"The Music Just Turns Me On"

Kim Kirkpatrick: Back in 1979 I was visiting relatives in Cincinnati and I decided to go check out record shops downtown. I certainly did not expect to find much in this city but you never really know and I loved to flip through record bins. I wound up in a very small, basement record store and spent quite some time looking at all that was there. I didn't find a single record I wanted but they certainly had a good assortment of fine recordings I already owned. As I was leaving I flipped through a small, new release bin by the door. This proved to be a life changing move on my part because I found and purchased my first dub reggae album: African Anthem The Mikey Dread Show Dubwise.

I was familiar with the mid to late 70s reggae releases, Bob Marley And The Wailers, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, etc., but I had not heard dub. Mikey Dread (aka Michael Campbell) had been an important part of the reggae scene in Jamaica prior to the release of African Anthem in 1978 and Dread At The Controls, released in 1979. He was performing the top radio show in Jamaica and voted Top Radio Personality of the Year in 1977-1978. I used the word "performing" because Campbell's shows were an "on the fly" creation unique to radio and DJs at the time. His "Dread At The Controls" radio show was a smooth flowing experience, mixing dub recordings, vocal treatments (his own as well as some sultry females), and sound effects into an ever changing, fast paced, gripping, sonic experience. African Anthem The Mikey Dread Show Dubwise if not an actual radio show is as close as you'll get to one of his performances. Thirty one years later, it is still entertaining and an impressive example of the musical and technical abilities of Campbell.

This is dub from the classic years, you have the sense of knobs being turned, reel to reel tape rolling, and the panning and echo effects being manually kicked in and out. I love the hands on performance you can hear so clearly: the volume forever being adjusted, with the effects, EQ, and separate tracks swiftly, concisely controlled and presented for maximum effect. Michael Campbell was masterful in the studio, an innovator whose unique sound was instantly recognizable. His warm, direct style, and heavy dub effects can be heard throughout dub's history. You can hear his strong influence (along with his contemporaries such as Lee Perry, and King Tubby) in the later developments of hip hop, trip hop, electronica, and dubstep, his work is that seminal and essential. Mikey Dread quickly became a favorite reggae artist for me and this first purchase led me to explore at least a thousand other reggae/dub releases and a huge treasure chest of of reggae producers and musicians.

You are safe in exploring just about every release Michael Campbell produced, certainly any albums up through 1982's S.W.A.L.K.. Check out his discography for not only his own releases but also his many other collaborations with musicians right up until his death in March of 2008. African Anthem is available in several forms on CD, snagging any of them would be a good idea but I can suggest you look for the deluxe edition on Aurolux. This has a little bit richer sound, has the original track sequence as well as six extra tracks mixed by King Tubby. African Anthem The Mikey Dread Show Dubwise is available at OM and iTunes along with several other releases by Michael Campbell. This is an essential recording anyone into electronica, space, or dub music should own.

Bob Burnett: I think the dub album that struck home for me was 1980's LKJ in Dub an album by Linton Kwesi Johnson and Dennis Bovell that was a dub re-invention of LKJ's previous two albums Forces of Victory and Bass Culture. Kim has dug much deeper than I have into dub and knows the timelines, connections and culture much better than I do. I connect to dub in the same way I connect to avant jazz and contemporary classical--music that opens up space and time and leaves behind the comfort of staid and controlled "musicianship", brings a deeper dimension to the music by including the tape machine into the realm of music.


I know it's a leap but Karlheinz Stockhausen (namely his composition Hymnen where he brought together world radio broadcasts and treated the sounds with effects, sped-up and slowed tape motion and track overlaps) and dub are in the same place for me.

The Thirteenth Assembly musicians

Bob Burnett: I just recently re-upped my subscription to Wire Magazine and it's a good thing I did. One of the first articles I read in the recent issue was Howard Mandel's profile of the members of the Thirteenth Assembly. (Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone and Tomas Fujiwara) The group is part of a larger collective of Brooklyn/NYC-based players who pool their skills, touring, resources and album releases in a variety of ways to make exciting, innovative and thought-stimulating improvisational-rooted music. The players all seem to be connected to Anthony Braxton--either as a teacher or as players of his music. Taylor Ho Bynum is probably the most previously noted of the group having released an album with Braxton a few years back (Duets Wesleyen 2002) when he was in his mid-twenties. He has a marvelous sextet album out called The Middle Picture, released on his Firehouse 12 label. Another Firehouse 12 release that I have been immersed in is guitarist Mary Halvorson's Trio Dragon's Head. I am finding a ton to like about this album--open playing, creative improvisation---or as Elliot Sharp said about Halvorson and the trio:

"Dissonant arpeggios melding into pounding odd-meter repetitive grooves, spidery textures becoming cracked melodies, and jazzy vamps fragmenting into vicious free-form interactions"

I know this group of players is being jammed into the "jazz" cubbyhole but I'm hearing a much wider, more involved strand of connections---In addition to the avant jazz realm I'm hearing shards of other ensemble/improvisational groups from a few decades back such as Etron Fou leloublan, Universe Zero and Henry Cow. I'm downloading or buying cd's left and right by all the members as well as the players they work with--but wanted to get something out to c60 readers so you can explore the music for yourself.

"Heart On My Sleeve" c60crew music mix

Bob Burnett: Today's c60 crew music stream offers a wide range of solo, small group and ensemble performances touching on musical disciplines such as acoustic folk, jazz, ballad, Santeria, improvisation, modal, contemporary composition and electronica.

Heart On My Sleeve by C60crew on Mixcloud

Photo by Kim Kirkpatrick

"I'll Let You Know" c60 crew music mix

Bob Burnett: Kim has created an atmospheric music mix that spans the decades but is connected by threads of subtle genius. So many familiar things here brought together in a revitalized and greatly appreciated manner. As one comment on mixcloud stated--this is the wonderment of Kim that used to fill the airwaves of Washington, DC on WGTB in the '70s and WAMU and WHFS in the '80s. Included with the classics are a few surprises too---like a completely fresh and invigorated dub version of '70s popwave group Martha and the Muffins as well as William S. Burroughs murkily creeping in the borogroves.

I'Ll Let You Know by C60crew on Mixcloud

Jazz on a Summer's Day

Bob Burnett: I have a Roku box connected to my TV. If you have one, you know how great it can be. If you don't, I suggest getting one; especially if you have Netflix. A Roku box allows you to play Netflix-based films via your computer's internet connection as well as a number of other options. (MLB TV for baseball games, Amazon pay per view rentals, Pandora for music as a few examples) For the most part, I use Roku to watch documentary films and once screened remove it from my queue. I rarely go back and re-watch films--except for one: Jazz on a Summer's Day--a visual tapestry of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in newpoer, Rhode Island. It resides permanently in my queue. Summer's Day is in theory a "music film" about the performances that took place at Newport but for me it offers much more. For one thing it's done in film verite--the "fly on the wall" technique (in this case the "cats in the crowd" technique) where the cameras capture the events, the people, the place and let the pictures and the music performances carry it. No interviews, no descriptions just pure moment in time perfection. The performers offer a wide range of possibility too: chamber jazz (The Jimmy Giuffre Trio onstage, The Chico Hamilton Quintet late one sweaty evening in a small room someplace) contemporary (Thelonious Monk with Roy Haynes and the recently re-discovered Henry Grimes, Gerry Mulligan w/ Art Farmer) classic (Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden, Big Maybelle belting blues, Chuck Berry playing rock'nroll--and fitting right in)

One performance in particular steals the show for me: Anita O'Day. She performs a slow, percolating and beautifully scattered version of Sweet Georgia Brown as well as creates bopspeak prosody with her playful version of Tea For Two. She hits the stage (as legend goes ripped on heroin) in a black dress, white heels and gloves and an incredible lampshade of a hat--a favorite moment is when she delicately goes up the steps and the visuals cut-away to a guy popping his head up from the stage in a puzzled double-take.

As important as the stage is to the film the audience and general festivity shots take it to another level. The clothes, the expressions, the moments of ecstasy and boredom, people eating, smoking, drinking---and living passionately. The people create their own performance in this beautifully captured moment by moment ballet. The simple act of eating ice cream becomes satori; a yawn or head bob tell 1000 stories of unmatched vibrancy.

In addition to the music and people there are shots from the America's Cup yacht race happening just offshore as well as the common thread of a roaming-throughout-Newport Dixieland band made up of Yale students--including the young trombonist Roswell Rudd.

The film was directed by noted commercial and fashion photographer Bert Stern. I looked up getting a high quality copy on DVD however I was troubled to see it's either out of print or very expensive used. The Netflix version, while being an exemplary viewing experience, is rather lacking in quality. The copy is highly compressed and the transfer from film wasn't done with loving care. That said, in 1999 Jazz on a Summer's Day was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. That fact at least gives me hope there's the possibility for a nice copy being available in the future.

Anita O'Day's Performance:

When It's Cold I'd Like to Die

Bob Burnett: Kim has put together When It's Cold I'd Like to Die, a soothing and beautiful c60crew mix featuring a wide range of classic to current electronica, (Four Tet, Rizzo, Adam F, Arovane, Bowery Electric to name a few) one of the highlights of Krautrock (Cluster & Eno) as well as a smattering of rock and contemporary glossolalia (Dead Can Dance) mixed to a level of perfection that makes the art of watching snow fall in feet--not inches-- an excellent pastime.

When It's Cold I'D Like To Die by C60crew on Mixcloud

Photo by Kim Kirkpatrick

The Who

Kim Kirkpatrick: In lieu of The Who's 12 minute mash up appearance at the Superbowl, and the fact "My Generation" has been stuck in my head for three days now, I thought I'd share my recollection of seeing The Who for the first time on May 25th,1969. I was sixteen when I drove around the beltway to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia Maryland*. I was excited to have seats perfectly located, in the center and level with the performers on stage. From the start I was locked in on the performance, it was captivating seeing and hearing Tommy played straight through in it's entirety. Having been released just two days earlier, I had heard it once prior to this concert. Tommy was soon to be declared the first rock opera, and said to have set a new standard for Rock music. The Who also performed another whole set of now classic songs from their past releases, though I can't say I remember them individually anymore.

The band presented as electric and intense a performance as I'd ever seen. Pete Townshend's guitar playing was full of expressive energy, felt as much as heard. His arm-swing motions across his guitar were violent strikes, dramatically on target, and a visual timing device for his bursting, exploding guitar chords, as well as just plain cool. At some point he was bleeding from these sweeping actions, a common occurrence for him it turns out. (Their are accounts of him ripping fingernails off, blood flying throughout the rest of the painful performance. Once he impaled his hand on the whammy bar of his guitar, roadies taped it up and he continued to perform). His playing was an attempt to break through boundaries on a personal and musical level, and a shot across the bow of society. He persistently pushed for something new through his use of volume, dynamics, and ringing open chords. Yet with all the power his playing projected it was also precise, defined, and dead on target. His playing served the music, the story telling qualities of his songs, and though he was the leader, the songwriter, he never stepped on his bandmates performances. Unlike say, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, or Jeff Beck, Townshend never stepped up for a flashy solo, and there was never a touch of "look at me" in his playing.

Clad in a suede, fringed vest, bare chested, swinging his microphone in a huge windmill fashion, Roger Daltry was bold, dramatic, and up to the task of stepping in front of the massive, powerful sound that was The Who. He also had one of the better, more versatile voices of rock at the time. John Entwistle's bass playing was not merely about keeping time, it was a counterpoint and a push to Townshend's playing. Keith Moon, the relentless, volatile, blast furnace of a drummer, was battling the songs while keeping precisely on the beat. The Who ended the evening with the destruction of their equipment, at the time it felt like freedom, a denial of possessions, indicating the performance was the point and now it was gone forever. Finally amidst all the scattered drum parts, smoke, and feedback,Townshend stepped to the front of the stage and threw his guitar into the audience. It landed right next to me, everything stopped for a moment, and then the person with the guitar on his lap disappeared underneath the attacking audience.

Amazingly, eight years later, while working in a record store I struck up a conversation with a Who fanatic while we stood in front of a rack of bootleg vinyl. Turned out he was at the show, he also happen to have taken that guitar home with him.

The opening band that night set the bar incredibly high for The Who, I remember commenting that The Who could never top that performance (though they did in my mind). Led Zeppelin was the opening act, on their first U.S. tour supporting their first album released in January of 1969. I later learned that night was the only time led Zeppelin ever shared the bill with The Who.

*

Merriweather Post Pavilion was built in Symphony Woods, on a forty acre wooded lot. it was part of the planned community of Columbia Maryland and a facility intended to be the summer home of the National Symphony Orchestra. The structure opened in 1967 and was designed by architect Frank Gehry.

"Once you're old enough to have a medley," Roger Daltrey confides with a perceptibly uneasy laugh, "you know you've 'ad it."

from interview by Matt Resnicoff for guitar player September 1989