Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

I have been spending the past week downloading music from the [tag]Live Music Archive[/tag] at www.archive.org. For anyone unfamiliar with this website, it provides [tag]free and legal downloads of concerts[/tag] by musicians and bands that allow their performances to be taped (either by audience members or directly through the soundboard) and posted for not-for-profit use on this site. Currently the site contains 39,819 gigs and counting. It is a cybergoldmine for music lovers. The majority of the gigs are from the jamband category (the Grateful Dead head the list with 2,816 concerts); however, a careful search will reward anyone looking for something other than extended guitar noodling. Here are three excellent examples:

The Mermen

The San Francisco-based [tag]Mermen [/tag]are, on the surface, a [tag]surf band[/tag]. From that starting point, this trio?s music quickly finds its way into jazz and psychedelia territories, fully engaging in interplay with each band member and more than able to utilize a wide sonic palette without turning any of it into gimmickry or mimicry. This is not your father?s Ventures. The 11/20/2004 set from The New Jury Room in Santa Cruz, CA is mostly cover versions of familiar surf music standards like ?Apache? and ?Theme from Endless Summer? surf-inspired versions of covers like ?Theme from The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly?? and ?Ghost Riders In The Sky,? and Mermen originals. The 9/5/2004 set, from that year?s Burning Man Festival in Black Rock City, NV, is all originals, including ?That Neil Young Thing? and ?Emmylou Rides Clarence West Then South.? Both sets burn furiously.

The Jazz Mafia

[tag]The Jazz Mafia[/tag] is a coalition of San Francisco-based jazz bands whose members play in each other?s bands on a regular basis or are in a number of the Mafia?s groups. There are two gigs, both recorded at 12 Galaxies in San Francisco, available for downloading from the Live Music Archive: Low End Theory from 5/16/2006 and the Realistic Orchestra from 4/4/2006.

[tag]Low End Theory[/tag] is a septet (that?s seven, Generation Calculator) made up of drums, acoustic bass, electric piano and occasional synth, and four (yes, FOUR!) trombones. This performance is one of the best gigs of 2006 from any musical genre. The band plays seven originals and covers of Charlie Hunter?s ?Whoop Ass? and Burt Bacharach/Hal David?s ?Anyone Who Had A Heart.? The drumming by Eric Garland displays his great melodic sense, which should be no surprise, since he composed three of the originals played by the band. Bassist GeorgeBan-Weiss establishes his place in the band from the very beginning of the gig with a fluid solo to open Garland?s ?Complete Compunction.? The four trombones are represented by Adam Theis, Marty Wehner, Joel Behrman, and Marc Bolin, who plays bass trombone. This quartet plays killer section parts and imaginative solos, especially in the sections where they trade fours and showcase their individual approaches to the same instrument. Dave Scott?s electric piano work, if not perfect, is pretty close to it.

[tag]The Realistic Orchestra[/tag] is everything one wants from an outstanding big band: killer charts, solid ensemble playing, a balanced sound and great soloists. They share drummer Garland with Low End Theory, whose ?Solidude? is one of the nine compositions on the evening?s set list. Wehner, Behrman, and Bolin are mentioned by the orchestra?s unidentified spokesperson as trombonists on ?Darling Nikki.? The electric pianist sounds suspiciously like Scott. The set opens with an eighteen-and-one-half minute piece titled ?Scary,? which is neither scary nor boring, but the type of piece most bands would showcase as a signature piece. I repeat: the 18:30 ?Scary? was their OPENER! This gig?s running time exceeds one CD-R, so set two blank discs aside if planning to burn a copy of it. Highly recommended.

[tag]Dan Bern[/tag]

Bern is one of the only two so-called New Dylans whose talent is worthy of the comparison (the other being John Prine; Bruce Springsteen was never really a New Dylan, he had enough to do as The Boss). His songwriting and performance level have matured in much the same way Dylan did from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, minus the electric period. There are 13 Bern gigs available, the most recent being his November 9, 2006 gig at The Attic Tea House in Santa Cruz, a day before his concert at Slim?s in San Francisco.

The Canadian province of Ontario?s Ottawa Bluesfest show from 7/12/2006 features his voice, acoustic guitar, and harmonica backed by Mark Friedman on bass and Andrew Barr on drums for all but the first three songs. It is a surprisingly versatile set, moving from high-energy folk-rock to thoughtful love songs, with sprinklings of comic asides within the songs to keep out any sense of melodrama. Imagine Dylan remaining in his ?Blood On The Tracks? mode for the duration of his career: this band?s performance is both musically and thematically in that neighborhood. No blood here, just sixteen tracks, including his classic song about Tiger Woods.

All of these musicians perform regularly in the Bay Area, which leads me to this coda: I was planning to attend Bern?s above-mentioned Slim?s show, but instead wound up going to see ?The Last King Of Scotland.? (Capsule review: Forest Whitaker RULES!) The movie ended, I left the theater, and immediately saw a twentysomething man with a guitar standing near the exit, singing ?Sometimes I feel like Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods.?

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