Remembering Koko Taylor, 1928-2009

In 2001, I had the privilege of working with the incredible, incomparable Koko Taylor at the State Theater, just outside Washington, DC. Koko arrived for sound check right on time and I graciously invited her upstairs to the theater's modern "green room". Koko took one look at the two flights of stairs and said, "Oh no baby, I can't go up and down those all night." Faced with a "MacGyver moment", I quickly fashioned an all new "green room" just off stage, with comfy chairs, a Japanese screen for privacy and a wardrobe rack for her change of clothes. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about baby", she said. "You gonna take care of Koko tonight baby?", she asked. "Trust me Koko, a dash of digital delay and a spoonful of reverb and you'll be good to go", I told her. Dressed and ready to go, Koko thanked me, took the stage and proved she could still bring it with the best of them. Sadly, Grammy award-winning blues legend Koko Taylor, aged 80, died yesterday in her hometown of Chicago, IL, as a result of complications following her May 19th surgery to correct a gastrointestinal bleed. I hope heaven is ready for "the one, the only, "Ko-ko Tay-lor!!!"

On May 7, 2009, the critically acclaimed Taylor, known worldwide as the “Queen of the Blues,” won her 29th Blues Music Award (for Traditional Female Blues Artist Of The Year), making her the recipient of more Blues Music Awards than any other artist. In 2004 she received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award, which is among the highest honors given to an American artist. Her most recent CD, 2007’s Old School, was nominated for a Grammy (eight of her nine Alligator albums were Grammy-nominated). She won a Grammy in 1984 for her guest appearance on the compilation album Blues Explosion on Atlantic.

Born Cora Walton on a sharecropper’s farm just outside Memphis, TN, on September 28, 1928, Koko, nicknamed for her love of chocolate, fell in love with music at an early age. Inspired by gospel music and WDIA blues disc jockeys B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, Taylor began belting the blues with her five brothers and sisters, accompanying themselves on their homemade instruments. In 1952, Taylor and her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert “Pops” Taylor, traveled to Chicago with nothing but, in Koko’s words, “thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz Crackers.”

In Chicago, “Pops” worked for a packing company, and Koko cleaned houses. Together they frequented the city’s blues clubs nightly. Encouraged by her husband, Koko began to sit in with the city’s top blues bands, and soon she was in demand as a guest artist. One evening in 1962 Koko was approached by arranger/composer Willie Dixon. Overwhelmed by Koko’s performance, Dixon landed Koko a Chess Records recording contract, where he produced her several singles, two albums and penned her million-selling 1965 hit “Wang Dang Doodle,” which would become Taylor’s signature song.

After Chess Records was sold, Taylor found a home with the Chicago’s Alligator Records in 1975 and released the Grammy-nominated I Got What It Takes. National touring in the late 1960s and early 1970s also improved her fan base, and she became even more accessible to a wider record-buying public after signing with Alligator. She recorded nine albums for Alligator, 8 of which were Grammy-nominated), and come to dominate the female blues singer ranks, winning twenty five W. C. Handy Awards (more than any other artist). After her recovery from a near-fatal car crash in 1989, the 1990s found Taylor in films such as Blues Brothers 2000, and she opened a blues club on Division Street in Chicago in 1994, but it closed in 1999.

Koko appeared in the films Wild At Heart, Mercury Rising and Blues Brothers 2000. She performed on Late Night With David Letterman, Late Night With Conan O’Brien, CBS-TV’s This Morning, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, CBS-TV’s Early Edition, and numerous regional television programs.

Over the course of her 40-plus-year career, Taylor received every award the blues world has to offer. On March 3, 1993, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley honored Taylor with a “Legend Of The Year” Award and declared “Koko Taylor Day” throughout Chicago. In 1997, she was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame. A year later, Chicago Magazine named her “Chicagoan Of The Year” and, in 1999, Taylor received the Blues Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2009 Taylor performed in Washington, D.C. at The Kennedy Center Honors honoring Morgan Freeman.

Koko Taylor was one of very few women who found success in the male-dominated blues world. She took her music from the tiny clubs of Chicago’s South Side to concert halls and major festivals all over the world. She shared stages with every major blues star, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy as well as rock icons Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Taylor influenced musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi. In the years prior to her death, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago in Country Club Hills, Illinois.

Taylor’s final performance was on May 7, 2009 in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards, where she sang “Wang Dang Doodle” after receiving her award for Traditional Blues Female Artist Of The Year.

Survivors include Taylor’s husband Hays Harris, daughter Joyce Threatt, son-in-law Lee Threatt, grandchildren Lee, Jr. and Wendy, and three great-grandchildren.

We are going to miss you Koko.

Kelli Rudick Comes to Amnesia in the Mission

Each week, I get a ton of email about music, films, theater and gallery openings. So many in fact, I can't possibly read them all. Once in a while however, I'll get one that intrigues me and just I have to delve deeper. This week, it's the NYC Experimental/Neo Classical artist Kelli Rudick. I'm always amazed by women who are phenomenal instrumentalists and after watching her You Tube videos, Kelli proved she is the real deal. I must credit Adam Baer for sending me the following info on Kelli, who will be playing new material as well as works from her first album at upcoming live performances across the US this Spring and here in San Francisco, where she will headline a stellar line-up of thoughtfully virtuosic musicians at Amnesia in the Mission on June 11th.

Ahead of the curve of New York's burgeoning multi-genre intermix, Kelli's show will feature her virtuosic, complex and inimitable solo guitar work, as well as a one woman sonic immersion created with guitars, loop station, array mbira, and nail violin. The indie / neo-classical artist has played shows across the country, including New York's the Knitting Factory, Blue Note and Joe's Pub; LA's Hotel Cafe; Seattle's Triple Door; and San Francisco's Cafe Du Nord. She recently completed her second US tour as well as an appearance at the Mother Music Festival in Tel Aviv. Kelli returns to California for engagements in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

In her ex-industrial Brooklyn loft strewn with guitars and all manner of odd instruments, Kelli creates beautifully crafted and intensely driven compositions. Born in the states but raised in Israel, she spent endless hours playing in the echoing sound of the bomb shelter just outside the family’s house on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. After fulfilling her mandatory military service, Kelli moved back to the US and worked to create alternate playing styles through inventive fingerwork and variant tunings, creating a unique and inimitable musical style. In Brooklyn Kelli continued to develop her unusually powerful and expressive techniques. Using every timbre the instrument has to offer by slapping, tapping, bending, restringing and de-tuning, she causes the instrument to morph and transcend possibility in her hands.

In 2007 Kelli released ‘No One Knows You’re Foreign’, a distinctive work introducing her unique way of accentuating emotionally complex compositions by drawing percussive rhythms from the fretboard and body of the guitar while coaxing chordal melodies and harmonics from the strings. The cumulative effect of this soundscape reveals transcendently beautiful dimensions in an anomolous approach to guitarwork. Live shows in support of this record include intricately crafted arrangements for solo guitar as well as looping beats, bass lines and string driven sound progressions, creating captivating atmospheres though multi-layered melodic structures.

Kelli has collaborated with notable artists including Nick Zammuto of the aleatoric electro-folk duo The Books, Alon Leventon of the project Drops of Conciousness and the electro-indie group Zigmat, and recorded and toured with internationally acclaimed guitarist Kaki King. She’s scored music for Queer Eye For The Straight Girl, Showtime’s hit series ‘The L Word’, and the independent films ‘A Night in the Sunlight’ and 'Absolutely I Do'. Kelli has toured throughout the United States and Europe, and has played extensively in her adopted hometown including shows on the main stage of The Knitting Factory, Galapagos, the Cutting Room, a month-long residency at the Living Room, and fronting her seven piece band at the Blue Note in New York City.

Supporting Kelli at this show is Sean Smith & the Present Moment. Guitarist, composer and improviser Sean Smith has produced several masterful solo-guitar albums since 2005 with his powerfully emotive instrumental songs. He is heavily rooted in the school of Takoma and John Fahey, but never limited to it. Like Kelli Rudick, Sean Smith’s music always pushes the boundaries of instrumental songcraft and technique, speaking profoundly in wordlessness. Sean shows two very different sides of his oeuvre at this show, with one set on solo guitar and another together with his new trio, The Present Moment.

Diego Gonzalez, another stunningly exceptional instrumental artist, joins the bill to perform a solo set on Bass and Oud. He is best known for his work with the noted experimental indie band Citay, as well as the indie / neo classical act The Dry Spells. Gonzalez is an astoundingly talented multi-instrumentalist, who will perform a set of solo material for this evenings show.

Kelli continues writing and recording for her upcoming 2nd release, which adds new dimensions to her work and is a definitive evolution from her earlier record. Accelerating the delicately complex terrain of her first recording, the new songs add precise string arrangements, driving basslines, steely layers of variant guitars, array mbira, nail violin, and powerful drums to her distinctive chordal compositions. Don't miss this one.


Kelli Rudick with Sean Smith & the Present Moment and Diego Gonzales
Amnesia in the Mission
June 11th @ 9:00 pm
853 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110
$8 21+ to enter

Rachelle Revisited

One of the best singers I have ever heard, (and I've heard a lot of them) is the extraordinary Rachelle Farrell. Though she is largely obscure outside of jazz circles (particularly those connected to the festival circuit), Rachelle Ferrell is unquestionably one of the most dynamic talents in contemporary pop music. Very few vocal artists in the industry have Ferrell's potent combination of range, phrasing, and musicianship (she is also and accomplished pianist). Such potency was made powerfully aware to Blue Note Record's head Bruce Lundvall who first heard Ferrell on a demo tape (while driving to the supermarket) and signed her shortly thereafter in 1990 after seeing her perform in Germantown, Pennsylvania. So impressed was Lundvall with her talents, that he signed Ferrell to both the Blue Note Label and the Capitol Label allowing her to funnel her talents through the prism of traditional jazz and R&B.

In short, Rachelle Ferrell's talents transcend generic classification and Lundvall had the foresight to realize such a fact. Lundvall quickly set out to plan Ferrell's coming out party via a showcase at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival. In the past, the showcase was used to introduced the talents of Dianne Reeves (also signed to both labels), Stanley Jordan, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Live at Montreux 91-97 captures Ferrell's moving debut at Montreux in July of 1991 and subsequent performances at the venue throughout the decade of the 1990s. Ferrell first emerged in the states with her R&B debut Rachelle Ferrell (1992), a solid collection of self-penned originals that featured a striking duet with Will Downing ("Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This"). It was with the release of First Instrument in 1994 (recorded prior to Rachelle Ferrell) that audiences were really introduced to Ferrell's jazz sensibilities.

Many of the tracks eventually recorded for First Instrument were part of Ferrell's program at Montreux in 1991 (she was backed by the Eddie Green trio in both cases), but the live material offers listeners, particularly those who have never heard Ferrell "live", to witness her simply extraordinary live performances. However accomplished Ferrell's studio recordings have been, the studio is simply incapable of capturing an artistic sprit that refuses to be contained and limited by the constraints of making a record. Live in Montreux 91-97 opens with a dutiful hard-bopped rendition of the Sam Cooke classic "You Send Me" which Ferrell sings so effortlessly and gleefully that it's a wonder that more jazz vocalists haven't recorded versions of the song. Ferrell's rather pedestrian (by her standard) scat finish initially gets a solid rise out of the crowd. The standard "You Don't Know What Love Is", similarly gets backed by a spare hard groove courtesy of Tyrone Brown on bass, as Green's bright piano lines are shadowed by Ferrell's dark hues throughout the first half of the track. But it is Ferrell who brightens up after Green's solo, dancing melismatic flourishes on-top of Green and Brown's vamp.

Simply whetting the curiosity of the crowd, Ferrell is well into her thing with the original "Don't Waste Your Time". On the fast paced tuned Ferrell show that she loses neither her timing nor her gift for nuance as the groove begins to overheat (again courtesy of a Green solo). It is in the midst of the song's pulsating close that Ferrell first gets the audience off their feet as she displays the triple-octave screech that has made her such an extraordinary live performer. In some regards "Don't Waste Your Time" is just a set-up for her off-the-chart version of "Bye-Bye Blackbird". Again matching the triple espresso pace set by Brown, midway through, Ferrell vocals literarily apes the sounds of birds in frenzy. But it's the closing of the song (impressive even on First Instrument) that Ferrell, during her first Montreux become Rachelle Ferrell. Seemingly pacing herself through 30 seconds of scats as if she was measuring her tour de force moment, Ferrell unleashes a flurry of bird sounds finally punching out over and over the phrase "Black Bird" (24 fours times by my count) as her lungs sound as if they are about to collapse for lack of air. It is this kind of stream of consciousness modernist frenzy -- where Miles Davis should have met the great Shirley Caesar -- that really sets Ferrell apart from contemporary Jazz vocalists, save rare moment with Al Jarreau.

Despite her ability to hang when the pace is amped, Ferrell perhaps best distinguishes herself on ballads. Ferrell introduces the Rodgers and Hart classic "My Funny Valentine" as a song done by "everybody's mothers sisters grandmothers first cousins aunts kid's sons" before doing a version so personalized that it exists as an aura around her. Dripping like some gin-drenched molasses, Ferrell sings "is your figure less than Greek / Is your mouth a little weak?" and a host of the song's lyrics like a lazy Sunday morning that promises redemption and salvation, without ever having to leave the comfort of Nana's quilt. (You can almost hear Gwendolyn Brooks somewhere in the background saying "When you have forgotten Sunday…"). On her own composition "I Can Explain", which was included on her most recent studio disc Individuality (Can I Be Me?) (2000), Ferrell is also on the piano, giving the audience a glimpse at her dual genius. Ferrell almost stops time midway through the song with the lyric "you wanted me all to yourself / I just found out, you've got somebody else", holding the last syllable for nearly 13 seconds.

Alongside her finish of "Bye, Bye Blackbird", Ferrell's performances of "My Funny Valentine" and "I Can Explain" are the clear highlights of Live at Montreux 91-97. Ferrell is joined by longtime collaborator George Duke on "I'm Special" a track that would later appear on Rachelle Ferrell. Duke is also on keyboards for Ferrell's version of Cy Coleman's "With Every Breath I Take" (drawn from Ferrell's appearance at Montreux in July of 1997. Also taken from that appearance are Ferrell's performances of "Me Viola Seul" and "On Se Reveillera" (both in French) backed by members of the WCR Big Band Cologne. There was a six-year gap between the releases of First Instrument and Individuality, so the release of Live in Montreux 91-97 is a welcomed release from an artist who admittedly has had less than a consistent presence in the studio. Live in Montreux 91-97 is a literally "best of" more so because it captures Ferrell at her best -- on stage and pushing the boundaries.

Trilok Gurtu's "Massical"

Trilok Gurtu wanders between worlds, although his odyssey never went so smoothly from point A to point B. He didn't just come from India to stay in Europe. His sense of direction is much more complex. He drew circles, spanned nets and created intensely woven networks of influences from various regions and musical epochs. Contemporary terms such as jack of all trades or multitasker are highly unsatisfactory in defining Trilok Gurtu’s depth of spirituality, non-judgmental empathy for different cultures, his unending search for new ways to express himself on the solid foundation of a whole arsenal of traditions. Trilok's long-awaited new album "Massical" will be released at the end of May on the BirdJAM label. Trilok will also perform throughout 2009 to promote the album.

Trilok Gurtu was born in Bombay in 1951 in an extremely musical family. His grandfather was a highly respected sitar player and his mother Shoba Gurtu (who died in 2004) was among the most highly renowned Indian singers. There was practically no way for Trilok not to seek a musical career, although his path to percussion was hardly preordained. Today, Gurtu remembers how “my entire family played harmonic instruments and sang and danced. My brother Ravi and I are the only percussionists, although we're not quite sure how we got there. My mother told me when I was three or four years old that she had a percussionist who always came too late or never came in all. Somewhere along the line, my father said: Trilok drums on the table all the time - get him down. And I had to accompany my mother. That's how I chose my instrument - or the instrument chose me. I learned just as much song as percussion when I accompanied my mother.”

That was a talent that was to be very useful to him later. He extended his arsenal of tablas on congas, bongos and drums and then he started a percussion band with his brother and was influenced by John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix. In the 70s, he toured Europe and later America with the Indian singer Asha Bhosle, performed with Charlie Mariano and Embryo and joined up with Don Cherry in Sweden whose universal musical spirit was driving the future for him. Starting in 1977, he belonged to the Family of Percussion and worked together with innumerable jazz musicians. Then in the mid-80s, he joined the Ethno-Jazz Pioneers of Oregon following in the footsteps of Collin Walcott who had a fatal accident and gave them a completely new way of looking at things with this powerful spirituality. In 1988, he started his virtually historical work with John McLaughlin that was to continue for four years. Just incidentally, he played with musicians such as Joe Zawinul, Jan Garbarek, Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell and Pat Metheny.

Gurtu cut his first solo album Usfreth in 1988 whose visionary spirit is far ahead of his own time to be appropriately honoured by the critics and the general public. He tore down the bastions of jazz and world music together with Ralph Towner, Don Cherry, Shankar and his mother Shoba. The rhythmic and harmonic interweaving already contains all of the ingredients that were to rock the world music a decade later in Drum’n’Bass. Since then, he has persistently added elements of various provenance to his musical cornucopia to develop a form of music that finds hierarchies superfluous and has reached its latest high water mark in the new CD entitled Massical. Gurtu turned the pages back and recalls that “I got a lot of flak for my first record because I was trying out something new. It's a lot easier just to imitate somebody else. I tried to forge a bond between my love for Africa and India, but somewhere along the line I had the feeling I was respecting the music too much. I have to remember to maintain my own self respect. Guess what? My music doesn't exist without me! So, I was a little bit more relaxed about my music and concentrated on what I heard myself. On Massical, I didn't think much about music; I just played.”

That's why the songs on Massical feel like acoustic balm. When you're listening, you forget everything you ever learned about music. You drop all your prejudices and surrender yourself to the flow that seems to drive out the gold of the millennia through the present into the future. Gurtu had to drop some ballast himself to be able to credibly transport that feeling. He is an incredible virtuoso who had a tendency to play too much. But virtuosity only plays second fiddle on Massical and just lets the musical process fall into place. Gurtu says "I'm not just showcasing myself. If the music doesn't call for virtuosity, I don't use it. But, let's not forget that there are pieces that are awfully difficult to play and most musicians would not be able to. That music is virtuoso, even though it sounds simplistic. When the musicians cut their first or second record, they usually put their instrument front and centre. But I want to feature my music. There's a difference there. The groove is much more important than virtuosity.“

Gurtu’s music is universal. Of course, he still has a reputation of being an ambassador for Indian music in Europe, but those categorisations are totally unimportant to him. “I was born in India. That's where my roots are. Because I've always played virtuoso, people always categorise me as jazz. There was no category of world music when I started. I don’t come from any American school and I never pretended to. But Indian music is based on improvisation and the music from Bollywood is very groovy - almost like Afro-Brazilian music. I use this repertoire to translate my thoughts and feelings, but I could just as well be from China. My music is my music everywhere and I'm the way my music sounds."

Gurtu doesn't have any problems translating the principles and attitudes of Indian, American and European improvisation. On the contrary, he puts his faith in what all of these musical idioms have in common spiritually. “At the onset, you think everything is segmented into classical music, jazz and all those other genres. But, when you approach music in a more spiritual fashion, you notice that the spirit the music is build on is the same everywhere. People just perceive it differently because they think we come from different traditions. Mozart and Bach also improvised. The first piece in my album is called Seven Notes To Heaven and we only have these seven (and with the semitones) we have 12 notes. That's the same in Africa, Europe, India and America, everywhere. If you hit them right, you come closer to God. For instance, there's a tremendous amount of Mozart in the music from Bollywood. Indians don’t know that and they believe it was written by Indian musicians. Even Stravinsky and the other Russian composers have blossomed in Bollywood because a fit so well. If it's good, it doesn't matter where it comes from.”

Needless to say, the song title Seven Notes To Heaven reminds us of Miles Davis. But if you think that this piece of music is supposed to be a tribute to the man with the horn, you're getting ahead of yourself. Trilok Gurtu is among the few musicians in the sphere of jazz who do not say they hail back to Miles Davis. He discovered how important it is to know that less is more even in cultures that existed before jazz. “My mother always told me that concerts take three hours - so play slowly. Jazz is only the most recent form of improvised music. I respect Miles very much - his courage to change music. But, for me, Don Cherry was much more important because his music changed the world. He had a feeling for Afro-Indian music and I think he would like to play the things that are on this album.”

Don Cherry was also a musician who pushed the basic musical concept out of their glass case and made the highest level of music available to everyone by very simple means. That's exactly how Massical, the title of Gurtu’s album should be understood. His premise is that "music has to be there for everybody – it is the masses who have to decide about music and not the classes. The classes always have the money. But you always have to reach the masses. That's why I say music is massical, not classical.“ That statement is his firm conviction without forcing itself upon you and it has a very human texture that permeates the entire album. Massical is much more than a piece of beautiful music. It is a sustainable contribution to democratising our listening habits and overcoming ethnic and social barriers and art that has long since been overdue.

My Five Year Anniversary and the Music of John Moremen

Time sure flies while writing a weekly column for Beyond Chron. Amidst all the hoopla and our side-splitting April Fool's gag, I'd forgotten my own 5th year anniversary as the Arts and Entertainment editor and original webmaster. When my friend Dean Preston first introduced me to Randy Shaw back in 2004, I had no idea what I would be getting myself into. Little did I know that Beyond Chron would become my window into the world of San Francisco politics, housing and community issues, education, film, music and culture. Alongside my fellow columnist and theater critic Buzzin' Lee Hartgrave, we've seen a lot of shows, plays, concerts and films over the years; mostly good, some bad and thankfully, very few ugly. I am nevertheless, extremely grateful for the experience! So before I get all misty-eyed and nostalgic again, I thought I'd revisit the subject of my first ever column for Beyond Chron, the local guitarist, songwriter, drummer and prolific pop-smith, John Moremen.

One of my favorite musicians, Moremen is a man equally versed in the world of pop, jazz and rock. Recently, Moremen released and re-issued three of his best solo efforts on his Popstatic label; 1991's self-titled "John Moremen", "Punch Me In" from 1996, and his 2002 release, "Vertical", featuring bassist and producer Chris Xefos, guitarist Tim Fuson and drummer D.J. Bonebrake of X and Knitters fame. Moremen is no stranger to the world of California pop, either drumming with the Sunnyvale-based Orange Peels, or playing guitar with Roy Loney; and he is equally at home with the roots rock groups of Northern Virginia that spawned him, groups like the Neighbors, Kevin Johnson and the Linemen and Last Train Home. These albums show Moremen at his best, a wonderfully, rollicking world of rock, pop and wit.

"No Time to be Waiting", the title cut from his last album Vertical, is a fantastic introduction to Moremen's style and harkens back to some of his earliest efforts; a driving, tuneful, yet more matured sound. Like a fine wine, you can really appreciate it after hearing the energetic and younger material from his self-titled first album which nevertheless, is one of my personal favorites. Other guest stars like vocalists John Ashfield, Paul Myers and drummer Jeff Potts round out a great album.

On Punch Me In, Moremen is re-joined by Fuson and vocalist Mark Robinson for more pop fun on the XTC-like "Summer Sauce". Originally recorded in 1996, this CD is a must for Moremen fans. Moremen's use of some very clever chord changes and witty lyrics had me boppin' and bobbin' to "Back Inside (Where I Used to Hide)", a playful, jaunty little tune that reminded me of his days with guitarist Peter Gilstrap and their group "The Neighbors", with a dash of They Might Be Giants thrown in.

The aforementioned "John Moremen" may yet be my favorite, perhaps because Moremen played virtually the entire album by himself. Tight, energetic as hell, and with a little help from Gilstrap and percussionist Peter Yorkunas, turned what began as a demo, into one of Moremen's finest efforts. "You Seem So Happy", "Too Many Times Around My Head", "Broken Heel", and "Sleeping Now", capture the raw essence of Moremen in 1991, a songwriter at "the end of the beginning".

Since that first column in April of 2004, Moremen is still doing it all. From his drumming with the likes of John Ashfield, Alison Faith Levy, Allen Clapp and The Orange Peels; to his work with experimental power trio High Vulture with bassist Bill Raymond and MX-80's legendary guitarist Bruce Anderson. He's also toured as a guitarist with Eric Brace's Last Train Home, as well as a reunion with the famed, Half Japanese. Lately, Moremen has been in collaboration with fellow songwriter Paul Myers and their new project, "The Paul And John". Five years later, Moremen's versatile song writing and playing continues to make him one of the Bay Area's best musicians.

Bela Fleck & Toumani Diabate Come to Yoshi's

Bela Fleck will bring the results of his recent African adventures to Yoshi's in Oakland this weekend, in performance with the great Malian kora player Toumani Diabate. Fleck's new release Throw Down Your Heart, Tales From the Acoustic Planet, Vol 3: africa sessions, also features other well known African musicians; D'Gary (Madagascar), Vusi Mahlasela (South Africa) and Anania Ngoliga (Tanzania). Fleck went to Uganda, Tanzania, Mali and The Gambia in 2005 to find and collaborate with great acoustic musicans and research the roots of the banjo. The album will be released on Rounder later this year. The award-winning documentary, also titled "Throw Down Your Heart" was directed by Sascha Paladino and will also be released later. Mali's Toumani Diabate is considered by many to be the greatest kora player in the world, and he is certainly the most well known. His many solo albums and collaborations have placed him on top tier of instrumental artists worldwide. His amazing new recording 'The Mande Variations' has been recognized with a Grammy nomination this year.

Toumani Diabaté (born August 10, 1965), is a Malian kora player who has gained international acclaim for his music. He is considered by many to be the world's finest kora player. He is a versatile performer, being equally at home with the traditional music of Mali as well as with cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles. He comes from a long family tradition of kora players including his father, Sidiki Diabaté, who recorded the first ever kora album in 1970. His cousin Maya Jobarteh is a premiere female Diaspora kora player.

In addition to performing Malian traditional music, Diabaté has also performed and recorded in cross-cultural settings. He has collaborated with flamenco group Ketama, forming a combined group known as Songhai and releasing two recordings: Songhai I and Songhai II. He also released a memorable album with Kulanjan, bridging the gap between African and African American music in collaboration with the American blues musician Taj Mahal. His MALIcool is another, more unusual but nevertheless successful collaboration with the American jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd.

In 1999 Diabaté released the album New Ancient Strings, a collaboration with Ballake Sissoko and in September 2005, he released In the Heart of the Moon, for which he collaborated with Ali Farka Touré. On 25 July 2006 he released his latest album Boulevard de l'Independence, recorded with his Symmetric Orchestra. In the Heart of the Moon and Boulevard de l'Independance were recorded at the Hotel Mande, by Nick Gold of World Circuit Records. He appeared in 2006 at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, and at the Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary.

Just in case you aren't familiar with Béla Fleck, there are some who say he's the premiere banjo player in the world. Others claim that Béla has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. If you are familiar with Béla, you know that he just loves to play the banjo, and put it into unique settings.

Born and raised in New York City, Béla began his musical career playing the guitar. In the early 1960's, while watching the Beverly Hillbillies, the bluegrass sounds of Flatt & Scruggs flowed out of the TV set and into his young brain. Earl Scruggs's banjo style hooked Béla's interest immediately. "It was like sparks going off in my head" he later said.

It wasn't until his grandfather bought him a banjo in September of '73, that it became his full time passion. That week, Béla entered New York City's, High School of Music and Art. He began studies on the French horn but soon switched to the chorus. Since the banjo wasn't an offered elective at Music & Art, Béla sought lessons through outside sources. Erik Darling, Marc Horowitz, and Tony Trischka stepped up and filled the job. Béla joined his first band, "Wicker's Creek" during this period. Living in NYC, Béla was exposed to a wide variety of musical experiences. One of the most impressive was a concert by "Return to Forever" featuring Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke. This concert encouraged further experimenting with bebop and jazz on the banjo, signs of things to come.

Several months after high school, Béla moved to Boston to play with Jack Tottle's Tasty Licks. While in Boston, Béla continued his jazz explorations, made two albums with Tasty Licks, and his first solo banjo album Crossing the Tracks, on Rounder Records. This is where he first played with future musical partners Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.

After the break up of Tasty Licks, Béla spent a summer on the streets of Boston playing with bass player, Mark Schatz. Mark and Béla moved to Lexington, KY to form Spectrum, which included Jimmy Gaudreau, Glen Lawson, and Jimmy Mattingly. Spectrum toured until 1981. While in Spectrum, he and Mark traveled to California and Nashville to record his second album Natural Bridge with David Grisman, Mark O'Connor, Ricky Skaggs, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and other great players.

In 1981, Béla was invited to join the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival, lead by Sam Bush on mandolin, fiddle and vocals. With the addition of California based Pat Flynn on guitar and NGR veteran John Cowan on bass and vocals, New Grass Revival took bluegrass music to new limits, exciting audiences and critics alike. Through the course of five albums, they charted new territory with their blend of bluegrass, rock and country music. The relentless national and international touring by NGR exposed Béla's banjo playing to the bluegrass/acoustic music world.

During the 9 years Béla spent with NGR he continued to record a series of solo albums for Rounder, including the ground breaking 1988 album "Drive". He also collaborated with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor in an acoustic super group called Strength in Numbers. The MCA release, "The Telluride Sessions", was also considered an evolutionary statement by the acoustic music community.

Towards the end of the New Grass years, Béla and Howard Levy crossed paths at the Winipeg Folk Festival. Next came a phone call from a friend of Béla's, wanting to introduce to him, a new bass player who was in town looking for a gig. Victor Lemonte Wooten played some licks on the phone for Béla and the second connection was made. In 1988 Dick Van Kleek, Artistic Director for the PBS Lonesome Pine Series based in Louisville, Kentucky, offered Béla a solo show.

Béla put several musical sounds together with his banjo, a string quartet, his Macintosh computer and also a more jazz based combo. Howard and Victor signed on for the concert, but the group still lacked a drummer. The search was on for an unusual drummer/percussionist. Victor offered up his brother Roy Wooten, later to become known as FutureMan. Roy was developing the Drumitar (Drum-Guitar), it was then in its' infancy. A midi trigger device, the drumitar allowed FutureMan to play the drums with his fingers triggering various sampled sounds. The first rehearsal held at Béla's Nashville home was hampered by a strong thunderstorm that knocked the electricity out for hours. The four continued on with an acoustic rehearsal and the last slot on the TV show became the first performance of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

Next came the self-titled CD, which Béla financed himself. The recording attracted the attention of the folks at Warner Brothers Nashville. It was released in 1990, dubbed a"blu-bop" mix of jazz and bluegrass, and soon became a commercially successful disc. The album was Grammy nominated, and their second recording "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" followed suit. Howard Levy toured and recorded with the Flecktones till the end of 1992. After several years as a trio and touring with special guests, saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the Tones. Famed for a non-stop touring schedule, the Flecktones have reached more than 500,000 audience members yearly from 2001 on.

Still releasing albums and touring, the Tones have garnered a strong and faithful following among jazz and new acoustic fans. They have shared the stage with Dave Mathews Band, Sting, Bonnie Raitt and the Grateful Dead, among many others, made several appearances on The Tonight Show back in the Johnny Carson days, as well as Arsenio Hall, and Conan O'Brian. Béla also appeared on Saturday Night Live and David Letterman's show as well.

Although the first Flecktones albums were created live-in-the-studio, the group went on to experiment with overdubs and guest artists on later albums, with contributions from artists as diverse as Chick Corea, Bruce Hornsby, Branford Marsalis, John Medeski, Amy Grant and Dave Matthews. The Flecktones went on tour with Dave Matthews Band in 1996 and 1997, and Fleck is featured on several tracks on DMB's 1998 album "Before these Crowded Streets." In 2003, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones released the landmark three-disc set "Little Worlds" simultaneously with a highlights disc entitled Ten From Little Worlds.

Any world-class musician born with the names Béla (for Bartok), Anton (for Dvorak) and Léos (for Janacek) would seem destined to play classical music. Already a powerfully creative force in bluegrass, jazz, pop, rock and world beat, Béla at last made the classical connection with "Perpetual Motion", his critically acclaimed 2001 Sony Classical recording that went on to win a pair of Grammys, including Best Classical Crossover Album, in the 44th annual Grammy Awards.

Collaborating with Fleck on "Perpetual Motion" was his long time friend and colleague Edgar Meyer, a bassist whose virtuosity defies labels and also an acclaimed composer. In the wake of that album's release, Fleck & Meyer came up with the idea of a banjo/bass duo, which they developed and refined during a concert tour of the US. Live recordings from that tour are the basis for their latest Sony Classical recording "Music For Two" which also includes a bonus DVD featuring a documentary film by Sascha Paladino (Fleck's brother) that captures the duo's collaboration and crafting of repertoire while on tour. Béla and Edgar also co-wrote and performed a double concerto for banjo, bass and the Nashville Symphony, which debuted in November 2003.

The recipients of Multiple Grammy Awards going back to 1998, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones picked up the Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, Instrumental Grammy in 2000 for "Outbound", a typically wide-ranging project, with guest artists that include guitarist Adrian Belew and singers Jon Anderson and Shawn Colvin, built around Fleck's concept of "the banjo being weird."

Flecks' total Grammy count is 8 Grammys won, and 20 nominations. He has been nominated in more different categories than anyone in Grammy history.


Bela Fleck & Toumani Diabate
Mar 19-Mar 22, 2009
Yoshi's Oakland
Friday 8pm SOLD OUT & 10pm Shows $35

Saturday 8pm SOLD OUT & 10pm Shows $35

Sunday 2pm SOLD OUT & 7pm show $35

E."Doc" Smith's "Live" with Edo Castro

Spawned by the extraordinary Northern California bassist Michael Manring, the "Bass Solo Night" concert series has quickly become a stomping ground for some of the San Francisco Bay area's best musicians. It's a movable feast of talented bassists and features a rotating pool of extremely creative and innovative players. I'd had been asked to perform at one of those shows alongside the bassist and fellow Flecktone fan, Ariane Cap. Ironically, it was during this show at Oakland's Rooz Cafe that led to my first encounter with the bassist Edo Castro. Like Manring before him, Castro was another master of the "E-Bow". His 7 string bass playing was simply gorgeous and his ability to build loops and solo live was equally astounding. Needless to say, I was surprised when Castro graciously asked me to join him for a "gratuitous funk" tune. The result was a truly magical experience and a unique new musical friendship was born. We'll be celebrating our collaborations with a CD Release Party at Rasselas Jazz Club on Tuesday, March 17th. Joining me and Edo for this special St. Patrick's Day show is the extraordinary "improv-o-linist", Kippy Marks, one of the Bay Area's best known electric violinists. Marks will add his own blend of "irish" flavored electric jazz, textures and virtuosity.

Having played for 20 years in jazz, fusion, pop and folk bands as a serious student of drums, I'd developed a love of digital drumming that compelled me to design and build an instrument that would give me maximum flexibility as a writer, drummer, and performer. The Drummstick, a percussion controller with 16 finger-pads mounted on a 2 x 6 piece of wood, is worn like a guitar and used exclusively to achieve my primary musical goal in life— "to make spirits dance". Following the success of this creation, I soon found himself performing with members of groups like Gong, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and many others. In 2007, the Zendrum company built a new, custom model for me, both wireless and extremely versatile.

Edo Castro was initially a self-taught bassist, but later attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. “ My Teachers were not only schooling me, they’d recommend me for gigs," Castro marveled. During his stay in Chicago he played with some of the finest young bloods of the music scene at that time, Jim Trumpeter, Fareed Haque, Mark Walker and Hassan Khan. Of course there were the jazz icons, Miles Davis Guitarist Pete Cosey and drummer Roy Haynes that Edo was fortunate enough to play with. Castro recalls," After playing a set with Roy Haynes, there was a bunch of us standing around talking to him and out of the blue Roy handed me his card and said, ‘Man when you’re ready, come to New York and give me a call. That was the greatest stamp of approval in front of all my peers.’ I’ve yet to get to New York and collect on that call.”

Kippy Marks has been delighting audiences with his inspirational compositions and lively performances for over 2 decades. Raised in El Paso, Texas, Marks began his musical acclaim with performances with the El Paso youth symphony orchestra and also the Coronado T-bird Orchestra which was awarded a first-place recognition by winning the international Youth & Music Festival coveted Award in Vienna, Austria during his tenure. "During December's fifth night of Kwaanza at the African Cultural Center" says Smith, "I caught a glimpse of one of the most extraordinary electric jazz violinists I have seen in quite some time, the self proclaimed "Improv-o-linist", Kippy Marks. Marks delighted the crowd with his one man show of loops, samples and remarkable prestidigitations... I'm really excited to have him for this CD release show."

My pairing with Castro has often been compared to acid-jazz "jam band" of the Benevento/Russo Duo; intensely powerful, yet poignant music. This live album features the music of my earlier Drummstick 2, K2, Robert Anbian and the Unidentified Flying Quartet CDs, and culled from performances recorded at the Sheba Lounge in San Francisco and Mill Valley's 142 Throckmorton Theatre.

E.Doctor Smith Live with Edo Castro CD Release Party
with special guest, violinist Kippy Marks
Tuesday, March 17th, Rasselas Jazz Club
1534 Fillmore Street, San Francisco
8 pm-12 am