- Coming up on Ocean State sessions.

- If you go, you know, you grieve me.

- Paper, moon, jazz band, - All life on you.

Japan.

- There's Purple Hippo walking down Tyro - And the river provides, - Shoot - Because we're rolling.

My name's Casey Valle.

I play drums in the paper moon, jazz band.

A lot of musical timing is based in four.

So, you know, if you're just a lot of rock and roll gospel, soul, funk, it's just, you know, and of course you can do like three, four, like a waltz, like Dave Brubeck had this song called Blue Rella Turk that was in this grouping of three that came out to nine and it was nine, eight.

It was just, it just blew my mind like that a rhythm could be like this.

But, and I was just hooked with all these like polyrhythms and stuff you can do with math and drums and found a whole other genre of music that was coming about in their, you know, late nineties, early two thousands called Math Rock, which is like punk rock with all these, you know, numbers thrown around like, let's play in four, but then let's go to five and let's go to like three.

And then maybe like a couple stops polyrhythms of just trying to think of something in like seven.

Right?

So Crazy.

It was just nuts to me that all this music existed.

And then getting into college at Rhode Island College, I met some friends, Roz Raskin and at the time Johnny Cairo who was playing bass and eventually Justin Foster.

And that band was such a, such a fun run, played like over, almost over a decade getting a tour, but then just getting to like right actually in this lovely little dark and dank space.

We wrote a lot of music.

This song that we had called Magma.

It was a big local radio hit, really fun back in 20 12, 20 13.

By the time we got to the chorus, we'd break out into this math Rocky thing.

I will just play it 'cause it'll naturally come to me.

But I'll go from the verse of the chorus and it's like So much fun that really just came back to me.

I haven't played that song in like six or seven years trying to wear a power shirt.

My animals are with Me.

One day in 2022, I got to meet Dylan Block Harley, who, who, who, who is a great drummer and an amazing guitarist and happened to mention to me, Hey, I do this jazz duo called the paper moon jazz band.

Would you wanna sit in with us?

John Bur and Dylan, they, you know, took me under their little jazz wing and we went for a ride and it was really, really fun.

And as I started to play this style of stuff, like I found myself channeling all of my musical roots to, to help in, you know, curating the style, always trying to serve the song.

And it's, yeah, I just, I can't help but be a sponge to a lot of the music I've been influenced by.

- I am confessing that I love you Tell Love too.

I'm confessing.

I need you every moment in your eyes.

Irene, such strange things.

But your lips deny that True.

Will your answer afraid He and friends, if you go, you know, you'll grieve me all in life on you.

Am I guessing that you love me dreaming dreams of you invite I'm confessing that I love you again.

I am afraid someday you'll leave me.

- If - You go, you know, you'll grieve me all in life on you.

Am I guessing that you love me, dream and dreams of you?

I'm confessing that I - It been a long time.

I seen you smiling through your eyes.

There's nothing better than, but only sometimes, man, you can argue that it's the moment that we can't coming back the - Midday, - Ah, even a river has to make it, it so back to home starts the mountain and it never it my fault that you came, it's my choice.

That life, the midday shine for you.

It my fault that you came along.

My choice, my fault that you came along - Right into the lens.

Okay.

Wow.

Hi PBS Just getting comfortable.

Yep, just getting comfortable speaking.

My truths the river provides was started at the grist mill here, right by the Queen River.

Alex had been telling me this story for years about his cousins who lived up in New Hampshire.

And there was this old Native American man who came into town and he would order breakfast and they'd give him his bill and he would leave a gold nugget on the table.

They would ask him, old Native American man, where do you get your gold?

And he would just say, the river provides, we are in South County, Scopa Village, right on the border of Richmond and South Kingstown.

My family has owned the Gristmills since 1971 and I am now the third generation owner of Kenyon's Crisp Mill.

We run the mill and grind corn, but we also sift and mix and package it.

And then we even have a retail shop where we have customers showing up all summer.

We rent kayaks here where we get tourists in and out.

So it's, it's a, a cultural hub in South County, but it's also a tourist destination and a local staple.

When I'm in here and all the machinery running and the waterfall is thundering outside, all those sort of like vibrations and and rhythms, they, they all inspire me to, to write the music that I do and, and play guitar the way I do.

The band started practicing and formed really across the street from the Gristmill here in a little office trailer up on the hill.

Eventually we graduated up to the attic of our little outbuilding here that we called Charlie Wamsley's House.

Eventually we moved to our, our studio in West Warwick.

We had more space and climate control and what that meant was we were able to be able to do videos for our own band, record our own band, and we started bringing our friends bands in and what that turned into was bringing in their friends bands.

And, and slowly that became sort of a, a community place where people would come and we were doing everything we could to, to sort of build each other up and, and people were helping us and, and trading favors and, and we were just trying to make sure that everybody was able to use this beautiful spot and perform under the lights.

There's really nothing like that grassroots feeling of building something together and having it become bigger than yourself as, as happens in West Warwick.

The, the building's being renovated to an apartment building and unfortunately we we're moving out of our studio spot there and we're in search of another location.

What the studio stands for is, is mobile.

You know, it wasn't based on that studio space at all.

It was nice having the, the room to spread out and, and have full lighting set up and everything.

But, you know, we can take our cameras to local venues and we can, and we can bring our process to other rooms.

And so we're, we're looking for another place to call home.

But that doesn't mean that the filming and the music will stop.

- There's a Purple Hippo optimist walking on a Tyrone Sky.

Two, two ballerina shoes.

She got one foot to walk right out in front of the other.

She got a balance beam in her head, making sure that she don't fall right down and go - Boom, - All bend there, including - You - Red Tail Monkey Swinger from a Green V just where it takes him.

You know that he don't mind.

- He's - A traveler swinging on his own.

He's a swinging on his own.

- There's a - Friction on a little pad staring at a dragon fly, chilling on a cat's tail because he's a scavenger beating on his own time.

He hasn't seen a fucking day, days ain't going to this one by trust behind.

- We'll, - All for the show.

- We'll - All for the show.

- We'll - All the, there's a purple Hippo pot to miss.

Walking on a Tyro.

Got a ping - To two - Marina shoe walking right from the other.

She gotta balance beam in her shoe.

Don't fall down and been there.

We've all been there, folks, including you - For more Ocean State sessions plus all your Rhode Island PBS favorites, visit r ibs.org.