ENTERTAINMENT
•
Steve Sklar,
center, with wife
Johanna Morrow
and Little Green
Men.
SUSAN SALTER
Special to The Jewish News
S
teve Sklar's music
is not the type
you'd hum to your-
self on the way to
work. You'll pro-
bably never hear it translated
into elevator Muzak.
But Mr. Sklar's music, an
arresting amalgam of the
high-tech and the down-to-
earth — he calls it "space jazz"
— is catching the ears of an in-
creasing number of listeners.
Mr. Sklar, 34, who grew up
in Oak Park and now lives in
Minneapolis, is the founder of
Little Green Men, a group
that Omni magazine recently
lauded as a "superb jazz
ensemble." Along with his
wife, Johanna Morrow, and
members Jason Orbit, Alden
Ikeda, and Marting Stovall,
Mr. Sklar has played gigs
everywhere from the Min-
neapolis' Walker Art Center
to that city's First Avenue
club, better known as the club
An Oak Park native puts a jazz group's
focus on outer space.
where rocker Prince got his
start.
Not bad for a guy whose
first guitar was a bar mitzvah
Present from his parents.
Though he professes a
lifelong love of music, Mr.
Sklar admits that formal
study of it has usually taken
a backseat to practical ex-
perience. He had enrolled as a
music major at Wayne State
University, but became
disillusioned "when I found I'd
be spending three years
memorizing Bach chorales
before getting to what I
wanted to do. I was into jazz
and fusion!'
So Mr. Sklar hit the road in
1975, "backpacking around
the country, traveling three
months on foot and by car!'
Eventually, he settled in
Minneapolis, where he prac-
ticed guitar and worked at a
-
series of dues-paying jobs (cab
driving, etc.) Mr. Sklar also
learned to construct stringed
instruments and joined a
musician's and craftsmen's co-
op for a while, building and
repairing guitars and bases.
Still looking for his musical
style, Mr. Sklar went through
"periods of studying certain
types of music. For two years
I played mostly classical
guitar, then slide guitar."
When the co-op foundered, Mr.
Sklar took classes in music
theory at Minneapolis Com-
munity College and joined the
school's jazz band.
A turning point came when
"I meta man who played
sitar," he recalls. "Ever since
I was 11 or 12, I'd been in-
trigued by Indian music, like
the kind George Harrison
played on Beatles records. As
I got into jazz fusion, I used a
lot of Indian influences!'
As he learned more about
music, Mr. Sklar taught
himself audio engineering and
ended up producing records.
By 1988 he had the makings
of his own group, one that
would combine traditional jazz
forms with state-of-the-art
audio techniques and unique
sound effects that suggest a
walk along the astral plane.
Joining him was Johanna
Morrow, whom he had met
when he spotted "an ad on a
wall" looking for musicians.
Johnna, says her husband, is
more classically trained, a
songwriter who plays flute
and piccolo. She also provides
almost all of the group's
vocals.
The ensemble now known as
Little Green Men — the name
reflects both Mr. Sklar's sense
of humor and his fascination
with astronomy and other
worldly ideas — began perfor-
ming in 1988 and "rocketed to
obscurity," as Mr. Sklar
relates. Personnel changes
and stylistic shifts resulted in
the ethereal sound Little
Green Men produces today.
Critic Richard Broderick in
Omni called their work
"flawless" as reproduced on
tape.
Mr. Sklar can take par-
ticular pride in that accolade,
since he produces the group's
recordings through his LGM
Productions. Their first
album, Jazz from Mars,
came out in 1988; the collec-
tion Out of This World follow-
ed in 1989.
As his own publicity direc-
tor, Mr. Sklar "sends out tapes
everywhere," and his tenacity
has paid off. Little Green Men
has made itself known on col-
lege radio stations, according
to Mr. Sklar, and has aired on
National Public Radio.
No opportunity for advance-
ment escapes his attention.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
67