Sweet Plantain

     An excited audience was seated in the Alexander Fine Arts Auditorium on Tuesday, September 16, awaiting the reputable string quartet known as Sweet Plantain. Once the lights dimmed down, one could feel the excitement in the air as Sweet Plantain proceeded onto the stage to a round of raucous applause from the audience of students and teachers. The four members,Eddie Venegas on violin, Joe Deninzon on violin, Wayne Smith debuting on the cello, and Orlando Wells on viola, sat down and readied their instruments. In a matter of seconds, they began the first set of songs with a classical piece known as “Love For Sale” composed by Cole Porter. The auditorium was flowing with melody from Eddie’s symphonic playing on the violin. Joining in a harmony with Eddie’s dynamic playing was Joe’s violin. Together with Wayne’s smoothing cello sound and Orlando’s viola, the performance was amazing by the first song.

    Following that was an original song composed by Eddie Venegas himself titled, “Afro Samurai.” This played out with the same arrangement of instruments, though midway through the song Joe amazed the audience when he laid down the violin bow and started finger-picking his violin like a guitar. He went up and down the neck of the violin, playing in a scale-like pattern. Joe has been called “The Jimi Hendrix of the Violin” and this part of the performance proved that title to be fitting. Things got even better with the next and last song of their first set. This piece was “Fiddle Funk,” a piece that was composed by Joe’s music teacher John Lake. It started out with a funky rhythm with Eddie and Joe playing these swift violin melodies. During the song, a little more funk was added when Eddie switched off of the violin and whipped out the trombone, and Joe switched his violin for a six string guitar. Joe amazed the audience when he performed another one of his violin tricks that involved him sliding his hand in a legato fashion flatly across the neck of the violin to emulate the sound of a rapping record. This was very original and fascinating to see performed. It seemed almost like something Tom Morello would pull off.

    Following that song was an eight minute intermission. After the intermission, they spiced the selection up with a peculiar sounding piece that combined classical music and hip-hop. This piece was a cover of the hip-hop song “Excursions” by Tribe Called Quest. For this cover, they played the actual track while incorporating their own styles into the mix. During a couple of the chorus parts of the song, all four of them began to sing in unison to the hip chorus of this song.

    They even performed a two part piece. The first part titled “Fandango”, which is the name of a Spanish dance, involved jazz and Venezuelan music. The second part, “Serenade” was more of a romantic piece. Eddie told the audience how he played this piece to propose to his wife. 

    As a finale, they changed the genre up a bit. Instead of classical, Latin, or hip-hop, they performed a classical Ray Charles song called “I’ve Got a Woman.” This included Joe once again performing on the six string guitar and singing the lyrics to the song. It was a very unique and interesting way to end the performance, considering Ray Charles usually has a more Blues feel. Sweet Plantain stays true to their motto, “Bridging the gap between generations and musical genres.”

    Last but not least, a great deal of thanks and consideration goes to Dr. Timothy Mainland, CU Professor of Music, for making this spectacular event possible. This performance was free to attend and exceeded expectations of those who saw the performance of their own accord or who were required to attend for a class. Seeing Sweet Plantain perform was more than an assignment. It was a privilege that the students and even the teachers most definitely enjoyed. This performance was an ingenious way to start the Concord University Artist Performance Series. Students can look forward to more undoubtedly wonderful performances to come.