“The blues has always been the traditional underpinning of all American pop,” says John Hammond via telephone from his Phoenix hotel room. Hammond has been playing traditional folk-blues for more than 40 years. He’s now reaching even deeper, teaming with Tom Waits, whose oddball-troubadour Americana underpins the blues. Hammond’s latest album, the Waits-produced Wicked […]
Music
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Live fast, die young
New York City madmen/legends Simon And The Bar Sinisters completely blindsided the unsuspecting punk element at Monty’s Krown with an intense set of rockabilly, punk, and frank, Bowery boy self-deprecation. With just drop-tuned guitar and drums, Simon dared the audience to stump the band and boogie. Also in the “we don’t need no stinkin’ […]
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Superduty moves your booty
“It’s totally a history lesson,” says DJ superDimensional, dressed today as Tony Bacchiocchi, a customer at a local record store in search of vinyl. He looks more like the associate art director at Kodak who pays his bills than one-half of Rochester’s Framers of Funk, Superduty. Describing Superduty’s upcoming show (October 25, at The Bug […]
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Paul Mark and The Van Dorens come to dinner
The blues has become too derivative. It’s a lampoon. But Paul Mark isn’t mad about that, he’s just a little sick and tired. “One of the reasons I got into this to begin with was to build little stories, not just mimic old acts,” Mark says via Bat-phone from Gotham. “There has to be […]
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Get well, Casz
Not too long ago, if your sorry-ass band needed a sorry-ass bar to play in front of more sorry-asses guzzling Cream Ale, you needed to look no further than Friends And Players (corner of South Clinton and Goodman). And the only reason your rock ‘n’ roll racket ever made it in the door in the […]
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Polish boy, monkey man
Anyone who remembers The Resisters (“Slut Rock,” “I Like Her Ass”) or Dog’s Life (“Dog’s Life,” “Queenie Gots a Pinworm”) will remember the odd-ball, sea-foamed Strato-twang of one Lee Chabowski, a nice Polish boy from Dansville. Both aforementioned groups proved to be tragically ahead of their time and comfortably out of place in a past […]
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Hitler’s Mustache
You know, sometimes you’re lucky enough to find a disc that perfectly suits where you’re headed: the dry cleaners, the clinic, Wegmans, hell, etc. With my evening errands complete, I recently found myself driving ’round and ’round the inner loop, circling our modest skyline to the sounds of the King of Soul, Solomon Burke’s, new […]
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Speak like a child
In the same week that heightened Homeland Security forced Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes to postpone his upcoming Rochester concert, the Swedish improv-experimental music duo Sudden Infant was making its own plans to penetrate our borders. And, as far as we can tell, Sudden Infant has been successful. If it seems strange that Valdes, […]
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Me,me, me
I’ve always admired Rochester women for their fortitude, their pulchritude, and their attitude. After a recent break-up, a friend of mine pawned all the jewelry she’d gotten from the ex and bought a stack of Charles Bukowski books. She’s available, and soon she’ll know all our secrets. “Be a model or just look like […]
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One-note samba
Caption: Profound statements, profound moves: Gray Mayfield comes of age. Gray Mayfield will never forget the day Wynton Marsalis showed up at his dorm room. “A friend of mine used to study with Wynton. He was always saying, ‘I’m going to contact Wynton and have him come and hear you.’ So, one day, when […]
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Recordings
Chris Arduser Hostage Drummers have a mostly deserved reputation for being knuckleheads. On the other hand, folks come along every now and then who step out from behind the kit to display broad musical gifts made all the more wonderful by the perspective of a percussionist. Levon Helm, Phil Collins, and even Karen Carpenter come […]
