to Mississippi to find it, or Moscow, Buenos Aires and The Bayou… I should know I've been there looking for The Feel. It was in me and once I let IT find me, I did everything I needed to do to protect that delicate thing from the heavy-handedness of the foolish and cruel. That feel is in my blood because I let it be. It can lift me straight up and out. Feel music. Folk, Blues, Bluegrass, Gospel, R&B, Jazz. The STORY. The Story from start to finish. "She walks along in a long Black Veil…" The Songs of Songs! The music composed in Truth. That Feel has been with me since I was a kid. I've always been reminded of my responsibility to it.

My name is deceiving for my genre I suppose. I've had people come to shows expecting to see a Flamenco act, but when they hear me, the bulb's turn on. If you were at Iota last year you know what I mean. It just goes to show where the country is at when a guy with my background is plugging American roots music from the 20s and 30s into his sets. With immigration reform being the leading story every other day I need these songs more than ever for my identity. I'm here to make the music I make, live in the country and belong exclusively to that music. I'm unconfined by state or statute, critic or consumer in that expression and I am free to sing it as I see fit. I am most eager to see The Silence-that resulting static created by categorical forces- shed its old and reliable nervousness. The cross armed can loosen up and tap their feet to my rhythm... Naturalmente se van a tardar, pero ayi les voy tocando. I've written songs in other genres, for other artists and myself, but it always come back The Feel. C'est Moi.

If you could share the stage with any musician dead or alive, who would it be?

It would have to be all the guys that are on my upcoming release "Make It Plain". Matvei Sigalov is a monster guitarist, but when you add WIll Rast on keys the paint on the walls starts cracking. With Johnny Ace Combs on Bass and Dan Perriello mouthing the words off from behind the skins it gets cooking. Add Matt Rippettoe on Sax and Droopy Joe Brotherton on the trumpet and that paint explodes off the walls, the band gets screaming and suddenly you're There. The same place any musician dead or alive is at when it's good.

I've sat down and played with Sam the Sham (who wrote Woolly Bully), Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall, Prince, Bowie, The Strokes, Taffy Danoff and Stephen Stills at The Guitar Shop in Dupont where I teach. Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, Mama Cass, Mary Chapin, Stevie Ray Vaughn all alums, students, teachers, or wallflowers at that place. That's the only place in Washington, DC it made sense for me to develop. I know it's a lot of name dropping, but I wanted to give you a feel for being a musician. When you meet recording artists like that you understand that they are exactly who they want to be, and that's comfortable and easy. They do their job just as an accountant does. No need to ogle, that's what the press is for right?

You've mentioned an interest in art, who are a few of your favorite painters?

The first book I was gifted was The Complete works of Mark Twain. His work is too colorful to be confined to the literary world. He is one of my favorite painters. Shelley and Thomas...Painters!

DALI. The way he paints Gala floored me when I was a kid. It was my first impression of the power and mystery of femininity. Seeing her floating in the nude wrapped by layers of surrealist tension and harmony was so impressive. He is the most important painter to me. Rousseau is great! He has such a simple child-like quality in his work. Upon retiring at 60 from civil service in French Customs he took up painting. The tiger's eyes and green of his jungles....No ego! Nothing in himself stopped him from becoming anything he wanted to be. Rousseau is a lover!

When did you first realize that you wanted to be a musician?

I never formally realized it, I've just always been one. I've been putting out records and performing my songs since I was 15. Those records are out there...I don't have them, my parents might, but once in while I get an email about an old tune of mine and I realize I've been doing this for some time. 27 is still a couple years away...I'm in a good place.

Where is your favorite place to be in D.C.? In the world?

Favorite place in DC is in front of "The Last Supper" in the west wing of the National Gallery. Gelato afterwards is always a must. The green room at the 9:30 club is up there though. Favorites change, but I recently visited a town called Brecon in Wales and there was a hill among the Brecon Beacons that made any attempt at description sterile. No wonder Thomas and that Rhymin' crew hung around those parts. It's insanely beautiful. That's a favorite for now, but ask me in the fall after my move to New York City in August.

"End of the World Blues" seems like a modern day "We Didn't Start the Fire." Was there any Billy Joel influence involved in composing this song?

None. After playing it out live people told me they heard Billy Joel in there and I think it's great since he's so good. Woody Guthrie's "Taking It Easy", the audacity of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and the way Johnny Cash fired the lyrics of in "Everywhere Man" were the musical inspirations for "End of The World Blues." The words however are completely uninspired. I stole them. Every single one.

The thing you need to know about "End of the World Blues" is that in August of last year I started jotting down notes of catch-words and phrases callers, hosts, talking-heads, politicians, moms, kids, engineers, athletes...Anybody that was on the air. If I heard you talking on the Radio during the mornings of August 2006, chances are you're in the tune. I finally compiled pages of quotes from what I'd been hearing, put on the gardening gloves, sculpted the tune and recorded it. That's why the song's refrain says, "You're on the Radio" Now the Radio's playing the song about you being on it....Borges would have a field day with it.

Are you working on an album?

DJ Boy Records will be releasing my full-length record titled "Make It Plain" this August. I recorded the album in one day on March 27th at XM's Live Performance studio. I wanted to record it live and keep it completely real. No overdubs, plug-ins or studio magic. Just real music being played live. You wouldn't believe the nay-saying I got on the way to doing it, but it's simple: a great room, great mics, a killer six-piece band with a hell of a lot of vibe, and six hours to track it. It speaks for itself and it redefines what a live album should sound like.

I was reading a transcript of Malcolm X speeches. Notes from his last speech included that he instructed the evening's MC to "make it plain" to the audience that he would begin what was to be his final speech. "Make it Plain" stuck with the record and the songs stick to it's philosophy as you'll hear in "The Granite Rope" and "The Transfer Blues". X was a powerful orator, as was Bobby Kennedy. I don't hear men talk like that now.

This Sunday I'm off for a two week European tour stopping in Rome, Paris and Brittany. Some great shows are lined up to promote the upcoming record release. They're listed on Myspace.com/alfonsovelez along with pre-released versions of four songs off "Make It Plain." There will be a release show for it in the fall, but if you want to catch it here before then come out to Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA on Saturday June 30th. I'll be there with the band supporting Luke Brindley.

Who are a few of your favorite local artists?

Local is a funny word. It's such a small word. I like a local artist in Mexico City named Fernando Delgadillo. I also like a local artist in Cape Verde named Cesaria Evora. I like a Local singer in London named KT Tunstall and she likes a Local artist named Alfonso Velez.

Photo by Anastasia Chernyavsky