Human beatbox joins banjo for children’s concert

Hip-hop, meet hippity-hop. The banjo-based children's music of Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer plinked along for more than three decades, earning the singer/songwriters two Grammy Awards and a living.

But when Cathy and Marcy (as they bill themselves) hooked up with Christylez Bacon in 2007, things got really interesting.

Bacon, 24, mimics the drums with his mouth. Hip-hop groups call this human beatboxing. They invented it in the early '80s to creatively compensate for a lack of live musicians.

"Kids love beatboxing," Fink says, phoning from her home near Washington, D.C. "It's really fun."

Cathy and Marcy are slated to appear with Bacon at the Historic Fifth Street School downtown today , playing songs from their Grammy-nominated 2009 kids' album "Banjo to Beatbox."

"Nobody's ever done this, ever," says Fink. "We're merging styles of music that really haven't played the same stage before."

Bacon was the artist in residence at a D.C. performing arts center where Fink and Marxer mentored.

"We just started hanging out and jamming and found out that the traditional old-time music that we loved had a great partner in beatboxing," Fink says.

This is the first of two concerts announced so far in the city of Las Vegas' Summer Downtown Children's Concert Series at the Historic Fifth Street School. The Billy Jonas Trio is scheduled to perform on July 22.

"The grammar school was built for children originally, so with this programming, we are continuing with the tradition of the school," says Nancy Deaner, the city's Office of Cultural Affairs manager.

Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.