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December 9, 2009

2 Tone to perform at Simmons Center

Jeff Kaley

DUNCAN — It is a rich, haunting sound that hints of a skilled lead guitarist paired with a gifted bass player, laying down some smooth, very approachable jazz.

Well, the gifted bass player part is correct — Michael Medina is a bass player extraordinare.

But when 2 Tone performs at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Chisholm Trail Art Council’s Live From the Center concert series at the Simmons Center, there won’t a lead guitarist in sight.

The source of the rich, haunting element that makes 2 Tone’s sound distinctive is actually Cindy Horstman deftly caressing and manipulating the strings of an electrified harp.

A harp playing jazz?

In the past two decades, Horstman’s gotten used to that reaction.

“When I first moved to Dallas, I wanted to try my hand at playing jazz on harp,” Horstman said, addressing the topic that invariably rises at 2 Tone appearances. “It was something different, but there were so many wonderful jazz musicians who were very kind to me.

“When I was a freshman at UT-Austin, I was a music major and I had to declare an instrument to learn. My piano playing is just awful and I can’t sing, but I fell in love with the harp as soon as I started playing it.

“After I decided to try using the harp for jazz, I listened to lots of recordings and tried to transpose them, and I went and studied with some other people who were playing jazz harp.

“But mainly, I just jumped in and started playing with and learning from the great jazz players in Dallas.

“There’s something about the total freedom of jazz that I like most. When you’re playing classical, you have to read every note. But with jazz, you come up with the interpretation and it’s spontaneous.”

In 1994, Horstman was working on a recording project and the bass player she’d brought into the studio experienced health problems. That led to an introduction to Medina and the evolution of 2 Tone.

“The drummer in the project knew Michael, and sure enough, he was open to joining us in the project,” Horstman recalled. “Michael is revered in this part of the world as one of the best bass players around, and he also plays drums, owns his own studio and does production.

“It was a perfect pairing. We both work on projects of our own, but we love playing together.”

The 2 Tone collaboration has resulted in eight albums, national radio airplay, and videos on MySpace and YouTube. A busy schedule of concerts in the Midwest and Southwest have given Horstman and Medina a platform for their smooth-but-unique sound, and to promote jazz.

“A lot of people, when they think of jazz, they think of Miles Davis or ‘straight ahead’ jazz, and some people think jazz is for musicians only,” Horstman said. “We do play some of original songs, but in our concerts we mix them with people’s favorite pieces — like Beatles tunes, music by Stevie Wonder or Sting or Gershwin or other music from the pop world — and play them in jazz form.

“Our repertoire is open to playing about anything we want.”

In addition to Live From the Center appearance in the evening, 2 Tone is also conducting a workshop at 2 p.m. Saturday, in the Simmons Center theater. Open to musicians of all ages, it will focus on the mechanics of playing in an ensemble, timing, arranging and how to make a living in the music world.

Advance tickets for the 2 Tone concert are on sale at the Chisholm Trail Arts Council office, 717 W. Willow, Suite 6, by calling 580-252-4160 or by ordering online at www.chisholmtrailarts.com.

Also, call the CTAC office for information on the workshop.

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