VOTD 9/15/2024

Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Live at Montreux (Inner City)

Bought from Chris Koenigsberg before he left Pittsburgh to attend graduate school at Mills College

Convergences.

Do you remember not just the song or recording, but the setting of when you heard an important recording to you? I'm sure that's true. 

Circa 1982-3. I'm lying tired on my girlfriend's apartment floor (we're now married for nearly forty years). I had on WYEP, the WYEP that some people will remember from back in the day. Not the Adult Alternative playlist-based garbage they play now, but each person on air played what was passionate to them. 

Peter Fadde was on the air. Peter had great taste in jazz, playing excellent-quality straight forward recordings, but also something like the Anthony Braxton/Joseph Jarman duet LP. 

And this. He announced that this was Sun Ra and his Arkestra playing "Take the A Train." I knew a little about Sun Ra, and not necessarily favorable: I saw him play on Saturday Night Live in the 70s, in a highly condensed performance. I've seen it since, and it's not especially good. 

But this time....his solo piano rings out. Sunny was always a bit of clunky pianist, but this was as good a performance I've heard from him. Fluid, interesting. He sets up "A Train", and wow. It's scorchingly fast. So fast that not everyone in the band can keep up. Sloppy? Maybe. Intriguing, exciting? Hell yeah. The band and bandleader are pushing themselves. I was, to use a cliche, blown away.

It's the third side of this double LP.

My old friend, percussionist and synthesist Gino Robair, recalled a similar story. In his case, he was on his college radio show, came across the same version, and being amazed when he played it on air. As he put it, "it was '1234 GO' and they were off!" Great minds, etc. 

I am currently in rehearsals playing the big band music fo Sam Rivers. Sam's archive (extensive) was donated to the University of Pittsburgh collection, which was a large factor that led to that ensemble. There are guest soloists and conductors rehearsing the band, the first of which came today: trombonist Craig Harris. Craig, on one of his first professional gigs, was the sole trombonist in this group. 

I often site this as my favorite Sun Ra album. Maybe it is, I have so many it's difficult to choose. But it's more indicative of his overall output than any other single release I know. Some (relatively) straight forward jazz, some space chants, a few Ra favorites ("El is the Sound of Joy", "Lights on a Satellite"), lots of improvisation, and a Moog/organ solo on side one abrasive enough to put most industrial noise records to shame. 

I told Craig what an important record this was to me, but of course he didn't remember it specifically. We talked a little about Marshall Allen, who turned 100 a few months ago. He said he was close to Marshall, staying with him when initially joining the Arkestra. He said his nickname for Marshall was Deputy, as in Deputy Marshall. 

I saw Marshall and the current Arkestra play at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, OR the summer before last. The show was great, certainly the best I've seen the Arkestra since Sun Ra's death, and even possibly before. I've just read that the group will be returning this November for three consecutive nights. The timing isn't good for me, but I haven't 100% ruled out traveling to see them. 

And to top it all off, my acquaintance Chris Hemingway played with the Arkestra last time, and is likely to be with them this time.

When I saw the Arkestra in Portland in 2022, I was looking at the second alto player and thought, is that Chris Hemingway? Chris comes from Pittsburgh (a Duquesne grad I think), and had sat in Thoth Trio just four weeks earlier. I kept looking, "Is that Chris?" then he played a solo and I said, "THAT'S CHRIS."

The ensemble left the hall chanting and playing along the aisle. Chris was no more than three feet away from me. I pulled my facemask back and said aloud, "CHRIS HEMINGWAY." No reaction. 

Later I looked him up on Facebook to see that he had been gigging with the Arkestra. I DMed him to say, "I think I just saw you play at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland." He responded: "That WAS you!" Yeah, no kidding. I guess he couldn't handle someone he knew from Pittsburgh being in that venue.

Here I am, having talked to Craig Harris about this album, talking about Marshall Allen, knowing a current member of the ensemble. Six degrees of...? Not even. But I guess that's our world. Thoth Trio opened for Marshall Allen and Henry Grimes years ago, and I had a short interaction with Marshall, friendly I'm happy to say. 

Convergences. 

The record rocks, by the way. Sun Ra's boldest and most original works might have been in the 1960s, but my favorites are from the 1970s. This is on the latter end of his most creative period, in my opinion. 

I think the complete concert of this album is now posted to Youtube as videos. The venue seems smaller than I imagined. This band sounds huge. 

So I don't know, in this age where you can find pretty much anything on Youtube or some other streaming site, this is one to check out. Buy a physical copy given the opportunity.

VOTD 9/12/2024

 Frank Zappa: London Symphony Orchestra Vol. 1 (Barking Pumpkin)

This was a dupe copy sent to WRCT that I claimed on its original release

I've just read Moon Unit Zappa's memoir, Earth to Moon. I'm not a fast reader, but I checked it out on Sunday and finished it on Wednesday, to give you an idea of how fast a read it is.

The book is presented as a series of vignettes from Moon's life, either essential events (the birth of each of her younger siblings, the death of her father, the harrowing and long hospitalization of her daughter) or "slices of life" from her overall life's story (her mother Gail taking her to a psychic/reader as a young child and being told she was a "star child"). If what you're looking for is a narrative of the Zappa household timeline, you get pieces of it but not a through-line. Each chapter paints a picture of her mindset at the time, which in part was based on her parents giving her a beautifully bound journal every Christmas. 

Takeaways? 1. Gail and Frank probably should have never had children. I know that's cruel to say, and without them we wouldn't have Moon or Dweezil (or Ahmet or Diva, for whom I have less respect). In The Real Frank Zappa Book, there's a picture of Frank reading the constitution to his assembled children. He liked to project the image of being the family man, head of the household. Truth is, he spent very little time with any of them. That, I guess, was Gail's job. Frank was a largely absent father who would routinely house groupies in the family home, and Gail was a frustrated but devoted housewife. Moon, outside of the book, described her mother as her "first bully." That comes through. Yet through it all, she describes her father as her favorite person in the world. 

2. There's a lot of talk these days of "nepo babies", the children of famous people launched into careers based on the family name and connections. To read Moon's account of things, her early acting career was based more on being the voice on "Valley Girl." The song wouldn't have launched as it did without her dad's name attached, but it was her val voice that carried it. This might have caused some tensions down the line with Gail and possibly even Frank, their biggest money earner being a novelty song. The earnings bought Moon a house, which she later agreed to sign over to Gail to assist with the family debt. It got messy.

3. There's a lot of unloading on Moon's part, especially later in the book. She's earned the right to do so. Outside of Zappa fandom, the book might not be of much interest. Even within, I know there's some blowback about writing essentially a self-therapy book. Through it all, she's a survivor of an extraordinarily unhealthy family situation. Respect. Part of me wishes I could be Moon's friend. 

4. Gail is quoted multiple times in the narrative: "Earth to Moon, the world does not revolve around you." Sometimes, any child needs to be told this. Yet, maybe sometimes a child deserves to know that the world does indeed revolve around them. 

The record.

There's passing reference to this session in Moon's book, how cool it was that he could hire a symphony orchestra just so he could hear his orchestral music played.

The truth is probably more complicated. Yes, some of Frank's through-composed music is at times impossibly difficult to play. But wouldn't putting the Zappa name on an orchestral program bring people out? The opening work on this LP, "Sad Jane", sounds like a thoroughly playable post-Debussy tone poem. I haven't gone to see the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in many years, mostly because they largely don't play music that interests me. If I knew Frank's name was on the program, even for an under-five minute piece, I might want to come out for that.

Listening to LP, I have a thought in the back of my mind constantly: "If this wasn't Frank Zappa, would you enjoy it?" 

By and large, I think the answer is yes. I enjoy that he puts some much needed humor and even absurdity into the "new music" world: "Mo N' Herb's Vacation" for example, which is also a ridiculously difficult-sounding clarinet concerto more-or-less. 

I don't like the production on this LP, and I blame Frank in this case. I know enough about this session to know he placed PZM mics on the floor all around the orchestra. Bad idea. Let the orchestra be the orchestra, and close-mic the soloists when necessary. Maybe part of the sound I don't like it relatively early digital recording, transferred to analog LP medium. There are times on his so-called rock albums, the later ones, where I definitely don't like the sound even if it was state of the art at the time. But then, I can't say I'm completely enthusiastic about any albums of his after One Size Fits All from 1975, not even ten years after Freak Out! and with many albums ahead of him. 

I previously listened to Frank's The Yellow Shark, a CD of performances by Ensemble Modern. Tom Waits described it as his favorite Zappa album. It's thorny in general.

I believe Frank liked to project an image of being the divinely-inspired (though atheist) genius. I've learned that his music has serious theoretical underpinnings, even if those theories were never written down. I would have enjoyed reading his music theory ideas, though I guess it was never in his nature to create a book about such things. 

CDOTD 9/11/2024

 Hieroglyphic Being: The Red Notes (Soul Jazz)

Borrowed from the library

Hello, dear reader. 

Yes, here I am bobbing my head above ground like a game of Whack-A-Mole, appearing once in a while to write my little missives for 3-9 readers.

When I started writing to this blog regularly, it was mostly for two purposes: to make useful purpose of the rather large collection of CDs and LPs I have amassed, and for the discipline of writing regularly for its own sake. 

In the time since, I've gone back and forth as to whether this serves any real purpose otherwise. I will see an item on Facebook or Reddit and start to type a response, and sometimes I stop myself to say, "Nobody cares. Nobody cares about your opinion, and you're just adding to the immensely vast digital garbage heap."

Okay, that's a little harsh. But it's also largely true. 

So again without oversharing, I'm considering what my life is going to look like in the next several years. I've been teaching at Carnegie Mellon since 2005, always part time without the possibility of advancing to even partial full-time (there is a distinction). I'm considering my options, how long I want to stay at it. In many respects it's a great job, but I'm also tired of it. While I've made changes to the syllabi over the years, I'm still teaching the same three courses I taught nineteen years ago. Even at least one family member has asked me, "How long are you going to do that job?"

One of the things I fear for myself is staying disciplined. If I should leave the job, I know I need to develop other routines that take the place of having a regular job. That could mean writing regularly to my blog, regardless of whether it amounts to anything or not.

That's partially where my head's at. 

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As I have in the past, I will extoll the virtues of having a good public library system. I've recently checked out DVD documentaries about David Lynch (The Art Life, worth seeing particularly if you're a fan), Stan Brackage (haven't gotten to it yet), the Criterion DVD of the crazy Japanese movie House (mostly to watch the extras). A book of 500 covers to 7" singles, of which I own about five or six. I've also just read Moon Unit Zappa's Earth to Moon, and I might post some thoughts on it in a future posting. 

This CD stood out, how could I not check it out? Egyptian-style graphics, the name Hieroglyphic Being, first song title: "Youth Brainwashing and the Extremist Cults." Maybe not too subtle, but I'm on board. And I know the label a bit, Soul Jazz, mostly for its collections: New York Noise: Dance Music from the New York Underground 1977-1982; Punk 45: I'm a Mess!; Freedom Rhythm and Sound; and especially Can You Dig It? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1968-75. The latter, a two-CD set, has received a lot of play in this house and especially in the car.

And what of this? How can it not evoke Sun Ra? And I suppose it does while being very little like his work. The album is entirely instrumental, and relies pretty heavily on looped materials. There's a long list of instruments. Organic flutes, piano, guitar, alto sax, Hammond organ, Linn Drum, Korg Triton, etc etc. I believe in documentation, but sometimes maybe I don't need that many details. 

I don't know. There's an obsessiveness to this I like and appreciate. Every track builds up loops and is very busy, active, jittery even. But never builds in emotional intensity. Somehow, even with all of the current technology available, it sounds lo-fi in a way. 

I find one way of looking at music, that a high calling is to make music for yourself. If you don't like what anyone is doing, or feel you have something original to contribute to the world, make it. Do it. 

Yet, that doesn't mean I have to like it. I don't hate this (faint praise indeed) but I don't hear a lot of variety to it either.

Ah well. At least I didn't spend money on it. Thanks, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh!