Avocet Band Members
Jerry Fabiano (guitar, mandolin, octave mandolin, ballad singer)
Sebastopolian Jerry Fabiano loves to pick beautiful melodies on the octave mandolin, guitar, and mandolin, and he's also a very careful connoisseur of a few hand-picked vocal ballads -- Jerry's a big fan of centuries-old songs about highwaymen, supernatural beings, and the difficult lives of soldiers. He started out playing folk and bluegrass as a teenager, back in the days when the likes of Jerry Garcia and Jorma Kaukonen were jamming at the Tangent coffee house in Palo Alto and wowing impressionable young pickers like Jerry. He played bluegrass and folk for several years, then was drawn into Celtic music in the mid-1980's by groups like the Chieftains and Planxty, attracted to the history and the ancient tales of Ireland in particular.
"I've played in Celtic sessions on and off ever since I started doing this music," says Jerry, "but I've really wanted to get beyond the casual spontaneity of sessions -- to develop numbers seriously so they have a sense of refinement and polish. And I've wanted to play with a group of people with a shared interest in a diversity of world folk music forms, rather than being another strictly Irish band. My meeting Mitch, Roz and Merilee, then Francis later, was so fortuitous. We have a lot of life experience at our age that gives us a common understanding of things, and we have a real feeling of fellowship among us. Being a part of this band has had so many moments for me that are positively giddy -- I feel these waves of joy -- and sometimes I stop everyone and just say 'this is so much fun!'"
Roz Reynolds (French hurdy gurdy, bodhran, backup guitar)
Roz plays the primitive, haunting French hurdy-gurdy, which is a cranked stringed instrument with medieval roots. It looks like a lap-size version of Noah's ark, and it sounds something like a bagpipe, except when she adds the cranked rhythm strokes, or "coups", which have a intriguing buzzing sound, and are the primary percussion in French folk dance music.
"The music may be going along prettily and then the gurdy kicks in, and you've suddenly grabbed the audience by the scruffs of their necks," says Roz. "Playing the gurdy is a primitive, visceral, gut thing. There's nothing modern about the sound -- it sounds ancient -- and it goes right to your core. I've always been drawn to it, but never thought I would play one. Then I took a hurdy gurdy workshop at a folk camp a few years back, and the instructor set one in my lap, and I was completely hooked. Most of what I play on the gurdy is dance music of one kind or another -- it's hard to sit still because it makes me want to move. There's music I play on it that make me just want to shout 'Yes!' because it's so primitive and haunting and driving."
Roz and Mitch have been playing one kind or another of folk music together for all of their 20 years of marriage. These days they play as a duo at farmers markets and other outdoor or French-theme events, and run two music sessions a month in Santa Rosa at the Black Rose Pub and Restaurant (French traditional music on the 1st Wednesday night of the month, Celtic slow session and ballad singing circle on the 2nd Wednesday, both from 7:30 to 10 PM).
Mitch Gordon (hammered dulcimer, French and Irish button accordions, piano accordion, ballads, hurdy-gurdy, French bagpipe)
Russian River resident Mitch Gordon is an accordionist and hammered dulcimer player, and specializes in Irish and French dance music on the two-row B/C and G/C button accordions. A self-proclaimed chronic sufferer from "multiple instrument disorder", Mitch typically performs with five accordions –- four button accordions (one Irish and three French respectively) and one conventional piano-keyboard accordion –- and a hammered dulcimer. "The hammered dulcimer tends to be the audience's favorite of my various instruments, but my favorite these days is the French diatonic button accordion. They've played them for a century and a half for the folk dances in the mountains of central France, along with hurdy-gurdies and bagpipes. It's got buttons on both ends -- no keyboard keys like the modern accordions have -- and when you push the thing together you are playing on a different set of notes and chords than when you pull it apart a couple of seconds later. I love the sound, and there's something about the nonsensical layout of the thing that's addictive to people who play it."
"Actually, all of the instruments we play are addictive," continues Mitch. "There's something special about playing old tunes on acoustic instruments that are connected with the social dances and culture and history of particular places. It feels very wholesome and grounding, and takes you away from the whole technology and mass market thing back to times and places where people lived a lot more face-to-face."
(p.s. In the last year and a half Mitch has taken up French hurdy-gurdy and French bagpipes. His wife and bandmates are concerned, and are trying to steer him into counseling.)
Francis Small (fiddle)
The above is an excellent likeness of Avocet's newest member, born and bred in Santa Rosa where he has lived his entire life. (Except for four years in Toledo, Ohio, of which we will not speak about again). In person he has been known to smile. Although not known for his impatience, he took up violin in the 3rd grade because he did not want to wait until the 4th grade learn the flute. He stuck with it over the years because he was too chicken to tell his parents he wanted to quit. His persistence and non-assertiveness paid off as he joined the Sonoma County Junior Symphony and rose to the respectable position of 2nd chair, behind a girl who was not only better than he was, but younger and prettier as well. But he's not bitter about it. Really. At Santa Clara University the violin was relegated to oblivion as he studied electrical engineering and finally got a girlfiend. (Hey, he's an engineer.)
The violin collected dust as he got married, raised a family, and... well, what can you say. His priorities were all screwed up. (Well, he is an engineer.) Eventually he dusted off the violin when someone in the parish folk choir suggested it would sound good if he played along. After deciding he didn't sound half-bad*, and perhaps after listening to a few Altan or Chieftans albums, (or maybe after a few Guinnesses) he decided that learning some Irish tunes might be fun. After a few years of (insert obvious pun here) around, he decided to get serious and take lessons. Being in love with Celtic music, he naturally latched onto the fiddle teacher that knows everything *but* Celtic. Thus, he's learned a few old-time and bluegrass tunes as well. He continues to sing in his parish folk choir, which means his repetoire consists entirely of church hymns and drinking songs. He tries not to get confused.
He joined Avocet so that more than the spiders in his bedroom can appreciate his playing, and after getting the other band members to sign a pledge not to characterize their need for a fiddler as 'desperate'. He's practicing diligently these days to make up for his lost youth so that on occassion his listeners can enjoy some well-played Celtic fiddling and singing.
*His opinion. Your mileage may vary.
Former Members
Merilee Buster (ballad singer, fiddle, Celtic harp)
Merilee Buster played with Avocet from the group's inception in 2003 until the completion of the CD in Spring 2007. She is a fine singer in the unaccompanied (Sean Nos) tradition, plays Irish fiddle in the traditional session style, and has recently begun to play Celtic harp.