art of the jam 49
...and a mighty time was had by all.
the one-year "jamniversary" of lee and carl's weekly wednesday night invitational event fell last night (jam-meister lee allen reckons that i first visited the jam about three weeks after its inception), and the jamcats celebrated with a more diverse 'n' varied program of musical delights than wednesday night listeners had enjoyed in awhile.
the festivities kicked off with dallas hotshots velvet jive playing a set of chopped 'n' channeled frank zappa covers that included "pygmy twilite" off roxy and elsewhere, a favorite of mine from the zappa canon. bassist rob marruffo was a college pal of the jam-meister's and plays in symphonies, while drummer jimmy velvet gigs with bluesmen jim suhler (who, jimmy sez, still plays "are you experienced?" on wah-wah dobro) and texas slim. i'm not sure who gtrist casey plays with, but i dig the contrast between his precise technique and super-saturated, sweathog sound - muy appropriate for zappa material. plus they all sing. the jam-meister contributed backing voxxx, including some delivered from wreck room wizard o' sound andre edmonson's booth in the manner of the central scrutinizer from joe's garage.
unbeknownst to lee, gtrist ron geida (james and myles / jasper stone) had planned a _special_ entertainment: to wit, a bellydancer, who was told it was the jam-meister's birthday (which, technically, it is in a few days, so whatthehell). i'm not sure what he thought when he walked by her while she was waiting at the bar -- you don't see many veiled wimmin with swords in the li'l wreck room. at any rate, after velvet jive's set, a special place was prepared for the "berfday boy" in front of the stage, and the bellydancer did her thang for a good half hour (good value for money, those bellygrams), pulling leezus and his bride anne into the act.
watching lee express his one-fingered appreciation to the audience of mainly musos, my sweetie remarked, "there's a lot of talent in this room." at the risk of making the jam-meister projectile vomit when he reads this, i gotta say the room seemed suffused with a warm glow as the long-bearded bandleader / edjumikator's ritual embarrassment was witnessed by a coupla dozen folks that, well, he brought together. while it's always better when there are more civilians than players in the house, it felt fitting and proper that this moment should be shared by the small, highly dysfunctional family of musical artistes that the jam 'n' the jam-meister fostered. to restore his dignity, lee picked up ron's les paul and led the velvet jive riddim boyzzz thru a bone-crunching assault on fishbone's "servitude."
next up were the reg'lars: lee on bass 'n' voxxx, joe "drumzilla" cruz on traps, steve "vikingo" huber on violin, ron geida 'n' your humble chronicler of events on gtrs, joined by jeremy hull on stand-up bass (whose bowed solo added a lyrical note to "maggot brain") and a succession of vocalists, including jam godfather carl pack (who, perhaps in preparation for the upcoming run of gideons shows, concluded a performance of "come together" by tossing aside his crutches and hopping around the stage until he fell into the monitors, taking some curtains with him) and ray "war (or is that george?) pigs" liberio (whose band the me-thinks will share bills with the gideons at the wreck this saturday and at fredfest on sunday, may 7th).
after hard-workin' wizard o' sound andre repaired the stage, a triad of local luminaries -- gentleman james hinkle, squeezebox king ponty bone (whom i first heard with joe ely at armadillo world headquarters in austin, 1979, opening for the clash), and a wreck jam newcomer, the fiery gtrist holland k. smith -- accompanied by ponty's gtrist, lee, vikingo, and drumzilla, played a hot set of blues 'n' zydeco wonderment. an unexpected highlight: probably the only version of led zep's "communication breakdown" ever played with an _accordion_. trombonist marcus brunt, playing from the wings, was prolly as loud as anything onstage -- cat can really move that big column of air. after timely pause, shredaholic addnerim gtrist tyrel played his crowd-pleasing rush set, joined on "yyz" by jeremy hull on lee's bass. the icing on the cake was a "teen town" with barber mack honcho john shook and the jam-meister doubling the line on gtr 'n' bass, while jeremy provided the underpinnings on bowed upright.
non-snazz aspects of the evening: the art of the jam deeply regrets that a number of jam-veteran drummers -- in particular, pornstar-'stached dave karnes, burning hotel wyatt adams (who mighta been saving it up for tonight's wreck room stand with his own band), and caroline collier (fresh from jammin' with shook and sessions music impresario john zaskoda) -- were in the house during the course of the evening, but didn't get to play. and appy polly logies in particular to sleeplab mastermind jeffa, who set up at my behest but was never called up. mea culpa, jeff.
art of the jam was also sad to learn that ron geida, whose gtr prowess i've been inspahrd by for eight or nine yrs now, will prolly be bowing out of wednesday nights at the wreck when his tuesday night gig at the moon moves to _our_ night. completely understand ("it's the difference between _making_ $25 and _spending_ $25," quoth ron), but will nevertheless miss his fleet fingers 'n' quick brain. it's been a privilege being able to stand onstage next to ya agin, bro.
lest we forget, big love to the ppl who _really_ make the jam happen: wizard o' sound andre, and graham, elvis, and lu pourin' the dranks. y'all had me at hello. or some such shite.
and finally, some thangs _i'd_ like to see at the jam in its second yr:
1) lee playing jaco's arrangement of "blackbird" with gary grammer on harp
2) the return of damien stewart, brock miller, and brian sharp
3) a night of true free-form, non-cover-based improv
4) some new jamcats ('n' chixxx) to add some fresh voices 'n' ideas to the musical goulash
oh, yes: my sweetie stuck around for most of the evening (even wif it bein' a schoolnight, she was mindful of the occasion) and took some pics. (1) velvet jive's rob marruffo. (2) lee as a character from die zauberflote. (3) carl, recumbent. (4) "war pigs" with the regs: me, jeremy hull, ron geida (invisible), ray liberio, joe cruz, lee allen, steve huber. (5) marcus brunt, 20 feet from the nearest mic and the loudest thing onstage. (6) ponty bone.
the one-year "jamniversary" of lee and carl's weekly wednesday night invitational event fell last night (jam-meister lee allen reckons that i first visited the jam about three weeks after its inception), and the jamcats celebrated with a more diverse 'n' varied program of musical delights than wednesday night listeners had enjoyed in awhile.
the festivities kicked off with dallas hotshots velvet jive playing a set of chopped 'n' channeled frank zappa covers that included "pygmy twilite" off roxy and elsewhere, a favorite of mine from the zappa canon. bassist rob marruffo was a college pal of the jam-meister's and plays in symphonies, while drummer jimmy velvet gigs with bluesmen jim suhler (who, jimmy sez, still plays "are you experienced?" on wah-wah dobro) and texas slim. i'm not sure who gtrist casey plays with, but i dig the contrast between his precise technique and super-saturated, sweathog sound - muy appropriate for zappa material. plus they all sing. the jam-meister contributed backing voxxx, including some delivered from wreck room wizard o' sound andre edmonson's booth in the manner of the central scrutinizer from joe's garage.
unbeknownst to lee, gtrist ron geida (james and myles / jasper stone) had planned a _special_ entertainment: to wit, a bellydancer, who was told it was the jam-meister's birthday (which, technically, it is in a few days, so whatthehell). i'm not sure what he thought when he walked by her while she was waiting at the bar -- you don't see many veiled wimmin with swords in the li'l wreck room. at any rate, after velvet jive's set, a special place was prepared for the "berfday boy" in front of the stage, and the bellydancer did her thang for a good half hour (good value for money, those bellygrams), pulling leezus and his bride anne into the act.
watching lee express his one-fingered appreciation to the audience of mainly musos, my sweetie remarked, "there's a lot of talent in this room." at the risk of making the jam-meister projectile vomit when he reads this, i gotta say the room seemed suffused with a warm glow as the long-bearded bandleader / edjumikator's ritual embarrassment was witnessed by a coupla dozen folks that, well, he brought together. while it's always better when there are more civilians than players in the house, it felt fitting and proper that this moment should be shared by the small, highly dysfunctional family of musical artistes that the jam 'n' the jam-meister fostered. to restore his dignity, lee picked up ron's les paul and led the velvet jive riddim boyzzz thru a bone-crunching assault on fishbone's "servitude."
next up were the reg'lars: lee on bass 'n' voxxx, joe "drumzilla" cruz on traps, steve "vikingo" huber on violin, ron geida 'n' your humble chronicler of events on gtrs, joined by jeremy hull on stand-up bass (whose bowed solo added a lyrical note to "maggot brain") and a succession of vocalists, including jam godfather carl pack (who, perhaps in preparation for the upcoming run of gideons shows, concluded a performance of "come together" by tossing aside his crutches and hopping around the stage until he fell into the monitors, taking some curtains with him) and ray "war (or is that george?) pigs" liberio (whose band the me-thinks will share bills with the gideons at the wreck this saturday and at fredfest on sunday, may 7th).
after hard-workin' wizard o' sound andre repaired the stage, a triad of local luminaries -- gentleman james hinkle, squeezebox king ponty bone (whom i first heard with joe ely at armadillo world headquarters in austin, 1979, opening for the clash), and a wreck jam newcomer, the fiery gtrist holland k. smith -- accompanied by ponty's gtrist, lee, vikingo, and drumzilla, played a hot set of blues 'n' zydeco wonderment. an unexpected highlight: probably the only version of led zep's "communication breakdown" ever played with an _accordion_. trombonist marcus brunt, playing from the wings, was prolly as loud as anything onstage -- cat can really move that big column of air. after timely pause, shredaholic addnerim gtrist tyrel played his crowd-pleasing rush set, joined on "yyz" by jeremy hull on lee's bass. the icing on the cake was a "teen town" with barber mack honcho john shook and the jam-meister doubling the line on gtr 'n' bass, while jeremy provided the underpinnings on bowed upright.
non-snazz aspects of the evening: the art of the jam deeply regrets that a number of jam-veteran drummers -- in particular, pornstar-'stached dave karnes, burning hotel wyatt adams (who mighta been saving it up for tonight's wreck room stand with his own band), and caroline collier (fresh from jammin' with shook and sessions music impresario john zaskoda) -- were in the house during the course of the evening, but didn't get to play. and appy polly logies in particular to sleeplab mastermind jeffa, who set up at my behest but was never called up. mea culpa, jeff.
art of the jam was also sad to learn that ron geida, whose gtr prowess i've been inspahrd by for eight or nine yrs now, will prolly be bowing out of wednesday nights at the wreck when his tuesday night gig at the moon moves to _our_ night. completely understand ("it's the difference between _making_ $25 and _spending_ $25," quoth ron), but will nevertheless miss his fleet fingers 'n' quick brain. it's been a privilege being able to stand onstage next to ya agin, bro.
lest we forget, big love to the ppl who _really_ make the jam happen: wizard o' sound andre, and graham, elvis, and lu pourin' the dranks. y'all had me at hello. or some such shite.
and finally, some thangs _i'd_ like to see at the jam in its second yr:
1) lee playing jaco's arrangement of "blackbird" with gary grammer on harp
2) the return of damien stewart, brock miller, and brian sharp
3) a night of true free-form, non-cover-based improv
4) some new jamcats ('n' chixxx) to add some fresh voices 'n' ideas to the musical goulash
oh, yes: my sweetie stuck around for most of the evening (even wif it bein' a schoolnight, she was mindful of the occasion) and took some pics. (1) velvet jive's rob marruffo. (2) lee as a character from die zauberflote. (3) carl, recumbent. (4) "war pigs" with the regs: me, jeremy hull, ron geida (invisible), ray liberio, joe cruz, lee allen, steve huber. (5) marcus brunt, 20 feet from the nearest mic and the loudest thing onstage. (6) ponty bone.
posted by stashdauber at 4:19 PM
1 Comments:
i enjoy a good milestone. much congrats all around.
led zep on the accordion sounds like a blast too.
Post a Comment
<< Home