43: windy city blows

Posted on December 19, 2010 by markweiss86

Beth Custer at Yoshi's, March, 2009

Joe McPhee
Solo
Saturday, November 20, 5pm
Corbett vs. Dempsey

Friends and colleagues…

It is with great pleasure that Corbett vs. Dempsey presents a rare solo performance by legendary multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee.

Based in Poughkeepsie, New York, McPhee is one of the great American improvisors.  Since the late 1960s, he has worked as a saxophonist, trumpeter, valve-trombonist, and all around musical emanator.  His first LP, “Nation Time,” is now regarded as a free jazz classic; the unaccompanied outing “Tenor” ranks as one of the finest saxophone records of all time.  This concert is held in the context of “Sound On Sound,” an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Christopher Wool, which takes its name from a group of early recordings by McPhee.

To celebrate McPhee’s inspiring music, Corbett vs. Dempsey is issuing a two-CD set of these previously unreleased solo recordings from 1968 to 1973.  The extraordinary tracks document the very early years of McPhee’s tenor playing (he was initially a trumpet player, though he was an absolute natural saxophonist) and his omnivorous interest in sound-making devices of all types (from drone organ to nagoya harp, by way of soprano sax and hand percussion),  They present a little-known aspect of his early work, his interest in multi-track recording, here executed on a device known as a Sound On Sound tape machine.  When he performed live in concert with the device, he called it his “Survival Unit.”

It’s always a mystery what instrument(s) McPhee will have in hand for a given concert.  One thing is certain:  Whatever the axe, Joe McPhee will make it sing.

Corbett vs. Dempsey
1120 N. Ashland Ave. 3
Chicago, Il. 60622
773.278.1664
Hours: Thurs., Fri. & Sat. 11-4 (& b

Meanwhile, clarinetist and composer Beth Custer, shown above at Yoshi’s at a Marshall Allen tribute in spring, 2009, is returning from Soviet Georgia where she and her combo presented her score to “My Grandmother” film.

Posted in jazz, this blue marble | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

42: Untitled (piziali)

Posted on December 18, 2010 by markweiss86

new work by joey "night train" piziali

I had the opportunity to spread the news about Palo Alto High winning the state football championship, 15-13 versus Centennial High, played in Carson, to former Paly defensive stalwart Joey Piziali, who is now an artist and gallery partner in San Francisco. Here please admire a recent work.

Posted in art, sports, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

melrose and fairfax the blog41.

Posted on December 11, 2010 by markweiss86

dogbyte image over samurai poster, palo alto, 2010

shout out to melrose and fairfax blog which covers street art in l.a. i was just down there and happened to see a work by an artist I know and watch called dogbyte. i voted for dogbyte in a poll by melrose and fairfax blog which so far had about 500 participants — my fav was running third but that is still pretty strong.

http://melroseandfairfax.blogspot.com/

I also want to post some of my shots from that trip, plus comment on the David Wojnarowicz story, especially since it is on page 1 of New York Times today column by Holland Cotter. drifting

Posted in art, ethniceities, media | 9 Comments

XL. Ping Pong pang

Posted on December 9, 2010 by markweiss86

johansen detail in palo alto

Good luck and mazel tov to Joey Piziale’s new gallery Romer Young (the former Ping Pong Gallery).
Above is a detail from Chris Johanson’s part of the triptych on California Avenue that also features a work of Joey’s (more about this piece later).

Also, I am pretty darn sure the writer of this Bay Guardian piece is the same Matt Sussman who was in The Babysitters Club with Rachel Metz (and played Cubberley back in the day).

http://www.sfbg.com/2010/12/07/where-everybody-knows-your-name

And direct to the gallery:

http://www.romeryounggallery.com/

 

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XXXVIII: I’m Dancing as KFJC as I Can

Posted on December 8, 2010 by markweiss86

soulive in chicago

When I switched on the car radio this morning I heard the dj talking about Karl Denson and offering tickets to a show coming up Friday at The Independent in San Francisco. I pulled over and dialed in, but then thought better of it; I’m trying to focus my energy on smaller numbers of projections and distractions.

But then the phone rang me back (!) and it was Ann Arbor of KFJC, who apparently hates it (rightfully) if the tickets the clubs make available for promotional purposes don’t “sell through” so to speak.

So I agreed readily to be KFJC’s guest at the show, which is actually a Soulive show featuring Denson as a special guest.

I took the opportunity to gently (?) chastise Ann for speaking of the show as a Karl Denson show per se rather than a Soulive show — she had just played a track from Denson’s 2001 Blue Note release Dance Lessons #2 and was more familiar with his act than that of Eric Krasno.

I took the further liberty of telling her that I had promoted a Greyboy All-stars show in Palo Alto, in 1997 I think it was, referring to Karl’s vehicle he co-led with Robert Walters. I recall making a cool poster featuring (for no real reason) a picture of the dancer from Bring in Da Funk, Savion Glover.

I also reminded her (we’ve never really met, and have seldom spoke) that I produced about 150 shows at Cubberley in that era, some of which her station co-presented or gave away tickets, i.e., helped to promote.

I also added the insiders’ local interest tidbits that Denson’s longtime manager Eric Newson is the son of local realtor Bonnie Newson; that Soulive’s manager Jeff Krasno is the founder of the new yoga rock festival in Lake Tahoe, Wanderlust; that I once brought Steve Lacy to KFJC for a live interview with Robert Emmett; and that Glenn Hartman of the New Orleans Klezmer All-stars, displaced by Katrina, is now the GM of The Independent, as his day job.

Ann Arbor has been with the station since 1992, and said I could blog about her here. She is reputed to be a pretty good acupuncturist if you ever find yourself in need of such service (under another name): maybe you will find yourself getting poked but be somehow comforted by her familiar voice.

Here is a link to her KFJC page; you can click through to her “Dancing in the Fast Lane” playlists: mostly world and funk.
http://www.kfjc.org/programming/program_info.php?houroftheweek=54&info_id=10

I still think college radio is under-appreciated and is NOT made obsolete by internet radio. There is something classic even perfect or appropriate about the technology of terrestrial radio.

Posted in brain, jazz, media, music, words | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

thirtysomething: Dao Strom–new song, new media

Posted on December 7, 2010 by markweiss86

Dao Strom offers this new post material:

http://daostrom.bandcamp.com/track/origin-tale-2

Posted in music | Tagged | 3 Comments

XXXVII: Four hands clapping

Posted on December 6, 2010 by markweiss86

paul pena by peter pena

I spoke to Brad Kava who reported having played harmonica at the Himalayan Blues Festival (http://www.himalayanblues.com/) which brought to mind Paul Pena’s film, my stint helping Helena Norberg-Hodge and, later, the imagined sound of a prayer bell vibrating to audibility; earlier today I had mentioned to someone that I caught part of the Dalai Lama appearance at a middle school in East Palo Alto, on local cable access.

Posted in brain, ethniceities, media, music, Plato's Republic, sex, this blue marble | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

XXXVI: So true (True Margrit vs. “True Grit”)

Posted on November 16, 2010 by markweiss86

I was excited to see a poster for the upcoming Coen Brothers’ version of “True Grit,” based on the Charles Portis novel, which many people think of as a John Wayne movie. I was so excited I texted the below typography — the photo-text — to Margrit Eichler who performs under the name True Margrit, and is celebrating the release of her new cd. She in kind sent notice that her picture and info about her video “Opposite Man” were recently seen in Music Connection magazine. Her cd is called “The Juggler’s Progress.” The song will also be in a feature-length indie film by Scott Boswell.

I hope the success of the two movies spur interest generally in True Margrit’s work; she is quite deserving. This is her fourth cd — she also I should note was the headliner the night The Donnas made their professional debut at Earthwise Productions at Cubberley Community Center in January, 1995.

The song in the Coen trailer is the Peasall Sister’s version of Mosie Lister’s “Where No One Stands Alone.”

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/09/28/true-grit-trailer-kills/

Joel and Ethan Coen present subliminal sideways support for True Margrit

Footnotes:

1.

Here is 7,000 words about Charles Portis in The Believer, from Ed Park, from 2003.

2. There are other trailers for “True Grit” besides the one that uses the Peasall Sisters; for reference here is more of them little girls (and not to detract from ME)

I had to suss the song and artist via the search-injuns. Note also that PS were used in previous Coens film.

3. Before being both a participant in my Cubberley Sessions (or Palo Alto Soundcheck), and a client, True Margrit was in my early pantheon of SF indie legends; I recall meeting her one night South of Market when she was taping flyers to poles, and was impressed.

4. edit to add, Jan. 11, 2011:

The Chronicle had two pieces on this topic today:

http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/

and

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/07/MVF31H3SEH.DTL

I spoke to Margrit Eichler, founder and leader of local band True Margrit and, surprisingly, she said that she still prefers the original film (with John Wayne) to the recent one. I hope she takes me up on my suggestion that she write about her insights, either on her own site or as a gust of Plastic Alto. (A true gust, in that case).

Posted in ethniceities, film, media, music, sex | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

XXXV. Well trained

Posted on November 16, 2010 by markweiss86

photo link

I would acknowledge by debt to both Stefan Kirkeby and Palo Alto Art Center if I wrote a post comparing the work of the still photographer O. Winston Link to the current Hollywood blockbuster motion picture juggernaut “Unstoppable” starring Denzel Washington.

http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=24630

http://www.linkmuseum.org/

Here is a rather snarky review of the movie by Jen Yamato for Film dot com. (Not sure if I will see the film; the movie about Aron Ralston — starring local-bred cuddly like a Teddy rising star what’s his face, makes his mother proud, first, but am reading the very well-written memoir first — it will likely take me about 127 hours over a matter of weeks to get through it, the way I read):

http://www.film.com/features/story/breaking-down-20-million-denzel/42602742?pcode=film&cpath=rss&rsrc=movierss_film

Posted in art, film, media | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

XXXIV: SCUBA is Sandra Wang and Crockett Bodelson

Posted on November 14, 2010 by markweiss86

scubasansterry

Terry and I could not help bumping into the two young artists selling their wares on Hayes Street yesterday. Turns out they are Crockett Bodelson and Sandra Wang who collaborate as SCUBA and have gotten a fair amount of attention for both their art and their green lifestyle since arriving in SF from Philadelphia.

They have a show coming up at FM Gallery in Oakland.

We procured two mini masterpieces for our respective and/or overlapping collections; the first, mine, depicts a baseball player, or at least his head and cap; the second, hers, is more intricate showing striped tableaus of City life including landmarks like the bridges. Sandra added the intriguing detail that that piece is also used as a t-shirt design.

Maybe someday they will end up with a mural in Palo Alto, joining the ranks of Greg Brown, Joey Piziali, Chris Johanson and David Huffman.

Terry was so excited to meet them she spilled her coffee all over their transaction table — the gods retaliated by making us late enough to the Orpheum that we were part of a “six minute audience hold” i.e. they would not seat us until after the first number, the “Prologue” of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s “West Side Story.”

Posted in art, media, sports, this blue marble | Tagged , , | 1 Comment