CONTEMPORARY MUSIC JOHN D’AGOSTINO : A Double Shot of Local Rock

For years, while the Japanese have yawned with excitement at the prospect of importing Chrysler K-cars, they have shown a ravenous appetite for Occidental music.

Soon, in an example of hands-across-the-ocean cultural diplomacy, Japan could get a double dose of San Diego music. The band Burning Bridges leaves for Japan in two weeks; another, Baba Yaga, will follow them if a competition in Los Angeles goes well.

Burning Bridges is the popular world-beat group made up of Andy Vereen (vocals, guitar), Cynthia Antillon (vocals, percussion), Rick Nash (bass), Don Story (guitar, vocals), Robert Montoya (percussion, drums) and Marcos Fernandes (drums, percussion, vocals). Currently, the band plays every Wednesday night at Kelly’s Pub on El Cajon Boulevard, but its horizons will broaden considerably Sept. 28 when it departs San Diego for a 10-day tour that will showcase the group in well-known Japanese theaters and clubs and on radio.

The seeds of the trip were planted in 1990 when local artist and concert promoter (20/20 Studios) Ruben Seja hired Burning Bridges to open a concert in Tijuana featuring the group Azymuth. When Seja learned that the Burning Bridges’ Fernandes was born and raised in Yokohama, he enlisted him later that year to act as an interpreter during a visit by Yokohama artist Rocco Satoshi to Mexico and San Diego.

Since then, Seja--a consultant to the government of Mexico’s Department of Arts and Culture--has worked to establish the San Diego-Tijuana-Yokohama Art Exchange by strengthening the cultural ties among the three cities. He raises funds by painting corporate murals and promoting jazz and Latin music concerts.

The undertaking has participated in several children’s art exchanges, but it will co-sponsor its first professional, tri-national art show from Sept. 30 to Oct. 15 at the Citizens Gallery in Yokohama. On the Japanese end, the event is being sponsored by Yokohama and the Japanese Department of Education, with private sponsorship coming from the Cross Art Committee of Yokohama, headed by artist Satoshi.

It was Seja’s decision to take Burning Bridges along, and the musicians intend to make the most of their visit. Besides performing in Yokohama at the opening of the art show, the band will play at a club called Airjin, and at a relatively new movie-house, the Apollo Theatre. The band then will travel to Tokyo to perform at the Pit-Inn jazz club and at a rock venue, the Crocodile. Burning Bridges will also be featured on the radio shows FM-Tokyo and FM-Yokohama, and is negotiating to appear on Japanese television.

According to Fernandes, 37, Burning Bridges will take with them a small number of the band’s upcoming CD, “From Benny’s Tiki Room and Ammo Dump,” which they hope to get licensed for Japanese distribution. The CD is scheduled to be released locally in October.

“World beat is very popular in Europe and Japan, so we have a chance of getting some attention (in Japan),” Fernandes said in a phone call earlier this week. “They don’t have college radio there, but they’re finally learning to do things on an ‘indie’ (independent record label) level. Hopefully, we can meet some of the Japanese indie people and help each other out.”

Fernandes came to the States in 1973, and eventually earned a degree in English Literature at the University of San Diego, where he also took music classes and began playing with local musicians. He has returned to Yokohama several times in recent years, most recently in 1991 as a chaperon for a group of San Diego school children attending the International Children’s Peace Festival. But Fernandes is not the only Burning Bridge for whom the three-nation art alliance has special meaning.

“Andy and Rick are from San Diego, and Robert is from Tijuana,” he said, “so, in a way, the band is a perfect representative of that triangle.”

Baba Yaga’s trip to Japan, meanwhile, is contingent on the melodic-rock band’s success in an upcoming competition. For the sixth consecutive year, the Yamaha corporation is sponsoring “Sound Check: The Yamaha Rock Music Showcase” to determine the most promising bands not signed to a major label. To participate in the international “battle of the bands,” any American act could submit a completed questionnaire, a tape of two songs, and an entry fee of $20.

In June, Baba Yaga submitted a tape that included the songs “Blue” and the newer “Gabriel’s Dream,” and waited. Weeks later, the trio was informed that from among 4,000 entries nationwide, it was one of 20 bands to reach the semifinals. Another San Diego band, Hate Romance, also made the semifinal cut.

Shortly after the semifinalists were announced, Yamaha judges came to town to hear the two local bands perform live. Because Baba Yaga had no formal gig scheduled, judges heard them play in the band’s private rehearsal space. Recently, Baba Yaga learned that it had made the “Sound Check Finals” with three other bands--two from New York and one from Texas.

The groups will compete in live performance Sept. 15 at the Hollywood club, Spice. Among other prizes, the winner will receive $10,000 and a trip to Japan to perform at an event called “Music Quest ‘92” with the winners from 21 other countries. Regardless of the outcome, lead vocalist-bassist Gregory Page feels that the band already has been very lucky.

“This has been a really good year for us,” Page said early this week. “And now, ever since we entered this contest, a lot of people have begun showing interest in us. Music industry people have been calling and asking for material, so that’s been pretty encouraging. After speaking with a lot of people in the industry over the past several months, I get the feeling that a lot of eyes are on San Diego these days.”

Naturally, Page hopes the band’s string of good fortune continues a little longer, especially because Baba Yaga hopes to release a new CD sometime in November.

“We’ll go into debt to record the CD, so the money would help bail us out of that,” Page said. “But the ‘Music Quest’ thing is pretty cool, too. I have a friend, Kevin Gilbert, who was in the band Toy Matinee when they won this competition three years ago, and he said that going to Japan was just an amazing experience. So, whoever is lucky enough to win this thing apparently is in for a good time.”

GRACE NOTES: Two local blues bands will be featured in Tuesday’s edition of the San Diego City College series, “Jazz Live.” Performing in the college’s theater (C Street and 14th Avenue, downtown) are Willie Jaye and His Texas Hurricane (winners in the Best Blues category in the recent San Diego Music Awards) and the Juke Stompers, featuring guitarist Eric Lieberman. Admission is free, and doors open at 7:45 p.m. There is no age restriction.

Bruce Springsteen’s upcoming San Diego Sports Arena show, announced Saturday, has been moved up a week, to Sept. 29. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, with random-numbered wristbands being distributed at 8 a.m. at the Sports Arena and at 9 a.m. at all other TicketMaster outlets. No lineups will be allowed prior to those times. There is a six-tickets-per-person limit.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

MEGA-McDONALD

Those who think of Michael McDonald as a semi-retired songwriter who’s content to sit back and count the royalties from mega-selling Doobie Brothers albums and lesser-selling solo outings probably haven’t seen him in concert in recent years. McDonald’s performance at Humphrey’s last summer had fans on their feet from about halfway through the show--and those feet were moving.

McDonald could teach Michael Bolton a lesson or 10 about how a little restraint and genuine, unforced “blue-eyed soul” beats vein-popping overkill every time. He also hires top-notch musicians and always performs a generous overview of his lengthy catalog of tunes. If you like McDonald on record, you’ll love him in concert Friday night at the Oceanside Pier Plaza Amphitheatre (at the base of the Oceanside Pier).

Tickets to the 8 p.m. show--part of the ongoing “Seagaze Concert Series”--are $15 and can be purchased at all TicketMaster outlets (278-TIXS).