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This concert took place in
the UK in January of 2006.
I don't feel like I should
have to explain who they are and I will not, but I know I should
because the band had a relatively short lifespan, was British,
never had a hit, and was too strange to make it out of cult status.
I am a member of their cult.
Wanna buy a flower?
Missing only the dearly departed
Vivian Stanshall (a man), the band is led by another man who
calls himself Neil Innes, but doesn't look a bit like Neil Innes
did forty years ago. Also appearing are old men impersonating
Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater, Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell,
and Legs Larry Smith. Also also appearing is the electric trouser
press instrument, and the theramin leg.
Also also also appearing: Big
hello to big John Wayne, xylophone. Looking very relaxed Adolf
Hitler on vibes. Eric Clapton on ukulele. Yeah! Digging General
de Gaulle on accordion. Really wild, General! Thank you, sir.
Roy Rogers on Trigger. We welcome Val Doonican as himself. (Hello
there.)
Among others.
Viv was such a huge presence
in the Bonzos, that several people have stepped in to fill his
shoes, including Stephen Fry, doing recitations such as:
"My darling, in my cardboard-coloured dreams, once again,
I heard your laugh. And I kiss, yes, I kiss your perfumed hair.
The sweet essence of Giraffe. And each
time I hear your name, oh, oh, my, my, how it hurts! In the wardrobe
of my soul...in the section labeled "shirts."-from
"Canyons of Your Mind."
Phil Jupitus stepped in for
the dead Viv with a bowel-moving rendition of "The Strain,"
Stanshall's ode to taking a shit.
The audience was so attuned
that when Innes athked the muthical lithp, "Do you like
thoul muthic?" the audience replied, "No," en
masse. Tho did I.
The audio sucks, the shooting
sucks, Innes loses some of his voice as the night wears on, clams
abound and few of the props seem to work; in other words, a perfect
evening.
When they started playing "Jollity
Farm," I cried.
I'll repeat that, the shirt
event.
Nancy King Untitled CD c.
mid-1990s
Nancy King is in the top 5
of our greatest living jazz singers. Thankfully, she is just
now, at an age somewhere over 55, getting some of her due. She's
quirky, scatty, bright, sarcastic and sweet, with the evidence
of a difficult yet rewarding life advertised on her face.
She has been active nationally
with a recent CD with pianist Fred Hersch.
She has lived most of her life
in Portland, Oregon where she has frequently collaborated with
the virtuoso bassist Glen Moore of the band "Oregon,"
as well as her long time pianist, Steve Christopherson.
She burned this CD for me in
1997 for an appearance on a radio show I was doing. I'm not sure
when it was recorded, but I'm guessing it was shortly before
that, maybe not. I played it underneath our interview, stopping
along the way to talk to her about aspects of what we were hearing.
To tell you the truth, she
puts all the current slim, cute jazz divas to shame. What she's
got, only time and life gives you. Thank goodness she's still
around to communicate that.
She's bop, she's ballad, she's
irony and love, she's a brat and a seductress, as contemporary
as they come but with deep roots. You can find a not-so-up-to-date
website at www.nancykingjazz.com.
Raymond Scott "Reckless
Nights and Turkish Twilights" CD 1992/1998
Call me old fashioned, but
the father of cartoon music never sounded better. Of course,
as every schoolboy knows, Scott didn't compose these familiar
tunes to be used in cartoons. He had all but abandoned Hollywood
for New York when Carl Stalling decided to put some of Scott's
music to Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.
In addition, what most people
don't know is that Scott was a pioneer of electronic music, building
proto-synthesizers and other such machines. He also composed
hundreds of jingles and other ephemera. Odd then, that he is
best known for music to chase wabbits by.
He was also Dorothy Collins'
husband and led the band on "You're Hit Parade." (Ask
your grandfather.)
One of the oldest methods self-entertainment
includes the following: 1) smoke some dope, 2) turn on the TV,
3) put some music on, and 4) turn the TV audio off and continue
to change the channels till the music fits. Laugh if you like,
but it still works. And it's still just as much fun.
It works with old movies, it
works with Wolf Blitzer and the other night Raymond Scott's CD
worked with a silent Dada film from the 20s. It worked really
well. Like it was written for it.
Might have just be me. Doesn't
matter.
The CD I have is a 1998 re-mastered
version of the original 1992 transfer to digital. Ray would have
loved it.
Papa Grows Funk "Live
at the Leaf" CD 2006
Even if Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk
occupies the throne of New Orleans funk bands, PGF is thatclosebehind.
This was recorded live last April at the Maple Leaf Bar, a creaky
old place in New Orleans. It might look like it's going to fall
down any moment, but the Leaf is a cathedral of great music.
PGF has been holding down Monday
nights there for years, in that narrow, sweaty, way-to-loud room
next to the bar where you swear that any moment the whole place
may explode, implode or otherwise self-destruct due to the level
of funk and blues. I'm not exaggerating.
John Gros (pronounced Grow,
hence the name of the band) holds all the keys to the rooms where
they store the legacy of the great New Orleans piano players.
He knows it, lives and plays it. It's in him. It is him. Add
fiery guitarist June Yamagishi, ultra-cool Jason Minglesdorf
on saxes, Fatback Mark Pero on bass and you've got all the funk
you can use. They have had one major change in their lineup in
the past year or so. Although Jeffrey "Jellybean" Alexander
is a fine drummer, nobody can replace Russ Batiste. Nobody, nohow.
Still, if you're 3000 miles
away from New Orleans like I am, slipping this CD in the drawer
and closing your eyes will very nearly make you sweat no matter
what the temperature.
P.S. Now that they've got the
live CD done, they could use some new tunes.
Salif Keita "M'Bemba"
CD 2005
Have you ever seen a bad review
of a world music recording? I never have, although I don't go
looking for reviews good or bad. I think it's probably politically
incorrect to not like something like this. Not that this is a
review. I don't know what this is. David Vest just told me I
should write these things, and he's rarely wrong about such matters.
My taste in African music tends
toward old Ethiopian soul music and Tabu Ley Rochereau. And I
don't keep up with it. This didn't grab me. I know that Mali
is supposed to be where the roots of American music lie. I wanted
to like this. I paid cash, retail full price, too.
I am prepared to be wrong.
Delmark Goldfarb "Up
To My Neck" CD 2004
From the deep past when men
were men and it was cool to play in jug bands, comes Del Goldfarb
who spent some time working for the Blues Museum in Memphis,
organizing the collection by day and trying on clothes worn by
Johnny Cash and Billy Lee Riley donated to the museum by night.
He also spent a long time playing
with jug band legends like Fritz Richmond and people like John
Sebastion. Both of them are on here, plus Cody Dickson from the
North Mississippi All-Stars. Del lives in Portland, Oregon now
where he plays, records and drives a delivery truck.
The title of the album refers
to major back surgery he had a while back which is documented
on the front of the CD by a nasty photo of the scar running up
to the back of his neck.
This is a pretty amiable, kinda
dog-eared good-timey type-a-thing. Which is also pretty much
describes what Del is like, too. Find it at www.delgoldfarb.com
"James Brown's Funky
Summer" CD included in August 2006 issue of Mojo Magazine
Mojo, the British music magazine
always includes a CD and most of them are spectacular. Not all
of them. I never want to see another album of Beatles or Kinks
covers, but this one falls into the classic category.
Not only does it include, "Gut
Bucket" a cut from James Brown's new recording due out next
year and a welcome return to his brand of funk instead of following
trends, something that's left him in the wilderness for decades.
The best thing about the tune is that he seems to have regained
his voice which had been reduced to a hoarse shout. He'll never
have the ballad voice of "Please, Please, Please,"
but he actually sounds like James Brown on this.
The rest of the disc is filled
with musicians who worked with Mr. B or covered his tunes. One
from from "Maceo (Parker) And All The King's Men" is
included. I found that LP years ago. It was recorded (poorly)
during a time when Maceo and James weren't working together.
Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, Bobby Byrd, Vicki Anderson and Lyn
Collins from various versions of the Famous Flames/JB's have
solo cuts. Tammi Terrell, Albert King (Cold Sweat), Soul Survivors
(minus the traffic), Roy Brown (!), The 5 Royales cover other
JB tunes.
The magazine is always a treasure,
even if I don't care about British pop (and never did), but this
CD makes it extra-special.
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