Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner" - OC Weekly

The Only Song Johnny Rotten Likes - OC Weekly

Countless American streets have been memorialized in song (Route 66, Highway 61, Tenth Avenue) but few are as passionately remembered as Jonathan Richman's beloved Route 128.

Tonight, Massachusetts-born Richman will make a stop at Santa Ana's Galaxy Theatre as part of his West Coast tour. Although his performances have drifted far from those youthful rocking days, he will always be known for "Roadrunner" - his ode to the joys of driving under the watchful eyes of teenage lust and AM radio.

Richman got his start in the early 1970s fronting his band the Modern Lovers. Alongside future Talking Head Jerry Harrison and future Car David Robinson, Richman was a proto-punk singing simply-constructed songs about girlfriends and Picasso with a blasé tone and an awkward stance. Of the dozen songs on their 1976 debut, opening track "Roadrunner" immediately defined the band's sound: loose, goofy and in love with "modern girls and modern rock and roll."

Route 128 stretches through 60 miles of suburban Boston landscape, from Paul Revere's old stomping grounds in Canton to the lobster trap-strewn beaches of Gloucester. Bouncing between two simple chords Richman sings a lyrical homage to the sights along that two-lane stretch: trees, factories and the ubiquitous supermarket Stop & Shop.

Richman has said the song was largely influenced by the Velvet Underground's 15 minute-long primitive stomping squeal "Sister Ray." So it is only appropriate that former Velvet John Cale produced the recording in 1972. Once it was finally released four years later, it didn't take long to catch on. Across the pond, and without even knowing the lyrics, the Sex Pistols attempted their own take on the song. As simple as it is to play, it unsurprisingly proved a little difficult for the gob-soaked quartet.

Starting in the 1980s, Richman drifted off into more acoustic forays (including a couple of appearances in Farrelly Brothers movies in the late 1990s) but "Roadrunner" has lived on in countless garages and the occasional Letterman appearance.

Johnny Rotten once told Spin magazine that he "hates all music." "Not one song?" asked the interviewer. "Oh yeah," he responded. "'Roadrunner' by the Modern Lovers." How's that for an endorsement?

Jonathan Richman @ OC Weekly

Hesitation Blues #6 - LA Record

Author's Note: This column ran last month in Issue 105 of LA Record

Hesitation Blues

The sad thing about writing this column is that I have to sit back four times a year and remind myself that the jazz scene in Los Angeles is severely lacking in high-profile jazz bookings. Some venues try harder than others but few can actually offer a season's worth of jazz programming and even fewer offer anything more than a rotating selection of artists that float by as frequently as leap years. As the LA Times' Chris Barton eloquently goaded the LA Philharmonic last summer, regarding their staid jazz bookings, "There' s terrific potential here to showcase the music as every bit the same vibrant, still-evolving organism as any other genre, to say nothing for the potential of drawing new fans." Obviously, vibrant music is being created and performed in Los Angeles every day. The hard part is finding it.

The ever-tasteful Kenny Burrell will be celebrating his 80th birthday at UCLA's Royce Hall on November 12. Helping to celebrate will be Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lalo Schifrin and B.B. King. It's hard to resist two of the most economic guitar legends of the last 60 years sharing a stage.

Disney Hall, usually a venue for high-quality jazz legends, will be offering up the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on November 22. For those who dig the old-timey shit, these guys do it well and are celebrating their 50th year of actively preserving the roots of New Orleans jazz.

Amid the one-off cabaret acts at Catalina's in Hollywood, the most promising band of heavy-hitters booked looks to be pianist Kenny Werner's all star band from December 9 through 11. With saxophonist David Sanchez, trumpeter Randy Brecker and drummer Antonio Sanchez, the band is poised to blow the roof off that club in a way that few other bands could and certainly no moonlighting television actor with delusions of artistry ever will.

So where does one go for the remaining days of the year? One venue consistently booking the most adventurous bands in our fair city is the Blue Whale in Little Tokyo. The location, obviously chosen for its rent rather than its accessibiltiy, features some of the most progressive bands willing to schelp their instruments up the stairs, whether they are members of the Los Angeles Jazz Collective or chain-smoking intellectuals from the farthest corners of Brooklyn. You can never go wrong dropping into their darkly lit, metallic treehouse for an inexpensive night of boundary-pushing music that would make any jazzbo proud.

Hesitation Blues @ LA Record

Houston Person - NYC Jazz Record

Houston Person - So Nice

Since the mid ‘90s honey-toned tenor saxophonist
Houston Person has been doling out swinging discs for
the High Note label with stunning regularity. On this,
his 16th record since the beginning of that relationship,
he is in fine form with an acoustic ensemble guided by
a rock-solid rhythm section (pianist John Di Martino,
bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Lewis Nash).

The album opens with Shirley Scott’s “Blues
Everywhere” serving as a meet-and-greet for the
album’s featured soloists. Aside from the bass and
drums everyone gets a couple choruses of blues to
introduce themselves before segueing into the
Ellington ballad “All Too Soon”, which features gentle
prodding from guitarist Howard Alden behind Warren
Vaché’s languid cornet. Much like his take on the other
ballads (“Kiss and Run”, “Easy Living”) Person
delivers a solo full of whispered patience and simple
elegance. The title track opens with a brief statement
from Di Martino before trombonist Mark Patterson
steps in to drop an articulate and rousing solo over
Elmo Hope’s changes. Burt Bacharach’s “Close to You”
goes in a completely different direction from the
Carpenters hit. The track opens with just Person and
Drummond before the rest of the rhythm section jumps
in with Nash’s cymbal driving everyone towards a
swinging take on what is usually a rather sappy radio
staple. The album closes with Di Martino and Person
quietly tying together a Sondheim medley: Di Martino
tackles “Small World” alone and with great restraint
before Person steps in with a breathy “Anyone Can
Whistle” that floats to a gentle close.

With 12 songs in just under an hour Person
provides exactly what the title offers - a solid outing
from a musician with no score to settle, just a desire to
play a subdued set with a handful of indispensable
friends, as nicely as promised.

Houston Person @ NYC Jazz Record

Why So Blue Note? - LA Weekly

Author's Note: The title and photo of this blog entry appear differently on the LA Weekly site.

Few genres are as protective of their past as jazz. Some might say it's all they've got.

The discipline is largely defined by the classic record labels that brought the sounds to the masses. Jazz nerds will argue the superiority of one golden recording era versus another just as stubbornly as basketball fans argue Kobe vs. LeBron.

So when, in early 2002, inoffensive songstress Norah Jones won the multi-platinum sweepstakes with her debut album Come Away With Me, it was a little surprising to see Blue Note Records -- easily one of the greatest jazz labels ever -- stamped on the back of those millions of CDs. Although Jones is hardly the only one to blame for diverting Blue Note's legacy, nearly a decade later it appears that the road has been permanently forked.

Tomorrow, December 2, adopted-Angeleno and current Blue Note artist Priscilla Ahn will provide her brand of low-key pop/folk for an evening at the El Rey. Her demure songs, aided on record by other sun-dappled six-stringers like Eleni Mandell and Charlie Wadhams, float by on whispered optimism and barefoot promises. She is a gentle and talented songwriter with a pure voice that would never have lasted a minute on Blue Note, had it not been for Norah Jones.

Started in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, the imprint hit its stride following World War II by recording some of the most significant jazz musicians of the era in a no-frills environment. Entire albums were often recorded in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey over the course of an afternoon with a carton of cigarettes. Theirs was a "good enough" approach, that succeeded largely because of the artists involved, including Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, John Coltrane, and Art Blakey.

In the mid-'90s the label released the work of mainstream hip-hop troupe Us3, who used the imprint's back catalog as source material. They were also Blue Note's first million selling act. Before long saw the emergence of Jones, who had dabbled in the New York jazz scene. She included standards like "The Nearness of You" on her debut, but the work was still a bit of a fluke for Blue Note. When that fluke went on to sell more records than their entire catalog -- combined -- she became the centerpoint of a unfortunate re-branding. This has led management to redirect much of the focus of a great jazz history towards radio hits and soccer moms.

These days Blue Note is equally divided between young jazz musicians like trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and pianist Robert Glasper and dusty coffeehouse strummers like Amos Lee. (Not to mention a moonlighting Jeff Bridges.) Former CEO Bruce Lundvall was recently replaced by Don Was, who has made more of a name for himself producing records for the B-52s and Garth Brooks than for preserving the legacy of jazz.

Thus, performers like Jones and Ahn have been tasked with revitalizing a record label that they have very little historical connection to. Their recordings make it fairly clear that they are not looking to follow in the footsteps of Thelonious Monk.

This is not their fault, of course, but it's a distressing sign of the times, and goes against the principles that have long buoyed jazz. Pianist/songwriter Mose Allison once said in an interview that he refused to record an album with the famed Muscle Shoals rhythm section in the mid 60s. "If it was a hit I would have to keep doing them. If it failed I'd probably lose my recording contract. So I passed."

Now that Blue Note has had a hit they have been forced to decide between making jazz or making money. Is there any question about which goal is winning?

Blue Note Records @ LA Weekly

Five Funky Covers of "Feelin' Alright" - OC Weekly

Five Funky Covers...

Guitar slinger Dave Mason first found fame as a member of British rock group Traffic. In the half-decade that followed, he popped up on Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, but his most lasting legacy has been his song "Feelin' Alright." Although initially recorded by Traffic in 1968, the song began paying his bills when Joe Cocker covered it the following year. In honor of Mason's appearance at the Coach House tonight, we present five undeniably funky covers of "Feelin' Alright" that don't involve Joe Cocker.

Chairmen of the Board

Not to be confused with Frank Sinatra, this band had their biggest hit, "Give Me Just a Little More Time," with Motown's expatriated production staff Holland/Dozier/Holland. This version is a slow grind aided by harmonica and a nice squealing guitar at the end.

Jackson 5

Is it the tambourine, or what? Those Motown kids sure knew how to make you move. "Twee twiddle ee deet deet twiddle ee dee!"

Fifth Dimension

What is it with quintets and this song? This version is pretty well-indebted to the Cocker cover, with its conga drums and the vibraslap, but the horn section more than makes up for it.

West Coast Revival

This song is all about the bass part. Piano glissandos are cool and all, but if they had released only that bass track, it still would have made the list.

Orquestra Hnos Flores - "Estoy en Onda"

Saved the best for last. I don't know who these guys are or what they are singing about, but this is clearly "Feelin' Alright." Supposedly recorded in 1970, this party jam can do no wrong.

"Feelin' Alright" @ OC Weekly

Guitar Center - OC Weekly

Author's Note: I do not refuse work.

Another Guitar Center is Opening

Orange County has a lot of garages but only a select few of them are used for actually storing cars. Most of them function as what Marc Maron once referred to as the "museum of forgotten hobbies." But for every dusty treadmill or beer brewing kit that lies neglected there are hundreds of determined bands strumming and drumming towards their dreams of stardom. And those bands need equipment. And probably some sound proofing.

Just in time for gift-giving season, Guitar Center will open their newest location at the Block in Orange this weekend. But this isn't just your average music store. This place is looking like the supergranddaddyCostcomegawarehouse of sound.

Aside from offering the usual necessities (instruments, amps, strobe lights, ear plugs) the facility will include a learning center that will offer not only instrument lessons but also recording studio lessons and a space dedicated solely to repairing instruments. (There's no excuse for that 5-string guitar of yours now!)

For their opening weekend blowout, Guitar Center will be offering up a truckload of giveaways, a very slim chance of recording with Travis Barker, discounted lessons (up to 89% off means you don't have to practice as hard) as well as clinics by Guitar Hero's Marcus Henderson (Friday) a music production class with the makers of Pro Tools (Saturday) and a performance by Devo and Puscifer stickman Jeff Friedl (Sunday).

So take advantage of the great musical blowout and do your part to help another generation of hopefuls learn the opening riff to "Smoke on the Water."

Guitar Center @ OC Weekly

Raunchy Food Blues - OC Weekly

Five Platters of Raunchy Food Blues

As we discovered in an earlier post, many songs about food are mostly about trying to get laid but it would appear for a lot of early blues musicians every song about food was about sex.

Now perhaps it's just my prurient imagination and I'm misinterpreting these great blues classics but when a man sings "I tasted last night, the night before. If I keep this appetite I'm going to taste a little more," he is probably not referring to sitting at the dinner table.

Here are five raunchy blues classics that might inspire you to put on a bib of your own.

Tampa Red, "What is that Tastes Like Gravy"


"Now the gal that let me taste it, they put her in jail but she didn't need nothing to go her bail. She had stuff tastes like gravy and I bet you don't know." Tampa Red, who confusingly made a name for himself in Chicago, not only sang this little ditty but also gave us "Tight Like That" and "Let Me Play With Your Poodle." It is not likely he's singing about putting things on mashed potatoes.

Blind Boy Fuller & Sonny Terry, "I Want Some of Your Pie"


"You got to give me some of it 'fore you give it all away." As a blind, blues-slinging jailbird Fuller had limited options for a career. In just five years in the mid 30s he recorded over 120 songs including this sly ode to a rather popular lady with an assist from fellow blind blues legend Sonny Terry.

Bessie Smith, "Nobody Can Bake A Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine"


"It's worth lots of dough, the boys tell me so. It's fresh every day, you'll hear 'em all say." The double entendres weren't limited to dirty old men. There was also room for dirty old women. Blues shouter Bessie Smith was one of the most influential early female vocalists and this slow jam proves she could wink and nod as well as any of her male counterparts.

Memphis Minnie, "My Butcher Man"


"Butcher man, in the morning, won't you please stop by my house. I've got enough butcherin' for you to do if you promise me you just only hush your mouth." Memphis Minnie could not only sing but she could wield a mean guitar. Here she makes a convincing argument for shopping local.

Bo Carter, "Banana in your Fruit Basket"


"Now I got the dasher, my baby got the churn. We gonna churn, churn, churn until the butter come." This one is just dirty, dirty, dirty. Carter, born Armenter Chatmon, also gave the world "Your Biscuits are Big Enough for Me" and the less than subtle "Please Warm My Weiner." In retrospect "Banana..." is probably one of his more tasteful tributes.

Five Platters of Raunchy Food Blues @ OC Weekly

Leftover Blues - OC Weekly

Five Songs to Help Defeat the Leftover Blues - OC Weekly

Although Black Friday is known for shopping, it is also known as the beginning of the leftover parade. If you want to make room for non-gravy doused foods in your fridge, you'll need all the help you can get.

Here are five golden oldies that can help lessen the blow of a week's worth of leftovers.

Nick Lowe & Rockpile, "Let's Eat"


"Let's eat! Let's eat! Let's eat!" Impresario and man-about-town Nick Lowe recorded this little ditty with help from professional super-grouper Dave Edmunds in the late 70s. Although they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in England, they do eat food.

The Beach Boys, "Getting' Hungry"


Despite the fact that the Boys are singing about getting hungry for "my kind of woman," it is no secret that in 1967, Brian Wilson was hungry for pretty much anything he could get his hands on.

The Kinks, "Maximum Consumption"


"Don't you know you gotta eat food? Don't you know you gotta refuel?" Although the four members of the Kinks probably weighed less than 500lbs between them, they certainly had a grasp on the importance of eating.

Paul Revere & the Raiders, "Hungry"


"I can almost taste it, baby." Okay, so most songs about hunger are probably just as much about lust. Nonetheless, lead singer Paul Revere Dick (no kidding!) once owned several restaurants in his native Idaho. How's that for credibility?

Paul & Linda McCartney, "Eat At Home"

Although John Lennon's "Cold Turkey" may have been an instinctual choice, that song has nothing to do with refrigerated birds and everything to do with hypodermic needles. But Macca, with the help of his lady Linda, highlights the finer points of both staying at home and eating -- two much more satisfying activities than buying a flat-screen television at 4am.
Defeat the Leftover Blues @ OC Weekly

Great Guitarists with Less Digits - OC Weekly

A Brief History of Great Guitarists with Less Digits - OC Weekly

This Friday and Saturday evening at Segerstrom Hall, guitarist Dorado Schmitt will present an evening dedicated to Django Reinhardt.

In the 1940s Reinhardt created and perfected the "gypsy jazz" genre leaving most anyone else playing that style of music to sit in his immense shadow, performing what amounts to a jazz cover band. Reinhardt's unmistakable drummer-less quintet featured the rhythm guitar work of his brother Joseph and the swinging strings of Stephane Grappelli's violin. Their unique sound laid the foundation for Reinhardt's inimitable acoustic guitar work.

What makes Reinhardt all the more incredible was the fact that he only had three functioning fingers on his left hand. While in his late teens Reinhardt was badly burned during a fire in his home. Although he did not lose his fingers, they were essentially useless. Reinhardt managed to pluck his fluid runs without the use of his middle and ring finger. Few men equipped with all ten of their fingers can create the sounds he made but he was not alone in his handicap.

Jerry Garcia
​Jerry Garcia, epic Grateful Dead noodler and failed heroin hobbyist, was missing the middle finger of his right hand. At the age of four, much like a disinterested Margot Tennebaum, Garcia lost two-thirds of his finger to an axe while holding a piece of wood steady for his older brother. His tender nubbin rarely prevented him from carrying on for hours at a time but perhaps that was his only way of giving the finger to those who objected to his lifestyle.

Tony Iommi
​Black Sabbath riff master Tony Iommi is also missing a few fingerprints. In the most Dickensian way possible he lost the middle and ring fingertips on his right hand to a sheet metal factory at the age of 17. Curiously Iommi plays the guitar left-handed forcing him to wear small caps on his fingertips. Since this happened long before his reign with Black Sabbath it is unlikely to prevent him from sparing us the impending reunion cash-in.

Hound Dog Taylor
​Bonus! To balance out this rather morbid post it is important to recognize blues strummer Hound Dog Taylor. Unlike the aforementioned slingers, Taylor was born with an extra finger on his left hand! Unfortunately this did not result in any super-human strengths or even new chord formations but it did make his paws more memorable than his songs.
Django Reinhardt @ OC Weekly

Lisa Mezzacappa Review - LA Weekly

Lisa Mezzacappa's Bait & Switch
Blue Whale
11-17-11

Better than...trying to play those tunes myself.

Last night, long after many of Little Tokyo's residents had gone to sleep, bassist LIsa Mezzacappa presented her band Bait & Switch to a small but appreciative audience at the Blue Whale. The quartet consisted of the same folks she recorded her award-winning debut with last year: saxophonist Aaron Bennett, guitarist John Finkbeiner and drummer Vijay Anderson.

The band opened with a loping composition that eventually gave way to Bennett's fiery tenor, embodying the switch aspect of the band's name. His breathless jaunts could stop on a dime, often giving way to a more subtle groove before the band devolved into a tempo-less crawl.

The tune that followed, inspired by drumming legend Tony Williams, was also a saxophone feature. With Anderson's cymbal riding alongside Finkbeiner's sputtering guitar, Bennett launched into another jaunt that eventually found him blowing alone, interjecting subtle hard-bop riffs into an otherwise cacophonous assault.

With Mezzacappa and Anderson refraining from any direct solos, all of that work was handled by Finkbeiner and Bennett. Finkbeiner remained the stoic guitarist, summoning fractured phrases from his small axe while Bennett parried with an invisible opponent, fencing his way through Mezzacappa's complicated compositions. There were times when I considered the location of the nearest hospital, should his brain explode in the middle of one of his more breathless passages.

An homage to a South American ant invasion opened and closed with Mezzacappa's otherworldly bowed bass sounds. Her long tones were driven by Finkbeiner's chunky march, before leading to a spidery solo by the axe-man himself.

The only composition not written by Mezzcappa was a performance of an Art Ensemble of Chicago piece that felt old-timey in relation to the rest of the set. The band adopted a laidback strut that included touches of swing and a quieter pulse that was briefly interrupted by another Bennett assault.

The band closed out with a tune that had the subtlest of backbeats and a beautiful bowed bass line supported by the saxophone. A jagged guitar solo led to demure pizzicato riffs from everyone while Anderson's drums clattered like the sound of a thousand fidgety drummers.

By the time the band had finished, the number of paying attendees had quadrupled and everyone in the room had quiet reverence for Mezzacappa's ability to wield the bass and a pen. Her unimposing stage presence only worked to hide her natural command of the four-stringed beast that she would inevitably have to carry down three flights of stairs at the end of the night.

Personal Bias: I like dinner party music.

The Crowd: Wine sippers.

Random Notebook Dump: Perhaps there would have been a bigger crowd had they not been arrested for occupying buildings down the street.

Lisa Mezzacappa Review @ LA Weekly