This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen Magazine #97 (December 2001/January 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

James Leva
Memory Theatre
by Philip Van Vleck

Fans of American traditional music may well be familiar with the old-time music duo Jones & Leva. Carol Elizabeth Jones and James Leva are superb musicians who not only perform many classic tunes from the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia, but also write material which thoroughly captures the spirit of the old-time genre.
James Leva released a solo album project in September titled Memory Theatre, on which he plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo and sings. Collaborating with former Solas guitarist John Doyle, Leva recorded a group of tunes that included material he'd learned from musicians such as Tommy Jarrell, Edden Hammons, and Roscoe Holcomb, and original songs that fit the project. Jones contributes vocals on several cuts.
In commenting on the album title in his liner notes, Leva explained that the Late Renaissance philosopher Guilio Camillo Delmino constructed a Memory Theatre. Leva described this Memory Theatre. "Upon entering the structure, one stood on the 'stage' and looked out to the symbols and images, carved from wood, which surrounded him. In addition to the images, the walls were replete with little boxes, all arranged in various orders and grades which represented the expanding history of divine thought. The theater was an elegant mnemonic device, designed to provide the spectator with access to the totality of human knowledge. As such, it could be said that it was meant to serve the same functions as computers do in our time."
As Leva also noted, computers don't have what he referred to as "true" memory. Ideally, we all understand that our memories are experiential — that they're sensual, evocative, and impressionistic. "I like the idea that Delmino's Memory Theatre stored information, not in the sense a computer does, but memory like in the Proustian sense, where it comes through all the senses and has a great emotional force."
This Memory Theatre is a metaphor that describes Leva's experience as a traditional musician. The music is Leva's Memory Theatre. It represents not only the players who taught him their music, such as Tommy Jarrell, and the music as it was presented to him, but also how he makes this tradition his own and contributes to it creatively.
Leva also grapples with the way in which he relates to traditional music as a player and composer. "Anybody that plays a traditionally based music constantly runs into questions about genre, purpose, and authenticity," he noted, "because the current questions about what traditional music is are huge and wide open."


This is an excerpt from an article in Dirty Linen #97 (Dec. '01/Jan. '02). Read the full text in the magazine, available via subscription or on newsstands and in bookstores.