a free form jazz odyssey in front of a festival crowd

Lets talk about music today, shall we?

The Faces.  Wtf man, why are they so great?  Thats rhetorical, but you get what I’m saying.  There are times when I feel a little silly rocking out to Rod Stewart, but then again, its not solo Rod Stewart, so its pretty much ok.  “If You Think I’m Sexy” does in fact have its time and place though.  I recently got the “five guys walk into a bar” box set, the complete work of The Faces.  Its just so raw, its genius.  You can hear exactly where The Black Crowes got it from, even some Wilco shows a lot of faces.  But really, it all belongs to Ron Wood.  Before he was the laughing stock of The Stones, he was a serious guitar player.  Since it was only him on the Axe, there is no question of who played what.  Lots of open G Tunings, lots of Slide, lots of awesomeness.  The unexpected winner of the entire box, songwise, is their live in studio cover of “Jealous Guy, made famous by some dude named John Lennon. Its about 6 minutes long, and starts with a band argument, screaming, cursing, mumbling, into a beautiful ballad.  There is nothing better.

OK, enough of that, on we go.

Last week was a good week for live music.  So many great bands were in town, covering many venues and genres.  But for me, there was no other choice.  It was the downtown tour of Medeski Martin Wood.  The band played 3 nights and did a workshop at 3 different small downtown clubs in Manhattan.  Since the loss of Tonic a few years back, there hasn’t really been a small club to host these guys, and that is quite a shame.  Seeing them at The Hammerstein or even Bowery Ballroom is fantastic, but it cant match the feeling of a boxy little room that holds 100 people.  Oddly Enough, within the last year 3 new venues have opened downtown- Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village, the 92Y Tribecca in…tribecca, and the City Winery, which i think is booked by the dude who started The Knitting Factory, hence the connection to MMW.

The greatest show I had ever seen these guys do was at Tonic several years back when the venue was in danger of closing, and the bathrooms were a porta-jon in the lobby.  The venue was literally the definition of A Hole In The Wall, it was perfect.  I was eager for something to replicate that experience…which may have been a mistake.

The week started off at the 92Y, with an all acoustic set.  Possibly one of the greatest single musical moments I have ever witnessed in my life was MMW playing a Brazilian tune at an acoustic set at the Society For Ethical Culture, just piano, upright bass, and Pandiero (brazilian tambourine) not even a drum kit.  The entire place fell silent, you could have heard a pin drop, it was quite impressive.  Sadly, this night was not to be replicated either.  The music was strong, but not over the top.  The douches next to me in the 2nd row would not shut up.  Billy Martin did several great solos, and I enjoyed the night, I just wasn’t blown away.

So, expectations were not high for the 2nd night at LPR, a low ceiling club in the basement of what used to be The Village Gate.  This was an electric set, so a completely different direction. The Electric MMW is like no other band, Medeski carts around all analog keyboards…come to think of i it was beyond analog into Electromechanical (my friend Bud clued me into this)  the only synth he had was a Melotron, which plays actual physical tape loops.  Also a Wurlitzer, Clavinet, b3, and grand piano. So i parked in a spot close to the stage, and hoped for the best.

Well, the band came out swinging.  I didn’t know a single song they played, but it was phenomenal.  The band was performing their best telepathic exercises.  Occasionally throwing hand signals to switch it up.  Medeski and Wood picking up cowbells to augment the percussion section.  Martin going completely apeshit on drum solos.  I’m going to say the night belonged to Wood, who just had some other worldly type of grooves going on.  His upright playing was so incredibly impressive, his electric was like a foundation for the sturdiest building ever, forged out of solid awesomeness.  Medeski flew around the keys like a fucking banshee posessed, at one point even coaxing feedback from the pickup on his Melodica, martin giving him a little head nod, to keep it going, as the rhythm section started the next song.  I heard rumors that these are new tunes for their next album, and I hope this is the case.  It just proves that when expectations are low, the greatest things happen.  It turns out The Village Gate was the first venue MMW ever played together, so maybe there were some historic vibes egging them on.

I left feeling good, optimistic about the 3rd night.  Before the show at the City Winery, they held a masterclass, playing a bit, talking about their interplay and theory, discussing instruments, it was a good time. The main thing i took away from it was, John Medeski is a fucking monster, who is aware of every note he plays.  Hes not just some savant who can tear up this amazing shit out of nowhere, he’s right on top of all the harmonic theory, anticipating the next note at all times.  They also discussed how they all love distortion, and try to distort their acoustic instruments, by using different kinds of strings, extra metal attached to percussion, all sorts of stuff.

The city winery show was entertaining, with some Ray Charles covers and stuff like that, but it couldnt hold a candle to the previous night.  Cyro Baptista sat in for the whole show, which was great and entertaining at times. but at others, it seemed a little excessive.  That guy is completely crazy, in a good way.   The venue was a complete clusterfuck.  Its a great looking space, with a great selection of beverages, but they had clearly never anticaped or experienced a crowd as big as the one that showed up.  They tried to make people who weren’t ordering dinner wait to be seated, which was completely impractical due to space, then when that failed, they attempted to have a hostess seat everyone (think of an empty resturant with 100 tabels.  Enough people  to occupy all of those tables plus the entire bar show up at once, and have 2 people to seat them.  Its just not gonna work homes, get on with it.

Here are a few pictures from Night 2

OK, to start with, my boss has re-done the main studio, which is a lovely thing.  Except that he cant make up his mind and does things in impractical stages.  “lets take it apart, put half of it back together, then take it apart again, put in the new floor, put temporary carpet in, reassemble the gear, disassemble part of it again, get newer carpet to replace the temporary one, then fully reassemble only to disassemble a few more times.”

I wish i were kidding.

I came up with a wonderful wiring scheme to be able to patch in external gear…like a real studio does!  And in his fucking moving everything 500 times, the wiring has come undone.  It now sits behind a several hundred pound rack.  I dont give a fuck how scratched the floor gets when i have to pull this rack out, because that bitch is going to get scratched.  Like a goddamn cat.  or a fork.  perhaps I’ll just use a fork anyway

“hey steve, whats that fork for?”

“oh, you know, scratching your new floooooo…..i mean tuning,  this is a tuning fork.  its one of those new pointy ones”

problem solved.

Also, he installed new Bass Traps, which redirect bass frequencies that usually hide in the corners of rooms back to the correct spots in the center.  Well, it turns out, they also direct them towards anything that will resonate.  Such as a cheap ass hollow door.  Such as the cheap ass hollow door on the outside of the studio i work in.  It sounds like one of those shitty hondas with the 4,000$ rims on it is driving next to me at all times.  This thing vibrates non stop.  I’m considering taking a shit in the piano and leaving it there, just to see if that solves this problem,  I’m thinking it will.

Onto brighter news.  My uncle, who does not really play much, owns a 1930’s D’Angelico archtop guitar, which was his father’s.  Its a very serious instrument, worth more than a Honda.  I believe around 1500 were ever made, completely by hand in NY.  It puts modern craftsmen to shame.  The detail and character of this thing is exquisite.  The problem is, no one plays it.  It sits in a case.  As you could imagine, this is a terrible crime.  Its original pickguard disintegrated long ago (it was made from celluloid, the same thing as film stock), so they needed to have a new one made about 10 or 13 years ago.  They lent it to my dad, who brought me along to Mandolin Brothers on Staten island, the premiere facility for archtop repair, to have a new one made.  From what I remember, the guitar sounded great.  It projected, had a very even tone, and looked badass.

Well, as time has gone by, and the guitar has sat in the case lo these many years, the pick guard replacement has warped.  It now looks kind of like a boomerang.  This is what happens when you dont take instruments out of their cases for years, strange things happen.  Poor humudity conditions caused it to dry out, so the action is all screwey, and it needs some attention.  This is the good part.  They’ve lent me the guitar to bring back to staten islend to get re-repaired, and keep for an extended period, so it gets some playing time.  here are some photos (In new gallery formation thanks to web master TB!!) :

Well, so I brought it to Staten Island, to the mando-hut, which is really the best reason to go to staten island, to get it looked at.  First off, if there were no Guidos there, Staten Island would be a wonderful place.  Every person there, from the toll booth operator (ON THE 8$   BAYONNE BRIDGE!) to the dudes at the store were fantastic.  Leroy, the master craftsman, told me everything hes going to do to make it a flawless instrument again, as well as some history of the axe (it was made in a rare art deco style with special inlays and bridge!) They also have the most unpretentious store ever.  It contains some of the most rare acoustic instruments ever, and they pretty much let you play anything, they just say, pick it up!  So while they did their thing, i played some serious gibsons, a few martins, a very nice larrive parlor guitar, some collings, all sorts of wonderful stuff.  So, the conclusion they came to, is that it will take a few weeks to get the guitar t playable conditions, then another month for the pickguard.  They’ll return it to me before the pickguard work,  so I’ll get some playing time in.

My goal as a result, is to make an old timey EP with this thing before I have to give it back.  Maybe i’ll even book a studio for a day and do it on tape! (i just came up with this idea, but I like it!)  OK, thats the plan, time to work.