OMBEAU D’ANSE COMBEAU AT LUIS’ LA BAMBA D ’ANSE / jo BY DR. JOSEPH URIS /t’s a hot and sticky Sunday night and the sweat is running down arms, thighs, breasts and balls—not the sort of night for joy and laughter. In the big barroom at Luis’ La Bamba Club, a hoard of hopefuls await that hero of a thousand Incongruities, the man whose very name Is an Impossibility, D’Anse Combeau, the resurrection of sweet music’s only Portland pseudo-French connection (who would, of course, thank us all Individually but there Is not time). D’Anse appears on a hand truck to begin his authentic Wild, Wild West Show. He Is dressed In gleaming white and gold, and surrounded by an orchestra and cast of at least 20. The band’s south of the border brass section belts out “Eve of Destruction’’ to a latin beat, while D’Anse turns the tune into a ballad of COMBEAU AN INTERVIEW BY PENNY ALLEN ombeau-lsts Jim Baldwin and Jonathan Newton have worked together since 1976 when they were both members of the Tu-Tu Band. Since then they have collaborated on a number of music and peace and love. How often do you hear a latin version of a protest song cum scat tune In a fully flawed French accent sung to a crowd of adults who roar their approval and shout words of love in response? Next “Satisfaction" with our French cowboy hero sweating his thick makeup Into a froth. D’Anse exudes through it all a pan-sexual Innocence that tears to the very heart of the failed hope and Ironic humor Implied In much of the music of the sixties. Indeed there is no bitter pill of hope undone that cannot be swallowed by these killers of culture. Through transposition they bludgeon and bloody the sacred memories of the psychedelic era. But D’Anse Is no fallen angel. He is left instead somewhat bent and muddied by the Impossible clash of myths that dominate this age. Imagine now a tune filled with all the losses through violence this great land of ours has endured through its history. “Abraham, Martin and John" Is rendered Into a loping cowboy melody complete with clip- clopping coconut shell horse hooves and a terrible do-sl-do square dance. And If that ain’t enough, there Is "Eleanor Rigby" done in mock heroic style as a traditional melodrama, complete with hero, heroine, villain and Indians. The tom-tom beat rises to a crescendo which ends abruptly as the god Mercury frees the sorely tried and tied wench with his triangle...ding. D’Anse and arranger-band member Jon Newton hone in on ancient themes In modern day drag. But far more serious than that, they know no shame! To the tune of "I Believe In Music," D’Anse kills the Indians. Yet later, the Indians reappear riding sea horses In a surfer scene. It all ends with that most arrogant of Sinatra songs, “My Way." Twenty lengthy production numbers and the audience, by now swimming in its own juices, Is actually screaming for more. How to explain this evil phenomenon? How to deal with so Irreverent a production that crosses time, style and culture with no more than a change of hats or a drop of accents? How Indeed? It Is the death of the obscure and the birth of ultimate accessibility. As the computer Is to knowledge, D’Anse Combeau is to music. The terrifying end of innocence Is upon us. We look now Into the abyss of total cultural merger. In the age of Reagan the past rushes ahead. Leading the charge the persona of D’Anse Combeau seems to call out In a terrible French accent, "look out you fools! Here comes 1984!" comedy projects, Including Wallpaper Music and the International Playpen of the Arts. In order to find out what makes them tick, we tracked them down recently and asked them numerous questions. MSSR. BALDWIN Jon Newton arranges the music for D’Anse Combeau CSQ: What does it mean that you divide your thoughts up into those that D’Anse would do and those that Wallpaper would do and those that the International Playpen of the Arts would do? Newton: Those bands were all started for specific purposes. We started Playpen to do all the ideas that weren’t appropriate for Tutu Band. Also to become a lot more ‘dada,’ a lot weirder. With D’Anse Combeau, we Initially just wanted to have a dance combo...we just wanted to open with some lounge music. Then that French man got in there.... CSQ: Why did the French man seem right? Newton: Well, first of all, It’s an MSSR. NEWTON Snaps courtesy of Newberrys Clinton St. Quarterly 43
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