Since the single track editions of Stormy Monday seem to be pretty popular, here’s another one from a recent Wayne Shorter Quartet gig in Philly. The band, featuring Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass and drumming superstar Brian Blade, is widely considered to be one of the greatest working jazz units under the direction of the grandmaster jazz composer, but I’m willing to go a step further- it’s the greatest improvisational band on the planet.
While all the band members are down right prolific, not one of them plays with the intensity and ferocity that they do in this setting - the music is volatile, ranging from delicate to moving to explosive. During this gig at the Kimmel Center, the geriatric crowd was literally driven out of their seats by the music. Once the first person broke protocol and left, it was a wave a shawls and canes, like a scene from the stories of that first performance of “Rites of Spring”.
Those of us who stayed got to watch the masters at play in an absolutely stunning setting. Unfortunately I don’t have the Prometheus Unbound encore, but the full set should be enough to spark interest to check out some youtube clips of the band, and their two live releases, Footprints Live! and Beyond the Sound Barrier for the very best jazz has to offer. Enjoy!
With all the buzz going ’round about Trey’s hints at a Phish reunion - which was reported here significantly earlier than other sources of jam news, by the way - there’s no better time to offer up another single track edition of Stormy Mondays.
[Photo From Phish.com's Big Cypress Gallery]
And so now, without further ado, from the source that dare not speak its name, here’s Rock and Roll from Big Cypress. Thirty-two minutes of pure love. Enjoy!
With the long weekend coming up, it’s time to bust out some serious driving music. First off is the super-bad encore from Widespread Panic’s recent Saturday night in Chicago, Driving Song > Disco > Driving Song- ‘nuff said about that one.
Next is ABB’s cover of DTB’s cover of Susan Tedeschi’s cover of Aretha Franklin’s cover of The Band’s The Weight (or some such convoluted order like that), which is mighty bad in its own right. This one comes from the Camden show near the end of last summer. To cap off the week’s Stormy Monday is moe’s cover of Gimme Shelter with Nadine Lafond on lead vocals from the recent spring tour. Try to keep it somewhere near the speed limit.
As a bonus (and cuz I know my drive is close to five hours long), we also have the Dark Star > Weather Report Suite that closed Ratdog’s first set Saturday at the Beacon in April, easily the best night of the three. It was pretty amazing to see Mark Karan up there simultaneously underneath a ghoulish specter with glowing eyes and a sign reading “LIVE”, knowing that in the interval since the last Beacon shows he was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer, and now has a clean bill of health. Listen to him tear it up at the end of Let It Grow. As always, enjoy!
Every few weeks I change the answer: If played an instrument, I would play freaky _____. And often enough I come back to the sax. There are times when I’m listening to Trane, say I Want to Talk About You, a tune that’s we’ve featured here a couple times, and think, that’s what the human voice really sounds like.
No Trane this week, but we’ll start in his house with a cut from McCoy Tyner’s McCoy Tyner Quartet, a killer live release taken from a New Year’s Eve show in 2006. The band features Christian McBride, Jeff Watts and Joe Lovano on sax, a prolific musician who is quickly becoming one of the most highly regarded players around. Together with Tyner they offer Sama Layuca, a dramatic and expansive piece worth hearing over and over.
Next up is Charles Lloyd with Eric Harland on the kit and Zakir Hussain on tabla- quite a trio. From the 2006 release Sangam comes a wonderfully fluid and mystifying number, Hymn to the Mother. And closing out this weeks’ Stormy Monday is Jay Rodriguez covering The Duo’s Abduction Pose with none other than Marco and Joe as his band. This is still one of my all time favorite Duo performances- an absolute must hear with stunning playing all around, especially that left handed bass work from Benevento. As always, enjoy!
Just to balance out last Stormy Monday’s Singer/Songwriter Mix, this week we’re headed entirely in the opposite direction with a dubby, bass and percussion heavy improv mix, opening with a piece by master bassist and producer Bill Laswell.
In the late ’90s, just as Miles Davis’s ’70s fusion was finally getting its due for both its bravery and its experimental musicality, Laswell put out a four song “reconstruction”, as he calls it, rather than “remix”, of Miles’s music from 1969-1974 called Panthalassa. It’s a stellar record with the best elements of world dub and gritty fusion-funk seamlessly melded- it‘s also a bit more listenable than the source material, for those faint of heart. Here we have a collage called Black Satin > What If > Agharta Prelude Dub.
Keeping with the percussion mindset, next is a roughly nine minute sample of the Rhythm Devils at the closing of Winterland with Lee Oskar sitting on harmonica for an amazing moment of spontaneous improvisation that’s way ahead of its time. And finishing out this week’s mix is old school STS9 with a spacey version of Equinox from the Seasons double disc live set. Chill out and enjoy!
This week’s Stormy Monday is the songwriter edition, and really just an excuse to plug two excellent albums released last week. The first is Jackie Greene’s Giving Up the Ghost which provides our opening track, the groovy little I Don’t Live in a Dream. The album is a top notch effort and includes guest like David Hildago, and phriends Larry Campbell and Phil Lesh. The second is the new Wood Brothers offering, Loaded, although the Atlas here is a live version from Newport.
A second dose of Mr. Greene comes from an old Verve release called Sweet Somewhere Bound, and the second dose of the Wood Brothers, Postcards from Hell, is off the new joint. The mix fills out with a few choice cuts from some of the best minds out there, including an exceedingly rare acoustic Bob and Jerry version of This Time Forever from 1978. The tune has been a staple Ratdog since the beginning, but I recently heard an interview with Weir in which he explained that it’s a very old song built on a pretty melody that Garcia traded him in return for the chorus of Might as Well.
Nathan Moore gives us When a Woman Cuts Your Hair from his recent treatise on melancholy, In His Own Worlds, although he does do it with the much more fun Surprise Me Mr. Davis too. To cap it all off is Mr. Bobby Lee Rogers and the Codetalkers doing a transcendent Body in the Lake back in 2005. Col. Bruce and Jimmy Herring are on hand to help out, so make sure you turn it up. Enjoy!
A few months ago, Stormy Monday ran a first volume of the Ghosts of Jambands Past featuring a selection of scene staples from the turn of the century that are no longer with us, bands like Ominous Seapods and Percy Hill. This second installment focuses on the new groove/nu jazz/acid jazz revival movement.
The late 90’s and early 00’s was a golden era for the groove, when backbeats were thumping and the bass was funky, B-3 solos stretched for miles and lavish horn arrangements were the order of the day. Within that world, bands tended to fall into two loose categories- those that crushed the groove, and those that tended to push boundaries, drawing more from Miles Davis-style fusion than from Grant Green.
Addison Groove Project, Boston’s best and brightest, made a name for itself as the former, but in the later years, especially around the time bassist John Hall passed away from cancer, the band began to venture into more open-ended territory, increasingly relying on Rob Marscher’s exceptional keyboard work, as on the opening track, Neo-Geo. By contrast, critic’s choice Fat Mama used to bill itself as inspired by Miles Davis albums like Dark Magus, and their Blood Born Pathogens is a decidedly twisted take on a classic afrobeat idea. It starts out with heavy flourishes that might seem at home in The Budos Band, but it quickly becomes clear that something is very different is going on.
Read on for the rest of the track list…
It’s been a long while since Stormy Monday has featured a single, long track, so this week we have a special treat I’ve been hanging on to for a while. It’s an old school psychedelic jam fest from the Fillmore West in 1969, a wild, all star event. Country Joe and the Fish are enhanced here by Jack Cassidy on bass and Mickey Hart on drums, along with guests Jorma Kaukonen, Jerry Garcia and Steve Miller all filtering onto the stage to partake in a monster event nearly forty minutes long.
The music is freaky, free form madness, with a number of little side trips and distinctive solos from the guest players- but the less said the better. It’s a must hear. So let’s get down to the business of enjoying this jam.
These February days are long, cold and a little stormy, so this week’s mix is meant to lighten the mood and brighten some spirits. Essentially culled from my last month or so of regular listening, this winter sampler opens with a sick version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Garaj Mahal from back in 2002. Yeah, yeah, Christmas music and all that, but check out just how deep this groove is. Just like the next track: the downtempo Let It Crawl by Society’s Bag.
The Jesus Left Chicago is from Phish’s Halloween concert back in ‘95, and features a killer alto solo from Dave “The Truth” Grippo. Staying in the ’90s, we move on to KVHW. Near the end of the band’s short existence, when Ray White couldn’t even make it to a show with a personal escort, and the W stood for Whoever they could get to fill in, the quartet, featuring Terry Haggerty on rhythm guitar, played a pair of smokin’ shows at Chester’s in Fayetteville. From the first night comes Poonk, a goofy, fun Bobby Vega tune (it’s worth asking why the best bassists write the cartooniest music.)
Next up is Letter Home from moe.’s NYE gig at Radio City - a pretty interlude in a night full of half hour suites. The mix closes with The Trio of Doom - better known as John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius and Tony Williams - doing Para Oriente from their sole recording date in 1979. Spring is just around the corner. Enjoy!
This week’s Stormy Monday takes you right into the crucible with a healthy shot of early fusion. I know, I know, the word is loaded with all sorts of connotations that could scare away even the adventurous listener. But fear not, this is prime music from some of the form’s most influential creative forces. The opening track is The Mahavishnu Orchestra doing You Know, You Know which originally appeared on the seminal The Inner Mounting Flame. On the album it’s an understated interlude, but this version from Berkeley in 1972 reveals just how funky the piece could be. And there is plenty of room for the rapid-fire virtuosity that is the band’s calling card, too.
Next up is a mid set pair from Tony Williams’ Lifetime. While less commercially successful than the other big fusion acts, the band is a favorite of both critics and musicians. In fact the music Lifetime produced stands the test of time a bit better than that of some of its better-known brethren. Circa 45 > Big Nick is a soupy, loose exercise in Larry Young’s organ dynamics balanced out with Williams’ genius drumming (along with percussionist Juni Booth). Toss in some slick Don Alias guitar and a Latin wash, and this joint shines.
Now chances are, if you’re afraid of fusion, it’s Weather Report’s fault. Everyone knows the band was Jaco’s home base, but actually digging into Weather Report’s catalogue will lead to some crazy, cartoony and campy music, all covered in synthesizers and special effects. It will also lead to some stunning musicianship and truly moving passages. Here an earlier line-up featuring the great Alphonso Johnson (who, incidentally, is undergoing treatment for throat cancer- keep him in your thoughts) on bass takes on a long, equally hectic and beautifully quiet Directions. This track is not to be missed. Enjoy!
