Joy Hackett (Spalding)>>>Ben Davis(Brubeck)

Posted on January 24, 2021 by markweiss86

Bw one more for the road

This was a reiteration of a previous post that was about Keith Jarrett but digressed to a query about an unknown artist out of San Jose, Joy Dawn Hackett, who is doing a livestream for the San Jose Museum next week, Thursday, January 28. I had decided I liked her just by glancing at her muted posts. Here she does an original “bubble” take on an Esperanza Spalding song. I juxtaposed it to something from my cell phone thread, a conversation with my nephew Ben Davis, himself a Bellarmine grad in terms of his 408 bona fides, talking about Julian Lage guitar and Dayna Stephens arrangments of a Brubeck tribute to Ellington. And then to complete the progression, from me ripping someone to a hybrid content-conversation to a clip from a recent concert I produced, with Sullivan Tuttle and A.J. Lee doing two originals, at Mitchell Park Community Center, by Earthwise Productions. Recent meaning March, 2020, before the Covid shutdown.

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Sweded two minute take on San Jose’s Joy Dawn Hackett doing bubble version of Esperanza Spalding ‘Ebony and Ivy’

Posted on January 23, 2021 by markweiss86
https://videopress.com/v/XVsre7rF?preloadContent=metadata

While this was loading I was checking out the original versions: reminds me of early Stew and The Negro Problem which became “Passing Strange” plus Enorchestra Brian Eno “Taking Tiger Mountain” plus Nicole Mitchell / Lisa Harris “Earth Seed” based on Octavia Butler; the lyrics called to mind Ariel and Prospero from “The Tempest” plus the Sylvia Plath version about horses plus Emily Dickinson plus I want to see Ma Rainey story on Netflix.

 

https://videopress.com/v/PLsELgMT?preloadContent=metadata

The young San Jose musician, a product of San Jose Jazz education outreach efforts and San Jose State music department training, does a livestream from her home studio for SOFA festival, online. 

First she records two vocal parts, harmonies. Then she grabs her bass. She is at an M-Audio keyboard; (I want to say that the first time I saw looping was Howie Day in Providencd at Lupo’s…)

I don’t know the tune, but its good to know that Esperanza Spalding is an influence. Technology can enable people but can be a crutch. And just as not everyone with a camera is a photographer or auteur, just having gear does not make you an artist or musician. But this person who I had never heard of until yesterday — from a blast about another online event via the San Jose Museum — gives me hope. By the way the song is “Ebony and Ivy” not the more well-known title.

And my label project, Lions With Wings, has me trying to experiment with artists of various stripes as a producer, or funder, or instigator. 

Maybe there could be a version of Joy Dawn Hackett “Ebony and Ivy” for Lions With Wings.

Others in my woodshed or spy list:

Zach Ostroff especially his Jack Johnson/Jamie Cullum originals;

Jacob Collier, who I read about in The New Yorker;

Remi Wolf and Jared Solomon although obviously they are on a major label; I knew his dad since about 1978 and met her mom about 8 years ago; she’s come a long way since I saw her at Philz doing “Someone that I used to know” which was new then. 

Dan Horne, doing Canned Heat and a leading Phil Lesh interpreter;

Aubrey Johnson, who I copped from a Dave Douglas podcast; which might but has not lead to a study of the Lyle Mays role in Pat Matheny band.

I won’t say her name but there is a high school student, K-, in the 650 who has done 100 online shows for nursing homes, and was covered in the San Mateo Journal;

Will Magid, from Palo Alto who loves Turkish music and Don Cherry;

Tom Foley, who is Dar Williams’ nephew, who did a Matt Nathanson riff at the Sunday Farmer’s market in the donut hole of quarantine;

Valerie Troutt; come Sunday, which someone said is a prayer as much as a song; which reminds me that I should make a set list for the stream in these pages of a Ellington concert at the Mitch, Mardi Gras a year ago, what a long year; Valerie meanwhile released some content on bandcamp and Slow and Steady platform;

Erik Lawrence and Howard Johnson, looping or spliced version of Eric Dolphy “Serene”; which makes me also want to shed with Little Feat, the Band, the Last Waltz; and randomly: RZA for “Ghost Dog”;

Molly Tuttle, who played in my series 16 months ago and has been ascending like a meteorite — I’d love to hear a solo version on guitar of Prince “When You Were Mine” — she does a verse on a jazz guitar with Lake Street Dive;

“Hadestown” — by Anais Mitchell and company, which includes a young Dartmouth grad, especially since I’m a fan of Todd Sickafoos, its musical director who has produced three different album versions of the original material; 

Dayna Stephens’ “The Duke” on “Peace” cd, and how it relates to the Dave Brubeck version, and Ellington, and Sonny Rollins “The Bridge”;

Actually, my nephew Ben Davis was showing me something on that based on having taken Julian Lage’s seminar, so I will bookend this list with that.

Good luck, Joy Dawn Hackett and all of the above. 

I don’t really have to understand music for my job; I just have to find people who understand music. Its like the joke that you don’t have to outrun a hungry bear, just outrun one other guy on your trip, if attacked by a bear. But I am using my down time during the pandemic to woodshed and listen to the music, and I guess I am taking some risks, or embarrassing myself, with dipping into the crates, doing A & R, artist and repertoire. For booking shows per se, I just need to know that they sold $10k box office at The Independent but are willing to play for $3,500 at The Mitch. And I am maybe getting too much of a kick out of hearing people’s click tracks and rough mixes. It’s like the old saying that if you build a better mouse trap you don’t have to grab them by the….

Keep on swingin’ y’all. 

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Etude on Jarrett

Posted on January 23, 2021 by markweiss86

Keith Jarrett’s American combo, 1967-1976: Dewey wow them and how!

(after E.I., 2021)

Nine albums:

All music guides lists 1,318 credits.
All music guides lists discography of 104 albums (Although it lists “At Blue Note” as one cd, and says that ECM put out a cd of the “six-disc omnibus” – so I guess that means it was on LP, then a sampler on cd, but now we have access to all six on our various Apple iTune streaming services — last night we were listening to “Desert Sun” for 25 minutes, then when I took a break to watch the dog I quickly cued it up on my own handheld why Duffy did his doo diligence, so to speak — and it made me think of Dayna Stephens “The Nomad”)



But the nine albums with the classic lineup of Keith Jarrett, piano and soprano – sax —; Dewey Redman, reeds; Charlie Haden, bass and Paul Motian, drums. And my naive sense of being a jazz interloper is that I would know them as Joshua Shedroff Rodman’s father; that dog’s dad; a guy who played with Jenny Scheinman, Jenny from down the block, if you lived, like Tony Scher, or Donny McCaslin in Carroll Gardens/Red Hook turn of the century or millennium even, before the towers fell.

Life Between the Exit Signs (1967)

Says EI:

Vince Guaraldi might have broke open this piggy bank in 1962 with “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.” Ramsey Lewis released “The In Crowd” in 1965. These were big hits, heard everywhere there was a juke box. The best jazz has always taken from popular music: it is one of the secret sauces in the recipe. Jarrett took from “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” and “The In Crowd.” There is no doubt about it.

He says somewhere else that Cast Your Fate was definitely a model for the now more familiar “Linus and Lucy”.

On the title track, which I’ve conveniently transfered to my handheld as I type:

— Life Between the Exit Signs. The fast waltz is real ’60s music, something like a television commercial or Burt Bacharach. Jarrett liked Dave Brubeck, especially the solo disc Brubeck plays Brubeck, and this tune with marching thirds is a little bit in that lineage — not that Brubeck ever played this loose. They are probably blowing on the form, but it’s all an intentional jumble.

So for me, to break it down:

  1. Is it a waltz?
  2. How fast is fast, for waltzes?
  3. How is this like Bacharach?
  4. Tv commercials just as zeitgeist or literally the music you’d find in a tv commercial? Now it sounds like I am editing EI or arguing, but I’m not. I’m just trying to step to his step.
  5. Brubeck Plays Brubeck — see also some recent mathing about, what was it, Brubeck Duke compared to Rollins the Bridge, per Dayna Stephens. And or Taylor Eigsti — who has an e, i, in his name, swiss — Julian Lage and my nephew by marriage Ben Davis. 
  6. marching thirds — something that repeats three times, or is in three parts?
  7. looser than Brubeck. How loose is loose? 
  8. “blowing” on the form — in the sense of moving it slightly like when you are playing origami football and you are very very close to the edge and so you cheat? Intentional jumble, his words, if not a genre, oxymoron; see also, George Carlin’s “jumbo shrimp… or shrimpy jumbos”. Again, I amniotically am not fluidly dissing Iverson. I’m just in utero. I mean, I try to jumble my mumbo. 

On the title track: 


Restoration Ruin (1968)



Somewhere Before (1969)



The Mourning of a Star (1971)

Ruta and Daitya (1972)
Expectations (1972)

Fort Yawuh (1973)
Treasure Island (1974)
Death and The Flower (1975)
Bob-Be (1977)

A bit procrustean or scattered; forcused on the American combo not the European ones; not the Japanese imports — things that a kid in WI could buy at the local store. Working towards, to come, verifying some of the statements in Ethan’s article. But for me this is a start.
Speaking of Wisconsin, or when I say “Wisconsin” I am looking ahead and organizing my day around a gridiron clash; the guys from the frozen tundra feature a former Cal quarterback and a wide receiver from here in Palo Alto, he actually apparently went to Barron Park School right behind the old toxic sites of Stanford Industrial Park, which is now mostly software social media and video games, but worth $19B with a B as in Bird and not an M as in Milford Graves.

I like all these cover arts — this one because its January

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‘No Sleep til Brooklyn’ VS ‘Gotta Get Some Sleep’

Posted on January 22, 2021 by markweiss86

This is shameful I admit. One is a Beastie Boys still frame where they are wearing rock and roll wigs. The other is Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian in the 1970s, during the era that they produced 17 albums in nine years, according to Do The Math by Ethan Iverson. I say: EI could win a MacArthur Genius Grant if he did nothing but write about music. Seriously. It would take me two years to fact-check his 12,000 word article, which we surmise he started a couple months ago when he read in The Times that Keith Jarrett would stop playing due to a stroke. And “fact-check” would mean just verifying all the statements he makes. Walking thru his steps. Checking his math. if there are 500 statements in that article, I’ve never said 500 truer things about jazz music, or likely any music, in my life.
Is it “do the math” or “do the meth”? What’s with the “@”?
I am so stupid I once tried to describe The Bad Plus as people who didn’t listen to Ornette.
My wife meanwhile is listening to “The Blue Note Series” — which is a later group, obviously — while I have cued up on my handheld “Gotta Get some Sleep” from “Bop Be” because EI says it’s his favorite Keith Jarrett solo.

I once bought a painting from Nancy Peacock (of Roy Hargrove) at the Big Sur Jazz Festival but did not at the time know who her ex-husband was. I’m just a rock promoter who was told to study the Broun Fellinis VS Charlie Hunter Trio rivalry at Elbo Room. I’m just a marketing guy who didn’t want to write ads for Chevron (“Now with 25 percent more Tecroline — turn your engine into a washing-machine — I literally saw a display for “Techron — 25th annivesary”)
Thanks, Ethan.

I met Josh Haden before I knew who Charlie Haden was

 

edit to add: there is a blog called “Music Aficionado” that has a related article or two of them about the early Jarrett groups, including the album cover art and some embedded videos.

andand: ironically, the cd my wife is blasting to my annoyance is live at the blue note (on ECM) from 1994 with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette — July 4, 1994 — and is 70 minutes five cuts — there are several cds from the run — and six tracks and one of them is “Bop-Be” from the same cd or the title track from the cd that had “Gotta Get Some Sleep”. 

andandand: This is something I sent a young musician:

Besides Taylor Eigsti, some jazz pianists I recommend you learn about include Myra Melford, Martha Sanchez, Ethan Iverson, Aaron Goldberg, Aaron Parks, Fred Hersch, Motoko Honda, Edward Simon, Danilo Perez, Patricia Barber, Maya Kronfeld, Carmen Staaf, Luis Perdomo, Jason Yeager, Art Hirahara, Wayne Horvitz – most of them did shows or recordings for me recently. But maybe I should send her the link to the Ethan Iverson record. 

And1: actually Terry corrected me if that is the word: we are streaming from her handheld via Bose Connect to “Time After Time” from the same series. 

five: I went into a digression into the polished musician Krystian Zimerman mostly on the grounds of the fact that Homeland Security once destroyed his piano and that he rents a shell of a Steinway and carries his own guts which he assembles. 

six: and permit me to be the first person to link Keith Jarrettt and San Jose’s Joy Dawn Hackett, whose name popped up in my stream due to something being promoted by San Jose Museum. 

seven: I could not rest until I reopened this post to add more video of Joy Dawn Hackett or Joy Hackett of San Jose – -I heard about her because she is doing something with the San Jose Museum and I have not heard her – -because wifey is cranking Keith Jarrett from 1994 — this artist was not even born yet — but it looks intriguing. It would be great for something big to come from the 408. See also: Smashmouth, Jessica Jones who I saw sing at the Sharks game; Mike Park; Laura Chavez at Pour House or Poor House; although Laur a like myself is actually 650 soul sister and maybe now lives in SD; Art Hirahara went to Bellarmine; Brian Ho; Xiu Xiu back in the day; ok, Doobie Brothers. No Use for A Name sunnyvale; Sunnyvale Music Club which met at the Cupertino Library; Goldfinger; ALO featuring Dan Leibovitz.  It’s called Soundscaping by San Jose Museum, and its next thursday which is also my birthday.

little off topic but i saw that HER from East Bay — Black and Pinay genius — will play the Super Bowl – -which will have 14,000 people in Florida. And due note but not blue note that the Beastie Boys have 36 million views whereas the Keith Jarrett song has 6 thousand. 

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Player or poseur?

Posted on January 22, 2021 by markweiss86
Andrew Mason of Groupon circa 2013

During the time that Elon Musk either worked  or lived in Palo Alto, I have lived and worked here, too. Though my father and grandfather both worked in the auto industry, I’ve spent 26 years in the music business, after 3 years as a reporter and six years as a copywriter. I’d estimate i have stopped and listened to buskers, here on University Avenue, or on Emerson near Whole Foods, 500 times. I’ve probably put a buck in their tip jars 200 times, maybe $1,000 total, plus I’ve paid people 20 times or more to busk, a union service wage $100 or so, sometimes more, especially at Lytton Plaza. I doubt Elon Musk on his way to his multi-billions ever heard their music or spread the love. Steve Jobs, only slightly better. Tim Westergren, probably worse: he stole his music. 
What the fuck are you talking about?
Mark Weiss 
In Palo Alto
PS if Roger McNamee says we were “Zooked”, why does he does he post his livestreams on Facebook?
The only tech guy who wasn’t a poseur apropos of music is the one who was Steve Albini’s intern and married a poet. 

edot to ad: this is actually text of a note to Bruce Lefsetz, the music ex blogger. it turns outthat Elon Musk has a vanity project: On March 30, 2019, Musk released a rap track, “RIP Harambe”, on SoundCloud under the name “Emo G Records”.[246] The track was performed by Yung Jake, written by Yung Jake and Caroline Polachek, and produced by BloodPop.[247][248] On January 30, 2020, Musk released an EDM track, “Don’t Doubt Ur Vibe”, featuring his own lyrics and vocals.[249] While Guardian critic Alexi Petridis described it as “indistinguishable… from umpteen competent but unthrilling bits of bedroom electronica posted elsewhere on Soundcloud”,[250] TechCrunch said it was “not a bad representation of the genre”.[249]

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‘What a marvelous moment for baseball…What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia…What a marvelous moment for the country and the world…A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol’

Posted on January 22, 2021 by markweiss86
Aaron at the moment of impact hitting his 715th home run — description above by Vin Scully

Aaron and Flip
Aaron with his first “pro” team, the Indianapolis Clowns, a Negro barnstorming team that was like the Harlem Globetrotters in that they mixed humor with prowess — I wonder if Aaron’s home run totals will move now that the Negro Leagues are considered Major league?

backed with

Line drawings by Tara Donovan for Pace Gallery

outro: “Serene” by Eric Dolphy, arranged for reeds and electronica/loopy, by huge baseball fan and scholar Erik Lawrence, who also has, as a bonus, a brand new version of “Take Me Out to The Ball Game” public domain, with Akira Tana, for Lions With Wings. (Hey, wait a minute, I count eight people playing, not sure how many are humans and how many replicants, but it still sort of fits, I’m sticking to my story, here in Plasty.)

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Rupert Pupkin VS Artie Fufkin

Posted on January 21, 2021 by markweiss86
suggested by Nancy Wright
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I personally miss sitting in a room with a bunch of other people and feeling the energy when we’re all hearing and seeing the same thing and loving the same music—to me, that’s just the best feeling

Posted on January 18, 2021 by markweiss86
Molly Tuttle band, Palo Alto, September 2019 — headline as told to Relix, January 2021
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My papa Paul Weiss with the Olympic flame torch (unlit) in NorCal 1984 AND my fellow Dartmouthensis Alexi Pappas with same 2016 in Greece

Posted on January 17, 2021 by markweiss86
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Twenty five years to get his Mojo working

Posted on January 16, 2021 by markweiss86
Dan Horne revs up with solo album

Palo Alto’s best young bands

Begun three years ago by the moms of teens in local high school rock bands, an annual rock concert-benefit for the Ecumenical Hunger Program continues this year on Saturday, Dec. 16. Appearing on stage for this “Palopalooza” of talent are: the Dan Horne Trio, the Electrocutes (formerly Ragady Anne), Brain Monkey, the Gremmies, Pino Pino and Inspected by No. 7. The local bands will play from 8 p.m.-midnight at the Mitchell Park Community Center. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Bring a quality toy or food item for the Ecumenical Hunger Program and you get in free. Come empty-handed and you’ll shell out $5. All high school band members are donating their time and talents. For more information, call 329-2390. 12/15/1995 ie 25 years ago…I think I had this flyer for about 22 years until I got married, moved in with the wife and donated or sold 25 boxes of books, 100 hand written spiral notebooks, two boxes of demo tapes sic sent by bands wanting to play my concert series — but certain things stuck in my brain, so I noticed a little write up in a recent Mojo Magazine about Dan Horne — who I had actually reached out to about a year ago. He’s the bass player in a leading Dead cover band and numerous other projects. Rock on! (Note: the number printed may have been the number for Lisa Robertson, Allison Robertson of the Donnas aka Ragady Anne. 

Then:

  • The Electrocutes
  • featuring: Chachi, Boba Fett & The Wookiee – The Electrocutes – Dan Horne Trio – Inspected by no.7 – Wikkit – The Jolly Postmen
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