CLASSIC SONGS: "CROSSROADS" REVISITED

I had originally posted this Stills medley because it was just too good not to share with y'all. But a coincidental performance by Eric Clapton on the same day I found this Stills take was too cool to pass up so what we have here is an appreciation of one of the signposts of blues rock, the Robert Johnson song "Crossroads". You can delve into the history of the song here and the strange legacy of the great Robert Johnson has been explored endlessly elsewhere but for today here are some fun stabs at this essential blues rave-up.

First, Robert Johnson's slightly looser version leads the column above. His other version (also from 1936) can be heard here.

Vintage Stills, this solo acoustic version of his medley of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" and Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" is a very different take on the tune, uniquely Stillsian. Circa 1983 from TV's "Rock N Roll Tonight" show. See more of his set from this broadcast here featuring rare duo performances of Stills & Graham Nash.

Most of the electric versions here owe a huge debt to Creams's classic renditions of the song which we'll end the blog with. The version of "Crossroads" below is from Eric Clapton's recent set at Madison Square Garden for the 12/12/12 Sandy Relief concert. See more from his set here.

Here's one from jamband heroes Phish recorded live 12/29/97.

Before shredding was a musical term, the kings of shred. CREAM from the film Farewell Cream Filmed at their final concert at the Royal Albert Hall on November 26, 1968...

VIDEO: MIKE WATT + THE MISSINGMEN - COVER JIMI, WIRE, MINUTEMEN, ROKY, STOOGES, B.O.C.

Mike Watt + Missingmen on their recent "2nd heapin' helpin' of 3rd opera tour 2012"
have been performing Jimi Hendrix and Band of Gypsys' classic "MACHINE GUN" as part of their encores. Here's it is in a medley with Wire's "106 Beats That", Minutemen's "Glory of Man" both sung by Watson and "The Glory of Man" Blue Oyster Cult's "The Red & The Black" from October 6, 2012 & The Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines, IA.

Mike Watt: thud staff, vocals / Tom Watson: guitar / Raul Morales: drums...I'm not sure who the two guest guitarists are. Sorry. Nevertheless, crusher.


"START A BAND!!!" Word.

This below is cool too...from earlier in 2011 in Seattle with special guests Dave Grohl, Pat Smear  and Eddie Vedder all of whom were in Watt's band in 1997...slamming into Watt's "Big Train" and Iggy & The Stooges "Fun House"...

 also a taste of last week's gig in Pedro courtesy of Skipper Jeff.. first covers of Wire's "Three Girl Rhumba" and below that Roky Erickson's "Sweet Honey Pie"... Watt's got it covered.

121212 CONCERT for victims of SANDY - CLIPS

 

-- THIS VERSION OF THIS POST WHICH ORIGINALLY APPEARED HERE 12/13/12 NOW HAS UPDATED QUALITY AND/OR ADDED FULL VERSIONS OF MANY OF THE PREVIOUSLY POSTED VIDEOS AND HAS ALSO ADDED MANY FULL SONGS NOT PREVIOUSLY POSTED (this update posted 12/16/12)

The 121212 CONCERT for victims of Sandy was held last night with an amazing line-up of BIG NAME bands. If was broadcast for free across the web, in theaters across the country, on hundreds of TV and radio stations worldwide.

Here are some clips of highlights but don't forget, you can STILL donate money directly to the cause HERE at the 121212concert.org website

At top: Roger Waters performing "Comfortably Numb" with guest Eddie Vedder (full song, xlnt quality).

Full length versions HD versions of songs are now popping up available. Apologies for all of these lesser quality clips and partial versions but I thought I should get something up for those who missed it and who might be prompted to contribute. I will post updates here as they pop up on YouTube. If any of you have complete set or song links please forward them.

If you've got three hours here is a link to the part one of the complete broadcast or pick and choose some choice moments below. I'll post part two soon.

In the meantime, here are some clips to wet your whistle. Looks like quite an amazing night...performances by the Rolling Stones, Kanye West, Michael Stipe, Roger Waters with Eddie Vedder...Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Chris Martin, Eric Clapton, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal and many more...

"Born To Run" rocking for Jersey with The Boss and Jon Bon Jovi...(full song, good quality)

Paul McCartney and Nirvana reunion playing a new jam in the "Helter Skelter" mode called "Cut Me Some Slack" (full song, upgraded quality):

A retired Michael Stipe was asked by his buddy Chris Martin from Coldplay to chow up and sing one of R.E.M.'s biggest hits, "Losing My Religion"

Adam Sandler performs "Sandy, Screw Ya" with Paul Shaeffer to the tune of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (full song):

Here's most of Billy Joel's version of "Movin' Out" (partial, marginal quality) and "River of Dreams"

The Who play "Pinball Wizard" (full song, updated quality):

The Rolling Stones "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (only the last half is here):

Eric Clapton performing first an acoustic "Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out" and then a fierce electric "Got to Get better In A Little While" (both full songs in xlnt quality). Check out the post here for Eric's version of "Crossroads" from this concert as well.

Bon Jovi with The Boss guesting on "Who Says You Can't Go Home" (marginal quality):

also above Bon Jovi "Living On A Prayer"

Alicia Keys leads the finale "Empire State of Mind": (marginal sound quality):

and I'm just sayin' she needs to play Lena Horne in a biopic...

TRIBUTE TO STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN

Just feeling it just might be time for some end of the year blues. Here's an inspired, nearly 80 minute interview and live music tribute to the great Stevie Ray Vaughan. Stevie's band Double Trouble, brother Jimmie Vaughan and special guests Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Dr. John and Art Neville all put it out there for Stevie. Great renditions of some of SRV's signature tunes and some archival footage from the Austin City Limits 1996 special. 

     

And while were at it, here the sweet 93+ minutes of Stevie Ray Vaughan at the Montreux Jazz Festival.  A force of nature...

A LITTLE JAZZ FOR YOUR HOLIDAY STOCKING

First of a series of weekly holiday music posts this season...here are some jazz favorites of mine...Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon, Louis Armstrong, Bob Dorough & Miles Davis, Duke Pearson and Vince Guaraldi. What are your favorite holiday jazz tracks?

MIKE WATT NOV. 10 IN PEDRO

DEETS: www.mikewatt.com

QUOTES OF THE DAY - DAVID HUME

"Nothing carries a man through the world like a true genuine natural impudence."

"Must our whole discourse be a continue series of gossiping stories and idle remarks? Must the mind never rise higher, but be perpetually,
                                          Stun'd and worn out with endless chat
                                          Of Will did this and Nan said that?"

-- Scottish philosopher David Hume as quoted by Daniel Menaker in his wonderful book on the art of conversation, GOOD TALK. 

QUOTES OF THE DAY - Einstein / Twain / Diller

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
~Albert Einstein

 

 "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, 

it is time to pause and reflect."

- Mark Twain 

 

"I wanted to become me, totally me. The more me, the better.

I instinctively knew this and I was right."

- Phyllis Diller 

...and they all use the same stylist.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Isn't the artist's real job to learn from nature? Instead of churning out pop hits, shouldn't the truly talented among us be listening to the flutter of a butterfly's wing?"

- Marvin Gaye

JAZZ NEWS - TIM BERNE

SAXOPHONIST TIM BERNE'S INTERVIEW IN VILLAGE VOICE

I've had the pleasure of seeing Tim Berne perform live in numerous settings and ensembles since the early 80s and it is always a mind-boggling experience. Testing the listener's pre-conceptions and notions of what music not only is made of but of what kind of physical and emotion sensations one is able to absorb from a musical experience.

Here is a fun and rare interview with the artist which delves into his perspectives on being an independent label owner (Screwgun) and creative musician in today's Internet driven landscape.

NEW REMASTERED MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR DVD from THE BEATLES

More info at THE BEATLES official website.

From BASS MUSICIAN:

Paul McCartney’s Rickenbacker Remixed On Restored Magical Mystery Tour Movie

55th MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL JUST AROUND THE CORNER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 12, 2012 www.montereyjazzfestival.org
Monterey Jazz Festival Enhances Its Services and Offerings for Patrons Including Live Webcast from the Night Club,  Free Wi-Fi on Fairgrounds, Free 55th Festival Apps for iPhone and Android Mobile Phones Festival Increases Greening Efforts in 2012 to Include U.S. Pure Water Stations, Food Waste Collection Program, Free Bicycle Valet Parking Festival Parking Arrangements Courtesy of Monterey Peninsula College and JAZZ Shuttles for Patrons Provided by Monterey-Salinas Transit September 12, 2012; Monterey, CA; Monterey Jazz Festival is proud to announce a number of enhancements to the 55th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, all to benefit the patron experience. Once again, nightly concerts from the Night Club’s Bill Berry Stage will be available through a free live Web stream, brought to a global audience through a partnership between Monterey Jazz Festival and StreamGuys. Nine shows will be available September 21-23, beginning with Friday Night’s Pedrito Martinez Group featuring Ariacne Trujillo; Gregoire Maret Quartet; and Gregory Porter streaming live starting at 8:00 p.m. Saturday’s shows, beginning at 7:30 p.m., include Christian Scott; Tierney Sutton Band; and Bill Frisell’s Beautiful Dreamers featuring Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston. Sunday’s Web stream, starting at 7:00 p.m. includes the Hammond B3 Blowout with the John Abercrombie Trio; Larry Goldings Trio; and the Chester Thompson Quartet. All Webcasts are Pacific Standard Time. Visit montereyjazzfestival.org/2012/live for our 2012 live Web stream. Also returning for 2012 will be the free 55th Monterey Jazz Festival App, for iPhone and Android and free Wi-Fi on the Festival grounds, so patrons can use these apps with ease. Each version of the Monterey Jazz Festival App gives patrons the ability to build a customized schedule of events, read artist info and bios, watch the live Webcast, access photo archives, and many more interactive features. The App can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store or Google Play by searching for “Monterey Jazz Festival.” The free Wi-Fi is brought to Festival patrons by Meraki and Alvarez Technology Group. Continued efforts to make the Monterey Jazz Festival as green as possible include offering a self-service filtered water station, beverage container recycling, food waste recycling, and bicycle valet.  The self-service filtered water program, in association with U.S. Pure Water, will help to eliminate the need for and the waste of single-use plastic bottles at the Festival.,  All Festival attendees will be provided free access to multiple USPW filtered water stations (using compostable coconut shell carbon) throughout the three-day festival. Patrons are asked to assist in the success of this new program by refilling and reusing drinking containers, leading to a huge reduction in plastic bottle waste from the event. Water bottles will also available for purchase, with the proceeds benefiting the Festival’s life-changing jazz education programs. Ecology Action of Santa Cruz, in partnership with Pacific Grove’s The Offset Project will continue to implement comprehensive beverage container recycling programs and collect the food waste from the vendor areas, to help get closer to zero waste. The Monterey County Fairgrounds received hundreds of blue recycling barrels that are currently used during all venue events, and in 2011, the program transported nearly 3,000 pounds of food waste. Returning to the Monterey Jazz Festival for the fifth year in a row is the free Bicycle Valet Parking for patrons who are able to commute to the Festival from local hotels and residences, provided in partnership between Monterey Jazz Festival, the Monterey County Fairgrounds, Monterey Green Action, and Green Pedal Couriers. The free Bicycle Valet Service is located at Fairgrounds Gate 3, on the corner of Fairground Road and Garden Road, at the southwest end of the Festival grounds. Monterey Green Action is committed to minimizing the environmental footprint of the city of Monterey, promoting green policies and practices, raising awareness, and spurring community action. General Paid Parking for the 55th Monterey Jazz Festival will be at Monterey Peninsula College, a short distance from the Fairgrounds, located at 980 Fremont Street, Monterey, CA 93940. The Monterey Jazz Festival will charge $10 to cover parking costs. Complimentary Bus Service, provided by Monterey-Salinas Transit, will be available every fifteen minutes throughout the Festival weekend, offering easy and eco-friendly transportation between the parking areas at Monterey Peninsula College and the Monterey County Fairgrounds. The new JAZZ bus line will be unveiled for Festival patrons, which will serve the most heavily travelled route across Monterey beginning fourth quarter of 2012, reducing local travel times by as much as 25%. The JAZZ line will also connect over 30 custom designed shelters that feature displays highlighting the Monterey Jazz Festival’s 55-year history. Complimentary Bus Service to the Festival will begin when the parking areas open at Monterey Peninsula College, beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, September 21; 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 22; and 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 23. All buses will be wheelchair accessible. We encourage all patrons to visit the Monterey Jazz Festival Web site, montereyjazzfestival.org  to view maps and more information regarding the parking for this year. Tickets for the 55th Monterey Jazz Festival September 21-23 are available by phone at 888.248.6499 through the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Web site, montereyjazzfestival.org, or through walk-up service at the Monterey County Fairgrounds beginning Monday, September 17 at 10:00 a.m. About Monterey Jazz Festival Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates the legacy of jazz and expands the boundaries of and opportunities to experience jazz through the creative production of performances and educational programs. The Festival, now in its 55th year, is the world’s longest continuously-running jazz festival.
### The 55th Monterey Jazz Festival partners include Alaska Airlines, Amoeba Music, Big Sur Land Trust, Carmel Road Winery, DownBeat, Gallien-Krueger, Inns of Monterey, The Jazz Cruise, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Jelly Belly, KGO 810, KUSP 88.9, Monterey Peninsula College, North Coast Brewing Company, Remo, San Jose Mercury News, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, StreamGuys, Yamaha Instruments, and Casa Vinicola Zonin. Monterey Jazz Festival also receives support for its Jazz Education Programs from AT&T Foundation, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Community Foundation of Monterey County, D’Addario Music Foundation, Joseph Drown Foundation, Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Fund, Harden Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Monterey Peninsula Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Pebble Beach Company Foundation, Quest Foundation, Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation, Rotary International, Upjohn California Fund, Union Bank Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Robert & Audrey Talbott Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, and generous individual contributors. THANKS TO TIM ORR AND MJF FOR PROVIDING THIS PRESS RELEASE...

JAZZ NEWS - GUITARIST REZ ABBASI 9th CD COMING 10/9

Guitarist REZ ABBASI Releases His Ninth Album Continuous Beat on Enja Records, October 9, 2012 Voted #2 Rising Star Guitarist in 2012 Down Beat International Critics Poll  Inventive guitarist Rez Abbasi takes the pulse of the modern guitar trio on his ninth album, Continuous Beat. Embracing the use of electronics and effects to broaden his sonic palette to a much further extent than he ever has in the past, Abbasi evolves the scope and range of possibilities of the traditional guitar/bass/drums format far beyond its apparent limitations. “People often think of the jazz guitar trio and relate it to all things historical,” Abbasi says. “That's not to say that the Jim Hall trio records aren’t some of my favorite albums of all time. But it’s 2012 now and we've heard a lot of purely ‘warm’ guitar trio albums. I wanted to stimulate the listener’s aural perception throughout the album - to give them a sense of textural surprise from start to finish that embodies both that warmth and the desire to push away from the commonplace.” The occasion for Abbasi’s first ever trio release was his discovery of the very special chemistry between himself, bassist John Hebert, and drummer Satoshi Takeishi. He has known and played with both for over fifteen years, but their uniting as a trio was a fortunate accident brought about by unfortunate circumstances. In late 2011, Abbasi was looking forward to performing for the first time with one of his musical heroes, the legendary drummer Paul Motian. He had composed a number of new pieces for the date, which was to be a trio with Hebert. Unfortunately, a week before the gig Motian was forced to cancel due to the health issues that would lead to his passing last November. Instead of canceling the date altogether, however, Abbasi tapped Takeishi to step in, knowing the Japanese-born drummer’s openness would mesh well with pieces composed with Motian in mind. “I knew Paul's playing intimately from recordings and seeing him live multiple times,” Abbasi says. “I felt this was a good opportunity to write a few tunes with his character in mind, the operative description being ‘complexity within simplicity.’ In other words, music that was comfortable enough to play without a rehearsal, yet stimulating enough to create an interactive trio sound. That seems to encapsulate his aesthetic.” Two of those pieces feature on Continuous Beat, whose title acknowledges the “immortality of great artists” like Motian, Abbasi explains. With Motian’s death, the album became something of a loose tribute and includes pieces from two composers associated with the drummer: Gary Peacock’s “Major Major” and Keith Jarrett’s “The Cure.” The trio also offers an evanescent arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s “Off Minor,” a Motian favorite. “Paul's life galvanized this project,” Abbasi says, “but then it went further from there.” The disc begins with the solo “Intro,” which offers a key to the album’s transformation of Abbasi’s approach. The piece is based on an Indian raga that the Pakistani-born guitarist has played often, but by using a reverse delay the material is mutated into something alien and unpredictable that Abbasi can play against, almost a duo with himself. That piece is bookended with Abbasi’s warm yet melancholy solo rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner,” which closes the CD. “Recording that was kind of cathartic in the sense that being an American at this point in history can be confusing, especially when you were born in Pakistan,” he says. “The question of ‘what it means’ arises given the climate of terrorism, the state of the union, the economy, immigration, et cetera. So I essentially tried to put the beauty back into my faith, although I'm not a ‘patriotic’ type at all. The melody has so much energy behind it that it simply felt right to do a modern day version with modern harmony.” Another meaning behind the album’s title came out of the fact that at the same time that Abbasi was mixing the session, his mother-in-law was undergoing triple bypass surgery. Alternating between the ER and the studio “was strange and emphasized the vitality of the heart,” he says. That vital heartbeat is evident in the trio’s interactions as soon as they appear on “Divided Attention” and is maintained throughout Continuous Beat. Both “Rivalry” and “iTexture” were written with Motian in mind, the latter also being a tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs following his death. “Back Skin” is a piece built on an Indian form that Abbasi has explored in different fashion in saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition. In projects like that trio and throughout his own work, Abbasi continually explores the conjunction between jazz and South Asian music. The guitarist moved to the US from Karachi, Pakistan at the age of four and went on to study at the University of Southern California and the Manhattan School of Music. He studied Indian music with a disciple of Ravi Shankar and performed and recorded with jazz greats including Billy Hart, Dave Douglas, Marilyn Crispell and Greg Osby. His own music has fused those two sounds in intriguing and surprising ways throughout his nine releases. Most important on this latest album for Abbasi was the chance to reconnect in such an intimate fashion with two longtime collaborators. “We've always had a connection,” he says of his triomates, “partly due to the way we interact as humans, partly due to what our vision of what music can be, and partly due to our unspoken telepathy. As jazz musicians we tend to move forward and make new relationships but there also comes a time to look back at some of our more meaningful relationships.” Release Date: October 9, 2012

www.reztone.com Publicity Contact: Matt Merewitz - Fully Altered Media 347-384-2839 matt@fullyaltered.com fullyaltered.com twitter.com/fullyaltered

Musicians vs. politicians

Musicians vs. politicians

From SALON.COM a slide show of musicians standing up for their right to say where their songs are used in the political arena. The thing I don't understand is after all the hoopla during the Reagan campaign about his misuse of "Born In The U.S.A." why would ANY politician regardless of party use someone's music without first checking with the artist? "Oh, yeah, we politicians are supposed to be beyond reproach. Oh yeah, the public is dumb and won't notice. Oh yeah, our people are incompetent and don't think we'll get caught. Oh yeah, trust us. We're smart. We cover all the bases. Oh, I mean, 'Oops'".

FIRSTS - NEIL ARMSTRONG 1st MAN ON THE MOON DIES

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)

So there are a few historical signposts in history for every generation where you remember where you where when you heard the news. The biggies for my father's generation there was the bombng of Pearl Harbor and V-J Day. For my grandparents it was all defined by a larger event, The Great Depression. My generation remembers where they were when Kennedy was shot, The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

When JFK announced the space program it was thrilling to a boy of seven years old. When John Glenn orbited the Earth, I was transfixed. I didn't miss one launch from Cape Canaveral (nee Kennedy). Walter Cronkite kept me posted. I read all about the astronauts, did book reports on them. I was transfixed by every thing about them as was everyone I knew. We'd get in the little yellow and red tepee in the backyard having ditched our Indian headdresses for empty cardboard ice cream buckets we'd scavenged from Baskin-Robbins and spray painted silver to use as helmets.

I was 12 years old and a child of the 60s when Apollo 11 set off for the moon. We had been dropped off at Green Oak Ranch Boys Camp in Vista, California for another summer time week of archery, horseback riding, making lanyards, studying nature and tormenting our camp counselors. But the first thing we did was run to the mess hall to watch television as Neil Armstrong took those historic steps. Of course, at the time we would never doubt the validity of anything we'd seen on TV.

Why just a couple of years earlier I was appalled when I was at the West Hollywood Sheriff's station where my father was Captain and I saw them bring in some "hippie protesters". One of the more vociferous among the young placard carrying, colorfully clothed "trouble-makers" was Bob Denver from Gilligan's Island. I was very upset that they had arrested him since I didn't even know he'd finally made it off the island. But I digress...

But the moon landing fueled our imaginations. It made us see the Earth from space for the first time and something in me felt a little scared. Finally, for the first time in my young life was I aware of the fragile nature of existence as I knew it. I was beginning to think of bigger questions than who had to pretend to be astronaut Michael Collins and stay in the tepee when we played Moon Landing in the backyard.


Here's the NYTimes Obit of Neil Armstrong
Below is a 51 minute special report on the APOLLO 11 moon landing from YouTube:

And as is always of interest to note, there are always other theories...here is a smattering of them from gawker.com.    

photo of Neil Armstrong: NASA. Original photo of moon over the mtns. from Rt. 38 outside of Redlands, CA (c)2011 Brad Riesau

JAZZ NEWS - RON MILES "QUIVER" w/ FRISELL & BLADE

Trumpet Luminary RON MILES Releases Quiver (Enja/Yellowbird), October 9 Live Recording Featuring Trio with BILL FRISELL and BRIAN BLADE Master trumpeter Ron Miles injects his radiant, lyrical tone directly into the lifeblood of American music on his latest release, Quiver. A compelling, inviting trio date with guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Brian Blade, Quiver combines the singing melodicism of American folk musics, the heightened communication of the most progressive jazz forms, and an entrancing, airy openness. The album finds three genre-defying musical masters at their creative best, lacing easy camaraderie with virtuosic interaction. “I conceived it so that there was a lot of space in the music,” Miles told writer and session annotator Chip Stern, “which just makes it a perfect vehicle for Brian and Bill, who are so purposeful in the way they think through a phrase with all of the silences intact and create all of this motion and energy without any wasted gestures or by playing a whole bunch of notes.” Miles is solidly grounded in the jazz tradition yet open to all manner of ethnic, popular and classical sources - let alone down-home American folk. Just try not to be intoxicated by the joyous hoedowns and hosannas of “Just Married,” in which country music and blues share a glorious two-step. Miles’ keen sense of those qualities which elevate the joy and drama of the very earliest jazz recordings enlivens the trio’s forays into roots elements of the music as well as its more modern iterations on Quiver. On “Guest Of Honor,” Miles infuses post-modern nods towards Scott Joplin with personal and political feeling. “Honor is my son’s name,” Miles explains. “I always wanted to do something syncopated in a ragtime manner, and it got me thinking about Scott Joplin and the opera which preceded ‘Treemonisha,’ which was ‘A Guest Of Honor.’ We don’t actually know what the music sounds like, because it was never sent to the copyright office. Apparently ‘A Guest Of Honor’ referenced the story of how Booker T. Washington was invited to the White House by Teddy Roosevelt, with all the controversy that subsequently ensued. And so while we tend to think of Joplin writing upbeat music such as “Maple Leaf Rag,” here he was writing political operas as far back as 1903.” On Miles’ more modernist conceptions, from the jagged hesitations and stutter steps of “Bruise” to the Ornettish exposition of “Rudy Go Round,” the composer’s love of extended forms, asymmetrical abstractions, and dramatic syncopated dances between dissonant and consonant elements rings just as true as his forays into the music’s earliest roots - as do the torchy tenderness and lyric splendor of his balladic interpretations, such as “Days Of Wine And Roses” and “Queen B.” The music on Quiver expands brilliantly on the technical and spiritual foundations this Denver-based, 49-year-old musical trailblazer has crafted for himself since graduating from the Manhattan School of Music in 1986. The album is a logical evolution of Heaven, his deceptively quiescent 2002 duet recital with Frisell. “If we were going to add a third person,” Miles says, “we both agreed it should be Brian more than anyone else because he is one of the most musical drummers on the scene.” In fact, it’s hard to imagine many other drummers approaching this music with both the pianistic elegance and intellectual discretion to lay back and allow the action to come to him - never truncating the conversation with some nervous compulsion to fill every inch of space with excitement. Witness how Blade sets the table for the old-timey jazz feeling of Miles’ brilliant re-working of that Roaring Twenties chestnut “There Ain’t No Sweet Man Worth The Salt of My Tears” with some of the most beautifully inflected mallet phrases this side of Big Sid Catlett and Elvin Jones, even as Frisell gets up on his Charlie Christian soap-box, while Miles seemingly channels the spirit of Lester Bowie in his solo passages. In short, on Quiver Miles brings the history of jazz up to date by neither disregarding its history or by remaining enslaved to it, instead giving an extremely personal account of the divergent branches of the music’s immeasurably rich family tree. “Listening to composers the likes of Scott Joplin, James Reese Europe, Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington on one hand, and improvisers such as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry on the other, is both humbling and inspiring,” Miles concludes. “And as much as anything, after a lifetime’s study, what this music has given me is a sense of the enormity of spirituality; of being American, of being African-American; of how privileged I am to walk that path and how much work I still have to do. There are so many people who’ve inhabited this music: living it, writing it, playing it, listening to it. So you just find a way to be you in it, to find your way in it. That’s what we’re trying to do on Quiver.” Release Date: October 9, 2012 Ron Miles official site www.enjarecords.com Publicity Contact: Matt Merewitz - Fully Altered Media 347-384-2839 matt@fullyaltered.com fullyaltered.com twitter.com/fullyaltered