After a short delay I am here this evening to jazz things up a bit with another musician who asked to be friends through YouTube. Gianni Bardaro, composer and musician grew up in Italy and later moved throughout Europe studying the Jazz Saxophone while winning much acclaim as a band leader as well as a sideman to various other musicians.
So sit back and enjoy a change of pace here with this too short list of jazz musings of Gianni Bardaro.
My record collection consists of many early obscure albums of various artists. To a great extent I shied away from the Pop Culture stuff and tended to lose interest in bands once they claimed commercial success. Don Van Vliet was no exception.
It was 1969 and I was at a friend's house when he brought out an album with a pink cover featuring a person with an odd hat and a fish mask. The title was Trout Mask Replica, although the fish looked more like a Koi. The artist called himself Captain Beefheart. My friend informed me that the album was produced by Frank Zappa, another favorite of mine, therefore I was eager to hear it.
Upon the first play I was dazed and confused by the seemingly chaotic nature, similar to some of The Mother's of Invention's works, but even further out there. Upon subsequent listenings it grew on me as the chaos gave way to the complexity of it.
Van Vliet's style was a blend of Blues, Rock, Experimental and Psychedelic with vocals sung in his unmistakable gravely voice and is considered to have "greatly influenced" New Wave artists such as David Byrne of Talking Heads, Blondie, Devo and The B-52s.
Tom Waits' shift in artistic direction, starting with 1983's Swordfishtrombones, was, Waits claims, a result of his wife Kathleen Brennan introducing him to Van Vliet's music. "Once you've heard Beefheart," said Waits, "it's hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains, like coffee or blood."
Captain Beefheart and Magic Band went on to record a number of albums which, although gaining critical acclaim, never gained a large following or commercial success.
Performing with various configurations of the Magic Band through 1982, he left the music scene to concentrate on his artwork.
The Captain passed away yesterday at the age of 69 due to complications from multiple sclerosis. May he rest in peace...
Tonight I bring you a collection of his live performances followed by a documentary on his life and works and then wrap it up with a 14 minute performance with Frank Zappa. A song which I used to visualize as pertaining to the mid-evil days but now realize speaks of our current government as well - The Torture Never Stops.
A several months ago I received a friend invite through YouTube from an Australian musician by the name of Matt Gresham. I took a cruise over to his YouTube channel and was impressed by his song "Jack & Jill" which he was running on his channel at the time. So I added Matt as a friend at my channel and tonight I bring you a selection of tunes from Matt. Please bear with Matt as he performs at a number of rather rowdy bars!
Last weekend I was cruising through the channel guide looking for anything on the TV worthwhile of my time. I came across a PBS pledge drive show featuring an artist I had never heard of. I figured it was worth at least a few minutes of sitting through their begging for funds while waiting to see what this artist was all about.
To make a long story short, when he opened with the percussive guitar piece titled Mombasa,I was immediately blown away and hooked! I stayed for the entire show, suffering through the pledge drive drivel. It was well worth it!
Tonight I bring you Tommy Emmanuel from Australia. The first five selections are from his early years when he played electric guitar with a band. The sixth piece is Mombasa, the number that swept me off my feet. Mombasa and the rest of the show are all from his acoustic catalog.
