Congrats, blessings, greetings, namaste and mazel tov to Corey Harris on first, a book he has written on Ali Farka Toure and, second, a documentary about Corey’s work.
The video is from “Zion Crossroads”the 2007 Telarc release that I still spend some time with. I mean above — the bigger news is a feature to appear on public television nationwide from American Music Research Foundation, “Corey Harris Journeys”.
Corey Harris told me in 2002 that he was first inspired to make music after learning about Boubacar Kar-Kar Traore, the Mali music master. Ok, he told this to Frank-John Hadley but I was there. Ok, he told this to Frank-John Hadley, who called House of Blues Cambridge and I answered the phone and FJH said “Ask Corey to repeat the name of the Malian singer that he was influenced by” and I went and fetched the word from Corey and called the writer back.
In 2002 he appeared with Black American blues and reggae performer Corey Harris, on an album called Mississippi to Mali (Rounder Records). Toure and Harris also appeared together in Martin Scorsese’s 2003 documentary film Feel Like Going Home,[7] which traced the roots of blues back to its genesis in West Africa. The film was narrated by Harris and features Ali’s performances on guitar and njarka. (from wikimon)
I am just guessing that Corey spent some of his MacFound “Genius Grant” money on researching this book, on Ali Farka Toure (1939-2006); well spent, well-played. I and I will get to in in due course.
Corey Harris is also something of a scholar on Walter Rodney the Guyanese activist and educator, whose papers are in Atlanta (judging by the inspiring tracks 6-7 on “Zion Crossing”).
Corey is from Denver, went to university in Maine, did a year abroad in West Africa, pivoted from teacher to artist/griot, hung in New Orleans and Virginia when not on road or with family. I met him when I worked with Henry Butler, as they had a duo side-project together and were part of the world-changing Front Porch Blues Tour. I saw Corey at Yoshi’s not to long ago. Check that, too long ago.
Some day in Palo Alto: the Corey Harris show. my blog to God’s ear. Not sure if God is a Follower other than the omniscience and other duties.
Bay Area:
Friday June 6, 8 pm: Michael Coleman and Ben Goldberg play Hocus Pocus! with ROVA and Johnston/Shelton Quartet Community Music Center, 544 Capp St., SF
Saturday June 7, 5:30 pm
Myra Melford / Ben Goldberg duo
part of Myra’s program “Mentors & Mavericks” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF
I spent $2 today to vote, at Tresidder, for parking.
I took out the Mediterranean Special from CoHo, with hummus pita et al.
And I et all.
I will edit to add the name of the cross streets around Tresidder, to pretend that there is a geographic nexus, like Sleater-Kinney, streets in Portland or Seattle from which a famous indie band took her name. Lagunita – Santa Teresa, that’s the name of the area producing a lot of rock bands. In the tradition of Young the Giant, Vienna Teng, K. Flay, Jupiter something, the son of the bass player of the dead, the son of the guitar player of Aerosmith, Oranger, American Sensei, MC Lars, the girl and i, Finding Jupiter maybe, Brody, — I used to have a list of about 20 current or recently graduated campus bands, but I am out of it. The Daily had a write up on this, which I found researching recently declared candidates for City Council.
Two points about this: when I first wrote this, in June, 2014 it was post number 666; but then I decided it was lame to post this overly eager letter to some young researcher I met, even a Yale-educated musicologist. I had it on “private” or “draft” for two months. Last week I traded voice mail with a NoLA muse about doing a Bay Area show, which got me thinking about Gertrude again. Not sure why it prints the copy over the right hand column; operator error not supernatural.
For a minute I was all over New Orleans. Back in 2003 that is. And I passed on the chance to party with Steve and Eric Cohen in March. The Shrimp Po’ Boy I had last night in San Jose was as close to perfection as I could hope to imagine or pray for. Louisiana Bistro, on Market Street, a few blocks from the Museum, chef Dee Green, from Bogalusa, LA. (And Scott had blackened catfish, Michael a small plate of gumbo, Terry the beef ribs, bon temps roulez all around — and here I am tempted to put a little smiley emoticon).
Maybe all this had me thinking about the grad student I met a whiles ago, at Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto. Her name is E_ and she said she was just about to travel to New Orleans to do field work on Sister Gertrude Morgan. Here is my note to her, that I had archived in the meanwhile:
Ms. E_.
Nice meeting you. Good luck in NoLa.
To reiterate my question: I was the manager for a New Orleans-affiliated jazz sax player named John Ellis, or John Axson Ellis. During that tenure, I clipped and sent him the New York Times coverage of a show of work by Sister Gertrude Morgan; I believe it was the one at the Folk Museum , and the article was written by Michael Kimmelman (a name that means more to me now than it did then, as I reconstruct the story). John was raised in rural North Carolina , was mentored in New Orleans , and is now based in Brooklyn . His grandfather and maybe his father were Christian Missionaries. I thought he would like the article and be able to catch the exhibit (whereas myself, based out here, could only read about it and file “Gertrude Morgan” on my long list of things to someday catch up on). I never heard from him if he saw the show, or even read the article, as we parted ways shortly thereafter, as it happened.
A short period of time later, however, I noticed that Ropeadope Records, based in New York and Philadelphia , had put out a Gertrude Morgan cd, the King Britt remix. As Ropeadope Records and its founder Andy Hurwitz are key players in the scene that John’s jazz typifies, and he and John know each other very well , I at the very least felt affirmed in my instinct that Sister Gertrude’s sound and story and visuals might be relevant to people like John and his cohorts.
By the way, the eminent jazz historian and writer Nat Hentoff once reviewed very favorably an early John Ellis recording and especially lauded a track and performance of John’s that was based on a folk melody John says his grandmother taught him called “John Brown’s Gun”. Hentoffnoted and seemed intrigued by the blurring and cross-fertilization of folklore and jazz. Also, and excuse me if this too tangential, I did find the citation of a New York Times write-up on John Ellis that covers the same ground:
The other names I dropped perhaps too quickly and gratuitously at Coupa today, Elaine, were: Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Howard Finster, Dexter Romweber of Flat Duo Jets, “Athens GA: Inside Out ”, Lamar Sorrento, Jon Langford of the Mekons.
I own three or four smallish Finsters, and a large Sudduth mud-and-paint-on-board. I actually represent one local painter currently and no musicians although the bulk of my work over the last 20 years has been music.
If you have any questions about New Orleans music I would enjoy being a resource too you. I am still a novice, but for my blind spots I might know who else to refer you to. The most handy people I know would be Scott Aiges, Glenn Hartman, Les Blank, Scott Billington, Lee Frank, Adam Shipley, Malcolm Welbourne. I know a couple gallery owners who specialize in outsider art if that helps. Also, and this may be too far afield, I recommend Jessica Yu’s film on Henry Darger. Jessica was my classmate at Gunn High in Palo Alto. And Les Blank “Always for Pleasure” on New Orleans music culture.
I would be curious if the thread about Andy Hurwitz supposedly finding Gertrude’s record in a bin somewhere and then wanting to reissue it is true, or more to the point if people like his curation of culture fit in with your thesis on GM’s importance. I believe he is reachable at (917) 744-XXXX or at his website if his view and story make him a potential informant. Obviously people whose work was contemporaneous with Gertrude or worked with her directly would be more important.
As I said, I would be interested in reading a book by you on this topic if it gets that far and or attending a reading. Meanwhile, you have me dipping into Gertrude’s water a little bit via the internet…
“Make it funky”.
Mark Weiss
Earthwise Productions of Palo Alto
“Plastic Alto” blog
PO Box 60786
Palo Alto , CA 94306
(650) 305-xxxx
earwopa@yahoo.com
This link summarizes some of my New Orleans music experiences:
Four random riffs ripped on Jolie Holland; or Birds Became Boards
1.
On Saturday night, performing alone at City Winery and struggling through some stifling sound problems, she sang “The Littlest Birds,” a pleasant folk song she used to perform with her old band, the Be Good Tanyas. On her own Ms. Holland loaded so much ornament in the song that it sounded like three people singing at once; she ran lines together in slurs and dropped 50-pound accents on nearly every line-ending vowel. Birds became boards. What was that? North Carolina Outer Banks? San Fernando Valley? Philadelphia? East Texas? (She’s from Houston, but has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia; San Francisco; and New Orleans. She’s now in Brooklyn.) Can we be specific?
No, we can’t. There’s an old and durable American myth being served in Ms. Holland’s persona: the folk singer who’s from everywhere and nowhere. When she speaks she sounds sensible and centered, but when she sings she becomes a hungry museum of stray voices. She can’t use one kind of trill, sigh, gargle or regional vowel inflection without grasping for another. (That’s Ben Ratliff, New York Times, 2009, which reminded me to type “Jolie” into my internal search engine here in Plastic Alto to yield these similar thoughts, that I don’t express nearly as well…by the way, I like Jolie…don’t get me raw in. ..)
2. NB: Now that I actually read the thing, as opposed to merely cutting and pasting a chunk that seems topical, I can say Jonathan, I feel you. The exact same thing happened to me once when Jolie Holland butt-swiped me for unknown reasons at The Make-Out Room at a Danny Barnes show around 2006. Although I didn’t recognize her and it’s ambiguous whether she in fact remembered me from our meeting a few weeks earlier at Alabama Chicken; I had been sitting the entire time of our first encounter and didn’t realize, looking up at her, how short she is or was. It was 2003 or so; more of a hip check actually, but not sure what it was about. I recall that Danny thought her accent was a put-on, or at least he asked me if I knew where she was from. (that’s from here, Plastic Alto, on some random thing about author Jonathan Lethem)
3.
Jolie Holland — I met at Alabama Chicken and she invited me to play scrabble once. I like the rap thingy she does with, who is it, Russell Sage? I mean Sage Francis? And Danny Barnes asked me if her accent was supposed to be for real….I was re-listening to a Laura Veirs demo from 2005 or so she sent me, girl with a tiger not dragon tattoo and wrote a draft of something and sent to her publicist maybe I will cut and paste it in here. I get confused Laura Veirs, Jolie Holand and Mary Halvorson. (Likewise, about Noise Pop)
4.
Birds of Chicago opens Saturday Dec. 1 for Sean Hayes and Another Planet’s The Independent (formerly: Justice League, Kennel Club). Sean actually has a two-night stand with different openers. Which got me into with JT a riff on Alabama Chicken, the song, the store, the film by Les Blank, not to be more confused with, Jolie Holland (I met there; she played with Be Good Tanya’s, Trish Klein from BGT played with Allison in Po’ Girl) (after meeting Allison Russell when she was in Birds of Chicago, at Don Quixote of Felton, not so long ago)
People can click here to get the new Jolie Holland cd, on Anti. It’s been out less than two weeks; no reviews yet on Amazon, although there is a write-up in or on No Depression. Wine Dark Sea, it be called. This is random digression but I was reading about Ellery Eskelin, and his father Rodd Keith, the song-poem legend, and a reviewer said Ellery sounds like one thousand birds in flight or something and he goes “And?…” I would pay to see Jolie and Ellery…
I posted this on Palo Alto Weekly website. It drifts off topic a little bit:
Posted by Mark Weiss, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
0 minutes ago
I think Fred Balin is doing an excellent job here. Kudos.
It will be interesting to see if Scharff or Shepherd will indeed try to change their stripes before election season and throw the citizens a bone here with a vote to pull from consent calendar. Joining Holman and Schmid, but not before enacting some pound of sausage in exchange.
I had to search the term PASZ to learn who they were. I’d be more concerned at what the special interests i.e. developers are doing to preserve or extend their rout of recent years (beyond lobbying for a smaller council, something I view as limiting the chances of “fresh voices” to get elected and the pendulum swinging back to residents or residentialists).
Link above is to the group that was behind Measure D, the successful referendum on upzoning on Maybell Avenue and are continuing on, and I hope do play a role in the upcoming election.
I would say Palo Alto’s striving to self-govern means becoming independent of Stanford University, a hugely powerful and organized neighbor, as well as independent of the real estate industry, which arguably is larger than our public sector per se, and certainly better organized and incentivized that We The People.
It would be great to see one or two residentialists in the campaign this summer fall, for the bully pulpit it provides whether or not he, she or they actually get elected. Taking back the City leadership may take some time. I see it sort of like being a 10 and 152 baseball team looking to make a run at the pennant.
Not that we should concede on 1451-1601 Cali: give em hell, Fred!
(but it is kinda funny and sad that when a billionaire wants to build a giant monument to his greatness at 27 Uni City Manager gives him $250,000 of our budget to flesh out the idea, but if a average citizen and small business owner like Fred wants to contest something proposed by power or the powerful, it’s now $400 out of his meager pockets…)
Excuse the mixed metaphors: sausages, throw us a bone, change their stripes and more (and yes, I wrote a post about a developer who mixed metaphors in his speech to Council).
I also just looked it up: the Major League Baseball record for a team winning the World Series after a losing season is the 2013 Red Sox who were .426 (69-93) in previous season (and of course had won the Series previously).
It would take a fictional team like something out of Bernard Malamud to go, metaphorically speaking from 10 and 152 to the pennant.
I meant “exacting” not “enacting” as in the lower definition meaning “severe” as in common trope “exacting revenge”. I also wrote “that” for “than”. Oh, well.
I am still working on various formats for expression: comments on PAW site, posting to my own blog, sending email, texting. Should I copy and disseminate this post or comment?
I tend to back up comments on PAW site, fearing that they will delete it.
Will they delete “Give em hell, Fred?” Isn’t that a Harry Truman reference?
edit to add: I looked it up and “Give em hell” is a Truman trope, and the subject of a 1975 play, once reviewed by Roger Ebert, with this art. (And yeah, I’m going from baseball to drama, and all those mixed metaphors…)
OUTRO: OUR FRIENDS IN HOBOKEN:
edit to add: the Weekly deleted my link to here, which adds some detail but not much (unless you are looking for a James Whitmore movie or a Yo La Tengo song)
Re-posted the small addendum and added a brief report from last night’s council meeting:
Posted by Mark Weiss, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
0 minutes ago
I meant “exacting” not “enacting” as in the lower definition meaning “severe” as in common trope “exacting revenge”. I also wrote “that” for “than”. Oh, well.
Fred Balin did an excellent job when given his 3 minutes to speak to his appeal, although the item was continued to June 9 meeting. There were about 40 people who turned out specifically to support Balin and his appeal (He asked people to raise their hands if that’s why they were there. )
Well played, Balin. Not sure, but waiting to see, what this will do if anything to the proposal. Not sure what this means to the residentialist movement, but it seems somewhat encouraging. I presume GS will note last night’s news on this when he covers the June 9 meeting.
edit to add, June 11:
Posted by Mark Weiss, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
0 minutes ago
I wonder if the Ohlone considered filing an appeal to regulate the incursion of the Spanish back in 1769
(GS reports that Council will hold a public hearing on the matter June 23…)
Bill Gould, who throws a mean party for San Jose art types but is also big in Poland, deserves a better Plastic Alto post or posting or plastering than this. More like this.
See Maki. the article by Mary Gottschalk said that an influence on the Gould polish poppy sculpture is the WWI poem. See Maki crowd-sourcing page for video. You, dear reader, can do this yourself if you get to it before I get back to this page.
See “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae (sic)
See John McCrea “I bombed Korea”
Bill Gould’s wife, Dr. Jill Goodman Gould, teaches literature at Santa Clara University and is an expert on the Holocaust, duly noted.
It seems like I don’t do much but blog these days. Mixed blessing: plenty to say, few readers. Do I need feedback for affirmation?
Talked to Terry. Our plan for day is San Jose Museum, which is open 11 to 5 on Sundays. I want to see the David Levinthal exhibit. I want to see the Willie Mays bit. But it also, according to website, has something about Holocaust. And as a Jew I am required to think about the Holocaust for an hour or more every couple months. Meanwhile, Terry had wanted to see a movie called “Ida”, and not just because she has a sister-in-law with that name. It references something “jewish” I hear tell. So I thought, in advance, and advance enough to tip my cultural plan, which is like the Cubs pitcher telling his coach that Will Clark had hit a curveball last time up so was going with fastballs, such that, Will, being a lip reader knew what was coming, and hit a gamer, such that now every single pitcher conference in MLB has men talking thru their mitts, why not look at the David Levinthal Holocaust stuff with an eye towards seeing “Ida” and then see, more to the point, “Ida” contextualized thru having just gone to the museum — the baseball stuff will melt away, like the line about sculpture being you take a block and cut away what is not your work. “Ida” is here in Palo Alto, at Palo Alto Square –where we saw “Chef” — but we will see it at famous Camera on South Second, and eat something (not too ambitious) in between.
My brain kinda flashed to having seen a new piece of sculpture down at the East extreme of Palo Alto University Avenue, past House of Bagels and Tamarine (the most Easterly culture haunts on my map), a large bronze of a life-size or super-sized or at least super-sturdy looking athlete, a runner, or maybe a sprinter. The man is hunched forward like he is in a sprint. He has a logo for the leading sports shoe manufacturer on his shoes. He also has the name of the business/tenant on a name-tag (in bronze) on his shorts and shirt. The sponsor of the work — somewhere between public art, sculpture, a statue and a monument — is a chiropractor or a sports chiropractor. And his name fittingly is Vanderhoof. (Hoof being a reference to “feet”, in my mind, maybe he is a podiatrist, as well, like my Gunn contemporary Amol Saxena). I was thinking of chatting up the guy about doubling down on monument but adding some kind of value like could the statue, the next statue, that he and I could co-produce, with some fellow travelers and art-sports-scene hoofers, be of someone or something more specific. Think John Carlos and Smith as seen by Rigo, at San Jose State. Think Major Taylor in Worcester. Think Heisman Trophy winners at not-much-else-going on large public schools in midwest and south. (Chris Wuelpher?) Think weird tribute to electronics pioneer, eugenicist and pseudo-inspiration to Silicon Valley mavericks in Cali Avenue Area — could this runner be the same artist – fabricator? I am also still looking for an outlet for my Harry Hillman or my Hillman-Robertson jones. I will edita with pic of runner. And hopefully some informed (shaped) comments on Levinthall and or “Ida”. Dr. Aaron Vanderhoof at 616 University.
I think 24 Mays has been floating around my desktop for a while I will try to drag him here
edit to add: We did make it to San Jose Museum of Art, to see David Levinthal exhibit plus recent acquisitions (Kara Maria, Stephanie Sujuco, Stanford’s Xiaoze Xie) and Landau on loan, but we kinda rushed thru for whatever reasons. If I don’t get back there, my Nov. 30, I would like to spend some time with Levinthal’s books, there are about six, and especially a recent book on Iraq and Afghanistan wars, called I.E.D., available from Powerhouse books, for $29.95. He has a version of Mein Kampf based on seeing and procuring a toy set from WWII characters that he says he saw in Austria — someone in Austria was selling an Adolph Hitler action figure or toy, and this is the Jewish American artists reaction to it. Some of his works are collaborations with Gary Trudeau, of Doonsbury fame. I don’t quite have the whole picture but I have a better idea of it all. They say he was an influence on Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince. (Did not make it to “IDA” the movie. Maybe I can be too clever by half and change my title from “Ida Levinthal…” to IED Levinthal…also, not sure if I am more or less likely to justify the juxtaposition of the Palo Alto statue of a runner I describe to Levithal’s work — it kinda fits if you can image taking photos of the runner and re-purposing them to make some point about worship of idealized forms of the human body.)
We also have a group photo of four of us posed next to a Ruth Asawa tribute installation: Terry, Mark, Scott and Michael. TK
edit to add, later than month: Terry and I finally saw “Ida” which forced me to watch the U.S. – Portugal World Cup match on tape delay. Sad movie, I will add more later.
Scott Gates, Chelsea Williams, Chuck Hailes (upright bass) of The Salty Suites
Rusty Croft and Kirk or Kurt, who is a SJS MFA circa 1972, and studied with Tony May and Sam Smidt, of Sand Guys International
Terry and I spent a couple hours Saturday down at the Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend event. She is going back today for a second helping. It helps that we live walking distance away. Actually they comp us in to keep us from making noise complaints. Besides the band, The Salty Suites, and the art installation, Sand Guys, I liked the free pop cycles from Dreyer’s (I think) which featured fruit and veggie essences, or so they said. We also ran into Michael Szabo, the Gunn graduate whose art studio is in Sf, on Yosemite, and will soon install a fountain on Cali Ave here, in addition to his coil at Mitchell Park. Not to invade his privacy, but it appears he now lives in the same building as the studio run by former Paly footballer Joey Piziali, although the two don’t really know each other.
Here is a video of The Salty Suites doing what I think of as a Los Lobos song, but is actually, or so this magic box tells me, is a 1951 Peppermint Harris song, “I Got Loaded”. Bassist Chuck Hailes takes the lead. On the 15-track live album, from Castoro Cellars, there are nine originals and six covers. Of those nine, writing credit break down thusly:
Chelsea Williams (guitar, v): 3 and 5/6ths or 5;
Scott Gates (mandolin, v): 2 and 5’6ths or 5;
Chuck Hailes (bass, v): 1 and 5/6ths or 4. (that is, Hailes has writing credits on four tracks, either a half credit or a third credit in each case). It seems, from watching half a set, that they trade the lead vocals such that the singer is probably the main composer of the song.
You, if you are super-observant or know The Salty Suites, or you ARE the Salty Suites, that the photo I took is reversed. Hailes was stage right of Williams, is in the video. And I’m just guessing that Andrew the manager (on their site) is Andrew Gates, brother of Scott Gates, who also posts 160 videos on YouTube. Scott Gates owns the website, it seems. They play mainly Southern California although I would think they should try to get gigs at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass or Freight and Salvage or Crepe Place Santa Cruz. Chelsea told me that they went to Folk Alliance regional event.
Kirk Rademaker started Sand Guy then amended to Sand Guys when he took Iowa native Rusty Croft as junior member of the team. That Terry Acebo Davis and Kirk Rademaker shared some faculty members, a decade or more apart, at San Jose State led them to a little pow-wow on the Sunset grounds, although understandably Mr. Rademaker, after four days of building, in some considerable sunshine, only had so much energy left to schmooze. But her graciously posed with both Terry and I in front of the piece, which depicts Michael Jackson at Mandelay Bay Las Vegas, which I hope to add later. They are de-installing the piece Monday although they claim that the sand hardens to near-sandstone and could last months in a protected environment. They said that some muck-a-mucks in Kuwait owe them from a big-time installation there — that’s how it goes for artists, even among the best. And next time the Kuwaitis want American intervention, we will factor Kirk’s plight into the equation.
Terry and I noted the fine ceramics and paintings of Avery Palmer at Community School of Music and Art (CSMA) in Mountain View, the night we caught the Larry Vukovich tribute to Vince Guaraldi produced by Palo Alto Jazz Alliance.
Rob Syrett in passing, perhaps over coffee or a burrito, commented that he appreciates Avery Palmer. Likewise when I met Ivan Brunetti at Stanford the artist said that he and Rob corresponded.
So when I spied his name tag, at Bill Gould’s 20th art show at Artik Art and Architecture near the Fairgrounds in San Jose, watching as I was — maybe I was blocking his view, for a spell — Jimmy Dewrance blues band, I chatted him up.
Like the ghost in Shakespeare, he would be spoken to.
Check out the work in Mountain View while you still can, if you still can. There’s also something in Davis (a ceramics hotbed, thanks to Arneson and Gilhooly et al, and that lady I met at Paule Anglim in SF, although Avery Palmer, like about 50 people in San Jose Thursday, is a product of San Jose State’s underrated art department.
edita: not sure how I got from a 25-year-old sitting watching a blues act to Marcellus of “Hamlet” and the Ghost, but it is thusly:
MARCELLUS
Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. [There was a folk belief that ghosts couldn’t speak until spoken to.]
BERNARDO
Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio. [mark it = take note of it; pay attention to it.]
HORATIO
Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder. [A harrow is like a rake. Farmers drag it over dirt to score the ground. Horatio is so scared, it’s like rake blades are digging into him.]
BERNARDO
It would be spoke to.
(the thing about the rakes and all that is from a Marcus Geldud from “directing hamlet” quora queer enough that it needs a citation. )
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 