NYS Music 202​2

Author: Sal Cataldi

  • Arista Records: The Last Quintessential NYC Label Explored in New Book

    Last year, Mitchell Cohen partnered with former Sparks/Roxy Music bassist Sal Maida on one of the most enjoyable reads about pop arcana ever penned, The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Oughta Know. Now Cohen is back, riding solo this time, to tell the story of the last quintessential New York record label. It’s the imprint that either launched or revitalized the careers of Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, The Kinks, Lou Reed, Aretha Franklin, Gil Scott-Heron, The Grateful Dead, Iggy Pop and, of course, Whitney Houston, in the ‘70s and early ‘80s – Clive Davis’ Arista Records.

    Cohen’s Looking for the Magic (Trouser Press Books) tells the story of Arista from its inception – a label built upon the foundation of the singles-centric Bell Records to the conclusion of its freewheeling indie era with a mid-1980s merger with industry giant RCA. And although Cohen worked at the label in publicity and A&R from 1977 – 1993, he largely remains absent from the narrative, a humble factor that’s a very good thing for the storytelling.

    “Looking for the magic” is a record industry maxim. It says that success is spelled by a label’s ability to realize what’s a hit and, more importantly, what is not! Clive Davis, the man who defined Arista, was unparalleled in his ability to sniff out both hits and artists who grow to become mega-selling legends. It’s something he had done from his early days at Columbia thru Arista to his latter run at J Records.

    But before the book gets to Arista, Cohen tells the equally fascinating story of its forerunner, Bell Records, and its intriguing head Larry Uttal.

    Uttal’s singles-focused label didn’t do artist development or produce records. It licensed them from a host of talented outside producers like Allen Toussaint and then did the savvy sales and promotion that made them big hits.

    Mitch Ryder’s “Devil with the Blue Dress On,” The Box Tops’ “The Letter,” “I’m Your Puppet” by James and Bobby Purify and Merrilee Rush’s “Angel of the Morning” were some of the independent productions Bell drove to the upper reaches of the charts. Uttal also sourced England for hits by Spooky Tooth, Suzi Quatro and Vanity Fair. And after Bell’s purchase by Columbia Pictures came hits from its TV division, The Partridge Family, and Tony Orlando and Dawn. Interestingly, Bell was the partner label for the proto-metal of Leslie West and Mountain and released one of the weirdest records you’ll ever hear, 1971’s For You. This crockpot of kooky features the erotic poetry of Brit thespian/singer Anthony (“What Kind of Fool Am I?”) Newley set to orchestral music by Neely Plumb, the father of child actress Eve Plumb of “Brady Bunch” fame.

    Arista Records

    Clive Davis enters the picture at Bell as a “consultant” after he is summarily fired from Columbia Records due to an accounting scandal in 1973. By 1974, Davis is in charge and changes the name of the label to that of his high school honors society.

    As he had at Columbia with Santana, Sly & The Family Stone and Janis Joplin, Davis made his first order of business signing up talent he could grow – both the new and the established. A vast majority of these would come from NYC like his first signings: the proto-rapper Gil Scott-Heron and Barry Manilow, the cabaret-styled singer who would become the label’s true triple platinum-selling cash cow. Arista would be in the thick of punk with the signings of Patti Smith and punk godfather Lou Reed, whose flagging career would be revitalized with Arista albums like Street Hassle. The Kinks and The Grateful Dead would see their careers soar again with their respective Arista releases, Low-Budget and In the Dark, the latter which featured The Dead’s only Top 40 hit, “Touch of Grey.”

    Interestingly, jazz was a very important part of the mix at Clive’s Arista. This was perhaps due to his experience at Columbia Records with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. These were forward-leaning jazz stars who crossed over to a rock audience and Gold Record sales with their respective fusion masterworks, Bitches Brew and Head Hunters. Jazz was relatively cheap to record and market and they could break even without the huge sales of rock. So, Clive and company rolled the dice on jazz often, garnering both solid cash returns and even more lasting artistic results.

    Arista Records’ forays into jazz deserves some serious attention. The effort was led by Steve Backer, the man who earlier signed Keith Jarrett and Gato Barbieri to Impulse Records. The imprint, Arista Freedom, kicked off with marquee signings of avant-garde notables like Anthony Braxton, Julius Hemphill, Cecil Taylor and the like. In the way of more mainstream fusion, Arista made a splash with The Brecker Brothers and Larry Coryell’s Eleventh House. The latter was a contender to the crown worn by Columbia Records’ resident guitar god John McLaughlin and his fearsomely talented and financially successful Mahavishnu Orchestra. With the purchase of the Savoy Records catalog in 1975, the label did a splendid job repackaging and turning a new generation on to the classic works of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon and many more. Arista Freedom eventually morphed into Arista Novus. It released a bevy of beautiful, edge-pushing jazz from the likes of Muhal Richard Abrams, Oliver Lake, Air with Henry Threadgill and guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson, whose 1979 album Heart and Center is a masterpiece of genre-leaping future funk.

    Arista Records

    With the licensing of Passport Records, Arista even dabbled in progressive rock, distributing discs by the likes of Camel, Brand X and synth wizard Larry Fast. By the dawn of the ‘80s, Arista also had a nice piece of MTV-era pop with the success of acts like A Flock of Seagulls, Haircut 100 and The Thompson Twins.

    In 1983, things would begin to change. That’s when RCA acquired a 50% stake and took over distribution for Arista. That year, Clive Davis would see the future when he witnessed Whitney Houston singing at the Upper West Side club called Sweetwater. He took his time finding the right songs and style that would make her long-delayed 1985 debut not only an unprecedented smash with three #1 singles, but the template that would be followed to build the careers of everyone from Mariah to Britney.

    But that’s another story and that’s where Cohen choses to end this very gratifying one.

  • Space Out, Outside Brings the Ambient Outdoors in Beacon

    There’s something in the air in Beacon. It’s a subtle atmospheric sound that has been emitted on a monthly basis, in the warm weather months, for five years and running. It’s a decidedly low-key, mind expanding, alfresco concert experience called Space Out, Outside.

    Space Out Outside

    The event is the brainchild of Beacon-based ambient artist Craig Chin, a guitarist who works under the name Errant Space. It started as an occasional series in 2018 and moved onto a monthly gathering in 2020, as Covid-19 shut down most of the live music business inside area clubs.  

    According to Chin, Space Out, Outside is “a place for adventurous electronic and experimental musicians to get together and collectively create improvised sounds in the great outdoors.”  Weather permitting, the events take place the third Saturday of every month, from 3 – 5 pm, at Polhill Park, adjacent to the Beacon Visitors Center.

    Space Out Outside

    Many of the Hudson Valley’s most adventurous ambient and experimental artists have participated or are slated to be featured at this summer’s events. The roster includes Bob Lukomski, Lucas Brode, Al Margolis, Katie Down, Tom Law and Rick Warren of Guitars A Go Go to name a few.  Most events are recorded for posterity and can be heard at the Bandcamp page, with details and the schedule of upcoming events can be found here.  Chin has also been hosting the monthly Errant Space podcast for seven years. It features collaborations and interviews with like-minded musicians here and abroad. These can be streamed here.

    The Hudson Valley is a bit of a hot bed of ambient sound. It’s the home to the annual Quiet Village, an “anti-festival” of sounds whose fourth edition is slated to take place in New Paltz on September 25. It’s also home to Basilica Hudson’s SoundBaths and 24-Hour Drone .  And Beacon has also been the site of Halloweening, where musicians perform costumed at The Howland Center on October 31.

    The next Space Out, Outside will take place Saturday, June 18 at 3 pm and feature Electr(on)ic Chakra, Scary Mountain Wizard and Errant Space.  

  • Felix Cavaliere Shares His Story in Memoir of A Rascal

    There’s a very good argument to be made that Felix Cavaliere may be one of the most underrated songwriters, singers and instrumentalists to emerge during the Sixties.  The latest evidence for this comes in his long overdue autobiography, Felix Cavaliere: Memoir of A Rascal. 

    FelixCavaliere
    ©1967 Paul McCartney / Photographer Linda McCartney

    As founder, principal songwriter and lead singer of The Rascals, Felix was the force behind nine of the greatest Top 20 hits of the mid-1960s. The roster includes the #1s “Good Lovin’,”“Groovin’” and “People Gotta Be Free” and the still-ubiquitous “A Beautiful Morning,” a #3 hit in 1968 that remains one of the most licensed tracks in movies, television and breakfast cereal adverts!  As the first white act signed to the R&B-centric Atlantic Records, Felix was in the thick of the drive for civil rights. His band refused to play concerts that didn’t feature a black act on the bill and crafted the aforementioned “People Gotta Be Free” and “Ray of Hope,” two anthems of the civil rights and anti-war movements. Like his friend Beatle George, Felix’s work and life were forever changed by his encounter and lifelong commitment to a guru, Swami Satchidananda.  And while Cavaliere’s forceful, Ray Charles-influenced vocals are often namechecked in “Best Of” lists, his massive chops as an instrumentalist on the Hammond Organ and as an arranger/producer are largely overlooked.

    Cavaliere’s story begins in Pelham, New York.  He was the son of two Italian-American professionals, a dentist dad and pharmacist mom, who wanted him to become a doctor.  While his family was solidly middle class, there was still prejudice towards them in their suburban hometown, something that would forever inform his advocacy for equal rights. His love of music began early, with eight years of thrice-weekly lessons absorbing Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.  With the death of his mother when he was 13, Cavaliere changed course and channeled his grief and full energies into music. He combined his love of the classics with his new-found passion for Boogie Woogie, Fats Domino and, especially, Ray Charles, who would prove his most profound vocal and instrumental influence.  

    In high school, Felix would join his first band, an integrated vocal group called The Swingin’ Six. He would also commence his habit of scrounging in record shops to find obscure tunes for his band to cover. This is something that would lead to his first smash hit with The Young Rascals, The Olympics’ tune “Good Lovin’.”  His musical aspirations really solidified while at Syracuse University when he founded the band Felix and The Escorts. His combo would compete for gigs at frat parties with another led by a “beatnik” classmate, Lou Reed.  While playing a summer gig at a resort in the Catskills, Cavaliere would meet Joey Dee, leader of the Starliters of “Peppermint Twist” fame. Dee would soon ask him to join his band on a tour of Germany where the opening act was the pre-fame Fab Four.

    Felix Cavaliere

    Shortly after his return and a continued stint with the Starliters, 20-year-old Cavaliere ventured to create his own band. His began by enlisting “rockabilly crazy” Canadian guitarist Gene Cornish, whom he had played with in the Starliters.  He then found his “cocky” co-songwriter and co-lead vocalist Eddie Brigati at the Choo Club in Garfield.  The band was completed with the stick-twirling Dino Danelli, who Cavaliere found playing at the Metropole Jazz Club in Times Square.

    The band’s big break came when they were discovered while playing a summer residency at The Barge in the Hamptons by Sid Bernstein, the man who brought The Beatles to Shea Stadium. Unlike many managers of the era, Bernstein and his partner Walter Hyman proved to be both fair and savvy.  They set the young musicians up with their own publishing company, pension plans and also a contract with Atlantic Records, one that gave them free unlimited studio time and full creative control, right down to album cover art.  It also gave them access to superlative session musicians like bassists Chuck Rainey and Ron Carter and saxman King Curtis, engineering by the renowned Tom Dowd on the world’s first 8-track recorder and the arranging talents of the peerless Arif Mardin, the man behind a boatload of classics from Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack to The Bee Gees and Nora Jones.

    As for their band name, Felix believes it was suggested by TV kiddie show host Soupy Sales when they went to see him to pitch themselves as his backing band.  Drummer Danelli asserts he came up with it after watching The Little Rascals on TV.  Either way, they at first got tagged The Young Rascals by Atlantic to avoid confusion with another very different act, The Harmonica Rascals.

    Felix and his band’s ascent was supersonic –“six months from rehearsing in my parent’s basement to the top of the charts with ‘Good Lovin’” according to Cavaliere.  Luckily for us, he devotes a good deal of the book to the writing and recording of his classic hits, many composed with Brigati.

    Felix Cavaliere

    Felix would generally come up with the titles, choruses and music and leave the verses to Brigati.  Atlantic only began to have confidence in their writing with the Cavaliere-penned “(I’ve Been) Lonely Too Long,” a Top 20 from their second album, 1967’s Collections.  With his recollection of “A Beautiful Morning,” Felix discusses how it was inspired by and written in Hawaii, a locale that had a special reverence for his band.  According to Felix, the #1s “Groovin’” and “People Gotta Be Free” almost weren’t released.  The first because of its overtly laid back Latin feel and lack of drums.  This track, which spent five weeks at the top of the Top 40, was only released after the powerful DJ, Murray the K, made an appeal to label A&R chieftain Jerry Wexler.  At first “People Gotta Be Free” was thought to be too controversial for release during the turbulent summer of 1968, but it was eventually issued and raced to the top of the charts.  

    Cavaliere notes The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper as influence on albums like their psychedelic Once Upon A Dream and the double-disc Freedom Suite.  But at the height of their popularity, there was a mutiny in the ranks when an exhausted Cavaliere headed to Mexico for a couple of months of R&R.  In his words, he went there to chill and protest the war and paying taxes to fund it. The rest of the band went into the studio to record an album without him; something that proved a dismal failure.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9Bl-x_2wzM&t=139s

    In his memoir, Cavaliere shares many interesting anecdotes about life on the road and The Rascals’ many TV performances, especially the grueling six-day rehearsals for each of their performances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Due to Brigati and Cornish’s fear of flying, the band largely drove from gig to gig, with Felix behind the wheel.  He talks about weird gigs playing a bullfighting ring in Puerto Rico, co-headlining the Fillmore West with a “very unpleasant” Van Morrison, taking the stage at Shea Stadium in 1971 and his many tours to Hawaii, where he would bring along his whole family and guru.   He talks of his admiration for other Italian-American stars before him, Dion and Frankie Valli, and his contemporary NYC-born hitmaker, John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful.  He also recalls Jimi Hendrix, whom he knew from his own time with Joey Dee and the Starliters and his efforts to try and get the guitarist away from drugs.

    A pivotal point in his life and art came with his meeting Swami Satchidananda through Steve Paul, owner of the famous Scene Club.  Before becoming a guru, Satchidananda was a businessman who ran a company that made cars that ran on wood!  After the death of his wife, Swami took to the path, something which Cavaliere did eagerly himself by becoming a vegetarian and practicing Hatha Yoga and meditation daily.  His guru would give Felix the name “Paalitha,” for protector, and tell him that “Music and bringing joy from it was his karma.” Felix’s Swami would go on to open the Woodstock Festival, found a large teaching ashram called Yogaville and number among his devotees Carole King, Jeff Goldblum, model Lauren Hutton and other boldfaced names.  

    Cavaliere spends a good deal of time speaking about discrimination and his lifelong efforts to counter it.  He recalls how his parents were not allowed to join the country club in Pelham due to their Italian heritage and how one of his high school classmates, Michael Schwerner, was among the three volunteers killed while registering black voters in Mississippi in 1964.  He estimates he and his bandmates lost millions by having in their concert contracts the necessity of having black acts on the bill.  

    Cavaliere goes on to discuss the breakup of the band and their move from Atlantic to Columbia Records, where they made two ambitious albums in an increasing jazzy/gospel vein, Peaceful World and The Island of Real, collections whose stature has only grown with the passage of time. According to Cavaliere, Atlantic wanted to resign but only Felix as a solo artist. But he wanted to keep the band together, hence the move to Columbia. He also bemoans the premature decision by the band to sell its publishing. 

    Felix describes his post-Rascal years with pride, from his first stint as producer for Laura Nyro to his underrated solo albums and his duo disc with Stax guitar/songwriting legend Steve Cropper.  He also waxes poetic about his love of Nashville, his home for several decades and its vibrant music scene, and also the fun of touring with Ringo Starr’s All-Star band.  And, like any good Italian boy, he talks with deep love about the sacrifices and support of his parents and his love for partners and daughters.

    If it wasn’t for The Rascals, Steve Van Zandt may never have gotten his role as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos.  His humorous induction speech for the band at the 1997 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony is what caught the imagination of series creator David Chase.  Cavaliere laments that The Rascals: Once Upon A Dream, the multimedia show/concert event Van Zandt created for the band, had such a limited Broadway run and in a subsequent tour.  He also expresses regret that the band itself cannot quite get it together for a proper reunion/farewell tour.

    Cavaliere is presently on a nationwide tour with Legends Live alongside Micky Dolenz of The Monkees.  Visit his website to order the book and tickets for the tour. www.felixcavalieremusic.com

  • Creature & The Butterflies Serve Up Melodic Bombast at Berlin

    If you like the soft/loud approach of The Pixies and the noise pop perfectionism of Nirvana, there’s a new trio on the NYC scene that’s sure to delight –  Creature & The Butterflies. 

    Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Chris Seifert debuted the band as a solo project in 2019 with the release of two singles, “Sweet Tooth” and “Turnaround.” The latter is a delightfully noisy and demented reinvention of the DEVO classic, one also covered by Nirvana on their Incesticide compilation.  In 2021, Seifert released his tenth and perhaps most commercially appealing song, “Murder Machine.” This is a suitably mad, mid-tempo Ramones/Nirvana stomp with a cutting, single-note guitar solo straight out of the Neil Young “Cinnamon Girl” school.

    Creature & The Butterflies

    While the multi-instrumentalist Seifert comported himself well on guitars, keys, bass and drums on his slew of singles, the band is even tighter now with the recent addition of a new killer rhythm section.  The band’s newbies are pigtailed drummer Timmy Emmerich and bassist Bettina C.  Emmerich has a sledgehammer, four-on-floor approach and a never flagging energy that brings a new level of vitality to Seifert’s prior recordings.  Like Talking Head Tina and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Bettina C is a cool presence on stage. She’s also the sonic glue that holds (or maybe herds?) together Chris and Timmy’s poppy cacophony, one that could easily go off the rails her rock steady riffage.

    This new lineup showcased their stuff at their second-ever gig together Wednesday night at Berlin Under 2A in Manhattan.

    Creature & The Butterflies

    Like his idol Cobain, the eight Seifert originals played were grungy, noisy, feedback-laced pop perfection. They each boast killer riffs, crunchy chord sequences and smart, hook-leaden middle-eights – a compositional maturity that shows the band could be real contenders in the altrock marketplace.

    On stage, Seifert has the dry sardonic presence of another of his idols, Lou Reed. At the performance, he cast off self-depreciating introductions to songs that amused the packed house. 

    The band ran through several of the singles you can find on their Spotify page like “THEM,” “Boy with Guns” and “Murder Machine.”  But perhaps my favorites were two new tunes. “Viper Dog Fish” is a dropped-D tuned smasher driven by a riff Black Sabbath would love to have penned while “Friends” is, again, Seattle grunge more than a pinch of Lower East Side punk nihilism.  It’s lyrical hook, one repeated again and again in the chorus – “I Don’t Have No Friends.”   That certainly wasn’t the case at this performance.

    Creature & The Butterflies have several area gigs upcoming, and will be at The Delancey June 4 at 10 pm. Visit them on Instagram.

  • The Rock and Roll Circus Art Show Comes to Hudson

    Since the 1960s, the worlds of art and rock music have been joined at the hip. Now some of the finest art inspired by rock music, and much of it created by musicians themselves, has come to Hudson in a new gallery show, The Rock and Roll Circus.

    Rock and Roll Circus

    The exhibition is the brainchild of gallerist/musician Luis Accorsi and his wife, Haleh, who relocated from NYC to Hudson a couple of years back to open The New Gallery.  An art dealer since 1988,  the Venezuela- born Accorsi may be best known for his efforts to breakout some of the NYC’s now world-renowned graffiti artists. The list of artist he championed includes Keith Haring, Crash, Futura and LA 2, whose wildly colorful Fender Stratocaster is a centerpiece of the exhibit.

    Rock and Roll Circus

    “This exhibition is circled around the notion that music and the visual arts are often intertwined and never far from each other,” says Accorsi. “In a song, there’s a story and that story becomes a visual reference for us – all in a quest for the pure and the sublime.  All of the artists in this show have an interdisciplinary approach to life.  They all stand against the fossilized notion that an artist can only be a great artist in one discipline.  And this work certainly demonstrates their position.”  

    Rock and Roll Circus

    The New Gallery’s latest exhibit includes 38 works in total, from photography, sculpture, painting and poster art to fashion illustration, collage, animation cels and even sheet music.

    Highlights include a lithograph of a Wes Wilson poster made for a performance by Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable with the Velvet Underground and Nico at the Fillmore in San Francisco, one signed by Warhol himself.  There’s also an original poster from Jimi Hendrix’s legendary New Year’s performance with his Band of Gypsies at the Fillmore East and a unique, uncut 2-up poster by Rick Griffin for a Hendrix performance at Royal Albert Hall. 

    Rock and Roll Circus

    Also showcased and available for purchase are limited edition prints from several famous photographers. These include Francesco Scavullo’s 1969 portrait of Janis Joplin, lithographs of Richard Avedon’s psychedelicized, individual portraits of The Beatles shot for Look Magazine in 1967, a Harvey Wang’s stage shot of Klaus Nomi, a Robin Rice performance snap of Patti Smith circa 1979 and Christophe Von Hohenberg portraits of Britney Spears and Debbie Harry, the latter taken at Andy Warhol’s memorial in 1987. Hudson’s own music notable, Melissa Auf Def Maur, is represented with a self-portrait shot while performing in Capetown, South Africa with The Smashing Pumpkins in 2000.  Beatles’ fanatics will want to peruse the original animation cels from their 1968 film, Yellow Submarine, featured in the New Gallery’s collection.

    Rock and Roll Circus

    Ramones’ devotees will be stopped dead in their tracks by Punk Magazine co-founder John Holmstrom’s pen and ink study for the cover art for their Rockets to Russia album.  Even more incredible (and unsettling!) is Dee Dee Ramones’ “Horror Hospital,” an acrylic and silk screen on canvas painting of someone getting a lobotomy… with an ice pick!  Famed director and sometime musician Jim Jarmusch is here with a 2021 collage of two guitarists in performance, while Beacon-based Richard Butler, the front man of The Psychedelic Furs, showcases a dramatic 2005 painting of fashion model-turned-victims advocate Marla Hanson.  Also included are works from Mark and Paul Kostabi, producer/engineer Marc Urselli, djs Dmitry Wild and Mark Prosser, Alvaro Segura, Fernando Batoni, Tom McGill, Stella McNicol, fashion designer Stephen Sprouse and a page from a score by composer John Cage. Prices begin at $400 and run to $10,000+.

    Like the musicians themselves who dabble in art, gallerist Accorsi is also busy with his latest musical project, the old school NYC punk-inspired Toxic Tito.  Check out his latest video shot at Catskill’s Avalon Lounge, “I Don’t Like You,”

    The Rock and Roll Circus Art Show will be on exhibit through June 5th at The New Gallery, 610 Warren Street in Hudson.

  • Big Apple Bike Messenger Turned Street Music Star Sammy Buttons Makes National TV Debut on Rachael Ray

    Before Covid-19 closed down NYC in March 2020, Sam Pritchard had spent nearly 30 years running a successful bike messenger company. But when the pandemic shuttered every business that might need his service, Pritchard decided to close up shop. But he didn’t leave the streets; he just took to them with a new name and a new passion.

    sammy buttons
    photo by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn for The New York Times

    Sam Pritchard pivoted and became Sammy Buttons – New York’s funkiest, keyboard-wielding pop-up jam session/dance party host.  Together with a wide array of guesting singers, drummers, horn and guitar players, The Sammy Buttons Experience has been spreading the gift of groove heavy funk music to this shutdown weary city of 8 million for over two years, and often seven days a week. Sam and his rotating cast of collaborators have been serving it up on street corners, in parks and transit stations – attracting large, happy crowds from Wall Street to Harlem. And he’s been making a pretty good living at it too, one he says is far better than many musicians playing in NYC ‘s clubs.

    I have known Sam since the early 1990s, when his messenger company began serving my Manhattan-based PR firm. I knew his Covid career reinvention was an interesting one, something I had the chance to relate in a story I wrote for the New York Times. But it was not Covid alone that drove him to music. Like many of us, Sam had been a lifelong player in his off-hours, someone who always dreamed of playing music fulltime, just like his idols Sly Stone and Stevie Wonder.  He finally took to the street with his music, not only because Covid interrupted his business, but because of a promise made to one of his closest musician friends, the late bass player Tony Russell.  Russell was someone with whom he played with briefly on the streets who passed tragically at the beginning of the pandemic. You can find out more about this and Sam’s life story by reading the New York Times profile here.

    Watch Sammy Buttons performing in Sheridan Square

    There’s a saying in the world of PR that “publicity begats publicity.” And that has certainly been the case for Sammy Buttons. 

    As a result of his newfound fame,  Sammy has received some great opportunities to be a part of events that take place indoors.  He and his most frequent collaborator, saxman Bernell Jones II, enjoyed a two-week residency performing at the luxurious Soundview Inn in Greenport in February, one they will reprise this coming summer. This past month, Sammy was invited to begin hosting periodic Sunday Jam sessions at Sid Gold’s Request Room, the popular piano and karaoke bar co-founded by Loser’s Lounge piano man Joe McGinty.  Sam’s legend will soon spread to Australia when a segment shot this past month airs on SBS Television, that country’s equivalent of PBS.

    On March 3rd, New York’s new street music star made his national TV debut on the much-watched Rachael Ray Show.  Though host Ray was out on a Covid quarantine and not in the studio during the taping, she and her 2 million viewers across America got to hear Sammy’s story and experience his uniquely uplifting music and personality.  Check it out here.

    To keep up on the latest, follow The Sammy Buttons Experience on Instagram.

  • Process, Pain & Peak Experience – 50 Years of King Crimson Explored in New Documentary

    In the Court of the Crimson King, Toby Amies’ fantastic new film about prog rock pioneers King Crimson, is like no other rock documentary that has come before it. 

    And that, Music Lovers, is a very good thing. 

    It’s as far from the tiresome VH-1 Behind the Music cliche of rise/drug-fueled fall/redemption as a music doc could be. At times, it’s something curiously akin to The Office (the U.K./Ricky Gervias edition, of course). Like this hilariously dry TV sitcom, it’s the study of the personalities, pressures and pleasures in a workplace. In this case, it’s the most profoundly creative and frequently reinvented band in art rock for 53 years and counting.  Also like The Office, it hinges on the whims of a prickly but impossible not to love leader – the superlatively serious and accidentally humorous god of guitar and ensemble discipline, Robert Fripp.

    King Crimson

    Amies’ film follows Fripp and his latest incarnation of Crimson, a seven-man virtuoso ensemble including three drummers, on their 50th anniversary tour right before COVID-19 descended.  The director complements this fly-on-the-wall vantage of the present with a wonderful survey of the dozen or so incarnations of the band past.  This begins with the fiery five-man ensemble that set the template for progressive rock with their earthquaking 1969 debut album, from which this film takes its name. It was a group that lasted for only 13 months and included ELP front man-to-be Greg Lake and Foreigner co-founder Ian McDonald.      

    More than anything, this is a study of the social environment and unique creative methodology through which Fripp and his many collaborators have crafted some of most transcendent moments in 20th and now 21st Century music.  These are always evolving sounds that lurch between heavenly harmonic beauty and unsettling noisy dissonance. It’s a formula that has forged an almost spiritual hold upon Crimson’s cultish, cross-generational fanbase and the music makers themselves, for whom their time with Fripp, no matter how fleeting or difficult, was the apex of their creative lives.

    For fans like myself who have been enthralled since confronting the shrieking red-faced man on the cover of their debut disc, the uncensored interviews with past members of different era of Crimson is what makes Amies’ take so meaningful. 

    King Crimson

    Fripp himself begins by calling the whole experience an exercise in “joy with acute suffering,” saying he was “incredibly unhappy, in a word, wretched from 1969 – 2013.”  This is a man who confesses he starts his day with a cold shower because it’s good for “telling the body to do as it’s told.”  He claims his 2013 and post ensemble is the only band “where not one member actively resents my presence.”

    In the film, Fripp calls Amies on the carpet for interrupting his 4-hour daily rehearsal routine for an interview, something that he claims has ruined the prior evening’s concert. Discipline is the keyword in Fripp’s lexicon. In fact, it was the initial name of the band (replaced by once again utilizing King Crimson) and debut album of his classic Gamelan-inspired guitar synth quartet of the 1980s. This much-beloved aggregation featured Adrian Belew, Fripp’s still-current bassist/Chapman Stick player, Woodstock’s own Tony Levin, and monster percussionist Bill Bruford.

    Bruford, who left Yes at the height of their fame in 1972 and continued with Crimson incarnations through 1984, launches some of the most quotable moments in the film.  He joined because King Crimson was “the dream band viewed from the outside, the band that could do anything.” He continues: “Like Miles Davis, you find the most interesting people you can find, throw them in the recording studio and throw away the key.  You might get something interesting… if they haven’t killed each other!” Bruford adds that when it comes to being in Crimson “without a sense of absurdity, you are lost.”  Longtime collaborator Trey Gunn puts the experience this way: “It’s like having a low-grade infection, you’re not really sick, but you don’t really feel well either.”

    Jamie Muir, the madcap percussionist of the highly improvisatory Lark’s Tongue and Aspic era band says of performance: “It was a maelstrom of electricity.  You’d have to stand in the middle of this storm and play music.”  Of the compositions: “It was like a regal animal trying to emerge out of something, like an unfinished Michelangelo sculpture.” Muir left the band within a year, just as the critically-acclaimed Lark’s Tongue was released. To wind down from the creative chaos, he headed straight to a monastery in Scotland to become a Buddhist monk!

    Ian McDonald, the keyboardist, reed man and co-composer of some of the classic tracks on their debut disc, left shortly after the album’s release, at the end of their first U.S. tour, along with drummer Michael Giles.  “I hated the dark music we inflicted upon the audience,” he says.  But he ultimately came to regret his sudden decision to leave the band, one that was just taking flight. “I used to beat myself up about it, used to regret it, but I don’t anymore.” Giles for his part reminisces about his love of the band’s “spontaneous music, the ability to enter into the unknown.” In his efforts to keep this first iteration of the band together, Fripp offered to leave the band he founded to let McDonald, Giles and company continue on. But it was something his partners rejected. Of McDonald, who passed in February 2022, Fripp says “his only decision was the wrong one.”

    Saxophonist Mel Collins, who joined Crimson for a three-year, three-album run in 1970 and returning around the time of the documentary tour, speaks to the changes in the band, then to now. “It’s better to be in this edition of King Crimson, there’s more freedom,” he says.  “In the 1970s, there was a lot of trauma.  I had problems with Robert; he was so serious. If you made a mistake, it was the end of the world. Some of us went through hell.” On fearless leader Fripp, he concludes: “Robert went through some traumas himself… He’s mellowed, he’s a nice person.”

    King Crimson

    Speaking of hell, with a lot of heaven, the most seemingly still wounded feelings come from Adrian Belew, guitarist/singer/songwriter in Crimson iterations from 1981 – 2013.

    “Ninety-percent of it was this beautiful and unique partnership, as writers and guitar partners… it was a lot of fun,” says Belew.  “But it was so stressful, my hair had fallen out.”  Of his removal from King Crimson, Belew recalls: “I thought it was a partnership, but he let me go. I thought it was ‘our band,’ but he wants it all his way.” If things aren’t going to his satisfaction, Belew says Fripp “will take his guitar and go home.”

    But the heart of this documentary is the current edition of King Crimson, the backstory on the members, their fans and majestic music they are still conjuring, plenty of which is captured in this film.

    One fan who gets prominent play is Sister Dana Benedicta, the so-called Prog Rock Nun, who compares their music-making to the liturgy, a religious experience like a Catholic mass.  Another fan comments on the two-way relationship “where the musicians and the audience have to be present for the music to happen.” It’s compared by another fan to Scientology, an arcane cult experience, where “the music is making itself, flying, possessed by something other than (the musicians) themselves.”

    What the musicians and audiences are after is a “peak experience” says Trey Gunn.  And the pressures, within Fripp, the band and with audiences come from “wanting to reach that peak experience again and again.”

    The most poignant character in the documentary is the late Bill Rieflin, the drummer/keyboardist who worked with industrial music icons Ministry, The Revolting Cocks, The Swans and Nine Inch Nails among others before join King Crimson in 2013. 

    King Crimson

    Amies then catches up with Rieflin at home after the tour, shortly before his passing in March 2020. Here he states he “has no fear of death because consciousness is a continuum.”

    In a band where Fripp seems to keep the “process” fresh by changing partners again and again, he says of Rieflin. “Bill is irreplaceable.”  He concludes that he will be an on-going member of the band, in spirit perhaps, for as long as there is a Crimson King forever reaching for another peak musical experience.

    The film, which premiered at SXSW in March 2022, is expected to premiere in theaters and streaming services in fall 2022.

  • Luscious Dissonance with Thollem, Cline, Wimberly & Bisio at Lace Mill

    For six years, acclaimed bassist Michael Bisio and his artist wife Dawn have been bringing some of the jazz world’s finest to Lace Mill, the 55-unit affordable artist housing, gallery and performance space in Kingston that is also their home.  On Thursday, March 24, the Bisios presented yet another astounding hour of improvisational invention in their long-running performance series, when the bassist was joined by guitar great Nels Cline, pianist Thollem and drummer Michael Wimberly.

    lace mill

    Bisio has been called “a poet, a wonder and one of the most virtuosic and imaginative performers” on the double bass. He has over a one hundred thirty recordings in his discography, more than two dozen as leader or co-leader as well, as a dozen more documenting his extraordinary association with piano icon Matthew Shipp. His newest release which dropped a few days back, MBefore (Tao Forms), is an already critically-raved about work that finds Bisio in the company of another Hudson Valley great, world-renowned vibraphonist and Creative Music Studio founder Karl Berger, along with Mat Maneri (viola) and Whit Dickey (drums). Guitarist Nels Cline has been featured on over 200 recordings over the past few decades in every conceivable genre.  But Cline is best known for his 17-years and counting stint as lead guitarist for Wilco.  Drummer Wimberly has propelled greats like Charles Gayle, Henry Rollins, David Murray and Steve Coleman’s always excellent 5 Elements ensemble, while the perpetually globe-trotting Thollem has recently completed a 25-album cycle, one that found him collaborating with over 70 musicians worldwide.

    The 40 or so attendees who packed the small performance space at Lace Mill included quite a few of Bisio’s fellow musicians and collaborators including the aforementioned Berger and Juma Sultan, the forever young percussionist best known for his appearance with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. 

    Bisio and company collectively conjured two, 30-minute improvisations during the concert. These were really ever-evolving examples of spontaneous composition, ones that demonstrated both their individual instrumental mastery and the resources in seemingly shortest supply among musicians – the arts of listening and injecting silence to give oxygen to the music.

    The first improvisation kicked-off with Bisio moving from resonant chording to drone-like bowing, then to rubbing the strings behind the bridge and even punching his double bass.  Pianist Thollem alternated between machine gun runs a la Cecil Taylor and tapping, plucking and even drumming the insides of his instrument.  A master of stomp box f*ckery, Cline kept a clean and relatively untreated sound on both improvisations, crafting new harmonic avenues for exploration with his spare but richly intelligent chord structures and his darting leads.  It was a place where subtlety and cacophony co-existed, all within an arresting, ever-spiraling musical architecture, one that seemed to evolve into whole new nations of sound every four or five minutes.  The piece concluded with a thundering solo by drummer Wimberly, who used sticks, brushes, mallets and his bare hands to wrestle unique sounds from the world’s oldest instrument.

    The second improv commenced with Thollem singing and whistling into his piano. He was soon joined on the vocalese by drummer Wimberly, who together created a sound resembling the chanting of monks, a Cambodian temple music of sorts. Cline added to the drama by getting percussive on his Fender Jazzmaster guitar, now outfitted with two sticks to mute its strings.  The whistle of a passing freight train on the tracks adjacent to Lace Mill only added to the otherworldly ambience. In this latter musical adventure, Bisio took a masterful 5-minute solo. It concluded with his bowed bass generating high-pitched overtones that sounded like a Shehnai, a double-reeded Indian wind instrument heard on tracks like The Beatles’ “Inner Light,” or a flock of seagulls caught up in a typhoon!  There was a wonderful guitar solo from Cline propelled by Thollem’s thunderous chordal comps and Wimberly’s circular drum rolls and shouts.

    Bottomline? Dissonance never sounded so luscious!

    Bisio will be back at Lace Mill on Sunday, April 10 at 4 pm for a performance with the quartet featured on his new release, MBefore (featuring wonderful cover art by his wife Dawn).  Hudson Valley guitar aficionados can catch Nels Cline on Saturday, April 2 at 8 pm at Colony Woodstock. 

    Bisio, Berger, Sultan and many more of the Hudson Valley’s most creative jazz and electronic improvisers are being featured at a new concert series at the Kingston Library curated by another Lace Mill resident, Daniel Rhiner of the Kingston Artist Collective.   More excellent improvisational ensembles are being presented regularly, both live and via concurrent livestreams curated by owner D.b. Schnell at Green Kill, his long-running art and performance space at 229 Greenkill Avenue in Kingston.  

  • Mdou Moctar Brings Saharan Guitar Smoke Show to Colony Woodstock

    In 2017, the Washington Post published a story entitled “The Death of the Electric Guitar.” But you wouldn’t know it from the sell-out crowd that packed Colony Woodstock this past Monday night, March 21, for a masterclass in six-string sorcery by the acclaimed Nigerian guitarist/singer Mdou Moctar.

    For those not in the know, Moctar has been turning heads with his unique brand of African blues/psych rock since his 2008 debut disc, Anar. This astounding collection achieved popularity not via a savvy record company marketing blitz, but when it went viral over African cellphone music trading networks and when two of its tunes were included on the globally-distributed compilation, Music from Saharan Cellphones: Volume 1 (Sahel Sounds).  Moctar is the latest exponent of Tuareg Guitar Music, also known as Desert Blues, a fusion of rock, blues, psychedelia and ethno modal music popularized by tribal musicians in the Saharan region, particularly Mali, Libya, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Niger.  He is furthering a sound that first gained global popularity via the critically-acclaimed works of Ali Farka Toure and Tinariwen.

    Moctar is concluding a 25-concert North American tour in support of his sixth album, 2021’s Afrique Victime (Matador Records). This fiery collection has garnered rave reviews from the likes of NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Paste, Pitchfork and many more. Matador has just dropped an expanded edition with nine additional tracks, including a variety demos and live offerings, the setting where Moctar truly soars.

    Moctar’s set at Colony Woodstock was heavily weighted with tracks from his new album.  The show commenced with the album opener and its most streamed tune, “Chismiten.” Like many of the songs performed, this kicked off with some unaccompanied guitar, before the band joined in to propel Moctar’s vocals and lengthy solos with pulsing and very hypnotic beats.

    The signature of Moctar’s style is the switchblade bite emanating from his white Fender Stratocaster. Though he slings it lefty like Hendrix to whom he is frequently compared, his trebly tonality may be even more reminiscent of that of Telecaster-powered blues legend Albert “The Ice Man” Collins or the Lebanese born, modal-minded pioneer of surf guitar, Dick Dale – both inspirations to Jimi. Mdou Moctar also brings to my mind the great Black Rock Coalition associated guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly (for more guitar thrills, check out his incredible disc, Rock the Cathartic Spirit).  Moctar’s sound is heavily phased and overdriven via a modest array of stomp boxes and his retro Roland Jazz Chorus amp, something not seen much since Andy Summers’ days in The Police.

    Moctar’s melodic style mixes Eastern-sounding modal scales with the blues punched up with psych/rock scream.  There are plenty of slurs, trills, hammer-ons and pull-offs, single string climbs and even some tapping, in a percussive more so than melodic Van Halen style. The most unique visual aspect of his style may be his picking. This seems to be accomplished solely with his index finger, which plucks away at the strings like a mad chicken one moment, then becomes an indecipherable blur when he unleashes rapid-fire passages. 

    The hour-long set at Colony Woodstock was a Saharan shred-fest. Many of the tunes again began with Moctar solo and featured him improvising at length and repeatedly, greatly stretching out of the songs featured on his newest album to the delight of the audience.  His music would not be anywhere near as powerful without the support of his band.  Drummer Souleyman Ibrahim and guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane provided a powerful steady and unflagging rhythmic platform upon which Moctar soared.  Bassist Michael “Mikey” Coltun, who has also served as Moctar’s producer since 2017, laid down a rich bottom with his Fender bass, just like Billy Cox in Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies. Kudos to Colony’s Max Siegel for providing impeccable sound and to owners Neil and Alexia Howard and booker Mike Campbell for bringing this intriguing offering to this intimate space. 

    Mdou Moctar and band brought the evening to a close with an extended version of their new album’s title track, “Afrique Victime.”  The track showcased the band’s tight unison playing on melody and stop-time passages and its hypnotic impact, as the tune stretched towards the 10-minute mark, with the rhythm section underpinning Moctar’s most frenetic, noisy and adventurous soloing of the night.

    Photo Gallery by Rob Yasinsac

  • Jazz Visionary Michael Gregory Jackson Releases for First Solo Electric Guitar Album “Electric Git Box”

    Michael Gregory Jackson, the innovative guitarist namechecked as a vital influence by modern masters like Vernon Reid, Brandon Ross, Bill Frisell and Nels Cline, is releasing his first-ever solo electric guitar album, Electric Git Box (Golden Records). Available exclusively at the artist’s Bandcamp site, the digital offering boasts 11 unaccompanied solo guitar pieces showcasing the breathtaking stylistic scope and technique of this critically-acclaimed and influential guitarist’s singular work. 

    Electric Git Box includes both reinterpretations of Jackson originals dating back to his 1976 solo debut, Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square, as well as a host of powerful new work. The release also includes extensive liner notes comprised of reflections on Electric Git Box from Oliver Lake, Vernon Reid, Bakida Carroll, Ed Motta, Brian Jackson and Brandon Ross, as well as a poem written for the project by author/playwright/poet Jessica Hagedorn, with additional writings from Jackson.

    Michael Gregory Jackson Electric Git Box

    Jackson says of Electric Git Box, “The nature of beauty is at the core of my being and my music, alongside aggression, passion, fire, and powerful feelings of personal independence and creative freedom. This project was borne of an angst-full period for me, I was feeling inundated with tragedies, the isolation of Covid lockdowns, re-occurring police and vigilante killings of Black people, and living with the omnipresent reality of systemic racism. I was feeling angry, disconnected and erased; thus, I recorded this music with some edges, some distortion, to communicate the multifaceted well of emotions that birthed this performance.”

    He goes on to explain, “My guitars, which I’ve called ‘git boxes’ since my teens, have always been my companions and a sanctuary to me, vehicles to help me through the angst of my younger life, and now. Through my guitars, I discovered discipline, self-awareness and inspiration, my git boxes opened a conduit, a dive in deep access and connection to the blues-ness in me.”

    Electric Git Box opens with a recent original, “Karen (Sweet Angel)”, an evocative ballad dedicated to his lady love, one which contrasts wide open chording and deep harmony with quicksilver melodies and fills.  On “Sweet Rain Blues,” Jackson revs up a gut bucket blues, one that Vernon Reed characterizes as “simultaneously rural, urban, then veers off into considerations of what’s really happening when the sun is shining although it’s raining in your heart”, while on “Wish” Jackson’s blues has a distinct sarod-like tonality. On another recent original, “Hymn for My People,” Jackson recites a funerial slow, ultra-mournful tone poem – largely in single note lines, while “Perseverance” is a driving anthem, as unrelenting as its title. Both, according to the artist “are inspired by the struggle and defiant spirit of my ancestors, and artistic predecessors in all idioms, and all freedom fighters in the fight for the liberation of all oppressed peoples.”

    With “Preleuoionti,” Jackson reprises the acoustic guitar showpiece from his 1976 debut disc recorded as a 23-year-old, Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square. This version has a new depth, one that only time and his mastery of the tonality of the electric SG can add. Another reinvented classic, “Theme X (For Geri Allen),” is a tribute to the late composer and keyboard master, an associate from his early days in New Haven and New York in the 1970s, a composition first heard on Jackson’s 2019 disc, WHENUFINDITUWILLKNOW, with his Clarity Quartet.  Ornette Coleman is the dedicatee on “JcakJcak (for Ornette)”, a rapid fire, sometimes dissonant rollercoaster of melody first heard on his “Spirit Single Strata” trio album with drummer Kenward Dennard and bassist Keith Witty, and his Clarity Quartet collection, “After Before.” The same two albums included “Meditation in E (For Karen),” another airy ballad that showcases Jackson’s unique harmonic sense and bluesy sheets of sound soloing.

    “Michael’s powerful and melodic & rhythmic sensibilities imbues all these pieces with tactile energy,” says guitar great Vernon Reid. “Michael Gregory Jackson has always cut a singular musical path on his journey through many genres that have been his wheelhouse, through many schools of jazz, alternative rock and even Avant folk. This collection of solo electric guitar may be Michael’s most personal musical exploration yet.”

    Pre-order here and visit Michael Gregory Jackson on Bandcamp.