Category: Music

Bindu Tour diary – installation 2, or name dropping

We played the first gig of the tour tonight. It went very well considering that we made the record in May, and haven’t played together since. We ran some stuff at sound check, and the great musicians in the band did what great musicians do. Every cat in this band is absolutely world class, and it is a great pleasure an honor to make music with them. I’ll try not to assume that you know who I am talking about. The band is Hamid Drake on drums, Jeff Parker on guitar, Josh Abrams on bass and guimbre, Jeb Bishop and myself on trombones, and Napoleon Maddox on all manner of vocally created musical sounds.

Tomorrow we travel to Milan, where we play Sunday morning.

I have always heard about how these European festivals can turn into big musician hangs. Tonight we split a show with Kahil el Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble with special guest Neneh Cherry. Ernest Dawkins and Corey Wilkes were in Kahil’s band, along with Matthew Kent and Franck Orall. Also hanging out were William Parker, Billy Bang, Nasheet Waits, Flip Barnes, Rob Brown, and Rasul Siddik, plus a bunch of other cats that I didn’t get to meet. We are all staying at the same hotel, and ended up at the bar across the street after the gig. Neneh told me that her father, Don Cherry (the great musician and trumpeter, not the hockey guy), used to play the the Dr. John record with the Meters as the band (“Right Place Wrong Time”) all the time. Pretty cool.

studio story

Stories: Sinatra, Herman and Manne – Rifftides:

“Interviewer:
Have you ever gone into the studio and had someone say, ‘I want you to sound like the guy who did the drums on … ?’

Shelly Manne:
I did a date with Jimmy Bowen, the song was ‘Fever.’ I had never worked with Jim, but I had made the original record of ‘Fever’ with Peggy Lee. It actually said on my part, ‘play like Shelly Manne.’ So I played it just like I played it originally. The producer stormed out of the control room, walked over to me and said ‘Can’t you read English? It says ‘play like Shelly Manne.’

When I told him I was Shelly Manne, he turned around and went back into the booth. I think he’s selling cars now.”

The Year-End List Of Lists 2009 – A Blog Supreme : NPR

PJ (I’ll use his initials so I don’t find myself on one of his lists) over at A Blog Supreme has posted his list of lists. They are all good. My fave is below, but I must stick up a little for my trombone playing brother. It’s not our fault we make lots of condensation, and yes it is more condensation than spit.

The Year-End List Of Lists 2009 – A Blog Supreme : NPR:

“Most courteous members of Dave Douglas’ Brass Ecstasy, by volume of spit emptied on our carpets during our Tiny Desk Concert:
T-1. Dave Douglas
T-1. Vincent Chancey
T-1. Nasheet Waits
T-1. Marcus Rojas
2. Luis Bonilla (we still love you anyway, man!)”

Is it finally time for Jazz Fest to change its name?

Ok, people in other countries are starting to make fun of us for calling our big springtime music event Jazz Fest, and citing Pearl Jam as the big news headliner. I used to defend the name as tradition, and offer that they did in fact program some jazz. They do still program some jazz, and they’ll probably get a chunk of money out of me to go see Wayne Shorter’s Quartet, although I’d pay a much larger chunk to hear them in a place that isn’t a tent that is 200 yards away from an Allman Brothers concert.

I know it would take forever to get locals to call it anything else, but maybe the time has come for the New Orleans Music and Heritage Festival (presented by Shell, or Miller Lite, or whoever).