art of the jam 38
first of all, my appy polly logies to anyone who read my myspace bulletin and showed up at the li'l wreck room for lee 'n' carl's invitational jam last night expecting to hear a _bass choir_ performing on jaco's "teen town." that got started from overhearing jam-meister lee allen and kulchafarian john shook discussing the possibility over in "wreck west" last saturday. but as we all know, there's many a slip 'tween the cup 'n' the lip, and in the event, only jeremy hull (collin herring, jason davis, etc.) showed -- albeit with his upright, fresh from rippin' thru twelve choruses of "cherokee" behind clint strong at my martini in arlington. and we _did_ play "teen town." i've got the cd out in my car. tonight, i'm actually gonna _listen_ to it. then, by the _third_ time we've played it at the jam, i'll have some idea of what's going on (besides the changes the jam-meister mapped out for us on a sheet o' paper last week).
night started out with three young cats (_of course_ i missed the name of their band) playin' instrumental rifferama. they were s'posed to be there last week but the gtrist couldn't make it. anyway, while they weren't no pearls and brass (you have to play together for half yr life to get unison git-bass thunder _that_ tight), they did it up fine while the jamcats were in the bar, soaking up some libations in preparation for the evening's musical depredations.
returning to the jam this week: fw symphony violinist steve huber, with his gypsy fiddle 'n' battery of f/x that seems to cancel the signal from my "amplet" onstage. sigh. that aside, 'twas nice having his solo voice back in the mix, which has been kinda gtr-heavy of late. also on board: trombonist marcus brunt from local reggae-skatalites the brokers (most of whom were in the house, wednesday being their rehearsal night, but not jammin' 'cept for marcus this time) and burning hotels drummer wyatt adams (whose arrival i celebrated by spilling a full beer in my lap; hi, wyatt). and yes, the "regular" jamcats: jam-meister lee, joe "drumzilla" cruz, ron geida, me. (need a superhero name 'n' powers for ron. any suggestions?)
it's on nights like this, when a large 'n' varied array of musos is present, when the jam-meister gets to show off his bad-ass conducting chops to their best advantage, organizing and directing the "jam orchestra" to astonishing heights of in-the-moment invention, like a trip-hoppy vamp with wyatt on drums that skirted the edges of confusa-groove; a land-speed-record tempo "standing on the verge" that morphed into a gospel-tinged breakdown and thence into a country-fried shuffle with jasper stone axeman geida and maestro huber rippin' it up on their respective axes like hayseeds on crank; and a "voodoo chile" that shape-shifted into "personal jesus" and back again.
the icing on the cake: the dizzying array of guest vocalizers, starting with head me-think ray liberio, who was overheard discussing, in hushed tones, a secret project with great tyrant drummer jon teague, and did a worthy job of singing _harmony_ with lee on "war pigs," unaccustomed as he is to torturing his tonsils without a big block of wood in front of him; continuing with anti-hero artist william bryan massey III, who laid down some characteristically uninhibited spiel over the jamcats' auto-destruction of "dazed and confused;" culminating with the debut jam appearance of local playwright rob bosquez, whose new work paloma will premiere april 28th and be performed by the butterfly connection troupe at various area locations, including artistic blends coffeehouse. rob improv'ed lyrics and sang 'em soulfully over a mind-melting "maggot brain," complete with bowed upright bass solo and slide-bass (!) coda played by the jam-meister with a beer bottle.
best of all: there were actual civilians in the house, many of whom purchased beverages from graham, and a couple dozen of whom stuck around till the very end. this weekend, wizard o' sound andre edmonson and i will be ensconced in his home studio, brainwashing ourselves with another 36 hours or so of jamtapes with an ear toward compiling another cd-r's worth o' jamtoons for kidzzz that care. we filter all the clamblow so you won't have to. yeah!
night started out with three young cats (_of course_ i missed the name of their band) playin' instrumental rifferama. they were s'posed to be there last week but the gtrist couldn't make it. anyway, while they weren't no pearls and brass (you have to play together for half yr life to get unison git-bass thunder _that_ tight), they did it up fine while the jamcats were in the bar, soaking up some libations in preparation for the evening's musical depredations.
returning to the jam this week: fw symphony violinist steve huber, with his gypsy fiddle 'n' battery of f/x that seems to cancel the signal from my "amplet" onstage. sigh. that aside, 'twas nice having his solo voice back in the mix, which has been kinda gtr-heavy of late. also on board: trombonist marcus brunt from local reggae-skatalites the brokers (most of whom were in the house, wednesday being their rehearsal night, but not jammin' 'cept for marcus this time) and burning hotels drummer wyatt adams (whose arrival i celebrated by spilling a full beer in my lap; hi, wyatt). and yes, the "regular" jamcats: jam-meister lee, joe "drumzilla" cruz, ron geida, me. (need a superhero name 'n' powers for ron. any suggestions?)
it's on nights like this, when a large 'n' varied array of musos is present, when the jam-meister gets to show off his bad-ass conducting chops to their best advantage, organizing and directing the "jam orchestra" to astonishing heights of in-the-moment invention, like a trip-hoppy vamp with wyatt on drums that skirted the edges of confusa-groove; a land-speed-record tempo "standing on the verge" that morphed into a gospel-tinged breakdown and thence into a country-fried shuffle with jasper stone axeman geida and maestro huber rippin' it up on their respective axes like hayseeds on crank; and a "voodoo chile" that shape-shifted into "personal jesus" and back again.
the icing on the cake: the dizzying array of guest vocalizers, starting with head me-think ray liberio, who was overheard discussing, in hushed tones, a secret project with great tyrant drummer jon teague, and did a worthy job of singing _harmony_ with lee on "war pigs," unaccustomed as he is to torturing his tonsils without a big block of wood in front of him; continuing with anti-hero artist william bryan massey III, who laid down some characteristically uninhibited spiel over the jamcats' auto-destruction of "dazed and confused;" culminating with the debut jam appearance of local playwright rob bosquez, whose new work paloma will premiere april 28th and be performed by the butterfly connection troupe at various area locations, including artistic blends coffeehouse. rob improv'ed lyrics and sang 'em soulfully over a mind-melting "maggot brain," complete with bowed upright bass solo and slide-bass (!) coda played by the jam-meister with a beer bottle.
best of all: there were actual civilians in the house, many of whom purchased beverages from graham, and a couple dozen of whom stuck around till the very end. this weekend, wizard o' sound andre edmonson and i will be ensconced in his home studio, brainwashing ourselves with another 36 hours or so of jamtapes with an ear toward compiling another cd-r's worth o' jamtoons for kidzzz that care. we filter all the clamblow so you won't have to. yeah!
posted by stashdauber at 4:59 AM
2 Comments:
ya, ron does need a cool nickname ala "drumzilla", etc.
.. this is too obvious, but whenever he writes his autobiography someday, itll have to be "memoirs of a geida"
ill think of some suggestions
hahahhaahaa....that was gold
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