From: BRIAN (bbaltin_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 2003-02-08 04:41:20
Hello all,
Another sublime week, musically speaking, in Los Angeles this week. Caught
Pharoah Sanders @ Catalina Wednesday night‹the first time I'd seen him since
a gig in Chicago in '96 or '97‹and it was absolutely brilliant. After a
slow start, the group really hit their stride on a sublime
Afro-Cuban-cum-waltz take on "My Favorite Things," and continued through a
hard juke-joint blues and a radiant jazz-dance stormer very much in the mode
of "Rejoice" or "You Gotta Have Freedom." Pharoah's drummer (very sorry I
didn't catch his name) is absolutely MIGHTY, consistently hitting his traps
with skull-crushing force (think Roy Haynes or Chico Hamilton) without
letting up for an instant. The rest of the quartet is equally solid, and
L.A. stalwart Dwight Trible is trying to make like Leon Thomas. He's no
Leon Thomas by any means (there'll never be another), but he certainly holds
his own and was very affable after the gig. Turnout was rather dismal, but
the group still offered a stunner of a set, so I'd recommend any jazz-heads
in the area who've never seen the man go support.
Also here this week, Paul Weller on the second gig of the Illumination
tour. Was baffled by a note on the acid jazz list dismissing Weller as
simply mod and questioning his a-jazz credibility. Absolutely, unforgivably
ridiculous. The Style Council were at least as‹IF NOT MORE‹responsible for
creating the archetype for the sound that became acid jazz as any other
group in the years immediately preceding the birth of the sound. Why the
hell do you think Mick Talbot went on to help form Galliano and mentor the
Young Disciples? And Weller's songwriting has‹albeit only at its best‹come
closer to offering an Anglo counterpart to Terry Callier, Jorge Ben or
Marcos Valle than just about any other male vocalist/songwriter in recent
years. Acid jazz owes plenty to the Style Council, and I think most people
realize that. If they don't, they should go back and listen to the
catalogue again (check Universal Japan's immaculate Café Blue Café Best
comp). At any rate, I'm sadly too broke to catch it, but the word is that
he's doing Style Council and Jam songs with a band for the first time since
the originals.
Sermon out of the way, there's also Little Louie Vega's live PA from
"Elements of Life" (can't f**king wait), Mr. Bongo/Disorient's Gav Smith (he
of the great Brazilian Beats series), Sharon Jones + the Dap Kings,
Morcheeba, and the second week of Harvey's new Thursday residency @ Nacional
to look forward to.
Also worth noting, if only marginally gig-related, the Pan-African Film
Festival is also happening in L.A. this week, with a party with
Blackalicious @ the Conga Room on Tuesday‹and much more intriguingly (no
disrespect to Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel obviously) a documentary on Femi
Kuti screening Thursday @ the Magic Johnson Theatre in Baldwin Hills.
Elsewhere, London has the unstoppable Pucho + the Latin Soul Brothers
(still one of the tighest Latin groups on the planet bar none) and the live
Nu Spirit Helsinki show.
NYC has the lovely, brilliant and perennial Shirley Horn leading into a
sublime week for female jazz vocalists (to be followed next weekend by the
staggering Vanessa Rubin, and another Tessa Souter gig; also the very much
outclassed Cassandra Wilson). More on that next week.
Oh, and please check the Babs Gonzales book excerpt on
liquidatorgraphics.com (link below).
Respectfully,
Brian Baltin
Aesthetic Rejuvenator
Liquidator Graphics
For much more please visit www.liquidatorgraphics.com. The newly redesigned
Culture page is now up:
http://www.liquidatorgraphics.com/culture/culture_home.htm
Also now up, the long-promised and lavishly packaged 28-page excerpt from
Babs Gonzales's classic jazz tome, "I Paid My Dues.":
http://www.liquidatorgraphics.com/culture/ipaidmydues1.htm
*
London:
http://www.liquidatorgraphics.com/culture/gigs_london.htm
NU SPIRIT HELSINKI (live 10-piece orchestra), OCEAN 2/7
PUCHO + THE LATIN SOUL BROTHERS, 2/7-8
VIVIAN GREEN, JAZZ CAFÉ 2/13
*
Los Angeles:
http://www.liquidatorgraphics.com/culture/gigs_losangeles.htm
PAUL WELLER, WILTERN 2/7
GOAPELE, TEMPLE BAR 2/7
PHAROAH SANDERS, CATALINA BAR + GRILL 2/7-9
FRANCISCO AGUABELLA, HOWLING MONK JAZZ COFFEE BAR 2/7-8
CLAUDIA ACUNA + BILLY CHILDS, ORANGE COUNTY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 2/7-8
MORCHEEBA, WILTERN 2/8
LITTLE LOUIE VEGA (live PA), DEEP @ 1650 2/9
KENNY BURRELL, LUNARIA 2/10
BLACKALICIOUS, CONGA ROOM 2/11
GAV SMITH (MR. BONGO/DISORIENT), TRANSISTOR LOUNGE @ NACIONAL 2/12
SHARON JONES + THE DAP KINGS, KNITTING FACTORY 2/13
HARVEY, NACIONAL 2/13 (+ EVERY THURSDAY)
*
New York:
http://www.liquidatorgraphics.com/culture/gigs_nyc.htm
JACKY TERRASON, VILLAGE VANGUARD 2/7-9
GARY BARTZ, SMOKE 2/7-8
HERBERT, APT. 2/11
SHIRLEY HORN, IRIDIUM 2/11-13
*
Chicago:
http://www.liquidatorgraphics.com/culture/gigs_chicago.htm
DERRICK CARTER, HOUSE OF BLUES 2/7
IBRAHIM FERRER, CHICAGO THEATRE 2/12
*
The new CD by Baltin:
"Bellissima Idyll (Chasing After the Sun)" is now available:
http://www.liquidatorgraphics.com/cdsbybaltin/bellissima_idyll.htm
*
http://www.liquidatorgraphics.com/