Music
Eddie Marshall, RIP
Fluffy Schwartz
A living legend of the San Francisco jazz scene, drummer and band leader Eddie Marshall has passed away. Eddie was an amazing person and so giving of his time and spirit to so many generations of musicians it would be imposs...
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Music
Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson
Bernard Meisler
Here's a Friday night treat for you all - the complete concept film of Serge Gainsbourg's classic "rock opera", Histoire de Melody Nelson.
There's little doubt that Melody Nelson, a short (27 minute) album release...
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Essay
Sex, God and Violence
S. A. Emmons
The stars must have been aligned when, entirely by chance, I happened upon The Spitters way back in 1994. I had caught a short blurb on them while flipping through some metal magazine or another in a grocery store. It was ac...
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Music
Elliott Sharp – Rare, Unreleased and Out-of-Print
Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp, a composer and multi-instrumentalist, playing mainly guitar, saxophone and bass clarinet, is one of the major figures in the New York downtown and experimental music scene. Sharp has led many ensembles over th...
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Murda Muzik #1 – The Gravediggaz
Michael Gonzales
As a young film buff growing-up in New York back in the days, I first got into movie soundtracks through the James Bond themes. Composed by John Barry and sung by various pop idols (Tom Jones! Shirley Bassey! Paul McCartne...
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OH MAMA WHY’D I EVER GIVE UP THE CLARINET?
Bonny Finberg
Because all we ever did in Junior High was play Toonerville Trolley and a couple of other lame things that might have been turned into something interesting at a kindergarten version of the Bang On A Can Festival.
I liste...
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Music
Professor Sun Ra
Sun Ra
In the Spring of 1971 Herman "Sonny" Blount, aka Sun Ra, was artist-in-residence at the University of Califonia at Berkeley, where he offered a lecture course, variably described as African-American Studies 198, "The Black M...
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Billy Bang, R.I.P.
Bernard Meisler
Billy Bang, the great jazz violinist, moved on to the next plane, April 11, 2011.
When I first came to New York, in the early 80s, Bang was the man in the LES jazz scene. Bang was born in Alabama as Billy Walker, but as a...
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Music
Dan Becker – compositions
Dan Becker
Dan Becker likes to compose music (current commissions include a work for Kronos), study music (he received his DMA from Yale), teach music (by way of the SF Conservatory of Music), organize music (as founder of the Common S...
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Music
Timber, Released and Unreleased
Bernard Meisler
I ran into Jenny Wade on Avenue A, summer of 1993 I believe it was. Asked her where she was going, she said she was playing a gig at the Knitting Factory, so I asked if I could come along. She said nah, you won't like it, it...
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Music
Trans-Atlantic Soul
Stewart Home
When I was at school in the 1970s, the hip kids were obsessed with old soul records, and while I dug those sounds I never paid much attention to them telling me I should go to Wigan Casino for the soul all-nighters. ...
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Music
Singer-Songwriter Maria Q
The Editors
Maria Q is an old-school style singer-songwriter who grew up and performs in the Bay Area. You can certainly hear Joni Mitchel in her compelling voice and authoritative guitar arrangements; other influences include Kris Delm...
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Music
This is! Ralph Carney!
Ralph Carney
Ralph Carney
is a multi-instrumentalist/horn player who has spent the better part of the last 2 decades criss-crossing the world, on stage and in studios with the likes of Tom Waits, Jonathan Richman, William Burroughs, Al...
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Interview
Interview with Steve Horowitz
The Editors
The brilliantly eclectic (eclectically brilliant?) composer/musician Steve Horowitz spoke with KPFA (94.1 FM Berkeley) host Derk Richardson on September 9, 2010 and shared examples of the "odd but highly accessible sounds" h...
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Music
In Spite of the Devil
Spuyten Duyvil
Spuyten Duyvil names the creek that separates northern Manhattan from the Bronx. It is bastardized Dutch and might mean 'spitting devil' or spinning devil' in reference to the cross currents that boil the water at this junct...
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