Category: Field Recordings of the Future

Kevin and Jeanne went back to Nashville today. They were up in Rochester for the last month, staying at an airbnb in our old neighborhood, the neighborhood that got so hip after we left. We were there for 27 years and I preferred it when it wasn’t hip but it’s nice to see such a resurgence. We visited them at their place and had them over for dinner a few times. We went out to eat with them and met them at the Little to see a couple of bands. We heard Bernie, who played bass in Personal Effects for a while, playing guitar with the Paul Nunes Band and we heard Pete playing drums with the Debbie Kendrick Project.

Kevin used to do sound for the Hi-Techs and Personal Effects and he played bass on Personal Effects’ last two records. We FaceTimed Bob Martin when Kevin was over. Bob played guitar with Personal Effects and has been working on a remix of the “This Is It” sessions. Kevin gave Bob his secret for mixing my snare in live situations and wrote down the formula. “Pre-delay the snare by about 80 ms and send the delayed signal into the reverb (of course Kevin traveled with his own spring reverb unit). That way the reverb doesn’t obscure  the actual snare sound.”

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The studio version of “Single Minded” was recorded in 1985 for Personal Effects’ “Mana Fiesta” lp. It and another song didn’t fit on the lp so Restless Records suggested putting them on the cassette version. It is almost forty years old and I only wish I could be as single minded as the theme of this song.

We finished cleaning the windows in our bathroom and I moved on to the next item on the to-do list. I went out to the garage to get a spare light bulb for a light in our kitchen. I turned the light on in the garage and stood there for like five minutes before I could remember why I was out there.

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The first Ornette album I bought was “Science Fiction.” It blew my mind. I bought every album he made after that. Ornette had a singular voice and he was supported by the best drummer in the world, Ed Blackwell, and best bass player, Charlie Haden. It was like a religious experience hearing him play live in New York. This one song from one of his last albums captures the joyous spirit of his music.

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We usually included one cover song when we played and this Skeeter Davis song was a favorite in ’83/84. I have a folder of movies from those days and no idea who took most of them. With long distance help from Bob Martin I located three performances that included this song. Two were labeled Scorgie’s Early ’83 and just Scorgie’s ’83 and the third video was a complete mystery. It looked like a sound check somewhere. I put some of that footage at the front of this (above).

The one I liked the best showed Peggi singing the song without playing her Farfisa. The resolution was rough and the camera person loses track of Peggi a few times. She floats out of the frame but you can hear the crowd and just barely make out bodies moving in front of the band. I used that audio but the video and audio cuts out when we get to the bridge so I had to cut to another version for the audio. I patched it all together by overlapping the three versions of the visuals and Peggi and I struggled to get them all in sync. But, if it really is the end of the world it doesn’t matter much.

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We stopped out to see Brad yesterday. He was playing songs from a playlist on his laptop which he has wired to his monster stereo system and we found him in good spirits. I looked at the playlist and it was all Spyro Gyra songs from various albums. He told us they were his favorite band. Peggi brought along her electronic sax and she played examples of twenty or so different settings. Brad liked the baritone sax the best.

We’ve been editing songs for a new cd and I wanted to hear a couple of them on Brad’s system but I struggled to AirPlay the songs from my iPad over to his Roku setup. I went to my Dropbox page on his laptop and streamed them from there. I was really struck by how rough the live, improvised music from Margaret Explosion sounded compared to Spyro Gyra. We sounded like a punk rock band.

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As beautiful as the setting sun is tonight we are told a strong solar storm could disrupt power and communications. It also may set the stage for a northern lights viewing. Years ago we were down at Marge’s with our friend, Duane, and we caught a sensational display of green light. So we might just head down to the lake, for the second time today, once the sun goes down. I don’t think I can handle Marge’s though. We’ll head right to the beach and look toward Canada.

For the last. month I’ve been bearing down on a project that has sat around long enough. We usually record our Margaret Explosion performances and we put all the songs in a big playlist. Most don’t stay in there long though. We keep the ones we particularly like and dump the rest. We recently got a little more aggressive with our pruning and we got the list down to thirty songs.

I have been addressing one song a day and I have just a few left. You might wonder what there is to do with a live track but there is so much tidying up I can do in Garage Band. I dodge the wild peaks, mostly my errant percussion. Since the music is improvised we stumble into both the song and the arrangement so I often grab the bass and drum intro and then cut to the first solid section. Once the tune is established there are middle sections that can get halved. If the song goes on too long I remove the wank. Sometimes any editing at all disturbs the flow of the piece. The songs on our “per la prima’ album were like that, six or seven minute organic constructions. This time, with pieces on the virtual editing room floor, the songs are all around the three or four minute mark. From these edited finals we’ll prune the group further and put the rest on a cd. Working title: “Cloud Library.”

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I like to think the Rochester Red Wings are named after the Red winged black birds that hang around in the tall weeds of the Hoffman Road marsh in Spring but I know if I looked it up I would be disappointed. They are a joy to watch as they open their wings with each call to one another and then fly to a nearby cattail, gently bending the weed as they land.

We intended to water our garden for the first time this year but we couldn’t figure out how to turn the water on. A Baltimore Oriole overhead as we looked for kink in the hose. Our early greens were tall enough to pick a few sprigs for dinner, a mixture of Prance lettuce, arugula and spinach.

Peggi is playing sax now and I’m headed down to play with her.

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Rorbach’s “Different Animal IPA” and “Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus” may seem like an unlikely paining but it worked for us last night. The deeply meditative movie was screened in Little Theatre 1 last night and Peggi and I had perfect seats, dead center just eight rows back. It felt like we sitting next to Sakamoto on his piano bench. We had been fans of his since Yellow Magic Orchestra days and this beautiful b&w solo performance was how he chose to say goodbye.

No matter how big tvs get movies are still better in the theater. We saw “Civil War” on Friday, a completely different experience. The seriously dystopian movie is either a warning of how easily these things happen can all over the world or just a preview of what’s around the corner. The open scenes unfolded to an Arthur Russel track and two Suicide songs were played in their entirety while the action unfolded. Only took the world fifty years to catch up to their genius.

There was one item on the RSD list I had to have, a Pharaoh Sanders 45, an edited version of my favorite piece by him, “HarvestTime.“ So I headed over to House of Guitars when they opened at 9. They were open but only so many people were allowed to enter at one time. I stood in line with Stan Merrell and we caught up on world affairs. My neighbor Rick was in line ahead of us and snagged the only copy of the 45 the HOG got. It is a serious slab of vinyl, seems more than 180, and it sounds great.

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A previous generation claimed the title but this is the golden age of radio.

I sat down to clean up some Margaret Explosion recordings this afternoon, just trimming the front ends and drawn out endings – maybe dropping a few middle bars, but I still had WAYO window open and I clicked on the live button. I was drawn into Alla Boara playing live in the studio. They are a Cleveland band that does modern arrangements of Italian folk songs and they’re playing tonight at the Lovin’ Cup, another Bop Shop sponsored show. Kyle Brown’s “Up on the Roof” (soul, jazz, doo-wop, rhythm and blues, instrumentals and other oldies-but-goodies) sucked us in for the next hour and led right into Jason Wilder‘s “Fantastic Voyage.” Jason had reached out to me yesterday to say he was planning to play a Margaret Explosion song and he wanted me to suggest a Sun Ra song to follow it up with. I chose “Lanquidity.”

We regularly listen to our brother-in-law’s WAYO “Magic Radio” show on Wednesday’s and sometimes Joe Tunis’s show on Fridays. Our neighbor, Rick, has a cool show on WITR. Then there is Howard Thompson’s “Pure” show on WPKN and Kevin Patrick’s late night “So Many Records.” Armand Schaubroeck’s show on Rochester Free Radio is always a blast. Long live radio!

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Doug Rice often comes to the Margaret Explosion shows so he is on our mailing list. When we emailed him about Wednesday’s gig we included a link to the video from our last gig at Skylark and Doug emailed back. “you sound better without a sound system.” Doug used to do sound professionally at big shows in the park in Brooklyn and for bands at Mass MoCA. Last night, at the Little, we played without a sound system. Travel warnings about the ice and snow made for a really quiet night. The twenty five or so people who were there were quiet and listening. The music was better and strangely, we sold more cds (no lps) than we have in long while.

Pete Monacelli was there and he sent us a poem he wrote while listening.

the little
Margaret Explosion
dinner
bottled water
+
the explosion of silence
the explosion of quiet
the explosion of soft
the explosion of…
+
lament in time
lament anger
lament self-destruction
lament
+
reach for light
face pressed against glass
yearning
for life’s meaning

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Pat Moschiano organized a gig for four bands at Skylark. The show was dedicated to Dave Ripton and the proceeds went to his favorite charity, AA. Pat’s band, Frying Pan, went first. He was backed by Phil and Ken from Margaret Explosion and Brian from Nod (on the drum riser). Pat delivers his Kerouac-like lyrics like Mark E. Smith from The Fall or James Murphy in LCD Soundsystem while the band mines Chicago blues. We were thrilled to be able to hear the lyrics this time.

The place had filled up by the time Annie Wells took the stage, with people who had not been in the same room together in a long time. Stan Merrill showed me his scratching technique for making swinging sixties style movies. He moves his finger up and down on the lens dial as he shoots. Don Blair gave us a recording of Ripton reading four poems in the 80’s in this very same room. The place was called Mothers. Annie played three of Dave’s songs but it was hard to hear them. Still this one was the best thing I heard all night.

Margaret Explosion played next. Ken’s electric bass gave us an especially full sound. I set about half of Brian’s drums aside and played the rest. I kept getting my foot stuck under the bag of sticks that was hanging off the tom tom. We are used to playing without a sound system so Peggi’s sound is a 50/50 mix of natural sax sound in the room and the pickup to amp with some digital delay. Here the room sound was lost and her pickup collected the whole band and sent that through her effects and out her amp (which was miced) and into the PA. We could have made it all work with a sound check but none of that mattered. We were there for Dave. Through tears Dave’s daughter told us the last place she went with her dad was to Margaret Explosion at the Little.

I looked through my pictures of Nod before the gig, inspecting Brian’s kit before sharing it. I did a file search for Nod and came across a photo I took years ago of the Penfield Road underpass. I was confused as to why that photo was in with all the Nod photos and then realized the graffiti on the bridge read “No Draft.”

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“Command I” in PS Elements nicely altered the photo I took on Monday night of Melissa Davies and her cello. She was playing with Andrew in their duo, “Wren Cove” and she will playing there tonight with Margaret Explosion. We hope. Part of the fun is wondering who will be available for gigs. In the last year alone we’ve played gigs without the cello, without Peggi’s sax, without Ken’s bass and for the last two month’s without Phil on guitar. And the wild card is Jack on bass clarinet or guitar. He would like to be there every gig but only manages a few.

Wren Cove sounded otherworldly on Monday. Their best songs, often improvised and always in minor keys, completely sweep me away. They both loop fragments of their instrument’s sounds and play on top to create rich, gentle soundscapes. They are playing Friday night at  Red, White, and Brew on State Street.

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I remember checking out Joshua Redman years ago – because I liked his father so much, all those classic records he did with Ornette. I loved that stuff. I have no right to be a snob but the son’s music just seemed too straight. Jennifer, from Teen Empowerment, asked if we’d get the word out about last night’s show because Tone was bringing him to the Hochstein. I’m so happy we went. We really loved the show.

Hochstein, a former church built on the grounds of an Underground Railroad stop, is a great looking venue but problematic for sound. You can hear how ambient the room was in my Kenny Garrett video. When we saw Tom Harrell and Esperanza Spalding here all I could think was how much better he had sounded in Kilbourn. The band last night opened with just sax, voice and piano and it sounded fantastic. With the drums and bass tacked on the sound lost its focus and delicacy. Gabrielle Cavassa, the ultra lounge style vocalist, fit beautifully with Joshua’s sax and Paul Cornish fluid piano. I did like the two snares Nazir Ebo used. One one fat and sloppy and the other tight and bright. I would like to hear the trio in a jazz club with tiny tables and expensive cocktails.

With the whole world in sync NPR posted a Tiny Desk concert with Joshua Redman the morning after this show. They opened with the same song and you can hear what the band sounds like as a trio by listening to the first few minutes of this.

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My grandfather would would finish every visit with “See you in church.” I would chuckle but it made no sense. He went to Saint Boniface and we went to Saint John’s.

Steve Black has created a video for “Rosary,” my personal favorite track on our new lp. Shot in NYC and tweaked with AI from Haiper, it is almost as if Steve was sitting in with the band as we fell into this hypnotic groove. Phil Marshall’s understated, sinewy guitar in dialog with Pete LaBonne’s effortlessly magical piano, Peggi Fournier’s melody, as relaxed as Colorblind James’ “Ride Board,” Ken Franks big bass and my drums making sure the song goes nowhere and Steve Black’s hallucinatory visuals. And do I have to mention that the song captures what it feels like to say the rosary.

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Fresh, twinkling snow and temperatures in the low twenties made for another perfect ski today. Three in a row. We plan to get out out early tomorrow before this all melts. They haven’t groomed the trails this year. Maybe that is a thing of the past. We don’t mind trudging. We worked our way up to lake and found a large shelf of ice and snow out where the sand bar is. It looked like it started at the mouth of the river and runs all the way to the Sea Breeze Pier.

I added to my Sun Ra library over Christmas with Rodger Coleman’s “Sun Ra Sundays” book and this morning I read an entry on “Nothing Is,” an essential Sun Ra recording. Originally released on the ESP label in 1969, it is a live recording from a 1966 performance at Saint Lawrence University in Canton, New York. Brian Williams from The Goners went there and I asked him if he was at the show. He told me it was very memorable and one of the best cultural events at SLU. The original release was edited by Sun Ra and fit on one lp. ESP recently unearthed over ninety minutes of unreleased material from the concert as a two-CD set entitled “College Tour Vol. 1: The Complete Nothing Is…”

I’m happy to report Margaret Explosion’s “Per La Prima!” lp is getting some healthy local airplay. Scott Regan always plays a track before one of our gigs on his WXXI “Open Tunings” show. Rick Simpson has played a few tracks on his “Gumbo Variations” WITR show. Cal Zone’s “Magic Records” show picked the lp as one of his Best of the Year releases. And Joe Tunis’s “Numbers,” also on WAYO, played “Disappear” this week and let the lp side play out through “Rosary” and “Daydream” while he back announced and yammered on. It was beautiful.

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The years go by but each one goes in a circle at the same time so that brings us to another Goners Christmas Show. Bobby is a marvel. He plays guitar upside down, sings, solos and covers most the arrangement of classic swing, jazz, country and rock n’ roll Christmas songs by himself. Brian Williams is the sturdiest of accompanists, reading charts while slapping and even twirling his bass. Jimmy has the coolest drum set in town and he plays it better than anyone I know. This band makes rock n roll sound like the lord’s music.

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When Jack isn’t too busy at the Bagel Shop he joins Margaret Explosion on bass clarinet or guitar. We were hoping he could make it on Wednesday because Peggi was unable to play. The Explosion without Margaret. I distracted Peggi while we were walking and she fell and broke her little finger. That digit and the surrounding mechanism is essential for playing soprano sax.

We have always played the same way regardless of who can make it but this was different. Melissa, who was unable to make the last gig, was there, thankfully, so her cello became a focal point for most songs. Phil’s guitar stole the show in the one below. I was tempted to say we were an instrumental band for the night, like one of those Play Along With records, but we are always an instrumental band. Peggi’s sax playing is our voice and we missed her.

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The other day, just down the road from where this picture was taken, we ran into Bob Begy walking his dog in the park. Bob was good friends with Chuck and he asked us if we had ever seen the alternate version of the Bible that Chuck wrote in high school. Bob said he had a copy somewhere in his house that he had been trying to locate. We told him we’ll borrow it when he does.

Chuck was a poet. I walked away thinking of his “Wedding at Cana,” a song Colorblind James played at my sister’s wedding.

“The wedding party had just begun
People getting lose and having fun
Til Mary overheard the father of the bride
In a panic ’cause they had run out of wine

Mary said, “Son, they have no wine”
Mary said, “Son, they have no wine”
He said, “I can’t help that Mom, it’s not my time”
Mary said, “Son, they have no wine”

Mary told the waiter, “Do what he tells you
Take what he gives you and buy what he sells you
Listen to him once and listen to him twice
Don’t ignore any of his advice”

Well, even Jesus was smiling now
He always liked to help out anyhow
He said, “I’ll need seven buckets, all in a row
All of ’em filled with H2O”

The waiter was gone for ten minutes or so
And then he came back, just like he was told
He said, “Here’s your seven buckets, all in line”
Jesus said, “That’s not water, it’s wine”

Just then a man walked by with a frown on his face
Saying, “Suppose that I might have a taste?”
Mary winked and said she thought he could
So he drank a cup and said, “Boy, that’s good”

He said, “Most people serve the good wine first
And as the night wears on, the wine gets worse
But you certainly have shown a lot of class
You’ve saved the best wine for last”

Jesus told the waiter, “Don’t say a word
About what you’ve seen and what you’ve heard”
The waiter agreed and he tried hard too
But by the very next day, the whole town knew”

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It was so good to have Jack back in the fold at our record release party on Wednesday. He says he would join every night if he could the bagel business hard core. The is a help wanted sign out front every time we stop by. We played as a five piece with Peggi’s sax and Jack’s bass clarinet to right and Ken’s unmiced double bass in the corner (that acts like a giant speaker cabinet) and Phil guitar amp and pedalboard to my left. Both Pete LaBonne, shown at the left of the photo above and Bob Martin, shown at the right, live out town now but they are both on the album. And Melissa Davies, who has been playing cello with us for the last year, was spending the night with her kids.

Because we billed the night as a Record Release Party we expected a noisy crowd but it was just the opposite. The room was full and all eyes and ears were focused on the band as we stumbled our way through an improvised set of thirteen songs. The Zoom recorder and mic, in the foreground above, captured the night for us. Here is song number 3.

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