One-Man
Band | Studio Stu
by Peter Aaron
The washtub bass is a folk instrument, just six notes and
one string; it seemed like it would be easy to play and no one else around
was doing it. In 1995, I started going down to play in the subway in New York.
I’d play ‘Take the A Train’ for tourists and make, like,
$100 in an hour. Not long after that I started playing more [in the Hudson
Valley].
Stu’s instrument has changed over the years, evolving from
the archetypal inverted metal basin, broomstick, and clothesline
into the comparatively sleek, high-tech version he now plays as
a solo artist and with the jazz outfits Duo Loco, which features
Stu and guitarist Mark Dziuba, and Trio Loco, which features Stu,
Dziuba, and drummer Dean Sharp. (Trio Loco’s newest release,
Jass, was reviewed in Roll’s November/December 2007 issue.) “As
I started to play with more advanced jazz bands, I began to need
more range, a more natural tone, better action,” explains
Stu. “So [master luthier] Lou Mancuso and I came up with
a design that uses an electric pickup, an 18-inch maple drum shell,
and a carved oak neck with an ebony fingerboard. At this point,
there’s no ‘tub’ parts left!” Recently,
Stu has been working with Freehold instrument maker B. Goode on
a new, solid-body design that he hopes to patent.
Since 1997, Stu has been one of the hosts of “Woodstock
Roundtable,” which airs Sundays at 7:30am on WDST 100.1-FM.
The show highlights area cultural events and the work of local
poets, one of whom was a pre-Felice Brothers Simone Felice, who
recruited Stu and other players to back him for a 1999 CD as S.E.
Felice & Odd City. In his solo guise Stu has released two albums,
2003’s Duja Vey and 2005’s Fools in Love (both on Soluna
Records); prior to the afore-mentioned Jass (2007, also Soluna),
Trio Loco debuted with Live at the Deep Listening Space (Deep Listening
Records) in 2001. CONTINUE...
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