rizorkestra one-man-roots-blues-band Henry Miller Library Big Sur, Ca 2005

rizorkestra one-man-roots-blues-band Knitting Factory Hollywood

"... the rustic blues/jug/rag hustle..." - Good Times Weekly, Santa Cruz 2006

rizorkestra one-man-roots-blues-band 3rd International Jug Band Festival Sutters Creek, Ca 2005

By Indy Staff
Santa Barbara Independent (May 18, 2006)

Three Qs with rizorkestra

rizorkestra, the one-man-hipster-blues-band extraordinaire, is on tour throughout the summer and is coming to Santa Barbara to perform at Elsie's on Tuesday, May 23, and will also be broadcast live on KCSB 91.9 FM at noon on Monday, May 22.

Q: You list a lot of interesting characters as personal heroes; who would you say your greatest influences are?

rizorkestra: I'm an extremely avid amateur musicologist, so I try to dig up the earliest American pop I can. Lots of interesting cats... think Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. Then think of two generations before that... 1890s to 1929-ish. That's some of what I play and listen to. Charley Patton... lots of good stuff, man.

Q: Right, right. Real lo-fi and basic. No bells or whistles.

rizorkestra: Yeah, ya know, that's why I like the early stuff... real primitive. That music is like, well, I like to think of it as almost like a Japanese watercolor painting. You can find a beautifully clean, sculpted line in the music.

Q: And the kazoo fits in ...

rizorkestra: Ha ha!! Yeah, I picked up the kazoo in the early '90s. It's the most democratic of instruments, meaning anyone of any talent level can play it. I dont want to give away too many tricks of the trade, but the kazoo can give the same range and pitch as the human voice.

Feature article by Glen Starkey
New Times San Luis Obispo News and Entertainment Weekly (March 16th, 2006)

Move Over Dick Van Dyke: Rizorkestra is the New One-Man- Band

Americans are individualists, rebels, loners which makes me wonder why there aren't more one-man bands around. Think about it! A one-man band doesn't have to share the pay or wonder if the drummer is too drunk to play. A one-man band doesn't need anyone... well, except an audience, but that part's easy when you're as engaging as Rizorkestra, a one-man roots/blues band who'll be appearing at Mongo's in Grover Beach, March 22.

He plays a mean resonator guitar, sings, plays kazoo, hi-hat, and bass drum simultaneously, people. His renditions of blues songs, jug band tunes, gospel music classics, instrumental stomps, romps, jumps, and rags, early country music, early jazz, Tin Pan Alley tunes, folk music and novelty songs will blow you away. It's impossible not to have fun watching a one-man band. Riz, as he goes by, lives in a rustic cabin near the Los Angeles National Forest on a pocket of private land. He's completely off the grid: no running water, no electricity, no phone line, a waterfall in back yard.

"It's nice, harmonious, lots of solitude," says Riz via phone recently (he was on-the-road touring). A gregarious sort of guy, Riz has a beat poet's hipster attitude.

"Check this out, man. I played a benefit in downtown L.A., a thing called Midnight Mission, and they served... I don't know, man... something like 1,100 Easter dinners to the homeless. They had a stage set up and folks went out and played, and among the folks was Dick Van Dyke. He came and sang a tune. Wow, he's the icon of the one-man band. What an honor it was to play for that guy."

Riz - who's played guitar and kazoo with Dan Hicks' X-Mas Jug Band, played vibraphone and Rhodes keyboard with Greyboy Allstar saxophonist Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, was a founding member with San Francisco chanteuse Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, and performs and records as jazz vibraphonist with San Francisco funk/Latin jazz/dub/grooveband Vinyl - is clearly no stranger to performing with others, but he seems to have really hit on a niche genre with Rizorkestra.

"I'm probably the only guy in all of L.A. who's doing it, and in L.A. that's what you want, to be the guy who stands out. But I have to say, it's really hard, really labor intensive. The concentration level is enormous."

Most people can barely play one instrument at a time. Try playing guitar, percussion, and singing or playing the kazoo! It may be near-impossible, but people eat it up.

"The one-man band concept fits in a lot of places. It's entertaining music for kids, who love the novelty, and old folks, some of whom grew up on this music. And I always have audience participation in the form of volunteer mixed-chorus. Most of the time it's just moaning-in-the-field kind of stuff. It's American music that celebrates that pioneer spirit and Yankee ingenuity, the kind of thing that brings people together: jugband tunes, rags jumps and shuffles, gospel tunes, folk tunes, some real gut-bucket blues."