We woke up to a few orders for Margaret Explosion cds and they were all from Rochester. It took us a bit to realize that the sales were a result of the rebroadcast of the Margaret Explosion segment of WXXI’s “On Stage”. We were downtown out on the deck at Abilene listening to Bobby Henrie & The Goners so we missed the show. Martin Edic said it was on the tv inside the bar but we were busy watching the best band in the city. Besides, I was making a movie.
3 CommentsFcuk Him
I had worn a hole in the rear end of my pajamas so I stopped in A. J. Wright up in Culver Ridge Plaza. I asked the clerk where the pajamas were and she took me over to a rack of “Loungewear”, all bottoms, colorful concoctions that you sometimes see big muscular guys with mullets wearing out on the street. I guess they don’t sell pjs in sets anymore. This place is so discount they don’t have a dressing room and I couldn’t decide whether to go with Large or Medium. At 6 feet, 150, I’m half of each. I went with medium.
This “Fcuk Him” product caught my eye on the reduced table near the checkout. A kid with the “Why Can’t We All Just Get A Bong” t-shirt caught my eye at the Public Market this morning. And I was thinking of this line from Jeff Spevak’s review of the crowd at last night’s Phish concert – “a museum of non-sequiturs.” Give it up for Jeff.
Everything is in season now. We hauled four big bags home. Corn from Honeyoe Falls, peaches from Hamlin and blueberries, apricots, beets, cucumbers, peppers, pears from other local farms. I just made my first tomato and onion sandwich of the year.
Deer aren’t supposed to like Rhododendrons. That’s why ours are shaped like Palm trees. And they aren’t supposed to like Marigolds either but they got ours last night. Second time this year. The yellow would have spoiled all the green anyway.
3 CommentsDoubled Float Margin Bug
Want to ruin your day? Try previewing the site you’ve been working on all day in Internet Explorer. We were fine until we had to duke it out with the “Doubled Float Margin Bug”. Then Radio Rick made our day when he played Margaret Explosion’s “Playground Tavern” on WRUR.
Last night we sat on the porch with the lights out. Peggi lit a few candles and we contemplated sleeping out there. It was a beautiful night. I started thinking about The Marshing Band sessions from 2006. We recorded without electricity up at Pete and Shelley’s on a battery operated M-Audio Microtech (as shown in the blow-up of the above photo) and we lit the session with candlelight. We sold that device and bought one made by Sony that records on the small SDHC cards. This unit takes has built in mics and ports for two external mics and it runs on batteries. We could do a killer recording when we meet up there this Fall.
Listen to the Marshing Band
Joey’s Party
We hadn’t been swimming in the lake since we sold our boat five years ago. We hiked through the woods with Duane on Saturday and then followed the path around the pond to the lake. There were some loud picnics going on up on Log Cabin Road and there were a number people fishing from the edge of the pond. One little kid was reeling in the tiniest sunfish when we walked by. His dad was helping him get it off the line. He was all excited. Lake Ontario’s water felt warm and refreshing at the same time.
We brought the paper down to the street pool on Sunday and we were the only ones there. I read the reviews of the new Woodstock books to Peggi revealing who was tripping while playing and how much the bands were paid. Someone was quoted as saying, “If the transportation was better, ninety per cent of the people would have left. I was there a full day early and watched the soundcheck but eventually left on the second night. Dave Mahoney thought we going to starve to death and he may have. He had to eat when he was hungary. And I read that thousands of people left there sleeping bags there. My brother came home with about ten and gave them away. I always assumed it was because people couldn’t find their campsite but it was because they were full of mud. We went down there with no sleeping bags or camping equipment and no food but we did have tickets that we sent away for through WSAY.
Our neighbors, Rick and Monica, came home from their vacation last night and Monica was wearing a Woodstock t-shirt that she bought at Target. She said some skateboarders that she was starring at flashed the peace sign at them. They missed Joey’s party. One of our other neighbors asked if they could use our driveway on Saturday because they were having a big party. We said sure but no one parked in our driveway. It might have had something to do with the arrow on the sign that Joey’s mother made. It was pointing away from our driveway.
Leave a commentGood Orderly Direction
We managed to slow summer’s pace down a bit by not doing a whole lot of stuff. Not going out to see the bands we follow, not going to parties, not going to the last Rhino’s game and not making entries here for a few days. We’ve also been working most evenings because we have a backlog of work for a change. And after work, it’s out to the porch to read. The world slows to a crawl out there.
Peggi took her mom to the doctor this morning They are trying to determine why she has such a hard time swallowing. A battery of tests are in order. She’ll swallow some barium on Monday and they will track the decent with x-rays. I took our 92 year old neighbor’s mail in this morning and I plan to mow his lawn tomorrow while he figures out how to swallow again. They removed most of his pallet when they cut out his mouth cancer last week. He wants to throw in the towel but pep talks may dissuade him. I gave him my best shot while handing him his mail. He was slurping an Ensure.
I do my best thinking while mowing the lawn, taking a shower or walking in the woods. If I’m working on a logo, and I do sketches all day, I’ll jump in the shower and the best idea pops into my head. Today I was thinking about god and I sorted it all out in the shower. We have two neighbors on our small street that boast of being atheists. One is a chemist and the other teaches poetry in the City school district and their conversations got me going on this matter. As a Catholic, I was raised to believe that there was some sort of Trinity construct with the all knowing God the Father, His son, made visible in Jesus, and this spooky Holy Ghost that hovers about. I never could figure it out. I know that when I buried our cat he was stiff as a board I will be too when I die. I don’t believe I’ll be meeting any maker in the great beyond.
I was looking at my niece’s Facebook photos from the recent Jason Mraz concert. He does a song called “Good Orderly Direction“. The first time I came across this concept was in Julia Cameron’s book on creativity. But I gather it is also sort of an out for addicts who use AA but don’t believe in God. The natural order of things is enough of a god construct for me.
Which brings to mind the old MX-80 slogan. “Often in error. Never in doubt.”
5 CommentsDueling Tapas
Spanish people know how to eat, not just what to eat. They kind of excel in both. Some restaurants around here offer what they call tapas but they aren’t. The proportions are way too large. You like that much of one thing, order the dish three times, ya slob!
Tapas in Spain are served over a counter and you eat them at the counter, often while standing. The plates are small like saucers and the silverware is even small sometimes. Maybe the fork only has three prongs or two. If you’re having a beer, a small plate of olives is often served on-the-house and sometimes the person behind the counter may even slide you a complimentary tapa. These small servings take the edge off before dinner and sometimes that is all you need.
We had a small tapas party on Sunday with our friends, Alice and Julio. They brought some, we made one in advance and then made a few while we talked. We ordered Padron Peppers from La Tienda and followed a YouTube chef”s instructions. Although they are a Galician dish we had these for the first time while in Madrid. The place was more cafeteria than bar, brightly lit by fluorescents and was somewhere near Plaza Santa Ana. It was late and we stumbled on it. It looked like it had been there for a century but we could not find it when we returned a few years later. They were sensational.
We watched a documentary on The Crips and The Bloods last night. Forest Whitaker narrated and the funniest part was when they showed how much starch the gangbangers put on there jeans. “Enough to make ’em stand up in the corner with nobody in them.”
1 CommentSteve and Steve
We were sitting out front watching our neighbors pack when Monica brought over three bags of greens that would probably go bad while they were gone. She said, “I think one of them is cilantro”‘ and I thought great. I was going to pick some up for one of the tapas we were planning on making when we got together with Julio and Alice this weekend. We headed out to the Public Market and bought as much as we could carry of local blueberries, peaches, dark red cherries and corn. I grabbed some Italian parsley that one of the tapas recipes called for and then we stopped at Wegmans to pick up the rest.
At the corner of Culver and Ridge, right in front of Walgreens, there was a gathering of protesters wearing suits and holding up big white signs. One of them said, “Honk if You Support Traditional Marriage”. Someone honked. I laid on the horn and didn’t let up. The protesters stared at us not knowing what to think. We drove by them again after shopping at Wegmans and I took some photos and yelled, “You guys are nuts.” They were all guys and one of their signs read, “Adam and Eve not Steve and Steve.”
I got home and unpacked and discovered the cilantro that Monica had given us was actually Italian parsley so I hopped on my bike and headed back to Wegmans. I told Peggi I might take a movie of the protesters and she suggested that I say, Hi Steve”, to all of them as I rode by so I did that. “Hi Steve.” “Hi Steve.” “Hi Steve.” “Hi Steve.” “Hi Steve.” “Hi Steve.” “Hi Steve.” etc. They really didn’t know what to think.
3 CommentsNod (The Cowboy Movie)
Nod closed out the three day Boulder Fest in style and when I say “in style” I mean cowboy style (with disco ball). There were a handful of dancers (Nod is a great dance band) and then there was this cowboy doing his thing. The second song in Nod’s set was “World Still Wants You” and it is one of our favorites.
Leave a commentSacred Heart Of Rick
We planned to eat outdoors on our deck and we just sat down when it started raining AGAIN so we moved indoors. I saw a figure out front in the middle of a torrential downpour and watched as he moved toward our front window. It was our neighbor, Rick, testing his new rain gear. He was smiling and he had what appeared to be a sacred heart on his chest. It was a reflection from a light in our kitchen.
After dinner we checked out the opening of the bi-annual Rochester Finger Lakes Show at the Memorial Art Gallery. This is always a fun event and we were really looking forward to it. We were surprised to find parking spots in the lot and the grounds were eerily quiet. They had to move the outdoor band in because of the rain and maybe the rain scared people away. Or maybe there is just damn much going on here in the warm summer months. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that they only had twenty eight artists in the show.
One of them did manage to fill a good portion of the space with an inflatable elephant. You usually can’t see the show at these openings but we had plenty of room to take it in. I didn’t see my “Local Crime Faces” over there because they were not accepted. We found Anne Havens’s “Box Of Sighs”. We hung out by the box and marveled at it and the onlookers as they discovered it was making noises. We filled out ballots with Anne’s name on them for the “Popular Vote Award” while Bleu Cease was filling out his ballots at the same time and we presume in the same way.
2 Comments
Friday Fish Fry
I stopped in Wegmans this morning to pick up the Friday New York Times. I like their “Fine Arts Section” even though it’s getting combined with other weekend nonsense as they shrink the content and jack up the cost to stay afloat. My cashier’s name was “Heaven”. I told her I liked her name. I spotted this sign near Culver and Ridge for a place called Ricky’s diner. Never been inside but I plan to put their sign in the Funky Signs section as soon as I get around to updating it.
Are Friday fish fries more common in Rochester than other parts of the country? I looked up “origin of the fish fry” in Google for the low down. When I looked up something for someone we do work for she started complaining that the way history is being written today we won’t have anything to trust down the road. Unless I was reading her wrong she was insinuating that people are free to put whatever they like online. I didn’t want to push her because I’m liable to say something boneheaded and she pays the bills so I’m only guessing here. But she wrapped that subject up by saying, “An entire generation will be lost.”
When I was growing up Catholics weren’t allowed to eat meat on Fridays. They rewrote the rules in 1966 so that now the Friday meat abstinence only applies during Lent. We had some fish but I remember toasted cheese sandwiches and fried egg sandwiches that my father called “Mickey Mouse Sandwiches”. It seems every place around here has one on Fridays. Shamrock Jack’s has one of the best but they are too busy during the summer. When we lived in the city the bar at the corner didn’t serve food at all during the week but they had a big crowd for their Friday Fish Fry.
Sure enough Wikipedia’s entry on the “Friday Fish Fry” says “the fish fry is one of the trademarks of Upstate New York cuisine, especially Buffalo, as well as Rochester and Syracuse, New York. But can we trust this entry?
3 CommentsGarbage Trucks In Reverse
It’s hard to believe that City has such a nice restaurant on its hands. Granted they had to build a giant terminal for the so called fast ferry to depart from and a suite of offices for the International Border Patrol to hang out in and then they had to buy the failing ship itself. The staff works for the Convention Bureau and they run this place as a not-for-profit. Somebody has to be making a profit because this place was packed on a slow night. They have a great location on the mouth of the Genesee overlooking the two long piers, Rochester Yacht Club, the Coast Guard station and O’loughlins. “Pier 45” is described as “fine dining in a casual atmosphere” and that pretty much nails it. Our server, Bart, was as nice as can be even though we took forever to decide what we wanted to eat.
We were called on to edit a ppt presentation for a talk on the inventor of the submarine that a client of ours is giving in Vermont. This sounded like a fun project but it was filled with technical challenges. The client is planning to travel with her IBM Thinkpad and plugging it into a projector for the talk. We purchased sound files from the iTunes Store and downloaded all sorts of crazy free sounds to punctuate the talk and constructed the show on our machines but when we slid it on to the Thinkpad the sound files got all jumbled up and some even started over when we advanced the slides. Some didn’t even work. The PowerPoint app that machine is quite old so we had to keep the laptop overnight, convert all the mp3s to wav files and embed them in the ppt file. The Thinkpad’s alert sounds sounded like garbage trucks when they put it in reverse. The original submarine was only a vehicle to deliver a bomb, actually attach a bomb, to the bottom of a British battle ship in midst of the Revolutionairy War. This never worked but the guy wound up with some pretty cool credentials.
2 Comments
Dancing With Joey Ramone
We were thrilled to hear Amy Rigby and Wreckless Eric were coming back to Rochester so soon after their last performance here. You’d think it was boring in France where they currently live. They got off to a slow but steady start. I say “slow” only because the highlights for me are the bantering between songs. They intensify the music. Like when Eric’s guitar fell over and he went off on a beautiful tirade about creeps who work in music stores and try to sell you all this junk, with their Fender t-shirts and know-it-all attitudes. “They start talking about a movie and they tell you the whole fucking story”.
Amy Rigby who seemed overwhelmed by Eric’s antics last time they were here really held her own this time and contributed equally to the banter. She said she was all dressed in black until the Gay Pride parade went by on Goodman and went back to their rental car to slip into this dress. We watched part of the parade and saw Mayor Duffy again as he strutted by to a round of cheers. I took a shaky movie of Amy’s tribute to Joey Ramone.
We got there just as Jenna and The Horselovers were finishing their set. They sounded fuller than ever with the addition Jack Schaefer on lead guitar. Jenna looked great in her pink dress. We love her voice and are big fans.
2 CommentsMade With Pure Hemlock Lake Water
Margaret Explosion kicked off the”UpLift” party at the Genesee Center for the Arts on Friday night and we never even took a ride in their new elevator. We hung around for a while afterward eating flour-less peanut butter cookies that Geri McCormick made and looking at old Genesee beer ads that the people in the Book Arts room had recently printed on their vintage equipment. One of the ads boasted that Genesee Beer was “Made With Pure Hemlock Lake Water”.
It was only natural that the conversation turned to the re-lighting of the old Genesee Beer at 9:30 so we followed Maureen Outlaw over to the river. We parked in the women employees parking lot. This neighborhood is kind of rough so the brewery provides more security for the women’s segregated lot. We could hear the symphony of bottles rattling as they moved down the assembly line. There was a pretty big party out in the middle of the pedestrian bridge that straddles the river and provides the best view of the sign. We spotted the mayor in the crowd and looked up just in time to see the sign emerge out of the darkness.
Leave a commentYap, Yap, Yap
Just In Time For The Fourth
“I’m so sick of Michael Jackson”, Peggi’s mother announced when we stopped in to see her this morning. CNN was running a “In His Own Words” segment with some surreal footage of Michael. They cut to a commercial for some group called “Citizens United to Isolate Iran” and we turned the tube off. That tactic worked so well with Cuba.
Stop our see Margaret Explosion live and pick up your free Margaret Explosion matches. They are available in five colors.
4 CommentsShowstopper
We stuck our head in the tent a few years ago to check out Ryan Shaw and gave him another chance last night. We met Brian and Olga in line and Brian reached into his bag for his glasses to read the program. He put them on and they steamed up. The temperature in his bag was quite bit cooler that the air temperature because he had some sort of liquid refreshment in there. We do love the early Detroit r&b era that Ryan Shaw is mining but this muscular approach, not just his buff build but the five string bass and heavy hitting drummer, takes the sweetness out it. I couldn’t get past the ready cell phone on his belt.
We ran into Jeff and Mary Kaye on the street and followed them over to the Xerox Auditorium to check out Joe Baione on the vibes. He looked like Jeff Daniels and played in a loose limbed manner that was clearly at odds with the studied approach of his bandmates. I wanted to like the Milt Jackson tune they were doing but I couldn’t get past the disconnect.
We saw the Russians from Second approach on the street. They were wearing their “Artist” badges and enjoying themselves in our strange land. Peggi had them sign her program.
Gary Brandt and a number of fans were in line early for Nils Petter Molvaer at the Lutheran Church. These were people without Jazz passes who were ready to plunk down cash for this guy. We knew nothing about him other than the sound files that we had spot-checked before leaving the house. Nils plays trumpet through two mics, one with an arsenal of effects boxes and one with only reverb. Both the guitar player and Nils had an Apple laptop to augment and mix their sound with. Their spacious, austere sound worked perfectly in the church and it all would have been more relaxing if we didn’t have to watch the performers fussing with the equipment. But I know that is now part of the modern performers’ dialog. The drummer in Nils Petter Molvaer did not have his own laptop but he did have to lock into some loops. I thought their sound was more interesting without the programmed tracks and this guy sounded fantastic playing the drums with his bare hands like he did for the first part of the set. In a song called “Gong” he soloed with a cymbal in his hands while standing in front of a mic confirming that these guys would have sound better without all the non organic trappings.
Never mind that Monty Alexander looked about twenty years younger in the promo photo. He stole the show last night and may be our favorite act at the Jazz Fest. We almost didn’t go but there was line for Tony Kofi at Christ Church so we tried Kilbourn. We sat next to an older woman who greeted us with a smile. I said, “You already saw Monty didn’t you?” She said, “How did you know?” Peggi said, “You have that Monty glow.” She had a Wegman’s bag next to her on the floor, one of the new green ones with the limes on them. She showed us a photo that she had Monty sign after the first show. It was her and Monty outside of Birdland in NYC a few years ago but she was a regular at the Roundtowner in the seventies when Monty came through town on a regular basis. We had heard Monty at Art Park about ten years ago and we were bothered by hs hyperactive quoting of so many songs that you forget what song he is playing. He did a bit of that last night and his sidemen seemed to shake their heads at the cornball tactic but it was all in the name of a thoroughly entertaining show. And entertaining alone would sell him short. He did a song of his called “Hope” with a bowed bass solo that almost made me cry it was so beautiful.
Monty’s drummer could be the best drummer in the world. I was blown away by this guy’s incredible control. He had the perfect touch with every beat. No exaggeration! Both the drummer and bass player had genuine smiles on their faces the entire set. Monty had a blast finding his groove and hit his master showman stride singing Day O and Nat King Cole’s “Lorraine” with a Nat imitation. He reached into into a black bag to pull out a melodica to play amazing versions of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” and “Running Away” and then an instrumental that we recognized from Augustus Pablo.
I’ve posted more photos of the Jazz Fest here.
Leave a commentYou Can Almost Hear Her
As great as the three horn players in the Dafnis Prieto Sextet were at Kilbourn Hall last night they looked like lunks standing in front of the band leader even when they weren’t playing. We stood in line with kids wearing t-shirts with drums on them and a guy in the bathroom had a t-shirt for a drum throne company! The owner of Cadence Drum Store was there. This was drummer’s gig but the complicated arrangements all got in the way. I snagged this shot when the horn players finally got out of the way. One song hit a nice Cuban groove. We wanted to feel like we were on vacation and were expecting more. We should have stuck around for the last song when Dafnis sang one drum part and played another on a hand drum.
This gig was billed as Paula Gardner Trio w/ Huw Warren. We sat next to some people who were raving about Huw Warren’s performance here the night before. The band played as a trio for most of an hour before Huw took the stage. Their songs are sparse and gentle. The natural reverb in this church setting complimented their performance which came off like one of those pristine ECM records from the early seventies. There was a folky side to all this too. The band is from Wales and bass player, Paula has spent some time exploring that country’s Celtic roots. The drummer, Mark O’Connor’s playing was crisp and right on. He was one of my favorite drummers of this festival.
We stopped in RoCo to see the 6×6 show on the way out of the church and then ran into Dan Hanley outside of Greenwood Books where this band of Eastman students was playing. I always get a kick out of left handed drummers because it all looks backwards to me. Another woman bass player and she played beautifully. You can almost hear her by the look on her face.
More Jazz Fest photos can be found here.
Leave a commentDuke Ellington Coins For Jonas KullhammarJ
The guy on the left is one of our Jazz Fest buddies. We compare notes, sit with each other and he gave us a Duke Ellington quarter the other day. First black man and/or musician on a US coin. About time. Hal is giving one of the coins to the European performers at the Fest and we caught him passing them out to Jonas Kullhammer as we filed into the Xerox Auditorium.
The Jonas Kullhammar Quartet have been together for eleven years. They sound sound that way but they also sound fresh. Jonas jokes with the crowd between songs about looking for a wife in “Beautiful Rochester”. That charm obviously works for him and it may just open doors to their dense, wild, swinging, musically rich music. All four are tremendous players and fun to watch. Our favorite tune of the night was written by the bass player about a former girlfriend. I plan to request that one tonight when we hear them at the Lutheran Church. I’m happy to say I survived this appearance by the band. When they were here five years ago I lost it.
Peggi led the way as we ran from the Xerox Auditorium in order to catch Soren Kjaergaards Optics at the Lutheran Church. The piano player looks like our nephew, Caleb, will in another ten years and we saw him last year in our favorite act of the year, Blake TarTar. He is a delicate and delightful piano player. The great Andrew Cyrille was on drums and contributed the perfect accompaniment to these abstract and beautiful pieces.
We caught a bit of Stephane Wrembel Trio on the free street stage. I dug the guys unusual drum set up. World music drums that he mostly played with brushes. The bass payer looked like a young Bob Dylan. The band is from France and is not a trio. There was another guitar player out of range of my camera. They sounded like they have played their gypsy jazz music a million times.
We stood outside Christ Church for a while because the Neil Cowley Trio had filled the place. While waiting one of the volunteer workers told us that there was plenty of room over at Max’s because people were leaving in droves after each song. She described their music as “very contemporary”, the way some people describe abstract art that hate. We took this as a good review and made a mental note to check them out. Neil Cowley Trio are pegged as the British Bad Plus and that sort of works. The Bad Plus, though, are more rambunctious and unpredictable.
Jon Ballantyne Trio was abstract. No bass player in a trio will clear the air. Jon Ballantyne played the inside of the piano as well as the keys and the drummer bowed a metal percussion instrument while the bass clarinet explored the wide range of this long instrument. It was the perfect way to end the night.
My 2009 Jazz Fest notes are kept here.
4 CommentsInto The Light Filled Void
We were sort of lost on the second night because none of the night’s sound files excited us. We read the blurbs in booklets but we make decisions with our ears. And we know that sometimes a band will sound great live while their recordings are lifeless so we soldiered on. We ran into Rick and Monica coming out of Tim Posgate’s Banjo Hockey at the Xerox Auditorium. Monica warned us, “they aren’t improvising”. We gave it a shot. Indeed they were reading and then playing while we watched.
Nordic Connect at the Lutheran Church was melodic piano-based compositions and featured two sisters on horns playing arranged parts with the trumpet player’s husband on drums. For me they really hit the mark with a piece written by the trumpet player and dedicated to the planet. The piano player switched to the Fender Rhodes, the drummer played mallets and the tune sounded like something from Miles’ “In A Silent Way” lp. Not like one of those tunes but just pretty.
There is something maniacal about deadlines for a review of the night’s shows for the morning papers. But Jeff Spevak is better at this than anybody. He finds the color in every assignment and makes it all sound like fun. If only you could find his stuff online. The D&C continues to make their website the least hospitable stop on the web. Every time I go there they have added a new layer of nav bars. It is almost impossible to use. The articles disappear in ten days unless you want to pay for them. And we do subscribe if anybody cares. Did they really set up a blog for Jeff on the “HerRochester” site? We were happy to see him on a Mac this year.
Terrel Stafford Quartet at Montage was really good. They were all really great players, in fact. But we long not for the academic with the perfect tone but for the edge that reminds us we are alive. Like the moment when Terrel sat out during their version of “Taking A Chance On Love”. He leaned against the dark door to the right of the stage in this photo and the door flew open. Terrel almost fell into the light filled void.
These are excerpts from my 2009 jazz fest notes.
1 CommentRochester Loves Bang
In a repeat of 2005 we started the Festival with the Bill Frisell Trio at Kilbourn Hall. There was a lot more interplay with this trio than the last one. Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen are great players and fun to watch. I wish Bill had given them a little space of their own but it is Bill’s band after all. The show started with about five minutes of bird sounds and they worked the tweets into the first tune. Bill was was wearing the dumpiest white sport coat you’ve ever seen. He handles his effects boxes, including the one labeled Kook”, with exceptional flair. You are always aware that they are part of his sound but they are never obtrusive. Each song was distinct from the next and they ranged from Dead-like wandering to Monk swing with some very pretty stuff in between.
We ran into Jeff Spevak and Margaret and Martin Edic and Bill and Geri and Sharon from the Genesee Center for the Arts all coming out of the first show of Billy Bang. Everyone was smiling and raving about the the last number they had just heard, Ornette’s “Lonely Woman”.
Along with their sponsorship bucks Xerox has opened the doors to their beautiful performing arts center. We had front row seats for Billy Bang and the band sounded tremendous in this venue. I remember being here in the mid seventies for jazz shows. The stage is low and wide open. Billy had his regular touring piano player and drummer and a new bass player, Hilliard Green, who looked and sounded like Willie Dixon. Look at this guy. He’s standing up back there but getting down! Billy also brought along a trumpet player for some reason. We’ve seen these guys many times and they are always great. Gutsy, they swing and take it to the edge, reworking Billy’s beautiful, haunting, Viet Nam melodies so they never get old.
Billy Bang’s drummer did an old fashioned spoon solo during their version of “All Blues”. Rochester loves Bang. Billy scored a few songs for for Rochester’s Garth Fagan Dance and Garth told Bang, “Billy, you’ve got to play your solo the same way each time because I have arranged these movements for my dancers. ” Billy told the crowd, “Garth taught me how to play Billy Bang”.
These are excerpts from my 2009 jazz fest notes.
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