Thursday, February 16, 2006

art of the jam 39

not bloggin' much of late -- been sick as a dog, but not sick enough to miss da jam (altho taking antihistamine that feels like trucker speed, not a good thing in my world, where i prefer not to have pharmaceuticals clouding my mindspace).

an unusual number of first-time (or first-time-in-awhile) jammers graced the li'l wreck room's invitational jam stage this week. chief among 'em: justin pate, bindle/ph7/confusatron ivory-tickler, who'd previously _drummed_ at the jam back during the summer, when the improvs tended to last longer 'n' be more amorphous (sigh). j. pate's using the current lull in pablo activity (while they break in a new bassplayer) to advance his solo thang, which so far has taken the form of gigs at the moon and black dog (as "...and his amazing machines") and now includes a recorded artifact -- to wit, a 4-song e.p. (and myspace thingy) under the rubric tapereporter. not surprisingly, the rekkid is toonful, poppy, and accessible (remember, this is the man who brought beatle-like chord changes to pablo's rootsy reggae mix, in between singing sublime covers, and even added structure to confusa-groove), with "videos" being the champ o' the bunch (possessing, as it does, vocal harmonies that put one in mind of brian wilson and a sweeping arrangement that hits with the force of...well, justin's own "next year" from back in bindle daze).

the presence of an actual listening 'n' improvising keyb player inspahrd the jamcats to bust out a flurry of "keyboard songs" (including booker t.'s "green onions," which the blues-playing musos in the pack used as an oppo to get gritty, and chick corea's "la fiesta," featuring jam-meister lee allen's beloved phrygian mode). another noteworthy addition to the jam-mix: great tyrant drummer and wizard o' sound andre edmonson's most reliable understudy jon teague, who deftly negotiated the tricky 7/4 meter on one of fw symphony violinist steve "vikingo" huber's inventions, then returned later to provide the underpinnings for the closing "war pigs" (sung, once again, by head me-think ray liberio, whose tortured tonsils -- he's sick, too, kidzzz -- also featured on this week's "come together"). justin 'n' jon will share a bill this weekend when the great tyrant and confusatron form the estimable undercard for sat'day's skeleton key show.

vikingo took a turn behind the keys as well, on a bit of funk propelled by groovemaker john shook on bass (who's assembling an ernest ranglin cover band with jam regular ron geida and confusatron's andrew skates on gtrs) and joe "drumzilla" cruz (whose berfday it was last monday -- happy b-day, joe). sleeplab snare drummer michael preble tried his hand at the full trapset and didn't disgrace himself. sleeplab's supposedly opening the a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture show on march 3rd, but they're not on the club's calendar for that night. film, as they say, at 11.

regrettably, william bryan massey III couldn't stick around long enough to spiel with the jammers, but regular friday happy hour songstress amy royer did an early vocal turn on "paint it black" (are ya happy now, ron?), and russ walton, who's never actually performed at the jam (altho he released a snippet of post-jam chatter with the jamcats' names prominently displayed on one of his cd's), briefly mounted the stage carrying a fake (?) bomb which he balanced on a stool with much ceremony before departing into the night, slinging cd's (which are still prolly there) around the room.

the crowd was small and mostly musos (including bassist mark mcpherson, who brought the sad news that his band, the brokers, is folding the tent). musta been a good night, tho, judging by the fact that afterwards, the jamcats hung around for longer 'n usual, chewing the rag (shook talking about a possible audition with triple-a, the jam-meister reminiscing about playing in "the one o'clock lab band of hand bell choirs" back in his college daze).

in march, of course, there'll be the usual number of mid-week sxsw shows, so the jam will be back over on the _more intimate 'n' interactive_ li'l stage in "wreck west." before then, we'll still have a couple more weeks of boss andre edmonson mixes (and recordings!) and the "big rock show" on the main stage. check it out, why doncha?

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