Try to imagine: a ‘Bierstrasse’ restaurant as big as a football field in the midst of Harlem where you can get beer, sausage and kraut delivered to long wooden tables while Japanese jazz-organist Akiko Tsuruga plays with our very own Cory Weeds, of Cellar and Frankies’ fame, on saxophone! It’s all true. Cory never fails … Continue reading New York: Jazz with Cory Weeds
At an ‘oldies’ concert in the ‘eighties, I experienced the sound of the stratospheric falsetto voice of a male singer for the first time, live and in action. I had heard it before of course, having come into ‘musical awareness’ in the early ‘sixties, shortly before the Beatles came out. We had just entered high … Continue reading Men, singing window-shattering High Notes
(Note to readers: this is #4, the last in a series, so I’d recommend you start by reading #1, Chuck Berry, and read your way back up) Combined with his 6.4 height and big muscular body, Dave Van Ronk’s seemingly smoke-and-booze saturated, decidedly big-piped voice would scare you if you didn’t know him. He looks … Continue reading Bad Boys of Music Series #4 Dave Van Ronk
David Lindley is a brilliant multi-instrumentalist and a hilariously wicked musician who writes and sings songs especially to gross you out. The stage around him is filled with stringed instruments of all descriptions, a Greek bouzouki, a Turkish saz, an oud, a Hawaiian lap-guitar and a banjo among them. Lindley started out playing folk and … Continue reading Bad Boys of Music Series #3: David Lindley
In January of this last year, 2020, I went on the ‘Blue Note Jazz Cruise’ with three friends. What? Mariken went on a cruise? Yes, incredible! I had always sworn, in front of everyone I know, that I’d never, ever go on a cruise – because it’s so obviously anathema to the kind of travel … Continue reading Jazz Cruise peruse
For me, the second most memorable musical event in my drawing career was Frank Zappa’s appearance in Vancouver, even though it took place a year before Chuck Berry’s. Not so much in terms of the quality of the drawing itself, but for ‘being there!’ A truly wicked musician and, really, he was a much worse … Continue reading Bad Boys of Music Series #2 Frank Zappa
Some of my favorite drawings, the ones I made during what I consider my ‘heydays’ of productivity – the eighties and nineties – feature star musicians, many of whom have died by now. I realize what a treat it has been to be in their presence, observing them do what they did best: give their … Continue reading Bad Boys of Music Series #1: Chuck Berry
