THE BOYS SINGING "OKIE"

I spent the weekend doing projects around the house, which thereby meant that I didn’t get out on the water to do any fishing.  This was disturbing, at least for me it sure as hell was.  When I finished planting bulbs in the front yard on Sunday afternoon, I grabbed a can of beer and went looking for unusual music videos.  As often happens to me when I do this, my mind began to wander.  It wandered back to 1971 and a hot July night in New York City when the Beach Boys played for thousands of fans in Central Park. 

Listen carefully to how this selection is introduced. 

OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE

In fact (as described in that clip) the Boys also performed this same tune with the Grateful Dead, on April 27, 1971 at the Fillmore East.  They performed 7 tunes during the Dead’s 2nd set that night.  Here’s how that broke down:

Searchin’ (Beach Boys & Grateful Dead together)

Riot In Cell Block #9 (Beach Boys & Grateful Dead together)

Good Vibrations (Beach Boys alone)

I Get Around (Beach Boys alone)

Help Me Rhonda (Beach Boys & Grateful Dead together)

Okie from Muskogee (Beach Boys & Grateful Dead together)

Johnny B. Goode (Beach Boys & Grateful Dead together)

There’s a great soundboard recording of this performance and you can find it HERE.

BIG NIGHT IN A LITTLE ROOM

On April 24, 1989 - all hell broke loose at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley, CA.  Commander Cody, Jerry Garcia, Sammy Hagar, Elvis Costello, Annie Sampson, and James Burton took that tiny stage and tore the place apart.  Turn the speakers up loud, kidz! 

There's A Riot Goin' On

I'm Goin' Down

MOANS-DAY & MORRIS DAY

Oh man, do I have the blues this morning.  Get out of bed, look at all the rain coming out of the sky.  The cat wants nothing to do with it and I don't blame her.  The puppy is usually too out of it to know that it sucks, but today she's not moving from the comfort of her bed.  I envy her.  Every day for that little beast is new and so it's exciting.  The whole thing makes me feel older than I am and that makes me cranky.

It might even @#*%ing snow!!!

I'm in a funk.  But there's at least one way I know out of it!

Morris Day & The Time

JUNGLE LOVE

JERK OUT

There!  Now, doesn't that make you feel a whole lot better?

JOSHUA PANDA, MYRA FLYNN, & AYA INOUE

Vermont has been home to several recent rising stars in the music business.  While everyone has at least heard of Phish and many are learning about Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, I thought we ought to take a look at a few Vermont acts that are just now coming into their own.

I caught the Joshua Panda Band at one of the summertime concerts that the City of Burlington sponsors at Battery Park.  One of the buildings that my management company operates is literally right across the street from the bandstand, so I figured I could check in with one of my tenants and listen to some tunes all at the same time.  It was a great time!  Give a listen to this:

MASQUARADE

 

One of Burlington’s emerging stars made her home at that building across from Battery Park for a couple of years.  But several years before that transpired, Myra Flynn was looking for her first apartment after graduating from college, which was when I first met her. She moved into a building I manage over on College Street, just around the corner from the (in)famous Nectar’s nightclub.  Myra made a splash quickly and she’s now in New York working with Lava Records.  Our loss is the rest of the world’s gain, as you’ll see here in this live clip of Myra playing one of her compositions:

SAY SO

In that very same apartment building across from Battery Park lived a very nice woman named Emily who it turned out was the sister of another remarkable Vermont musician, Aya Inoue .  Emily and Aya Inoue raised money for victims of the terrible Japanese tsunami by running a spectacular fundraiser last March that brought in an embarrassment of talented players from all over Vermont.  Here is a clip of Aya playing one of her original tunes:

BACK w/The Amida Bourbon Project

DREW ZINGG

I thought I'd introduce you all to I guy I knew when I was growing up in New York City.  Drew Zingg was a funny kid who grabbed a guitar at a very early age and just spent every moment playing it.  I can remember hanging out on a street corner on a spring afternoon as Drew played with a three-piece band he had back when we were all about 12 years old.  He knew maybe a half a dozen chords then, but he was the coolest dude we all knew at the time and we rocked out listening to him.

Forty years later, Drew is a mon-stah!  I haven't seen him since the old days, but I've sure heard him a lot on CDs (as have all of you).  He toured with Steely Dan for about 3 years and was even their musical director for that time.  He's played with Boz Scags, Marcus Miller and a host of other top bandleaders too.  So here are a couple of clips of Drew doing his thing.  Hope you dig.

Pretzel Logic w/Donald Fagen & Michael McDonald (The Rock and Soul Review)

Breakdown Dead Ahead w/Boz Scags

MOONALICE & HERMETO PASCOAL

Over the past several days, I’ve caught two remarkably different musical acts here in Burlington, VT.  On Saturday, March 31^st, my wife and I went to the (in)famous Nectar’s to hear Moonalice play.  This is a band made up primarily of session players; drummer John Molo, guitarist Pete Sears, and pedal steel guitarist Barry Sless are joined by Roger and Ann MacNamee, who between the two of them play damn near everything else.  In fact, with the exception of Molo, each member is able to step into the role of any of the other members.  To give you an idea of what that was like, check out their covers of...

ON THE ROAD AGAIN 

STELLA BLUE

Last night, we hit the Flynn Theatre to hear Hermeto Pasoal.  What a time that was!  I spent the entire night with a grin on my face and my feet never stopped moving.  Hermeto is funny, self-deprecating, and he also possesses an amazing ear for how odd sounds might work together.  Rather than forcing you to read as I blather on about this performance, let me just offer up a couple of clips of Hermeto and his superb band.  It’ll be a lot more eloquent than anything I can offer.

TAYNARA OU JEGUE

HAJAS JUNTAS

MICK GOODRICK

I was lucky enough to hear Mick Goodrick play with two of Boston's finest band leaders.  The first was when Mick toured with vibraphonist Gary Burton, in 1982.  A couple of years later, I caught saxophonist Jimmy Mosher and his band also featured Mick Goodrick on guitar.  Mick cut quite a figure, sitting on a stool, listening intently as he comped, and playing gorgeous, understated solos. 

Here are Pat Metheny and Mick Goodrick, covering one of Antonio Carlos Jobim's beautiful tunes, MEDITATION.  It's a good way to ease into the work week.

This is THE BAT.  Saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi was the bandleader on this particular date. He's no slouch either!

Good luck out there today.

WAR

Anyone remember the first time you heard War?  For me, it was on the 1970 release "Spill the Wine", with Eric Burdon.  War had formed the previous year and featured:

Howard E. Scott: guitar, vocals

Harold Brown: drums, vocals, percussion

Lee Oskar: harmonica, vocals

B. B. Dickerson: bass, vocals

Lonnie Jordan: keyboards, vocals

Charles Miller: saxophone, flute, clarinet, vocals

"Papa" Dee Allen: percussion, vocals

They were my favorite "street band" then, with the possible exception of Santana.  War's music was long on groove, with lots of room for band members to stretch out.  It's almost 80 degrees today where I live, so I thought we'd pretend that it was summertime, that we were all hanging out on the front stoop of someone's apartment building, sipping on a few cold drinks, watching the traffic go by and listening to tunes on the radio.

Spill the Wine

Me and Baby Brother 

The Cisco Kid

BARRY WHITE

I walked into my favorite coffee shop in Burlington, Vermont last Friday morning and they had one of my true guilty pleasures playing on the stereo: Barry White.  In fact, it was a live recording of Barry covering Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe.  The baristas were all swaying to the music and it reminded me that there was always something inherently cool about Barry White.  His voice was so deep and the dance tunes he wrote had such great grooves!

This morning, I was thinking about the first time I heard Barry White.  It was in 1975 and I really didn’t like it.  I was an extremely hip young man back then, a full blown Deadhead and an aficionado of the music of the counter culture.  Oddly enough, this would sometimes even include punk music.  But Barry White was…disco!  It couldn't be cool.

Right?

8 years later, I flipped on Late Night With David Letterman and his guest that evening was Barry White.  Not only was I blown away by the big sound when Barry sat down at the piano and banged out Never Never Gonna Give You Up, but he even appeared in one of Dave’s skits, Camping With Barry White.

Gotta love Barry White, babe.

JOAN OSBORNE

I dunno.  I like Joan Osborne.  I caught her a couple of times with Phil Lesh in '06 and I became a believer.  What's interesting is that lots of really cool musicians dig her too.  So today, I thought we'd take a look at and listen to Joan sing with three very hip acts.

Issac Hayes

The Funk Brothers

Trigger Hippy

SCAT

I love scatting.  The guy credited with creating the artform was Louis Armstrong.  This is not the same thing as vocalese, which is what the great singer Eddie Jefferson did better than anyone else (at least in my opinion).  Vocalese is when lyrics are penned to go along with a written instrumental piece or a transcribed solo.  Scatting is total vocal improvisation, using nonsense syllables. Here are 6 of the best scat singers of all time.

Betty Carter - Tight

Dizzy and Pops - Umbrella Man

Jon Hendricks - Chega de Saudade (No More Blues)

Clark Terry - Mumbles

Okay, so I cheated a bit on this one.  Terry wrote this to be mumbled through.  But no two Mumbles were ever quite the same, were they?

Ella - One Note Samba

No one, but no one did it like Ella.

SLEEPY LABEEF

When I was in high school, there used to be a dive in the Combat Zone in Boston called the Hillbilly Ranch.  Tex Ritter and Kenny Roberts used to drop by regularly - but the best show of all was when Sleepy LaBeef held forth.  He's still at it too.  He's got drive, energy and a voice that's too cool to be true. 

From a 1979 date, this is HONEY HUSH > TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS > PARTY DOLL.

Here is Sleepy covering WALKIN' SLOWLY > WHO DO YOU LOVE.  And yes, he can play guitar too.

Sleepy LaBeef is IT, man!  TORE UP > RING OF FIRE. 

BLADES Y GARCIA

This is so hot, it's hard to describe!  Jerry Garcia joins the great Ruben Blades and his band on MUEVETE.  Now, "muevete" means "move it" and I defy you not to shake your butt to this tune.  But there's more from this session, which took place on August 2, 1989 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.  There's a terrifyingly hip rundown of AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, featuring Celia Cruz, Pancho Sanchez, Tito Puente, and Carlos Santana too (just in case you're getting sick of hearing Mitt Romney mangle this song).  Carlos and Jerry also get to jam together on GET UPPA.

You can download the video for thie 2 selections with Jerry Garcia by going HERE.  Linda Ronstadt sang on this date as well.  I'm looking for the clip!

MANU DIBANGO

Manu Dibango is a saxophonist who originally came from Cameroon, but has spent most of his career recording in France.  He's also one of my favorite artists of all time.  The sheer volume of his work is staggering, but my favorites are "Negropolitaines, Vol. 2", "Gone Clear" and the classic release - "Soul Makossa".  Today's selection is the title tune from "Soul Makossa".  This is a 1974 performance and is a very good example of Manu Dibango in all his furious glory.

GO HERE AND DIG

LISA FISCHER

 LISA FISCHER

Lisa Fischer is one of the greatest vocalists that you've probably heard, but who you don't really know.  She's sung with and done vocal arrangements for so many great performers and bands that it's staggering.  Here are a few examples:

Hot Legs w/Stacey Campbell

It's Only Rock 'n Roll w/Tina Turner

How Can I Ease The Pain w/Lee Ritenour

Night Time Is The Right Time w/The Rolling Stones

The Look of Love w/Chris Botti and Mark Whitfield

EMILY REMLER

Emily Remler (1957 - 1990)

I first heard of Emily Remler in 1983 when I was hosting a weekly radio program on jazz and one of her LPs came in with a delivery of product from Concord Records.  She had chops.  Man, did she have chops.  She also had a very short career, releasing just seven albums in ten years.  She died of a heart attack on May 4, 1990.  Sadly, we hardly had a chance to hear her play.

Blues For Herb

Tenor Madness

CHUCHO VALDES

Listening to pianist CHUCHO VALDES play can be intimidating, particularly if you are another pianist.  Chucho is a very large man.  His towering height makes his entrance on a club or concert stage an event in itself.  But when he sits down and begins to play, you realize that the real power isn't just in his enormous hands, it's in his mind as well.  His talent for improvisation is legendary and he draws on so many influences.  He may be best known as the founding member of the band IRAKERE.  Today, I've culled several clips of Chucho playing in other various settings.  I hope you all dig!

TUMBAO

BLUES A PUERTO RICO w/BOBBY CARCASES

MISA NEGRA

LA COMPARSA w/BEBO VALDES

MANGO MANGUE is one of those great old tunes that no one can resist.  Turn this last one up good and loud and listen as the legendary salsaro Francisco "Pancho" Fellove scats the intro and is then joined by Chucho and an all-star band.

STEVIE ON THE STREET

Things have been a little chaotic of late, so I haven't been able to post this week, until just now.  However, I think this will get you launched into the long weekend.

One day in 1976, I was wandering through a department store with a friend.  As we passed by the TV display, we saw what looked like a hundred sets, all showing the same thing.  And THIS is what we saw.  We stood in front of that bank of tubes, glued to the spot.   No dubs, no fakery - this is simply the best!  As always, crank it up!

SLY & ROBBIE'S FRIENDS

It was so cold outside this morning that my dog and cat looked at me like I was some kind of freak for making them go out there. 

"Look," I told them, "if you'd learned how to use the toilet, you wouldn't be in this situation".

Neither of them saw the humor in it.

After they came back inside, my 2 beasties snuggled up next to each other.  The wind was howling outside and when you realized the air temperature was just 4 degrees above zero, that meant the wind chill was...well...It ain't human, I tell ya!

So this morning, I've picked some tropical tunes, if only to help fool us into thinking that winter won't last forever.  These four clips all came from a Showcase special that was taped in Jamaica in 1987.  It featured lots of great performances, but the really cool thing was the line-up of the house band that night:

Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare

Coati Mundi

Tyrone Downey

Stephen "Cat" Coore

Robbie Lynn

Dean Frazier

W/CHRISSIE HYNDE

W/BUNNY WAILER

W/TOOTS HIBBERT

W/GRACE JONES