The founders of the iAM Music have always had their work cut out for them.
The duo of Jesse Ogle and Ashley Edwards had been busy prior to forming the music school with writing, recording and performing as duo Ace Revel and in their band Hello, Dollface. Musically independent and more than motivated, they’ve always had lofty goals in whatever they do; it makes sense that their inaugural festival would encompass multiple stages, multiple bands and be more than a one-day event.
The iAM Music Fest kicks off Friday and runs through Saturday night.
Organizers certainly didn’t pigeonhole a genre to dominate the stages, instead opting for a variety of sounds. Hip-hop and electronic, soul and Americana, blues, jazz and world, avant-garde and alternative will all be represented on stages around downtown. Studio & and the iAM Music Institute, Steaming Bean, Lost Dog, Guido’s, Durango Craft Spirits and Animas City Theatre will host music, which includes Flobots, Copper & Congress, The Sugar Thieves, Tyler Spencer, and more.
The didgeridoo player Spencer will play two sets: Friday with Carute Roma at Lost Dog, Saturday with Hello, Dollface and Andre Rodriguez at Animas City Theatre.
His is a high-energy one-man show employing different mouth effects and some hand-operated technology to serve as his “band” while leaving looping technology out of it. The ancient instrument took hold for Spencer more than 20 years ago, an obsession that came accidentally.
“I was about 15 and was fooling around in my parent’s basement. I found a metal tube, and I was beat-boxing into it and just by accident I vibrated my lips just right, and I produced the drone note out of the tube,” said Spencer in a recent phone interview. “I didn’t know anything about the didgeridoo at the time, but I recognized the sound and it captured my imagination. I showed my dad this sound I was getting, and I got to the point where I could manipulate the drone note. He recognized it and he told me about the instrument and that sparked a curiosity and it went from there.”
The curiosity led to Spencer learning how to build the instrument, along with playing it in just about any type of musical style.
“I’ve used it in a variety of genres, from Celtic tribal music to jazz to metal to hip-hop to experimental stuff,” Spencer said. “There’s no right or wrong way to play the didgeridoo, technically speaking.”
The festival is an ambitious outing, a testament to the organizers’ dedication to diversity and quest to educate an audience through a wide offering of sounds. Musical diversity in festivals isn’t a new thing. Woodstock had Sha-Na-Na. The Telluride Bluegrass Festival is almost anything but bluegrass, and the monsters that are Coachella and Bonaroo book everything. Icing on the cake to iAM is its diversity among the up-and-comers and those under the radar, giving you a “I saw them before...” moment at every turn.
The vision of Ogle and Edwards is shared among the lineup of bands. Bands like Tucson’s Copper & Congress, who will kick off things Friday on the Steaming Bean Jazz Stage and perform on the Main Stage at Durango Craft Spirits Saturday, have a kinship with the organizers and with Hello, Dollface, born on creating a musical community, including a palate-broadening idea of musical education.
“Trying to reach as many people as possible with as many tastes as possible I think is the point of a festival,” said Katie Haverly, Copper & Congress vocalist and guitar player. “It’s important to be exposed to a range of ideas, expression and inspiration.”
liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
