Radio
Archaeology
By Peter Aaron
...“Most
of what I play is stuff I nd myself, digging around at the ea
market or a yard sale up the street,” says St. Pierre. “If
it’s a record with a cover that looks cool or interesting,
or if it has a fun-sounding title, I’ll pretty much always
pick it up. I like to take chances; that’s how you come across
the really interesting stuff. One good thing usually leads to another.”
Which
is certainly the perfect metaphor for the music-—and music
history-dominated course that makes up St. Pierre’s intriguing
backstory. She grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts—“the
hometown of (boxer) Rocky Marciano”—and fell under the
spell of her father’s rst-rate jazz LP collection early
on, discovering artists like Milt Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, and
Ray Charles when most kids her age were jumping up and down on their
beds to Tubby the Tuba and The Banana Splits. In the fourth grade
she took up the drums, playing rst in the school marching band
and later in a couple of high school rock groups with her bassist
brother.
In
the mid Eighties, St. Pierre majored in anthropology at Bard
College in Annandale-on-Hudson, where she became interested
in improvised music, eventually making it the subject of her
thesis. At Bard she also performed in dub/reggae band 6-6-12
(which cut a demo produced by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch,) and
got involved in promoting jazz concerts on campus. She lived
in Boston for a year, attending Berklee College of Music,
working for roots music label Rounder Records, and playing
live with local improvisers. In 1988, after visiting Nicaragua
and recording folk music in India, St. Pierre made the requisite
move to New York, where she became heavily involved in the
Downtown creative music scene, playing venues like ABC No
Rio and P.S. 122 with Elliot Sharp, Zeena Parkins, Chris Cochrane
and other luminaries. Curiously, the city is also where her
love of country music began. CONTINUE...
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