Leonard Smalls

I had the misfortune today of working at a "family fun day". There was a girl singing and playing guitar - many people were saying how nice it was to have lovely music; to my ears it was like nails on a blackboard. She strummed basic chords, her song choice was bland, her singing nasal, occasionally a bit flat and increasingly annoying. But otherwise OK. I mean just about OK. I mean lowest common denominator OK - safe, of no musical interest, boring, kum-by-ah round the campfire OK. I would have preferred to see the folks shaken up a bit, challenged, taken out of their safe zones. But it'll never happen because it's easier not to - people like what they know and know what they like! Perhaps this is why I failed as a music promoter! 😁

Funnily enough I discovered the weirder end of jazz completely by mistake; I was DJing in Leeds in the 80s - mainly funk. And as there was no real means I knew of finding new music I'd buy stuff completely on spec. One day I saw an album cover with a sharp dressed black guy holding a Steinberger bass - it was an import costing £8.99 (this was 1985!!!) but I thought this looks like new funk, I'll play it at the Warehouse tonight! It was Jamaaladeen Tacuma's "Showstopper". I played it before sticking it on the dancefloor - didn't sound straight 4:4, there was weird repetition, there were too many notes, it just wasn't right. So I shoved it in the back of my record collection. A couple of years later I listened to it again, and somehow it just made sense... But it was a slippery slope, I craved more oddness, more dissonance, more crazy. Ornette and his harmolodics weren't enough. Through Shannon-Jackson I discovered Last Exit, Brotzmann, Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock, Steve Lacey, Lol Coxhill and the holy grail - Derek Bailey. It was like starting with a fag behind the bike sheds, graduating onto a sneaky spliff, onto white powders, bits of blotting paper, and finally, Free Jazz Improv. All other music sounded dull. After a long visit to the Betty Ford Clinic I was weaned back onto "normal" music, but thanks to this thread I'm hooked again. Cheers!

Most things operate at a higher level than me, unless they're on a lower level. Or the same level, obviously! Like this though:

Perhaps this is more to your taste? There's even some relatively coherent bits...

Bloody rubbish, that!

And with good reason! Here's a whole 1'30" of a surprisingly mellow Brotz...

I can do nice! I once played a melody you know. Just the once, mind. Melodies and tunes are for losers. 🎶

We always get the drums set up first, with my amp on drummer's left and geetar on his right. Then we all drop 3 tabs of acid each and start on the Buckfast to prepare ourselves...

It is possible! I was once in the house band for a Blues Jam weekend with Dangerous Dave and Jerry Rockstar...

Excellently groovy player... Been a fan since hearing him with Hasidic New Wave and Screaming Headless Torsos.

So you likes it sugar-coated as well? 😝 So I'm guessing Brotzmann's out too?

S'funny how anything different is dismissed as "elitist twaddle" rather than just "don't like it". Do they want vinegar or mayo with those chips? 😀 Saying that, I've got my 1st jam next week in a "rock project" with a drummer who played with Evan Parker, Paul Dunmall etc - perhaps I'll start us off with. Nice blues in E...

Talking of Laura Kuensberg...

Bootsy... solo starts at 5'45"...

The rack's got a dbx 2 channel compressor, a BBE pre and a Marshall Jubilee being used as power amp. The enormously heavy cab is a Yamaha 1x15" currently housing a Precision Devices 600w 15". 10cc? Eek! It's to teach the drummer to dance... It's the only way I can get some funk into the rest of the band!

There's a Sandberg you can just see the edge of on the right, and just out of shot there's a Kawai Sleekline! And a completely decorative banjo...

I saw them on the Pocket Calculator tour at Liverpool Empire, many years ago. One of the best gigs I'd ever been to!

With working audio! https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1437867522979834&id=676053449161249

Some ridiculously good young 'uns from Japan...

Sergeant Pepper's. It's always annoyed me and I've always wondered why anybody ever liked it. Same for Rumours - just sounds safe, middle-of-the-road and cheesey to me. But then I like Derek Bailey and Jamaaladeen Tacuma's "Mirakle"...

I use the Pro17s... Used to use Etymotic £12 ones before that which didn't attenuate as equally over the whole frequency range - I found that with the Etys it cut down less on bass, so I was always too quiet. Now they can hear me! And, of course I can hear them too...

Good gig in Shrewsbury last night; decent crowd and good reception. We even got asked back after trying very hard, and failing, to clear the room! Only very slightly distorted (!), and be warned - there's a rude word hiding in there...

Nobody's voted for my entry in months... Though that could be due to being in my Tacet Musica phase.