Marilyn Carino is an Italian New Yorker in the most appealing sense of that stereotype. She speaks directly and with great animation and waxes sanguine about what she really likes with a Mediterranean’s lust for life flashing in her mahogany eyes.
Known for years as the sweet harmonic voice behind San Francisco’s Western Swing radicals Trailer Park Rangers, which she helped found, and the more traditional Cowboy Jazz outfit Nearly Beloved, she detoured into projects with bassist Billy Talbot of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and former Rain Parade leader Matt Piucci. At the same time she began to be drawn away from rootsy Americana and toward creating a more eclectic mix with a band of her own.
Her current lineup includes young Bay Area jazz sideman Benjamin Rubin on acoustic and electric bass, with whom Carino collaborates on arrangements. “Ben’s very smart, and he’s no jazz snob. Like me he likes a lot of different music. He keeps me up on what’s good in hip hop and makes me listen to these crazy droning live Pink Floyd shows.” Jazz and improvisational music loom larger now as an influence for the singer and songwriter. “I love the old school, like the way Chet Baker sings, that style is thrilling. But I’m really starting to appreciate the tension I hear in more experimental and improvisational music, like what (New York-based saxophonist) Ellery Eskelin does especially, he’s so out there but there’s a lot of groove and melody in his compositions. I want to make this very modern music with a great harmonic root, and for that you need to know what came before. Jazz musicians work hard to understand that.”
Carino’s CD, “Long Island Lulu”, completes this organic experiment by mingling a prickly jazz demeanor and a complimentary use of sampling technology with a Memphis-style soul evident in its richly textured acoustic organs and heartbeat grooves. The results are affecting, erudite songs delivered in Carino’s compelling voice; an instrument which moves confidently with deliberate discord and breathy sweetness; the type of flexible interpreter needed for her often enigmatic lyrics. “I love words and phonetic sounds, onomatopoeia, just bwah-bool-weh, you know! And for some reason I’m drawn to more formal language; I’ll write with words like ‘rue’ and ‘deign’, which nobody says but they’re quite dramatic when you sing them. I’ve been told I write ambiguous lyrics, maybe because people are used to popular music that is so conspicuous and mechanical. I write what comes naturally to me, and I’m satisfied that that expression is complete. I’m sure James Joyce just channeled his crazy language – and Miró didn’t sweat when people said ‘Excuse me, that red blob is not a bird!’ Why should anyone be concerned about who they might alienate? Lots of people make the mistake of struggling to tailor what they do for the fickle masses, my mission is to get a million converts to get into something that challenges them. Without losing that groove! You always have to be able to take a bath in it.”
Carino’s canny regard for language translates into songs of savory, picturesque imagery. “Call to the vipers, weaned on TV/in line ahead of me/Oh, I see what they see/This time I recognize my enemy’s might/Beautiful in the Safeway light” she laments on the dark and lovely “This Hollywood Life”. The music hums and knocks with a subtle, cinematic drama that meets Sly Stone’s snaky funk with P.J. Harvey’s arty future-blues.
Check Marilyn out live at a record release party for “Long Island Lulu” on March 15 at 10pm at Café du Nord, San Francisco.