March 25th Set List

Henry Butler

Good first show online. Included the Jean Luc Ponty-of-view questions: Ray Nagin really has a company called Stone Age? And, if it not sheerly for bribery's sake, who in their right mind would hire Ray Nagin to do their countertops?

Artist - Track - Album - Label
Bigga Raiji - Size - VA - Japan Record
James Booker - Classified - Live at Tipitina's 1977
Jason Kato Hwang - From East Sixth STreet - Edge - Innova
Gil Scot Heron - Home is Where the Hatred Is - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - RCA
Barre Phillips - Ms. P. - Three Day Moon - ECM
William Parker - Old Tears - Raining on the Moon - AUM Fidelity
Bud Powell - Parisian Thoroughfare - In Paris - Reprise
Nublu Orchestra - Let's Do It - Self - Titled - Nublu
Circle (Braxton, Corea, Holland, Altschul) - Kelvin 73 - Paris - Concert - Polydor
Gregory Hines - The Chicago Strut - Jellly's Last Jam Soundtrack - Polygram
Myra Melford Extended Ensemble - Part II Frank Lloyd WRight Goes West to Rest - Even the Sounds Shine - WDR
Johnny Greenwood - Eat Him By His Own Light - There Will Be Blood Soundtrack - Nonesuch
Henry Butler - Beautiful, She Is - The Village - Impulse
Loyola University Jazz Band - Where Are You? - LUJB - H&G
Slow Poke - Listen Here - At Home - Palmetto
Sarah Vaughn - Trouble - A Time In my Life - Mainstream
Billy Bang - Pieta - Commandment (for the sculpture of Alain Kirili) - No More Records
Jean Luc Ponty - Ethreal Mood - Cosmic Messenger - Atlantic
Paul Rutherford - Secundus - Solo in Berlin 1975 - Emanem
Barry Altschul Quartet - Le Tango - Irina - Soul Note

R.I.P. Al Copeland

I'm a little late on this, but pour a little fountain Coke on the ground for Al Copeland, Popeye's founder and true G of New Orleans low culture.

Really, I have a special spot in my heart for the man and his creation. A Popeye's meal was the first one I ever shared with Kim, probably one of the most memorable 30 minutes of my life. A friend of mine babysat for Copeland's grandchildren one summer and had more than a few tales of excess and odd parenting. When I moved from N.O. to Philly, I ate so much Popeye's, I converted half my office to the special spices and had people collecting coupons for me (those were tough times). One of my favorite advertising schemes was the slot machine set-up at the cash registers at the Popeye's on 46th St. in Manhattan, where you'd hit a button and round up your change, getting a free side dish or drink, depending on how the slots treated you. After my dad had heart surgery in '03, I gave up eating Popeye's for the most part, but since moving back, I've hit it up for special occasions, like Saints games or Mardi Gras or anniversaries. Before the Hornets started selling out games and Al's health went downhill, he was the only celebrity you'd see at games, walking around like a black rooster with some candy girl/new wife. I wouldn't say he added a touch of class to the proceedings, but he was a certain kind of N.O. royalty and people would gawk at him. Everybody knew--Al Copeland lived large.

Much respect to the man. In a city where the phrase is over-used, Al Copeland was a New Orleans original.

And Now Some Good News

WTUL is broadcasting online again right HERE. Check us out on Tuesdays, 6-8pm, for some jazz and things. Personally, I'm amped.

Projects or Tanks: 5th Anniversary of the War

On Saturday morning, the Crescent City Classic blocked our route uptown, so we ended up cutting over to St. Bernard to get onto 610. New rubble stood in the place of the St. Bernard projects, which we'd passed only a week ago, and which were on the front page of the TP just a few days back. In the photo, the pitiful, racist, supposed mouthpiece of public housing residents (as selected by some liberal arts students) shouted at two national guardsmen while two hippies watched from a neutral ground. Now all that was left was brick and twisted wire.

Once on 610, we saw a train pass to our left. Its load: one tank after another, maybe 20 in all, squat and desert-tan and seemingly benign as toys, sliding through the morning with the city skyline as silent witness.

And as victim. For if personality games and falsehood can make up the dialogue on the war in the rest of the country--and only on anniversaries does your local news speak its name--here in New Orleans, we eat it daily. The precedence given to endless war over infrastructure and the basic functions of government is never more clear than on mornings like this Saturday. I am not bemoaning the loss of public housing in favor of war--I am pointing out that these are the disasterous choices we face, almost 7 years after 9/11, 5 years after the war began, over 2 years after Katrina.

I wanted to pull over and sit there a minute, but you know, we're paying $3.25 a gallon, and you can't really enjoy your pity at that rate, right? We were already running late, anyhow.

It is not healthy for us to see such things. Perhaps it is an honest existence in this country today, to face up to a demolished project and a line of tanks all in one ride to work. Perhaps I can feel the breath of the conflict and am somewhat buoyed on occasion, knowing that none of this is sublimated or theory--it is right here. But on others, like this one, I have to take many breaths, slow breaths, closing my eyes when possible. This is your youth, your nation, this is that time, these things are the same and powerful. And no one wants to talk about that.

My friend is in town from Japan. His English is not so good, and so I'm not sure what comes across in my explanations of the city, of my life, of where we live and what we do. This afternoon, we took him east, out Hayne Blvd., then to Chef Menteur, and then we made our way around the old Six Flags. I pulled over in front of a Toyota dealership and I don't think my friend knew why.

I wanted to see the crests of the coasters beyond the roofs of the giant SUV's, all them to be bought on credit and to drink spiraling gas costs, and to circle, perhaps in service, or perhaps aimlessly, this vivid, grotesque spot of America.

Five years after this war began, the edges have collapsed all around us and no one can say a nice thing about the future. Whatever reasons for starting this thing, they are feeding anyone today, and they will not tear down that Six Flags and build a school. We pay for this thing daily and we ask why the economy is in the shitter. We buy bigger cars and make songs about them. We leap over ourselves to avoid the guilt that comes with talking or watching it on cable. We let idiots pray for the return of slums.

Five years later, hasn't this war taken over everything? On 9/11, I stood on the corner of 5th Avenue and 48th Street in Manhattan as a black cloud spread across the lower tip of the island, and I knew something bad had come for us. If these days I drive past tanks and rubble and rusted out amusement parks, that's no surprise. It is a surprise that we only get around to these connections when the calendar hits a certain number, rather than in the endless hours within the constant, consumptive fever of the last five years.

Indian Sunday 2008

Most of this is from outside of Marcus Garvey Park at S. Derbigny and Washington Avenue. I wasn't quite as delirious as last year, but we showed some friends from outta town how the heart of the city beats.

March 18th Set List

Steve Lacy

Featured a long track from a Lacy session in Buenos Aires in 1966, recently released by ESP, and a thought about Jelly Roll, also an even weirder Lee Perry snippet. I thought the Harlem Experiment sounded good, too.

Artist - Track - Album - Label
James Booker - All By Myself - Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah - Rounder
Steve Dalachinsky & Matthew Shipp - Trust Fund Babies #1 - Phenomena of Interference - Hopscotch
Rob Brown Ensemble - Ghost Dog - Crown Trunk Root Funk - AUM Fidelity
Mia Doi Todd - 8 - Gea - Zen City
William Parker & Hamid Drake - Sky - Summer Snow - AUM Fidelity
Billie Holiday - Why Was I Born? - Lady Day: Master Takes and Singles - Legacy
Steve Lacy - Forest - The Forest and the Zoo - ESP-Disk
Matthew Shipp Duo With Roscoe Mitchell - 2-Z-3 - ST'd - 2.13.61 Records
David Murray with Dave Burrell - The Crave (Morton) - Windward Passages - Black Saint
Jelly Roll Morton (performed by Dick Hyman) - The Crave - Some Rags, Stomps, And A Little Blues - Columbia
Madlib - Face the Sun (Africa) - Beat Konducta Vol 1 - Stones Throw
Brotzmann/Parker/Drake - Track 2 - Never Too Late But Alwys Too Early - Eremite
Lee Perry - End of An American Dream - End of An American Dream - Megawave
Alvin Batiste - When the Saints - Late - Columbia
Harlem Experiment - One for Malcom - Harlem Experiment - Ropeadope
Oliver Lake - Rocket - Heavy Spirits - Arista
Leroy Jenkins - Kick Back Stomp - Space Minds, New Worlds, Survival of America - CIP

Bustin my butt

"So, I stand before you, a vagina-friendly Mayor. I am in! And you know what? It is so appropriate right now." Off the script again. (via Your Right Hand Thief)

Hornets 100, Spurs 75 - Game Notes

New enforcer Bonzi Wells

My notes, done in conjunction with my man, Aggrey Sam, are up on the SLAM Site now. The Hornets thrashed the champs, refusing to back down when things got physical and shooting the lights out. Final Score: 100-75.

March 11th Set List

Milford Graves/J Dilla

Highlights included the new Mia Doi Todd (I know my man Steve 1989 at EVR is amped about this); the New York Art Quartet (ft. Mr. Graves) reissue, which went into a mix of Tyondai/Parker/J-Dilla; and this week's Jean Luc Ponty-of-view, which asked, "If you were known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, wouldn't you be completely paranoid--to the point of abstinence--about being set-up?" I bet Jean Luc Ponty would be.

Artist - Track - Album - Label
James Booker - Tico Tico/Papa Was A Rascal - Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah - Rounder
Jelly Roll Morton - Dead Man's Blues - The Pearls - RCA

Bud Powell - I Can't Get Started - Bud Powell in Paris - Warner Bros.

Thelonius Monk - Pannonica - Alone in San Francisco - Columbia
Blue Series Continuum - Brainwash - Good & Evil Sessions - Thirsty Ear
Nublu Orchestra conducted by Butch Morris - City Light - Self-titled - Nublu
Bob James Trio - Untitled Mixes - Explosions - Esp-Disk
Mia Doi Todd - Two - Gea - City Zen
Guillermo E. Brown - Groove X - Black Dreams 1.0 - Guillermo E Brown
Rashaan Roland Kirk - The Black & Crazy Blues - Inflated Tear - Rhino
George Lewis - Just a Closer Walk to Thee - Jazz Funeral in New Orleans - Tradition
Ivo Boll - Drip - Ivo Boll - Ivoboll.nl
New York Art Quartet - Sweet - New York Art Quartet - ESP-Disk
Tyondai Braxton - Great Mass - History That Has No Effect - JMZ
William Parker - As A Flower - Lifting the Sanctions - No More Records
Mia Doi Todd - Track Seven - Gea - City Zen
Joe Cuba Sextette - So What? - Afro-Latin Groove - Sabroso!
Andrew Cyrille - Fortified Nucleolus - Special People - Soul Note
Franklin Kiermeyer & Pharoah Sanders - Peace on Earth - Solomon's Daughter - Impulse(?)
Mat Maneri - Alone - Sustain - Thirsty Ear
Sun Ra - Extension - Pathway to Unknown Worlds - ABC
Jean Luc Ponty - Is Once Enough? - Aurora - Atlantic
Electric Kulintang - The Ancients - Dialects - Plastic

Memphis

Looking at the Mississippi

We went to Memphis this weekend. There's certainly a lot to see, with more than a few ghosts blowing around through it's overly-gentrified downtown and the rusty rim that surrounds it. Here are some photos...

Where Ike Turner invented Rock n' Roll

A lot of Memphis looks like this, in various stages of decay or nostalgia
We stayed at the Heartbreak Hotel. That's the pool. Or a cold, cold heart.

Investigating Graceland

Dig the peacocks in the stained glass

Elvis's Jungle Room. Lotta dirt went down in here

Elvis's stuff

Sketchy monkeys

I guess Elvis was honored by Jah

Legendary black suit from the '68 comeback TV concert

Gold records on the wall

Game room

Takin' care of business...in a flash!

Man, I hate John Lennon. Nothing but blacks and hillbillies, right, limey?

The National Civil Rights Museum is located, or more accurately, built into the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago. The exhibit advertised on the marquee is for an exhibit on the Rosa Parks refusal, boycott, and movement spark. From there, you ascend through a detailed history of the civil rights movement, beginning with the earliest slave rebellions.

You climb slowly, through Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, through Fredrick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Emmet Till, A. Phillip Randolph, past a burned out Greyhound for the Freedom Riders, and a small section quickly summarizing Malcolm X, to the Civil Rights Act, then the birth of the Black Panthers, and then....

And then you end up in a space between two hotel rooms. It was here that King rested the day after his last speech, conferring with his advisors, including his brother, after an evening when the shutters rattled on the church window as he spoke over and again about death. It was on that bed that he slept, that desk where he sat his eyeglasses. And onto that balcony he stepped and was shot down.

I didn't stand there all that long. I didn't want to dwell to long in the unspoken, in the sudden cut-off on higher ground. Of all the things we saw in Memphis, though, I'll remember the feeling in this King's final room, much more than the other's.

March 4th Set List

RIP

Sort of an odd show, with a brief Buddy Miles tribute and this week's Jean Luc-Ponty-of-View editorial on what has become a sad, sad squabble session between two failures. Otherwise, a lot of good sounds.

Artist - Title - Album - Label
James Booker - Save Your Love For Me - Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah - Rounder
Charles Gayle/Sunny Murray/William Parker - Beset Souls - Kingdom Come - Knitting Factory
Gil Scot Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - BMG
Electric Kulingtang - Dialects I - Dialects - Plastic
Sylvie Courvoisier - Poco a poco - Abaton - ECM
William Parker Violin Trio - Dust on a White Shirt - Scrapbook - Thirsty Ear
Myra Melford/Mark Dresser/Matt Wilson - For Bradford - Big Picture - Cryptogrammophone
Buddy Miles Express - Louie's Blues - Booger Bear - CBS
Howard Wiley - No More My Lawd - The Angola Project - HNIC Music
Roscoe Mitchell Quartet - Cards for the Quartet - The Flow of Things - Black Saint
William Parker - Pok-A-Tok - Long Hidden - AUM Fidelity
Hamilton de Holanda - Gratitude - Intimo - Adventure Music
Matthew Shipp - Blood 2 the Brain - Harmony & Abyss - Thirsty Ear
Wadada Leo Smith & Anthony Braxton - Goshawk - Saturn, Conjunct the Grand Canyon in a Sweet Embrace - PI Recordings
Alvin Batiste/John Carter/Jimmy Hamilton/David Murray - Southern Bells - Southern Bells - Black Saint

Hornets Defeat Jazz

My notes from Friday's game are up on the SLAM site now. From the pregame through the halftime show to the incredible last quarter, this was the best one so far, and the 4th sellout in 6 games. Go buy a ticket.