The Meat Puppets w/ Mike Watt 5/13/17 Spaceland

Mike Watt is the ferocious bass player from the seminal LA punk band The Minutemen. Masters of two minute shards of hardcore, The Minutemen along with The Germs, Black Flag, and The Circle Jerks are an integral part of the punk lexicon. Tragedy struck The Minutemen with the death of guitarist and founder D. Boon. Watt was left to poke his bass into whatever punk amalgam would have him. Sonic (and Ciccone) Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction,  and Nirvana all crossed paths with this versatile bassist. Watt's current touring group was a trio with guitar and drums. The bass is way out front with acrobatic fills and runs. Watt looked like a grizzled Lewis Black with unintelligible yelps above the fray. Even if one could understand the lyrics, one might not "understand" the lyrics because Watt has invented his own language or "spiel" to accompany his songs. The liner notes to 1995's Ball Hog or Tugboat came with a mini translation "dictionary" to help one decipher lyrical content. Watt closed his set with a Blue Oyster Cult song.
The Meat Puppets are the same relative vintage as Mike Watt. Hailing from Arizona, The Meat Puppets must have been birthed from a tequila-laden saguaro given their penchant for Western swing crossed with face-melting psychedelia. Brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood on guitar and bass came with drummer and rhythm guitar. It was all about the brothers, bassist Cris looked like Moses while Curt resembled Jesus. It would be fun to watch these brothers have a "Leggo my eggo" moment. The genre-jumping was jarring, it was hard to parse get along little doggie whistling with maggot brain guitar fuzz workouts. No matter, this was truly an original bill of original musicians that played music that was...original.

Hollis Brown w/ National Reserve 5/3/17 Bar

Opener National Reserve reminded me of many bands. Big fella on lead guitar and vocals, rhythm guitar, drums, bass, and organ were the National Reserve. The singer looked like Leslie West of Mountain, or Bob "the Bear" Hite from Canned Heat. Straight up rock and roll songs with juicy guitar leads and punchy organ fills sounded like The Band crossed with the Byrds. They did a great Neil Young-ified cover of Gillian Welch's Miss Ohio complete with "yak choking on a soup bone" guitar solo.
Hollis Brown hails from NYC. Guitar/vocals, lead guitar, drums, bass, and organ/vocals made up the group. I noticed that they are performing at this year's Mountain Jam. Tight original songs had a rocking Americana feel. They pulled local Blues axeman Neil Caputo on stage for an excellent take on Dylan's Meet Me In The Morning. The organ player croaked out an ok version of the Beatles Oh Darlin. Hollis Brown also covered Jesse Malin's She Don't Love Me Now which is ironic given that I saw Jesse perform that tune a few months ago at this very same venue.

Bud Collins Trio 4/27/17 The Outer Space

Didn't realize that BC3 was part of some local band showcase, which explains the early start time. BC3 hail from Storrs CT, home to the main campus of Uconn. When I was a student in the 80s, BC3 was a staple at Hooligans or Huskies, plying their pre-Phish quirky jamminess. Guitar/vocals, bass, keys/vocals, keys, and drums were their current lineup. Nasally jams punctuated with Zappa time jumps, Trey-like leads, and Moog touches reminded me of the Steely Dannish jams of Percy Hill. One of the first CDs I ever purchased was In The Land of No by BC3, I haven't seen this group since that time, a lifespan of an entire music delivery format. The vocals show age, but the musicianship is still solid.

Richard Bona Trio w/ The Randy Weston Sextet 4/23/17 Toad's Place

The show was billed as "Africa into Jazz, Jazz into Africa", the crowning event of the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective's weekend festival. Opener Weston is a true giant in the jazz world. At 91 years old and 6'8" tall, Weston has been at the jazz piano since the early 60s. He is a direct disciple of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Born in Brooklyn, Weston had a straight shot to the jazz scene brewing at Minton's Playhouse. In the 70s, instead of moving to Europe like most jazz expats, Weston moved to Morocco to absorb the African roots and rhythms. On this evening, it was Weston on piano, tenor sax, soprano sax and flute, bass, African percussion, and drums. Amazing set from this nonagenarian who shows no signs of slowing down. Weston's long fingers made confident and acrobatic runs, he was truly in charge. Excellent conga work, a great flute solo, and an unusual but deft bass style were some highlights. In my recent reacquaintance with the world of vinyl, I came across a copy of Weston's Berkshire Blues which I am thoroughly enjoying.
Richard Bona is a Cameroonian bass player who came with piano and drums for his trio. Bona plays a five string electric bass with effortless moves. The pianist was great, but paled in the chair occupied by Weston. Bona's songs were equal parts Youssou N'dor and Jaco. The African singing lent a nice touch to the jazz affair. In surveying the walls at Toads, I realize how many bands I've seen from the Stones and Tin Machine to Jack Bruce and John Lee Hooker. This venue is in the twilight of its lifespan and has never been a home to jazz, but on this particular evening, this particular jazz fan had a smile from ear to ear.

Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah 4/23/17 Yale Art Gallery Theater

Caught the last few songs of this Sunday afternoon performance. The show was another leg in the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective's weekend long festival. Christian Scott is a Nawlins trumpet player. He was backed by an expert crew of young lions. Scott played the Dizzy style of trumpet ( you know the one where the bell shoots up at an obtuse angle). The group had piano, bass (standup and electric), sax, and monster drums. The suffix on Scott's name comes the fact that he is Donald Harrison Sr.'s grandson. This grandfather was one of the original Chiefs. Christian, at 34, is now a Chief (hence the suffix). Scott, pianist, and drummer cut their teeth together at Berklee in Boston. Scott recounted this fascinating tale of the grandpa Chief. Every Sunday the Chief would bag all the food in the house and walk the entire city giving it away, when he ran out, he'd stop and buy more for the 7 hour walk. Young Christian went on these walks and saw faces, hungry, happy, ashamed, all took the Chief's offering. The grandpa Chief is credited as uniting the wards and the other Chiefs through food, love, and inclusion. The final piece was an epic battle between trumpet and drums, with Scott blowing his horn straight at the kick drum, the result was less a cancelling of sound but a melding of the ferocity....wow.

M'balia 4/22/17 Yale Art Gallery Theater

I heard from a friend that the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective were staging a free weekend long festival with free concerts at various venues around Yale. The Art Gallery theater was a perfect place to see jazz vocalist M'balia. When I arrived, it seemed like some students were warming the place up. From the Peanuts gang, Lucy was on piano, Pigpen on standup bass, and Schroeder ( probably booted from piano by Lucy) was on drums, all they needed was Peppermint Patty on thumb piano to round out the group. M'balia, an impressive stage presence, joined the crew. Big hair, big earrings, big voice and attitude poured out of this singer. The Peanuts gang were her band, and they all had chops. M'balia charged through her set with the kids holding fast to her coat tails. "April in Paris" and Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things" were great. She also put lyrics to some original compositions to great effect. The band was tight, especially piano, showing flourishes of McCoy Tyner and Mulgrew Miller. M'balia sounded at times like Betty Carter crossed with Jill Scott. She definitely had control of the kids and worked them for an impressive set. My one complaint was with the crowd, this afternoon crowd of hipsters and academics felt compelled to clap at each handoff of the solo baton which disrupted some song flow. I was happy to be in attendance, and clapping at the conclusion of each tune rather than five times during each song seemed like an appropriate level of appreciation.

The Decemberists 4/15/17 College St. Music Hall

The Decemberists, Portland Oregon's literate band of indie-prog-folk rockers brought their genre bending show to a sold out College St. Fronted by the the nerdy charisma of  singer guitarist Colin Meloy, aided by keys/accordionist Jenny Conlee, lead guitar (also played pedal steel), bass (electric and standup, drums (melodica too), and two female backup singers put forth a polished and relaxed show. It's been a couple of years since their last release, but the back catalog of songs gave them a sufficient pool to draw from. The setlist included: Down By The Water, O Valencia!, Dear Avery, We Both Go Down Together, The Crane Wife, Lake Song, The Wanting Comes in Waves-repaid, Odalisque, Red Right Ankle, The Chimbley Sweep, and the new Everything's Awful (Meloy's take on the state of the Union). I saw this band at a Newport Folkfest about ten years ago and I must admit that they have grown on me since that time. The quirky hyper-literacy couched in revolutionary war era murder ballads presents an independent indie rock group that has snowballed in popularity. Meloy, a total wordsmith, has hundreds of years of English to pull lyrics from. I was amazed that the crowd seemed to keep up with this wordy juggernaut, the dude next to me sang every song. Rhyming parapet with arabesque or using terms like ventricle and prevaricate made me feel like I was studying for the SATs