For each of the last three years, the Johnstone Fund for New Music has tasked Scott Woods with developing a new, original show to be staged free for Columbus audiences.
While each production has been drastically different – featuring varied performers, concepts and approaches – Woods said three years in he has started to see something of a through line developing, with each piece operating on a more celebratory level than much of his Columbus-centric work as a poet, essayist and cultural critic. “I think this is the one time every year when I’m not negative, and I’m not dumping on the city,” cracked Woods, whose columns have been published by Columbus Alive, Columbus Monthly and . “I’m trying to say, you know, there’s something worth saving here.”
This idea is particularly resonant in this year’s production, dubbed “7 Villages,” which takes place on Tuesday, June 18. The show comprises a series of drum-based duets bookended by solos. Six of these set pieces take inspiration from historically Black Columbus neighborhoods – Mount Vernon, Driving Park, Linden, Bronzeville, Franklin Park and Flytown – while a seventh features and ventures 1,200 miles southwest to Galveston.
“With all of the changes that have been happening in the city in recent years, and the ever-increasing rapidity of them, I was like, yo, we’re going to get left out of this history,” Woods said. “We’re always acknowledging these neighborhoods. And we’re always acknowledging that these neighborhoods are culturally important. But we don’t really prove that. And so, to me, it’s important to not just say why a neighborhood is important. You have to show why that particular neighborhood, why that particular culture, is important. And you have to show your work. I really wanted to plant a flag in these neighborhoods and say, ‘This is important. This place is important. This history, these people are important.’”
In bringing this vision to life, Woods first reached out to , a longtime friend and collaborator with whom Woods previously partnered for “Black Odes,” the first in the trio of Johnstone-funded shows. Described as “a multi-disciplinary expression of what it would be like to actually live fully in America’s promise while being unapologetically Black,” Lomax said that “Black Odes” offered him a rare opportunity to center Black joy when so often “Black trauma is the order of the day.”
“And that was a challenge personally in terms of what I was dealing with in my life, but also artistically, because we don’t often get the chance to create those vibrations in music,” Lomax said.
In building “7 Villages,” Lomax initially weighed what made these particular Columbus neighborhoods special, focusing his attentions on the people who called these places home. “When you think about who came out of Flytown, you think of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. And my father-in-law grew up with him, so I had the privilege of hearing stories about how they were as kids and what Columbus was like,” Lomax said. “And you hear about Mount Vernon, and how Duke Ellington and so many others would come play … the club at the Lincoln. Then all the athletes in Linden that I myself knew and saw them go through Columbus City Schools into the NFL. … I mean, Columbus has a lot to offer. And it has offered a lot to the world throughout its history. We’ve just never celebrated it.”
Lomax described the development of “7 Villages” as deeply comfortable, particularly in regard to how he approached collaboration across multiple artistic genres. In the show, Lomax will perform duets alongside musicians (jazz saxophonist Eddie Bayard), dancers (Lori Lindsey), singers () and poets (Boyer).
“In a lot of ways, this is home,” said Lomax, who has done nine duet records with Bayard and accompanied dancers and poets on the drums. This in addition to childhood experiences that often found him playing alongside his singer mother and preacher father, his drums keeping time as they sermonized and sang. “It’s a unique context for everybody else, but for me it’s normal, because it’s what I’ve always done.”
“7 Villages” shares at least some DNA with the 2023 Woods/Johnstone collaboration “The Alsation Queen.” Led by jazz musician Phil Maneri, the show likewise centered on a single instrument – in that case – employing more than a dozen dancers, artists and musicians to trace the instrument’s century-spanning history.
This time around, though, Woods and Lomax reined things in, limiting the number of collaborators and favoring intimacy. “This is as small as I could get it and still tell this story,” said Woods, who acknowledged that part of the decision to dial things back could have been rooted in a concept that centered smaller pockets within a larger metropolis. “Everything I do tends to be epic, so the challenge for me becomes, how small can I get it? … I’m at a point in my life where it’s like, ‘Let’s see what we can say one to one, two to two.’ I want to make sure we’re really listening to each other.”
Lomax also called attention to the importance of listening in relation to the duets, describing it as the essential part of making music in any ensemble – even more so than the physical act of playing.
“As an improvising musician, you don’t often know what to play unless you are listening,” he said. “You’re listening to the person who might be out front soloing, but then you’re listening to the accompaniment on the stage and also at the same time engaging the audience. So, when it’s a duet, everyone is that much more vulnerable because there’s nowhere to hide. I have to ensure, as the drummer, that I’m not too loud and everyone can be heard, and that things are clear in terms of structure, form, cues – all of that. … I have to be that much more sensitive, but that’s also what makes it fun.”
