International Fleurette Africaine Day

Hello, everybody, I'm back from riding around a crazy ice floe with Frankenstein's monster. I'm posting this because Chris over at black2com/blogtocomm (click on the header) recently reviewed this classic album.



Ellington/Mingus/Roach*

Here is Vijay Iyer's version, from his recent album "Solo" (ACT 9497-2)



A project with Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd:



Harlem Stage • Wed, Feb 10, 2010 • 7:30 pm • A work-in-progress showing by composer/pianist Vijay Iyer and poet/performer Mike Ladd, with Iraq veteran/poet Maurice Decaul. Featuring Pamela Z, Guillermo E. Brown, Okkyung Lee, Kassa Overall, and Liberty Ellman

*Hey, it's Max Roach's birthday on Monday (01/10). It's also mine. I will be turning 17 for the 3rd time.

Efficiency, Efficiency

they say...I walked over to the bakery this morning to buy some day-old bread*, and I saw their dishwasher reach into the bus-pan on the cart they have outside, and pull out a stack of plates and carry them inside (I held the door for her as I am a half-gentleman, at least) and then move more things in and out of bus-pans, instead of moving the pans in toto. It was exasperating to watch, so I thought of this song:



(He is the 801...)

Mike DeCapite once compared Cale's rhythmic impulse to Schroeder from "Peanuts"; I always connected it more to Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard...

One for the gearheads:

Reportedly one of the reasons that Cale got the boot from the Velvet Underground (not kissed the boot) was that he was spending a chunk of the band's funds to develop some special wacky bass cabinet, even though they had endorsement deals and could get free amps. Happily he is still in pursuit of the surreal, or at least, misguided, in musical equpment design; click on the header and jump to the bottom.

*Curiously, the guy at the counter who got my bread looks kind of like a young Tony Conrad.

No Connection, No Disconnection

Just (nerve-)jangling rock from a founder of The Fall, Martin Bramah and his new combo Factory Star...



"Stone Tumbling Stream"



"Rebellious Jukebox" (yeah)

Factory Star live at The Plough, Cadishead, Friday, 02/26/10. Factory Star are Martin Bramah, Steve Hanley, Paul Hanley and John Paul Moran



"Agents of Change" by Bramah's earlier band Blue Orchids, 1982

Assorted Connections

I saw Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones being interviewed on TV the other night, and he was even coherent. The interviewer guy asked him for his favorite lesser-known Rolling Stones song, and he replied "The Connection." Good pick, and he got the name almost right...like the old joke about putting your name on a test: "I got 75% on that."



Live, 11/11/06



"Connection" as played by Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob (in socks)
(Reminds me of the time I saw Stampfel and Weber play "From Home" by The Troggs...)



"Connection" by Can, 1969



Jackie McLean, "O.D." from the movie "The Connection" (1961, the upside-down year)
Jackie McLean on sax, Freddie Redd piano, Larry Richie drums and Michael Mattos on bass.

Beware the Ides of March

According to Plutarch, Caesar was warned by a seer to be on his guard against a great peril on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated) Caesar saw the seer and joked "Well, the Ides of March have come," to which the seer replied "Ay, they have come, but they are not gone."

Well, you win some, you lose some...

"Upper Manhattan Medical Group"

Steve Kuhn - Piano
Aldo Romano - Drums
Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen - Bass

Berlin Jazztage (1969)

Let's have a Scarf-Off!

Born on 07/18

Screamin' Jay Hawkins, born 07/18/29, in Cleveland:



"Hey, he is my mainman, so bug off!"

Ian Stewart, pianist, co-founder of the Rolling Stones, born 07/18/38,
heard here playing with Keith Richards in 1977:



Martha Reeves, singer, politician, born 07/18/41:



"You don't look like Martha and the Vandellas!"