Number 54 October 24, 2010

Last night I saw Taj Mahal, Foday Musa Suso, and Vieux Farka Toure` play the Paramount Theater in a "Blues Meets Africa" concert as part ot the SF Jazz fall series.  All three musicians have played in the past with Vieux's legendary father, Ali Farka Toure`.  Of course African and African American musics have been cross-polinating for many years.  And music is truly color blind.  Vieux's band, with a deep beautiful African groove,  had two very young white American players:  Tim Keiper    on drums, and Eric Herman on bass, in full African garb.  Taj was very moved to be playing the Paramount with such gifted musicians. 

Number 53 October 11, 2010

Every musical instrument has its own story.  I've written about some of my guitars in the past.  I've always thought the Gibson Byrdland, with a Venetian, or soft cutaway, is one of the prettiest electric guitars.  A thin arch top, it is voluptuous and has a wide tonal range.  It has been played by guitarists as diverse as Roy Clark , Blood Ulmer, and John McLaughlin .  In August 2007 I finally decided I had to have one.  I didn't want to patronize a supermarket music store, so I contacted my friend James Casella, who owns Blue Note Music, in Berkeley.  Being a responsible retailer, he tried to talk me out of it:  "You do realize it's a 3/4 neck?" (I have fairly small hands, albeit with a very wide stretch).  I insisted, ordered a blonde with Venetian cutaway, and prepared to wait for what I was assured would be a year or more. Much to my delight James called me in October to tell me the guitar was ready.  (Gibson waits until they have several orders to do a production run.  I got lucky).  It was stunningly beautiful.  When I got it home and looked inside the f hole at the label, it read "The top, back, tone bars, and air chamber of this instrument were assembled, tuned, and the assembled instrument tried and approved October 11, 2007(signed) James W. Hutchins."  My Byrdland was finished on my birthday!  I don't know what the odds of that are, but they must be much greater than 1 in 365.

Number 52 October 4, 2010

The SF Jazz Fall season is starting, so I'll be writing a lot about music over the next weeks.  Last night the legendary Henry Threadgill played the Herbst theater with his group Zooid.  Very free and and beautiful music, not unlike Ornette Coleman in its polytonal and polyrhythmic textures.  Drums, acoustic bass guitar, tuba, cello, and Liberty Ellman on guitar.  A lot of lower register information, with the guitar on top, and Henry's alto sax, flute, and bass flute in the middle, commenting and leading.  Liberty used to live in the Bay Area, and we would play a lot of the same clubs.  He's been with Henry for 10 years or so.  For this gig he was playing an acoustic steel string guitar; it looked like an old Kay or Corina.  The last time I heard Liberty he was sounding like a modern George Benson.  This was much more "out".  Just as I play in many different formats and styles, I realize that even I tend to catagorize musicians and assume that what I hear on a given night is the way they always play.  The genius of musicians like Threadgill, Ornette, and Butch Morris is that they continually challenge and re-orient our expectations.