Johnny E

I wonder if the new Velvet is going to have that same ol' crappy Pearl drum set that the old Velvet used to have. Hamid used to to play the shit out of it though.

Has Jack Reilly ever LISTENED to Misha Mengelberg? Or John Stevens or Willem Brueker or Albert Mangelsdorff or Alex Von Schlippenbach or Kenny Wheeler or Fred Van Hove or Georg Graewe or Irène Schweizer or Lars Gullin? Maybe we all should write more. If Downbeat lets this nincompoop spew his ignorance on their pages, I'm sure 75% of the posters on this board could - only better and more knowledgeable.

I've always wanted Reptet to do a version of the Beatles Savoy Truffle. I also think Lather by the Jefferson Airplane would make a nice ballad - nose solo remains played by a nose of course...maybe the trombone players'? And the Pixies Wave of Multilation would make a great thumper.

My thoughts are with you and your family kevin.

Yes, the first disc was actually featured in audiophile magazine and the guy who mastered it says it's the best work he's ever done. The newest one captures what we sound like live a lot more...almost like you're in the room. I believe the new disc is a stronger recording performance wise, but that first one sure sounds nice. As far as The Gears, that was written by Gil Melle. I'm sure he must have taken a glance at that garbage can lid that dizzy wrote it on. Thanks for the support Joe, I'm so glad you like the records.

RIP Syd.

Glad you asked You can order it straight from us at http://www.reptet.com/buy.htm Or if you prefer an online retailer, you can buy it from amazon, tower or cd baby.

Please post or PM information about this club, its owner, the crowd it usually brings in or anything else you might know. We may be playing there in Oct. thanks

SLUG Magazine Reptet - Do This! (Monktail Records) Street: 06.16 Reptet = Thelonius Monk + Mingus Big Band A six-member, Seattle based jazz band that draws from a conglomerate of influences from Gil Evans-era Miles Davis, salsa, reggae and rock n’ roll, Reptet uses the big band format by playing themes together while making room for solos, similar to SLAJO. All of the players have solid chops. They can give a nod to the masters while adding their own studious flourishes. Reptet combines tight compositions with in-your-face improvisations, like the final minutes of the title track. As well as the regular jazz instruments, they pull out everything from a juju seed rattle to wooden ratchets, a bull moose call, frogs and train whistles. The most prevalent influences are Monk and Charles Mingus. They use some of those loopy Monk melodies that are as wobbly as a spinning top, while Mingus’ soulful, slow ballads are invoked in “H.R.” If you listen to jazz at all, these guys are worth checking out. –Spencer Jenkins

All Music Guide Reptet - Do This! (Monktail Records 2006) When the subject of avant-garde jazz scenes comes up in a conversation, the place that is often discussed the most - at least among New Yorkers - is downtown Manhattan (as in the East Village, Soho, and Tribeca). But avant-jazz activity certainly isn't limited to the Big Apple; not at all. There is plenty of it in Boston, Chicago, and many places in different parts of Europe, and Seattle is the city that, in 1999, saw the formation of Reptet. Do This!, the six-member group's second album, is not radically avant-garde, It is mildly avant-garde, and by avant-garde jazz standards, the material is relatively accessible. But at the same time, no one will mistake Do This! for a group of hard bop-oriented, standards-obsessed Young Lions who only play in the tradition. Do This! has it share of abstraction, quirkiness, and eccentricity, and while the material has been influenced by straight-ahead bop and swing, it is by no means enslaved by the tradition. The album favors an inside/outside approach - generally more inside than outside - and the group's long list of influences ranges from Charles Mingus to Gil Evans to Thelonious Monk to Ornette Coleman. The solos of trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, trombonist Ben OShea, and saxophonists Tobi Stone and Izaak Mills can be very free-spirited and stream-of-consciousness, but Do This! never becomes chaotic, and one of the album's strong points (in addition to the improvising and composing) is Reptet's cohesive ensemble arrangements. Listeners who have enjoyed the ensemble work of Boston's Either/Orchestra and other inside/outside outfits of the '90s and 2000s should have no problem getting into this early 2006 recording. ~by Alex Henderson~

I saw these guys in Seattle in 2003. Schlippenbach opened some amazing Monk stream-of-consciousness solo playing that blew my mind! I don't think he had it planned out at all...just skipping from one monk to the next, seamlessly - some of his more obscure compositions to boot. He's an incredible keysmith. Can't wait to hear 'Monk Casino'.

This whole ordeal must be hard-on her.

I like Guillen.

Reptet By Doug Ramsey, Arts Journal June, 19th 2006 The album the squeaking-wheel publicist kept plugging, nicely but persistently, is Do This! by a Seattle band, The Reptet. In common with Harry Allen's group, they do not have a piano. Nor do they have a guitar, which leaves the sextet free of a chording instrument to provide harmonic guidance. That leads to some soloists being cast adrift on the waters of free jazz without a paddle, but there is a redeeming sense of joy, whimsy and almost reckless abandon in much of the skilled ensemble writing and playing. Some of it has echoes of Hindemith, Milhaud, and, in keeping with that line of musical thought, voicings remarkably like those in certain pieces by the Dave Brubeck Octet. There are also elements of street-corner brass bands, third stream composers and the Charles Mingus of Tijuana Moods, to single out only three of the disparate influences I think I hear. Much of the writing is by the trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, with additional pieces by reed players Tobi Stone and Izaak Mill and bassist Benjamin Verdier. The other members are trombonist Ben O'Shea and drummer John Ewing. Stone, Mills, O'Shea and Ewing have stimulating solo moments. I admit that I was moved to listen to The Reptet by, in addition to the phone calls, the fact that four of the compositions are titled "Zeppo," "Harpo," "Chico" and "Groucho." I am happy to report that they live up to their names. And, yes, "Harpo" gets an introduction by an actual harp. I also like the occasional unexpected, but quite discreet, group and individual vocal touches that include shouts and moans. Great fun.

Friday, June 16, 2006 Judge this album by its cover? Do that! By Paul de Barros - Seattle Times jazz critic The grunge era turned Seattle into a magnet for musicians, not just because it was on fire commercially, but because of a creative outlook that combined both whimsy and darkness. The Reptet, a Seattle jazz band founded by a grunge-era immigrant from Philadelphia, reflects that Northwest sensibility nicely on a new album, "Do This!" The album has been attracting attention worldwide because of its cover by the late, great Jim Flora, whose playful yet scary designs graced classic jazz albums in the '40s and '50s by artists such as Louis Armstrong, Shorty Rogers and Gene Krupa. The Reptet celebrates the release of "Do This!" at 8 p.m. today at Consolidated Works ($8; 206-381-3218). Amy Denio opens with a set for accordion and voice. The "Do This!" album art is a textbook example of the maxim "It never hurts to ask." "I started doing a little research on the Internet and I discovered who Jim Flora was," said Reptet drummer John Ewing, "and I thought, 'Why don't I just write the guy who runs the Jim Flora.com Website on a lark?' I got an e-mail response almost immediately: 'You're right. It doesn't hurt to ask. Call me.' " The image for the album has many typical Flora elements: black ink with a one-color wash; dismembered body parts (eyes, arms, mouths); forms that suggest wild animals (octopus, bird, snake, lizard) and random geometric shapes. Beyond being a good publicity move, the Flora artwork works well with the Reptet's music, particularly on the raucous title tune and a series of four songs inspired by the Marx Brothers by trumpet player Samantha Boshnack. Boshnack's tight, buoyant writing for this pianoless chamber sextet's four wind instruments (two brass, two reeds) is a highlight, recalling West Coast arrangers like Rogers. I especially like the way the flighty flute and groaning bowed bass capture Groucho's comic, opposite sides. The elegiac "Harpo" begins, appropriately, with a snippet of harp music from a scratchy old record. The tune also features a strong trombone solo by Ben O'Shea, though it's one of the few solos on the album that come up to the level of the writing. Several passages in which players improvise at the same time — double and triple "solos," if you will — are more effective than individual solos, especially when they're done over jaunty, staccato riffs. "Do This!" and the current Reptet lineup came about when reed player Tobi Stone, who had left the band and been replaced by Izaak Mills, rejoined for a one-off gig at last year's Earshot Jazz Festival. "All the composers had to rearrange the tunes for one more horn," said Ewing. "The show was so much fun, it re-energized the whole group." The Reptet began in the late '90s as a repertory quartet — hence the name — but soon evolved into a creative force. It is part of a loosely-defined, 16-year-old collective of 22 players called the Monktail Creative Music Concern. Inspired by experimentalists such as Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) and Holland's Instant Composers Pool (ICP), Monktail was founded by two other Philadelphians, bassist John Seman and drummer Mark Ostrowski. Ewing, who says he admires drummer Art Blakey for his straight-ahead swing and "heart," feels jazz needs to look beyond its past. "If you box yourself in and just play in the tradition of what was happening in the U.S. until the '70s, you're missing an essential part of your education." Amen to that. Check out the Reptet. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/arts...263_jazz16.html

Happy (belated) B-day K!

Saturday, June 10, 2006 Sending peace to Iraq Children help spread message of love, friendship By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL Seattle Post-Intelligencer The Iraqi doctor sat on a corner of the stage, listening and smiling as Seattle grade-schoolers sang for the orphans of Baghdad. We are children of peace. We are the children of the world. But when they sang the words in Arabic, Enas Mohamed broke down. It was not just the lyrics, but the innocent faces smiling back. Nah-nu awladdul salaam, Nah-nu awladdul aalaam. Mohamed, a research coordinator at the University of Washington, cannot block her emotions when she thinks of friends and family still in Iraq, and the devastating effect of war on children there. "When I see these beautiful faces, I remember the same thing in the faces of Iraqi children," Mohamed said Friday, after the students' bilingual performance. Next week, Mohamed leaves for her hometown of Baghdad, where she'll be visiting children in hospitals and orphanages. "They need so much love," she said. "When I arrive, I don't know where to start, which one to hug." Mohamed will bring compassion beyond her own. She will take a videotape of the 200 Salmon Bay Elementary students singing peace songs in English and Arabic, along with the children's drawings and personal messages of goodwill. Mohamed is hoping to soften Iraqi hearts that she says have turned hard toward the United States. "I feel so torn," she says. "As a doctor, life is so precious to me. When I live here, I see American lives and wonderful people. ... But Iraqis are not seeing the picture I am seeing. "Many think Americans are greedy monsters who just want oil. I am trying to help them, especially children, see Americans the way I see them. I am thinking about the future." It is particularly difficult for thousands of orphaned children, Mohamed said, whose only association with Americans is through soldiers or occasional relief workers. Mary K. McNeill, an artist in residence with Seattle Public Schools, wrote one of the taped songs, "We Are the Children of the World," with students five years ago to help them deal with post-9/11 trauma. McNeill said she asked the kids to think about "their deepest hope" and "what connects all the children of the world?" Singing -- and peace -- emerged as "something we could share," McNeill said. "It had to be something universal," she said. "Our humanity is a shared humanity." A mutual friend hooked up McNeill and Mohamed, who thought the same song could help traumatized Iraqi children. In a videotaped message translated into Arabic by Mohamed, Salmon Bay fifth-grader Bailey Nurmia said: "Hi, my name's Bailey. It must be really hard when you've lost so much. I wish peace for you and that the war will end." Rachel Berner-Hays, 10, said, "Once it's over, I hope we get to be friends." And classmate Eliza Baumeister added: "I feel really bad for you that you have to live through this. When the war is over, I'd like to meet you and shake your hand." Mohamed said there is no doubt in her mind that the messages will give Iraqi children hope. "When they hear these songs, they will feel the love and friendship," she said. "And these drawings, I know, they will put them under their pillows." _____________________________________________ FOR MORE INFORMATION www.childrensingforpeace.org For an audio clip of the singing, go to blog.seattlepi.nwsource .com/audio/wearechildrenofpeace.mp3

Nice! got any old dick allen or richie ashburn?

Nice touch Al. In blue letters to boot. And I love that Jesus quote. What a beautiful expression of truth.

Ahhh, what's a matter with these kids? They look like sweethearts.

This is a nice one too. I love the 73' topps.

Too bad it's not his rookie. This is one of my all time favorite baseball cards.

As I said, politics has been part of this board from the very beginning. And for those who don't like it they can simply block it out. How does that equate to ballclubs (that play on publically funded ballfields) hiring only Christians and using the field for prayer meetings or a desire on my part to keep religion and politics out of the game of baseball? I'm glad you found it to be funny, but again, it's simply a false analogy.

Then what was your point? And I don't mean that in a confrontational way. If explaining how your analogy is a false one misses the point, than do tell. And why were you surprised? I'm always trying to find ways to bring people together. I'm a lover not a fighter.