One-Man Band
Studio Stu
by Peter Aaron
If you’re out and about at night in the Hudson Valley, the odds
are pretty good that you’ll see him. A hairless, stocky guy in
a sharp suit and a porkpie hat, standing in the corner behind an old-fashioned
square microphone and softly singing everything from jazz standards
to quirky takes on The Beatles, The Doors, Gorillaz, and the Specials.
As he croons away, a digital sampler that he operates with foot switches
picks up his voice, repeating, looping, and layering his scatted lyrics
and mimicked horn lines until he sounds like a full band. And there’s
something else: As he’s doing all of this vocalizing and soundscape-building,
the lone player is plucking along on a weird, one-string, bass-like
instrument that looks like a hockey stick mating with an upturned bass
drum. So just who is this musical man of mystery, and what the heck
is that thing he’s playing?
Studio Stu is the name, being a self-contained entertainment machine
is the game. And the offbeat instrument is the Studivarious, a modern
electric update of the traditional washtub bass invented the player
himself.
“I’d worked as a documentary filmmaker and a commercial
photographer for 25 years, shooting ads for Madison Avenue companies
and album covers,” recalls Stu, who was born Stuart Chernoff
and grew up in Brooklyn. “But after I moved up here, in 1988,
I found out that it was nearly impossible to make a living locally
as a photographer. So I thought about what else I enjoyed doing that
I could also make money at. I play guitar, too, but that didn’t
seem novel enough. 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.
In addition to working as an emcee at jazz and street festivals and
being a ubiquitous, low-key hit with patrons at Hudson Valley restaurants,
coffeehouses, and private functions, Stu has won over still another
important faction of the entertainment industry: venue owners.
“They love booking me,” says Stu. “Since I’m
a solo act they don’t need to pay me as much as a full band,
so of course they love that. But they also like the fact that I’m
so easy to book. They can just call me up and ask to book a date and—bam!—we
just book it right then and there. I don’t have to call any other
band members and talk them into doing the gig!”
Studio Stu’s schedule of solo shows is constantly being updated
(check his website for the latest appearances), but at present he hosts
a regular jazz jam session on Thursdays at Vassar College’s Loeb
Arts Center Museum in Poughkeepsie. With Duo Loco, he plays on Fridays
at Neko Sushi and Hibachi in Wappingers Falls, and with Trio Loco,
he plays on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month at Starr
Place in Rhinebeck.
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