Vinx Gets Attention With Self-Styled Sound

Vinx, Parker's, 17001 Aurora Ave. N. Thursday, 8:30 p.m. Tickets, $10.50 general admission, $26.50 with dinner. 628-0888, 542-9491. ................................................................ -- NORTH SEATTLE Singer, drummer and composer Vinx is blessed with a beautiful baritone, a deft polyrhythmic sense, lyric sensitivity and a survivor's wit. His music gracefully careens from jazz, rock, and pop to African and Caribbean styles. Vinx calls it "prehistoric pop." He can be both deeply touching or just funny.

He was "discovered," or perhaps rediscovered, two years ago by Sting in a small Santa Monica, Calif., night club. He was singing a cappella with only an African talking drum for accompaniment. The meeting led to a record deal, the LP "Rooms In My Fatha's House" and a slot on Sting's current tour.

"I wouldn't call it the opening spot," says Vinx, born Vincent De Jon Parrette. "They just throw me out on stage when they need to and tell me to do 15 minutes. No introduction. Nothing. It's hard work, but I win. But when this is over I'll have to get a job that pays me some money. I don't need any more `exposure.' "

As he travels across the country with the Sting show - he performs with the English pop star at the Champs de Brionne in George this weekend - Vinx has tried to break out and get a little solo exposure whenever he can. Hence his performance at Parker's Thursday night. It will be his first time in Seattle, although he

swears he's always been "strangely drawn" to the Northwest.

Vinx says he'll be performing "beautiful love songs, all a cappella. Very intimate. Direct. I think people will enjoy it. I'm looking forward to the show." He says many of the songs are works he didn't get to put on the album, and some will be improvised. "That's the jazz in me. Every audience is different; it's like having a conversation with a new person every night. You just can't prepare a speech. You have to have something new to say."

Vinx grew up in Kansas City interested in music and track. Sports got him a scholarship to Kansas State University, where he continued to both compete and perform. In 1980 he qualified for the Olympics with the second-best indoor triple jump in the world. Unfortunately, the Moscow games were boycotted by the U.S., and Vinx's desire to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Games were dashed by injury two weeks before the trials. However, as he was already in L.A., he decided to stay and renew work on his music.

Sting wasn't the first artist to realize Vinx's talent. Some years before singer Taj Mahal caught Vinx at the Montreux Jazz Festival and signed him to a tour. "We played at the festival between Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter." Vinx says. "Talk about a pressure gig. But we blew them away. We were very visual. We put on a show. You've got kids with knapsacks hitchhiking in from all over the world. They don't want to see you just standing there."

Vinx certainly does not lack confidence. On stage with Sting, he keeps things loose. "I can say anything I want. What are they gonna do, pull me off the stage?"

As for recording with Sting as producer, Vinx says it worked out just the way he wanted.

"He did absolutely nothing, which was perfect. It was exactly what I needed. I had total creative control. I got what I wanted."