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Organissimo Should Record the Fictional Cochise Jones LP Redbonin


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Since you guys are an organ groove band, why not actually make the fictional 1973 CTI LP "Redbonin'" by the fictional Cochise Jones, as described in Michael Chabon's "Telegraph Avenue." You would have to write the title track, come up with a groovy arrangement of "I Don't Know How to Love Him," and come up with Pete Turner-esque album art.

Oh, and press it on vinyl.

I've been waiting for this album ever since I started reading the novel.

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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  • 1 month later...

Cochise Jones always liked to play against your expectations of a song, to light the gloomy heart of a ballad with a Latin tempo and a sheen of vibrato, root out the hidden mournfulness, the ache of longing, in an up-tempo pop tune. Cochise’s six-minute outing on the opening track of Redbonin’ was a classic exercise in B-3 revisionism, turning a song inside out. It opened with big Gary King playing a fat, choogling bass line, sounding like the funky intro to some ghetto-themed sitcom of the seventies, and then Cochise Jones came in , the first four drawbars pulled all the way out, giving the Lloyd Webber melody a treatment that was not cheery so much as jittery, playing up the anxiety inherent in the song’s title, there being so many thousand possible ways to Love Him, so little time to choose among them. Cochise’s fingers skipped and darted as if the keys of the organ were the wicks of candles and he was trying to light all of them with a single match. Then, as Idris Muhammad settled into a rolling burlesque-hall bump and grind, and King fell into step beside him, Cochise began his vandalism in earnest, snapping off bright bunches of the melody and scattering it in handfuls, packing it with extra notes in giddy runs. He was ruining the song, rifling it, mocking it with an antic edge of joy. (p. 279)

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Cochise Jones always liked to play against your expectations of a song, to light the gloomy heart of a ballad with a Latin tempo and a sheen of vibrato, root out the hidden mournfulness, the ache of longing, in an up-tempo pop tune. Cochise’s six-minute outing on the opening track of Redbonin’ was a classic exercise in B-3 revisionism, turning a song inside out. It opened with big Gary King playing a fat, choogling bass line, sounding like the funky intro to some ghetto-themed sitcom of the seventies, and then Cochise Jones came in , the first four drawbars pulled all the way out, giving the Lloyd Webber melody a treatment that was not cheery so much as jittery, playing up the anxiety inherent in the song’s title, there being so many thousand possible ways to Love Him, so little time to choose among them. Cochise’s fingers skipped and darted as if the keys of the organ were the wicks of candles and he was trying to light all of them with a single match. Then, as Idris Muhammad settled into a rolling burlesque-hall bump and grind, and King fell into step beside him, Cochise began his vandalism in earnest, snapping off bright bunches of the melody and scattering it in handfuls, packing it with extra notes in giddy runs. He was ruining the song, rifling it, mocking it with an antic edge of joy. (p. 279)

Yep - great book.

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Cochise Jones always liked to play against your expectations of a song, to light the gloomy heart of a ballad with a Latin tempo and a sheen of vibrato, root out the hidden mournfulness, the ache of longing, in an up-tempo pop tune. Cochise’s six-minute outing on the opening track of Redbonin’ was a classic exercise in B-3 revisionism, turning a song inside out. It opened with big Gary King playing a fat, choogling bass line, sounding like the funky intro to some ghetto-themed sitcom of the seventies, and then Cochise Jones came in , the first four drawbars pulled all the way out, giving the Lloyd Webber melody a treatment that was not cheery so much as jittery, playing up the anxiety inherent in the song’s title, there being so many thousand possible ways to Love Him, so little time to choose among them. Cochise’s fingers skipped and darted as if the keys of the organ were the wicks of candles and he was trying to light all of them with a single match. Then, as Idris Muhammad settled into a rolling burlesque-hall bump and grind, and King fell into step beside him, Cochise began his vandalism in earnest, snapping off bright bunches of the melody and scattering it in handfuls, packing it with extra notes in giddy runs. He was ruining the song, rifling it, mocking it with an antic edge of joy. (p. 279)

Yep - great book.

Yeah I agree with that. Just finished it.

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  • 9 years later...
On 9/14/2013 at 12:56 AM, Jim Alfredson said:

Ok, I looked it up (sorry was on my way out the door to a gig). Looks like an interesting read. I've put it on my next to read list for my kindle.

Jim, it's been nearly 10 years.  Kindly provide an update on the progress Organissimo has made toward recording the fictional Cochise Jones CTI album.  As stated, you will need to write a tune called "Redbonin'," and also work up a groovy version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him."  I don't know how much Don Sebeskey will charge you for doing the orchestral arrangements, if he's still working.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
38 minutes ago, Jim Alfredson said:

It's still a great idea but it might be viewed as inappropriate for me to pretend to be a Native American in this political climate.

Well, it wouldn't be viewed as a forgery if you listed yourselves in the credits and included a blurb about the inspiration.  It would be viewed as a concept album.  Similar to how Philip Jose Farmer wrote the novel Venus on the Half Shell by the fictional character Kilgore Trout (from Kurt Vonnegut's novels).

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