For a New Yorker who has up till now been a slave to Groove Academy
productions, it was good to wet my feet elsewhere.......went to
Glastonbury, where my tent was right near the jazz stage! Finally heard
the Roots live, which by far was the best hip hop show I've ever
seen....great jazzy jams and the beat-boxing was INCREDIBLE. Go go go go
now. Also heard a bit of Tricky, and a lot of other stuff I can't
remember....though I do remember being utterly dissapointed by the Mad
Professor's reggae show, and Spearhead the first time was good but they
played 3 nights in a row and enough was enough. Tried to go see
Portishead but the field was crazy packed so I didn't even bother to stay.
Non-aj: Though the jazz stage was great, the best thing by far that
weekend was the Orbital show....to be in the middle of a field of 40,000
grooving people is absolutely insane, everyone should fly to England and
go to Glastonbury once in their lives.
Anyway, I also bought some records & discs in England.....I don't know
why everyone likes the No Protection album so much, I'm really not all
that impressed....Sir Professor just takes pieces of the songs and echoes
them for 45 minutes.....maybe I'm just not a dub-head, but I've
definitely heard better dub in my life....also got Wagon Christ, Strictly
Turntablized (finally), La Funk Mob Mo Wax double LP, 'the Time has come'
EP by Howie B. et al, the Fried Funk food Vol 2 thing, the Hunch EP - MAN
is this excellent!!!!!! I love 'visible from space', Funki Porcini...and
a few other things.....overall mostly oh do I dare say it trip hoppy
stuff but that's what I like and as far as quality goes I'd say all the
releases have satisfied me.
So after a little break back in the states I grab a copy of On the One
Magazine and hit S.F. to see what all the fuss is about......Man is this
city (I'm logging in from there right now) full of jazzy things to do!
New York can't even compare....the only thing that seems to be important
here is to find the quality nights. I looked no further than 330 Ritch
street to find some On The One DJs (I think list-member Gerry V if I'm
not mistaken), saw TJ Kirk at the Elbo Room - great band, I hope they
release something, it's very guitary, not like CHT at all, Mingus Amongus
which is primarily straight-up jazz but has Jay Lane drumming and they
funk it up a bit, and a band called What It Is out of Florida who can
definitely groove it up so watch out for them.
By far the best time to be had in SF is, however, at a place called the
Oddball lounge. Thursday nights is a club called Black Diamond that
plays some really trippy dub stuff early and then breaks into Mo 'Wax
type stuff at about 1:30. It's really small and intimate, incense stuck
around, and the back room is used for experimental things. The night I
went I saw the greatest musical event I have ever witnessed, and I've
seen a few by now so listen up: If you ever see a band called Beyond Race
playing anywhere in the world, go check them out. They consist of the
following: a FANTASTIC bass player who seems to be Jimi in a new body -
this dude's good, two conga players, a violin player, a DJ/techno guru
who has an insane analogy synth setup, a tuvian throat singer, a
digeridoo guy, some middle eastern instruments are also played....yes it
seems like the ultimate mish-mash but these guys really pull it off....I
was totally impressed, hypnotized even......
So anyway, that's about it......I'll be joining the list again soon but
until that time hope everyone here is doing well.
/~\ -brancazo@phoenix.princeton.edu
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