State of the Art | Rob Norris – Connects on Many Levels

Bongos photo: Atlanta (Feb 2020)
left to right:  Richard Barone,  James Mastro, Frank Giannini, Rob Norris // photo credit: Sloan Carroll Rainwater

I recently had a wonderful conversation with Rob Norris.  I usually do not start with my interviewee’s bio, but in this instance I think it is a great lead-in to the article.

Who is Rob Norris?

Rob Norris is best known as the bassist for The Bongos–the founding fathers of the ’80’s Hoboken indie-music scene. He also plays with Tulula!, Action Figures 432, OmU (who twice toured in Cuba) and Blue Paradox (serving the Sacred Fire Community). Over the years Rob has played with East Of Venus, Donovan, Damo Suzuki (Can), Garth Hudson (Band), Steve Holley (Wings), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), David Johansen (NY Dolls), Carlos Alomar (Bowie), Marshall Crenshaw, Moby and Living With Elephants–as well as members of R.E.M., The Feelies, Yo La Tengo, Luna, Throbbing Gristle, The B-52’s, Television, Osibisa, Myra Melford and The Velvet Underground. He has played in hundreds of venues from San Francisco to New York to London to Berlin and appears on dozens of recordings. Rob’s solo CD “Morning Becomes Electric” is available at all online digital outlets. He is a co-producer of the Rosendale Theatre’s Music Fan Series and has been a holistic healer for over twenty years, with a private practice in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley.

Rob Norris in His Own Words

The Bongos are still together.  It’s been a little complicated due to the medical landscape, but we are in our 42^nd year at this point.  Our peak was in the 80’s – it was the Fall of ’83 when we topped the college music charts for six weeks with our Numbers With Wings ep on RCA Records.

Prior to the lockdown The Bongos were beginning to have an unexpected renaissance in early 2020 – we began to get all sorts of offers for very high-paying, high profile shows starting with a beautiful show in Atlanta in late February of 2020.  The airfare and hotels were paid, we were sold out for that show.

Shortly after that everything got cancelled – all those great shows we had lined up — because of “it”.  In the Fall of 2021 we were going to kick off again with an outdoor concert in New Jersey for a grand re-opening of a club down there but their protocols made it impossible for me to participate. I’m the only one in the band, and also in my local band here called Tulula!, that is not on board with all that stuff… It curtailed my participation in The Bongos – and there’s a show coming there this summer in Lincoln Center in NYC that I’m not going to be able to attend unless they drop their rigmarole.  That place is very conservative – you know they’re doing the PCR and all that other stuff.

In the case of The Bongos – we are such brothers that- even though they are baffled by my beliefs – there’s still a lot of love there – and they really went to bat to try and convince this club in NJ last September – to just you know – drop this thing.  There’s a lot of love and I totally understand that someone is going to have to substitute for me at Lincoln Center.  It hasn’t affected our friendships at all, which is rare for bands.

It’s a long story how we all met.  The main songwriter in The Bongos – Richard Barone — wrote a book – Frontman – it’s all about exploring the myth of the rock star.  And in that book he delineates the story of The Bongos beautifully in about 50 pages.  We met in the late 70’s and ended up in Hoboken, NJ and we were kind of the catalysts for a whole big scene that exploded there in the 80’s.  It was like a rocket ship took off – we were totally surprised by it and delighted.  It was a really wild, intense ride!  We were so popular at that point really because we were so good.  We were doing something very special, combining alot of elements of music that we liked, that just came together beautifully.  We combined the spirit and the musicality of the Beatles with a punk, avante garde, new wave sensibility.  It kind of all just blended together into something that was very special then.  That’s how alot of people see it.  We got signed in England – which added to that whole mystique.

So my activities with The Bongos are still on hold – but the good news is that during this time, along with rehearsing and recording with Tulula!, I formed a band – a wonderful little musical project with some friends called Action Figures 432, a celebration of musical history and something I’ve never done before and which I find very satisfying.  It’s an integrated band – one member is vaccinated, the other two are not but it’s no big deal – we get together every week.   We couldn’t play in clubs together though due to the vaccine nonsense.  It’s a little acoustic folk-rock trio band – we play cover songs from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s.  We headlined the Festival in the Field last summer.

After our golden age, The Bongos kind of became a civilization-in-decline in the late 80’s – and we all wanted to do other things.  The main thing I wanted to do was study healing.  I became a healer and I’ve been doing that ever since the late 80’s.  I went to massage school in ’87 and ever since then I’ve added modalities – reflexology, shiatsu, reiki, matrix energetics, and reconnective healing.  I’m also part of a group over here on this side of the river called The Holistic Health Community.  We offer free monthly healthcare both in person and virtually.  I’m in our award-winning video and put the music together for it as well.  I’m also one of the editors.  It’s a beautiful documentary about the spirit of healing.  At this point I consider my healing work and music to be the same thing —   It’s all energy work.  In fact, I’ll go so far as to say I don’t consider myself a musician.  I consider myself an energy worker.  I think one of the blessings that’s happened in the last couple years – and I think there are plenty of blessings – is that in a lot of ways music has reverted to its original function – which is to serve community, and not be such a business and so commoditized.  I mean that’s still happening of course but there’s more and more local music going on now.  Another Festival in the Field is coming this September so you’ll get to see our band Action Figures 432 play.  The festival is a wonderful outreach effort.  It’s really all about the community.

Interested in what The Bongos have been up to?  See this ½ hour concert at Paste Studio in Atlanta 2 years ago – really fun to watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVW367Bpgjk

Bongos Facebook Official Page

https://www.facebook.com/TheBongosOfficial/

Bongos Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPg1LC6_Ubkf_pBli9YjW5g

Rob’s Soundcloud page, with an overview of his music

https://soundcloud.com/robbassman-1

Rob’s solo CD: Morning Becomes Electric

https://open.spotify.com/album/5I2RLU2Vnq3hHvyZfiAAJu