The Latest

Playing right now: Aram Shelton Quartet - Everything for Somebody (Singlespeed)
I don't think it's out yet, so maybe I shouldn't say anything about it. Except that I'm digging it and it might get in the way of writing because I'd rather pay attention to it.

It was a good week for CD arrivals. A good 10 days actually. I got two Singlespeed CDs, a Pharoah Sanders set on ESP, three other ESP releases which I have to review for JazzTimes (which I hadn't realized were sitting here), another Don Cherry reissue, plus the Beagle Brothers CD. The latter isn't jazz but a local country-type band that I have to write about for City Paper, which leads me to what else has been going this week. And why I haven't been able to completely delve into all this music...

I interviewed the Beagle Brothers on Wednesday night for the upcoming article. I called them "country-type" in the previous paragraph because they don't comfortably fit in that genre. They're not "new country" like the tripe you see on that country music video channel. Nor are they ironic punks playing country.

So I went there straight from work, talked to the boys for about an hour, then ran home for what we still call baby duty at the house, even though the baby in this case is a five-year-old. To everyone else this might be called "bed-time duty."

Then it was off to Gooski's, where Man Forever was playing. You remember Man Forever, right? I wrote about them in this very space a few months ago, after I saw them in the very same venue where they played on Wednesday. This time, I'm approaching it as a guy who's writing a story about the band, or actually about their leader/driving force/one solid member among hired guys - Kid Millions (aka John Colpitts). Also, I knew what to expect this time out.

The performance consisted of the same "piece," "Surface Patterns" (FYI, I guessed incorrectly at the title in the previous piece). This time it was just Kid and one other drummer both playing on one snare drum instead of four drummers. Single stroke rolls (pronounced "budda budda budda budda" in quick succesion) for 30 minutes while the rest of the band slowly came in and played slowly. It was kind of cool hearing the vibrations in the sound slow down and speed up. I timed it, in part to take notes that I'd consult for the article.

When I discovered that they were 29 minutes into it, I knew the end was coming and I also knew how he cued the rest of the band to stop. So when he raised his sticks briefly and making them crash down on the snare, I was so into it that I screamed.

But now I have to write about him and write about the Beagle Brothers, and I haven't even transcribed their interview yet. I have the next two days off of work, so there will be sometime in there. Although tomorrow I might be reunited with my long lost first friend, after not seeing him for 30 years.