Monday, September 20, 2010

Orange Sunshine - LA Record


Orange Sunshine - book review & interview for LA Record

Orange Sunshine
By Nick Schou

When people see a book about acid they feel compelled to share their personal stories – often too personal. But few question how that little tab traveled from some Bay Area chemistry lab to the center of their innermost fears. Nick Schou’s new Orange Sunshine charts the rise and fall of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love – an organization that reached from the resin-coated hookahs of Afghanistan to the hem of Tim Leary’s tunic. During the mid 1960s, psychedelic swami John Griggs helped create what would become one of the largest smuggling organizations in the United States – distributing extravagantly obtained bricks of hash and LSD out of a small storefront on Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach. (The group supplied Hendrix with the titular tabs in Hawaii during his Rainbow Bridge concert.) Eventually cocaine blew the whole organization to pieces, leading to homelessness, arrests and a few fatal overdoses. Through extensive interviews and painstaking research, Schou, a staff writer for OC Weekly, presents a precise and unbiased view of one of the most radical organizations to come out of Orange County.

Does anyone appear to have held on to the money they made?

With few exceptions, nobody in the Brotherhood got rich. A couple of guys managed to get out of the business and reinvest their money in real estate, so they are now retired and playing golf and meditating at nice resort-style ashrams. A lot of them spent years in jail and others became addicted to cocaine in the 70s and endured harrowing experiences behind bars in third world prisons, so you really have the whole range of outcomes – some redemptive, others tragic.

How many times did you have to watch Rainbow Bridge? Are you concerned about what that may have done to your psyche?


I actually discovered Rainbow Bridge in college, when I was listening to a lot of Hendrix. I thought the film was a joke. After I realized how it fit into the story, I watched it again and still had no idea what the hell was going on. The scene with the hash inside the surfboard used to be on YouTube, so I was able to transcribe the dialogue from there. There are other clips on YouTube, but the only part of the film I enjoy is when Jimi plays ‘Hey Baby, Land of the New Rising Sun’ to the Brothers and their friends at the end of the film. The movie is mostly painful. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been used to torture detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Do you think getting Jimi Hendrix to perform on the edge of a volcano in Hawaii was the greatest stoned epiphany ever actualized?

Despite the really poor sound quality and drugged-out vibe, the performance on the slope of Haleakala includes some of Jimi’s best playing, and it captures him right before his untimely death. Supposedly he shared Chuck Wein’s belief in extraterrestrials. Brotherhood guys who surfed in the movie insist that a ‘Mothership’ full of ‘Space Brothers’ did flyovers during filming – but the reels came out blank.

Orange Sunshine
By Nick Schou

When people see a book about acid they feel compelled to share their personal stories – often too personal. But few question how that little tab traveled from some Bay Area chemistry lab to the center of their innermost fears. Nick Schou’s new Orange Sunshine charts the rise and fall of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love – an organization that reached from the resin-coated hookahs of Afghanistan to the hem of Tim Leary’s tunic. During the mid 1960s, psychedelic swami John Griggs helped create what would become one of the largest smuggling organizations in the United States – distributing extravagantly obtained bricks of hash and LSD out of a small storefront on Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach. (The group supplied Hendrix with the titular tabs in Hawaii during his Rainbow Bridge concert.) Eventually cocaine blew the whole organization to pieces, leading to homelessness, arrests and a few fatal overdoses. Through extensive interviews and painstaking research, Schou, a staff writer for OC Weekly, presents a precise and unbiased view of one of the most radical organizations to come out of Orange County.

Does anyone appear to have held on to the money they made?

With few exceptions, nobody in the Brotherhood got rich. A couple of guys managed to get out of the business and reinvest their money in real estate, so they are now retired and playing golf and meditating at nice resort-style ashrams. A lot of them spent years in jail and others became addicted to cocaine in the 70s and endured harrowing experiences behind bars in third world prisons, so you really have the whole range of outcomes – some redemptive, others tragic.

How many times did you have to watch Rainbow Bridge? Are you concerned about what that may have done to your psyche?

I actually discovered Rainbow Bridge in college, when I was listening to a lot of Hendrix. I thought the film was a joke. After I realized how it fit into the story, I watched it again and still had no idea what the hell was going on. The scene with the hash inside the surfboard used to be on YouTube, so I was able to transcribe the dialogue from there. There are other clips on YouTube, but the only part of the film I enjoy is when Jimi plays ‘Hey Baby, Land of the New Rising Sun’ to the Brothers and their friends at the end of the film. The movie is mostly painful. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been used to torture detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Do you think getting JImi Hendrix to perform on the edge of a volcano in Hawaii was the greatest stoned epiphany ever actualized?

Despite the really poor sound quality and drugged-out vibe, the performance on the slope of Haleakala includes some of Jimi’s best playing, and it captures him right before his untimely death. Supposedly he shared Chuck Wein’s belief in extraterrestrials. Brotherhood guys who surfed in the movie insist that a ‘Mothership’ full of ‘Space Brothers’ did flyovers during filming – but the reels came out blank.

Orange Sunshine @ LA Record

Hesitation Blues #1 - LA Record


Hesitation Blues - LA Record

It's that time of year when old jazzbos are trotted off to European festivals to breathe some fresh air and teach high school kids how to play a blues scale on their days off. While they are out spending their increasingly valueless Euros, the rest of us are left with the weakest season of the jazz calendar. Unless you dig those breezy, barefoot, strolling-on-the-beach, saxophone-and-wind -chime sounds, you've got some slim pickings this summer.

While the Jazz Bakery continues to jump from one melting iceberg to another in search of a permanent home, they will stop August 1 at the Silent Movie Theatre for the LA premiere of The Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi, the pianist everyone of a certain age knows for the dance scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas. But Guaraldi was already well-known by the time he met Charles Schulz and co., coming off early work with Cal Tjader and Mongo Santamaria and a surprise B-side hit called "Cast Your Fate to the Wind." Anatomy presents pretty-much-thought-lost period footage of prime Guaraldi with unreleased recordings and commentary from everyone from Dave Brubeck to Paul "The Realist" Krassner.

Kenny Burrell - guitarist, educator, Ellington's #1 fan - is one of our most treasured local (by way of Detroit) elder statesmen. His status in the jazz community looms large thanks to his performances with Jimmy Smith, John Coltrane and Bill Evans. Burrell's effortless authority over his guitar and his sidemen is compelling not only to listen to but also to watch. Never a drop of sweat on that guy. Burrell will return to Hollywood's Catalina Bar and Grill for his annual engagement August 5-7. As long as the synth strings stay home, there should be some great meaty guitar lines provided by a nattily dressed professional.

Herbie Hancock is one of those guys that you think is older than he really is. He may have played with Miles in the early 60s, but he was still in his early thirties when he released Head Hunters. It's safe to say he probably has the largest keytar collection of any 70-year-old man. This is part of the problem of encountering Herbie Hancock in the 21st century. Sometimes he acts like an old jazz cat and sometimes he acts like a middle-aged pop star. Unfortunately, the old jazz cat doesn't seem to have had much input in Hancock's curated jazz series at the Hollywood Bowl this season. This is my problem more than his. Nevertheless, I wouldn't miss a night with blues guitar greats Buddy Guy and BB King on August 11. Guy, who reached sweat-drenched heights alongside Junior Wells in the late 60s while everybody else ripped his style and fizzled out, still rocks the polka-dot guitar like no one else. King has outlasted even more - playing nearly as many shows as there are seats at the Bowl.

LA Record Issue 100

Monday, September 06, 2010

Antonio Sanchez - All About Jazz



Live in New York at Jazz Standard
Antonio Sanchez (CAMJazz)

When seated behind the drums Antonio Sanchez
takes on an intense command of every sixteenth note
that swings through his wrists, navigating an
unwavering groove through myriad twists and turns.
In just under two hours, Live in New York at Jazz
Standard thunders across two discs and eight tunes
with pinpoint precision and a white-knuckle pace.
Aided by bassist Scott Colley and saxophonists David
Sanchez (tenor) and Miguel Zenon (alto), the album
was recorded at the end of a tour nearly two years ago.

The quartet, free of the chordal restrictions of
piano or guitar, is an extremely tight ensemble, like a
flock of birds jutting out in one direction before
instinctively turning into a driving pulse, seemingly
unannounced but without any member missing a cue.
The album opens with the saxophonists locked in tight
harmony, jumping around the spastic intervals of
Sanchez’ “Greedy Silence”. After a simultaneous horn
duel each launches into the stratosphere. Sanchez’
“Ballade” plays the horns off of each other in gentle
swoops while brushes spaciously crash across the
drumkit. The second disc, equally lithe and
propulsive, highlights more of Sanchez’ compositional
talents, opening with the heavy funk of “It Will Be
Better” and closing with “Challenge Within”, a
cowbell-driven smattering of polyrhythms that is
feverishly complex yet melodic.

Throughout the record Sanchez is masterfully
supportive, drifting into avant garde realms without
losing sight of the pulse. What space is left by the hardhitting
saxophonists and Colley’s hyper-kinetic
walking, if not running, is filled by Sanchez’ busy
hands and feet, sounding at times like two or three
drummers. Sanchez’ exuberance can be a little
exhausting at times but the record provides enough
room for the listener to breath before ripping into
another fast-paced exploration. This is music that
demands attention and rewards the listener with
astounding moments of interaction and trust.


Antonio Sanchez @ All About Jazz - New York