Hot Ptah

Yeah, "not engaging" is a good way to put it. Okay; maybe I should try another one. I've met too many people whose taste I respect that like Kottke to just give up, though maybe I should... To me, "6 and 12 String Guitar" is THE Kottke album. For me, it's somewhat akin to McLaughlin and the first two Mahavishnu Orchestra albums. In both cases, they made their intense all-out statement, and then what to do for the rest of the career? Everything else will suffer by comparison.

Sam Rivers appeared on June 7 at the Topeka Jazz Festival with his group of Orlando musicians. It was certainly good, but Sam has definitely slowed down in live performance since a time when I saw him at Milwaukee's Jazz Gallery in 1980. This time he sat in a chair throughout the two sets. He spoke at length between some songs, punctuating rather slow stories with gutteral laughing. He comped on piano for the other musicians for a greater percentage of the show than I would have liked. I wanted to hear more of Sam's soloing. He was democratic to a fault, giving his sidemen and a guest sitting in, a great deal of the solo space. Sam was very effective, I thought, in some brief flute solos. There was not nearly enough of the Rivers saxophone playing to suit me. His daughter spoke at the beginning and end of the sets, in an open, almost naive way, giving us an enthusiastic hard sell about buying Sam's CDs, T shirts and other paraphenalia for sale at a table to the side of the stage. The good part was that she said that the sales were going to be used to finance the production of Sam's recordings of all of his compositions. They are up to Volume 8, and these CDs will go on sale at a later time, she said. She also said that Sam has filled a garage with printed and other materials, from every gig he has ever played, and that they are going to sell it all online. Sam signed autographs after the show, and I had him sign his Horo double album. His daughter asked Sam if they had a copy of that one, and he said that he didn't know if they did. Since Sam has not played in the Kansas City/Western Missouri/Kansas area for a really long time, if ever, the show had taken on mythic proportions in my mind ahead of time. It was not quite as mindblowing as I had hoped.

I have never liked "Greenhouse" that much. I don't find it "lame", but I don't find it totally engaging either. I like Kottke's "6 and 12 String Guitar" a lot more. You might try "6 and 12 String Guitar" before making a final judgment.

25 for us too.

And no matching magazine racks?

Yep, they kinda go together. "Almost, cut my hair...." Some are - some aren't. "Where do you go to, my lovely" isn't - it's straightforward satire. So are "Taxman" and "Alice's restaurant". The stoned ones don't get through to me MG I think that those of us posting the stoned ones are doing it with an air of bemusement. I know that I am.

Little by little the night turns around. Counting the leaves which tremble at dawn. Lotuses lean on each other in yearning. Under the eaves the swallow is resting. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. Over the mountain watching the watcher. Breaking the darkness Waking the grapevine. One inch of love is one inch of shadow Love is the shadow that ripens the wine. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. The heart of the sun, the heart of the sun. Witness the man who raves at the wall Making the shape of his questions to Heaven. Whether the sun will fall in the evening Will he remember the lesson of giving? Set the controls for the heart of the sun. The heart of the sun, the heart of the sun.

Saint Stephen with a rose, in and out of the garden he goes, Country garden in the wind and the rain, Wherever he goes the people all complain. Stephen prospered in his time, well he may and he may decline. Did it matter, does it now? Stephen would answer if he only knew how. Wishing well with a golden bell, bucket hanging clear to hell, Hell halfway twixt now and then, Stephen fill it up and lower down and lower down again. Lady finger, dipped in moonlight, writing "What for?" across the morning sky. Sunlight splatters, dawn with answer, darkness shrugs and bids the day goodbye. Speeding arrow, sharp and narrow, What a lot of fleeting matters you have spurned. Several seasons with their treasons, Wrap the babe in scarlet colors, call it your own. Did he doubt or did he try? Answers aplenty in the bye and bye, Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills, One man gathers what another man spills. Saint Stephen will remain, all he's lost he shall regain, Seashore washed by the suds and foam, Been here so long, he's got to calling it home. Fortune comes a crawlin', calliope woman, spinnin' that curious sense of your own. Can you answer? Yes I can. But what would be the answer to the answer man?

This was often cited by the radio announcers at Radio Free Madison as the theme song of the student body at the University of Wisconsin in 1974. "Wasted and can't find my way home" described a great many of the 45,000 students.

From James Brown's "Soul Pride: The Instrumentals"--The King Tighten Up (with an extended jazz trumpet solo by Waymon Reed, which is exciting)

Snow cuts loose from the frozen Until it joins with the african sea In moving it changes its cold and its name The reason I come and go is the same Animal game for me You call it rain But the human name Doesnt mean shit to a tree If you dont mind heat in your river and Fork tongue talking from me Swim like an eel fantastic snake Take my love when its free Electric feel with me You call it loud But the human crowd Doesnt mean shit to a tree Change the strings and notes slide Change the bridge and string shift down Shift the notes and bride sings Fire eating people Rising toys of the sun Energy dies without body warm Icicles ruin your gun Water my roots the natural thing Natural spring to the sea Sulphur springs make my body float Like a ship made of logs from a tree Redwoods talk to me Say it plainly The human name Doesnt mean shit to a tree Snow called water going violent Damn the end of the stream Too much cold in one place breaks Thats why you might know what I mean Consider how small you are Compared to your scream The human dream Doesnt mean shit to a tree

I like them. They are "post modern", I suppose. Everything is played with a self-consciously ironic or wryly comic point of view, from what I can tell. Still, there is quite energetic, appealing playing, and some of the compositions are catchy. They have a certain vision and stick with it. My take on them: You don't go to the Microscopic Septet for soul searing genuine emotion. They are not going to plunge into the depths of the human experience. They fulfill a certain function, and mean to do so. If you feel like hearing their particular vision at a particular time, you may like it.

I think that Fahey's Christmas albums are among his best.

Mimi Farina JoJo White Lulu

Soul Pride: The Instrumentals, by James Brown

Anybody have a copy of that broadcast? Would love to have it. I remember that Marian played a solo for Don of Duke Ellington's "The Clothed Woman", and he expressed surprise when she was done, saying that he had never heard the song but would have to investigate it further.

Chase's "Get It On" did not sound all that unusual on AM radio when it was released, as I recall. It was a time when just about anything could become a hit. Pop radio was not segmented like it is today. Soul classics and rock and roll songs, bubble gum and light pop, country crossover and even an occasional jazz song, were all mixed together on the charts played by every radio station in the U.S. I think that Chase gained some benefit there from the hit singles of Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago in the two years or so before.

The same way that this was a hit: http://tinyurl.com/3422u6 They both had a good agent? The Ides of March are still performing around Chicago. My brother in law raved about a concert of theirs, which he attended about a year ago.

What? While there's still money to be made off of his name? Hey, this is America! Surely you jest.

In Fred Wesley's autobiography, "Hit Me Fred", he describes an odd situation in which some of the James Brown band alumni were going on tour in a soul/jazz group, with Don Pullen as their organist. Pullen was so upset at the type of organ he would have to play that he quit before the tour started, leaving bad vibes all around, according to Fred. I always liked Don's piano playing the best. Live, I liked how he integrated the back of his hands into his playing. I enjoyed his turn on Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" radio show. He was able to fit in well with Marian without watering down his approach.

What is great is that he does not have that old Kansas City swing. Kansas City listeners are awash in that old Kansas City swing. We need some variety.

Mosaic will release a 3 CD Select set of Akiyoshi-Tabackin Big Band albums later this year, reportedly the 1974-77 RCA albums.

The audiences in Kansas City are sedate and polite. Unless his digestive tract cannot easily take in massive amounts of barbecue, he should be fine.

Before I had listened to jazz, I saw Chase live in a small high school gymnasium. Bill Chase opened with an extended unaccompanied solo on "Open Up Wide". I thought, hey, this isn't on the record, he's playing too long! I also remember the guitarist, first name Angel, playing a solo in which he played as many notes as fast as possible and then in mid-solo, threw his guitar back over his head. It landed several feet behind him. I picked up a used vinyl copy of the first Chase album a few years ago and was surprised at how unlistenable it was. I find early Chicago and BS&T much more appealing today.

Fred Anderson is coming to the Blue Room in Kansas City in late July! This may seem like a relatively routine event in many cities, but in Kansas City a good avant garde or free jazz show comes into town about once a decade, or so it seems.