Minibeast, Qween Kong, Rope Trick 3/29/24 Scottish Dave’s Pub, Clinton

 Scottish Dave’s Pub is a sleepy dive bar on a sleepy block on Rt 1. I locate a public parking lot and traverse the deserted beach town to hear a pulsing racket coming from the unassuming address. SDP looks exactly like the bar in the Simpsons. I enter, sidle up to the bar, and this worn haggis hand appears, “am Scottish Dave, ooh argh yew?” “Irish Andy” , I reply. Throughout the evening, I saw Scottish Dave, pour drinks, bus tables, offer free pizza, play the juke box, sell merch, fix a high hat stand, and introduce local band Qween Kong. At one point I tell him he’s like Macgyver of a freaky talent show. First band was the Philly duo Rope Trick. A psych rock duo comprised of Indrayudh Shome on guitar and vocals and Nathanael Totushek on drums. The music was tribal with a metal edge. Shome’s attack sounded like guitar and bass with his low strings fuzz faded. The sustain on the bass allowed him to metallically noodle on top. These two guys sounded like at least 4. Next up was local riot grrl outfit Qween Kong. Noisy punk trio of drums, bass, and guitar, these ladies drew some locals to inhabit the the dance pit down front. Sassy Asian woman on guitar and vocals spit some venom into their recent single “Like a Dog”. Minibeast is a 3 piece band comprised of Peter Prescott ( formerly of Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns) and the mind bending rhythm section of Keith Seidel on drums and Niels LaWhite on bass. A delicious mix of art rock and krautrock Prescott’s weirdness floats over the rhythmic churn. Using spoken word passages, keyboard loops and noise modulation, Minibeast sounds like a post punk modern version of Can. Part way through the set, Prescott’s guitar and pedal array loses sound. Frustrated with the stoppage, Prescott feverishly plugged and unplugged cords to regain the sound. In swoops Scottish Dave with a master cord to restore the chaos. The breakdown affected Prescott’s chi and obviously tempered the rest of the set. Glad to have made the trek for this unusual surreal event.

Lemon City Trio 3/19/24 The Lagniappe House, Miami FL

 Let’s start with Lagniappe. No, it’s not a scandic elkskin-clad hippie (that’s Laplander). Wiki defines lagniappe as “something given as a bonus, or extra gift”. With that in mind, the LHouse doesn’t disappoint. An awkward rhomboidal space set in the yuppy design district in Miami, this venue is nestled between the train tracks a u-store it and a dog hair straightening parlor. Upon entering, you pass through a modest sized living room with a ragtag assortment of velvet chairs and couches. On the wall is a glass front fridge chock full of meats and cheeses waiting to be selected for the staff to plate as charcuterie. Pass through this area and through the bar to get to a large open air (but with trees) patio to drink or nosh. The bartender says to approach the living room at 830 to claim a velvet throne for the free set of music. Lemon City is a Miami neighborhood, LCT is an organ, drums, and guitar groove outfit. These young men were weaned on Grant Green, Herbie Hancock and the Meters and delivered a powerful instrumental funk punch. Memorable rendition of Let The Music Take Your Mind. The event calendar shows a wide array of under the radar mainly southern hipsters plying their trade. The lagniappe is the music, an excellent bonus gift. Definitely beats a china-produced whistle in the bottom of a Cap’n Crunch box.

Chris Spedding 3/16/24 The Cellar on Treadwell

 Chris Spedding has had a storied but under the radar career. As a 79 year old Brit guitar slinger, Chris was in the room for many “birthplace” moments in rock and roll. He infamously turned down an invite to be in The Rolling Stones, he produced some early Sex Pistol sides, and has lent session wizardry to the likes of Brian Eno and Tom Waits. I even notice that he is currently sitting in on a reincarnation of the cult progfusion outfit Nucleus. On this evening, he is joined by Keith Lenten on bass, and Anton Fig on drums for a stroll down rock and roll memory lane. Fig kept time for the David Letterman band, so he is versed in the live setting. Spedding’s vocal style was like Mark Knopfler’s grandfather, British, witty, and slurry. The set was compact, as to be expected from someone his age. He performed a few of his “hits”, Motorbikin, and the chestnut Hurt By Love. They did a wonderfully screwed down NyQuil-paced Wild Thing. The show highlight was Chris showing off his chops mimicking guitar greats. Duane Allman, Pete Townsend, Hendrix, Santana, Clapton, Leslie West, George Harrison, you could tell he could literally play the phone book. I always relish the chance to view a building block of rock and roll history.

Thievery Corporation 3/13/24 Toads Place

 Seems like a decade since I’ve stepped foot in this legendary club. Toad’s fall from grace has relegated them to a purgatory of sophomoric glow light-jello shot- dance parties. Happy to see that Thievery Corporation decided to grace the stage. TC has been a fave of mine since the early oughts and has had a string of excellent global socially conscious riddims. Washington DC based, the groups core are Rob Garza on keys and beats and Eric Hilton on drums and percussion. On this evening, they are joined by guitar ( who also did time with electric sitar), leg hair shaking bass, and another drummer. The musicians formed a formidable backdrop for a parade of singers and rappers. First up was a young lady who looked like Elvira’s niece. She started with the excellent Heaven’s Gonna Burn Your Eyes. Next up was a young Pharrell looking dude, dapper with a derby hat, he had a soulful croon and did The Richest Man in Babylon and Amerimacka. The third singer was an African American woman who had an island vibe and toasted some reggae inflected rhymes. She wasn’t quite Sister Nancy, maybe Sister Nancy’s Sister. The next singer was a dreaded rapper( rapper with dreads?) who spit rhymes and prowled the stage. At one point Hilton took vocal duties for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter ( original vocals were done by David Byrne) and swung a glowing orb over his head and the crowd to a trippy effect. Garza was on an elevated platform and presided over the proceedings like a sage soundsystem wrangler. About two thirds of the way through, stage crew set up chairs on stage and the musicians did an “unplugged” set with the singers parading through. Good crowd for a Wednesday night. Toads tagline is “where the legends play”, it would be nice if they returned to form. Legends do their Jell-O shots and glow lights on the tour bus.

Yale Percussion Group 3/1/24 Sprague Hall

 It’s been a while since attending a YPG show and I’ve forgotten how mesmerizing they can be. The concert was billed as “From Piazolla to Pleiades”. The first tune was Le Grand Tango from the master accordionist and composer Astor Piazolla. The group was 6 varsity percussionists from Yale’s storied program, one white guy and five grad students of Asian descent, one being a tiny female. The Tango had four marimbas and dueling pianos. I sat close as to get a good view of the marimbas, one was decidedly “bass”, the young lady had two to bang on, and the other two had matching configurations except one had a metallic clang while the other had a smooth wooden tone. The runs were fluid and I enjoyed watching the body language of the players. The standard “10 and 2” mallet technique was a constant for all marimbists. The second suite was called Water by the composer AlejandroVinao. The music meandered through three distinct parts: Edge of a Tide, Through the Wild Rain, and All The Rivers. Marimba runs can approximate water sounds, and the crew did an expert job of imparting that to the audience. The head of the program and musical director is Robert Van Sice who regaled the crowd with personal stories of his interactions with John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis. At intermission, the musicians were busy jacking the stage with instruments for set two. For anyone who hasn’t seen this stage, it is large, and after setup, was completely littered with marimbas, drums, congas, bongos, tympani drums, laptops, and ipads. The second set consisted of Pleiades by Xenakis. The director said the piece starts cohesively, then 3 and 3 split for a cacaphonous maelstrom before reuniting for the thunderous ending. That was helpful in navigating this challenging piece. If anyone hasn’t seen six musicians furiously banging away at exotic and obviously costly instrumentation, I urge them to take in a YPG performance, it’s stunning.

Tomeka Reid Quartet w/ Tomas Fujiwara’s 7 Poets Trio 2/25/24 Real Artways

 Afternoon show at RAW started with drummer Tomas Fujiwara and his 7 Poets Trio. The music was pulled from their recent release Pith. The set started with Tomas dedicating the first tune to Marcus Smart. “Does anyone know who Marcus Smart is?” The Sunday afternoon grizzled Jazz intelligentsia was stumped. Did he invent the B-flat baritone clarinet? Did he perform with his Sackbutt trio in some industrial drainage piping? Ex-Celtic I exclaim, which got a drumstick acknowledgement from Tomas. Joined onstage by vibraphonist Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid on cello. The music swung wildly from contemporary classical to straight up jazz workouts. Tomas is a master of restraint using a bevy of brushes, metal and fibrous, giving subtle tones. Reid is also versatile. The jazz cello is welcome to my ears. The ability to go low or high, plucked, scraped or bowed can offer a wide palette to explore. The vibes brought the chaos. The signature quad mallet approach affords the most sound. Two mallets in each hand, with their business ends situated at 10 and 2 brought the sound to the foreground. Brennan’s furious striking caused the plates to jump around in their housing. Fujiwara must be a big hoop fan, as his other group is called the Triple Double.

The second group had Reid and Fujiwara joined by guitarist Mary Halvorson and standup bassist Jason Roebke. The music came from Reid’s forthcoming 3+3 release. Halvorson has been positively reviewed in this blog, her forward thinking runs and squalls  give critical acclaim to any group she inhabits. The interplay between Mary and Tomeka was great. They looked like two teens trying to one-up each other at a sleepover. I’ve dinged Halvorsen for her outdated wardrobe and nerdiness, but years of touring Europe seems to have afforded her an extreme makeover. She looked less like despised 70s babysitter and more like Dutch hepcat that could help you ace your brain surgery final exam. I had a weird angle on Roebke, he had slicked back hair and Clark Kent glasses. He treated the bass as percussion and was a great foil to Reid’s output. The room was full and cramped but it did not dampen an enjoyable afternoon of improvised jazz.

Linda May Han Oh 2/2/24 Sprague Hall Yale

 Its’s all about the bass says MeghanTrainor. Similarly, Yale’s Ellington Jazz Series seems to favor the low end. I have seen titans of bass Ron Carter and Dave Holland for these events, so it’s only fitting to view young lioness LMHO. Malaysian born, Perth raised Oh, came at the bass through classical training. She won a 2023 Grammy for participating on Terri Lynne Carrington’s album New Standards Vol. 1. She is joined onstage by Greg Ward on sax, Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums, Fabian Almazan on piano and effects, and Sara Serpa on voice. The concert was based on her recent release The Glass Hours, a collection of works that focused on “ abstract themes of the fragility of time and life”. Ward blew feverish runs, often in unison with Serpa and Oh on wordless vocals. The titles and explanations were zen-like, Circles, Antiquity, The Glass Hours, The Imperative, Phosphorus, Respite were all expertly delivered. Oh toggled between standup and electric bass with flashes of funk, drone, and modern composition. Whitfield Jr. was lithe and reminded me of Calvin Weston behind the kit. He looked as if he was on the verge of cracking up, like he had a Jerry Seinfeld on the Bluetooth. Almazan seems to be Oh’s partner as one tune was written for their three year old. He reveled in playing the Sprague Steinway which stretches for two city blocks. The addition of Serpa added a unique sound with some poetic passages, her Portuguese accent shining through. Gracious to be included in this historic series, Oh will be on the forefront of jazz for years to come.