art of the jam 59
takin' a coupla wks off to rest my feedback-scorched ears, visit the fam in new joisey, and do something extramusical wit' my sweetie on her b'day, but not before chronicling the events o' july 5th's wednesday night jamarama at the li'l wreck room. 'twas a goodun this week, with three drummers, three basses (one of which, unfortunately, went player-less), and a repertoire that ran the stylistic gamut from blooze to funk to reggae to fusion to, um, italian opera. no shee-it.
started out on the li'l stage in wreck west but soon moved to the big stage to take advantage of an andre edmonson mix. (jam-meister lee allen sez the next coupla wks will be on the wreck west side, 'cos andre's heading to colorado to work a festival with the recently-relocated a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture.) drummer brandon wallace rocked the house wit' a minimalist kit of kick, snare, 'n' hi-hat, proving the verity in the age-old adage "less _is_ more." during the course of the night, he ceded his throne to fellow tub-thumpers joe "drumzilla" cruz and jeffrey williams. my trusty roland "amplet" still being in the care of john zaskoda at sessions music, i was using matt hembree's peavey classic 50 (and thinking about buying the one brandon's got on consignment at sessions -- them are ballsy li'l amps, and i'm remembering how much i dig the sound of tubes).
the jam-meister brought his 6-, 5-, and 4-strinng basses, and split the diff w/barber mack leader john shook. megabassist matt hembree was in the house but not in a playin' mood, having spent the evening practicing underground railroad music in anticipation of a planned rehearsal before u.r. gtrist-mastermind bill pohl called to tell him that prac was off and drummer john livingston won't be able to make their planned tour in september. instead, pohl and his partner in crime, keyboardist-vocalist kurt rongey, are planning to accomplish the feat with some combination of kurt kicking the traps, pre-recorded tapes 'n' samples. if anybody can pull off a hat trick like that, it's the u.r. boyzzz. film, as they say, at 11.
crowd wasn't overwhelming on this day-after-a-holiday, but that's often when the jamcats dig deepest into their well o' creative silliness 'n' pull out the funnest 'n' most inventive shite. moving to the big stage wit' trombonist marcus brunt adding his deep sound to the mix (and standing onstage -- the new edict from the jam-meister is "you gotta be onstage to play!"), thangs got started wit' a reggae groove, then increased in intensity with the latest addition to the canon o' jam "standards," namely "school days" by lee-boy's original inspirator stanley clarke (the ex-return to forever bass-master who's 'riginally from strong island, yo). a "maggot brain" that lee pronounced "the best ever" followed, as well as some dark phrygian fury initiated by shook. there was also a 45-second hardcore song dedicated to jam godfather carl pack, who was tending bar to cover for honeymooning master o' libations graham richardson.
my favorite half-hour occurred after we had seemingly knocked off, when i bribed jeffrey williams to play with a shot of goldschlager and we reprised the reggae groove we'd started with, as well as a fonky one lee had broken out on the wreck west side, affording me the opportunity to chuck at length on "the prince chord" (which i think of as "the nathan brown chord," a minor 7th with a 6th 'n' a flat 7th or some such). but even after the other players o' instruments had started packin' it in, john shook didn't wanna stop, and so he continued bass noodlage until he was joined, first by me wit' feedback washes, then by marcus with low-end melodic statements. it weren't polished or developed, but _'twas_ in the spirit o' the jam -- where spontaneous inventions 'n' convos often trump premeditated events. the jam-meister got on the mic, ranting in some unknown tongue, over which i interjected my poor imitation of mongolian throat-singing. then lee sang an aria from donizetti's don pasquale and i added funhouse larfs 'n' other random boo-shee. what made all of this chaos actually listenable was dre's on-the-fly mixology 'n' vocal f/x.
next two wks, you can look forward to hearing darrin kobetich (on july 12th) and villain vanguard axeman bryce harp (on july 19th) at da jam. don't you dare miss it.
started out on the li'l stage in wreck west but soon moved to the big stage to take advantage of an andre edmonson mix. (jam-meister lee allen sez the next coupla wks will be on the wreck west side, 'cos andre's heading to colorado to work a festival with the recently-relocated a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture.) drummer brandon wallace rocked the house wit' a minimalist kit of kick, snare, 'n' hi-hat, proving the verity in the age-old adage "less _is_ more." during the course of the night, he ceded his throne to fellow tub-thumpers joe "drumzilla" cruz and jeffrey williams. my trusty roland "amplet" still being in the care of john zaskoda at sessions music, i was using matt hembree's peavey classic 50 (and thinking about buying the one brandon's got on consignment at sessions -- them are ballsy li'l amps, and i'm remembering how much i dig the sound of tubes).
the jam-meister brought his 6-, 5-, and 4-strinng basses, and split the diff w/barber mack leader john shook. megabassist matt hembree was in the house but not in a playin' mood, having spent the evening practicing underground railroad music in anticipation of a planned rehearsal before u.r. gtrist-mastermind bill pohl called to tell him that prac was off and drummer john livingston won't be able to make their planned tour in september. instead, pohl and his partner in crime, keyboardist-vocalist kurt rongey, are planning to accomplish the feat with some combination of kurt kicking the traps, pre-recorded tapes 'n' samples. if anybody can pull off a hat trick like that, it's the u.r. boyzzz. film, as they say, at 11.
crowd wasn't overwhelming on this day-after-a-holiday, but that's often when the jamcats dig deepest into their well o' creative silliness 'n' pull out the funnest 'n' most inventive shite. moving to the big stage wit' trombonist marcus brunt adding his deep sound to the mix (and standing onstage -- the new edict from the jam-meister is "you gotta be onstage to play!"), thangs got started wit' a reggae groove, then increased in intensity with the latest addition to the canon o' jam "standards," namely "school days" by lee-boy's original inspirator stanley clarke (the ex-return to forever bass-master who's 'riginally from strong island, yo). a "maggot brain" that lee pronounced "the best ever" followed, as well as some dark phrygian fury initiated by shook. there was also a 45-second hardcore song dedicated to jam godfather carl pack, who was tending bar to cover for honeymooning master o' libations graham richardson.
my favorite half-hour occurred after we had seemingly knocked off, when i bribed jeffrey williams to play with a shot of goldschlager and we reprised the reggae groove we'd started with, as well as a fonky one lee had broken out on the wreck west side, affording me the opportunity to chuck at length on "the prince chord" (which i think of as "the nathan brown chord," a minor 7th with a 6th 'n' a flat 7th or some such). but even after the other players o' instruments had started packin' it in, john shook didn't wanna stop, and so he continued bass noodlage until he was joined, first by me wit' feedback washes, then by marcus with low-end melodic statements. it weren't polished or developed, but _'twas_ in the spirit o' the jam -- where spontaneous inventions 'n' convos often trump premeditated events. the jam-meister got on the mic, ranting in some unknown tongue, over which i interjected my poor imitation of mongolian throat-singing. then lee sang an aria from donizetti's don pasquale and i added funhouse larfs 'n' other random boo-shee. what made all of this chaos actually listenable was dre's on-the-fly mixology 'n' vocal f/x.
next two wks, you can look forward to hearing darrin kobetich (on july 12th) and villain vanguard axeman bryce harp (on july 19th) at da jam. don't you dare miss it.
posted by stashdauber at 4:57 AM
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