Award-winning queer author, dancer, choreographer and musician Brontez Purnell will break out a new style when he performs classic blues songs written and performed by his great uncle J.J. Malone at the Berkeley Art Museum on August 16. The concert is presented in conjunction with the art exhibit "A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration."
In a phone interview from his West Oakland home, Purnell, known more for his punk music, discussed his inspiration for switching music genres for this performance honoring his uncle.
"We're going to do some of his earlier stuff, and some of his funk-leaning stuff from the '70s," said Purnell. "The band is drummer Sean Teves and bass player Taifa Nia, the two guys who normally back me up, but we're probably going to hire one or two session players. We're still working out the sound, so I want to see how it goes. If it goes really well, there is this real piece of my heart that would love to make a tribute album to my uncle."
Music roots
Music runs in his family. Purnell's great-grandfather, "Hard Rock" Charlie Malone, was an accomplished bottleneck guitarist who performed nationally on the 1930s "Chitlin Circuit" through segregated states. He was the father of musician J.J. Malone (1935-2004), who performed with multiple musicians over several decades from his early years in Alabama. His later move to Oakland led to more success. Along with penning hit singles and four albums, the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist started Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland with fellow musician Troyce Key.
Events have come full circle. Recently, Purnell performed at that nightclub with his punk band, The Younger Lovers. That band made its debut at BAM in 2009. He's also been in other bands like Gravy Train!!!!
"I've done lots of stuff at the Berkeley Art Museum," said Purnell. "It's always a groovy, fun place. I love it."
Born in Triana, Alabama, Purnell, now 42, said that as a child he enjoyed a nurturing environment for his blooming artistry.
"My parents, my mom in particular, were very music and literature-based," he said. "I think they put that kind of fire in my soul. You know how, sometimes as a child, you feel these weird dreams that your parents had that maybe they didn't get to fulfill? My mom would come home from work and lock herself in her room and she would write plays. And I think she tried to write a book in the late '80s. My dad was very into music. We had a lot of guitars around. So yeah, my life as a musician and a writer; I do think I am fulfilling a dream of theirs also."
Art forms and flow
How does he decide whether to create a song, a novel, a film or a zine (his other many talents)?
Purnell said, "Anything I'm thinking of has the potential to be all of it. Inspiration comes from so many places, but I think the different projects, they tell you what they want to be. I just work from there. It's about a flow, an improvisation, kind of a sixth sense."
Asked about his renewed interest in his great-uncle's music, Purnell said, "When I moved to the Bay Area and I said the word blues — I live with all these white hipster boys ¬— so when you say blues, their only reference is red-bellied scratch guitar. Growing up in Alabama, my only reference for blues was the electric blues. Because I grew up in the '80s, I grew up with current blues. There are no recordings of my great-grandfather, 'Hard Rock' Charlie, but maybe he sounded like that.
"But I knew my uncle J.J. and his earlier stuff. I have one of his 7-inch record from the '60s, an original song he did called "Sail On," and that one's pretty rock and roll, actually. His stuff with The Rhythm Rockers gets really bluesy.
In the'70s, he was on the soundtrack for a movie, "Black Girl," with a song called "No World for Dreamers." "It's A Shame" and "Danger Zone" are closer to when blues moved into a funk era with congas and all this type of stuff. So yeah, the sound definitely morphed across four or five decades."
Arsenal of thought
Along with his upcoming concert, Purnell, who won a Lambda Literary Award for his witty sex-packed novel, "100 Boyfriends," said he's finishing up a science fiction novel.
"I'm also planning to record some more music next year," he said. "I just need to go into the studio and get it together. But I've done so much in the span of two years, I'm starting to think maybe I could just rest for a bit. But yeah, I'm always working, always playing gigs. So yeah, you'll definitely be getting more music and writing out of me."
Asked if he thinks creativity is genetic, environmental, or perhaps both, Purnell said, "A friend and I were just talking about analytical philosophy, and the new science says there's absolutely no way to separate those two things. If it was genetics, there'd probably be a few more in my family, but I was definitely supported around it, too. I definitely had the spark for it. I felt like I couldn't live without it."
As we shared experiences in dance and writing, Purnell made a connection between the two art forms. While he took traditional ballet classes for several years, his own choreography often relies on non-dancers and more contemporary movement styles.
"So much of ballet is like weird poetry," he said, "because the instructor will say things like, 'Push your toes to press up.' It took me almost eight years to understand that it's just a certain way you move your musculature and your toes to align yourself perfectly to relevé.
"Connecting these weird, poetic things helped me move. There's something about the vernacular of it that we take for granted in everyday life. It has to be dreamed into your system. Learning the other language of that, there's no way ten years of that didn't go into this arsenal of thought in writing that happens now."
Brontez Purnell performs the music of J.J. Malone, and some of his own songs, at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2155 Center St. August 16, 7:30pm, Free-$14. www.bampfa.org
www.instagram.com/brontezpurnell
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