A "Whak Indie-Rock & Free Jazz" music-dance-art festival between 5:30 and 7:30PM on Sat 6/25 rocked a natural amphitheater among the glacier-tumbled boulders of the little-known Ambler Park in the wooded "Roxboro Ravine." This is between North Park Boulevard and Fairhill Road along the Cleveland Heights-Shaker Heights boarder and is reached from North Park Blvd. at Delaware Road. Publicized by multi-colored flyers that pictured mushrooms and a cat staring at you, the event "helped me trip naturally" said one Cleveland Heights resident who looked to be half the age of your average dropper of LSD. An audience of about 30 stood or sat on the ground or perched on boulders and the hillside. They were captivated by the spectacle of an amplified quartet playing on a large rock high above Doan Brook.

The tunes were rocking and the interludes soothing while mud-covered dancers moved to "reacclimatize to the primordial ooze from whence we came," as described in the flyer. They tumbled, clung and stretched to soft interludes between intense and maniacal music. Surrounding this scene were paintings hanging in trees. A TV monitor near the band showed scenes from homemade videos. During the concern Children and adults clambered about on boulders and trees--this while a young woman sat high on a rock, reading a book. Asked after she descended about being "the only reader here," she responded, "I like to read to this music."

This natural amphitheater is reached down a grand entrance down a water worn stone 1930s U.S. Works Projects Administration staircase from North Park Blvd. There are also paths to the site through crags between the rocks. Tucked under an overhang of the backside of the band's boulder a small diesel generator powered the amplified keyboard, voice, guitar and violin. "We rented a cheap generator. It spiked and blew out an amp," said the show's organizer Matthew Kiroff. The show went out through the blown amp.

The crowd, mostly under 30 years old, were obviously into "Whak Indie Rock." Of this small largely interested audience, Lisa of Cleveland said, "only so many of us are seekers."

The tunes were thick with allusions. A whiff of Procol Harum vocal floated about in one. Another tune had a vocal that briefly recalled "Going up the country" by Canned Heat. A prattling auctioneer entertained in another. The influence of Pink Floyd was not far away. Neither were riffs from Frederic Chopin and Ludwig van Beethoven. For all its traveling through musical genres and a blown amp that put out a raw shrill sound, the band Otters and Pinwheels was surprisingly tight.

Kiroff is O&Ps leader, songwriter, keyboardist and vocalist. O&P includes songwriter and guitarist David Stone, who came up with the band's name, with Matt Vertok on drums, and Jenny Volby on Violin.

The dancers were Colleen Clark, Laura Swedenborg, Jeremy Goldberg and Larry Muha.

Ms. Clark of South Euclid and a dance teacher at Rapp Art on Taylor Road near Cedar Road in Cleveland Heights lead the troop. At the first of three improvisation interludes the dancers were attired in shirts and pants with no make up. For the second interlude they came out in shorts and tank tops with colorful tribal markings of body paint. For the final interlude the guys were shirtless and women in jog bras. Parts of the tribal signs showed through smears of mud on their bodies.

"They (O&P) are really good at improvising with us," said Clark. "We have a good give and take with them. Our rehearsal was an improvisation. When I got to the show and I heard the songs I thought, 'Wow, this is really different from the improvisation.' The tunes were raw and dense and the improvisations were lighter with more space. There was a lot of feel connecting music with dancers. We had a blast." Clark's Web site is www.contactmoves.com where she said dance collaborations are formed.

The paintings in the trees were by Jean Schumacher and Darryl Nichols. Schumacher installed and still maintains the North Park Art and Dog Park at North Park Blvd. and Bellfield Ave. a couple blocks from the Roxboro Ravine natural amphitheater. She is self-taught. Her captivating bright impressionist work is thought provoking. One can gaze at her paintings for a long period of time.

Mr. Nichols said, "Art has no rules anymore. If words come out when I'm painting they end up in the painting." His "217,067 killed" is titled after a rough tally of people who have died at the hands of both sides since the 9/11 attack. This includes casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere including soldiers and civilians. The figure was compiled from various sources including www.unknownnews.net. Words on this piece included, "Decent is patriotic ... rhetoric of hate ... WMDs or SUVs."

While he cherishes "street art," Kiroff, a Toledo Ohio native living in Cleveland Heights, has degrees in music composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Cornell University. He went to Oxford College in England on a six-month fellowship and stayed for four years between 1995-99.

He tagged along with a group of anarchist filmmakers who documented alternative life styles. Along the way he encountered a theater illegally occupied for a year by squatting musicians as well as anti-highway protestors living in tree houses among the trees they were trying to save.

And he got into the habit of starting collaborations with all kinds of musicians. "Many good musicians don't like the barriers between genres. This is while much of the recording industry lives by the barriers. The divisions are oppressive," he said.

He'll play informal college venues though he cherishes unexpected sites. For venues, he is own man. "I don't have to answer to club owners trying to sell drinks or a board of trustees (of a sponsoring organization) who are going to get pissed off."

Kiroff said that the O&P sound is most like the work of Indie rock musicians Eliot Smith, Cat Power, and Kristen Hersh. "Nothing that will go on commercial radio."

"Whak" is a hip hop term (for "whacked out") that Kiroff adopted to describe O&P's sound. This is while "I constantly steal from Chopin and Beethoven," he said.

He teaches piano to make a living and has a regular gig teaching a world music survey course at Tri-C Metro. "I love teaching to Tri-C students," he said. "They are always diverse: Rappers, Hispanics, house wives, hippie folk rockers and political activists."

While he has a Ph.D. in composition he's distanced his work from academia. Kiroff said, "Some schools pitch (to students) that the way to get ahead in the music business is by being 'Primas' (as in Prima Donnas). To emphasize collaborations I had to fight this part of my music training."

"People specialize at universities. They have to keep their department going. Specialization is necessary because it takes concentration in a specific area to learn its craft." However, "the real forward stuff happens outside of universities," he said.

While he has a talking voice that is base he sings in upper register. Perhaps this is something that may only be acceptable in Rock and Roll. "Something happens in Rock that can't happen in Classical and Jazz. In Rock I can present my unique flawed transcendent persona," he said.

"Part of why we (many of us) love John Lennon is because of who is he is. In his music he provides a kind of realism. He inspires me the most. He's so direct, so honest, so human, and low and behold he is a genius song writer."

"I love Radiohead," said Kiroff who is also enamored with the poetry of Cleveland's late legendary Hart Crane. WRUW FM has played the entire Otters and Pinwheels's recent CD, "The Day Explodes Like a Ragdoll." Here are the first two stanzas:

"The day explodes like a ragdoll, and her indulgences read
As an escape from the mundane world
Nothing matters except this strange twilight
And the impending storm

"The future and the lay of the land
Synonymous with backwards music
Backwards music wafts through the air waves
Some mischievous impulse holds sway
Life itself is a frivolous past time..."

June 25th wasn't first time he's played the Roxboro Ravine. "Susanna O'Neal of the City of Cleveland Heights was most helpful getting the permission to do this."

Solstice and equinox figure into Kiroff's concert schedule. "We are looking for an abandoned green house to play in for the autumnal equinox," said Kiroff.

He plans on more gigs in the Roxboro Ravine. "It is a magical place," said Kiroff. "A lot of people go there to make it special. I find people climbing rocks, studying wildlife, painting, photographing, cross-country running, etc. It's beautiful and secluded. It is the nicest little natural place we have. It's important."

And he and Tom Evert are aiming toward a collaborative effort with the Tom and Susanne Evert Dance Theater in a possible Tower City concert later this year.

Video photographer Paul McCuen of Cleveland Heights documented the June 25th show. Piano teacher Clare Stevenson of Cleveland Heights among others helped with set up.
From Cool Cleveland reader Lee Batdorff LbatdorffATadva.com

Photos by Darryl Nichols

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