a free form jazz odyssey in front of a festival crowd

There are several post worthy things in recent memory. Lets start with the sad, move onto the music, and finish with the food. Sound good? Ok, lets go.

Jay Bennett passed away this weekend. No one knows the exact details, so lets not speculate. He was only 45, and it’s incredibly sad. Bennett himself once said that all future articles written about him will include mention of Wilco, and this is certainly true. I can imagine no worse fate for a musician than to be so involved with the creation of an album, from the sounds to the songwriting, be fired once said album is completed, only to have said album skyrocket your former band to legendary status. On top of that, the deterioration of your relationship with the band is caught on film, which every once and future fan of this band will see. He caught a tough break.

I think every fan of Wilco’s music secretly hoped Bennett would emerge successful after the post Yankee Hotel split. This conclusion would have been fairly logical. He seemed to be a talented producer, and was completely crazy, as nearly all talented producers must be. Its like rule #1 in the handbook. There was a fantastic Tape Op interview with him shortly after, which detailed his gear and personal studio. I would have loved to have recorded there at some point. At my first wilco show, I remember thinking “where’s the guy with the dreadlocks?” At least through all the drama, people recognize first and foremost that he was a true musician.

In other positive news, I think I saw the finest sit-in ever to occur in New York, at least within my experience. I went to my favorite living jazz venue, The Village Vanguard, to see Allen Toussaint’s band last week. Allen is a serious New Orleans legend, with a band that would impress anyone on their own. Jay Bellerose was on drums – one of my favorite drummers who I recently saw with Ray Lamontagne, and Marc Ribot on guitar- probably best known for his work on most of Tom Waits’ catalog. That “Jockey Full Of Bourbon” solo? Yeah, that’s him. This band would clearly not be messing around. Earlier in the week WBGO broadcast the wednesday night set, which was excellent.

It was not like my last vanguard experience, possibly because it was the early set. No loud tourists, very orderly line outside, a very respectable crowd. I sat at the first table off the stage, the perfect spot for an obsessive such as myself, with direct sight lines to both Ribot and Bellerose. Toussaint was dressed in a beige pinstriped suit, with matching paisely shirt and tie. There was no dilly dallying happening tonight, the band got straight to it. Very little downtime in between songs, no messing around. The set was filled with ghostly New Orleans traditionals, heavy on the clarinet and trumpet solos. No electric instruments at all, Ribot on a big 30’s Gibson acoustic. These are my favorite type of shows- I’d like to think that this is what jazz sounded like in its earliest days. Everyone on stage at the top of their game.

Early on, Joe Henry emerged right next to me from the crowd to do some vocals on “St James Infirmary” Sounding exactly like he does on record, which should not be surprising…but happens less and less these days. He wore a badass jacket, that looked like it could have been made into some new age furniture or something. During the instrumental breaks, he kneels down and bangs on our table keeping time. So already, we’re doing pretty well for a weeknight show. Soon after, the band leaves the stage, Allen does a solo piece, then says
“So a lot of you might already know this, but a special friend of mine is in the house tonight. No, its not Michael Jackson. Please welcome mister Elvis Costello”

Well, at this point I pretty much lost it. There is no more badass crooner than Elvis. He seems to be everywhere lately. On TV with his own show, on the Jenny Lewis album, making string band records…I’m pretty sure I’ll go to get my hair cut and Elvis is going to be the barber. So like a nuclear explosion of awesome, he runs through the crowd and grabs the mic. Does not say a word. Black leather jacket, sparkly black tie, mustache, shiny blue sneakers. The just go right into it. He’s singing directly to our table, I can barely hold it together. They were doing the ballad “Nearer To You” off their duet album a few years back, its intense. Toussaint jumps in on a few backing vocals, but Elvis is soaring on these high notes, playing it up to the crowd, this guy is a fucking showman. Pretty much before I can get a handle on the fact that Elvis Costello is singing 3 feet from me at The Village Vanguard…he’s gone. I think I shook his hand on the way out, he was just too cool. The rest of the show is a blur of fantasticness, I do remember one unstoppable Ribot solo, which ended in a little piano/guitar duet, going very far out there, Toussaint plucking the piano strings, Ribot detuning, and both of them laughing as it finished. Everyone was happy.

Never a bad evening at the Vanguard. On the way there, I passed Pete from 30 rock on the street, thinking nothing of it. After the show, we went to a bar for a celebratory beverage, and from a table behind me I hear “Tracy, tracy! Calm down man” and I think…that sounds like Judah Friedlander…..yeah, it was. Yelling at Tracy Morgan. Who then left the bar in a huff, and got into his yellow lamborghini sitting out front. I think my head officially exploded at this point. If Baldwin had walked in, I’m sure I would have been hit by a bus on my way home.

So, food is the last item on the menu. There was a memorial day BBQ this weekend, as often happens this time of year. I brought some steak, others brought sausage, others brought ribs. These ribs were being sauced for the grill, and looked delicious. Someone put them on a chair, in order to prepare for saucing. Yet another guest brought a dog to the party. Take a guess where it went from there.

First of all, I cannot be mad at this dog. He basically took what I wanted to do, and did it. But on 2nd thought, who brings a giant ass dog to a party? It was a nice enough dog, not barking, being friendly to everyone, but still, it was quite large in a small backyard and shed all over everyone. The saddest part is, the ribs were thrown out afterwards. The owner wouldn’t even let him keep his prize. Sorry to end on such a down note. But these things happen, sometimes, a dog eats your ribs.

OK, this is a short one. I recorded a BBC interview with Roberta Flack today. she was talking about her new album and goes:

“katrice barnes plays on it, do you know her? she wrote Dick In A Box for Justin Timberlake”

yeah, i dont need to say any more than that.

OK Dudes,  lots to talk about.  I’m not going to even apologize for being inconsistent with this here blog, just deal with it, love me for who I am, ok?  Ok.

Its been a busy few weeks, which I enjoy after the fact, during it can be mildly stressful.  I think it took it’s toll unconsciously last night.  I’ve been working on a new musical project with my now Massachusetts based musical partner in crime Blasco , called Modern Solutions  (www.myspace.com/modernsolutionsmusic)  in a fashion Eric Tarn calls “The Internet Service.” Ideas are sent from one party to another via email, then compiled and mixed here in the NJ.  The first batch of 3 songs was completed from 8am to 4pm, the next batch will take even longer!

It was my first time recording drums at 8am, but I feel it helped me focus, and not try any silliness.  I had to be done by 9:30 when work at the studio begins, so I kept it minimal.  Giant ass kick drum, snare drum…that’s it.  No hi hats, no cymbals, you bet your ass there were no toms involved.
After the acoustic drums were recorded, I began working on some “beats” or “Beatz” to send up to MA, and start the process backwards perhaps.    So I went through the archives, and found a session done 2 years ago at my original rehearsal space.  I had set up some mics, and recorded to a click track…perhaps forseeing this very process happening in the future!  So…I’m kicking some beat making ass, editing, mixing, effecting….and 2 are completed.  I go to back up my session, as any good technology using musician should…and notice there is an older version of this same session on the drive I am backing up to.   “do you want to replace the older folder with the new one?”  yes, yes I do.

Until the next day.

Then I didn’t anymore.

For some reason It was pulling audio from the other drive…and now that audio has been lost to the technological ether.  I’m not gonna go any further with this, All I have left is 2 Wav files of the rough mixes.  Ouch.

On We Go.

Last week I got a call from the BBC,  for an interview with Keith Jarrett.  This is pretty special apparently, he doesn’t give too many interviews, and only does them from his house.  I do appreciate some Keith, but for me the coolest part was that the interview was being conducted by Ethan Iverson from The Bad Plus, a band we here at Stevenaustinweiss.com love dearly.  And by we, I mean I.   The only possible danger of this, was that I had scheduled an on location multitrack session for 9pm that night.  I wanted to get there a bit in advance for a soundcheck, relax a bit, make sure everything was working.  But one does not really ask Keith Jarrett to “move the schedule around”  (I mean, even though I tried, it just wasn’t gonna happen on that end) So we would have to have a little bit of faith that the day would just work out.  I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to hang with 2 very serious musicians who I greatly admire.  The interview was scheduled to begin at 4…a 2 hr drive from Manhattan where the later gig was…and they warned me that if Keith felt like taking…it could go on for hours.  Well…The load in was moved to 11am with the help of the badass David B, old school NJ Crew, and we were ready to go.

The Jarrett Compound, as I affectionately refer to it, is hidden waaaaaay west in NJ.  Its basically in that area just after the map ends.  In fact, we were given fantastic hand drawn maps on how to get there.  Once off the highway, it gets pretty rural up there.  We passed through some serious rain, emerging into wonderful sunlight, hoping it was a good omen.

It was the most intimidating interview I had done of this type.  Most of the more famous musicians are very laid back, friendly people.  Eddie Palmieri bought me a grilled cheese sandwich, Pat Metheney was a totally kick ass dude.  Not many have a reputation like the KJ (as I will now call him.)  But right from the start, it seemed to be going well.  KJ sat down and said “I haven’t seen this type of microphone before”  so I was all  like  “it’s a peluso, kind of like a Schoeps, a guy in North Carolina makes them”  so he was all  “its gonna be good, I can tell”  I didn’t totally know what he meant by that, but I was all for it, that’s just the way me and KJ converse, homes.  After some detailed adjustments with the room lighting, it was on.
Well, the Iverson hit it out of the park, they talked for about 2 hours.  Barely any dull points, the conversation moved along at a comfortable pace, much like the Ferrari in the garage below the studio we were sitting it.

By far the most surprising part for me, came near the end.  Jarrett was searching for the name of a drummer, he was all “It was that guy from The Band, who was he?”  and I thought to myself…he can’t mean THE BAND The Band…not Levon, this is Keith Jarrett, Musical Astronaut, Pioneer of Sounds, Expanding beyond things mere humans have played in the past…..but I went out on a limb and said “levon helm?”  in a very quiet voice…and he goes “Yes, Levon!  Jack Dejohnette and I have such great afftection for Levon’s playing”  That was pretty much the most unexpected thing that could have happened.  I mean, aside from “yeah, you know, in the 80’s I was really influenced by Slayer.  Particularly Reign In Blood, I mean, it just changed the entire way I viewed harmonic structure”  But alas, we would have to settle for the Levon reference.

So It all went off without a hitch.  We booked it out of western Jersey back into the city, and I was able to make the 9pm Multitrack session with time to spare.  I even ate a sandwich back at the venue.  I call that the Sandwich Of Success.

So driving into work this morning, my favorite local radio station was having a discussion about mexico, it being May 5th and all.  They discuss various songs concerning the matter, and secretly, I hoped they would play the one and only Cake song.  I didnt expect much, its an obscure jam.  But lo and behold, the opening nylon guitar riff exploded from my speakers….fantastic.

Such a confusing and heartbreaking tune.  A timeless one for the ages.  But I just realized, when things start getting weird, for the last few years I’ve said “well, fuck it, I’m going to Mexico.”  And now with this frikkin swine flu, its just not in the cards.  I need a new last resort getaway location, and an amazing cowboy ballad to go with it.  Can someone write me a song about Cuba?  Perhaps Macchu Piccu?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoFOYzlMdXs