Bacon adds flava to the Mansion at Strathmore
by Chris Slattery | Staff Writer
In the house? That’s so old school. Hip-hop artist Christon ‘‘Christylez” Bacon is in the mansion — the Mansion at Strathmore, where the modern-day renaissance man is Strathmore’s artist in residence for the month of March.
‘‘They nurture you,” says Bacon, who turns 22 today and performs at Strathmore tonight and again later in the month. ‘‘As a resident artist, I take a lot of workshops — how to get your taxes together — and business classes, and I’m meeting a lot of musicians.”
Like the 12 who will join him when he performs new works from the recently released ‘‘Advanced Artistry.”
It’s a band of old friends and new acquaintances, one that brings together a collection of instruments from viola, flute and piano to tabla, djembe and didgeridoo, then adds electric guitar, baritone and tenor saxophone and a side order of human beatboxing.
‘‘A lot of the musicians I’m using for the March 5 concert are also artists in residence,” he says. ‘‘Like the Mancuso-Sudza Project — they do this experimental music, some would call it avant-garde. They create soundscapes.
‘‘You want to get teamed up with people as creative as you are.”
Which is something Bacon has always been able to do. He says he can’t remember a time when he wasn’t all about music.
‘‘My mother was a deejay,” he explains. ‘‘Her music vocabulary — and her collection — goes back generations before her, before me. I’ve always had music in my life.”
Early on, he picked up on his mother’s ability to use music as an agent of change.
‘‘It could lift her out of a bad mood,” he remembers. ‘‘For me, I was shy, but music, if it comes from the heart, when you perform, you take some of that shyness and just throw it into the garbage can.”
Hip-hop cat
Music was his passion, but Bacon had a few other talents to fall back on. At 13, he had a summer job teaching teachers at the local middle school how to use computer programs – and used the money he earned to buy his first instrument, an acoustic guitar. When it came time to go to high school, he was determined to get into the fabled Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts — and he did, as a visual artist.
‘‘The only time I got to perform was at the Variety Show,” he confesses. ‘‘But I always used to hang out with the performers on the third floor.”
Some of the teachers gave Bacon and his buddies access to the music department’s ‘‘superior equipment,” and he made do with more basic equipment, too.
‘‘I was into rhyming, freestyle, beatboxing,” he says. ‘‘We used to draw these big crowds – in the hallway, the cafeteria. We made it an event.”
Along the way, Bacon met Mychael ‘‘Myke P” Pollard, the jazz piano player extraordinaire who turned Bacon on to progressive rock and jazz fusion.
‘‘As a hip-hop cat, that kind of music was a foreign language to me,” he says. ‘‘But it got me into composing, and that made it easier to get my point across.”
In ‘‘Advanced Artistry,” Bacon mines his own adolescence for material, and it’s often an emotional ride.
‘‘I call it the sneak attack,” he says. ‘‘It’s danceable, but when you listen to it – snap! – it’s knowledge.”
Native son
As an emerging artist in residence at Strathmore, Bacon does more than just perform and learn. He has been asked to create an educational program, and to premiere a new work commissioned by Strathmore. The former dovetails nicely with Bacon’s current day job, teaching creative writing to D.C. middle schoolers.
‘‘I’ve been blessed with the collective wisdom of many,” he says. ‘‘I want my students to see the beauty and simplicity of a topic…let them extend the metaphor.”
Meanwhile, he’ll extend his teaching repertoire. As an artist in residence, Bacon is participating in music enrichment classes at local middle schools. And – especially exciting for a native son – he’ll perform on the Millennium Stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
‘‘March 17,” he says happily. ‘‘With a smaller band – and a tuba!”
For the premiere of his Strathmore-commissioned work, scheduled for his March 26 concert, Bacon has chosen to demonstrate his musical growth with an extension of his first CD called ‘‘Advanced Artistry Abroad.” He says it’s a way to revisit that first album’s ‘‘modern flavors,” and explains that he uses as many instruments as possible to create something original and expressive.
‘‘It’s a blend of classical music with rhyming in the park,” Bacon says. ‘‘Instead of drumming and all that, there’ll be human beatboxing, and I will always throw down some level of participation.”
Because even though he hasn’t yet been abroad himself, Bacon embraces music from all around the globe.
‘‘I haven’t traveled much,” he says. ‘‘But D.C.has people from all over everywhere, and I wanted to take from the different styles of music and culture around the world.”
And someday, he wants to give back to those styles. After his stint in the Mansion, Bacon sees a future of endless potential.
‘‘I haven’t been outside the U.S. – yet!” he laughs. ‘‘Due to lack of funding.
‘‘But I’m coming to the world!”
Strathmore’s Artist in Residence Christon ‘‘Christylez” Bacon performs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, March 5 and 26, in the Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. Tickets are $10. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.