Thursday, December 22, 2005

art of the jam 31

like terry bozzio in baby snakes, i feel like i've been hitting my fuckin' hands with a hammer. it's from walkin' w/the crutches. the other day i walked about a block from work with the crutches to go to lunch and it wore my ass out. i don't know how carl pack does it. plus the building i work in has no elevator, so i have to negotiate a coupla flights o' stairs on the crutches to get to the j-o-b. yesterday i took a tumble down a coupla steps. this morning (not related to that incident), i noticed my leg and foot are suffering some major bruise action. went back to the doc, who advised i stay off my feet (but not on my ass in bed all the time, to avoid blood clots -- scary). next week, i need to talk to the i.t. dude at work about gettin' me set up to where i can work from la casa. and i may need to sit out the jam for a coupla wks. bummer.

that aside, last night's edition was, as jam-meister lee allen said, "great for musicians" -- not so great for elvis the bartender, as we all had drink tickets and there were maybe 10 non-playing civilians in the little bar (a.k.a. "wreck west") at any given time. on a purely musical level, though, it was stellar. four gtr players! (a fifth showed up but didn't get to play -- sorry, paul.) an equal number of bassplayers! (nearly all of whom also played gtr at some point.) two drummers! most importantly 'n' best of all: more varied combinations of different ppl playing together in a single night than we've had in awhile.

a few of the highlights:

matt skates, who plays bass with damn near everyone here in the fort (confusatron / electric mountain rotten apple gang / c.s.s. / johnny case / maybe a new project with scott that usedta drum in confusatron), picked up his c-tron bandmate "confusajohn" stevens' strat and led a pickup quartet including kulcha far i-ans ron geida (gtr) and john shook (bass) and regular jam drummer joe "drumzilla" cruz through an impromptu funk romp and a truly _nasty_ sounding blues.

a little later, ron was calling the toons with jam-meister lee on bass, dave karnes on drums, and confusajohn on gtr (the last three of whom _might_ start gigging together on a regular basis under the rubric "mealy mouth") when they essayed john coltrane's "impressions" (jesse sierra hernandez' portrait of trane has been hanging up behind the big stage for so long that it was about time somebody played some coltrane music at the wreck; now they have) and frank zappa's "sexual harassment in the workplace" (on what woulda been fz's 65th b-day; me-thinks / pussyhouse propaganda art criminal ray liberio said he didn't even realize what day it was when he donned a zappa t-shirt that morning). geida is maybe the best point-to-point rawk player in the metromess, with a style that encompasses classic rock, blues, and jazz virtues, while stevens has evolved his clear-white-light sound from blues-rock roots through jam-band extensions. both of 'em had to hang on for dear life, though, as lee 'n' dave took off on an improvisational foray that showcased their near-telepathic rapport while veering from straight-up funk to '70s-milesian mysterioso (sorry, dave).

jam co-founder carl pack got up to lend his distinctive aura to a coupla jam standards (beatles "come together" and butthole surfers "pepper"). also in the house but not playing: visual artist / sleeplab congero jesse sierra hernandez, fresh from his band's debut "real" gig at experience the art of music (at the soon-to-sleep-with-the fishes axis) and confusatron / ph7 percussionist jonathan irwin, with his brother joshua from nashville in tow.

mark mcpherson from reggae upstarts the brokers was a first-time jammer whose vintage vox hollowbody (with a neck, i swear, skinnier than a hagstrom gtr's) was the envy of every bassplayer in the house. he struck some sparks with long-absent jam stalwart jon hill and some crippled-ass mofo on gtrs and drumzilla on traps. somewhere in there, this very spaced-out dude who'd been dancing near the stand all night got up in the middle of a slow blooze to blow very out-of-toon harp and, uh, scream. it was real, um, aesthetic, and maybe the reason why jon-boy and drumzilla didn't seem to wanna end the toon -- not inspiration; rather, distraction. then skates was on bass, shook on gtr, drumzilla on traps, and the jam-meister on geida's les paul for some more fonky fun, including a bolero-rific assault on "the little drummer boy." finished up with lee on gtr, the kulcha cats, and skates on drums (jayzus, is there anything that boy _can't_ play?!?!?) for some mutated reggae.

it was big fun watching the jam-meister keep re-shuffling the deck of some of the fort's best musos. this kinda action seems to be catching on here in the 817 area code, what with ph7 bassist marcus lawyer's "speakeasy" sesh and the one scott copeland gtrist john zaskoda wants to start at his sessions music store up in white settlement (yes, out-of-towners, that's actually the name of a westside 'burb of the fort). next week, the wreck jam will be back in the "big" room, as wizard o' sound andre edmonson will be back from three weeks in colorado with a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture. ya mo be there, even if i can't play. (gotta chronicle the haps, after all.) maybe you?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

sounds like I missed a good night! Was stuck at home making xmas presents. I love jams..there is no re-creation, can't live it again, they can be such true present moments. But for real, you never know what might happen with these guys, they are FW talents, ours we can share for now but you never know...and those memories (now being documented thanks to Daub) are all we got. Those streams of brilliance that shine through on once ordinary night are what keep me going, helps my flow in turn when I see a bare stage. I won't miss one again. Take care of that leg man -take it easy

12:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sleep-with-the-fishes Axis?

que?

3:25 PM  

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