CT Folkfest 9/7/24 Edgerton Park

 The CT Folkfest is underwater. Not figuratively, but literally. Back in the day, the Doppler was a Gomer Pylish Hilton Kaderli predicting a “gulleywhomper “ of a storm happening sometime between May and March. In today’s world,  when the Doppler says it’s gonna rain at 5pm, it pretty much rains at 5. So what to do about a lineup that gets cooking at 5? Go at 5 and hope Kaderli is driving the low pressure system. We know how this ends, show up at 5, see a few tunes by 83  year old folk royalty Tom Rush, who gets flooded from the stage by said gulleywhomper. I mean it rained sideways. We took shelter in the beer tent before surrendering for the day. This festival has some great memories for me: Steve Earle,  Mary Gauthier and Greg Brown with recent highlights of Donna the Buffalo, Maria Muldaur, and Oliver Wood. It’s sad to report that today’s headliner Leyla McCalla and warmup act Kaleta and the Super Yamba Band were scratched due to rain. Kaleta has lineage to the afrobeat progenitor Fela. Ive seen him a couple of times and it was truly enjoyable. Don’t know much of McCalla, but she’s billed as a Haitian guitarist, cellist, activist. We can only imagine how this show would have been because Mother Nature had other plans. It’s doubly sad to realize that climate change has affected our way of talking about the weather. Instead of “April showers bring May flowers”, we are left with “September deluge brings beer tent refuge”, which just seems wrong on so many levels.

Max Creek 9/5/24 Hartford Live

 “ Bring out yer dead! Bring out yer dead!” Who can forget Eric Idle’s Monty Python scene. That movie line easily applies to a Max Creek show. Starting as a Connecticut based Grateful Dead cover band some 50 years ago, local hippies have been Creekin since way back. The business model is simple: get a somewhat reliable vehicle, learn some Dead songs, and play every bake sale, block party, and backyard in the tri-state area……for 50 years! A friend who is my vintage stated that he has seen Max Creek over 100 times, I believe it. Being in the business that long allows one to hone their chops and MC has morphed into a regional jam juggernaut with some excellent originals that dot their tease-heavy set. I arrive 630ish to see the band already on their journey. They play till 930 without a set break, a 3 hour tour if you will, you heard right, a three hour tour. The cast and crew were all there, Skipper and Gilligan natch, Ginger and the Howells were dressed in their finest tie-dye finerie, the Professor and Maryanne, well you get the picture. The nerds at setlist.com must have been smoking a big fatty because their call seemed to have some gaps. Emotional Railroad, Feelin Alright, Angel of My Mind, Jones, Gone at Last, Brown Water,  Wild Side, Something is Forming, Yes We Can Can,, Drums,  Same Things, Blood Red Roses. I know I heard Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes and Magic Carpet Ride in addition to Grateful Dead licks but who’s counting. In order to remain a band for 50 years, there must be some core chemistry. The original 3 of Scott Murawski on guitar, Mark Mercier on keys, and John Rider on bass are joined by current percussion duo Bill Carbone and Jamemurrell Stanley who weren’t even born when the Creek was founded. I love Hartford Live, and thanks to the Infinity Hall folks for making it happen. They even have a sense of humor. On the lawn near our group a large “ no smoking section “ sandwich board was placed, it’s a Creek show for goodness sakes, the no smoking section was several blocks away.

Jake Blount 9/1/24 CT River and Roots Festival, Windsor

 Maiden voyage for this fest held on the Windsor town green. Nice mix of craft and food vendors with the local Dudleytown Brewery providing libations. Jake has been positively reviewed in this blog before. He is an ethnomusicologist, multi-instrumentalist master of string band music, deftly providing an educational tour of historical music from the American south. Playing fiddle and banjo, he is joined onstage by Nashville cat acoustic picker Ethan Hawkins. The pair roll through a nice selection of reels and jigs on the small stage. Ethan takes lead on the 50s novelty Plastic Jesus and Jake gives a history lesson for the traditional John Henry ( popularized as Spike Driver Blues by Mississippi John Hurt). I will never forget a previous viewing where Jake explained that the advent of the Sears Catalog supercharged the spread of the banjo diaspora. The focus was folk and roots music from the black and indigenous community, so it was no surprise that Jake got political in his tone. At this point, some elderly right wing crank stood up and gave the thumbs down while hastily bagging his chair to leave. Jake reiterated the thrust of this festival and the music he was playing as if to tell the guy “ what did you expect?” I guess if he launched into the classic “Talking Hillary Pizzagate Blues” the guy might have stuck around. Maybe he was late for the Ted Nugent / Kid Rock double bill down the street. Inexplicably ( which I later learn to be explicable), Jake and Ethan take a set break and yield the stage to local indigenous skronker Mixashawn Rozie and local poet and storyteller Robert Peters. Poems focused on racial justice and climate action were backed by Rozie’s sax, wooden flute, and the unusual berimbau. I’ve seen a lot of music over the years, but this was the first time viewing When Doves Cry and Johnny B. Goode delivered on the berimbau. Jake and Ethan did reappear for their final lap. Folk music has always championed civil rights, climate justice, and gender equality and it is refreshing to see young artists rally to the cause. The weather mostly held for a nice afternoon on a town green that was new to me. As for the cause? The answers my friend were blowing in the wind.

Lee Fields and the Expressions 8/24/24 Levitt Pavilion Westport

 Many towns have summertime shows at woodshop gazebos with Samyo  sound systems and underemptied port-olets. With acts like the Ghosts of Memphis or Bowzer’s (from Sha-na-na) cousin, not Westport. This town has a cool shopping area, riverwalk, modern library, ample parking, that houses a beautiful outdoor amphitheater known as the Levitt. Beautiful green space, excellent sound and sight lines, and high ticket backers make for a pleasant, and many times free concert experience. Martha goddamn Stewart is a resident. So it is no surprise that modern soul  wailer Lee Fields and his crack Daptone band The Expressions got a chance to tear it up. Septuagenarian Fields is a legit force. He says that he injured his knee and had to cut out twirls and splits. Lee’s bio has him mentoring other members of the Daptone label, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley (both,sadly, no longer with us). The Brooklyn based label has made a name for themselves by coaxing musicians out of retirement, pairing them with seasoned hipster session musicians and getting them in front of audiences. Lee has had a renaissance with these guys. The band was trumpet, sax, drums, organ, electric bass, and guitar. Fields stature and movements had me thinking of James Brown, he even led the sax man around the stage with his microphone. The setlist included some gems: Never Be Another You, Wish You Were Here, Ladies, and closed with the chestnut Honey Dove. As an old black man soul singer, some of the subject matter and lyrics were cringeworthy in the Me-Too era. What was also startling, Lee Fields appeared to be the only black person in attendance. White organizers, white crowd, even the Expressions were Caucasian. Lee had the crowd involved by exhorting “are you happy?”, and”somebody scream!”. He even had the honkey hedge fund managers counting out the hours for his work around the clock song. I am thankful for the Levitt and the apparatus needed to wrangle these shows. Cultural appropriation? Modern day minstrelsy?  Straight up sexism? Or a down home soul stew? Maybe all of the above.

The Chameleons 8/9/24 Space Ballroom

 It’s been 40 years since the Manchester based post- punk legends released their opus Strange Times. The Geffen release was critically acclaimed but never received the popularity it deserved. A small clatch of pre-adult bandits masquerading as UConn students thought it would be a good idea to gobble some hallucinogens and drive through the woods to Providence, visit a rickety low ceilinged club to catch a glimpse of  The Chameleons lightning in a bottle. Fast (or maybe lurch) forward to 2024 and the magnetic front man vocalist bass player Mark Burgess along with original guitarist Reg came back to these shores for the reincarnation of Strange Times. With a younger crew of keys, drums, and second guitar the new Chameleons launched. The Ballroom was packed with grizzled punks and new appreciators, even some of those same bandits 40 years hence. The setlist was stellar: Mad Jack, Caution, Tears, Soul In Isolation ( snippets of The End, Be My Wife, Eleanor Rigby, and There Is a Light),  Swamp Thing, Time/ The End of Time, Seriocity, In Answer, Childhood, I’ll Remember, Ever After. The encores were jacked: Where Are You, In Shreds, Nostalgia,Second Skin ( snippet of Please, Please, Me), and Don’t Fall ( snippet of Cracked Actor). Burgess has not skipped a beat, older, paunchier, but the same level of magnetism. The crowd was rapt, I even spied my friends singing along with each tune. At one point, Mark spit a short rhyme “ time is not a thief in the night, time is an embezzler, time….is your enemy now.” Forty years is a long time, the LSD and Panama Red was replaced with Prevagen and Statins, the music on the other hand was decidedly the same. Lightning. One thing is for sure, “it is autumn before the winter”, and I experienced “ man’s last mad surge of youth”.

The New Pornographers w/ Gustav 8/8/24 Hartford Live

 Opening show for the 2024 HL series. Free shows put on behind the Old State House attempt to bring non-business people to town. Unfortunately a rainy day with the promise of nighttime drizzle kept the crowd to a minimum. First up was Brooklyn glammy punks Gustav. Female-centric band had four women and a B-52s-ish Fred Schneider on guitar and vocals. The ladies each had a Darth Vader button on their mics which moved the music toward creepy glam. When more than one hit this button, the music devolved into freak show territory. There is a reason that a Darth-Chucky-Jason-Freddy quartet was never a thing. Lead singer had a Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs singer) complex in how she prowled the stage.

The New Pornographers were a treat to catch for free. Under the radar outfit from Vancouver is a launch pad for other popular indie artists. Warbler Neko Case was a member, Dan Bejar from Destroyer was a member. Founder Todd Fancy has taken those elements and continues the tradition. The group has been around since 2000, scoring some familiar power pop gems. Two female singers, guitar vocals, bass, and drums held the damp crowd. The Neko Case replacement was excellent and played some keys. Kudos to the Infinity Hall crew to keep this series going.

Newport Jazz Festival 8/3/24 Fort Adams Newport RI

 Came back for the Saturday of jazz. A breezy sunny day  was excellent for stage hopping.

Jonathan Blake’s Pentad: Caught the last bit of drummer Blake’s group. A young supergroup, the quintet had Immanuel Wilkins on alto, David Virelles on piano, Joel Ross on vibraphone, and Dezron Douglass on bass. These guys all have other jobs but we’re able to come together for a strong start to the Saturday.

Artemis: If the previous listing was a male supergroup, Artemis is the all female counterpart. Bandleader Renee Rosnes on piano, Ingrid Jensen on trumpet, Nicole Glover on sax, Noriko Ueda on bass, and Allison Miller on drums. Good set on the main stage with the added bonus of a Wayne Shorter medley complete with Footprints, one of my favorite tunes.

Anat Cohen Quartetinho: Clarinet master fronts the Quartetinho (little quartet). With Tal Mashiach on bass, Vitor Goncalves on piano and accordion, and percussionist James Shipp.  This set leaned on Latin numbers from Jobim and Gismonti. I love the sound of the jazz clarinet and Anat is usually the Downbeat poll winner for the year.

Terrace Martin:  LA multi- instrumentalist and producer took over the Quad stage. This guy has worked with Snoop Dogg and Herbie Hancock and has multiple Grammys for his work with Kendrick Lamar. Martin told a hysterical story of being on house arrest in LA. He couldn’t travel more than a mile from his house which was tracked by ankle monitor. He decided to go hang out with an old guy who danced at the entrance to the freeway. When he happened upon the man, he offered him a twenty. “ I got plenty of twenty’s, I don’t need yours”. Martin taken aback, said “ I just assumed you are dancing for money”. Turns out the man was a retired exec who danced to make people feel happy, there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Samara Joy: We saw Samara last year at this fest. At 24, with three Grammys for her debut record, she has graduated to the main stage. Commanding stage presence for such a young artist, Samara seems comfortable in her own skin. 

Elvis Costello: Wait, why is he here? Just because his wife, Diana Krall, headlined the Saturday last year. Christian McBride knows how to assemble a lineup. Elvis is a musical chameleon who I have seen at hippie fests, folk fests, and now a jazz fest. I am a huge fan of his music and with a catalog of over 500 songs, some scrape the jazz vein. Elvis’ resume is too extensive to list. On this outing, Elvis has enlisted young jazz lion Donny McCaslin on sax. Donny worked with Bowie on his final Blackstar record. Unfortunately the sound man was snoozing during the opener Watching The Detectives. The dubbed out bass heavy version had a farting noise to accompany the tune. Elvis plodded forward with Almost Blue and some tunes from the excellent Wise Up Ghost record he did with the Roots. A story and a song from the Painted From Memory release he did with Burt Bacharach. He also  performed his somewhat obscure Shipbuilding, a song that was famously covered by Robert Wyatt. I guess when I reread this paragraph, Elvis is a logical choice to perform here.

Stanley Clarke and 4 ever: Late start for Stanley’s group on the small Harbor stage. Somebody didn’t do the math on Stanley’s popularity as the small stage was overly packed for his set. With a crew of young band members in tow, the legendary bass player toggled from electric to acoustic for a delicious set of fusion and standards. Paying homage to the bass virtuoso Charles Mingus, Stanley did an excellent reading of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. The title cut from Clarke’s School Days record has arguably the best bass work of the 70s.

Thievery Corporation: The global dance electronic outfit helmed by Eric Hilton and Rob Garza got the crowd moving at the Quad stage. We saw this band in the spring and the fest-abbreviated set did not disappoint.The setup is the same, Garza on turntables and beats, Hilton on percussion, guitar, bass, and some brass were the backdrop to a rotating crew of singers. A sultry Brazilian woman shimmied in thigh high boots and what looked like a black table cloth fastened with one safety pin, a neo- soul young man who did vocals on my fave  The Richest Man In Babylon, a young Jamaican sounding woman, and a young male rapper all circled through the vocal duties. This band is fascinating with socially conscious themes pulsing through most tunes. This band has a polished show and I recommend seeing them if they come near you.

Dinner Party: Another supergroup to end the day. Terrace Martin on sax vocals and keys, Kamasi Washington on sax, and Robert Glasper on keys, beats and samples. I am not familiar with this group, but the familiar theme of mining the junction of jazz rap and soul  was on full display. Long day of music with excellent weather.