Voice With Kinchen

An interesting thing happened six years ago on a chilly winter afternoon. I was visiting an acquaintance named Martin in his room in transitional housing near Lake Merritt and he offered to sell me his four track tape recorder for $150. He showed me how I could use headphones and a cassette tape and record two tracks onto the same tape, doubling my voice, singing harmony with myself, or rounds, or whatever. Forever fascinated with the sound-on-sound technique Quincy Jones used with Lesley Gore, I bit, and began recording my accapella duo versions of many of my favorite songs - just for fun.

It's one of those oddball incidents that have happened in my life and, in retrospect, created a hard left turn into a whole new pathway if I open myself to them. Almost in spite of myself, I kept taking those left turns as they presented themselves to me. First, I noticed my voice wasn't what it used to be back in the 60s and 70s when I used to sing along with my records and the radio and friends would tell me I had a good voice.

Next, I was looking at a catelogue for the next semester at Laney College, where I'd decided to return to school and continue my long dormant formal education. There I found a class called Voice, which promised to teach vocal and breathing techniques. The days and times for the class fit in with my work and volunteer schedules, so I decided to give it a try, along with a World History course.

The professor turned out to be a lovely and passionate woman named Lucy Kinchen, who I learned as time went along was a champion of Negro spirituals and led her own multicultural chorale focusing on that influential and neglected area of classic American music. She is a fabulous teacher. As promised, she taught us vocal technique, had us do many breathing exercises, allowed us the time and space to discover our own voices, employing some of her specialties: lightening the sound, lifting the palate and bringing the voice forward to the front of the mouth.

Of course, easier read than done. However, not impossible, and the gradual and increasing development of all these skills has become for me very spiritual and meditative in practice.

Another thing Ms. Kinchen does is introduce us to four songs each semster, typically a spiritual, a pop song, a jazz number or show tune, and an Italian art song we learn to sing in Italian. Class members are grouped according to vocal register, except for the men who sing together, and each group does one song as a group for the midterm - not that Kinchen calls it a midterm. Her name for the performances is a "festival."

It took me awhile that first semester, but gradually I realized that she was preparing us to sing solo in front of the class if we chose to. I watched others do it and I made the decision to do it myself. I figured, hey, I'm taking voice and I want the full benefit of the class. I was a nervous wreck before my first performance and many that followed, but I did "Moon River" and "If I Loved You" that first spring, to enthusiastic response, and I was off and running.

I've continued to take the class over the past four years, and I only miss it if I'm ill or out of town. Kinchen has become one of my musical mentors, along with the aforementioned Lesley Gore. In addition to Kinchen selected repertoire like "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life," "Yesterday" and "Hello Young Lovers," I've done my own selections for different classes, songs like "Jet Plane," "Cry Me A River" and "Out Here On My Own."

A couple of people asked me to sing duets and as part of trios with them and I said yes. One guy asked me to sing backup on his dancemetal record and contribute lyrics and I said yes. My good friend, SkarLo Paine, did his own CD and after hearing me riff on his tracks, he had me write lyrics for and sing the hook and featured vocal on his song "Help Me" from his "Distorted Melodies" CD.

Paine was the one who suggested I think about doing my own record, and I said yes. As I wrote and recorded the songs, I ended up doing several at open mikes in Oakland. The record is now finished and the tracks being tweaked and polished for early 2007 release. But that's a story to be told on another day, but still on a day like today...

SkarLo Paine and James Anthony (Allio) in The Eternal City

It took a five hour train ride to reach Roma from Venice, and a five minute taxi ride to our hotel, The Grand Palatine, on Cavour, two blocks from the Colosseum, and surrounded by fabulous restaurants like Trattoria de Valentino (fantastic osso bucco and cannelloni) and Cleto's (try the veal t-bone!). Upon arrival at the hotel, we dropped our bags and immediately went sightseeing. First stop, Pizza & Mortadella, a deli with a hot food counter where we loaded up on carbs and cheese tastes, kind of like Italian tapas, while we adjusted to the frenetic Roman pace. From there we grabbed our bus passes at a local tabachi, and hopped on the Metro to find the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. There were hella people there, and the next day while descending the stairs to the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, a couple from Columbus told us that there was a reason for the mob scene that night. J-Lo was shopping in the plush stores in the area, and she still draws a crowd. We walked and walked and got lost, which is a different kind of lost from Venice, where you can just look up at buildings and see signs guiding you. Rome is a big city and you have to have a basic sense of where you are and where you are going.

Being lost did take us to the Pantheon and eventually back to the Metro where we cooled our sore heels and rode back to the hotel. Rome is a totally different trip than Venice, all loud, brash, urban craziness, but imbued with the life-embracing joviality that we typically associate with Italians. They're so warm and friendly. By our second day, we had shopkeepers and restrauteurs giving us a holla as we walked by.

We managed to make it by the Trevi Fountain at least once a day every day. Of course, I threw three coins in the fountain. Lamarr overheard a tour guide explaining that throwing one coin in means you will return to Roma; two means you will fall in love there; and three coins indicates you will be married there. Lamarr threw two coins in. I know one thing: our friendship deepened and grew during our wonderful Italian journey.

It took two tries to get into Saint Peter's Basilica. The first time it was closed as the Pope was entertaining foreign dignitaries in front. They did have huge video screens in front of Saint Peter's, so we can say we got to see the Pope in person while we were there! We managed to get into the basilica on our second try, and they were getting ready to have Mass celebrated so there was a limit on how many could enter. We had a good look at this magnificent church that is so huge many other famous churches could fit easily inside its walls.

We had two memorable meals in Vatican City. One was at a trattoria on a side street where we dined alfresco on one of the unseasonably warm days we enjoyed there. I wish I remembered the name of the place. We just stumbled on it and it was good! The other was a Rick Steves recommendation, Parilli in Prati, where we had the lunch buffet, delicious Italian specialties in a modern atmosphere.

We did not neglect our proscuitto and gelato pursuits by any means. We continued sampling both at least once each day. On our last afternoon in Rome, we tried three flavors at the premier Roman ice cream shop, Gelateria Della Palma and walked away smiling. Three blocks later we looked at ourselves and said, "Hey, let's go back!" There were a bunch more flavors we knew we had to try! Gelato just tastes different and better in Italy, and Della Palma are the masters.

The Colosseum was also fascinating, just walking around and within that massive wonder of the world and thinking about what transpired there all those centuries ago was a trip. Outside they have athletic-looking men dressed as Roman soldiers complete with helmets, armor and short skirts who will pose for photos with you if you like. Leaving the Colosseum, we were approached by a couple who let us know explicitly that they would be amenable to more than photos if we were so inclined. Now that was a moment!

Another moment, and a real highlight of the visit for me, was telling my story to a group in Saint Andrews Church one chilly, foggy Roman night. That group lifted me up and gave me total inspiration in just over an hour.

Shopping was also terrific. We found a hot little shop called Others with clothes we hadn't seen before and I guess we went a little crazy. They didn't seem to mind.

All too soon our Rome Advenure was over and it was time to jet home. It's funny. I have a feeling it wasn't our last visit. Ciao, Roma! Arriverdeci, Bella!

Jim Allio Goes to Venice

That's Venice, Italy, not Venice, California. Been there many times, but not to its Italian namesake and have wanted to go forever. On November 14, I finally realized my dream and made it to the floating city.

It only took twenty-three hours to get there. That's two jets, a bus and a train before we made it to Venice. My friend, the writer Robert Harris ("She Who Is Alive"), described getting off the train and walking down the tracks to the wall of windows that overlooks the Grand Canal as "one of life's magical moments" and he did not exaggerate. We got there around 8:30 PM and my breath was taken away as soon as I got to the wall of windows. Here's what it looked like the next morning.

We spent four glorious days in Venice. All the guidebooks and everyone I spoke with who's been there encouraged me to just wander the back streets and alleys and get lost and so we did.

You probably already know that Venice has no cars of any kind and is linked by a series of lagoons and the Grand Canal. Public transportation is primarily in the form of water buses, called vaporetto, which are awesome. There are a few places where you can catch traghettos, which are gondolas you stand up in while they traverse the width of the Canal at a few spots for something like fifty cents. And then of course there are the gondolas. I'm not talking gondola rides as in Las Vegas or even Lake Merritt in Oakland. Oh, no.



And, yes, the gondola ride was everything I dreamed it would be, even if it was cold and grey outside. Riding a gondola has been something I have yearned to do my whole life, and it did not disappoint.

We stayed at the Hotel Abbazia, a former convent two alleys down from the train station that was wonderful. It was quiet at night despite all the activity at the other end of the alley. The staff, especially Alvise and the breakfast room waitress, were friendly and very helpful. The vaporetto stopped one minute from the hotel, and capuccino and restaurants were all over the place. And if course the shopping rocked.

Other highlights: St Marks Square and Basilica and the Campanile were spectacular and the Bridge of Sighs was amazing. We ate prosciutto and gelato every damn day, and had a memorable lunch of gorgonzola gnocchi in a trattoria on a side street near St Mark's Square that was the best we've ever tasted. The prosciutto pizza the first night was screamin'. We had to wait until Rome to top it. But that's another story for another day...like today...

Pet Shop Boys in San Francisco: Flamboyant, Integral and Very Psychological

The Pet Shop Boys returned to the Bay Area last night, a very appropos Election Day, and their heady melange of intense club beats, pointed political barbs and observations on gay culture took over the Bill Graham Auditorium and rocked the house. The set included a huge black and white photo of a brain on a large block that opened up to let us into its psyche, perfect for the terrific opening song, "Psychological," from the band's brilliant new album, "Fundamental." The couch on one side of the stage got plenty of action in this number, and three white transparent cloth blocks were also used very inventively.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have always evinced interest in the intersection of pop art, camp, cultural mores, world affairs and disco, and they did not disappoint last night. Their imagined love song between Bush and Blair ("I'm With Stupid") was a real crowdpleaser, ultra catchy and dancey, and I noticed lightbulbs popping on over the heads of many audience members who already loved the song but didn't realize its true import. Of course, I wasn't one of them. After all, I had read the interview in Datebook that spelled it out for me!

The new "Minimal" blended seamlessly into a nonpareil version of the classic "Shoppping" that had us all going crazy before PSB smoked us out with a chugging, grinding take on "Rent" that Lamarr particularly liked. Most of the material he is only familiar with from when I play the discs, and they took on new life for him.

There were a couple of poignant moments for me. "Dreaming of the Queen" took me back to the days when all my friends were sick and dying and it seemed no one cared and, in my own personal isolation hell, I felt I was all alone, and The Pet Shop Boys helped me to recognize that I was not, that a great many gay men had experienced what I had experienced growing up, and were suffering as the endless AIDS pandemic thundered on. I let the tears come on that one.

The other moment came with the second act opener, the superb "Numb." Also from the new album, the song details an emotional state I find myself reaching for from time to time succintly and perfectly. Tennant and Lowe continue to grow as songwriters, which was also demonstrated by a tender acoustic guitar version of "Home and Dry."

A few numbers were, of course, way over the top. "Sodom and Gommorah Show," "Always On My Mind," "Go West" and the hilarious Bono/Four Seasons medley, "Where the Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off You" found me alternately laughing hysterically and reaching down to pick my jaw up off the floor.

In the end, however, it was the incendiary new songs like "Flamboyant" and the community embracing old ones like the genius "It's A Sin" that set the tone of the evening. It was wonderful to see so many survivors partying one more time, and note so many old friends reconnecting at the concert.

Naturally all that dancing and energy release needed some replenishing nourishment, so after Lamarr and I hopped on BART and rode to West Oakland station (first East Bay stop and every train stops there), we drove to Koryo to pick up Sake Tempura, Godzilla Roll and a Deep Fried California Roll. Scrumptious!

What a gift The Pet Shop Boys continue to be.

Hey Now!

Wassup, watitdo? This is Jim Allio and this is my blog about whatever I feel like writing about on a day like...today...

For starters, this is me in Paris on my hotel room balcony the day of my arrival in 2003. I travelled with my friend, Lamarr Standberry, aka SkarLo Paine, recording artist, songwriter and record producer. He's actually producing my upcoming CD, "Better Late Than Never," due out imminently. Here's Lamarr:

We are going to see two of my heroes, The Pet Shop Boys, in San Francisco at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium tonight. More to follow!