The "Voices of Latin Rock" Comes to the Warfield

Putting together an inspired collection of talent, Voices of Latin Rock presents The 5th Annual Benefit for Autism Awareness as a benefit for The Alex Speaks Foundation on Saturday January 24th, 2009 at the newly refurbished Warfield Theater, 982 Market Street, San Francisco, California. Headlining the bill is multi-platinum selling band WAR, Azteca, Los Cenzontles, Voices of Latin Rock Review, featuring members of Cold Blood, Malo, El Chicano and Santana. They will also be honoring the following Women of Latin Rock: Rita Gentry, Lydia Pense, Wendy Haas, Sheila E. and Linda Tillery. As in past years, many surprise guests will also appear.

The show benefits schools in the Bay Area dealing with autism on a daily basis. This disorder has increased recently to 1 in 150 births, up from 1 in 166 just a few years ago. When questioned about special needs children in the most recent presidential debates, both candidates mentioned the need for increased funding for research for autism, specifically as it approaches epidemic numbers. With the Bay Area’s support of this event, we can continue our support of both schools and research for autism.

WAR has recently been nominated as candidates for induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2009. WAR has recorded some of the biggest hits in the last 30 years including “The World Is A Ghetto”, “Cisco Kid”, “Why Can’t We Be Friends”, and “Low Rider.” The band is in it’s 40th year and has its first release in 14 years, “Greatest Hits Live.” More information on the band can be found on their website at www.wartheband.com.

Azteca features a stellar collective of Latin Rock performers that promises to tear the house down. Azteca was founded by the late Coke Escovedo and his brother Pete after their departure from the Latin Rock superband Santana. They were the first band to employ a large ensemble of horns, woodwinds, keyboards, Latin percussion and other instruments sometimes having 25 members in a live performance! Many of the original members will be performing.

Los Cenzontles is an amazing group from the Mexican Arts Center in Richmond, California featuring the vocals of Fabiola Trujillo and Luciana Rodriquez that infuses traditional Mexican instruments with gutsy electric bass and drums. The group is directed by Grammy nominated producer Eugene Rodriquez, and their latest CD “Wood & Steel” features producer/guitarist David Hildalgo along with vocalist Linda Ronstadt.

The Voices of Latin Rock Review with Musical Director Karl Perazzo includes members of Santana, Cold Blood, Malo and El Chicano. This years event is honoring women of Latin Rock: Rita Gentry, Lydia Pense, Wendy Haas, Sheila E., and Linda Tillery. ‘Voices of Latin Rock’ has become a Bay Area favorite event, and early purchase of tickets is encouraged, as this event will sell out. Get your tickets soon!

Voices of Latin Rock
5th Annual Benefit for Autism Awareness
January 24 , 2009 at The Warfield Theater, San Francisco
Doors: 6:00 PM Show: 7:30 PM

The Palm Wine Boys Revisited

Back in October, I wrote this article about the Palm Wine Boys and their founder, Richard Linley. Sadly, ill health has kept Linley down, but not out. He is finally back on the mend and happily, the Palm Wine Boys are returning for a special concert in Oakland this Sunday.

These days, Richard Linley, writer, singer, guitarist and founder of "The Palm Wine Boys", has been spending much of his time in recording sessions for his latest album, pausing only for treatment while he battles a recent, life threatening illness. His music and spirit has been inspirational to his fellow musicians, especially the latest incarnation of the 'Boys; bassist Ariane Cap, guitarist Mathew Lacques and his long-time collaborator, percussionist QB Williams. "When words fail we turn to music, to listen, or to play", recalled Cap. "Richard's tunes have been turned to by many a restless soul to find relief. His songs are so hopeful, comforting, joyful." Fittingly, I thought it was high time I revisited one of the Bay Area's best loved West African music ensembles, The Palm Wine Boys.

The Palm Wine Boys apparently dread describing their sound in two words or less. Phrases like "pan-African guitar" seem too exotic, but "acoustic folk" doesn't quite draw the crowds. Fortunately for us, this San Francisco Bay Area-based quartet's latest CD "Up and Down", reveals a melodic sound that defies stereotypes. The Palm Wine Boys take two musical genres they love, American folk and Palm wine music, and blend them perfectly to create a sound responsible for a relaxed kind of high, characteristic not only of Palm Wine, but the Palm Wine Boys.

Intertwining guitar lines, a unique, catchy rhythmic style, searching, spiritual lyrics and harmonizing voice appear on "Up and Down," was recorded in the Oakland, California studio of Wildplum Recordings. "The Palm Wine Boys' music speaks to people looking for music with some kind of depth to it. Not too serious, just not pleased with state of popular music and searching for an original sound. Our audience is drawn to the various acoustic styles - taking a genre and bringing something new to it. Palm Wine Boys is a sound that is different, slightly exotic, without being inaccessible," says Richard Linley, PWB singer/songwriter, describing the band's draw.

Palm wine music originated in West Africa; Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria saw the birth of the genre. Palm wine music became internationally known in the 1950s through Ebenezer Calender and his Maringar Band; a decade later, S.E. Rogie achieved cult celebrity status and became known as the "godfather" of palm wine music with records including "The 60s Sound of S.E. Rogie."

The Palm Wine Boys first formed in 2002 when Richard Linley, Tom Chandler, and QB Williams broke from the great world dance band Mud Hut to concentrate on pared-down acoustic songs. Singer/songwriter Linley played sax and guitar in the late 80s with S.E. Rogie and wanted to bring palm wine's mellow influence to the new project. As a songwriter, Linley had been inspired by the greats of American folk, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. The Palm Wine Boys began combining serious lyrics with melodic, upbeat arrangements, using an organic approach to create new music.

Linley soon added the acoustic bass of Eliyahu Sills, and the 'Boys were off and running. The incredible percussion of Williams and his assorted bongoes and mini-bass drums; the lilting bass lines of Sills; Linley and Chandler's guitars and writing made the Palm Wine Boys one of the best loved acts on the world music scene. After garnering much deserved praise and critical acclaim, fatherhood would soon claim Chandler and his chair was temporarily filled by the gifted young Berkeley guitarist Cas Lucas. The return of Chandler would unfortunately also see the departure of Sills, who would go on to form his exotic Middle-Eastern ensemble, "Qadim". Enter Ariane Cap, bassist extraordinaire, and the "Boys" had now become an equal opportunity combo. The joys of parenthood called Chandler once again, finally leaving the group for good and paving the way for guitarist Mathew Lacques. All seemed well in Palm Wine land until the unthinkable happened.

"Richard's illness smacked right into the middle of production of our new album", Cap recalled. "The recent hard months of witnessing Richard's suffering, and not being able to play together as Richard got weaker and weaker, are making us once again aware of how special creating music together is. We are looking forward to finishing work on our new songs and creating a jewel of West African-Americana folk beauty a la Palm Wine Boys. As all experiences infuse the music we make, this CD will be especially close to our hearts."

Undaunted, Linley soldiers on and expects to finish his latest long awaited CD soon. For those wishing to contribute to Linley's ongoing efforts both musical and medical, they can do so here: http://palmwineboysforrichard.com/

Get well soon Richard.

The Palm Wine Boys
Sunday, December 14th @ 4:00 pm
2014 Park Blvd. (about a block down from the Parkway Theater)
$10.00

The Doctor Bob Concert Series

Looking to take a musical walk on the wild side? Tonight at the San Francisco Community Music Center comes some of the area's best artists in every sense of the word. "The Doctor Bob Concert Series" a series of shows featuring Edgetone Records' Doctor Bob and special guest artists. Doctor Bob is a project of avant cellist and vocalist Bob Marsh and nouveau lap steel player and film maker David Michalak. They play songs for a dark and turbulent world ranging from scary to the surreal. This show will feature new material from their upcoming release called, "Chance" as well as songs from their "Dark Times" CD on Edgetone Records. Andre Custodio will join the duo on drums and percussion. Pamela Z is an international composer, performer, sound artist, and extended vocalist will feature some new works for voice, electronics, and video. Ms. Z has been commissioned to compose works for new music chamber ensembles: the Bang On A Can Allstars; Ethel, the California E.A.R. Unit; the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble; the Empyrean Ensemble, and the St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra. These are two of my all-time favorites in a not to be missed performance.

Marsh is a well seasoned improviser whose work has involved shaping sounds words images ideas. Originally from Detroit, Marsh arrived in the Bay Area in 2000 after ten years in Chicago where he played with most of the avant improvisers in that rich and varied scene. Since his arrival on the west coast, multi-instrumentalist and composer Marsh has been busy with several projects. He currently leads or directs String Theory, a string ensemble focusing on textures and microtonics; the Che Guevarra Memorial Marching (and Stationary) Accordion Band, structured and free improv for six to fifteen accordions; Robot Martians, electronics and processed voice; the Out of the Blue Chamber Ensemble, a mixture of reeds and strings; Opera Viva, voiced physical theater; the Quintessentials, a quintet specializing in interpreting graphic compositions based on alterations to the Michelin Road Guide to France; and the Illuminated Orchestra, structured improves for large ensemble.

Additionally Marsh is a member of Romus/Diaz-Infante's Abstractions, Jim Ryan's Left Coast Improv Group, Moe!chestra and Tom Bickley's Cornelius Cardew Choir. Bob Marsh tours frequently with his long term partner saxophonist Jack Wright. Bob has recently been presenting a solo work involving violin, voice and tap shoes. Marsh's educational background includes a BFA in sculpture and an MA in humanistic clinical psychology. He has studied classical piano, classical guitar and vibraphone and has taught himself various other instruments. He currently is active with cello, accordion, violin, voice, vibraphone and electronics.

David Michalak plays a Fender lap steel guitar and an assortment of odd percussion instruments. While he is more commonly known as a filmmaker (50 films with original soundtracks since 1971), the visual art side of him seeps inherently into his solo performances and group compositions, which are characterized by shimmering passages, abstract snapshots and haunting representations of natural elements. David plays in his instrumental ensembles Reel Change and Ghost In The House as well as the duo, Dr. Bob. Some musicians that he is currently performing with are: Tom Nunn, Andrew Voigt, Bob Marsh, Carla Kihlstedt, Karen Stackpole and Kyle Bruckman.

The extraordinary Pamela Z has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. She has performed in numerous festivals including Bang On A Can at Lincoln Center in New York, the Interlink Festival in Japan, Other Minds in San Francisco, and Pina Bausch Tanztheater's 25 Jahre Fest in Wuppertal, Germany. She has composed, recorded and performed original scores for choreographers and for film and video artists, and has done vocal work for other composers (including Charles Amirkhanian, Vijay Iyer, and Henry Brant). Her large-scale, multi-media performance works, Parts of Speech , Gaijin, and Voci, have been presented at venues including The Kitchen in New York, Theater Artaud and ODC Theatre in San Francisco, the Museum of Contemporary Art Theatre in Chicago, as well as at theaters in Washington D.C. and Budapest Hungary.

Her one-act opera Wunderkabinet (co-composed with Matthew Brubeck) premiered in 2005 at The LAB Gallery in San Francisco, and was presented at REDCAT in Los Angeles and the Open Ears Festival in Canada. Her new inter-media work The Pendulum is scheduled to have its San Francisco Premiere at the Royce Gallery in 2008. She has had audio works included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Erzbischiöfliches Diösanmuseum in Cologne. Her site-specific, multi-channel sound works have been presented at the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs NY, the Dakar Biennale in Sénégal, and the Hellenic Museum in Chicago. Her work has also been presented at the San Jose Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio in New York, and La Biennale di Venezia in Italy.

Doctor Bob Concert Series Operation #1
Doctor Bob and Pamela Z
San Franicsco Community Music Center
544 Capp Street Between 20th & 21st
Friday, December 5th, 8:00 P.M.
$10, $5 students

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones Come to Yoshi's

Béla Fleck, often considered the premiere banjo player in the world, has made a name for himself as a virtuoso instrumentalist unbounded by genre. His band The Flecktones - Victor Wooten on electric bass, Jeff Coffin on sax and flute, and Future Man on percussion - are equally talented and adventurous as Fleck himself, and together they have made a string of critically acclaimed albums that combine bluegrass, jazz, funk and world music with technical prowess, unlimited imagination and occasional zaniness. Their new holiday CD Jingle All the Way is all of that, with bells on - Christmas music as it's never been heard it before.

Banjo master Béla Fleck and his Flecktones most previous CD, "The Hidden Land", is their third offering on Columbia Records, following "Outbound", and "Little Worlds". The album features a lot of new music as well as some tunes the group have performed for some time, but never recorded. This time they decided to use a stripped down quartet format, following some of the rules they used to use when they first began. For instance, no one could record anything that could not be played live, and no multiple overdubs or sweetening parts were added. Whatever you hear can be played by all four of the Flecktones at once, although at times it may sound like more than four guys! By triggering the occasional synth with a floor pedal or midi pick-up, and switching instruments, singing simultaneously with playing, etc they were able to get a pretty big sound.

Their last three releases had featured more of a 'community' approach, featuring great musicians like Bolinas-based reed player Paul McCandless of the group Oregon, Steel Drum player Andy Narell, tabla player Sandip Burman, and the Tuvan throat singer Cong-ar-ol Ondar, (last seen in the incredible documentary "Ghenghis Blues", with the late Paul Pena.), among others. The Flecktones loved having these myriad of stars to record and tour with, but Fleck reckoned this to be the right time for the group to return to it's original quartet format, and see what they could achieve.

Hidden Land is also a CD/DVD, which includes a 30 documentary minute film which gives even more insight into the inner workings of the Flecktones. "A big part of my year was finishing up the Flecktones upcoming CD "The Hidden Land", recalled Fleck. "This album is a return to a stripped down approach, in other words it is just the 4 of us. Everything we played had to be able to be duplicated live with just us, and we pushed ourselves to be creative and dig deep. We have made a lot of albums and we wanted this one to be different and special. Most importantly we wanted the music to progress. We recorded it in July and November of 2004 so that we could release it when we return from our year off. But there was a lot of work left to do editing and mixing, and I worked on it when I was off the road in 2005".

The Flecktones have indeed been busy while on their self-imposed hiatus. Following a successful summer tour with jazz icons, bassist Stanley Clarke and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, Fleck spent a month in Africa, recording and filming musicians in an effort to discover the roots and origins of his beloved banjo. A tour of China, and followed that up by recording with the famed tabla master Zakir Hussein. Bass virtuoso Victor Wooten toured with his 'Soul Circus" band, his brother, the eclectic percussionist Roy "Futureman" Wooten, continued developing his "Royel" drum-piano, releasing his second solo CD, "Evolution de la Musique", and performing with keyboardist Jeremy "Street Maestro" Able. Saxophonist Jeff Coffin spent his time recording and touring with his acclaimed "Mu'tet", as well as joining his fellow 'tones on a variety of gigs and CD projects.

Hidden Land's 30 minute film, (which will be on the flip side of the new disc), was dreamt up by Fleck and his brother Sascha Paladino. "Sascha and I dreamed up a concept, and then the Flecktones got together for a couple of days to film it. We are all proud of the piece and look forward to you all checking it out", said Fleck. As of this writing, no Bay Area shows are planned, however, the Flecktones will be performing at the Sierra Nevada Stage, in Chico, California, February 13th and 14th.

With "The Hidden Land", Béla Fleck and the Flecktones continue to explore the myriad forms and possibilities of our planet's under-the-radar music while celebrating the invisible energy--both cosmic and mathematical--that uses sound to create new worlds, and marks a return to the original concept of the band, a radical jazz-bluegrass amalgam with roots as deep as the blues and branches reaching out into infinite space.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Yoshi's San Francisco
Friday 8pm $45 / 10pm $45
Saturday 8pm SOLD OUT / 10pm $45
Sunday 7pm $45 / 9pm $45

Dr. Lonnie Smith Comes to the Herbst

The last time I saw the incredible Dr. Lonnie Smith, was at the 2007 San Jose Jazz Festival, sharing a bill with amazing Marcus Miller and Dr. John. The good doctor returns to the Bay area this Friday night at the Herbst on Van Ness and not a moment too soon, because a double dose of soul is just what the doctor ordered. Dr. Smith that is, the reigning old-school Hammond B3 maestro who’s been handing out funkified prescriptions since breaking in with George Benson in the mid- 1960s. Another ‘60s B3 avatar, Reuben Wilson, leads the aptly named Godfathers of Groove featuring funk drum legend Bernard "Pretty" Purdie and guitarist Green Jr., son of the late soul jazz guitar great.

Smith, who was awarded his doctoral honorific by his peers, came up during the B3’s glory years and is arguably the most exciting organ player on the scene, an indefatigably inventive musician who has recorded albums exploring the music of Beck and Jimi Hendrix. A seminal figure in the soul jazz movement, he put the groove into Lou Donaldson’s classic 1967 Blue Note record Alligator Boogaloo. His own Blue Note sessions such as Think and Turning Point showcased some of the era’s most prodigious improvisors, including Lee Morgan, Idris Muhammad, David “Fathead” Newman and Bennie Maupin. More recently, he has released a series of acclaimed albums on Palmetto, leading the Jazz Journalist Association to vote him “Organ/Keyboardist of the Year” consistently since 2003.

Smith was born in 1922 outside of Buffalo in Lackawanna, New York, into a family with a vocal group and radio program. Smith says that his mother was a major influence on him musically, as she introduced him to gospel, classical, and jazz music. He was part of several vocal ensembles in the 1950s, including the Teen Kings. Art Kubera, the owner of a local music store, gave Smith his first organ, a Hammond B3.
His affinity for R&B melded with his own personal style, and he quickly became a local legend. He moved to New York City, where he met George Benson, the guitarist for Jack McDuff's band. Benson and Smith connected on a personal level, and the two formed the George Benson Quartet featuring Lonnie Smith, in 1966.

After two albums under Benson's leadership, (It's Uptown and Cookbook), Smith recorded his first solo album (Finger Lickin' Good) in 1967, with George Benson on guitar, Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax, Melvin Sparks on guitar and Marion Booker on drums. This combination remained stable for the next five years. After recording several albums with Benson, Smith became a solo recording artist and developed a career that has produced over 30 albums under his own name. Several legendary jazz artists have joined Smith on his albums, including Lee Morgan, David "Fat Head" Newman, King Curtis, Blue Mitchell, and Joe Lovano among others.

In 1967, Smith met Lou Donaldson, who put him in contact with Blue Note Records. Donaldson asked the quartet to record an album for Blue Note, Alligator Boogaloo. Blue Note was so impressed by the album that they signed Smith for the next four albums, all of which are now considered classics of soul jazz. This highly influential period produced Think (with Melvin Sparks, Marion Booker, Lee Morgan and David Newman) and Turning Point (with Lee Morgan, Bennie Maupin, Melvin Sparks and Idris Muhammad). The latter is largely regarded as his most seminal studio album.

Smith's next album Move Your Hand was recorded at the Club Harlem in Atlantic City, New Jersey in August 1969. This surprise hit spread allowed his reputation to grow beyond the Northeast. He would record another studio album Drives and one more live album Live at Club Mozambique before leaving Blue Note. Live at Club Mozambique was recorded in Detroit on 21 May 1970, and is considered to be his finest live recording.

Smith toured the northeastern United States heavily during the 1970s. He concentrated largely on smaller neighborhood venues during this period. His sidemen included Ronnie Cuber, Dave Hubbard, Bill Easley and George Adams on sax, Donald Hahn on trumpet, George Benson and Larry McGee on guitars, and Joe Dukes, Sylvester Goshay, Phillip Terrell, Marion Booker, Jimmy Lovelace, Charles Crosby, Art Gore, Norman Connors and Bobby Durham on drums

Godfathers of Groove leader Wilson was a ‘60s Blue Note labelmate with Smith who also recorded several excellent soul jazz sessions. He’s joined by Purdie, the supremely funky drummer whose rolling shuffle beat animated so many hits it was dubbed “the Purdie shuffle.” His credits include everyone from Dizzy Gillespie and King Curtis to Aretha Franklin and Steely Dan.

"Soul Jazz Summit"
Dr. Lonnie Smith
featuring Donald Harrison
Godfathers of Groove:
w/Reuben Wilson, JT Lewis & Grant Green Jr.
Herbst Theater, Friday, November 7, 8PM

Sam Phillips Comes to Yoshi's

My first exposure to the singer Sam Phillips came during tie mid-nineties, while touring on the summer folky-circuit. Her album "Cruel Inventions" quickly became one of my all-time-favorites, and my band mates and I played it to death. Songs like, "Tripping Over Gravity", "Standing Still", and the killer "Raised on Promises" were simply unbelievable. No small wonder, Phillips was joined on the album by future husband T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello. It remains one of my favorite albums of all time and I play it regularly. Now Phillips makes a rare San Francisco a appearance this Saturday night at Yoshi's in support of her latest album, "Don't Do Anything". Oh you do not want to miss this one.

Phillips was born in Glendale, California, and began her musical career as a vocalist in the early 1980s, singing background parts for Christian artists Mark Heard, Randy Stonehill and others. After a short time, Phillips was signed to a solo contract with Myrrh Records - under her given name - where she went on to record four Christian pop albums, Beyond Saturday Night, Dancing with Danger, Black and White in a Grey World and, finally, The Turning, which teamed her with producer and future husband, T-Bone Burnett. Throughout the Myrrh period, Phillips wrote more and more of her own songs and several were Top 10 singles on Christian radio.

Since Cyndi Lauper was popular at the time and also had an high-pitched, idiosyncratic vocal style, Myrrh insisted on promoting her as "the Christian Cyndi Lauper." Phillips was never comfortable with this image, and it became a bone of contention between her and the label. She began using the name "Sam" professionally in 1988 when she left Myrrh Records and signed with Virgin Records, partially in order to distance herself from her somewhat embarrassing Myrrh-imposed persona.

Like many Christian artists before her, Phillips expanded into more secular content at the new label. She released "The Indescribable Wow", which featured the orchestrations of Brian Wilson lyricist Van Dyke Parks. The aforementioned "Cruel Inventions", which was released in 1991, included a guest appearance from close friend Elvis Costello, and she (with her husband) supported Costello on his 1991 tour. 1994's "Martinis and Bikinis", was widely praised by music critics and was even nominated for a Grammy Award; this was Phillips' first nomination. That year also gave Phillips a chance to write a song with Brian Wilson which would appear on Rob Wasserman's Trios album, performed by Carnie Wilson.

In 1995, Phillips made her silver screen debut in the Bruce Willis blockbuster "Die Hard With a Vengeance", in which she played a mute terrorist. She was originally supposed to have a speaking part in the film but it was decided that her character would be silent, since it made her appear much more imposing and lethal, although it also placed her in a more stereotypically femme fatale role at the same time. In 1996, Phillips released "Omnipop (It's Only A Flesh Wound Lambchop)", which featured a song cowritten by Phillips and R.E.M.. Omnipop, which was more experimental musically, ended up being her worst-selling album to date. After releasing a contractual obligation "best-of" album for Virgin in 1999, the label sadly dropped Phillips from their roster.

In 2001, Phillips signed with Nonesuch Records and released a stripped-down acoustic album called "Fan Dance", which featured some of the most critically acclaimed songwriting of Phillips's career. Van Dyke Parks contributed string arrangements for a track or two. Phillips also began writing music for and scoring the television series "Gilmore Girls", and even appeared on screen during the final episode of season six, performing "Taking Pictures" from the Fan Dance album. In 2004, she released "A Boot and a Shoe", another collection of acoustic cabaret songs in the same vein as Fan Dance. After the release of A Boot and a Shoe, news spread that Phillips and husband/producer T-Bone Burnett had divorced, although they continued to work together to finish the album.

Phillips's latest album, "Don't Do Anything", was released last June and produced by Phillips. It is her first self-produced album and her first post-Myrrh album not to feature Burnett on any instruments, although he is credited in the thank-you section of the album credits.

Phillips is a truly amazing performer and there is really no one quite like her. Watching her with my chums in "Die Hard With a Vengeance" and listening to "Cruel Intentions" for the billionth time are the kinds of memories that will stay with me forever. Once you hear her, she'll be with you forever too.

Sam Phillips
Yoshi's San Francisco
Saturday, November 1, 8:00 & 10:00 pm
Tickets $25

Winston Montgomery's "Mozart On The Road"

Buoyed by veteran guitarist Austin de Lone, local songwriter Winston Montgomery returns with his latest album, "Mozart on the Road". Montgomery's last album, "Child Is Father To The Man", saw him treading a path worn by the likes of Phil Ochs, John Prine, and Pete Seeger. This time, he heads to the world folks like Ry Cooder, Willie Nelson and augmented by the strings of the Mill Valley Symphony. Not a surprise, for this long time veteran of the Haight and it's musical history. The arrangements on "Mozart", are tight, the playing top-notch and Montgomery's love of the Western melodies of his home-away-from-home New Mexico, are evident in many of the tunes. The title cut even has a "spoken word" bit that only Montgomery could give in his often poignant, sometimes comical, prairie-home way.

Born in New York State, an hour’s drive north of New York City, Montgomery made the pilgrimage to San Francisco during the summer after the “Summer of Love” in 1967 and has never left “that cool grey city of love”. Montgomery had been making his living for the last 25 years by renovating houses, among them, many of the multi-hued Victorian edifices that San Francisco is famous for. After a stint of singing lead in a band and writing songs for over 30 years, he finally started writing again, performing his songs solo at a number of open mics throughout San Francisco and playing at clubs with his four piece band, "The Tall Boys". His eponyous CD containing 7 songs, “The Child Is Father To The Man” was his first recording effort in some time. He continues his work with the legendary Austin de Lone, a founding member of Eggs Over Easy, a group often credited with starting the London based “Pub Rock” phenomenon.

Montgomery continues to surprise with a lovely, yet melancholy ballad "Sunset Girl", (perhaps my favorite), and a re-recording of his wonderful homage of the Sixties with "Momma's Tattoo". Listening to tunes like "You Can't take it With You" and "I Can't Stick Around To Take The Fall," has Montgomery really rockin', very different from his folky-er first album. "I Like Lunch" and "Brave Little Billy Brewster" are really pretty country, but very well written. I'm not a country fan, but I'd rather listen to this than 99% of the stuff you hear when you're driving cross country and nothing decent ever seems to comes in. "Mozart on the Road" has that 'don't touch the dial, leave it' quality, part "Prairie Home Companion", part "Austin City Limits", but all Montgomery. That's a good thing.

Montgomery isn't a crooner; you won't get Lyle Lovett or Chris Isaacs. What you will get is a veteran story teller, a "wil-e-coyote" who has sense enough to know he's not going to catch the Road Runner, and smart enough to get some of the best musicians around to help him tell it. Eventually, even the Road Runner will stop and listen. Beep-Beep!

Acoustic Alchemy Comes to Yoshi's

With the release of This Way, Acoustic Alchemy’s first album under Higher Octave/Narada Jazz’s association with Blue Note Records, guitarists Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale celebrate a remarkable two decades since 1987’s Red Dust and Spanish Lace established the British ensemble as an ever evolving, powerhouse force in contemporary jazz.

Their thousands of fans around the world may be feeling nostalgic, but the duo—while keeping their trademark acoustic guitar synergy front and center—Is clearly committed to forging ahead, following the laid back pop-soul vibe of American/English (2005) with their most aggressive and swinging, hard rocking and artfully jazzy disc to date. Complementing performances by familiar Acoustic Alchemy recording and touring members Terry Disley (piano), Snake Davis (sax), Fred White (keyboards and trumpet), Julian Crampton (bass) and Greg Grainger (drums) are special guest appearances by smooth jazz stars, trumpeter Rick Braun, saxman Jeff Kashiwa (who has toured with the band and appeared on 2001’s Aart) and keyboardist Neil Cowley, a member of jazz groove band (and Narada Jazz/Blue Note labelmates) Down To The Bone.

While Carmichael and Gilderdale composed the majority of the songs and produced several tracks at Gilderdale’s home facility 9 Miles High Studio in York, England, others were produced at various studios on Carmichael’s home turf of London and at Hansa House Studios in Bonn, Germany, where many of the band’s classics were recorded, produced and mixed over the years by longtime associate Klaus Genuit. In addition to Genuit’s three tracks, This Way includes six others produced and engineered by Richard Bull, who began working with AA on 2000’s The Beautiful Game. Two tracks, the trippy and sensual “Out of Nowhere” and the snappy, neo-soul driven “Now I’m On My Way” were mixed by legendary mixer Steve Hodge (Usher, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige).
Carmichael explains the very loose and spirited feeling of This Way as the result of a natural chemistry he’s developed with Gilderdale over the years since Gilderdale—formerly a backing guitarist with the band—became Carmichael’s full partner after the passing of founding member Nick Webb in 1998 and the release that year of Positive Thinking.



“What I love about This Way is that it’s got so much more playing on it than we’ve done before,” he says, “a lot more soloing and a really relaxed and organic vibe. I think this is less by design and more due to the fact that Miles and I are great friends who are very comfortable and laugh a lot together. When we got together at his place, either one of us would come up with a starting idea and we’d just let it grow naturally, then refine it and change it until we had a great song,” When I think of tracks like ‘Egg,’ which has a very British, straight ahead sound, I realize that this is really the jazziest record we’ve ever made, less pop jazz and with more extended solo sections. Our fans might be surprised to hear Miles play so much electric guitar, but in essence, that’s what he is by trade and what his focus was before he joined me as a partner on The Beautiful Game. So this album is the best of everything, not just my way, not just his way, but This Way.”



As if giving the listener some cool chill time before the wild adventure ahead, This Way’s first track “Love Is All There Is” kicks the album off in a distinctively mellow and dreamy, old school soul way, but with a very edgy electric guitar/horn hook swirled by passionate backing vocals and a hypnotic synth sitar. Bringing back a taste of the reggae flavor of the AA classic “Jamaica Heartbeat” (from 1991’s Back On The Case), AA stirs up a lively and exotic Latin jazz vibe—complete with a fiery solos by Terry Disley, Jeff Kashiwa and trombonist Dennis Rollins—on “Ernie,” which is dedicated to Gilderdale’s hero, Jamaican guitar legend Ernest Ranglin. Jazzy brass accents courtesy of Fred White and trumpeter/flugelhornist Kevin Robinson (who solos) also play an integral part on the easy rolling funk of “Who Knows.” True to its title, “Slampop” is a raucous, thumping rock jam that pits Carmichael’s spirited acoustic melody over Gilderdale’s blistering electric axe.



The playful gear shifting continues with the following cuts, “Out Of Nowhere” and “This Way,” which are the only two tracks to feature only Carmichael and Gilderdale. The sparsely arranged “Out Of Nowhere” features a hypnotic, swaying acoustic melody over a gentle guitar harmony and light percussion line. The cool down continues on the slow burning, ambient title track, whose experimental synth textures take AA back to the days in the late 80s when some categorized their music as “new age.” The jazz and groove pick up from there, beginning with the hip, cool cat urban jazz explosion “Tied Up With String,” a fiercely percussive, swinging affair that launches with drummer Bert Smaak’s intense hi-hatting. “Only In My Dreams” is the perfect blend of today’s shuffling hip-hop, easy old school funk and the sitar-spiced Eastern rock that Carmichael and Gilderdale grew up with.



Anyone who ever hesitated to call Acoustic Alchemy “jazz” will rethink their stance after hearing the crunchy rock, Latin and blues hybrid “Carlos The King” (featuring Gilderdale’s crackling electric guitar, Greg Grainger’s wild percussion and a powerful flugelhorn improvisation by Rick Braun) and the festive, blues-drenched fusion party “Egg.” On this fascinating tune, the buoyant AA guitars blend seamlessly with Snake Davis’ baritone sax and Neil Cowley contributes an organ solo straight out of jazz fusion’s mid-70s heyday.



Acoustic Alchemy’s rich legacy is based on the extraordinary airplay, sales and critical reception given the many early Nick Webb-Greg Carmichael led recordings followed by those helmed later by Carmichael and Gilderdale. Carmichael with each successive recording is carrying on a legacy begun by Webb and a guitarist named Simon James in the early 80s; those early recordings were collected for the 1992 collection Early Alchemy.

The road to instrumental stardom began when Webb and Carmichael provided the one-off-in-flight entertainment for a Virgin Airlines England to America flight, in search of an elusive recording contract; they often liked to say they “played their way to America”. Signed to the MCA Master Series label by Tony Brown, their popularity took off in conjunction with the rise of the New Adult Contemporary radio format.



Acoustic Alchemy’s early MCA albums—starting with Red Dust and Spanish Lace and continuing with 1988’s Natural Elements and 1989’s Blue Chip—were all later re-released on GRP. One of the band’s most remarkable recordings was 1996’s live in the studio date Arcanum, which featured new arrangements of classics, a few new tracks, and full orchestration. Recorded over three days at Pinewood Film Studios in England (home to all the James Bond films), the sessions were filmed by director Aubrey Powell for a television documentary of the band, released on video as Best Kept Secret; GRP re-released this on DVD in July 2006 with extra archived live performance and documentary footage. In 2002, Acoustic Alchemy also released Sounds of St. Lucia, a CD/DVD live concert package based on a performance recorded by BET television.



“The band has been through a lot of changes over the years, but the concept of two acoustic guitars has always been the emotional centerpiece which draws people close,” says Carmichael. “I’m happy these days because I love all the musicians in the band and it’s great touring with them and playing live onstage. For me, whether we’re jamming or stopping for gas at a truck stop, it’s honestly like being on vacation, and we’re excited to have so many loyal fans who have enjoyed taking the journey with us. The positive spirit behind our music and album titles comes from the wonderful relationship we have always had with them.”

Acoustic Alchemy
Yoshi's on Fillmore
Oct 10th, 11th and 12th, 2008

Ten Mile Tide's "Riverstone"

Everyone agrees these days; the music industry is changing. But San Francisco based band Ten Mile Tide saw the writing on the wall years ago. "We've been positioning ourselves for this change for years," says lead guitarist Jason Munning. In 2003 Ten Mile Tide rode the file-sharing wave by becoming one of the first bands to encourage music fans to download their music for free. While bands like Metallica and Britney Spears were suing their fans for illegally sharing their music, TMT went from a part-time local band to a full-time touring national act, fueled by the support of Kazaa fans who downloaded over 10 million TMT songs worldwide. Meet the new music industry, as independent band Ten Mile Tide releases it's newest album, "Riverstone", with a series of grass roots promotion strategies.

Filesharing scared the industry though and the RIAA began suing individual music fans, a campaign which resulted in both the decline of filesharing and plummeting record sales nationwide. Then came iTunes, and now Pandora and Imeem and dozens of other startups looking to retool the digital music landscape. "The digital age is changing the music industry. It's been coming for years. Finally instead of fighting it, innovative industry leaders are learning to work with it," Munning says.

Ten Mile Tide will release their fourth album, "Riverstone" on Oct. 3rd, 2008. The band paid for the recording themselves, teaming up with their trusted, grammy-nominated producer Jack Gauthier of Dispatch fame (independent band turned big by giving their music away for free on Napster). TMT will use a host of grass roots marketing schemes to promote "Riverstone". Here are a few:

1. Video: TMT produced their own music video for the first single from the album -- "Heartbeat of San Francisco" -- by taping a digital camera to the dash of their van and taking snapshots every minute of their drive from the East coast home to San Francisco. The video will debut on YouTube.

2. Digital Distribution: CD Baby will take care of digital distribution including internet music stores like iTunes, Rhaposody, and more. TMT is also looking to partner with the innovative new startups who are pioneering the new music industry landscape such as Pandora, Imeem, and eMusic. After the initial CD release, TMT will offer digital downloads of their albums on the "pay-what-you-can" model popularized by Radiohead. "First and foremost we want people to enjoy our music," says Munning, " That's the reason we made it. Secondly, we need to figure out how to make enough money to keep being able to make our music. That is the challenge that everyone in the music industry today is facing."

3. Social Networking sites: Facebook and MySpace have become strong promotional tools for independent bands and TMT will use their network of friends on both to promote the release of Riverstone. But that's not all. For every major social networking or independent music website you've heard of, there are hundreds of startups in varying stages of development and launch. "We are going to post our music on all of the music and social networking sites we can find. You never know which one is going to be the next big thing and we're going to be sure to get in on the ground floor."

4. Radio: The band will send Riverstone to over 1,000 commercial, college, independent, and yes, internet radio stations and do their own follow up to see if the new album can show up on the charts. Their last album (self-titled) saw some songs in the top 50 on the Americana charts and TMT is confident they can do it again. "This album has some real hits on it," Munning grins, "We didn't plan on it, we just wrote the songs but everyone who hears them thinks they are hits". Three potential hits are "Heartbeat of San Francisco", "You and Me Gonna Get Drunk Tonight", and the title track, "Riverstone" which the band describes as rock, country, and Americana, respectively. "Our music is a blend of folk-rock, old-school country, and Americana. There is really something for everyone on this new album."

5. Reviews: TMT will be submitting the album for reviews to hundreds of publications from newspapers to magazines to webzines including college, independent, and mainstream media.

6. Publishing: TMT's past albums have found song placement in several inpendent movies. Publishing in indy movies and TV shows will be a strategy TMT pursues heavily with Riverstone. One site TMT is on is Beatpick.com, an Italy-based Internet site which helps pair indy musicians with indy filmakers.

7. Activism: The band is also aligning themselves with other grass roots causes, using their music to support the values they believe in. On their October CD release tour, TMT has arranged to play daytime Obama support rallies before their evening shows in college towns throughout Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. On the green side of things, "Riverstone" will be printed in a new packaging style called "eco-wallets", 4-panel cardboard sleeves which eliminate all plastic from the packaging.

Despite, or rather because of, their successes as an independent band, TMT is actively looking for a label and management. "The music industry is still changing and we are looking for pioneers in the music industry that believe in what we are doing and are interested in pursuing innovative and creative approaches to marketing and promotion." Importantly, Ten Mile Tide believes the industry is changing in a positive way. "More people than ever are excited about music these days. We see it in attendance at our shows, forums and blog posts, digital downloads, street team participation, and even CD sales."

More than anything, Ten Mile Tide is looking forward to the release. "This is a really exciting time," says Munning. "There's a whole generation of music fans looking for something new and different and now there are so many tools out there for independent musicians. We've got a new album, we've got a buzz, and after 4 years on the road we still all love each other. I'd say we're in pretty good shape."

Ten Mile Tide CD Release Party
Tuesday, October 3rd & Wednesday October 4th
The Connecticut Yankee
10pm - 2am
21+

Remembering Joe Zawinul

September 11th is indeed a tragic day for many, and just last year, the jazz world saw the departure of the legendary Joe Zawinul. My earliest memories of Zawinul were from the mid 1970's, during his days with the enigmatic group Weather Report, featuring the incomparable saxophonist, Wayne Shorter. Among them, my fondest were his first shows at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center with percussionist Dom Um Romeo and bassist Alphonso Johnson; with drummer Chester Thompson and Alex Acuna at G.W.'s Lisner Auditorium; to a surprising double bill with John McLaughlin's Shakti, and the debut of the bass wunderkind, Jaco Pastorius. With Weather Report, Zawinul brought the electronic keyboard and synthesizers to jazz like no one had before. Zawinul, alongside Shorter, took us to new musical heights, imitated by many, but surpassed by none. Herbie Hancock wrote of Zawinul's passing, “Joe Zawinul is one of my oldest friends in the music business. He was a force as a composer and an amazing conceptualizer. He opened up a doorway between jazz and rock n’ roll and was a major influence on Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter and me. The world has never been the same since he made his contribution to our society.”

On September 11, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Zawinul had died, and a spokeswoman for Vienna's Wilhelmina Clinic said he had been hospitalized for over a month and suffered from a rare form of skin cancer. Zawinul won acclaim for his keyboard work on chart-topping Miles Davis albums such as "In A Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew," and was a leading force behind the so-called "Electric Jazz" movement. In 1970, Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter founded Weather Report and produced a series of albums including "Heavy Weather," "Black Market," "Mysterious Traveller", "Tale Spinnin'", "I Sing the Body Electric," and the Grammy-winning live recording "8:30."

He is credited with bringing the electric piano and synthesizer into the jazz mainstream, but was frustrated by the lack of respect for electric keyboards and new technology among jazz purists. "There is no difference between a Stradivarius or a beautiful synthesizer sound," Zawinul told Jazziz magazine earlier this year. "People make a big mistake in putting down electronic music. Yes, it's been misused and abused, but that's true of every music.

"There is nothing wrong with electronic music as long as you're putting some soul behind the technology." Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer praised Zawinul's "unpretentious way of dealing with listeners" and said he wasn't "blinded by superficialities." Born in 1932, Zawinul grew up in a working-class family during World War II in the Austrian capital. He played accordion on the streets to make money and received classical piano training as a child prodigy at the Vienna Conservatory. In the postwar years, he grew interested in American jazz, playing in a dance band that included the future Austrian President Thomas Klestil and making a name for himself on the local jazz scene in bands led by saxophonist Hans Koller and others.

"One thing about Viennese musicians, they can really groove, more than even the German bands can," Zawinul said in a 2007 Downbeat magazine interview. "It's something in our nature, perhaps. We're cosmopolitan and interracial — Czech, Slavic, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish a little bit."

In 1959, Zawinul emigrated to the United States on a scholarship to study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, but left to join Maynard Fergusion's big band. He next landed a gig with Dinah Washington; his funky piano can be heard on her 1959 hit "What a Diff'rence a Day Made."

Zawinul rose to international fame after joining alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's band in 1961. During his nine-year stint with the band, he composed such tunes as "Walk Tall," "Country Preacher," and most notably the gospel-influenced, soul-jazz anthem "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," his first important recording on electric piano, which climbed the pop charts and won a Grammy for Adderley.

In the late '60s, Zawinul recorded with Davis' studio band, His tune "In a Silent Way" served as the title track for the trumpeter's first foray into the electric arena. Zawinul's composition "Pharoah's Dance" was featured on Davis' groundbreaking 1970 jazz-rock fusion album "Bitches Brew," which won Davis a 1970 Grammy for best jazz performance, large group or soloist with large group.

Weather Report enjoyed its biggest commercial success with the 1977 album "Heavy Weather" which featured Zawinul's catchy tune "Birdland," which became one of the most recognizable jazz hits of the '70s after it was also recorded by Maynard Ferguson and the vocal group Manhattan Transfer. After Weather Report broke up in 1986, Zawinul went on to form The Zawinul Syndicate, which brought together a global village of musicians who recorded such albums at the Grammy-nominated "My People" (1996) and "World Tour" (1998). In November 2006, I wrote about what would sadly turn out to be, Zawinul's last concert in San Francisco with his Zawinul Syndicate for the SF Jazz Festival at the Palace of Fine Arts. Count yourselves among the lucky few if you caught Zawinul then... "Jozy", as McLaughlin would call him, is still sorely be missed.

SMV Comes to the Regency

In an era where sports fantasy leagues are all the rage comes a real-life historic teaming that serious music fans and bass players have long dreamed of. Last Tuesday night at the Regency on Van Ness, saw the incredible bass trio "SMV", featuring musical titans Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. This unique alliance of three generations of bass gods has been on chat room and fan gathering wish lists for over 15 years, kept alive by periodic statements from all three that schedules permitting they would give it a go. Finally, in October 2007, with Clarke set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from Bass Player magazine, at its annual Bass Player Live! event in New York City, Miller and Wooten made the time to attend and induct their mentor. The ensuing VSOP jam not only blew the minds of the 900 in attendance, it cemented for the trio their inherent musical chemistry and thus the viability of pursuing the project in earnest. As a result, in January 2008, SMV entered the studio to record a CD and put together a summer/fall tour.

The three recall their first performance and the sessions for their disc. Says Clarke, “The second we started ‘School Days’ at the Bass Player event I knew it was historical for us and the audience. Marcus and Victor are so intuitive, and we each found our range. Marcus was slamming down the groove and Victor started playing these harmonics chords, and I was like, man, this is so bad-ass! When you have that amount of knowledge, respect and love it always creates clarity in the music.” Wooten admits, “To work with Stanley and Marcus has been a dream come true for me. We’ve each brought in tunes for the CD that allow plenty of space and interpretation from the other guys. It’s been pretty funny, with Marcus and I imitating each other and doing our Stanley licks. Best of all, the project is very musical; the bass heroics are there, but people are going to be surprised at how musical it is.” Adds Miller, “That was important; we didn’t want to just have everyone bangin’ away at the bass. In fact, we’ve had to encourage each other to play with more technique at times. The most interesting aspect has been hearing the distinct sound of our basses—which people all know from our albums—side by side. For me, it’s like listening to the history and evolution of the instrument; it’s really amazing.” Clarke sums up, “Considering we’re three guys playing the same instrument, it’s going to be a real revelation for folks. You’ll hear the electric bass in particular with some whole other possibilities. It’s a great new day for the bass.”

To their credit, all three members of SMV are equally adept at innovation and collaboration. Stanley Clarke is nothing short of a living legend, having liberated the bass the way Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker had liberated their instruments before him. Born in the bass-rich burg of Philadelphia, Clarke headed to New York City right out of college, as a classically-trained acoustic bass virtuoso. There, he quickly made his mark on the jazz scene gigging with Stan Getz, Joe Henderson and Horace Silver, before joining Getz pianist Chick Corea to form the seminal, Grammy®-winning fusion outfit, Return To Forever, in 1972. As the band took more of an electric focus (with Al DiMeola and Lenny White), Clarke not only split his time between upright and electric bass guitar, he launched the high-end boutique bass guitar market via his use of custom-made Alembic basses.

Having touched on performing his own music and bandleading as a teen, and taking issue with the bass being viewed as more of a support than a solo instrument, Clarke released a string of solo albums, starting with Children of Forever, in 1973. Three years later came the watermark bass disc, “School Days,” with its title track serving as the first bonafide “bass anthem.” Clarke also extended the range of the electric bass upward, inventing the piccolo and tenor basses in an effort to speak in the range of his musical hero, John Coltrane.

With his solo career in place, Clarke moved on to more acclaimed pairings, including the Clarke/Duke project (with keyboardist George Duke), the New Barbarians (with Keith Richards and Ron Wood), appearances on two Paul McCartney albums (including co-writing “Hey, Hey” with McCartney), Animal Logic (with Police drummer Stewart Copeland) and Rite of Strings (with Jean-Luc Ponty and Al DiMeola). The late-’80s brought new opportunites, as Clarke was hired to score the TV series Pee Wee’s Playhouse. This led to his first movie score, Boyz ’N’ the Hood, and what has become his second career as an acclaimed film composer. Additional notable soundtracks include Passenger 57, What’s Love Got to Do with it, Poetic Justice, The Transporter and the Showtime series, Soul Food.

Having stated repeatedly that the bass is a permanent, internal part of him, Stanley Clarke continues to live up to his moniker, the Lord of the Low Frequencies. Of late, he has been on the road with the Clarke/Duke Band, Rite of Strings, McCoy Tyner, and his own group; and he has the highly-anticpated Return To Forever reunion tour launching in June. Recently-signed to Heads Up International, Clarke has released the DVD, Night School, a star-studded tribute concert touching on all aspects of his extraordinary career, and Toys of Men, his commercially and critically-acclaimed war-conscious CD.

Striking a chord with music fans and music critics has been a consistent thread through Marcus Miller’s Grammy®-winning career. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Miller was raised among jazz royalty (his second cousin is Miles Davis-pianist Wynton Kelly) in nearby Jamaica, Queens. Inspired by his father, church organist William Miller, Miller played piano, organ, clarinet and sax, before gravitating to bass guitar by age 13, in order to get into local bands. He made his pro debut at 16, with flautist Bobbi Humphrey, and then hit the road with drummer Lenny White. Upon returning, Miller planted key seeds: In addition to cracking New York’s lucrative jingle and session scene, he joined the bands of Saturday Night Live and Roberta Flack, where he met David Sanborn and Luther Vandross. Both men quickly tapped Miller’s writing, producing, and multi-instrumental gifts for a steady string of hit records and tours. Soon after, Miles Davis came calling, leading to six albums, three of which Miller produced, most notably the landmark Miller-written and produced Tutu.

Firmly established as a producer, Miller guided recordings by Vandross (including the 1991 Grammy® winning R&B Song of the Year, “Power of Love/Love Power”), Flack, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Wayne Shorter and Al Jarreau, while contributing killer bass lines (his peers nicknamed him the Thumbslinger) to discs by Donald Fagen, the Brecker Brothers, Grover Washington, Jr., Paul Simon, Don Grolnick, Was (Not Was) and countless others. He also formed the Jamaica Boys (with Lenny White and Mark Stevens) and broke into film composing with scores for Siesta, House Party and Boomerang.

Finally, in 1992, Miller turned his focus to his solo career with the release of The Sun Don’t Lie. Featuring his most unmistakable musical voice—his ’76 Fender Jazz Bass—Miller accepted the torch passed on by Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius and reignited the spark for solo bass albums, setting a new standard in the process. Miller’s seven subsequent solo efforts include the Grammy®-winning M2, in 2001 (making him the only solo bassist to have ever won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album), plus the biographical DVD, Master of All Trades. Creatively, Marcus Miller continues to keep multiple irons in the fire, scoring films and the Chris Rock TV show, Everybody Hates Chris, hosting the North Sea and Playboy Jazz Cruises—all while keeping up a rigorous touring pace for his latest CD, Marcus.

Like Marcus, “Victor” is the lone name needed among bass fans to identify the last great hero of the instrument, Victor Wooten. And also like Miller, Wooten’s musical reach goes far beyond the four-string. Born in Idaho to a military family, and raised on the island of Oahu and on the West Coast, Wooten received bass lessons at age 3 from his brother Regi. By the time he was 5, he had made his stage debut with his four older brothers. As The Wootens, they spent the ’70s opening for high-profile acts like Curtis Mayfield and War, before the family settled in Newport News, Virginia in the early ’80s. There, the brothers landed steady gigs at Busch Gardens theme park, in Williamsburg, and began to meet musicians from Nashville and New York.

In 1988, Wooten moved to Nashville , working with vocalist Jonell Mosser and meeting New Grass Revival banjo ace Béla Fleck. Within a year, Fleck, Wooten, Wooten’s brother Roy (a.k.a. Futureman) and Howard Levy formed the Flecktones, and were on their way to their first of three Grammys® to date. Wooten continued his bass focus, first forming Bass Extremes with fretless 6-string savant Steve Bailey, and then releasing the shot heard ’round the bass world: his remarkable 1996 solo debut, A Show of Hands. Meanwhile, seemingly everyone wanted the award-and poll-winning bassist on their project, leading Wooten to recordings and/or tours with artists like Branford Marsalis, Dave Matthews, Bruce Hornsby, Prince, Mark O’Connor, Gov’t Mule, Susan Tedeschi, Bill Evans, Vital Tech Tones (with Scott Henderson and Steve Smith) the Jaco Pastorius Word Of Mouth Big Band and India.Arie.

Additionally, Wooten took major steps forward in the field of education, offering music and life lessons though his popular Bass Nature Camps in his home base of Tennessee, and his enlightening novel, The Music Lesson. Presently, Wooten is maintaining his dual solo/sideman pace, regularly hitting the road and studio with the Flecktones (who have released a dozen albums), Mike Stern and Chick Corea’s Elektric Band. With each of his six solo CDs, Victor Wooten has expanded his musical focus and knack for genre-uniting, via his songwriting, producing and multi-instrumental skills—all while retaining his beacon bass playing. This has never been more evident than on his brand new release, Palmystery.

All things considered, SMV appears destined for greatness from the ground up. Perhaps the prospects for the band are best summed up by American Idol’s Randy Jackson, a top bassist himself and a friend to all three: “You’re talking about the three giants of their generations. I can’t wait to hear what those guys come up with!” So keep and eye and an ear out again for SMV, sure to pack this summer and fall’s most powerful one-two-three punch!

The Paul and John Comes to the Rockit Room

This Saturday night, two of my favorite musicians will join forces and debut their recent collaboration at the Rockit Room on Clement Street. "The Paul And John", is a new project by guitarist John Moremen in collaboration with fellow songwriter Paul Myers. They'll be playing songs from their upcoming album "Inner Sunset". The lineup for this show will be John Moremen - Guitar & Vocals, Paul Myers- Guitar & Vocals, Mike Levy - Bass, Daniel Swan - Drums. This show is also part of the International Pop Overthrow Festival. Also on the bill are good friends The Bobbleheads and the Corner Laughers. The duo informs that, "Since we are old people, we go on at 7:30pm." The full lineup is: 7:30 The Paul And John 8:00, Sentinel 8:30, Pleasure Trip 9:00, Eric Friedmann and The Lucky Rubes 9:30, Walter Clevenger and The Dairy Kings 10:00, The Corner Laughers 10:30, The Bobbleheads 11:00, The Brink 11:30, and the Preoccupied Pipers. In the words of my man Dean Preston, "Don't Miss This!"

"A true journeyman, Moremen has had a varied pop-oriented career, playing at various times with Half Japanese, The Neighbors, (Jimmy Silva's) Goat 5, and The Orange Peels (as their drummer!) in between his own solo side projects. While a powerhouse lead guitar player and more than capable songwriter, Moremen's proficiency at drums adds a lot of rhythmic backbone to his playing, adding an unmistakable quality to his fretwork that bolsters his soloing above the ordinary. Mind you, he is not a guitar wanker on the Malmsteen bandwagon. Moremen plays concise pop songs with a minimum of baggage but maximum hooks and brief, striking guitar leads that cut to the point and leave you breathless, wanting more. Even though Moremen seemingly gets too bogged down in other bands to put a full-length album together, this 4-song EP has a plethora of hooks and packs as much melodic wallop as anything put out today by the so-called power pop mafia. Very melodic and rocking."--scott homewood (aiding & abetting)

In 2008 Myers got together with John Moremen, to form THE PAUL AND JOHN and recording is under way in the Bay Area for their tuneful collaboration. Myers was born in Toronto, where his band THE GRAVELBERRYS made a bit of noise in the mid-90's. He moved to San Francisco in '97, continued to keep his hand in music while simultaneously developing as a journalist and author. In the Fall of 2007, Myers launched www.pulmyears.com. Pulmyears is an anagram of the name "paul myers". In the spring of 2008, his critically acclaimed "Pulmyears Music Blog" went live: http://pulmyears.wordpress.com/. A must read for music fans and part of my daily diet. Apocryphally, Paul was a founder member of the world's least successful Beatles cover band, "1972" who dramatically recreate the Beatles during the time they were suing each other and not speaking. (Paul played dual roles of George Harrison and legal counsel David Jacobs) As for ACTUAL accomplishments, Paul was asked to write the authorized biography of his pals, Barenaked Ladies which was published in two countries under the title: BARENAKED LADIES: PUBLIC STUNTS PRIVATE STORIES.

In 2001 Myers went on six month journey through Asia and India, before relocating to Vancouver, BC where he continued to play sporadically while flourishing as a writer and broadcaster. Myers returned the Bay area in 2006, this time to the East Bay where he lives with his wife Liza and their cat, "Buddy Guy." Besides his work with GRAVELBERRYS, Myers has been recording for the last few years under the band name, FLAM! which is the moniker for his original electronic and instrumental compositions. (Drummers may know this, a Flam is the sound of one hit followed rapidly by another). Paul Myers' biography of seminal English bluesman Long John Baldry, IT AIN'T EASY: LONG JOHN BALDRY and the BIRTH of the BRITISH BLUES, was published in Fall 2007 by Greystone Books and is distributed in the USA by PGW.

Should be a great evening y'all!

THE PAUL AND JOHN
International Pop Overthrow Festival
August, 16 2008 at The Rockit Room
406 Clement Street, San Francisco, California 94121
Cost : $10.00

The Yellow Jackets featuring Mike Stern Comes to Yoshi's

According to some basic, undeniable laws of nature, when two powerful forces collide, something explosive will occur, and a dramatic transformation is likely to take place as a result. It’s a law that applies to every dynamic in the known universe, including jazz. It stands to reason, then, that when a formidable jazz quartet like the Yellowjackets convenes in the studio with a high-energy guitar virtuoso like Mike Stern, the resulting reaction will be a singular event – one that’s likely to create something entirely new on the jazz landscape. Their show last night and again tonight at the Yoshi's on Fillmore, was indeed, such a performance. This phenomenon was also captured on "Lifecycle", the new collaborative recording by the Jackets and Stern set for worldwide release on Heads Up International a division of Concord Music Group on May 20, 2008. The first Yellowjackets recording in 15 years to feature a guitar player, Lifecycle illustrates the kind of energy and creative brilliance that results when five talented players pool their individual talents as songwriters and musicians and merge into an entity that’s far greater than the sum of its parts.

After simmering for years, the idea for the project reached critical mass when Stern and the Jackets performed together at the Montreal Jazz Festival in the summer of 2007. “We’ve all been a fan of Mike’s for a long time,” says Yellowjackets keyboardist and charter member Russell Ferrante. “Our goal was to make a recording that sounded like Mike had been in the band forever, and I think we accomplished that. To my ears, it feels cohesive – like five musicians with a genuine rapport.”

From the Montreal dates in the heat of the summer to the studio sessions in rural New York State in January 2008, Stern felt the same sense of rapport. “The Yellowjackets are a great band,” he says. “I think we have a lot in common musically, and our playing together felt very natural right away. They’re the ideal collaborative team. It’s so easy to play with them because they play so well together.”

Lifecycle is, in some respects, two albums in one. Seven of the ten tracks are quintet pieces featuring Stern and the Jackets, while the remaining three are quartet pieces that showcase the individual and collective talents of the current Yellowjackets lineup: Ferrante, saxophonist Bob Mintzer, bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Marcus Baylor. Whatever the combinations and permutations, it’s all good. Mintzer contributes three tracks: the energetic opener, “Falken’s Maze,” the rhythmically complex “Yahoo,” and the easygoing “I Wonder.”

Stern’s soloing on all three of these tracks is tastefully executed and in perfect sync with Mintzer’s ambitious sensibilities. “Rhythmically, these songs were a challenge for me,” says Stern, “but I’m always up for a challenge. I don’t usually play in odd time signatures, but the rest of the guys made even the challenging situations comfortable, and I was able to lay down some good solos for Bob’s compositions.”

“Mike is such a great musician,” says Mintzer. “I wrote these songs as a way to showcase what he can do, and once he got a hold of them, he took them to a whole new place. There’s a certain flexibility that you need to have when you write for a band like this. You have to be ready for things to take a different direction. That’s definitely what has happened here, and it’s fantastic.”

More than just a highly skilled and versatile soloist, though, Stern contributes two songs to the mix – the syncopated and playful “Double Nickel,” followed immediately by the more somber “Dreams Go.”

Ferrante contributes the introspective “Measure of a Man” and the gently melodic “Claire’s Closet,” both written for the quartet without guitar. “I think the quartet pieces offer a contrast to the more high-octane pieces that feature the guitar,” says Ferrante. “I was especially happy with ‘Claire’s Closet.’ Bob’s clarinet adds a very evocative quality to that song.”

Haslip’s contributions include the vaguely funky “Country Living,” along with “Lazaro,” an atmospheric piece that he co-wrote with Mintzer. “I had actually started writing ‘Lazaro’ for a solo record, but in the end, the piece had kind of a Jackets vibe to it,” Haslip explains. “I thought it would be interesting to finish it with Bob’s help, and he came up with some great stuff. I think that piece is a really fine collaboration.”

Holding down the diversity of songwriting, the unusual time signatures and the subtle rhythmic shadings is Baylor, the relative newcomer who marks his seventh year as the Jackets’ drummer. “As the drummer, you have to be able to colorize the tunes,” he says. ‘There are a lot of textures that go into playing with a band like this. There are a lot of subtle points in any given composition. Playing the drums in a band like this is almost like putting accents on a painting.”

But the release of Lifecycle in May is just the beginning of a picture that will continue to evolve throughout most of 2008. With the success of last year’s Montreal Jazz Festival gigs, and armed with a new album that captures that onstage magic, Stern and the Yellowjackets will hit the road together later in the year for a series of U.S. and European tour dates in support of the album.

“I can’t wait to play some of this music in concert with Mike,” says Haslip. “He’s a great artist with so much enthusiasm, and we’re honored to have had the chance to make a record like this with him. For a good part of this year, the Yellowjackets will be a quintet, and we’re very much looking forward to every minute of that experience.”

Before the performance at Yoshi's, Stern remarked to me that "It's cold in San Francisco!" We told him about Mark Twain's famed adage, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco..." He laughed and nodded. Later, following an incredible solo, we told him, "It's not cold anymore, you just burned the place up!!" Mintzer then called Stern, "inimitable", saying he needed big words to describe him!

Inimitable indeed!

Yellowjackets Featuring Mike Stern
Yoshi's San Francisco
August 6th - 8th and Yoshi's Oakland August 9th & 10th

Chris McNulty's Magic Trio Comes to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival

It's no secret that one of my favorite guitarists is none other fellow DC expatriate, Paul Bollenback. From his work with jazz legends like the late, great Stanley Turrentine, to the fabulous organist Joey DeFrancesco, Bollenback has become one of the most sought after musicians in jazz. Recently, he has been in the company of one of Australia's greatest singers, the incomparable Chris McNulty. McNulty demonstrates a finely honed improvisational sensibility delivered with an intense depth of feeling. Long a major jazz singer who has in recent times finally started to gain recognition for her talent, McNulty is one of the foremost singer-composers on the scene today. Her intonation and articulation are commanding and provide a preview for the level of musical excellence and creative artistry. Tonight, McNulty and her Magic Trio come to Healdsburg as part of a tour that brings this trio to the West Coast for the first time. The Magic Trio features McNulty on vocals, keyboard and percussion; Andrei Kondakov on piano, vocals and percussion; and Bollenback on guitar and percussion.

The Magic Trio features her versatile, soothing, swimming voice along with her writing and arranging skills and the writing and arranging chops of Bollenback plus his excellent guitar playing. Earlier this year the trio performed for three weeks throughout Russia, including appearances in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Ukraine at the first ever Kharkov Jazz festival. They will continue on to London's premier jazz club, Pizza Express, following their West Coast tour.

McNulty first visited New York City in 1985 and settled there in 1988 after being awarded an International Study Grant from the Australia Council. Since then Chris has garnered further accolades from critics, jazz musicians and fans alike. She has collaborated and performed with some of the finest musicians on the jazz scene today including: Gary Bartz, Bollenback, Gary Thomas, Mulgrew Miller, Ugonna Okegwo, John Hicks, Frank Wess, Ingrid Jensen, Terri-Lyne Carrington, Tim Garland, Tom Lellis, Billy Hart, Ed Howard, Jeff Ballard, Dave Pietro, Joe Locke, Peter Leitch, Tineke Postma, James Genus, , Matt Wilson, Jeff Tain Watts, David Fathead Newman, George Mraz, Kenny Washington, Steve Wilson, Joel Frahm, Gary Versace, David Budway, Harvey S and Tony Reedus.

In 1990, McNulty's debut recording in the States, Waltz For Debby (Discovery 1990), received outstanding reviews in several publications and features the official published lyric by McNulty of the great Miles Davis classic, Blue in Green. In 1994 McNulty was also honored to be selected as one of the six exceptional new jazz singers on the New York scene to be featured on the Venus recording, Big Apple Voices. She has gone on to record several CDs since then, A Time for Love (Amosaya 1996), I Remember You (Mop Top 2004- re-released on Elefant Dreams 2006), Dance Delicioso (Elefant Dreams 2005) and her most recent and highly acclaimed Whispers the Heart (Elefant Dreams 2006) which has been included on the Jazz Journalist Assocation's (JJA) list of Top 10 recordings of 2006. Her development over this period of time from lyricist to full fledged composer has been duly noted in major press reviews and articles.

McNulty has maintained an active profile and presence on the international scene as both performer and recording artist since 1991. Her magnetic performances have led to ever increasing festival dates around the world with a touring schedule that includes festival appearances in the UK (Brecon, Wales 2005) Ireland (Kilkenny 2005), Russia, Australia and Belize. In 2002 McNulty toured Russia with Bollenback and appeared in the very first St Petersburg Jazz Festival. They have since returned to Russia for several concert and club engagements. McNulty's recently completed 2007 global tour featured engagements at The Melbourne Jazz Festival with her ensemble (Australia 2007), Dundee (Scotland 2007), Adelaide, Australia with her Trio Delux project featuring her long time bassist, Ugonna Okego and collaborator/accompanist, Paul Bollenback), as well as the Kaluga Guitar Festival in Kaluga, Russia with Bollenback and Kondokov, once again in Trio Delux format. The tour also included a weekend engagement at London's Pizza on the Park, culminating in a 5 night engagement at Dizzy's Coca Cola Club at the Lincoln Center (NYC) (June 2007).

Her music has received major recognition on national radio throughout the States, UK, Australia, Ireland, Canada and Europe. Recent major features include Michael Jacobi's "Raising the Standards" at KRML Jazz Radio as well as Doug Spence's nationally syndicated program, The Nightly Planet from ABC Australia.

McNulty appears as a guest soloist on Bollenback’s Brightness of Being as well as his most recent release Invocation, releasing October 2007. McNulty's 6th release in the States, Whispers the Heart, features several new outstanding original works and arrangements including a string quartet written by Chris, along with featured guests including jazz great Frank Wess, Ingrid Jensen, Bollenback (Paul also shares executive and co-producing credits), Ed Howard, Dave Pietro, Tineke Postma, Gary Versace, Matt Wilson, Rogerio Boccato and Montez Coleman. McNulty also co-produced a Hip-Hop meets Jazz project with Bollenback and Chapter One.

McNulty's most recent release, Whispers the Heart, has garnered major accolades from the international press and radio as well as being voted one of the top ten releases of 2006 by Jazz Journalists Association's (JJA) Nancy Barrell. Bollenback's Invocation remained on the Jazz Week Charts for several months in 2007. As first call guitarist for such jazz great as Joey DeFrancesco, Gary Bartz, and Steve Gadd, Bol lenback's range and impressive discography speak for themselves. Multi faceted pianist, composer, vocalist, and percussionist Andrei Kondokov is a major jazz star in his native Russia, and currently co-leads the band 5 Corners as well as appearing alongside Russian saxophonist Igor Butman in concert halls and clubs throughout Russia, Europe, and the States.

McNulty, Bollenback, and Kondakov together weave a constantly surprising and fresh improvised sound that has been described as being "like children playing". The Magic Trio, in concert for the first time on the West Coast, is a performance not to be missed.


Chris McNulty's The Magic Trio, with Paul Bollenback and Andrei Kondakov
Friday, August 1
Palette Art Café
235 Healdsburg Ave.
Healdsburg, CA
8:00 p.m.

The 7th Annual Edgetone New Music Summit

An artist organized event founded in 2001 by saxophonist Rent Romus and Outsound Presents, a leading non-profit emerging artist collective for new and experimental music, announced the schedule for the 7th Annual Edgetone New Music Summit, a project also sponsored by ROVA:ARTS Inc. Beginning July 20 and running through July 26 the Festival will feature a wide cross palate of audio/video performances from lie detectors, dioramic holo-cinema, and the shredded films of No More Twist!, Kwisp and Thickness/Mono-Layer, the experimental sounds of Birgit Ulher, Gino Robair, Tim Perkis, (the) giants of gender from Youngstown Ohio, and the journey music of Shudder, to the burning swinging pulse of Different Strokes, COMA, Noertker’s Moxie, GoGo Fightmaster, and on to the mind bending steel bar stripping sounds of 15 Degrees Below Zero, Mute Socialite, Say Bok Gwai and The Late Severa Wires from Santa Fe New Mexico. Every year the Edgetone New Music Summit showcases some of the most innovative and pioneering new music that is happening in California and beyond.

The Festival’s expanded performance schedule includes music and sound from raging free improvisation and electronic manipulation, to harsh noise reflecting an incredible range of genre busting exploration and sonic creativity. In addition, the festival seeks to promote intermedia arts, fostering cross-pollination between music/sound art and experimental film/visual arts. The festival also pays homage to locals, as well as California’s, central role in the invention and development of cutting edge music concepts. Historically dating back to the inception of the Barbary Coast of San Francisco in the early 20th century, the San Francisco Bay Area has been, and still is, the location where many of the founders of new ideas in sound continue to live. Today The SF Bay Area, in the heart of California, is home to one of the most bustling and expanding new music scenes fostering the next generation.

WORKSHOPS, LECTURES & DEMONSTRATIONS

When: Sunday, July 20th , 2008, 6p.m. (FREE) What: THE 7th ANNUAL EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMIT OutSpoken Series-“Touch the Gear!” Exposition Who: Features electronic and acoustic artist demonstration and hands-on instruction of their sound producing gear and instruments! Matt Davignon, Tom Nunn, Tom Duff, Guillermo Galindo, Mark Wilson, LX Rudis, Scott R Looney, Bob Scott-Sato (XOME) from NoiseFX, and more! Where: Musicians Union Hall 116 9th Street @ Mission St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from Civic Center BART Info: www.edgetonemusicsummit.org Contact: Rent Romus outsoundorg@yahoo.com

When: Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008, 7p.m. (FREE) What: THE 7th ANNUAL EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMIT Outspoken Series-“An Artist Run Label” Presentation/Q&A Who: Outsound Presents Executive Director Rent Romus, will talk about how he created and runs a community based, all-artist label. He will compare and contrast the community model of Edgetone Records with other prevalent model types within the music industry – talking about the ups, downs and workarounds in the spirit of DIY music production. Where: Pirate Cat Radio Café 2781 21st Street @ Florida, San Francisco Info: www.edgetonemusicsummit.org Contact: Rent Romus outsoundorg@yahoo.com

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE The Community Music Center 544 Capp Street @ 20th, San Francisco, CA A detailed list can also be found at edgetonemusicsummit.org

When: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 Q&A Session 7:15 -7:30 pm Performance Starts @ 8:00 pm What: THE 7th ANNUAL EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMIT - “SonicLight” Who: No More Twist! (sound and light lie detector), Kwisp (Volumetric Movies: Dioramic Holo-Cinema system), Thickness/Mono-Layer (cut-up film and sound Power Trio) Where: 544 Capp Street @ 20th, San Francisco, CA Info: www.edgetonemusicsummit.org, Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/33233 $12 General / $6 Student, Advance Tickets $10 general, only @ Brown Paper Tickets Contact: Rent Romus outsoundorg@yahoo.com

When: Thursday, July 24th, 2008 Q&A Session 7:15 -7:30 pm Performance Starts @ 8:00 pm What: THE 7th ANNUAL EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMIT - “SonicExplore” Who: (the) giants of gender (from New York, performing works by Kyle Farrell, Adam Lahm, Sundar Subramanian, and Zachary Zukowski), Birgit Ulher Trio w/Gino Robair & Tim Perkis (sponsored by The Goethe Institute), Shudder (w/special guest from the Netherlands Jorrit Dijkstra) Where: 544 Capp Street @ 20th, San Francisco, CA Info: www.edgetonemusicsummit.org, Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/33233 $12 General / $6 Student, Advance Tickets $10 general, only @ Brown Paper Tickets Contact: Rent Romus outsoundorg@yahoo.com

When: Friday, July 25th, 2008 Q&A Session 7:15 -7:30 pm Performance Starts @ 8:15 pm What: THE 7th ANNUAL EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMIT - “SonicPulse” Who: Different Strokes (string duets with Yehudit & Beth Snellings), C.O.M.A. (CD Release celebration performance of Big Words), Noertker’s Moxie (performing a new suite of music, "La Naturecanique," to the film loops of David Beck), GoGo Fight Master (Saxophonist Aaron Bennett's Power Quartet) Where: 544 Capp Street @ 20th, San Francisco, CA Info: www.edgetonemusicsummit.org, Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/33233 $12 General / $6 Student, Advance Tickets $10 general, only @ Brown Paper Tickets Contact: Rent Romus outsoundorg@yahoo.com

When: Saturday, July 26th, 2008 Performance Starts @ 8:00 pm What: THE 7th ANNUAL EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMIT - “SonicIndustrial“ Who: 15 Degrees Below Zero (Industrial Strength trio featuring Mark Wilson from Conure) , Say Bok Gwai (CD Release celebration performance of CHINK IN THE ARMOR) , Mute Socialite (featuring Moe! Staiano from Moe!kestra! & Sleepytime Guerilla Museum) , The Late Severa Wires (from New Mexico featuring Carlos Santistevan from High Mayhem) Where: 544 Capp Street @ 20th, San Francisco, CA Info: www.edgetonemusicsummit.org, Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/33233 $12 General / $6 Student, Advance Tickets $10 general, only @ Brown Paper Tickets Contact: Rent Romus outsoundorg@yahoo.com

OUTSOUND PRESENTS:
THE 7th ANNUAL EDGETONE NEW MUSIC SUMMIT
a project of ROVA:ARTS Inc
edgetonemusicsummit.org
JULY 20 – 26, 2008
at The Community Music Center
544 Capp Street @ 20th, San Francisco, CA
$12 General / $6 Student,
Advance Tickets $10 general, only @ Brown Paper Tickets
brownpapertickets.com/event/33233

Narada Michael Walden Comes to the Throckmorton

Another of my favorite drummers is none other than San Rafael's Narada Michael Walden. From his early days with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, (replacing the amazing Billy Cobham), to his chart-topping work with Aretha Franklin, Walden has also proven he's a one of a kind producer and songwriter. This Saturday night, Walden and his band journey to Mill Valley's Throckmorton Theater, in a benefit concert for the family of his dear friend, the late, great chef, Anton Perkins. Walden not only brings together some of the top Bay Area studio and concert musicians to perform his hits, he supports and encourages great young raw talent as well. The core of his group has worked together for more than 30 years on projects ranging from the Rain Forest Benefit at Carnegie Hall for Sting and Trudie Styler, to recording hits for Whitney Houston. Their live show is always alive and fresh under the inspired leadership of Walden on drums.

Among a handful of the most innovative, original and influential artists of our time, Narada Michael Walden’s stature as an authentic musical renaissance man is a matter of record - a lot of records, in fact. Artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin and Wynonna Judd; Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones; The Temptations and Jeff Beck - these and literally scores of others have sought out this consummate creative catalyst to fashion some of the biggest hits of their careers. The multi-Grammy winner (with Producer, Album and Song Of The Year awards to his credit) has been at the helm of hit music that spans decades and flows freely from pop, rock, soul, hip-hop and country, to the rarified realms of jazz, fusion, world music and back in again.

Along the way, Walden was an integral part of introducing such superstars as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey to millions of fans worldwide, by creating the breakthrough hits that first brought these divas in to the spotlight. Small wonder Billboard Magazine honored him as one of the Top Ten Producers of all time.

Yet, as impressive a production and songwriting resume as Narada Michael Walden has assembled over the past thirty years and counting, he has earned equal acclaim as a recording and performing artist in his own right. Beginning with his stint as part of the pioneering Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early Seventies, through eleven acclaimed solo albums and numerous appearances at the top of the Pop and R and B charts, Walden has given a whole new meaning to the term "multi-tasking." Along the way he has branched into a wide range of sonic arenas, from groundbreaking soundtrack work on such smash films as The Bodyguard and Stuart Little to the Emmy-winning "One Moment In Time," perhaps best known as the theme to the 1988 Olympic Games.

The list goes on, but the artistry of Narada Michael Walden is about more than charts positions and record sales. There is a powerful spiritual component at the heart of everything this richly gifted artist undertakes, an attuned and intuitive approach with a deep appreciation for music’s transforming power. Simply put, the artistry of Narada Michael Walden gets to the heart of matter, about matters of the heart.

It’s a commitment that reaches into the philanthropic arena as well, where Walden consistently lends his time and talent to causes ranging from the Cancer Society to funding music programs in the nation’s schools. For six straight years he has served as Music Director for the Rain Forest Concert at Carnegie Hall, the high profile conversancy benefit spearheaded by Sting and Trudie Styler that has featured such marquee names as Elton John, Billy Joel, Ravi Shankar, Nina Simone and, of course, Sting himself.

Walden’s prodigious energies have consistently kept him on the cutting edge of today’s, and tomorrow’s, music. Following up on the founding of his Marin County-based Tarpan Studios, he has recently announced the creation of his new custom label, Tarpan Records and recruited a number of promising young songwriters for his thriving publishing and production company. Aside from playing .. tracks for the new Stevie Wonder album, as well as producing the smash all-star tribute to late great genius of soul, Ray Charles and Friends, Walden has also written and recorded soundtrack material for the intriguing documentary, Guitar Man, which explores the world of vintage guitars and is set to premier at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Walden has also recently completed production on the debut album from acclaimed new vocalist, Naomi Streimer, whose debut single, "Cars" features special guest Carlos Santana.

In the midst of this flurry of activity, Walden is simultaneously hard at work on an eagerly awaited new solo album, highlighting a stellar line-up of friends and fellow musicians including Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Ishmael Lo, Chris Botti, Clarence Clemons, Sting and many others. With awesome abilities matched by a truly humble spirit, Narada Michael Walden is not only one of the most sought-after talents of our era: he is also one of the most admired, emulated and authentic. You can hear it in his music.

Walden's band is an experience that culminates in a crescendo of energy and inspiration. This is a band of Supreme Musicians, blending influences of generations and cultures; creates music that encompasses primal drums, classical influences, motown, disco, funk, hip hop and rap and stirs it into a harmony of all eras that is uplifting and exhilarating. It is indeed genderless, timeless, ageless.


A Benefit Concert for the Family of the Late Great Chef Anton Perkins featuring
Narada Michael Walden Band & Special Guests
Saturday, June 28 8:00pm
$100.00 Reserved Seating, Doors 7:00pm
$75.00 General Seating, Doors 7:30pm