Iowa City musician unites South District by amplifying multicultural music

IOWA CITY — The booming rhythms of hard rock songs that feature zinging guitars, mighty drums and soaring vocals. The euphoric, spiritual highs of African American gospel songs. The traces of rhythm and blues, soul and jazz that lace together to create funk music.

Today’s music industry spans several centuries, genres and cultures — and Creighton Gaynor appreciates them all.

During the day, Gaynor is an employment specialist for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. Beyond that, he is an Iowa City musician with a passion for multicultural music — something he has seen fade away from the area over the years.

About 26 percent of the city identifies as a race or ethnicity other than white, according to 2022 census data. But Gaynor said that diversity is not reflected in the music scene.

He’s on a mission to save it. His business, Natural Talent Music, was formed to support budding, diverse musicians and enrich the Iowa City music landscape, particularly in the South District neighborhood. He hopes his efforts will nurture underserved communities, cultivate multiculturalism and bring residents together in a world full of division.

“I'm just trying to fill that gap and make it more like the Iowa City that I used to know … by using multicultural (music) to help bring people together,” Gaynor said, “That's always been one of my things: (unifying) people and getting rid of the barriers.”

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A musical life

When asked what first got him into music, Gaynor didn’t hesitate: “My family, for sure.”

Almost everyone in his family was a musician of some sort. His mother was a pianist for several churches in Lexington, Ky., where he grew up. His sister played piano as well, along with flute and violin. His brother played cello as a kid. His father sang in the men’s choir at church. It was a natural path for him to take, too.

Another big influence was his family’s diverse and expansive record collection that played on repeat around the home. Gospel choirs mixed with electric guitar solos that tumbled into hypnotic grooves.

“I've always been interested and developed a really good flavor for different types of music,” he said, “and not really caring all that much if I look like I'm supposed to be listening to that or not.”

He started playing simple keyboard instruments as early as elementary school. In junior high band, he played oboe. He added tenor saxophone in high school and dove into percussion in marching band, playing instruments like the timpani, marimba, xylophone and drums.

He moved to Iowa to attend Iowa State University and found community in the school marching band. He marched in the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps, a competitive drum and bugle group from Dubuque that introduced him to classical artists.

In 1995, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music in percussion — a group of instruments he continues to specialize in today in Iowa City. Congas are typically his instrument of choice in his band, Jumbies. Its palette is largely Caribbean soul with some pops of Latin, Afrobeat and Brazilian rhythms.

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One of the biggest lessons Gaynor has learned from his years in the music industry? Booking gigs is tough.

Just getting band mates together can be difficult with hectic schedules. It takes time to grow connections with venues, especially when you’re competing with other artists. Marketing and promotion of your music is essential — but time-consuming. Even once shows are booked, bands still have to work out the logistics like transportation and equipment.

“It’s so much more than showing up for a show. … But somebody has to book the band, right?” Gaynor said. “That’s really where the idea for Natural Talent Music got started.”

Restoring multicultural music

When Gaynor moved from Ames to Iowa City in 2007, multicultural music coated the city.

One of his favorite bands performed reggae and ska, genres emerging from Jamaica. Afrobeat — a mesh of African and American influences — infiltrated the scene with large bands and moving lyrics. Brazilian samba songs provided high-paced rhythms and building chord progressions.

“There was much more of a richness to the scene back then,” Gaynor said.

But, over the years, he watched the landscape become less diverse. The bands he loved either broke up or moved away. The multicultural music scene largely faded with them.

Today’s younger Iowa City artists still experiment with new music, Gaynor said. But much of that remains in the underground scene — not typically exposed for the broader public to enjoy. Tickets to see the diverse, established musicians that might still ramble through town may be expensive or cater to older generations, Gaynor said.

“The general (Iowa City music scene) is lacking in representation of a lot of different cultural music and a fair amount of shades of people on stage,” he said. “There are so many types of music, especially from Black and brown areas, that we don't get here.”

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Gaynor took matters into his own hands.

He started using his extensive experience in the music industry to book gigs for less experienced bands in Iowa City. With some groups, he simply acted as a booking agent; for others, he took on more of a managerial role.

After 15 years doing that role on top of a full-time job, Gaynor officially began Natural Talent Music as a business last year. He helps venues fill their events with newer, diverse musicians, shouldering much of the burden of booking gigs. He’s now on the board of directors for Iowa City’s Summer of the Arts and is an entertainment coordinator for the South District neighborhood.

Music bridges barriers

Gaynor was at a gathering at the Iowa City Bike Library two years ago when he struck up a conversation with Angie Jordan, the president and co-founder of Iowa City’s South District Neighborhood Association.

Jordan told Gaynor about her work in the South District — home to people of color that she said have been traditionally underserved. One of those gaps? An entertainment desert.

“One of the things she wanted to do that would help is entertainment,” Gaynor said. “It's a really, really good way to get people to come out and be a part of something … in the same space.”

In its first year of life, Natural Talent Music has debuted an independent concert series called One World. Gaynor books multicultural music acts for various venues around Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. For instance, he said he’d throw a zydeco band — rich with Louisiana influences — together with a reggae band for a two-act gig.

Gaynor also books acts for the South District Diversity Market, held this year on Saturdays through Aug. 19 at 947 Highway 6 E. The initiative received a $14,500 grant from the Iowa City Council’s Racial Equity and Social Justice Grant this year.

“The point is to try to get people in the room that normally wouldn't be in the room together,” Gaynor said. “When you do that in a setting with music … you usually have a really good chance at giving those people a positive environment to interact positively with somebody they’re not familiar with.”

His two initiatives will cross over Aug. 19, when Gaynor will bring the One World series to the final Diversity Market. The show will celebrate the diversity market season with five multicultural bands from across the Midwest, including Iowa-based Orquesta Alto Maiz and Chicago-based LowDown Brass Band. The One World series will continue at other venues throughout the rest of the year.

Gaynor said he is proud to be a Black man — and even prouder to help the people of color in the South District through multicultural music.

“When I saw a way that I could … be of some sort of help or service to people of color in my community, it was a no-brainer for me,” he said. “I figured out a way for me to be part of the solution that works for me. I challenge others to do the same. Figure out what it is that you can do to make things better.”

Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com