March 29, 2007
IT'S DARK OUT HERE
could it be that this blog is morphing into a small-biz web site for the newly-constituted pclef music dot org?
yes! no. not really. I just like how the logo looks with the guitars. and I have nothing much on my mind today, vs. a whole lot of work.
well, one thing...
I accidentally caught the dauphin's bit at the radio & tv correspondents dinner last night...I've got to say that I found his monologue very funny...I began wondering who wrote it for him--dennis miller? or...? that's all I could think of. there aren't any funny right-wing comedians (they exist, sure, but not funny ones, unless you happen to wet yourself over larry the cable guy), and I'd argue that miller jumped the shark big-time once he left hbo and began shilling for the bushies...but I digress...clearly, bush has a way with tragedy, but I think he ought to stick with comedy from now on...even if it was clearly a performance...his facial expression after he sat down was very, very dark...
hey georgie porgie, join the club...
...
also:
'syriana' is a fascinating and engrossing film...
barry galbraith was a freaking genius...
I thank my lucky stars that I purchased Cormac McCarthy's The Road before it became blandished and festooned by the Oprah Book Club sticker...the book is a masterpiece; I'm glad more people will read it now...though I am continually baffled as to why anyone would look to a self-aggrandizing charlatan from television for advice on what to read...it is indeed interesting that she follows up her james frey debacle with the latest book from our greatest living novelist...not taking any chances on confessional claptrap this time...
...
March 28, 2007
AND STAY OUT!
you know, I thought a lot about that first sentence. I wanted to get the wording just right. they say they want to come to new york. to help us. to serve our communities. but now they say it "isn't worth it" to do business here. hmmm. maybe that's because nobody wants them here. this is where organized labor got its cojones, mister lee scott...and you can bet that we have lots and lots of experience at smelling a rat...
also, just try to induce a new yorker to perform a corporate "cheer" and see what that gets you...
have fun screwing over the rest of the country...
...
March 26, 2007
THREE WERE BOUGHT FOUR WERE NOT
...new logo and family portrait...see below for guitar show...
Over the past two years, I've been on a very steady and labored tear into the wilds of guitar buildin' & fixin'...and since I've entered into a bit of a midwinter woodshedding time, I've been getting a little promiscuous with the slabs...two years ago most of these had issues--they were either in need of an overhaul, a tune-up, replacement parts or new pickups, or they were still part of a tree...so there came a time recently when it began to dawn on me that I have accumulated quite a few nice-sounding birds...
permit me a bit of geekery to spin the details on each...
2005 olympic white "pre cbs" strat...the lovestrat...headstock inscribed "a love supreme" in fender type, beneath my daughter's initials in a faux-gaelic font...antiquity pickups...sperzel tuners...warmoth body & compound radius neck with "clapton" contour...finished with reranch nitro right here in sunny maplewood...sounds like texas...or with a germanium boost, very evocative of rory gallagher's tone...mission accomplished...
1978 les paul custom...bought used during gulf war I from a guy who needed cash to get to DC...has served in several bands over the years...mechanical bride, doomster, luster, the vain rakes, and a few others you've never heard of...once I started building the fenders we took a break from each other...recently I replaced all the wiring and controls and it is getting a new lease on life...because of the extra maple, it does get a brighter tone than a typical les paul, which is great for rockabilly stuff, and quite a handy voice in service of the great american songbook...
2006 fiesta red telecaster "junior"...home-built tele...very light swamp ash body from usa custom...<4 lbs...reverse control plate orientation...sperzel tuners...warmoth neck with custom "lisa marie" script and cloned fender spaghetti-style logo...featuring the greatest bridge pickup ever invented--the harmonic design super 90...with a seymour tele antiquity in the neck position, which is also great...I replaced and upgraded an entire fender tele to arrive at this instrument, which is now in my shop, in disassembled parts...finished entirely in reranch nitro, with a touch of tinted lacquer to "age" the color via tints of orange...despite the various strats, this is probably my favorite guitar for playing straight-up chicago blues...it's in the running for the jazz trio as well...lots of tone, no squeal...
frankenstrat: late 80s black "caprice classic"...way back when I bought this cheap charvel strat for $200...the idea was to have a backup for the les paul, which at the time was my main working instrument, and is a very heavy guitar when you're putting in a 9-10 hour rehearsal week...it's now been heavily modified...in addition to the "caprice classic" logo plate, which was discovered in a puddle in front of the old knitting factory, it sports a warmoth maple "boatneck" which replaced the awful-looking hockey paddle neck, for the spandex stylee metal set...seymour jb trembucker in bridge, fender 57/62 in middle, neck pickup was salvaged from a guitar which was set on fire in cbgb...it's probably the best jazz tone I've got in the house...you'd never know by looking at it...floyd bridge is blocked off by an old sears tool I found in my grandpa's toolbox...that's where it gets the mojo...also, a very long time ago a woman I was infatuated with dumped me because I spent money on this instead of on a plane ticket to visit her...which turned out to be 100% the right decision...it's a bona fide antennae pointed straight at the mothership...it is a creation of accident and as such it works unlike any other instrument I own...
...click pic to enlarge...
in the brand-spanking-new tweed fender case w/red plush is my 1974 fender strat...it was purchased used in buffalo new york for $450 in the late 80s...it was a sucky guitar. natural wood finish. funky neck with worn frets. impossible to intonate, even if I then knew how. nothing remains from this period. all parts, including the neck were removed. the new neck is flame maple with brazilian rosewood...the pic doesn't do it justice...boatneck contour, again from warmoth...grover locking tuners...bone nut...6105 frets (always)...reranch lake placid blue nitro finish...it was murder getting the old poly finish to strip off...many applications of airline stripper...stinky...messy...poisonous...no fun...seymour lipstick tube pickups, with stellartone custom tone pot...wilkinson/gotoh vsvg vintage tremolo...extremely dynamic, great tone variety, can do anything from surf to jazz to garage...tentatively titled "skronkmaster"... it will be the first headstock logo that I've designed and put on myself...my talented bro-in-law has been helping me out with his amazing fender repro's for a while now, thought I'd try my hand...
2005 Gibson J-45...an awesome awesome AWESOME instrument...if the house were burning down I hope this one's nearby for me to grab...purchased from a production company in times square, this guitar was ordered straight from the factory for the one-month broadway run of some rock musical (not "lennon")...I really ought to try and remember the name...anyway it's mahogany and rosewood and sounds/plays like a dream...very much the rhythm guitar sound on many a beloved rolling stones album...
ibanez AS80 "artstar"...nice little 335 copy, a something-something birthday present from mrs. stratcat...recently installed a set of grover rotomatic tuners...the whole idea was to get something like this to play more jazz with...so I did...and do...the only instrument I ever purchased at guitar center, and the only one I ever will again...but she pulled it down off the rack and I'll be darned if I couldn't find a single other one that came close...looks nice too...
in the foreground, a snippet of the chandler lap steel...
all strats and teles are shielded! got noise? copper tape is the answer...
here endeth the geekery...
exeunt the coxcomb...
...
A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME
...a nonpost for a nonday...
just getting the apparatus back into shape...achy-wakey on a monday...the mrs. has a bad cold, and I'm tired from splitting my time between painting the living room and minding an active 3-year old...however I did take a few minutes to spend time with my lp blue strat (not the one pictured--mine has a few alterations), and I've got to say that there is something rather seductive about that color. no wonder it originated on an automobile...actually, not just any automobile, it started life as the color of a 1958 cadillac...
...
March 22, 2007
HE SHALL BE LEVON
...and he shall be a good man...
someone told me the other day, legend has it that elton john, fan of bob dylan, became aware of "the band" (at the time his backing group) and upon discovering the names of the players, got to work with bernie taupin on a tune using the drummer's first name.
as if that matters.
I became aware of the band in westhampton beach, at the movie theater, when I got in to see the last waltz. I was completely unaware of them as a group, but I was very aware of some of the other names on the list, chief among them mr. muddy waters. neil young, van morrison, eric clapton and joni mitchell probably enticed me as well. but back then I'd just discovered the "I'm Ready" album and so was excited to see the man in the flesh. looking back, I'm pretty sure that robbie robertson's guitar playing had quite an effect on me. the rest of it was interesting, but mainly in a non-musical way. it was 1978, and I'd never seen ANYBODY make cigarettes look so damn cool as did messrs robertson and helm. thus did the band help get me started on a relationship with marlboro reds that continued over the next 25 years or so...(also: stratocasters)...
but that's neither here nor there. last friday I saw levon helm, and his band, at the beacon theater. and what a band...a full backline, as they say...with horns, keys, multiple singers and the sound of the beacon it was quite a roar...special guests included allan toussaint and warren haynes...both of them tore the house up, with mr. haynes providing probably the highlight, an insanely well-sung version of "I shall be released"...I was aware of his great guitar playing, but who knew what a singer he was? is? I guess I never could get right with the generally weak govt mule songwriting, but given the right vehicle, wow.
however, nobody was ever upstaged. they had, as one might expect, a mini-set in the middle with levon on mandolin and the others joining in on acoustic instruments. larry campbell and jimmy vivino were the guitarists. larry is the craftsman, but for my money mr. vivino is the soulman. loved the tone he got on his telecaster. aside from this core, there was a 4-piece horn section, a section of backing vocalists (made up of members of the opening bands--ollabelle and another "ramble" group, the alexis p. suter band)...ollabelle is his daughter amy's band--interesting sidebar here...they played a cover of the dead's 'brokedown palace,' which I quite enjoyed...so, I dig the song...ergo, what's my beef with the grateful dead? I think I've located the answer: jerry. oh well. a belle... anyway, daughter amy helm sings, plays various instruments, and duets with her dad beautifully (remember emmylou on 'evangeline?' yep they did that one)...as a dad to a little girl myself I've got to admit that those harmonies literally brought a few tears to my eyes...but not for long, 'cuz the house was a-rockin' with nearly every instrument in the store--at any given time one saw/heard accordion, hammond b-3 organ, fender rhodes (mr. toussaint noodled on the rhodes for most of the show), fiddle, piano, percussion, acoustic guitars and mandolins, slide guitar, blues harp, tuba, baritone sax, tenor sax, trombone, trumpet & slide trumpet. and mr. haynes brought with him the gibson les paul.
I told my friend that if either of us were church-goers, this week we'd be off the hook. the show literally created a church. there was rejoicing, clapping, singing, shimmying, and a general sense of bliss throughout...the musicians conjured new orleans music, blues, jazz, folk, country, and good old rock n roll. in essence, it was an old-fashioned revue. during the final encore I counted 19 performers onstage. and around the periphery of the stage, friends and family were allowed to spectate in a manner befitting a picnic--I spotted at least 4 kids in their footy pajamas, dancing along...
the show started at 8pm--by 9:15 levon was on-stage and they didn't quit until after 11:30. that's real work. an admirable showing for anybody, but to perform at that level, when you're 67 years old (he's just two months younger than my dad) and just recovered from throat cancer, then I gotta say: respect.
I'm now engineering a crash course in the band's discography. I hear there's a lot more music to get through than was played in that scorsese picture with the cigarettes...
...
don't just take it from me...
...
March 21, 2007
THE BEAUTY OF INFLECTIONS OR THE BEAUTY OF INNUENDOES
"
Poetry is the subject of the poem,
From this the poem issues and
To this returns. Between the two,
Between issue and return, there is
An absence in reality,
Things as they are. Or so we say.
"
today is NATIONAL POETRY DAY. pictured above, one of my heroes: wallace stevens...who is responsible for the except above (from "the man with the blue guitar") and the masterpiece below...
THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.
XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
(1917)
...
...
March 20, 2007
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
...so here's your future...
this morning's post was almost too depressing for (even) me...bad emo fallout from domestic squabbles...nothing more cathartic (or pathetic) than a public airing of one's besmirched union suit...
still trying to encapsulate my reactions to recent events--levon helm at the beacon, meeting my niece for the first time, and so forth...fairly significant events! evidence of just how majorly p.o.'d I was from aforementioned fracas...
in guitar nerd news I have the most banal of announcements to make...I've had this super-heavy les paul for ages now...so after years of chronic pain in my left shoulder (you young woodshedders take note) I finally wised up to the importance of an extra-wide guitar strap...ooooooooohhhhh.....sooooooo comfy.....it's now nearly as user-friendly as my telecaster, which weighs in at less than 4 lbs...
go you huskies!!
...
LOVE STINKS
dark season. season of fighting. plodding slavedrum of joylessness and duty. the angry dictate of thankless work. persecution. recrimination. sorrow.
the ineffable inability of humans to learn anything from past wrongs. the stubborn divide between man and woman. the longing for home that never ends.
Q: why do people go to florida to die? A: no income tax. we have it backwards. we should all grow up in a feckless (taxless?) sunblasted oceanfront, then move north when we grow old. the suburbs are a much better place to die. who would be sad to leave such a place?
...
March 19, 2007
STEWART COPELAND IS A MORON
...so I was by myself, thinking about myself, and I thought to myself, about myself, that this question--and I can only speak for myself--if it were me, and again it isn't about me, but if it were, and I were involved personally....you know this reminds me of a funny story...I was by myself, thinking about myself, and I thought to myself...
Anybody happen to catch any of the "new conference" that accompanied the launch of the Police reunion tour last month? anybody hear stewart copeland pipe in? I'd never realized what a major tool he is. and I think the entire world just assumed that they broke up because sting is an arrogant egotist who realized he didn't need this band anymore. and perhaps that's true. but it's quickly apparent to anyone who listens to this man speak--e.g. asking a reporter if they're italian ("hey I'm 1/2 italian too! italians rock! paisan! awesome!") and then gushing like a sorority girl at dance-in-a-circle time--might conclude that the brooding good looks, strong/silent type impression all these years was a complete misunderstanding of a guy who's really just a huge dork...that the real case at hand was that sting, and perhaps andy summers too, had made enough money and now they didn't have to be around stewart copeland anymore. and the only way either of them would be willing to spend months on end with this vainglorious cretin would be if the payday was just too monstrous to ignore. in 2007 this number may have been met, and separate tour buses booked...
but with no plans to participate in the money grab that is the reunited police, I simply moved on and thought no more about mr. copeland or mr. sting. then I was made aware of this blurb in a recent interview...
"I read something where a writer said that you have some sort of aversion to jazz?
Stewart Copeland:
It's a fun party trick, but I am allergic to jazz. I was raised to be a jazz musician, my father was a jazz musician and I was steeped in jazz from the moment my ears blinked open, which is why I am immune to jazz. And my main reason why I love dissing jazz is jazz musicians. The problem with jazz musicians is that they are all crap. It's sort of like jazz is the refuge of the talent-less. If you really want to be a musician and you are prepared to really work hard at it, but you don't have the gift and you don't have any soul and you don't have any talent, jazz is what you should do; because all you need to do is just spend hours training your fingers to wiggle very quickly and you'll be a hero in the jazz world. Not so in blues. In blues you need talent, you need X factor, you need heart, you need to have lived a life, you have to have something to say, you need to be an actual musician to play the blues. Jazz, any fool can do it; all you gotta do is practice.
And do you think that hold true for the elite, for folks like Jack DeJohneete?
I love Jack DeJohneete. Some of the others – Miles [Davis], mostly crap. Some of his early records where he had Tony Williams, great, I love those. But mostly it was crap. He was out of tune and he was a fucking junky and it sounded like shit. It was utterly preposterous. The king just wasn't wearing any clothes. Coltrane, same thing. [In a condescending voice] "Love supreme, love supreme" it's a joke.
It's commendable to hear people speak up for what they believe.
Stewart Copeland:
Well half of all this is just because I enjoy the frisson caused by such comments, and the other thing that colors all this is that it's not about the music, it's about the guys. Jazz musicians as a rule are stuck up snobs. And the reason is because they don't get laid! Rock musicians get laid, jazz musicians don't!
That would piss anyone off.
And it turns them into grouchy people to hang with.
"
note the botched spelling of Jack DeJohnette's name. the interviewer seems pre-literate, at least as far as his subject matter is concerned. Mr. Copeland's entire claim to fame lies in performing a repertoire based on a lite-fm-deep reggae influence, a pro forma application of blonde hair dye and the fact that just one of the three members (mr. sting) possessed the indefinable quantity known as charisma. for a man of such low artistry and apparently primitive listening skills, to summarily dismiss miles davis and john coltrane in a single paragraph, I think belies a deep well of jealousy and insecurity. also: what a dick!
In one hundred years time, I wonder which will be more widely appreciated as good music: "a love supreme" or "da doo doo doo da da da da"????
...
March 18, 2007
WHY ARE THEY PERSECUTING THIS WONDERFUL MAN?
Previous schpiels have been perp'd from this locale on AG Alberto, back when his nomination was still being vetted, as well as taking note of his sterling leadership and vision.
Let's hope this blows over. His ability to read robotically from an index card is indeed the very grease that gunks our great engine of state. I for one am looking forward to his medal of freedom ceremony next year...
...
March 16, 2007
MOTHER
"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -- or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read." --Alice Walker
Mine certainly did. She gave me everything. She was love personified. And I miss her every single day.
Happy Birthday Mom.
Oonah Buckley Clarke
March 16, 1941- October 1, 1998
...
March 15, 2007
JUST A THOUGHT
shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love shine a little love right now.
...
"THEN WHAT?"
...what he said...
Can someone explain to me why Joe Biden isn't yet the media-annointed front runner? Did anyone see Hilary at Selma? She is just awful at this sort of thing, which some behaviorists have described as "human emotion"...
So far, Barack is an excellent speech-giver and I'd love to see him get tenure as veep, but nobody else yet has given me as much to think about--in clear, practical terms--as Biden. Break up Iraq into a tripartite federalcy? sounds like a helluva good idea...
...
Today is the anniversary of the day (or so legend has it) that the Roman Senate rose up at once and murdered the all-powerful and corrupted Julius Caesar...I do not endorse the use of the daggers but it's a nice thought--elected representatives removing bad rulers via collective action...they can start by calling for the head (so to speak) of alberto gonzalez before moving on to deadeye dick and the imbecile dauphin....beware the ides of March!!!
...
March 14, 2007
TODAY'S WISE CRACK
"If you fancy yourself above politics you are actually in collaboration with the enemies of civilization, who would love you to think that. "
--Clive James, in today's Slate
...
PROGRESS
...one down, 534 to go...
lifted from here...
Congressman Holds No God-Belief
Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) is first Congress member in history to acknowledge his nontheism
There is only one member of Congress who is on record as not holding a god-belief.
Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), a member of Congress since 1973, acknowledged his nontheism in response to an inquiry by the Secular Coalition for America. Rep. Stark is a senior member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and is Chair of the Health Subcommittee.
Although the Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office, the Coalition's research reveals that Rep. Stark is the first open nontheist in the history of the Congress. Recent polls show that Americans without a god-belief are, as a group, more distrusted than any other minority in America. Surveys show that the majority of Americans would not vote for an atheist for president even if he or she were the most qualified for the office.
Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition for America, attributes these attitudes to the demonization of people who don't believe in God. "The truth is," says Silverman, "the vast majority of us follow the Golden Rule and are as likely to be good citizens, just like Rep. Stark with over 30 years of exemplary public service. The only way to counter the prejudice against nontheists is for more people to publicly identify as nontheists. Rep. Stark shows remarkable courage in being the first member of Congress to do so."
In October, 2006 the Secular Coalition for America, a national lobby representing the interests of atheists, humanists, freethinkers, and other nontheists, announced a contest. At the time, few if any elected officials, even at the lowest level, would self-identify as a nontheist. So the Coalition offered $1,000 to the person who could identify the highest level atheist, agnostic, humanist or any other kind of nontheist currently holding elected public office in the United States.
In addition to Rep. Stark only three other elected officials agreed to do so: Terry S. Doran, president of the School Board in Berkeley, Calif.; Nancy Glista on the School Committee in Franklin, Maine; and Michael Cerone, a Town Meeting Member from Arlington, Mass.
Surveys vary in the percentage of atheists, humanists, freethinkers and other nontheists in the U.S, with about 10% (30 million people) a fair middle point. "If the number of nontheists in Congress reflected the percentage of nontheists in the population," Lori Lipman Brown, director of the Secular Coalition, observes, "there would be 53-54 nontheistic Congress members instead of one."
...funny how they word it "nontheism" as opposed to big bad atheism...
March 13, 2007
ABUSE OR NEGLECT?
...the few...
...the proud...
I am waiting to hear an answer to a very simple, obvious question: why is it that the disgraceful conditions and neglect at Walter Reed have resulted in resignations/firings amongst top Army brass in charge of running the place, but the abuses at Abu Ghraib resulted ONLY in prosecution of soldiers at the very bottom of the command chain?
I'm just wondering...
...
March 12, 2007
March 09, 2007
PREZ
...I've got big eyes for lester's people...
I'm not going to create a dr. phil moment here, but one of the things I've had to deal with most of my life is depression...and as is the case with most of us who are thus afflicted, the antidotes are often self-destructive--alcohol abuse, anger/violence, drug abuse, lassitude, the brooding, the sense of unending ennui--all well-documented at this point in the development of the mental health arts & sciences...
so what does this have to do with the great jazz musician pictured above? well, I just wanted to share something that I've found to be the best "medication" this side of unplanned sex: the music of lester young.
I can't explain it. honestly. I listen to jazz a lot. more recently, I've been listening to jazz exclusively. the whole gamut--from louis to ornette. I get different things from different artists, but what I get from lester young is a feeling of happiness, of well-being, of optimism, indeed the very real palliative effects of swing music. And I'm not talking about his classic solos with count basie or any other big band. I'm talking about his small combo studio recordings, some of which feature harry "sweets" edison, whom I once heard play live in person, (and who also swung like a mofo)...
there are other reasons to dig on prez...his colorful and unique approach to dress, the way he held his horn (pictured above), and even the way he spoke--he single-handedly invented much of the hipster slang that has survived to the present day. and his tone, that great soaring voice, is one of the great achievements in the pantheon of the tenor saxophone...some say that his musical kinship with billie holiday was because his sound so closely resembled the human voice...particularly hers...
more info and biographical details can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here and elsewhere...my task today is not to enlighten the internets on the history of jazz. but if, like me, you are burdened by an ultra-sensitive antennae and you're surfing the downside of your mood swings, check out some lester young. you might just find yourself, in spite of yourself, smiling...
have a great weekend....
...
HAPPY 77TH BIRTHDAY TO ORNETTE COLEMAN...!!!!!
(still inventing the shape of jazz to come...)
...
March 07, 2007
TRADE PAPERS AND CHECK YOUR ANSWERS
...you might simply have checked the name of the jpg...
yesterday I was gently taken to task for never following up to reveal the answers to last week's Bebop Pop Quiz...
I suppose I'd considered the answers to be relatively easy, but forgive me if I left anyone grasping at straws...
the man playing the alto saxophone is Charlie Parker. After Louis Armstrong, he is widely considered to be one of the great virtuosos of the genre. He helped popularize (invented?) bebop, changed how the music is performed and even changed how it is conceptualized (see "bebop changes")...the bass player is a young man named Charles Mingus, who also had a major impact via his bass playing, arranging, and groundbreaking compositions....the pianist is Thelonius Monk, who was the house piano player at Minton's in the 1940s, and is thought by many to be THE prime mover of the bebop era...his playing style was so unique that it's never really been duplicated since, and he too left with us a rich legacy of standard jazz tunes...
so who's the drummer? why, it's the great Roy Haynes. he is still alive. he has been a working musician since 1942. at this point, to adequately encompass his career, you'd literally need to write a book. I'll simply say that the man who played with Bird & Diz continues to perform with musicians young enough to be his grandchildren, and he's still burning...any conservative survey of his art would certainly put him on the short list of top two or three jazz drummers in the world...
here's a recent shot of roy tearing it up with some mallets!
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March 06, 2007
THE VICE PRESIDENT IS CORRUPT
...the scumbag behind the scumbag...
Phase one of the Scooter Libby presidential pardon begins today...
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March 05, 2007
COMEDY IS DEAD
...the funniest eyebrow in comedy history...
remembering the clown prince, John Belushi, who died 25 years ago today.
...and what did we all do back then, to honor our fallen hero, the overdose victim? why we all got loaded, naturally...
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BUT SOFT
...la-la-la-la-la-la-doh!@^$*&&)&^%......
I took out the ibanez 335 clone with the acoustasonic, over to thudstaff's house to run down some tunes...at low volume, in concert with the upright bass, it sounded awfully pretty. but then when things started cooking, and I started digging in a little bit, using a more aggressive attack, the ugliest solid state distortion you can imagine started happening...I reduced the volume, reduced volume on the guitar, lowered the pickup, brought my eq controls way down to zero...and these things helped a bit--later on I put a compressor in the signal path and that was good for getting rid of the distortion but it also makes the tone a bit dull...bottom line is that one can only expect limited results when using magnetic pickups through an amp that is designed for piezos...
but technical issues aside, it was a total gas running through changes, playing multiple choruses, and really improvising. after a few hours, my back hurt and my fretting hand was even a bit tired, a feeling I hadn't had in quite a number of years...
so musically fun, but technical issues remain to be puzzled out...
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March 02, 2007
TONE HOME
...sweet & petite...
last night I made my first guitar gear acquisition via barter, not cash. uncle kevyn got a guitar a few years back, and his significant other (who has since left the building) got him one of these as a xmas present. he never used it. I'm taking it home for the price of a few guitar lessons...
here's the interesting bit about the jazz guitar world...all the cliches you've heard--the superior tone of vacuum tubes, the tonal holy grail of the various tube screamer or fuzzface circuits, the sustaining qualities of your various strat pickups, the voicing of the correct telecaster/amp match (ac30? deluxe?), the spank of maple, the warmth of rosewood (etcetera) goes right out the window. it would seem, P90s aside, that the name of this game involves a single neck humbucker, a laminate plywood body (even ES175's have lam tops) a solid state amp, and...there is no "and"--that's it. clean, full tone. full bandwidth. the rest is fingers.
also, while I'm on this theme, the playing-by-ear method, so handy for blues playing and other folk forms, is really not viable unless you're a genius decoder on the level of wes montgomery (who also apparently achieved his renowned chops by foregoing any sleep for about a decade)--you're going to have to sight-read in order to get a set of tunes together with any kind of facility.
so despite having a nice little battery of fender-style axes, tube amps, a drawer full of overdrives, fuzz boxes and other assorted noisemakers in the key of loud, I'm spending most of my time using an off-the-rack $300 korean-made guitar, through a solid state, "acoustic" amp. ironically enough, I also plugged in the J45 last night, and it turns out that the acoustic guitar was my least-favorite tone on this "acoustic" amp. I'm a big hater of the piezo sound and will probably add a soundhold pickup or floating humbucker at some point. one nice aspect of this amp is the dual inputs--a standard 1/4" as well as an xlr. so, there is the easy solution for the acoustic guitar right there: point a mic at the bridge...
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sidebar: on 1010 WINS this morning, they were airing a story on the "three kinds of wal-mart shoppers"...are you a brand aspirational? a value shopper?
why should I care, or any of my neighbors? we don't have any wal-marts in the nyc area! it's obviously a story planted by the well-monied resources of wal-mart PR--spread media sound bytes as if there were a store here already. get the prospective customer base used to the idea of a wal-mart to weaken what's been, up to this point, a unified front against this company coming into town and upsetting our small business landscape. why ask what sort of shopper you are at a store that doesn't exist?
yet.
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March 01, 2007
HER TITS WERE GREATER THAN GERALD FORD
...welcome to Day 22 of TWANS coverage (today's headline: still dead)...
The Widow Anna Nicole Smith is to be buried this week. Maybe Friday. The judge has ruled. He has wept over the loss of those amazing cantilevered breasts (if there is a heaven, Russ Meyers is head of the welcoming committee), and now the case moves down the turnpike, nudged along by the jesus-loving texans and the drug-dispensing lawyer whose dollar-sign eyeballs have been illuminated by the klieg lights of Larry King.
Still, one hopes that they aren't being too hasty.
One expects that speeches will be made, such as was the case last year, when Coretta Scott King's funeral dominated media coverage for most of one day. Or perhaps the body should be given the ceremonial train ride around the Bahamas, so that her fellow Bahamanian citizens can line up by the tracks and weep, Lincoln-style (I know they're islands, but maybe they have one of those Disney trains that zooms over the water, or a glass-bottom hearse boat which the natives can swim toward with flowers in their teeth, as if she were the resurrected Fletcher Christian). One expects that a stateside ceremony, perhaps in a venue befitting her legacy (like the biggest swankiest titty bar in Houston, or TrimSpa global HQ), will be conducted before her remains are conducted to her final (?) resting place next to her recently-overdosed dead son. I think it's so appropriate, and yes, moving, that the junkie mother will be buried next to her junkie son. Truly, it is right and proper that her malfeasance and negligence as a parent will be immortalized for all time by her proximity to her victimized offspring, so that they can decompose next to one another, in ignominy, a bloodshot memorial to the exigencies of self-absorption, drug abuse, and plastic surgery. For years to come, tourists will have something new to do on their rainy vacation days--taking the TWANS tour, paying their respects to this famous prostitute. In fact, because she died during the early years of the 24-7 media era, she stands a good chance of becoming the most famous prostitute of the 20th century.
and that's news.
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