Monthly Archives: September 2016

George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic

For 2 nights, September 15th and 16th, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic played the east bay at the Fox Theater in Oakland. His presence allowed many old and new fans the chance to visit Funkalelica and join in on his party with other Funkateers as they performed ‘One Nation Under a Groove’. Uncle Jam officially joined the Brainfeeder records ranks opening for electronic and hip hop legend Flying Lotus aka. Captain Murphy. Flying Lotus is also known for incorporating projection mapping onstage with the assistance of Strangeloop and Timeboy, his visual designers weave 3D images throughout the concert creating a visual impact that virtually. Another Brainfeeder artist performing was Thundercat, who works with Flying Lotus and released the song ‘Them changes’, a song that had all of us singing along last year and in Thursday’s concert too. Early sets by Shabazz Palaces and Gaslamp Killer, the qwirky dj who bobbed around like Animal from the Muppets, and had alot of folks bobbing too.

Thundercat performing live in Oakland, Ca.

Although the entire night was really quite amazing, my personal favorite parts of night took place when Thundercat played. He performed the hit, along with the opening two songs ‘Hard Times’ and  ‘Song for the Dead’ from his 2105 EP ‘The Beyond/Where Giants Roam’ and ‘The Lotus and the Jondy’ from his 2013 ‘Apocolypse’ release. ‘The Lotus and the Jondy’ is a song written about the late pianist Austin Peralta and Flying Lotus. The former Suicidal Tendencies bass player has shown how varied his talents are as his new musical recordings show much more influence to 70’s fusion jazz such as Weather Report than to the thrash metal he became know for during his days with S.T. For people who haven’t heard this incredible new direction from Stephen Bruner, is as prolific when working on his own music as he is when he’s working with Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus and other Brainfeeder artists.

Flying Lotus 3D visual stage imagery

Steven FlyLo Ellison has really been turning alot of heads since the release of his 2012 recording ‘Until the quiet comes’ and the title song short film that won the Sundance Film Festival’s Short film special jury award in 2013. FlyLo’s music and visual design on many media fronts take us to other worlds and often times other dimensions as one of his most utilized stage media is a tesseract. The soundscapes are often eerie and macabre, at times even telling violent or futuristic tales where mutations and electronic beats flow like Tim Burton and Danny Elfman recreated into one person. Ellison performs with a long list of who’s who also including Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington. Kendrick Lamar’s vocals were present in the closer of the night ‘Never going to catch me now’. Ellison’s alter ego Captain Murphy made an appearance on Dead Man’s Tetris, a song also from the 2014 realease ‘You’re Dead’. FlyLo also gave the audience a glimpse of the upcoming Thundercat song and it was one of the highlights of his set, bringing us back from the rapid fire beats and visuals like returning to one’s sense after a dream or psychedelic experience.

FlyLo performing at the Brainfeeder Records concert

While Dr. Funkenstein himself may have not headlined the event, George Clinton really did the most with the audience of anyone on stage that night. Parliament Funkadelic concerts are typically greater than 2 hours with an extended group and performance that includes Sir Nose D’voidoffunk and no Funkadelic concert would be complete without Starchild’s anthem ‘Flashlight’ in which Sir Nose is hit with the bop gun and starts to dance. Last year, Clinton released the memoir, ‘Brothers be, Yo like George, ain’t that funkin’ kinda hard on you?’ The book coincided with a song bearing the latter half of the phrase by Funkadelic that finishes the title with ‘I was hard when I started and I’ll be hard when I get through.’ The song features Kendrick Lamar with Ice Cube. With the time constraints of having so many artists one song that was noticeably absent from the set of recent years was ‘Maggot Brain’, but maybe the switched it up night two and added it back in. The crowd favorite ‘Atomic Dog’ was certainly not overlooked and it was clear that was one of strongest songs of the night for N. Carolina born Clinton and P-Funk. Concerts by the undisputed Godfather of Funk meld a multitude of hits from over the years and Thursday included the 1975 hit ‘Get off your ass and jam’ as incentive to the crowd to dance.

George Clinton takes it to the stage at the Fox

Opening acts Shabazz Palaces and Gaslamp Killer had the crowd grooving early at the start of the show. Shabazz Palaces combine hip hop with the Kalimba and add some loops to this chill vibe. The Gaslamp Killer is a dj with some really far out records to spin and invite you in. With all of those acts performing on the same stage, they made us aware that ‘There ain’t no party like a P-Funk party cause a P-Funk party don’t stop!”

Joe McPhee: Solos: The Lost Tapes (1980-1981-1984)

One thing I’ve noticed over the past few years is the unprecedented amount of reissues or first issues of Joe McPhee recordings from the vaults. For decades Mr. McPhee has released countless releases with a multitude of extremely talented improvisers to say the least. Now, there seems to be a certain popularity with vinyl records among collectors that coincides with where the consumer is on improv music. Which in short, means when I go to a record store and see a record that says Joe McPhee Lost Tapes, I want it in my collection and I’m certain a lot of other people do too.

Roaratorio records is a great label to look for such vinyl released by McPhee. I picked up my copy of Solos:The Lost Tapes last year and have been listening to it along with the 4 reissues of CJR records on Bo-Weavil and other recordings from this early era McPhee for some perspective.  This recording does absolutely everything one could hope it would. Side one begins with ‘Wind Cycles’ an exploration of the depths of the breath within the saxophone and transitions nicely from what seem to be electronic manipulations of wind and tones. The opening key tapping segment almost seems reminiscent of John Snyder’s electronic manipulations on their work together.

Joe McPhee Solos Album photo by Ken Brunton

The Redwood Rag is very rich melody that according to the liner notes (written by the artist) is dedicated to the of town, Redwood, NY where the famous Cadence Jazz Record label is located.  The song is 3:50 of pure bliss! McPhee puts so much into each note and there is a resounding wow being generated by my ears and brain when listening to this song. I recall buying a CD years called the Redwood Sessions by Evan Parker, Barry Guy, and Paul Lytton mainly because it had Joe McPhee as a guest on the Cadence Label (CIMP records). To imagine this song was written about 16 years earlier makes it more impacting.

Opening side two is Ice Blue, is also a strong improvised piece, this time showing the depth of McPhee’s ability to make his alto saxophone roar. This recording, as well as The Redwood Rag are credited to the Loft Jazz period in NYC, where McPhee laid many of his early roots.

The closing song, Voices is hauting melody that was originally released on The Willsau Concert (Hat Hut records). Willisau is a small town in Switzerland, referred to as ‘The Mekka of Creative Music in Europe’ according to the album cover. The original version was from a concert that featured John Snyder on synthesizer and Makaya Ntshoko on drums. The solo version transitions from the opening melody to point where the song shifts and takes flight as if its undulating and navigating some cross currents before again landing and closing on the refrain of the opening melody. Voices was recorded at a benefit for the New Music Distribution Service, a record distributor who, along with Cadence provide some context on how listeners of creative music gained access to new recordings in the 70’s and 80’s. Founded by Michael Mantler and Carla Bley, their catalogs contained releases of musicians ranging from electronic to free jazz. Many years ago I owned a copy that was handed down to me by a friend, but it was sadly lifted from me at a record store I was working at in the early 90’s.

The Willisau Concert Hat Hut records 1976

With many recordings being available through streaming and CD only, it’s great to have this opportunity to have access to some of the early recordings found on Solos: The Lost Tapes on a vinyl format. Material worthy not only of documenting, but including in regular rotation as well.