By Jose Tobar

Kerplunk. Splash. The cheers from the audience. These were the sounds that prevailed during the South Coast Conference Diving Championships (SCCDC) held at the EC Pool on Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13. Warriors swimmers Ryan Steck and Athena Katsouridis both finished events in top eight spots. By finishing in top eight spots, Steck…
— Read on eccunion.com/sports/2019/04/16/2-warriors-divers-advance-to-state-championships/

 

A crowd gathered in front of the Student Activities Center’s outdoor stage for the 19th annual Nadine Ishitani Hata Memorial Cherry Blossom Festival at El Camino College on Thursday, March 28. “This was probably the best experience that she ever had in her entire life,” guest of honor and widower Dr. Donald Hata said. “She’s…
— Read on eccunion.com/news/2019/04/02/cherry-blossom-festival-honors-late-vice-president-of-academic-affairs/

 

42 percent of community college students have food insecurities
— Read on eccunion.com/news/2018/12/05/13-percent-of-ec-students-are-homeless/

The evening began with slow gypsy jazz music being played over the speakers inside the El Camino Campus Theater, while a looped video of swaying prairie grass against an overcast sky was projected onto a screen on stage.

It had been raining all day. Outside, the weather felt cold and damp, but inside, the atmosphere was warm and friendly. The diffused lighting effects over the crowd and crowd murmurs added to the sense of intimacy.

It was 8:05 p.m. when the lights were dimmed, and the Violinist-Looper Joe Kye walked on stage accompanied by his fellow band members, the Givers, composed of bassist, Brian Chris Rogers, drummer, Andres Salazar, and pianist, Andre Fylling.

On Saturday, March 2, Kye and the Givers delivered an audience engaging performance inside the El Camino Campus Theater, weaving anecdotal stories between songs, based on Kye’s personal experiences growing up as a Korean immigrant in the U.S.

With his looping and Boss effects pedals set, the violinist looked cool and calm as he began to pluck away at his violin strings, looping and layering the minor melodies to the titled track “Bambam’s Lullaby” from his 2018 album “Migrants”.

The Givers rounded out the song with a swaying bass line and drums that helped convey the sense of longing in the lyrics, written from his dog Akita’s point of view, but really about his own longing after his parents’ departure back to Korea.

“I sit all alone in a heap as I wait by the door. Cry in my sleep, in my dreams as I wait…So, where are you, where are you? Why did you go?” Kye sang.

Family photos of Kye during different stages of his youth appeared on screen illustrating their migration as he talked to audience members about the economic hardships, the culture shock, and readjustments they had to make along the way, facing prejudice at times.

It was hard to gauge how every member of the audience felt or thought about this aspect of the performance, However, for some, Kye’s message was “liberating” and resonated with those who’d gone through similar experiences.

The artist was philosophical as he touched on the topic of misogyny, and of his own understanding of the struggles women like his mother and grandmother faced growing up, as they “had to deal with the feminine expectations” in both the U.S. and Korea.

“…and of course, knowing all of this,” Kye said as he introduced the next song. “For the daughter that I hope to have one day, this song is called “Daughter.”

Aided by the Givers whose talents are not limited to their instruments, the tune began with vocal harmonies, acapella style, conjuring a sense of nostalgia accompanied by their rhythmic finger snapping; Kye sang the verses, rap style.

Andre Fylling tickled the piano keys with tremolos and trills and descending chromatic runs with knowledge during his solo. It was an introspective song about perceived shortcomings, aspirations, memories and hope.

“If I could be better and cooler, and taller, I would sit next to you,” Kye crooned.

Nothing about the performance came across as practiced or rehearsed. The music felt free, like it could change directions at any time according to their whims or muse. Rounds of applause were generously given throughout.

It was a pleasant surprise when all five musicians gathered in front of a single mic, and bassist, Brian Chris Rogers stepped forward on acoustic guitar to introduce an original written and composed by him, titled “Lost Again”.

With Fylling on bass, Joe Kye on violin, and Salazar huddled next to the group with a single snare, Rogers strummed the intro to a bluesy arpeggiated rhythm, to the song he described being about “a less cool experience…, while traveling across America.”

His spoken word style and vocal delivery projected a movie like scene through lyrics that described a group of friends traveling through middle America in a small town convenience store, subjected to the snide remarks of the store clerk’s bigotry.

“Cuz, to them we might not even be human so let’s get lost again. Cuz of Jim Crow and no witnesses…let’s get lost again,” Rogers sang.

The song touches on the lived experiences involving those spaces in the U.S. landscape that people of color have learned to decipher and navigate through, intuitively, in order to eschew their pitfalls or traps.

Salazar’s solo performance on the drums revealed just what a meticulous and skillful drummer can do with a time signature through a combination of chaotic but symmetrical drum rolls, flamacues, flams, and stroke rolls.

If, as Kye said during an interview, that he is looking to challenge “audiences to reach beyond their preconceived notion[s] of other people.” whether on a musical level or a philosophical one, Joe Kye and the Givers may have done just that.