MTH-V: Warren Haynes Band Live

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Summer approaches, meaning:
– I spend much time thinking of great outdoor shows from summers past
– I listen to more DMB than normal (and I already listen to a lot), gearing up for the annual summer tour

Today, this leads me to Warren Haynes Band. Last summer, during my annual DMB pilgrimage to The Gorge on Labor Day weekend, I saw Warren Haynes’s solo band perform a smokin’ set. Haynes & Co. were my favorite (save the headliner) of DMB Caravan 2011 – last year’s full-blown festival. (TR3 and The Roots also get honorable mentions for also tearing the nonexistent roof off the place.)

Warren Haynes, a who’s who rock and blues guitarist, has earned his reputation as a top-notch gunslinger playing for The Allman Brothers Band, The Dead (and various Grateful Dead satellite projects), and Gov’t Mule. 2011 saw the release of Man in Motion, for which he’s been touring in support of with a killer backing band. After seeing this band (the same personnel as the below video) absolutely destroy last September, my first order of business upon returning home was to purchase Man in Motion. Good songs and good jams abound, although I must say I prefer the live band of more obscure side(wo)men – the studio effort understandably features a few more “name” acts. The same live band is also featured on the recently-released Live at the Moody Theater (2012). Besides the band simply being filled with solid musicians, it’s one of my ideal instrumentations: drums, bass, keys, guitar, male & female vocal, horn. Very versatile.

This video is from the band’s performance at last year’s Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, TN. Oddly enough the first time I saw Warren live was at Bonnaroo 2005, both with Gov’t Mule and when he sat in with DMB – talk about coming full circle for this post! The one and only Lewis Black introduces the band and enjoys the show from the wings. (Black himself is a fan of good rock – he often uses “U.S. Blues” as the audience exit music after his shows.)

Warren Haynes Band:
Warren Haynes – Guitar, Vocals
Alecia Chakour – Vocals
Nigel Hall – Keys, Vocals
Terrence Higgins – Drums
Ron Holloway – Saxophone
Ron Johnson – Bass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgceoxEaxHE

Serendipitous Blogging: PS

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Wow. Call me prescient. Nine days ago I write about the cons of social media and the next day Daniel Carlson does the same regarding live-tweeting specifically (I posted a follow-up here just two days ago.) And just last evening I came across this live-tweet gem via Andrew Sullivan‘s The Daily Dish (my single favorite blog). Yes, that’s right: The National Zoo decided to live-tweet the artificial insemination of a panda. Perhaps this is an instance of live-tweeting jumping the shark. Or panda. Or some other large animal. Regardless, I hope this serves as lesson in what not to do with one’s social media…

MTH-V: Damien Rice

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From one acoustic aesthetic (last week’s Wynton) to another: Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice.

With Damien, I can recount the first time I heard his music: it was December 2004 and I went with my best friend to see Closer in the theater. About 1.5 seconds into the opening credits’ song “The Blower’s Daughter,” my friend – he’s always listening to not-quite-breaking indie and acoustic artists, and of course already knew Rice’s debut album forwards and backwards – enthusiastically leaned over and shout-whispered, “This is Damien Rice!” Halfway through the first verse I was also sold, and I had that debut album O within a couple days. I obsessively listened to it for months, and still can’t quite listen to it just once – it always requires repeated listening.

Not only is Rice a first-rate songwriter, but the man has some pipes. He’s also effective in his use of instrumentation. The first thing most people notice about his music is the cello’s prominence (in lieu of a lead guitar), which is very nice, but I also enjoy that he only really includes the bass and drums when necessary (both live and in the studio). And, arguably my favorite part, Lisa Hannigan‘s enchanting voice. (She was the secondary/co-lead singer from 2001 to 2007. She now leads her own band and I can’t praise her latest release, 2011’s Passenger, enough.) Lisa’s voice – equal parts smoky jazz singer and Greek siren – is occasionally, and effectively, simply used as another instrument. This is wonderfully demonstrated in “Delicate” (below) – no words, just sound. His voice and hers, both quite versatile, allow his songs to include some wonderful melodies and counter-melodies.

Dynamic control and contrast is another area in which Rice excels. He and the band are only loud when necessary. And even at his quietest, his intensity can match most other amplified acts. I’ve seen Rice (without Hannigan, unfortunately) twice, and both concerts were wonderful. The first show, at which he opened for Fiona Apple in Chicago in July ’06, included a musical moment that perfectly encapsulated this dynamic juxtaposition. During “Delicate,” it was simply Damien and Vyvienne Long (cello) – accompanied by the very occasional cymbal – for the first two verses and choruses. Then, out of nowhere, the drums and bass kicked in for the third chorus and I thought my chest would explode because of the vibrations. It remains one of my favorite concert-going moments.

As mentioned, I absolutely adore O. I really like 2006’s 9, but it started to creep away from the more skeletal O and towards a more full band sound. (2003’s Live From The Union Chapel is a nice companion to O.) It’s now out of print, but there was a limited edition of O that included a DVD of a few videos from Damien’s AOL Sessions performance. I really enjoyed those selections and have posted a couple below.

“Delicate”

“Volcano”

“Delicate” – Live for BBC Four Sessions
(The drum entrance in this one isn’t nearly as drastic as the one I mentioned above, but this clip gives you an idea of his full-band style.)

 

Serendipitous Blogging & Stifle III

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Last Sunday’s post discussed frustrations with social media. The next day I happened upon this article touching on a similar, albeit more specific topic: live-tweeting.

I intended to rail against live-tweeting in last week’s article, but by the time I remembered to do so I was ready to be done with that particular entry. Although Daniel Carlson’s article centers around television, his complaints apply universally. A common, though perhaps less ubiquitous, phenomenon in music is the live-tweeting of setlists. While this occurs mostly with pop music, other styles aren’t exempt. NPR Music’s classical and jazz branches occasionally live-tweet setlists (or, rather, “programs”) from The Village Vanguard or Carnegie Hall. I just don’t get it. Are there folks sitting at home with the entire Chopin catalogue on standby, listening to whatever nocturnes and polonaise is tweeted next? (And to the many sources that live-tweeted Bruce Springsteen’s SXSW keynote address as he gave it: don’t do that again. Just publish a transcript afterwards.)

The closest I get to this as a consumer is my checking DMB’s setlist each night of a tour. Full disclosure: I’ve been doing this since 2000, and both the band and unofficial site provide real-time setlists online. But I don’t need the songs as they happen.

Once, unfortunately, I was on an end similar to the dreaded live-tweeter. At the 06.13.09 DMB show at Saratoga, NY’s SPAC – one of the absolute best DMB shows I’ve attended – I experienced my first “Halloween.” With the exception of 1992-4 and an unexpected run in 2008, this song is one of the band’s white whales (along with “Spoon” – still waiting to see that one live…). I’ve only seen it twice live, and the first didn’t happen until my 39th show. I absolutely LOST IT when they busted it out as a surprise encore. After my screaming and convulsing – dancing is too classy of word for what I was doing – I had to text all my friends who I thought would care. In my excitement and need to spread my joy via phone, I ended up missing a portion of this song I had waited so many years to see. And while I can relive DMB’s performance via audience tape, there’s a chunk of my excitement I cannot relive because I was staring at my phone. While I was never one to really text or anything during a rock concert before that night – I’ve never done the call-and-hoist-the-phone routine, and I never leave my phone on during classical or jazz performances – I’ve all but cut it out of my concert-going experiences since then. I’d rather be in the moment than on the network.

And when I saw “Halloween” again last year at The Gorge I didn’t grab for the phone – I sang and danced with my friends. That memory is much more intact.

“Halloween” @ SPAC 06.13.09

 

“Halloween” @ The Gorge 09.04.11
You can look for the back of my head in the pit. I was right under the chain of glow sticks, stage right… 🙂

MTH-V: Wynton & “Green Chimneys”

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Judging by past entries on this blog, one might assume that I’m no fan of Wynton Marsalis. Au contraire! I’ll be the first to rant against one of his many tenants with which I disagree, and his “fetishization of jazz icons”* coupled with a narrow view and ear of what constitutes jazz is bothersome, to say the least. (And Stanley Crouch’s fetishization of Wynton doesn’t help…) But the man can play a trumpet. And swing. And when he’s on, any words he speaks are a moot point.

Yes, it’s easy to just write Wynton off as a bebop crusader with a Keith Jarrett-esque disdain for electric instruments. But, horn aside, he’s done a tremendous amount of good when it comes to jazz education and simply an awareness of jazz in the public consciousness. What type of jazz he’s brought to the forefront is a separate debate; I’m simply thankful for his efforts on the whole. Between he and Dave Liebman – both 2011 NEA Jazz Masters, representing two ends of the aesthetic spectrum – jazz education has reached new heights from beginner through collegiate and professional levels.

[You can think of this Wynton debate as similar to the Partch and ICTUS conundrum, discussed here and here.]

Anyway, as I said, it’s easy – and cool in many circles – to just poo poo on Wynton. But I’m longtime fan – since high school. I have over twenty of his albums and have seen him in concert at least eight times. (And this early feature with Herbie Hancock is an interesting album – the great Hancock/Carter/Williams rhythm section with a young Wynton who sounds little like the current one…) Some of his compositions are top notch (“Sunflowers,” Big Train, Congo Square), others not (All Rise is ambitious…), and his arranging for quintet and septet is often pretty interesting (check out the full box set for Live At The Village Vanguard – “In The Sweet Embrace of Life” is the crown jewel). And for all his talk of tradition and Louis Armstrong, he’s not scared of charting new territory. For example, “Down Home With Homey” is a blues based on a twelve-tone row, and “Magic Hour” employs elements of chance.

But all that ambition and complexity often gets in the way of Wynton the improviser and whatever band he’s playing with at the time. (He always surrounds himself with solid players.) Which is why I decided to post the following two videos. Of all my Wynton albums, one of my absolute favorites is the largely unnoticed Live At The House of Tribes. While the quintet only plays standards (not too surprising), they aren’t reading the complicated Marsalis arrangements. For anyone who’s seen the quintet or septet live, they often have multiple large binders full of his arrangements. Not here – just plowing through the head and blowing changes. At the time of this album’s release (2005), this is something Wynton had seemingly gotten far away from. Add to that saxophonist Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson and the unparalleled Eric Lewis (“The Top Professor”) on keys and you’ve got a recipe for success. (Lewis handily stole the show the few times I saw him with Wynton. And as Wynton liked to say, Lewis is bringing the left hand back…)

I mention House of Tribes because I recently stumbled upon video footage of the album’s first track: Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimneys.” I recommend this album to anyone who remains understandably suspicious of Wynton for the reasons listed above. It’s laid back, and even though there’s more audience noise than normal (I think the decision to record and/or release was spur of the moment), it’s a great peek into a side of Wynton & Co. we don’t often get to see.

“Green Chimneys” – Part 1

“Green Chimneys” – Part 2

*I wish I could take credit for such an apt phrase, but I once read it years ago and it has since stuck with me. I can’t remember where. If anyone happens to know the source, please get in touch.