Oz’s House of the Evil Dead

The King of Pop is dead. Long live the king (in animated breakdancing zombie style). Yes, Michael Jackson died today. I know a lot of people aren’t fans, and a lot of those that were stopped liking him after all the molestation charges and weirdness of the last few years. I have to admit, I stopped caring about him a long time ago. However, the man did produce some of the finest pop ever to grace the airwaves and as a child was part of a band that produced some of the finest R&B/Soul you will ever hear. There is no denying his musical genius, and I’m sure his place among the musical pantheon is assured. Thriller was an album of such artistic mastery to rank alongside almost any other album ever produced.

Enough about the smooth criminal tho – what the hell have I been up to? (continue reading…)

I’m really startig to slack, almost a month since my last music update. That’s Tim Berne over to the left over there, the quote has nothing to do with him really other than me going out and getting pretty much every recording he’s released. I guess that’s a common thing for me, best illustrated by my friends no longer asking me for music to listen to.

A while back, some of my good friends realised I had what amounted to a rediculous resource for them to listen to music from, we nutted out how to share my music collection over the internet and I set it up to share. It then dawned on them that I had more music than they would ever listen to, and asked for me to suggest specific things that they may be interested in. I of course started making lists of artists and albums for them to check out, and eventually they just gave up due to the onslaught of information I was dumping on them. Unlike me, they just wanted to listen to some music, not hear some random rare recording by the Beatles recorded while John was high on LSD. I thought it was cool, they did not.

My music library is like that. I find a new song I like, I go and get every album ever recorded by that artist. I may only ever listen to the track son those albums once, but I guess I feel the need to understand the evolution of that artist’s music.

So, how does Tim Berne fit into this? I heard him play in my club, loved the music and as normal for me, went and got everything I could find with him playing on it. Some of it is awesome, some of it isn’t, but now that I have listened to it, I think I understand his music a lot more and can appreciate anything he produces from now on. I wonder if this makes me an Obsessive/Compulsive? (continue reading…)

The title is a quote attributed to Nels Cline (for those not in the know, he’s the guitarist from a band called Wilco). What the hell does a quote from a guy who plays guitar in a Alternate country band have to do with anything? Well, I watched him play in my club the other night. It was part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and he was onstage with a drummer named Jim Black and a saxophonist named Tim Berne. The music they played can only be summed up with the following exchange:

(I’m sitting at the sound desk at the front of the stage trying to sort out the sound)
Tim: Dude, something’s feeding like crazy
Me: I’m trying to stop it, gimme a sec
Tim: Still feeding…
Me: But… I’ve turned everything down to 0….
Tim: Oh, it’s just Nils then. Nevermind. Can I have a beer?

(continue reading…)

The quote is attributed to Duke Ellington. When he says he “wrote some blues” he wasn’t talking about the small end of ‘some’. I got a 24CD box set of his this week which included all his recordings with RCA/Victor. 462 tracks and 27 hours later – that’s a lot of blues. The reason I picked up this collection is mainly due to one Allan Browne. Al has been the regular Monday night performer at my club since it pretty much opened. Before I started working there I used to come and watch him. Over the years we have both explored our love for Miles Davis (he prefers the non-electric period) but never really discussed any other bandleaders indepth. He launched his latest CD last week (Homage) and as you may be able to tell from the title of it and the prior rambling, it’s an homage to Duke Ellington and other musicians of his ilk. Up until now, I’d never really listened to al that much Duke, so I thought to myself  “if this dude can have such indepth conversations about a musician that I love, yet release an album which is paying homage to someone else, I should probably listen to a bit of that to maybe understand his position a  little better”. Think of it as fun research. I did. (continue reading…)

So, for those that haven’t been reading past entries or the ‘about me’ section; I run a jazz club. I wouldn’t say I’m the most hardcore jazz fan out there, but I do like the music, along with a whole heap of other musical styles (which should be fairly apparant from both previous music updates and this one). Anyway, as I was outside having a break last night, a group of kids turned up to the club, and from what I gather they were there for a mate’s birthday who had decided to enjoy it listening to jazz. Before we go any further, let me describe these kids: none of them would have been older than 20, in fact if they came to the bar I would have ID’d all 4 of them (drinking age is 18 here). Kid #1 was a typical emo, moronic dyed black hair and piercings, #2 and #3 were dressed similarly and #4 was dressed in what I could only describe as Miami Vice Stupid – white linen suite and powder blue tshirt. #4 I found utterly hilarious, as at best he would have had a whole 2 years in the ’80s that he is now drawing his fashion inspiration from. (continue reading…)