Sharpshooters -- Duo Adds A Hot New Chapter To Seattle's Jazz History

Late one night at his home in London, Seattleite Shane Hunt was watching BBC TV. Onscreen was a program on street life in Paris. When his wife started humming along with the show's background music, Hunt too thought it sounded familiar. "I knew I had that record in my stacks," he says.

He was right. In fact, he had co-produced the track himself: in Seattle, with his partner, Danny Clavesilla. It was the duo's very first collaboration. That tune brought Hunt a new group - Sharpshooters - and a career that now spans the globe.

It is a story of coincidence set to a beat. Sharpshooters have become one of our hottest exports. You may not hear the name in your neighborhood, but in London, Tokyo, Paris or Berlin, it is one that denotes "Seattle." Sharpshooters make a new music: "acid jazz," and in its global market the group is influential. Best of all, it has a way of making hits.

Vinyl junkies meet

The Sharpshooters story starts two years ago. That's when Hunt, then working at a shoe store, met Clavesilla - who was selling records. In separate circles, each was known as a vinyl junkie.

It was this obsession that brought them together. One day, Clavesilla called on Hunt in the latter's workplace. "I was in the store when Danny just stormed in," Hunt says. "He said, `Hey, what's up? I think you got a record I need.' "

Other people had made purchases from Hunt's collection, including Sub Pop Records co-founder Bruce Pavitt, who bought soul singles for the jukebox at Linda's Tavern, his burnished watering hole on Capitol Hill. But, with Hunt and Clavesilla, something special happened. Within hours, they decided to make records.

Mixing it up

For Clavesilla, it was not unknown turf. Since 1985, with the DJ name Supreme, he had run Point Blank, a company for producing hip-hop music. In 1988, with his group Incredicrew, he put out the record "High-Powered Hip-Hop."

The gangly Hunt offered Clavesilla something different, for he loved funk and jazz just as much as rap. Plus, his record collection was impressive. Says Hunt, "Each of us had more than 4,000 records. It was the same music, just different titles. We knew putting them together would make something fierce."

Less than a month after meeting, the pair mixed a track and called it "Porkpie Stride." Next morning, they called Luv'n'Haight, a San Francisco label. Luv'n'Haight bought the tune during the course of a phone call, sending a contract and a check the following day. This, of course, meant the duo had to have a name. So Hunt and Clavesilla came up with Sharpshooters - as a tip of the hat to Clavesilla's Point Blank enterprise. Clavesilla later left Point Blank to found the business Rugged Entertainment. But Hunt carries on the theme, as "DJ Sureshot."

"Pork Pie Stride" fit right into a booming trend. This was the ascent of acid jazz music, a sound born in England around 1990. A fusion of hip-hop techniques with dance-floor warmth, it crossed computerized sampling with live players. Acid jazz gains impetus out of individual night spots. But it gained the name from London DJ Gilles Peterson. A tireless promoter, he made it a matter of style and content.

Acid jazz is upbeat, vibrant, funky music. And its appeal is not limited by age or taste. As The New York Times wrote last January, "It bridges the musical gap between neo-beatniks in their 20s and middle-aged baby boomers." It also bridges language and cultures, selling as well in Germany and Japan as New York or London.

Export success

Acid jazz began as a grassroots movement, and it has been changing the music marketplace. Rolling Stone and Billboard both noted its importance - and the surprising success of artists such as MC Solaar (France) and Jamiroquai (England). And, though the genre has achieved sales and chart slots, its power at the moment lies with its influence. This can be heard right across America, in artists from pop band Cake to Herbie Hancock.

Shane Hunt and Danny Clavesilla saw the movement coming. And they decided to manage their own label. Working at Bellevue's Audio Genesis studio with a team of locals, they finished an EP called "Buck the Saw." As always, titles mattered: This is slang for "beat the system."

The pair dubbed their nascent label Conception Records. But at the start it seemed more conception than fact. "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong," Clavesilla says. One whole track - hours and hours of playing - was lost in the studio. Then artwork for the sleeve was incorrectly printed. Then, a stylus broke just as master plates were cut. Thousands of records got pressed anyway.

Says Hunt: "No one even listened to the master! We got our records, and we couldn't hear a thing."

Once pressed properly, however, "Buck the Saw" took off. In both Europe and Japan, acid jazz was hot. Sharpshooters found they couldn't export fast enough. Their name started cropping up in charts around the world.

Then came a bombshell: Hunt's wife, Janet, took a full-time job in London.

Says Clavesilla: "It had to be a problem. But there was no question we'd stop working together. We figured I'd just go there, or he'd come back. We really tried to see it as a positive thing."

Nevertheless, it wasn't easy.

"After all our problems," Hunt says, "things were finally happening. Still, I knew London; I went there every summer. I knew living there could raise the label's profile."

As soon as he unpacked, Hunt set about that task. He went right for the heart of acid jazz in London: clubs like Bar Rhumba, magazines like Straight No Chaser, shops with names like Honest Jon's and Mr Bongo. He engineered plugs on European television. And, when "Buck the Saw" sold out a second pressing, he and Clavesilla cut a 12-inch single they called "Massacre." It was recorded in Bellevue, air-expressed to Britain, then pressed on vinyl at a plant in France. It boasted vocals by a local rapper, Mad Fanatic.

Hunt had its artwork done by Britain's Ian Wright - a designer whose usual clients range from Sting to Bjork.

Says Wright, "He just showed up and walked into my studio. But his tape was great. I like him and I like the music."

Record label president Jared Hoffman agrees. From New York, Hoffman's Instinct Records has capitalized on acid jazz, signing artists from Japan (DJ Krush) to cities across Germany (Disjam, No Se, DJ Diferenz). Instinct even brought acid jazz its No. 1: Count Basic's track, "It's ML and the Sunshine."

Future in the U.S.

Hoffman discovered the Sharpshooters' records in London. When he found out they were American, he was ecstatic. Why? He sees acid jazz moving to the U.S. mainstream. "Right now, outside the coastlines, it's still a largely vinyl-based, underground culture. Yet it's already made the leap from cult to phenomenon."

Thanks in no small part to compilation CDs, global smorgasbords like "This is Acid Jazz," "Home Cookin,' " "Street Jazz," "Stolen Moments" and "Jazzamatazz." In addition to independents such as Hoffman's, these come from major record companies such as Sony and Warner's.

They also come on top of new artists (The Brand New Heavies, Us3, the Digable Planets) and popular clubs. From Seattle to Atlanta, Philadelphia to Houston, most U.S. cities have blooming acid jazz scenes. "When I left here, all the sounds I wanted were import-only," Hunt says. "When I came back, there were artists - and places to hear 'em."

In April, after their phone bill topped $1,200, Sharpshooters signed a long-term deal with Instinct. Hunt flew back to Seattle to start cutting an album: "Sharpshooters Phase 3: Fire When Ready."

Says Hoffman: "For us, signing these two guys was very important. One, they're American but they can compete globally. Two, what they do is unique and covers lots of ground. It can reach a hip-hop market and adult jazz radio."

Previews of "Phase 3" bear out his assessment. Its deep grooves are traditional as well as trendy. And they showcase plenty of Seattle talent, from Mad Fanatic and female rapper Kylea to spoken word from Justin Desmangles, plus live guitars, stand-up bass, vibes, organ and sax.

But, as Clavesilla says, its vibe hides a secret: "That's something new consumers can't understand. They think people like us go into record stores, buy stuff and steal the music. Few people comprehend what kind of knowledge it takes."

That's OK by Hunt; he'll keep their secrets safe. After all, it holds those keys to the mainstream. "With lots of acid jazz, with lots of dance-floor music, tunes can sound very dated very quickly. With the stuff we do, we try to keep it classic. That's where we're gonna really win an audience."

------------------ Hear Sharpshooters ------------------

To listen to a cut from Sharpshooters, dial The Seattle Times InfoLine at 464-2000, category 2275.

------------------------------------------------------ Featured on "Sharpshooters Phase 3: Fire When Ready" ------------------------------------------------------

-- Sam Jacobs is Mad Fanatic: the rapper whose vocals on "Massacre" sold out in Europe. For "Phase 3" he performs on a cut called "Represent Lovely." Born in New Jersey, Mad Fanatic has lived in Japan, Singapore, the Philippines and Guam. A stint in the military brought him here in 1991 - and local rapper Jace (of Jace and the 4th Party) introduced him to Danny Clavesilla. Says Jacobs: "We see eye-to-eye. And I wanna do it for Seattle. As long as I'm livin' here, I'll represent the city."

-- Erika Kylea White was raised in Seattle. With two friends, Shelindra Melton and Nikki Shazir, she put together the rap group Beyond Reality. On "Phase 3," White performs "Natural Vibrations (Relax)" - a track she cut with only a few days' notice. Since 1993, White says, "My music has really come into focus. I've met some people here who see it like I do: as very danceable, but also educational."

-- Justin Desmangles is the voice on "Spirits Unseen." He is a veteran of jazz poetics - a term he prefers to "spoken word." Desmangles has worked with the late Sun Ra and with local jazz notable Michael White. Hunt saw him performing, and mentioned him to Supreme, who already knew his work. Says Desmangles, also a critic for jazz magazines: "The aesthetic of verse in acid jazz helps reclaim oral history. It goes back to those traditions coming down through jazz, which themselves date back to the African diaspora. That's what my track is all about."

-- In addition to its vocalists, "Phase 3" features the following local players: Gary Gibson (vibes), Peter Johsen (electric bass), Jon Goforth (flute, alto sax), Rick Mandyck (tenor sax), Charles Meserole (guitar, organ), Jay Thomas (trumpet) and Jeff Johnson (stand-up bass).