Singing’s Nice – But Singing With a Real Band is Nicer; Check It the Fuck Out

Goddamn, FCS! Did you time warp back to the 80s? Smooth jazz is not even near the fringes of outerbadness. Tsk. Tsk.

ADD: Okay, actually I might have lost some of my Jarreau hate after seeing this.

Oh, these guys are still playing. “Spain” is jazz cannon now. You can look it up in The Real Book. Joe Sample and Steve Gadd are not smooth jazz guys. They are really competent musicians as is Jarreau. There’s a time for the ultrabadness and there is a time for enjoying an ensemble that can command their instruments and a compelling arrangement. Spain was 70s, Corea’s Mad Hatter album. Pretty sure Gadd played on it. Guy is such a monster.

@FlyingChainSaw: I like Joe Sample. Steve Gadd–was that the drummer getting wicked? I just prejudged the video on the fact that Al was in it. He’s “My Dad’s Jazz.” IOW, generally crap. But this was very nice. A nice summer melody to supplement the IPA and the Xanax. Thanks, FCS.

@JNOV: Even George Benson used to play jazz…

But yeah, I don’t get much into fusion. Even when Miles does it.

Ah, I’ve always loved the line about castanets! I had a pair when I was little, and I’d dance around, one arm above my head, the other across my waist, stomping my feet and doing my thing. Yes, my heart beats like castanets. :-D

@nojo: I have a thing for pre-nose-job Benson (I do believe I own(ed) Breezin’), because I like the sound of one of his early axes. Not sure which one — Dodger might be able to help — it’s a hollow body electric, and Benson’s from my old neighborhood: The Hill Dist. in Pitt. Woot.

@nojo: Your views on Herbie Hancock?

@nojo: Oh, Jeez! You can now by gittar lessons online from Benson.

@nojo: Fusion makes my head hurt.

Last question: Tell me what you think of the Mingus/Mitchell collab, and I’m done bugging you, probably because I’m going to pass out. It was panned at the time, but I’ve heard that that may have more to do with a blond hippie beauty singing that Negro music.

@JNOV: Herbie? Before he plugged in?

I certainly have respect for the later Miles bands. I just don’t enjoy them.

Back in the day, when I was a jazz DJ, I interviewed Andreas Vollenweider in the studio. (He was in Eugene for a gig, and his manager invited him in.) He left the station utterly bewildered — mainly because I didn’t have a fucking clue what to ask him.

@JNOV: It may be a matter of timing, but I really like the Mingus/Mitchell collab. The timing is that I was very into Joni at the time, and didn’t know much about Mingus.

@JNOV: My dad’s jazz is Glenn Miller. I’ve come a long way.

I liked Joe Sample’s solo. The rest of the piece didn’t do much for me.

@JNOV: Benson endorsed an Ibanez hollowbody for a while, actually a pretty good jazz guitar for the money. I’m not sure what he’s playing now.

@FlyingChainSaw: Yo! Check the editorz mailbox. I Cc’d nojo and SFL, but you’d have a field day with this story…

@nojo: I might check out the Mingus/Mitchell. I know of Andreas Vollenweider (I think I even have something of his from the 90s that I didn’t bother to put on iTunes), and I might own too many some Acoustic Alchemy.

I’ve got the best of Miles and Gil Evans, but I never really listened to it. Jr took up the trumpet at one point, so I was like, “Gotta get The Boy some Miles.”

My dad likes Lee Ritenour (he’s okay), Spyro Gyra (sp? fuck it!), Metheny (I can deal with him), but most of it’s that really smoooooth easy listening dentist music.

@Dodgerblue: Yeah, this was back in the 70s. He’s busy being a dork now.

@JNOV: It’s much more Mitchell than Mingus — released after his death. Consider it a good Joni album in the Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter era, and enjoy the Mingus inspiration.

@nojo: My understanding is that he requested that she sing it when he knew he was dying. I don’t know how much artistic license she took, but I’m going to check it out. My guess is that she honored his wishes as best she could.

WHY ARE THERE NO SNACKS IN THIS HOUSE? Now I gotta put on a bra and go to the Wawa. Fuck! Some pants might help, too.

@JNOV: A band I like sings a song about castanets.

@JNOV: That would make sense. It’s certainly Mingus-inflected, and there’s some fun source recording from a birthday party and interviews. But it’s not, say, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.

@mellbell: I drink it black and by the bale…

Yay! Favorited! Thanks, mellbell. <3

@nojo: Oh, you make my brain hurt. Black Saint and the Sinner Lady? Qu’est-ce que c’est?

ADD: Found some figs, if anyone cares. No inebriated walks to the Wawa tonight.

@nojo: Umm, hey there Senior Editor Nojo, if you haven’t already selected tomorrow’s tweet, may I suggest:

Now I gotta put on a bra and go to the Wawa. Fuck!

Or alternatively, for the Tweet, this quote:

Fuck! Some pants might help, too.

@Dodgerblue: That’s cuz you like that Oompah music. :-P

@SanFranLefty: ::tickled pink:: Okay, we all know I’m Ambiguously Brown, but whatever.

Oh hey kids, take a swing by the sandbox. Two posts of interest. kthxbai.

@SanFranLefty: Make that three posts, thanks to the word limits on the Book of Faces.

@JNOV: Black Saint and the Sinner Lady?

Raucus Mingus album from his prime. To be played at maximum volume, as Bowie said in another context.

@nojo: On my list! And not The Shit List.

@SanFranLefty: Gotcha.

@SanFranLefty: Too late. DeNiro’s had the pole position all day.

@nojo: Okay, fine, but can we put one or both of JNOV’s gems in the hopper for when it’s a slow night?

@nojo and SanFranLefty: My kid has had more stuff up there than I have, little fucker.

Rolled up to the opera parking lot tonight to pick up Mrs RML’s tix for tomorrow night, blasting me some Tool. Those guys have some command over their instruments.

Listening to a little Sunn O))) (ambient doom metal) with my martini now. That showed down Justin Beiber track drinkyclown posted on el FB got me thinking about them. The riff on this piece has the A Love Supreme intervals. Funniest comment on the youtubes about them: “Their music is played in the elevators in hell.”

I really liked Beneath the Underdog by Mingus.

Fun fact: the mom in my termination of parental rights case today was a bank robber.

@redmanlaw: Pray tell, were you the kid’s attorney, or were you the state attorney terminating her rights, or the baby daddy’s attorney asserting his latent-for-8-years rights?

@JNOV: I like the Mitchell/Mingus collaboration quite a lot. Both were and are favorites of mine and it was good to see how they fitted together.

Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a definite Mingus winner. The CD next to it on my rack is another classic: Mingus Ah Um.

For Joni Mitchell, I start with Hejira and Blue.

@redmanlaw: Did you see the vid of Bieber getting hit with a water bottle? Heh.

@SanFranLefty: @JNOV: Well, there’s no Blurb Hopper. It’s a daily blank-page improv.

@Walking Still: My first Mitchell (that I realized was Joni) was Turbulent Indigo. I imagine that I’m Yvette in “Yvette in English.”

He met her in a French cafe
She slipped in sideways like a cat
Sidelong glances
What a wary little stray!
She sticks in his mind like that

Saying, “Avez-vous un allumette?”
With her lips wrapped around a cigarette

Yvette in English saying,
“Please have this
Little bit of instant bliss.”

He’s fumbling with her foreign tongue;
Reaching for words and drawing blanks
A loud mouth is stricken deaf and dumb
In a bistro on the left bank

“If I were a painter,” Picasso said,
“I’d paint this girl from toe to head!”

Yvette in English saying,
“Please have this
Little bit of instant bliss.”

Burgundy nocturne tips and spills
They trot along nicely in the spreading stain
New chills, new thrills
For the old uphill battle
How did he wind up here again?

Walking and talking
Touched and scared
Uninsulated wires left bare

Yvette in English going,
“Please have this
Little bit of instant bliss.”

What blew her like a leaf his way?
(Up in the air and down to Earth)
First she flusters
Then she frays
So quick to question her own worth

Her cigarette burns her fingertips
As it falls like fireworks she curses it

Then sweetly in English she says,
“Please have this,
Little bit of instant bliss.”

He sees her turn and walk away
Skittering like a cat on stone–
Her high heels clicking–
What a wary little stray!
She leaves him by the Seine alone

With the black water and the amber lights
And the bony bridge between left and right

Yvette in English saying,
“Please have this
Little bit of instant bliss.”

This is great. Makes me happy-ish (which is as good as I get these days). We should have music here more often.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Darling, when will you come west to visit us so you are more than happy-ish? Don’t wait until Tommy’s wedding. I’m sure there’s some cheap airfare this weekend from PHX to SFO and it’s cold and foggy and dreary here if you want a change from 113 weather. I have a couch…

@SanFranLefty: Tribe’s attorney terminating mom’s rights. I developed a new process for voluntary terminations that the tribal court adopted today.

@Walking Still: Shadows and Light, both the album and the video. Edith and the Kingpin is one of the most awesome songs ever.

Video linky link – Edith and the Kingpin, w/Beesko’s primo Jaco and Pat Metheny (looks like she’s finger strumming an Ibanez version of a Gibson hollowbody – a 175?)

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/wm-A10302B00003212903/joni_mitchell_edith_and_the_king_pin_official_music_video/

Have a glass of wine and enjoy an absolutely beautiful song.

@JNOV: Why? Do the Wawa people check?

@JNOV: I was in PHX with Son of RML when Maynard from Tool got hit with a water bottle. He stormed off and the band stayed right on the rails for the tune they were playing, one called Jambi from 10,000 Days.

Video linky link – tool, “jambi”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85mqErXbeBk

Hear the whole thing and witness the majesty of metal.

Bonus: Frampton-esque talk box solo at 4:10

“Shine on forever, benevolent son
Shne on forever, until the two become one”

@FlyingChainSaw: They probably wouldn’t notice the missing trousers. The missing bra? Um. I guess I could put Band-Aids on my nipples, but I might as well just put on a fucking bra.

@redmanlaw: Meshell Ndegeocello was here last Sunday. She credits Jaco as an influence.

@redmanlaw: Tool makes my ears bleed. I remember when they first hit the scene, and I was dating this guy who loved the hell outta them. We broke up for other reasons, but Tool didn’t help. :-P

@SanFranLefty: This weekend’s no good. The primary is Tuesday the 24th so I’ll be calling everyone in Maricopa County trying to get my candidates elected. I’m working for a county attorney candidate (R) and an attorney general candidate (D) in a last ditch, desperate attempt to get a job in those offices. And I’m seriously worried about my (R) because the other guy is endorsed by fucking Arpaio and has jumped on the anti-brown bandwagon.

But thank you. I will take you up on this kind and generous offer. I feel like the crazy lady locked in the attic, knowing that many of y’all have met f2f.

@JNOV: Gawd, I hate bras but they are so fucking necessary.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: You are always welcome in Santa Fe, tambien, chica.

@JNOV: A Tool song about conflict, “Right in Two”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjzHZDPrYKg

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Total overshare, as per.

I was basically flat chested until I was pregnant. I’m talking barely an A to a DD. Hokay.

I just about never wore a bra in high school except for sports. When I was in Catholic school, I’d go full commando sometimes. I like to be free! (Cue “Born Free.”)

Well, one day I had a surprise school physical. They had to check my spine for scoliosis. So, I’m like, fine. I strip out of my uniform, and I think I was wearing panties that day, but who knows? I mos def was NOT wearing a bra.

The nurse, PA, Dr, whomever she was said, “Oh! A Modern Woman!” I was like, “Yeah. That’s right.”

Post Jr, they’re not exactly where they once were, and they’re no longer barely As, but I eschew brassieres as much as possible. I’ve even gone so far as to duct tape my boobs where I want them so I don’t have bra lines. Um. That was a mistake.

@redmanlaw: Seriously, you’re going to have to Rick Roll me into watching a Tool video, and then I’ll call you everything but a child of God. Trust.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: I’ve only been to one, so don’t feel too bad. We’re here, there and everywhere, and some of us just can’t travel. I sure as shit can’t. But I know that we’ll meet in the flesh one day. Our exile is temporary. :-)

@JNOV: BTW, I just bought that song and a few albums of Joni’s on iTunes, while I wait for the damn Mad Men episodes to download. (Realized too late you should just click and watch the and not download for future reference).

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Sorry you can’t make it and good luck to your candidates. I got a nice thank you email today from your buddy and I almost ignored the glaring grammar error in it. W/r/t visiting Ess Eff, Mr. SFL is gone for the next few weeks digging holes in Southern California, then he’s back for a while and then the rest of the fall he’s gone again plus I’m in god-forsaken places like Rhode Island, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Vermont, Kansas City, maybe northern Virginia and less god-forsaken places like Austin and NOLA. I guess Vermont is less god-forsaken. There may be a few weekends here and there I’ll be around in October or December… funny but all my lefty related endeavors are boycotting PHX.

I have been winkled out of retirement (literally…my wife shook me out of my
birthday sleep…to show me there was seismic activity among the Stinquers.
(Al Jarreau, for chrissake? Wait a minute. Lyrics to “Spain”…Corea’s Spain?
Flying Chain Saw… did I see, somewhere…your imprimatur in this loose ruck?
Steve Gadd on drums? Hey, the cat who played with Simon in Central Park.
A lot of richness here..,Mingus Ah Um…”Good bye Pork Pie Hat” (eulogy for Lester Young)…”Fables of Faubus”… Orval, the late racist former governor
of Arkansas. And “Bettah Git it in Yoah Soul”. Smacks of voodoo.

Yessir, folks. Sixty-eight years old today. Still have most of my hair.

@SanFranLefty: Yay! And lemme know if you’re coming to Northern VA. I could probably find a way down there.

@EffeteHipster: HAPPY FUCKING BIRTHDAY! So good to see you! Yes, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.” That should be the younger gen’s theme fucking song.

Okay, I gotta try to sleep so I don’t drive into a tree in a few hours. This has been a most pleasant evening/morning.

<3 to you all. :-)

@JNOV: As a b, I’m right over the line; I suppose I can go without, but I hate attracting attention and swinging sallies, no matter how modest, attract attention.

@SanFranLefty: Thanks! We’ll figure it out. I actually like Rhode Island. Good memories there. Everybody tells me I should go back to a reunion.

Check this out. It’s a response to Baby Quayle’s weird campaign ad. One YouTube commenter said, “I’m both frightened and turned on and I love it.”

@EffeteHipster: Off the top of my head, Steve Gadd also played with the Dan on Aja.

But check out Tool’s drummer on 46&2 (end part from 4:15) on “46&2”. Damn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tja6_h4lT6A&feature=related

@EffeteHipster: Feliz Cumpleanos and where the fuck is your brilliant wife?? I miss her literate comments. Make sure to give her extra kisses for being there.

@Jamie: We need to compare notes behind class one of these days because I think you might know two of my favorite people in the universe who spent four years in a small state at the same time as you.

@JNOV: Dry Cleaner From Des Moines in my fave from the Mingus album. Turbulent Indigo is, IMO, the last great Joni album (so far – I keep my hopes up). Yvette in English is a delightful song. BTW, David Crosby also does it well (the song is a co-write).

@redmanlaw: No arguments about Shadows and Light – excellent song selections, great band. By far, her best live release (not that the others aren’t good).

@Walking Still: :-)