Milo Z. brings the funk to Stanhope
Milo Zwerling set out on the path to a musical career by breaking the law.
“I was 13,” recalls the musician, who now goes by the name Milo Z. “This was in the 1970s. My buddies (and I) were up to no good, and we stole some practice drum pads from the back of a truck.”
Those stolen practice pads proved to be hot in more than one sense of the word. “We would use those pads and do these impromptu drum sessions,” he says. “That started me as a drummer.”
“This was the Lower East Side (of Manhattan), and everybody had (his) own rhythm,” he continues. “The Puerto Rican kids that the polyrhythm thing going on. Disco was the music of the time.”
Though Milo Z. cites a long list of artists who influenced him – from the Beatles to Beethoven, from Miles Davis to Marvin Gaye – he goes back to the importance of the groove.
His distinctive sound, which he calls “razzamofunk,” will be on display when he and his band play the Stanhope House this Saturday, May 23.
Milo Z. plays the Stanhope House every few months, and he says he is happy to make the trek from Manhattan. “That is one of those gems,” he says. “I’m so glad it’s still around. It’s a place that has so much character.”
He draws the comparison between the Stanhope House and Dan Lynch Blues Bar, a club on Second Avenue that closed in the mid-1990s. “I loved Dan Lynch,” he says. “That was another place with character. You heard the most incredible sounds there.”
Milo Z. discovered Dan Lynch Blues Bar when he was 16, around the same time that he was enjoying the disco of Chaka Khan and the heavy metal of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.
All those styles eventually worked their way into his own music. “I wasn’t great at school,” he admits. “College wasn’t for me. I thought that maybe music would be my shot.”
Music and the arts could be said to be in his blood. His mother, Harriet Sohmers Zwerling, is a writer and former artist’s model who lived an unconventional life in Paris and in New York City.
By the mid-1980s, Milo Z. had already done stints as a drummer and as a rapper. “I had started writing songs,” he says. “I knew that rap wasn’t the only thing I wanted to do, but it was a part of it. I was into hip-hop, but I was into R&B and funk.”
In the past 30 years, Milo Z. has released his own CDs. But he has also recorded and performed with an impressive array of musicians, including the Neville Brothers, the Meters, Steel Pulse, Average White Band, Bon Jovi, Patti Smith and Al Green.
He is working on a new CD of music that he hopes to release by next year. He mentions one new song – “Man Up, Stand Up” – with a message for young people that he hopes will be taken to heart.
Milo Z. also has another new project in the works: a book. “This is different for me,” he says. “It’s about growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1960s and 1970s.”
“I’m not afraid to try new things. That’s what life is all about,” he says. “As long as I’m creative, it’s all OK.”
However, Milo Z. adds that his perspective on his work has changed with the birth of his daughter Sierra, now four-and-a-half.
“She’s my pride and joy,” he says. “It used to be that music was the main love in my life. Not anymore.”
MILO Z.
WHAT: Milo Z., a Manhattan musician, plays a distinctive sound that he calls “razzamofunk.” He and his band perform a mix of funk, R&B, hip-hop, rock and jazz.
WHEN: Doors open 6 p.m. Saturday, May 23. Must be 21 or older.
WHERE: Stanhope House, 45 Main St., Stanhope
TICKETS: $20
INFORMATION: 973-347-7777 or www.stanhopehousenj.com.