Category: Lopsided Observations

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.

This duck couple looks pretty happy over in Spring Valley.

Last week Fed Lipp passed out copies of a Wolf Kahn interview from an Art Institute of Chicago publication. Both Fred and Kahn studied there but at different times. I didn’t know anything about Kahn but this interview was so concise and action packed that that I went to learn more.

His paintings, mostly bold New England landscapes in high-key colors, are painted from memory and they walk a line between abstraction and representational. They fit Horace’s definition of the purpose of art. They “inform and delight”. Kahn was a refugee from Hitler’s Germany, he studied with Hans Hoffmann and he took Charlie Parker home from the Five Spot when he was messed up. He also wrote a book called,” Wolf Kahn’s America” which I plan to look for in the library as soon as Jerome’s Ignition finishes with our car’s oil change. Still no wireless over here but the waiting room couldn’t be more pleasant.

Kahn, in his eighties now, spends ten hours a day, seven days a week in his studio in lower Manhattan. Summers are spent in West Brattleboro, Vermont where he says he has become “the court painter to the to the chamber music establishment” due to the nearby Marlboro Festival. “Up in Vermont, they understand there is such a thing as culture, not just agriculture.” He considers himself “one of the fortunate people of the world” and “a workaholic”. When asked where he spends his vacation, he says, “My whole life’s a vacation”.

My ears are still ringing from last night’s show at the Bug Jar. Hinkley played as a duo of guitar and drums with some keyboard. Will writes great songs and they sounded really powerful in this lean setting. The street out front filled with cop cars as Margaret Explosion took the stage. Someone was shot on the sidewalk in front of the Vietnamese place across the street and they did the whole white chalk crime scene routine. It was some stiff competition. When we finished Larry Feldman told us we “fiddled while Rome burned.” Nod was great. Joe even took Peggi’s request for “World Still Wants You”. Nod is great dance band but they play too loud to be in the same room with. So hung around out front for most of their set.

The Bug Jar is the same as it ever was and I was happy to see that. We hadn’t been here in a while. Hermie is a bartender right out o the movies and the crowd is always friendly. Peggi and I both ordered water and it was nasty tasting. So I asked for an empty glass and get some water out of the tap in the bathroom that tasted great. The recent addition of tvs sucks. It is almost impossible to not look at those damn things especially when they’re tuned to the cartoon channel. Brian Schaffer, Nod’s drummer, had some of his ex students there cheering him on. After the show one of them told Brian, “Learn some Dead covers and we’ll come back next time”.

It’s almost impossible to see our tiny jalapeno pepper plants. We had to mark them with sticks so we don’t step on them while watering. We got sort of a late start with the seeds. I hope they produce fruit before Fall. We put peppers in everything.

Marianne Faithfull singing an acapella version of “As Tears Go By” was not enough to save Godard’s “Made In The USA” which we saw on the big screen at the Dryden Theater last night. It was wearing me out trying to figure out what the hell was going on until I finally let it go and just took in the beautiful colors and let the dialog just wash over me.

But set in Atlantic City but shot in France with no attempt at all to make it look like the US, it works on some crazy level. Filmed in 1966, it is very stylish still and some lines will live forever like Godard’s wife, Anna Karina, saying’ “I think advertising is a form of fascism” and “facism will pass, like mini skirts and rock and roll.”

Duane Sherwood is posting his favorite reggae singles to So Many Records So Little Time while Kevin is in Europe with the sensational Matt & Kim. I was helping Duane with his first entry and he mentioned that he was headed out later to to drum with his posse Prospect Park. He said he’d call on his iPhone and let us listen in. I kinda forgot all about that and headed down to the basement to paint.

Later on Peggi stopped down to see me and said someone had called on the business line and it was all music. She listened for a few minutes and then they hung up. She said it sounded like Ethiopian music or some other kid f world music. She heard a sax in there too. I said it might have been Kevin calling form Paris. About a half hour after that I realized it was Duane calling from the park.

Spring is more intense every year. At least that is how I see it. The explosion of new growth in the woods is just overwhelming. We were lucky enough to get out for a walk today and found this little moss covered cave dwelling. We skirted the golf course at one point and I found five balls. One was a translucent pink Slazenger. If our street had any traffic, I’d set up a stand and sell these by the dozen. I’d undercut that guy on Lakeshore Boulevard.

My high school girlfriend made friends with me last night on Facebook. And on top of that I came across a song from that time period that I absolutely loved. We have been moving the So Many Records site to a new server and in the process we’ve tidied up the music players and pop-up enlargements. “Boogaloo Down Broadway” by The Fantastic Johnny C. sounds as good as it ever did.

The morning paper had a story about this Saturday’s Dylan Tribute and for some reason it featured a Margaret Explosion photo. We were invited to do a song there but we are hardly the featured act. Chuck Cuminale, the ultimate Dylan fan and critic, started this tribute twenty some years ago and I will always think of him in connection with this event. He even shares a birth date this week week with Bob.

Besides the eye candy, Spring comes with equally impressive scents and sounds. The nearby wetlands vibrate like a post modern symphony with small frogs (peepers) gurgling in unison to attract mates. It is as calming and beautiful as Tuvan throat singing monks but more organic, freer in time with overlapping monophonic harmonies. This is way beyond om.