Patty Larkin 12/15/19 mActivity

Patty Larkin is a singer songwriter from Wellfleet. On this evening, Patty played what happens to be the final concert at mActivity. Turns out that the gym hours bump in to Fernando's East Rock Concert Series. Patty has amassed a decent body of work over the past 30 years. The "Regrooving The Dream" record would be a desert island pick for me, and her live album "A Go Go" gives a good view of her live experience. In scrolling through her discography, one sees that Patty  works and re works tunes over the years. Setlist included: Best of Intentions, Chained to These Loving Arms, Coming Up For Air, Tango, Dear Heart, Beg To Differ. Show highlights were the self-deprecating Don't and the closer Book I'm Not Reading. Encored with a frenetic rendition of Me And That Train. Yes, we " believe girls can play guitar".

Lage Lund Trio 12/6/19 Firehouse 12

Norwegian born Lage (pronounced Log-A) Lund on hollow body guitar was joined by Will Vinson on sax and Orlando Le Fleming on standup bass. I am a fan of Scandic ( maybe Nordic) jazz. Clean picking, melodic sax, and sturdy bass was more composed than improvised. Lage said that one tune was recorded with Kurt Elling on vocals, with lyrics penned by his wife. Lund has also done a stint with Maria Schneider's big band, so the modern composition is in his wheel house. The tunes sometimes veered into a jazz-Americana feel, like what I enjoy from Erik Friedlander. Final tune was from one of the greatest composers of all time, Morning Glory by the inimitable Duke Ellington.

Anbessa Orchestra w/ Nick Dimaria's Wired 11/20/19 State House

Local trumpeter Nick Dimaria has assembled a hip cast of local jazzbo's to flesh out his Wired project. A friend said that Dimaria fashions the sound after Mwandishi- era Herbie Hancock. 70s horn driven big band funk is an apt jumping off point for this sextet. Organ, guitar, athletic drummer, bass, and sax join Dimaria's trumpet for a full blast that gives the individual players room to stretch out. I recognized the wool-capped sax blower from a recent multiplex skronk-off. Bass man
was steady, even giving rise to dubby backdrop for one tune. On some sections, the music reminded me of long lost British prog-jazz-rock outfit If. Closing tune was the title track from their excellent new release Mr. Millenial's Revenge.
Anbessa Orchestra came exactly as billed. Young crew steeped in the traditions of 60s-70s era Ethiopian funk. Guitarist and leader seemed a little older than the 20-something band mates. The group consisted of organ, drums, bass, trumpet, sax/flute, baritone sax, and guitar. The leader talked of specific scale structure and some historical context. The music was straight-up instrumental trance African. I had pleasant flashes of Antibalas and The Budos Band. What is it about the musical melting pot of Brooklyn that gives birth to all of these groups? Access? Pool of talent? No matter, this matching suited crew of African music acolytes cruised through their high energy set. Trumpeter was a site to see, dancing and bobbing his way through tunes, dude was definitely buggin. Wish there was more in attendance for this truly danceable set.

Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet 11/8/19 Firehouse 12

I take it for granted that Firehouse 12, a New Haven haven for improvised music,  is a magnet for top quality music exploration. Cornet player Taylor Ho Bynum is a progenitor of the venue, musically, and I think financially. The crew he assembled, is the Firehouse home team. Joined by Jim Hobbs on sax, Bill Lowe on tuba and trombone, Tomas Fujiwara on drums, Ken Filiano on bass, and Mary Halvorsen on guitar, the sextet explored one long piece for the second set. Most of these musicians have some tutelage from the great Anthony Braxton, and it shows. One section had Bynum doing a circular breathing workout, another section had the brass "laughing" through cup mutes and plungers. The bass was furious providing some funk backdrop with Fujiwara. Much of the piece had some duo doing a lyrical passage under some improvised blowing.

Multiplex 5 10/27/19 State House

Another early Sunday show featuring regional improv musicians curated by local skronksters Bob Gorry and Joe Morris. I missed the first group. The second outfit had a young man on clarinet and baritone sax, two drummers, and big fella on guitar. The two drummer assault was the perfect backdrop for the reedman and fuzzed out guitar. The guitar was creepy ( in keeping with the season), completely black, strings, knobs, fretboard, even the player was clad in black. The sound was sludgy fuzz that didn't even sound like a guitar, as if this man was playing batman's flamethrower. After the set, this guitarist sat next to me and I queried him on his axe. He talked of an 8 string setup with odd placement of the additional strings. The third group had Bob Gorry on guitar, Vance Provey on trumpet, and Paul Gunsberg on drums, sax, and pocket cornet. I've seen Gorry many times and am always impressed with the improv interplay. With trumpet and drums, the sound was jazzier than the first group. The drummer got out from behind the kit to play the final song on pocket cornet ( that's what I'm calling it), a mini trumpet that echoed then complemented the trad trumpeter. The final duo was upstate New York denizen Jamie Saft on mellotron and Joe Morris on drums. Morris' primary instrument is guitar, but he took to the kit for this outing. Saft is a sight to behold with a ZZ Top beard and looked like he was having fun on the keys. Morris, on the other hand, had the wondered look of of a teenager on January 10th, who had been given a drum set for Christmas. Please examine Saft's bio, from the hauntingly beautiful soundtrack to Loneliness Road ( with some Iggy Pop), to a dub workout with legendary noisoids Merzbow. On driving to the show, I spied Saft and Morris walking near the green and passed on a perfect opportunity to kook them by saying that I was with the FBI Special Avant Garde Jazz Unit and that they were in violation of all tonality laws.

Mike Watt and The Missingmen 10/10/19 Spaceland Ballroom

Unfortunately missed Northampton freak collective Sunburned Hand Of The Man's opening set on this evening. I did have a flashback of seeing them at Bar back in the day. It was a December show and they pinched a Christmas tree somewhere, donned drum and cymbal cases on their heads, and oozed their freak prog-noise assault while dancing around the tree in some sort of blotto pagan ritual.

Anywho, the main ingredient on this evening is another freak of nature Mike Watt. Driving up from San Pedro in the 80s, Watt formed the seminal LA hardcore outfit  The Minuteman with D. Boon and George Hurley. Rated as one of the top 20 bassists of all time, Watt was joined by longtime cohort Tom Watson on guitar and youngster Nick Aguilar on drums, the Missingmen. Looking at Watt's discography, you realize that he has been a part of many rock and punk acts, Porno For Pyros, The Stooges, Ciccone Youth just to name a few. His mind bending bass playing was buoyed by Watson's angular guitar and Aguilar's incessant drumming. When Watt introduced the young drummer, he said he went to high school with his dad. The stage setup was egalitarian, drums up front flanked by bass and guitar. The mush mouthed singing style of Watt reminded me of a punk version of the tobacco chewing sheriff in the Smoky and the Bandit movies, it was truly difficult to understand what he was saying. There are no sing along " hits" associated with this artist, the songs veered from punk  speediness to beat poetry angularity. Watson's vocal style was reminiscent of Fred Schneider. Encored with some Stooges TV Eye. Watt listed some influences, Fogerty, Buck Dharma ( from Blue Oyster Cult), with a dash of Pete Townsend, good company indeed. Just so the crowd didn't lose the free jazz angle, Watt left the stage and uttered one more name.....John Coltrane.

Luna 10/3/19 Spaceland Ballroom

Formed in 1991 after the demise of Galaxie 500, Dean Wareham on vocals and guitar assembled a true indie pop gem. With Sean Eden on lead guitar, Britta Phillips on bass, and Lee Wall on drums the crew was in good form after a decade-long hiatus. With trademark NYC snarkiness and odd literate lyrics, the mid 90s saw a string of critically acclaimed hits that drew comparisons to the Velvet Underground and Television. I saw them at the skater hangout The Tune-in (R.I.P.) on a sweltering sold out show and then again open for Lou Reed at the Palace. Wareham name-checked the Lou Reed show saying that his amp and microphone were stolen (" seemed like an inside job"). No one made it out of the 90s without an Andy mix CD containing the churning 23 Minutes in Brussels. Other nuggets Sideshow By the Seashore, Bewitched, Pup Tent were all great. Encored with their amazing lo-fi take on Donovan's Season of the Witch which I first heard off the equally amazing I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack that contains contributions by an early Wilco and Yo La Tengo. As with that recording, Luna is in that league.