Merle Meets Ornette

My favorite new CD is a recent release from Brian and the Haggards. Basically a jazz quintet, they do covers of Merle Haggard favorites, but with a big twist... with two sax players and a free jazz bent, the Merle tunes take on an Ornette Coleman flavor.



This is wild stuff. Blazing Telecaster, western swing drumming, free sax interplay, and, yet, lots of emotion. The flavor of the Haggard tunes still comes across strongly, even in this jazz context. Each tune features a different member of the group, everyone gets his chance to solo.

"Swinging Doors" begins with some great bluesy country playing, then the saxes go places, but the blues flavor always stays with the tune. Same with the guitar solo. This may be the most straight ahead country blues cut on the CD... because... "Working Man Blues" soars way, way out there. Alto sax beyond belief... All in all, this CD contains a fine set of musical flavors.

Country purists may want to drag these guys behind a pickup truck down a gravel road, but, that's so provincial. This stuff works. The musicians are excellent. Brilliant idea, and very well done. And the liner notes, info on Merle's early years and meeting Ornette, are worth the whole CD purchase.

Get the CD on iTunes or from CDBaby. Best of the year so far.

There is no god...

...there's only noise!

The rallying cry of the punk rock group, the Atheists, from 1981.

I've worked on an Atheists CD project off and on for many years. Gathering documentation was difficult, but now I'm close. Of course, an actual CD may never happen, it's mostly to archive the results of a recording I did many years ago.


Back in April of 1981, during Easter Weekend, the American Atheists, with Madeline Murray OHair, held their national convention in Salt Lake City. The contrasts... atheists, Mormons, Easter, was not coincidental, I'm sure, but deliberately provocative. What was coincidental was the local popularity of a punk group, the Atheists, a homegrown musical scowl at the dominant culture. During the convention, a concert was arranged at a local club, the Roxy. I used a cool Dolby cassette recorder in those days to capture concerts, and I did so this night. I can't remember the sound man's name that night, but he was exceedingly helpful in mixing a great soundboard feed. A hellova great show!

Since then, I've dumped the tape to digital and played with mastering the files. My goal is a future web site where folks can download various formats of my recordings, with the Atheists part of a collection of SLC punk that will include the Classic Assholes and NuSpeak. Maybe enough folks will show interest that I can pay off web server costs, my tequila habit, and dinner with my ladyfriend.

Here's an mp3 of the Atheists signature tune, "There is No God, There's Only Noise."

Solar Groves

Read a great article recently about a project/company that wants to make solar cell electrical generating facilities out of parking lots. Parking lots are actually wasted space in terms of exposure to the sun. Why not make lots do something useful beyond holding cars for hours? And provide shelter for the cars as well! And especially with more hybrid/battery cars needing recharges while parked. The concept is called a solar grove.

Anyway, during a recent trip to downtown L.A., I saw one of these facilities as part of a bank building. Way cool! Giving a little back to balance the carbon footprint.



And it helped that this solar grove was a half block from the Disney performance hall, one of my favorite buildings. I actually got a decent pic of this building.

Blues Discovery

Somewhat embarrassing... was invited to a party Sat. nite (happy 60th, Jim) but a friend and I cobbled together our nickles and dimes for a jug of cheap tokay and headed for the freight yards. Finishing the bottle, we passed out under a shady tree, not wakening until after dark. Maybe it was the hangover, but something definitely felt strange. I wandered down the line until I found an open Soo Line boxcar.


I peered inside, and discovered four bodies... four older men, probably expired from the heat. There were some empty guitar cases, someone had been there before me... A glint of moonlight on a dark object caught my eye... an old 78 recording mostly hidden under one body, the hard shellac protecting it from the heat.


I grabbed the recording and took it home, spending the rest of the night recovering the audio and converting it to an MP3. Never heard this music or group ever before, nothing on the Internet. So here, for the first time, a rare 78 recording from an unknown, and now forever unknown, blues band...

Steamer's

Steamer's is a relatively famous jazz club in Fullerton, CA. Mostly mainstream jazz, but that's cool, especially when the fabulous guitarist Willis Clow is playing there. I saw him last week as part of Buck's Vibe, a great combo headed by drummer Peter Buck (and fellow-to-Willis USC grad).


Peter has quite the following, so the club was packed on a Tuesday night. Buck's Vibe features mostly original compositions by Peter, which often turn into a cool funk groove as the soloing progresses. Here's a couple shots of Willis.



Good to hear Willis playing jazz again, although these days, musical styles are harder to distinguish, so someone with a varied musical background is at an advantage as the groove explores beyond a particular genre.

Peter Buck also plays behind noted jazz chanteuse Barbara Morrison (she has appeared at the SLC International Jazz Fest a couple times). Barbara provided vocals on one tune this night.


After the show she says to me: "he (Willis) can sure read his ass off..." then went onto discuss Willis in context of her European tour guitarists John McLaughlin, Buddy Guy, and Carlos Santana...

A fine night of music. I hope to hear this combo again, Peter Buck is the most adventurous drummer since Matt Wilson, and the combo is solid. Check out his CD.

Bastille 40th

The 40th anniversary reunion of the Bastille Family Reunion is now history. Hey, lots of us are still alive!!! Pretty well attended, with Barry, Nick, Richard, & Lynette flying in from out of state to share the event. iRod, at the first but not since, graced us with his insta-dogs, Terry rode up from Green River, Michael G. came and went, and the token nameless wanderer slept through the whole thing under a nearby tree. Pics follow (click on pic to get larger image).












Kinda interesting about the Bastille myth. People who weren't at the original reunion now show up at the reunion reunions. And friends of Bastilles... and a few who heard there may be a good time. So the family of like souls continues to expand...

And progeny now attends: both the son and daughter of Richard Cordray were at the 40th, and Curt Setzer's son as well.

The only disappointment of the day (besides the intense heat!) was the lack of music. Perhaps Wayne Christiansen's funeral the same day, and a wake for him in Heber, led to the late arrival of many folks. But the highlight of the day was the Bastille wedding! JD Hill, son of Jeanne Holdaway-Hill, wedded his lovely bride Gina in a ceremony conducted by yours truly... sealing the Bastille family name into the future.


If other folks have pics they'd like to post here, please email them to me. On to the 50th!!!

For Wayne

Wayne Christiansen was a great piano player, one of the best jazz musicians to grace this city. Beyond jazz, he touched country, blues, pop... so many groups, so many people. His death saddened us so much... we've lost so much music, and also a truly fine individual. I could tell so many stories just about my friendship with him, but I can't write that many words.

I was able to record him only once, at the Day-Riverside Library back in 2003, with Jim Stout and Mark Cheney. Great players, a fine performance.

There was a tribute to him at Gracie's a few days ago. Many friends in so many social/musical contexts showed up... frustrating, since these events seem to occur only at someone's death. Anyway, some pics follow (click on pic to see larger image). I did record the music from the event, I'll figure out some way to make the performances available (there were some great moments, they only needed Wayne to take them to a higher level).


The "house band" was anchored by Ken Brienholdt on drums (his association with Wayne goes so far back...), Dan Waldis on piano, Steve Keane on bass, Kenji on guitar, also Steve Allred on pedal steel. Lots of folks sat in early... Jerry Floor, Greg Floor, Warren Truson amongst so many others, sorry I've missed some. And, of course, lots of friends showed up just to listen and share their stories about Wayne.



Jay and Joe came down from Heber... they represented Wayne's country music excursions, Cow Jazz perhaps the most notable.

My bud iRod, and local music impresario John Paul Brophy were there. Interesting story, Rod and Dixon (from a previous pic) shared a house with Wayne back in college days, with Kenny as well, Curt, Nick, and others... with delivery to and from for me by the FBI... Blackwood Hall, music, terrorism, music, drugs, free jazz, Bogart, music... we haven't the time...


Harold Carr took over on bass, with Herschel Bullen on soprano sax... first time I heard him play soprano.



Mike Miller came in from LA... with KT... and played some really fine guitar.




There was a blues side to Wayne... Jack Drier was present and Harry Lee performed...



As the evening progressed into twilight, Tully Cathey took over guitar duties...


And finished out the evening with Mark doing vocal duties on the standard... and the Mark and Wayne standard... All of Me...


Thanks so much to Mark and Ken for their efforts organizing this tribute...


And to Gracie's for hosting the event. And to everyone who came out, playing, listening, remembering... just one person, one very incredible person, missing...