Out from the virus, Anthony Gomes hatches hit album

Anthony Gomes

In 2020, probably the worst year for live music since before songs were invented, musicians had to stop making noise in public, but they found other means to keep their creative drive burning.

Anthony Gomes — the blues guitarist, band leader and thoughtful songwriter — made the most of the lean year by forging a new album, Containment Blues, out of the sorrow of the virus, bringing some urgently needed healing. 

He and his band will perform two shows at Shuffle. One is sold out. Tickets for the April 24 show can be bought at Eventbrite. Routine COVID-19 health measures will be enforced, said promoter Monte Lorts.

• No tickets can be purchased at the door
• Tickets are for tables of four, or for individual stools
• Mask required for entry
• No mask needed when seated and eating and drinking
• Mask required when moving around the venue

This show presents an opportunity to hear live music, new music. 

“Out of it we birthed this unforeseen baby, a much different album than we would have otherwise,” he said. “We were working on a different album and we just stopped that because it didn’t seem appropriate.”

He realized the historic significance of this global predicament, he said. “Somehow, I needed to archive that, artistically. I’m really proud of the results.”

Cover art for album,
Containment Blues

Containment Blues became their best received, best selling album, hitting No. 1 on the Bluebird Blues Chart last year, and doubling the sales of their previous album, he said.

“People need some humor. Blues has always been a healer. We really needed some healing in 2020,” he said. The title song presents a family situation involving scarce toilet paper. “Hell and Half of Georgia” is a drama in which one partner has multiple lovers.

One of several songs with a more serious theme is “Praying for Rain,” an autobiographical song where he reminisces about lessons from his grandfather, such as: “… son, I’m counting on you to finish what we started to find a way … .”

Another serious piece has an unexpected title, “Stop Calling Women Hoes and Bitches.” This song, calling for respect for women, is a huge, powerful moment in the show, Anthony said. He found that listeners respond in one of three ways: 1) women are thankful, 2) men who have daughters appreciate the song, or 3) some other men don’t really understand.

Anthony has spoken about his work as an artistic journey, as well as a worldwide scope for the Blues. The trio is comprised of Anthony from Canada, bassist Jacob Mreen from the U.S., and drummer Chris Whited of Sweden. Additional musicians on Containment Blues are from Brazil, Venezuela and Russia. 

His foundation was able to confer modest grants to five musicians in need last year. Meanwhile, he’s “very cautiously optimistic” for 2021 and more upside for 2022, with another album in the works. 

“There’s an overwhelming feeling that we’re coming out of the darkness. … We’ve been working hard and struggling and getting by. Soon we’re going to be together again. That’s what living is all about.”

 

Anthony Gomes Band

Shuffle

Doors open 7 p.m., show 8 p.m.

2550 S. Campbell Ave.

417-883-2166

Tickets from Eventbrite

Saturday, April 24, ticket link:

https://bit.ly/3uVHNr4

Maria Schneider vs. Data Lords

Maria Schneider
Session photography by Briene Lermitte

I have been listening to the Maria Schneider Orchestra for about 25 years, and I had always characterized her work as ethereal, uplifting, yet vigorous. For most of her career, she has avoided big music companies so she can own her music and work for herself. 

She has been working with ArtistShare, dedicated to supporting independent musicians with a platform for artists, focusing on crowdfunding for raising capital, and connecting artists with fans, as noted in the organization’s website. 

Over the years, as the music business has become a streaming industry, Schneider has spoken out about the way artists have little revenue from this arrangement. 

With this two-disc album, Data Lords, released in 2020, Schneider seems to have boiled over about industry trends. The music on this album is dedicated to calling out the “Data Lords” of social media, the music business and other grifters who exploit the natural world for financial gain. 

The Digital World

The Data Lords are spanked on one disc with grating bombast on The Digital World. The other disc is titled Our Natural World, which brings us back to music that is ethereal, uplifting, yet vigorous. 

“A World Lost" is the first song on The Digital World, with the mournful long tones of Ben Monder, sounding like a funeral dirge. 

Next is “Don’t Be Evil,” using this title in mockery of Google’s motto. Trombones sound like chattering clowns, then they stir up a thick dust storm that settles into some twinkling of ivories as the buffoons come again at the end.

“CQCQ,” was a call from Schneider’s father, who was a ham radio operator. The call means “Is anybody there?” She worked this memory into an anthem for the Data Lords, using Morse code and radio waves expressed as music. Later, the electronics may feel like sitting in an electric chair for a long time — in a good musical way.

“Data Lords,” the song, brings discordant blasts, slams of percussion, and Mike Rodriguez’s trumpet with electronics spewing fear. 

I have never heard such music from her, and it’s really exciting, like a horror movie.

Our Natural World

If you play both discs in this order, at this point, you can catch your breath and listen to more iconic, graceful Maria music, with quirks and surprises.

“Sanzenin” is a Buddhist term, perfect for this stately, ethereal piece. Gary Versace, playing accordion, spins squiggly lines of joy.

Steve Wilson, playing soprano sax, creates a feeling of squirrels and birds chattering and chirping on “Stone Song.” 

With “Bluebird,” we are fully back in the groove of ethereal, uplifting, yet vigorous. Again, Wilson, this time on alto, takes one of those long building solos as the whole band lifts him chorus by chorus. Versace lands the plane gently.

On “The Sun Waited for Me,” Donny McCaslin on tenor and Marshall Gilkes on trombone are threading lines around each other until McCaslin takes over with a jumpy solo.

One more thing

Will Schneider continue with the character of Data Lords? Actually, I liked that disc better, although Our Natural World is also outstanding. But I would miss all of that bombast and electronics if she goes back to the same approach. It would be appropriate to use these newly found components by the composer and the band in future projects. 

Look up Data Lords, the two-disc album, at ArtistShare.

La Rumba Me Llamo Yo - Daymé Arocena - Cubafonía (Official video)

Vines face trench-digging backhoe

Workers begin digging the trench. In the left photo, a
section of the old pipe is visible at the right.

Two vines dug up at once.

The trench runs through the line of vines.

Apparently successful replanting.

Last month, we called Roto Rooter to fix a plumbing problem that became a total replacement of the outside pipe leading to the main city line. The line ran diagonally across our back yard through our grape vines.

The workers identified two vines in the path of the trench they’d have to dig. They came up with what I considered a pointless idea but worth a try. They dug up both plants in one backhoe bucketful and set them aside.

I put the two uprooted plants in a big tub with soil and lots of water. They lived in that tub for a day and a half. When the workers were finished, I replanted the vines in 2-foot-deep holes filled with a mixture of peat, vermiculite and soil. Then I added lots root stimulator and unknown gallons of water.

Immediately, both vines wilted. The effort seemed more like hospice, not recovery. I don’t have photos of the tub or the worst stage of the vines’ decline. I thought they were dead.

After about two weeks of withering, the few remaining leaves stopped decaying. Within a month, the plants shot out new growth. Now they look to be entirely viable.

The workers, who are master plumbers, not just earth movers, did a great job not just with the task at hand but also in their attempt to preserve landscaping.

People who have schooled me in viticulture have said that transplanting of mature vines just isn’t done (cuttings are the way to propagate). So this case of apparently successful replanting is quite an unexpected happy outcome.

New growth

 

Urban vineyard: Be thankful for small favors — and bird netting

Bird netting connected with clothespins encased the vines. For some reason, birds didn't try to penetrate it.

 

Inside the canopy

An April frost, a huge limb falling on the vines in a storm, and a bit of black rot diminished the yield of the urban vineyard, but a record-high sugar measurement this year promised better quality wine. 

Two things happened this year for the first time: all eight plants contributed fruit, and the vines fulfilled their function as a tent for the grapes, providing shade and protection from pests. In earlier years, we had patches of leafy expanse and other spots where grapes were dangling more or less exposed.

We tried bird netting for the first time in five years, and it worked. I abandoned bird netting in 2010 because the birds found ways to stick their beaks into the spaces and grab grapes one at a time. Worse, some birds using this technique got caught in the netting and died horrible deaths. Oddly, this year we had smarter birds that mostly left the netting alone. 

The "shroud" was used to protect small areas of clusters.

Netting proved to be much easier to maintain than the row cover we had been using to cloak the row of vines in a “shroud.” We did use a bit of row cover for areas of isolated clusters. 

Like row cover, bird netting encased the entire plant, secured along the ground with garden staples on either side.

I suspect the long dry spell was responsible for this week's remarkable spike in the brix up to 20, which is the highest reading I've ever seen from these plants. The forecast calls for rain later this week, which would dilute the sugar content, so I decided to act now. 

We harvested about 20 pounds of St. Vincent today (right). I’m amazed that we got that much in the face of all the natural obstacles this year brought.

Charlie Haden with Ornette: unforgettable

I had been looking for a place for this memory of hearing Charlie Haden with Ornette Coleman. It didn't seem to fit in my weekly music column, so it's here, adjacent to a reprint of the column.

Haden the agitator

Roughly 40 years ago, some time after I got my driver’s license and before I finished college, I saw the Ornette Coleman quartet at Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase in Chicago.

Coleman was wearing a full-length, bright blue robe covered with silvery stars and moons. Dewey Redman wore a dashiki. This was the mid-'70s — no coat and tie and starchy white shirts. Haden stood out in his ordinary walkaround pants and shirt.

Coleman played long fluid passages punctuated with jarring blasts and shrieks. Dewey Redman on tenor growled, burbled and ululated. Drummer Ed Blackwell held things together, driving the band in lively swing figures with New Orleans flavors.

Eyes squinted shut, the bass player agitated the others, spewing speedy, intricate walking lines, weaving rugged textures of brief repeating patterns that felt almost like strumming, mixing motifs and toggling back and forth.

I had never heard a bass played that way, and I had never heard a group stirring up so much tension. They were not exactly playing together; they were playing against each other. It was thrilling, a little scary, and widely ear-opening.

Haden’s post-Coleman work, especially with Quartet West, became decidedly gentler, but I think the overarching quality of his work was to bring to the music whatever he thought it needed.

Haden leaves city a jazz legacy with bright moments

Published in the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader, August 8, 2014
This content cannot be reproduced without permission of the News-Leader.

Charlie Haden, the great bassist who died last month, made an impression in Springfield as part of his family's band back in the 1950's, but his recent contributions to the city's jazz community promise long-lasting rewards.

Randy Hamm, director of the Missouri State University Jazz Studies Program, came to know Haden during the conceptual stages of the MSU program and the first Springfield Jazz Festival, during the end of the last decade. Hamm also had a mind-blowing musical experience playing with Haden at that time.

Planners recruited Haden as guest artist for the inaugural festival and as artist in residence for the first year of the MSU Jazz Studies Program. Haden's presence was crucial to the launch of both efforts, Hamm said.

In Springfield in 2010 for the first festival, Haden said he was impressed with the renovation of the Gillioz Theatre and pleased to have the opportunity to perform there with his band, Quartet West.

In 2009, Haden appeared at an important fundraiser for scholarships and equipment for the new program. MSU jazz ensembles provided entertainment for the event at the Kentwood Ballroom on campus. In addition, Hamm on alto saxophone and faculty member Kyle Aho on piano played as a duo.

Haden wasn't planning on playing. He didn't have his bass, and he was uncomfortable using other people's equipment, Hamm said. However, after a couple of tunes by the duo, Haden stepped forward and joined Hamm and Aho.

"We let him call the tunes he wanted to play," Hamm said. "One of the tunes that he called, which he had recorded several times, was 'Body and Soul.' "

"I tell you, playing with Charlie Haden in that intimate setting, without a drummer — that Steinway in that room, the acoustics — it was one of the most rewarding musical experiences I've ever had."

The three musicians had never played together as a trio. It was a leap of faith. "Just to call a tune, there was immediate, deep trust all around," Hamm said.

He paused for a moment, looking for words:

"Playing with Charlie Haden must be what it feels like to ride on a magic carpet. His time, his intonation, his note choices, his rhythmic feel. It was gorgeous. I didn't want to stop."

The Jazz Studies Program has graduated its first group of musicians. The fifth annual Springfield Jazz Festival is Oct. 3.

Ed Peaco writes about locally grown Ozarks music for the News-Leader. Contact him at 417-413-9029 or EdPeaco@gmail.com.

Giant Amoeba emits semi-obscure CD

This is the jazz CDs section of Amoeba. The store also sells 33s, 45s and 78s.

During a recent visit to Los Angeles, I ventured into Amoeba, one of the last enduring record stores and one of the largest. My mind went back two decades when I spent hours in such places, flipping through the stacks. However, we had many sightseeing priorities in the Hollywood area, so I challenged myself to find a worthy CD in 10 minutes or so.

"Tring-A-Ling" with the Amoeba price sticker.

I wanted a CD that was probably out of print and only available at Amoeba or from collectors online. I didn't achieve that level of obscurity, but I did find, within the self-imposed time constraint, "Tring-A-Ling" by Joanne Brackeen. The 1977 LP was reissued as a CD in 2009.

Michael Brecker appears on four of the seven tracks. While Brackeen and Brecker both are in the early stages of their careers, Brackeen sounds like the full arc of her artistry is already achieved, while Brecker is still in a developmental stage.

Brecker: He's running the tenor at high speed, but he's not negotiating the curves all that well. He's yippy in spots, and, on "Haiti-B," he's bending notes into howls like a mournful beagle. Two and three decades later — as heard on a couple of my favorites, "Tales from the Hudson" and his last album, "Pilgrimage" — he had become the master we all know, infusing emotional intensity where there was once just velocity.

Brackeen: The complex yet playful compositions are already here, as are the sprawling piano solos, roiling in crosscurrents. Many jazz musicians who find their path early and follow it through life usually are not very interesting to hear in their later years. However, Brackeen is an exception. As you go forward in her career, the work is just as absorbing even though the concept hasn't changed.