Friday, August 04, 2006

art of the jam 60

"so, are you guys gonna wait for scott before you start?" wreck room master of libations graham richardson wanted to know. the midnight hour was approaching, and the li'l stage at wreck west was silent.

"what, is scott copeland coming out tonight?" i asked. jam-meister lee allen had just called, informing me that he was on his way from fonky fred's with drummer josh clark in tow.

"no -- he's gonna be here _tomorrow_ night." the master of libations always has the best quip o' the night.

art of the jam is tired but clean. i'd missed a total of three, count 'em, three wks due to va-ca in new joisey, my sweetie's b-day at sardines and visiting my youngest dtr and her new baby out in benbrook. as a result, i wasn't there the night quincy holloway from sub oslo came down to blow blues harp like he did on the top secret...shhh rekkid (and a few yrs ago as gospel swingers frontman), or the night velvet jive bassist rob marruffo soloed on upright bass while the jam-meister played grooves behind him on 5-strig electric.

anyway, we hung out and drank and shot the shit with jesse the painter about his upcoming solo show and the way baseball is a game of waiting and possibility.

after timely pause, the jam-meister showed and set up the drums. i plugged in my roland "amplet," recently returned from a va-ca of its own at sessions music. after further pause, barber mack leader-bassist john shook (a busy cat this week, with gigs at fred's last night and the black dog tonight) arrived and plugged in his 4-string axe. lee's rock camp compadre dave karnes (who's sitting in with saint frinatra at fred's tonight and has a gig with his own jazz trio at baker street pub on camp bowie blvd, wednesday, august 23rd) showed up and kicked the traps for the first coupla numbers: a hyper-driven version of the fonky meters' "cissy strut" and a very funked-up rendition of jaco's "teen town."

li'l josh arrived and we continued in a funk bag -- specifically, p-funk -- with the jamcats' unofficial "theme," "standing on the verge of gettin' it on." after that, i'd promised my sweetie the most fucked-up, dissonant, feedback-juiced "maggot brain" of all t-i-i-ime in memory of a wayward cousin of hers who'd just departed from the cumulative results of too many yrs of bad lifestyle choices. peace to her and solace to those she left behind. my last toon o' the night was another jam "standard," stanley clarke's "school days," with duelling basses from lee-boy and shook over li'l josh's thump.

next, paul the left-handed gtr player got up for awhile 'n' i went off and got stoopid. the addnerim boyzzz were in the house but not playin', as were jasper stone drummer jeffrey williams and ex-yeti gtrist eric harris (whom i'd seen at the black dog when stoogeaphilia played there last thurday). eric wasn't into playing on this particular jamnight but indicated that he might be if his old bandmates jon teague 'n' tommy atkins could be persuaded to play. we live in hope.

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