Great White Buffalo meets Mulligan

Playing right now: Nothing

I want to get a post up before work because I realized it's been almost a week since I've said anything.

I was thinking of making an entry titled "Last Night Kendall Meade Saved My Life" because at work lately, I've been really agitated about nothing in particular and I kept wanting to listen to Mascott's CD Dreamer's Book. Kendall is the leader of Mascott and a great songwriter. When I used to get stressed out at Pulp and I couldn't stop to have a goodie or soemthing, that album used to soothe my nerves. But I didn't get that album out. In fact I went the opposite way....


Last night I pulled up my copy of Ted Nugent's Double Live Gonzo. Kinda scary. There's only one record with it instead of two, but I got it for free a few years ago when WRCT was giving records away. Besides the only two songs I care about are on the record I have: "Great White Buffalo" and "Hibernation." The latter is the song I really wanted to hear. It's awful but it's.......intriguing.

See, Ted gives this big intro about how his guitar doesn't play any "mellow shit." And that it can shoot the balls off a rhino at 50 paces or something like that. Then he starts doing this long manipulated feedback thing that sounds EXACTLY like the beginning of "Anthrax" by Gang of Four, which would come out about a year later. Thing is, Andy Gill of G04 did something interesting. Ted just lets an A chord ring real loud. Then he hits a high note that sustains itself and it rings and rings and rings, then he bends the note, it rings and rings then the band kicks it....this is the one cool part because they come charging in with a gallop. But then the group plays a 2 chord jam that sounds like "Jessica" by the Allmans. I kind of like that song but it falls under the category of "mellow shit" that Nuge said his guitar can't play. Somebody's wrong here and it ain't me.

Why did I get that record out? Well, at work yesterday and the day before I had to slather some ribs in bbq sauce and for some reason, seeing all those bones and flesh lined up, it made me think of TEd. Had to let it out. I'm sorry, Kendall.

Oh yeah, since I was out at Gooski's just prior to listening to TEd, I kept nodding off.

This morning I listened to the Gerry Mulligan Paris Concert album over breakfast. The first time I spun it last week I thought maybe I could sell it and not miss it. it was good, but not astounding like the early stuff with Chetty. Now I'm not sure. It's pretty hot. I love what he could do with a small group and Bob Brookmeyer was a great second horn on this album.

In keeping with the Pacific Jazz bag, I pulled out a copy of The Chico Hamilton Trio album that's on that same imprint. I got this in a box of records that a dear friend gave to me a couple years ago. I still haven't listened to many of the albums in that stash (including another Chico LP called The Headhunters). This one has Chico with George Duvivier on bass and Howard Roberts and Jim Hall swapping guitar duties. There's something really magical about those early Chico albums. In much the same way that the Mulligan quartet worked (of which Chico was a member) the group used space really well. This album was no exception. It's spare, sonically, but the group fills the space with a lot of ideas.

It makes me want to pull out the Hamilton South Pacific album I bought last week and give it another chance. I wasn't too sold on it at first. I think it had to do with Buddy Collette being gone, with Paul Horn in his place. Something was missing by then. It's a little too sweet. I have another Hamilton band album with that lineup that doesn't float my boat, but I haven't been able to part with it.

Shower listening (i.e. what was on the CD player while I was in the shower): Avishai Cohen's new Continuo, which I'm reviewing for JazzTimes and therefore won't comment on here. Gotta save the ideas for the review.

PS I won a copy of Mulligan Meets Monk last night for $10.