Brent's Notebook

Live Wire with guest Blake Hazard of The Submarines

2009-07-16T08:45:00.001-04:00

Show Links:
• The Submarines web site
• The Submarines - "You Me and the Bourgeoise" (song from iPhone ad)
• Bob Dylan web site
• John Mellencamp web site
• Willie Nelson web site
• Travis Tritt web site
• Keith Anderson web site
Watch 'VOLUME' archive for all 15 videos

My wife's relationship with Jackson Browne

2009-07-15T12:22:00.004-04:00

Normally when my wife and I go to concerts I feel like the home team and she's the away team. As the officially sanctioned music junkie in our household, I usually go with my wife to see someone I like and she doesn't quite get, someone we both like or someone she likes more than I do but who I more or less get. I rarely feel out of the musical loop. We went to see Jackson Browne last night on the green at the Shelburne Museum. This time my wife had the home-field advantage and I was the away team. Like, from far away, like Pluto.

I get that Jackson Browne (excellent photo from last night by Free Press photo guy Ryan Mercer) is an insightful songwriter and charismatic performer, and I know based on 97 percent of the girls I knew in high school that he was a hunky dreamboat back in the day. But my wife - even though she insists her fondness for Jackson Browne's music runs deeper than it did for those girls I went to high school with - still has a severe case of what I like to call the Jackson Browne infection: a long-lasting, intense fever that is apparently not fatal but causes extreme distraction when one of his songs comes out of the speakers. It's an infection you catch by listening to his deep lyrics and gazing at his hunky-dreamboat album covers when you're at an age susceptible to that sort of thing. That is an infection I have decidedly not caught.

This is only the second time we've gone to see Jackson Browne in concert together; the first was many years ago in Syracuse, NY, early in our time as a couple when I was only beginning to understand what Jackson Browne means to her. I was reminded of that last night when he played the song "Fountain of Sorrow," one that my wife has mentioned as one of her favorites. She had that far-away but focused look in her eyes, and when he finished the song she applauded more enthusiastically than I think I've ever seen her applaud. I made a remark about how I knew better than to talk to her during that song, and she said something to the effect of, "No, you don't interrupt 'Fountain of Sorrow.'" I think she was joking, maybe, sort of, kind of, but not entirely.

Not wanting to get in the way of her deeply personal Jackson Browne fandom, I spent a fair amount of time last night wandering the lovely Shelburne Museum grounds and striking up conversations - long conversations - with people I know, total strangers, fence posts, etc. I would only get myself into trouble if I tried talking to my wife while Jackson was playing. I found that out late in the show when he played the title tune from her favorite album of his, "The Pretender," and I told her I thought the song was called "Legal Tender," based on a line in the song. She looked at me as the pope would look at a blasphemer. I commenced with shutting up.

I didn't catch the Jackson Browne infection, but I did draw great joy in watching my wife draw great joy in watching Jackson Browne. It's like an adult watching kids opening presents on Christmas Day, where maybe you don't have that youthful enthusiasm for the holiday but you appreciate seeing those who do. In this case, I enjoyed watching Jackson Browne give my wife the present of "The Pretender." Or "Legal Tender." Or whatever.

Dondero disses Grace Potter

2009-07-14T11:47:00.005-04:00

The former bass player for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Bryan Dondero, sent me a link to his blog this morning in which he completely rips into Grace for the way he says she treated him around the time he left the band four months ago. I won't get into all the details - you can see them on Bryan's blog - but the gist is that he left after "she had crossed a line of decency with me that was irreparable." I put in a request with Grace for a response, which I'll post here when and if I receive it.

A little after 5 p.m. today I got this response from the band through its management:

"Many of the statements made by Bryan Dondero about the facts surrounding his leaving the band are inaccurate. Since Bryan left the band, we have accommodated many of his requests for additional compensation which go above and beyond the original contract he, and all band members, signed upon joining GPN. That original contract clearly states all compensation any departing band member will be entitled to upon leaving the band. The additional compensation that we are offering him goes beyond any contractual obligations we have with him and we offered this in the hopes of continuing a positive relationship with someone that we have great respect for. We are surprised and saddened by Bryan’s recent show of public disdain for us, particularly since we believed that an understanding had been reached that was acceptable to everyone. Despite Bryan’s response, we wish him only the best in his future endeavors."

Grace Potter rocking on the water

2009-07-13T11:37:00.004-04:00

It looked funny at Waterfront Park last night not seeing Bryan Dondero on stage with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. The show that concluded the lakeside concerts for the Burlington International Waterfront Festival was the Vermont-born band's first in its home state since Dondero departed earlier this year. So I went with great interest in seeing how the two new members, bass player Catherine Popper and rhythm guitarist Benny Yurco, are integrating into the band, and especially to hear some of the songs that'll be on the Nocturnals' next Hollywood Records album, "Medicine," due out this fall.

Popper fit in well, I thought, with her strong bass carrying the new album's title track and her backing harmonies on the rocking GPN concert standard "Stop the Bus" adding a new dimension. The new guitarist contributed some lightning-fast work to match the usually fiery play of lead guitarist Scott Tournet on that latter track, adding an old-fashioned Southern-rock intensity, though otherwise I thought Yurco - who has demonstrated his stellar skills in Tournet's side project Blues and Lasers - hasn't quite found his place in the Nocturnals yet. He was nattily attired in a maroon suit, however, and Popper looked tres chic in her little black dress, so the two newcomers did add some style to the band.

Potter, of course, is always stylin', and her sequined black mini-outfit should make her look appropriately glam for the DVD project that was being filmed last night (this excellent photo was taken last night by Free Press staffer Emily Nelson). The addition of Yurco minimizes the need for Potter to do guitar work - she's better off when she focuses on vocals and keyboards - so she was in fine, energetic form.

For the most part, the new songs sounded strong. "Before the Sky Falls" (which Potter dedicated to the rain not falling from the sky for once) began with her slow-churning Hammond organ work and Tournet joining on some bluesy slide guitar. It had a dark vibe and mid-tempo flow that reminded me of the Nocturnals' song "Treat Me Right."

"One Short Night" is an OK acoustic pop song; I was much more impressed by "Medicine," which Potter and drummer Matthew Burr played a pared-down version of last week on my Web cast "Live Wire." This version was much more filled out, driven by Popper's bass, the two guitars and Potter's big vocals. It's an accessible tune that still rocks, and could be the big featured song off the upcoming album of the same name.

"Money" is a soulful pop song that features Potter on organ and reminded me of Springsteen's "Fire." Potter introduced it by noting that the band was trying out several new songs for the home crowd. "That's not just because you're forgiving," she said, "but you're also discerning." When she introduced the next new tune by saying "This song is destined to be somebody's new ring tone" I moaned internally, hoping the Nocturnals weren't selling out to the point that they're writing songs for people's cell phones. But then when I heard the name of that especially drum-heavy song - "That Phone" - it made more sense.

I have to mention the two opening acts, too. The reunion of Pine Island, the bluegrass group featuring Gordon Stone and David Gusakov that was big in Burlington in the '70s, was fun and well-received by the crowd. I also really dug Jennifer Hartswick's new sound. I missed the Vermont native concluding last month's Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, so I was happy to hear this performance, a soulful, funky set evoking those by her saxophone player, Dave Grippo, in his group Grippo Funk Band. Hartswick de-emphasized her soaring trumpet playing in favor of her amazing vocals, and the whole set reminded me of the energy she gave off the first time I saw her working with Trey Anastasio during the jazz fest six years ago. Impressive stuff.

Start time for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

2009-07-11T13:18:00.002-04:00

Sunday's show at Waterfront Park by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals starts at 5 p.m., according to the Flynn Center's ticket Web site, and not the 6 p.m. start time the Web site of the Burlington International Waterfront Festival continues to tout. That's important, especially if you're planning to catch the locally-popular opening acts, the reunion of Pine Island as well as Jennifer Hartswick. Festival organizers have put together a massive, intriguing event, but maybe it's too big - it seems they're having trouble keeping up with what they're doing and failing to tell people when they're making changes. Not exactly running like clockwork, so to speak.

Buddy Guy is, you know, the guy

2009-07-10T14:31:00.002-04:00

A few nights ago my wife and I watched "The Last Waltz," the Martin Scorsese-directed concert documentary about The Band's final show that makes the term "star-studded" seem trite. One of those star turns comes from a late-in-life Muddy Waters, who just totally commanded my attention with an amazingly passionate, highly sexualized performance of "Mannish Boy." Mesmerizing stuff. Then I show up last night at Waterfront Park for the Burlington International Waterfront Festival concert by fellow blues man Buddy Guy, and I feel like I'm watching Muddy Waters in the flesh. Buddy began with an intense version of "Hoochie Coochie Man," and gave me that same sense, not that I was watching a dirty old man sing barely-veiled songs about sex but that I was listening to a guy who was giving me lessons from a life lived to its fullest. Unlike that purely-vocal performance by Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy blew me away with his double-barreled action. I find myself thinking of most blues musicians as either skilled with their vocals or skilled with their instrument, but with Buddy Guy my ranking of his skills veered to whichever impressive one he happened to be displaying at the time. I also like that he doesn't take himself too seriously; he breaks off from the middle of a song to demonstrate how Wilson Pickett or Eric Clapton would have done it, and playfully engages the crowd by extracting sounds out of his guitar (rather skillfully, it turns out) by whapping the strings with a towel. Toward the end of the show I ran into Scott Tournet, himself a pretty skilled blues guitarist with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, who'll be playing at the waterfront Sunday night. I told him about my Muddy Waters/Buddy Guy comparison, but he kind of set me straight: Muddy Waters was the gentlemanly (albeit still suggestive) blues man, and Buddy Guy, with his willingness to take daring chances that don't always work, is more of a punk (and still suggestive) blues man. As someone who's always appreciated the finer unrefined points of punk, I can dig that.

Indoors with Steve Earle and Aimee Mann

2009-07-09T16:41:00.005-04:00

Caught most of the set at City Hall Park this afternoon by Lowell Thompson and Crown Pilot, where I captured this photo and brought it back for your viewing pleasure. A great-sounding band, a beautiful day (for once) and a good-sized crowd finally made it feel like the sprawling Burlington International Waterfront Festival is taking a foothold throughout the city. I chatted with Lowell last night outside the Steve Earle/Aimee Mann concert at Memorial Auditorium and he was understandably thrilled at the plug he got in the current issue of Rolling Stone (which you may have read about in my blog posting the other day).

Speaking of Aimee Mann and Steve Earle, my wife and I celebrated our anniversary (14 years of happy marriage) last night by catching the show. It was ill-suited for Mem Aud, and considering the quiet, singer-songwriter-y nature of the co-headliners I'm not sure it would have fit in well at its originally scheduled, pre-rainout festival location at Waterfront Park. The more intimate, more acoustically sound venue of the Flynn Center would have worked a whole lot better, methinks.

We went more for Aimee Mann than Steve Earle, and as usual, Aimee does not disappoint. We dig her cynical but light-hearted songwriting style, and her stage persona is funny and demure. She and Jebin Bruni, one of the two keyboard players who joined her last night, ribbed each other about their respective skills on the recorder (I believe Aimee used the term "dorky" to describe the instrument). Aimee also commented on the less-than-stellar surroundings of the auditorium, noting that she felt like she was giving a school lecture on the dangers of drugs. Great show, though - I especially enjoyed hearing "Freeway," a newer song she didn't play either time we caught her at Higher Ground in recent years.

Though I like his raspy voice and direct songwriting, I've never really gotten into Steve Earle - I just don't get a feeling that he has a distinct sound. I started putting my finger on that feeling last night, when he spent most of the show paying tribute to his musical mentor, the late Townes Van Zandt. I got this sense that Steve has spent so much time learning from and idolizing people like Townes and Guy Clark (who he also mentioned last night) that he has focused too much on the art of songwriting as done by others and not enough on finding his own voice. I could, of course, be entirely wrong about that. Feel free to rip into me about that hypothesis if you want. Still feeling good about a lovely night out with my favorite wife, so I
think I can take it.

The bonus footage

2009-07-09T12:28:00.004-04:00

Grace Potter performs "I Shall Be Released"

Live Wire with guest Grace Potter

2009-07-09T09:53:00.004-04:00

Show Links:
• Grace Potter and the Nocturnals web site
• Buddy Guy web site
• Bettye LaVette web site
• Le Vent du Nord web site
• Les Cowboys Fringants web site
• Joanne Shenandoah web site
• Ween web site
• Watch 'VOLUME' archive for all 15 videos

Steve Earle and Aimee Mann move indoors

2009-07-08T17:30:00.005-04:00

Not exactly great timing on this, considering the show's in an hour and a half, but I was out of the office for much of the day, so I'm just getting around to it now. Anyway, the concert by Steve Earle and Aimee Mann that had been scheduled for 7 o'clock at the waterfront has been moved indoors to Memorial Auditorium, thanks to this lovely weather pattern we're trapped in (that's Aimee in the photo in sunnier times). I'll be heading over there myself, so I'm looking forward to it, even if our views will be of basketball nets and not sunsets.

A couple of non-Burlington International Waterfront Festival notes I'd like to catch up on:

- The bassist for Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Joe Gittleman, will start teaching this fall at Lyndon State College. How 'bout that? We had a little item in the Free Press about it the other day, but I hope to have more on this (and maybe a chat with the Bossman) in a few weeks.

- Got a note from Colin Clary of The Smittens detailing the Burlington pop band's exciting July tour of the UK and Sweden that starts next week in London. I wouldn't mind being in London right now - despite its reputation, it can't be any rainier than Burlington - but if you want to catch The Smittens before they head to merry ol' England, they'll be at The Skinny Pancake at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Tony Bennett is one cool dude

2009-07-07T22:03:00.004-04:00

My first impression at the sold-out Flynn Center show tonight by Tony Bennett was that it was going to be way too slick. A disembodied voice announced "Welcome to The Tony Bennett Show!" as if we were in some deteriorating old casino far from the Strip. Then Tony's daughter, Antonia, came out to sing with her father's four-piece band, and I wondered if this was going to be one of those shows where the ol' vet leaves the hard work to everybody else and just shows up for a handful of songs and heaps of undeserved adulation. Someone else in the crowd apparently wondered that, too, shouting "We want Tony!" as Antonia was about to sing her second song. The crowd moaned in response, and gave Antonia and her lovely voice raucous applause after her song was done as their way of making up for that man's immense rudeness.

Tony came out after his daughter's third song, and I was still a little leery of the cheesiness; the house lights came on as he entered, subtly imploring the audience to give the first of several standing ovations. Once he actually got to work, though, any thoughts of a bad Vegas show were gone for good. Tony Bennett is still as smooth and cool as a boat ride on Lake Champlain (had to work that allusion in in deference to the Burlington International Waterfront Festival, for which this show was the big-name highlight).

He's still classy at 82, coming out in a dark suit with a red handkerchief sticking out of his breast pocket, as you can see in this excellent photo by Free Press staffer Alison Redlich. As soon as he opened his mouth you could tell he's not suffering any significant late-career vocal decline like his old buddy, Frank Sinatra. He can still hold a soaring note for a good 10 or 12 seconds, and even did a few spinning dance moves during the Gershwin tune "They All Laughed."

He name-drops in that classic old-fashioned show-biz-patter kind of way - "Rosemary Clooney and I were the first American Idols," he said moments before noting it was Bob Hope who shortened his name from Antonio Benedetto. Then he sang "Cold, Cold Heart" and told a funny story about how the song's author, Hank Williams, called after the song became a hit for Tony to ask why he had to ruin it. Once again, Tony Bennett walked to the edge of cheese but, thanks to his self-depricating humor and earnest love for entertainment, stayed just on this side of it.

Then there are those moments where Tony Bennett is just sublime, like on "The Best Is Yet To Come." If you could sing that tune with the combination of romance and swagger that Tony Bennett sings it with, you'd have women following you everywhere like those guys on the TV commercials who use the best after shave and hair dye. I did hear his voice crack once tonight, during the dark and mysterious "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," but at 82 he still sings better than most any 32-year-old could ever hope to sing.

He did his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," about three-quarters of the way through his hour and a half set, and frankly, I thought it was a little pokey. It was still lovely, though, and hearing an icon sing his iconic song can't help but make your day. He immediately followed that with a slinky version of "Steppin' Out With My Baby" and soon dove into a fast-paced "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," showing that slow is not the only way for Tony Bennett to go.

He brought the proverbial house down near the end of his show when he talked about the house, the slightly-younger-than-Tony-Bennett Flynn Center. He asked that the house lights shine on the Art Deco wall panels, then beseeched the crowd to "make sure that this never becomes an insurance company." He said the Flynn has great acoustics, then demonstrated with an off-the-mike rendition of "Fly Me to the Moon" that did just that to the worshipping audience. His unamplified voice carried throughout the hall, sounding as strong just before the bell rang as it did in round number one.

Props for Lowell Thompson and Grace Potter

2009-07-07T14:57:00.004-04:00

This strikes me as a pretty big deal for a couple of Burlington musical entities that could use some national love - the back page of the July 9 issue of Rolling Stone (with, um, The Jonas Brothers on the cover) reveals the top 10 sellers for the week ending June 16 at the venerable downtown record store Pure Pop; coming in at number five is the self-titled album from local rockers Lowell Thompson and Crown Pilot. The item runs along with this very same photo of the band and a short writeup that says, "The Burlington, Vermont, singer rounds up two home-state heros - Phish's Page McConnell and blues rocker Grace Potter - to help out on his latest CD of Gram Parsons-inspired alt-country" (the copy of Webster's New World Collegiate Dictionary on my desk doesn't recognize the spelling of "heros," but that's another matter). This little item has to help Pure Pop (a place I've been shopping at for more than 20 years) and especially Lowell Thompson, a talented and charismatic performer who seems one or two big breaks away from a national presence. Maybe this is the start....

Speaking of Grace Potter, who has a growing national presence of her own, she got a cool shout-out from Spin magazine in an article citing "11 Must-Hear Bands" at the recently concluded Rothbury music festival in Michigan. In putting Grace and her band the Nocturnals on that list, Spin wrote, "It's easy to see a pretty girl with an acoustic guitar and lump her in with all sorts of Starbucks-ready singer-songwriters. But not with Grace. Confrontational and unafraid, her sultry, sometimes bluesy pop has garnered appreciation from hard rockers and ballad-lovers alike." It also mentions that she describes the band's next T Bone Burnett-produced album on Hollywood Records, "Medicine" (due out Oct. 27), as "Velvet Underground backing Aretha Franklin" (should we expect Grace to belt out a bluesy version of "Sister Ray"?). By the way, along with the band's show Sunday during the Burlington International Waterfront Festival which will be taped for a future DVD project, Grace is also doing a solo benefit show in Bennington on Friday, which you can find out more about here.

Dan Zanes on the waterfront

2009-07-06T16:49:00.002-04:00

I was away last week, having fun without the sun, and missed the start of the Burlington International Waterfront Festival, including last night's concert in Waterfront Park by The Roots, a show I definitely would like to have caught. So I ambled down to the waterfront this afternoon to catch the first of two shows (the next is at 3 p.m. tomorrow) by Dan Zanes, the former member of the Del Fuegos who is now a big deal in the world of kids' music, though it's kids' music that's cool enough to appeal to hip adults. I'm used to going to clubs and having to dodge a variety of weaving intoxicated people; for this concert I had to adroitly avoid deleriously oblivious dancing tots and their double-wide-stroller-pushing parents.

It wasn't anything I or the handful of private and public gendarmes couldn't handle. "I feel badly for the security people here because there is nothing to do," Zanes told the kids and moms and dads. So he asked the security folks to join in a dance train on the jaunty, horn-driven tune "Catch That Train!" A city policeman in fact led one of the snaking trains, showing that there's more than one way to patrol a concert crowd. Zanes and his band concluded the show with a train of their own, walking off the stage and into the crowd, which is how I managed to snap this actually half-way-decent photo (that's Zanes in the bushy gray hair), a rarity whenever I and a camera get together to provide visuals for this here blog. I'll make sure to get a photo next time where the featured subject is marked by a tiny head way in the background, like I usually do.

Live Wire with guest Gregory Douglas

2009-07-02T09:45:00.003-04:00

Show Links
• Gregory Douglass web site
• The Roots MySpace page
• Dan Zanes web site
• Tony Bennett web site
• Steve Earle web site
• Aimee Mann web site

Watch 'VOLUME' archive for all 15 videos

Yeah, I know, another music scribe comments on Michael Jackson...

2009-06-26T10:42:00.003-04:00

I had to say something, though, after watching the TV news accounts of MJ's death last night. CBS and CNN were focusing almost entirely on the legal troubles and general weirdness Michael displayed in his later years. But as I scanned Facebook and Twitter last evening as the news about his death unfolded, the reaction was almost unanimous about how we lost a musical and pop-culture giant, not some real-life space oddity. I think the TV-news folks lost a little perspective on that; we didn't come to know Michael Jackson as a one-man freak show, we came to know him as a child prodigy in the Jackson 5 who went on to become one of the biggest stars - both commercially and critically - in the history of pop music. He was the icon of the post-baby-boom generation. As Burlington DJ Craig Mitchell told me last night, and others have said as well, he was the Elvis Presley of his time. That's not hyperbole.

Now, I was never the biggest Michael Jackson fan - my older sister was listening to "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" while I was getting into post-punk stuff like Devo and Echo and the Bunnymen - but you can't deny Michael Jackson's impact, his pre-weirdness impact, on the musical and cultural landscape. He didn't invent the music video, but he did perfect it. The dance moves everyone from Paula Abdul to Beyonce to his own sister, Janet, have displayed in ensuing music videos and stage shows all tip their fedora to Michael. I especially liked what Craig Mitchell told me for our Vermont-reaction story that ran in today's paper - whenever he puts on "Billie Jean" at a club, the dance crowd goes crazy as if it's the best song around today and not a quarter-century-old piece of pop history. That's not fly-by-night pop-flavor-of-the-month stuff. That's legendary staying power.

The not-so-new New York Dolls

2009-06-25T14:50:00.002-04:00

If you're a regular reader of this here blog (I know I am!) you may recall a few months ago that I told you legendary pre-punk rockers the New York Dolls were coming to Higher Ground, and that I was wondering if they could be any good considering they peaked 35 years ago and half the original members are dead. Well, I caught them at Higher Ground last night, and the Dolls simultaneously validated my concerns and exceeded my expectations. On the downside, the once-vibrant band leader, David Johansen (he of later Buster Poindexter fame), doesn't have quite that same old energy he used to have, though he's still rockin' on the edge of 60, so we'll cut him some slack. He does still have that devilish twinkle in his eyes, though - kind of a more benign, less haughty Mick Jagger swagger - so he was still fun even if he wasn't bounding across the stage. His band mates made up for that lack of energy, with his fellow original Doll, guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, taking over more of an engaged master-of-ceremonies role. I'm often leery of old bands bringing on hired-gun fill-ins, but I was especially impressed by a couple of the new New York Dolls, especially guitarist Steve Conte. They got the relatively small (it was a rare warm summer night, after all) but inspired crowd into it right away, and punched through a bunch of memorable Dolls standards (one standout was the Bo Diddley-penned "Pills"). In the end, the old and new New York Dolls rocked, and that's all they were ever supposed to do.

Live Wire with guests The Leaves

2009-06-24T15:37:00.006-04:00

Aya Inoue and Matt Harpster perform

Show Links
• Amber deLaurentis web site
• Funkwagon MySpace page
• Genticorum web site
• Xander NaylorMySpace page
• The Leaves MySpace page

Watch 'VOLUME' archive for all 15 videos

Benefit show for The Radiator

2009-06-24T11:33:00.002-04:00

Late word about a cool-sounding show tomorrow night to benefit The Radiator (WOMM-LP), the Burlington community radio station at 105.9 FM on yer radio dial. It's at the Gezellig Theatre (aka The Bakery) at 294 N. Winooski Ave. at 8:30 p.m. Thursday and features the Boston band Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow along with a couple of Burlington acts, Maryse Smith (shown here) and Paul and the Mystery of Gravity. Admission is five bucks.

"Dumping Lisa" picks up local musicians

2009-06-23T11:08:00.005-04:00

The independent comedy "Dumping Lisa" was filmed in Burlington and environs around this time last year (I wrote about it after attending the filming of a strip-club scene at Nectar's, captured here for the Free Press by photographer Myesha Gosselin). It hasn't come out yet - co-producer Rich Docherty tells me it's done and he and fellow producer John Oliver are in the process of contacting distributors - but they've lined up a bunch of local bands whose music will fill out the soundtrack. Nick Caiano scored the film, and songs by the likes of Barbacoa, Burnt MD, Cave Bees, Close to Nowhere, Justin Levinson, L.Dora, Morgan Lamphere, The Easy Answers, Thread and (from just across Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, NY) Hello Control will be included in the film. I wonder which of those will provide the background music for the strip-club scene?

The Flynn fills up for Pink Martini

2009-06-13T22:47:00.003-04:00

Iffy weather and worse-than-iffy economy notwithstanding, the crowds have been very strong for this year's Burlington Discover Jazz Festival - the usual standing-room-only audience for the intimate FlynnSpace shows, nearly-full crowds for Belizbeha and Branford Marsalis and the sold-out shows last weekend by Diana Krall and tonight by Pink Martini. The sprawling, 12-member group hints at jazz but really branches out to a genre that's pretty much all its own - theatrical, multi-lingual classics with pitch-perfect elegance and a mischievous sense of humor.

Vocalist China Forbes dedicated the concert to her grandmother, Faith Fisher Forbes, who lived in Chelsea and died last month at age 90, just before getting to see her granddaughter in the Vermont debut of her platinum-selling band.

Having not lived in the '50s, I felt like I was transported by Pink Martini to the Stork Club or some similar but now-forgotten classy joint. This is not some cigar-smoking, highball-swilling bunch of young snots out for a little ironic retro-goofing, however; these guys are seriously good musicians. It's beautiful stuff, with an orchestral sound behind Forbes' expressive voice that brings life to songs sung in Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and, every now and then, English.

They're not above a little fun, though. Trombone player Robert Taylor and trumpeter Gavin Bondy dropped a couple of whimsical solos on the audience, while Forbes drew laughs for her observations on a jazz-festival-timed Burlington tradition ("It was very inspiring to see the naked bicyclists today"). The one who keeps it loosest is pianist/bandleader/emcee Thomas Lauderdale, who creates the rich, varied tone of the show but can also poke a little fun at it ("This song is also a sing-along," Lauderdale said of a tune that Forbes was about to sing in Turkish).

It was a festive way for me to end the jazz festival this year. I'll be out of town Sunday, unfortunately, so I'll have to miss Jennifer Hartswick's show concluding this year's event (look for Paul Kaza's review of Sunday's show at Jazz Journal elsewhere on the Free Press Web site). It's been a blast as always covering the festival, and thanks to y'all for reading and commenting, good, bad and indifferent. Your interest in the music is a big part of what makes it such a blast for me. I'll be back soon enough to put some bugs in your ears about music that's catching my ears....

Steppin' out with Sneakin' Out

2009-06-13T20:41:00.003-04:00

OK, I wasn't planning to blog during intermission at the Pink Martini concert, but I had to sort out my feelings about the opening act, Sneakin' Out, from Portland, Ore. I'm conflicted because they're a cover band, and I'm generally not a fan of cover bands. Thing is, they're an exceedingly good cover band. A guy in a suit jacket on mandolin (David Gerow), a guy in skateboarder shorts on bass (Mike "Cheddar" Schmitt) and a guy with a narrow landing-strip Mohawk and wearing a billowy red skirt who played all manner of percussion(Don Henson) whipped off a frenzied, short-attention-span set that either touched on or covered entire tunes ranging from "Also Sprach Zarathustra" to "Oh, Susannah" to "Paint It Black" to "Funky Town" to the set's closer, Pat Benetar's "Heartbreaker." It's kind of like the sound your iPod makes when it's dying, but in a good way. Combine the audio with the visuals and it was like a pepperoni-fueled dream where Victor Borge joins the band from "The Muppet Show." At first I thought they were just a novelty act, but they won me over. They clearly won over the capacity crowd at the Flynn Center, too - it may be the first standing ovation I've ever seen for a warm-up act. I'm positive it was the first time I ever heard this phrase uttered at a concert (by Gerow): "Here's another one that features Don on the typewriter."

Branford Marsalis' high-school musical

2009-06-12T22:35:00.002-04:00

I know it was Branford Marsalis' show tonight at the Flynn Center, but I couldn't help but focus on his 18-year-old drummer Justin Faulkner after learning about the soon-to-graduate high-schooler at their Meet the Artist session a few hours earlier (see previous blog entry). This is no novelty act - the kid is impressive. He moves deftly from two-handed shuffle to a fuller, funkier beat, and delivered a couple of solos that rocked the house. When Marsalis wasn't playing his saxophone and stood behind his three fellow musicians to watch and listen (which was often - he relishes sharing the load) he would bob his head to the rhythm and in approval of what Faulkner, pianist Joey Calderazzo and bass player Eric Revis were doing (Calderazzo, by the way, had a gorgeous piano solo on a beautiful tune he wrote called "The Blossom of Parting"; you can see all four band members in this fine photo from tonight by Free Press staffer Glenn Russell).

I looked for quibbles with Faulkner's playing and, aside from one moment when I thought he was a little loud on the cymbals during one of Revis' solos, I couldn't find anything. The crowd loved his performance, too. At one point after one of Faulkner's shining moments, a guy in the crowd yelled "Your drummer is awesome!" Marsalis wouldn't have it. "His head is big enough," he said to the crowd's laughter.

Marsalis, known for his tough love, was more willing to say good things about the other high-schoolers who played tonight, the Vermont All State Jazz Ensemble. The first thing he talked about when he came on stage after the opening act was how impressed he was that they tackled a Duke Ellington number, "Such Sweet Thunder." "That was cool. I was surprised," Marsalis said, noting that when he was in high school 30 or so years ago the students were playing popular music like the theme from "Rocky" and Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good."

Listening to African rhythms and Branford Marsalis

2009-06-12T18:46:00.003-04:00

Right after I got done telling you last night about the Porter Batiste Stoltz show at Waterfront Park I stopped in for a brew and some music at Club Metronome. I only stayed for about 45 minutes - it was 1 o'clock by the time I left - but those 45 minutes were great. A guitarist from Mali named Boubacar Diabate and his incredibly energetic band Samba Lolo were on stage totally tearing it up. The percussion was amazing, and the crowd (not a huge crowd but totally into it) was dancing like crazy. Joining in on percussion was Craig Myers of Rubblebucket Orchestra, who only a couple of days ago was on my "Live Wire" Web cast showing off his skills on a West African string instrument known as the n'goni. Anyway, this show was maybe the most electrifying thing I've seen in a great week of music, so it was a nice treat that sent me out into the rain early this morning.

Speaking of Rubblebucket, I caught a few minutes of the African-flavored, horn-driven group playing the block party at the top of Church Street in the surprisingly brilliant sunshine a little after 5 today. A good crowd had turned out, and the music sounded terrific. They'll be at Nectar's tomorrow if you want to hear them yourself.

I didn't stay long because I wanted to catch the Meet the Artist session with Branford Marsalis at FlynnSpace at 5:30. I heard Branford's talk there when he was at the jazz festival five years ago and came this time expecting him to be just as entertaining and illuminating and blunt as he was then. He was, but the real revelation was the band member he brought along - his new drummer, Justin Faulkner.

Faulkner talked about how he met the sax player who would become his boss when Marsalis came to his school for a workshop. He said Marsalis was critical of just about everyone who played for him at the school, but when he got to Faulkner he said, "Keep it up, kid."

"I wanted to run out of the room and scream, 'Yes!'" Faulkner said to laughter. "But then he would have said, 'That's the crazy one.'" I was listening to Faulkner and how composed and well-spoken he was and thought this must have happened 10 years ago, and Faulkner would be in his late 20s or something. Nope. It was two years ago. Faulkner is 18, and graduates from high school in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Incredible (he's in the center of the photo I took, with Marsalis on the right and moderator Bob Blumenthal on the left).

Marsalis likes Faulkner because he doesn't just play drums; he understands the music. "Finding musicians that play music is really hard," Marsalis said. "Finding musicians that play their instruments is easy." Can't wait to hear how Faulkner blends in with Marsalis' quartet in a show that starts a little more than half an hour from now with the Vermont All State Jazz Ensemble, featuring some musicians who are the same age as Marsalis' drummer.

Gettin' funky with Porter Batiste Stoltz

2009-06-11T23:11:00.006-04:00

There's always an adjustment for me when the Thursday-night music tent at Waterfront Park opens during the jazz festival. I've spent the better part of a week listening to some pretty challenging, heavy jazz, trying to figure out what it is these amazingly talented, complex musicians are trying to say with their sounds. Then you get to the Thursday-night tent - some years it's the blues tent, this year it was the "Bayou Funk Tent" - and you have to switch from "What are they trying to do with the music?" to "Oh, yeah, they're really just trying to have a good time. So I will, too."

Fortunately, Lettuce helped me make that transition very easily. I joined their set toward the end but walked into the tent as vocalist Nigel Hall was screaming into the mike while the band was engrossed in a loud, deeply funky number. You don't hear many good screamers these days. Nigel Hall is a good screamer. Sends a chill down your funky bass line.

My timing wasn't great, arriving as the set was almost done, so when they left the stage I walked the 15 minutes or so back up the hill toward downtown to catch part of the Trio Braam DeJoode Vatcher show at FlynnSpace (the rain, by the way, was intermittent all night, nothing serious, so the Bayou Funk Tent didn't quite become the literal bayou I thought it might). I got to FlynnSpace just as the Dutch trio was cooking on a fun, inspired, piano-led jam. Then they took a set break. More lousy timing.

Back down the hill I went in my quest for live music, and my timing improved - I heard the announcer introducing the tent headliners, Porter Batiste Stoltz (the gents in the photo here), as I was entering Waterfront Park. The New Orleans trio featuring members of The Funky Meters took the stage as a fog settled in beneath the tent - nature's dry ice - adding to the bayou feel.

Their funk wasn't quite as funky as the funk of Lettuce - Lettuce is a sprawling group, and as a trio PBS didn't generate the same range of sounds - but they had more of a hard-rock crunch than I expected, especially on "I Get High" when Brian Stoltz's jagged guitar merged with George Porter Jr.'s pulsating bass and Russell Batiste Jr.'s. heavy drums into something like funk on steroids. I preferred the more straight funk of "Check Out Your Mind," especially Porter's impressive wah-wah bass solo that sliced through the thickening fog.

I also appreciated that PBS made sure that I got the message, that the music beneath the tent tonight wasn't music I had to think about too much. "All we want to do," they sang, "is get funky for you," adding, by way of clarification in case I still wasn't getting it, "tonight."

Speaking Dutch (jazz) with Trio Braam DeJoode Vatcher

2009-06-11T18:50:00.004-04:00

The Dutch group Trio Braam DeJoode Vatcher is playing at 8:30 tonight at FlynnSpace, and I just got back from their Meet the Artist session, which was lively and interesting. They play jazz that has a sense of fun and improvisational adventure about it, and they discussed their musical style with moderator Bob Blumenthal (in my photo, left to right, is pianist Michiel Braam, Blumenthal, bass player Wilbert de Joode and drummer Michael Vatcher). Vatcher, a native Californian now living in The Netherlands, said the group doesn't play a tune as much as it plays a "pre-organized musical episode" and improvises from there. De Joode referred to the term "instant composing" vs. improvisation. So I found their word choices to describe their approach interesting. My favorite exchange came in the midst of one heavy discussion about their style, when Vatcher tried to emphasize that it's hard to describe.
"These are words, not music," he said.
"This will all be illustrated later...." Blumenthal interjected.
"No, none of it will!" Vatcher exclaimed to laughter from the crowd. In other words, it should be an unpredictable night of music.

I hadn't been planning to go to that show, because I wanted to check out the "Bayou Funk Tent" at Waterfront Park headlined by Porter Batiste Stoltz. This heavy rain, though, has me thinking an indoor show might be more appealing. It'll be a game-time decision.