Friday, May 04, 2007

ZZ Top- Loaded

















Empty.

George Benson, Counting Crows, Danilo Perez and Walter "Wolfman" Washington are among the headliners at various stages at New Orleans' Jazz & Heritage Festival tonight. Yet even if I caught a Midwest Express flight to the city later today, I'd make a beeline for ZZ Top. Surprised? If you want to know why I'm an unapologetic fan of the Texas trio, look no further than this buried track from their uncelebrated 1996 release Rhythmeen. Its grimy tone masterfully connects Sonic Youth to Lightnin' Hopkins. As with Coachella, you can watch Jazzfest here.

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The astounding music blog Words and Music made me aware of this video. It provides great footage of Peter King demonstrating Charlie Parker's Grafton saxophone at a 1994 Sotheby's auction. Representatives of Kansas City, MO, won the bidding by paying $144,500 for the instrument. It now resides at the American Jazz Museum. I was present at the ceremony in which Mayor Emmanuel Cleaver and other officials proudly presented the prize. I believe it took place at the Black Archives and that Max Roach was there. I can't recall if the Grafton was played that day. Can anyone fill in the gaps?

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Legendary St. Louis disc jockey Rod King, a.k.a. Dr. Jockenstein, has died. He was 55. Tom "Papa" Ray wrote a moving tribute to his friend. As of this morning, it's the lead item at Vintage Vinyl's site. Here's an excerpt: "When Jockenstein began his reign, first he brought the Funk, and then he gave the teenage generation of the day their first taste of hip-hop music."

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Kansas City Click: Ziggy Marley and Robert Randolph will become the first national acts to perform on the new Crossroads KC stage tonight.

On Saturday, my associate Robert Folsom plays Toto's Coffeehouse in Mission along with numerous other acoustic-oriented artists.

Social Distortion hit the Beaumont again on Sunday. The Black Halos and I Hate Kate open.

2 comments:

bgo said...

I cannont remember the venue for certain, but I thought it was the Mutual Musicians Foundation and it was played briefly by the late Jackie McLean. What a shitty sounding saxophone that thankfully Bird only had to play once.

m&s

Happy In Bag said...

You know, BGO, I do think it was McLean now that you mention it. I remember seeing Max Roach in the Black Archives building, but that must have been a different occasion. My Google searches turn up frustratingly little...