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"Variety Soul" Welcomes New Bass Player
An Interview with John Conte
by Carol Gerber

After filling in as the substitute bass player on two Jukes tours in the Fall of 2007, John Conte joined the band as its permanent bass player in January, 2008. I spoke with John in March, 2008, about his background in music and how he likes his new job.

We started talking a little bit about our iPods, and John's claim to be a low-tech kind of guy led me to my first question:

It's interesting that you say you're low-tech, because you've got a huge Internet presence. You've got about 5 websites going.

Huge? I don't think it's huge. I don't know what it translates to. I have The Contes website www.thecontes.com that my brother Steve and I have had for years. It's older technology, I guess. It's not a flash site, things don't move around and stuff like that. But there are people that check in, there's traffic. And then my wife made me this one through Dynamod that johncontebass one www.johncontebass.com, and that one is, you know, more modern. Then there's the Leo's Mom site . That one is for this kid's rock band that I have with my wife, Lisa www.leosmom.com. We've just finished recording a cd. And there's the Prisoners of Second Avenue , which is a New York City band I have with guitarist Jimmy Vivino and drummer Rich Pagano www.prisonersof2ndavenue.com. This band has really taken off. We do the music of, I would say, the "Fillmore East" era. Meaning the music of bands you may have seen playing the Fillmore East. We try to kind of recapture that. We do things that are a little more obscure. Not the obvious hits or, you know, songs that you've heard on the radio a million times. We try to dig a little deeper and put our own spin on things, and it's become pretty successful. We've had a lot of great guest artists come and want to play with us.

Like who?

The last gig was just a cavalcade. We had Levon Helm, we had The Allman Brothers' Warren Haynes, we had David Johansen, and Hubert Sumlin, Robert Gordon, Al Kooper, Paul Shaffer, that's all I can remember off the top of my head. (In an announcer voice) For more, go to the website. . . It was Jimmy's birthday party. Every year in January, well the last few years, we've done this Bill Graham's birthday celebration, and this year it happened to be on Jimmy's birthday so we did it for both. It was like Jimmy Vivino's slash Bill Graham's party.

You've played with quite a few famous musicians. Has there been a favorite person you've played with?

Gee, it's hard to say. I'll tell you, a big thrill was playing with Chuck Berry. This was 20 years ago when I played with him, and I'm actually going to be playing with him again in a few weeks. This fund raiser for a rehab center up in Boston www.right-turn.org.Yeah, he was just a hero of mine as a kid. I remember buying Chuck Berry's "Golden Decade" album, I think it was one of the first albums I actually went to the record store and bought with my own money. Seeing all those people out there say from ages 18 to 70 that knew his songs, and everyone's singing along. He's a trip to work with, but still it was a thrill to work with Chuck. Not that he's a contemporary artist now, but he's timeless and his music was a big influence. It was definitely a highlight getting to play with him. Ian Hunter, too, I got to do some stuff with Ian which was really great .

Is there anybody you haven't played with yet who you'd like to play with?

You know I was watching this thing with James Taylor the other night, a solo thing on PBS. I would love to play with James Taylor. I didn't even realize it until I saw that. I said, "Wow." I really have a lot of respect for him.

Paul McCartney. If he plays guitar, I can play bass. Or if I could play drums with him , because I'm a decent bastard drummer, like Paul. Like on this kids' record that I did with my wife, I play all the instruments. I had great fun doing that, and in the shows that we've done I play guitar, so it's fun, kind of liberating to get away from bass.

That's the Leo's Mom project, right? How did that come about?

My wife and I just started writing songs. A friend of mind has a children's record label and I had done a couple records for him, and my brother and I had a couple of kind of goofy songs that seemed like they could go the way of kids, and this friend of mind said, "Hey, you know The Contes should do a kids' record. It'd be great, it'd be great." And at that point, my brother and I got really busy with different things, and we weren't really working together much. I had just become a father, he was touring with other people. And then my wife, who's been kind of in and out of music a little bit all her life, she's written songs, she's been in bands, she's sung, we just started writing some songs together and she came up with some really good ideas, and so I said, "Let's do this." And we just started recording making little demos and it wasn't really supposed to be a record. It just evolved, and in the name of getting it done (laughing) we just decided to kind of polish up these demos a little bit. It' s pretty, how do I say. . . it's kind of low-tech, garage band, and indy rock and roll sounding. It's got some charming sloppiness to it. So we finally finished in February (2008) .

You mentioned playing with your brother, Steve Conte. I gather you grew up in a very musical family?

Yeah, my mom was a singer and I guess when we got to be around 13 or 14, maybe that age, we started playing with her, and we started doing concerts with her, eventually doing gigs, clubs, concerts and private parties, a few weddings, things like that. She's a great singer, her heroes were Billy Holiday, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan. And my father was a big music lover even though he didn't really play an instrument. There was always a great music collection, you know, records to listen to. Everything from jazz to The Beatles to classical music. I remember there were those pivotal albums you first remember listening to equally, like "West Side Story" and "Revolver" and Cannonball Adderley "Live at 'The Club'" and Sinatra's "Songs for Swinging Lovers," so there was always music playing, And my mom didn't deter my brother and I from pursuing music as a career so, as my brother says, "It's her fault." (laughing) Even my younger brother and sister are musical too, though they don't do it as a career.

You mentioned Chuck Berry earlier as one of your influences. Any others?

Oh, well, The Beatles were huge. Kind of the obvious ones: The Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who. I was a big Who fan. The whole AM radio thing, too. I was really into like the kind of Philly soul stuff that was on the radio in the 70s and even the bubble gum stuff, even the cheesy pop stuff from back then. And later on I got more and more into jazz. I went to school and was a jazz performance major, and then I just kind of kept going backwards after that to the roots of everything, getting more into the blues when I was in my early twenties and all that American R&B and soul from the early and mid-60s, the Stax and the Motown stuff. I definitely spent a lot of time checking that out. The rock bands that influenced me, I didn't realize it when I was younger, but as I got older I realized why it was a comfortable fit for me to go back and to start playing traditional blues and soul and R&B, because all those bands, that 's where they were coming from. Whether it was The Stones or The Jeff Beck Group, or The Who even and The Beatles, Free and Traffic, all those bands were just trying to recreate the music of their American R&B heroes. So it made sense to go back and check all that out.

You've done a couple dozen Jukes shows now, how do you like it?

Couple of dozen? Yeah, at least, right? Oh, it's a blast. It's really a privilege to get to play with a band this big. You know, you don't always get in a band with horns and it creates a wonderful energy and dynamic on stage. And Johnny strikes me as, in my short time working with him, like one of those "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Front Man" guys. I worked with Peter Wolf, I did a couple of records with him and I consider [Johnny] like that. Plus, actually, they're similar in that they're sort of musicologists, encyclopedias of knowledge of American music, soul and R&B and rock and roll. Johnny is the real deal.

In the shows that you've done with the Jukes so far, has there been a favorite show or a favorite moment when you've said, "Yes, this is the band for me"?

It's hard to say one thing, but what I dig about it is the way that it walks this line between being this really polished band and this anything-can-happen ball rolling down the hill, which is a great place for me. I've always been up for spontaneity and improvising and winging it, and that's kind of what my strength is in a way, using my ears and just being ready for anything. I feel like I'm adept at fitting into a lot of different styles of music and what's fun about this is that Johnny's not afraid to go there. At first it was hard to get used to, like "What? You can't do that! People don't do that!" (laughing) But his audience loves it , so . . .

Like a guy in Amsterdam , I think, he says (affecting a passable Dutch accent) "You know we have coined a phrase for what kind of band you are. You are, we call it, 'Variety Soul.'" I was like, "Variety Soul?" And he says , "Yes, because it is like a variety show up there. You never know what's going to happen." (laughing)

And that is what keeps it interesting. I don't mean that I'm bored already, but that's part of what appeals to me. He'll take a left turn, you know? There's no preconceptions about what this show's going to be. I feel like he takes the band and the audience together, and he plays them like one instrument. He really does.

I've never heard it described that way, but I think you're right

He reacts to that crowd and what's going on in that room as well as the band. He's got the reins, but he lets Jeff take off and do something and he'll leave the stage, or he'll go over and kind of take a back seat for a while. He'll feature people and it's great . There's a lot of great players in the band. That's a valuable aspect of the band and he exploits it.

Knowing that anything can happen on stage, in addition to the huge Jukes catalogue, was it intimidating at all to try to learn everything?

Well, it was a little nerve-wracking, having a short period of time to learn the music when I first went over to do the Europe stuff. Johnny said "Learn 50 songs" and then when I got out there, he said "Oh here's ten more." (laughing) Yeah, it took a while to feel comfortable, having to know the songs and then trying to figure out how to read Johnny and how he communicates on stage. This band has been working together a while, so he would say something or give a gesture and I had to be ready. It was like going to war sort of (laughing and striking his best GI Joe action stance).

War sounds a little harsh. I'd say it's a huge responsibility being a bass player. I mean I can't just float or say "I'll sit out for a couple bars and see what key they're in." (laughing) So it's fun, but it's hard work. It's a two and a half hour show usually, so it's a big responsibility being the anchor harmonically and having to know 50 songs at the drop of a hat. I'm definitely getting more comfortable now, where I'm having more fun.

Well there's always one more song that you never expected.

I know. (laughing) There's more to come, I guess. Yeah, it's really gratifying. After a show you feel like you've given a good part of yourself and you see the audience's reaction and everyone's in the band. It's a good camaraderie between everybody, and it's definitely a rewarding feeling doing a show with this band.

John Conte Photos | John Conte Discography

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