By Victoria Bowman
Norman Liota winces.
“Please don’t call us world beat. I don’t like the term ‘world beat’,” he says.
But soon, albeit grudgingly, Liota admits to some world beat influence as well.
“But I would probably still describe the band’s sound as left of centre pop with strong twist of groove.”
Norman Liota is the guitarist/writer/lyricist for Still Life, local favorites who are playing at The Edge tonight for the Social Work Student Crisis Fund. A sextet, the ensemble group also features Mike Brown on saxophone, Dana Cross on bass, Paul Grassi on drums, John Magidsohn on vocals and Grey Vyrosko on guitar.
Over the years Liota notes how they’ve metamorphisized in both musicianship and musical styles. A process that has yielded both beneficial and adverse results.
“The positive side is that you often get a breath of fresh air to existing arrangements. We’ve been fortunate in that we have always been able to attract a particularly high calibre of player,” he says. “Unfortunately you often feel that you’re losing ground when you change players because you go on hiatus everytime someone new comes in.”
Recently, Still Life was in the studio recording for the Beaches Jazz Festival and building on the band’s previous philosophically charged release Sign of the Times. A critical and commercial success, Liota wrote the songs for the album while working in a downtown bank tower.
“All day long I looked over the city and I saw what was definitely not the promised land,” remembers Liota. “We really don’t see the metaphor behind the lyrics with the end result being that Western civilization continues to obliterate paradise on this quest for the promised land that is readily accessible.”
Liota concedes that his music reflects his personal emotions at the time and the spiritual changes he undergoes.
“I think songs happen because it’s the only way that you can deal with whatever is going on at that particular time,” he says. “Whenever you’re confronted with a personal crisis it can seem so overwhelming with no escape. Yet after you’ve reached a certain age you realize that ‘this too will pass’ and you’ve got to embrace both. Not only the negative experience of what you are going through but what is to be and what has already been.”
But despite Liota’s heavy philosophical views, Still Life’s music is dance-oriented and upbeat and Sign of the Times contains many “happy” songs.”
“I mean this might sound kind of hedonistic, but what is life other than simply revelling in the enjoyment of your senses,” he says.
“You realize just how alive the earth really is. It’s as if it can and does speak to you.”
World beat indeed.
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