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Let me know if you woke up yesterday with Sonny and Cher singing I Got You Babe on your radio alarm clock.
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Monday was Portland's Music Millennium Buy-In Day
Got there after lunch. The place was full.
Owner Terry Currier, happy with the turnout, talked to KOIN news.
Ran into Promotion Queen Lisa Lepine and bluesman Russ Finley.
They're in the middle of a weekorso-long Groundhog Day Johnny Cash Swimsuit Singalong. If you arrive in a swimsuit and cowboy boots and sing a Johnny Cash song, you get 25% off your purchase. So far, they've had a girl in a bikini...more are promised for Monday evening, including a full band. Not sure if they'll be in swimsuits. Wish I could have been there for it.
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Composer/keyboardist Marco Benevento will be at the Goodfoot on Saturday, 2/7. He's got a hot new album called Me Not Me full of electronics, interesting covers (Beck, Leonard Cohen and My Morning Jacket for example) and his own stuff. I could tell you more, but you'll find it more fun to listen to my interview with him from my Saturday night show on KMHD. He was a little late calling in but I was glad to hear from him. He was calling from NYC.
Listen here:
He'll have the trio from the album, Reed Mathis on bass and Andrew Barr on drums. The album came out Tuesday of this week. I've been playing it on the radio for two weeks. How cool must I be?
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Looking for a roundup of pretty much all the music news you'd ever want, especially if you're a pro...player or broadcaster or journalist? Check out Buzzsonic. I got stuck in there on Sunday and when I came up for air, I thought a month had passed.
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Look for my Portland Jazz Festival preview here on Thursday. Here's a taste of the Andrew Oliver Sextet, one of my favorite bands, playing Friday, February 13th at The Cave. That's Andrew Oliver on keys, Eric Gruber on bass, Keven Van Geem on drums, Dan Duval on guitar, Willie Matheis and Mary Sue Tobin on saxes in the video playing an Oliver tune called Mixolydia, from their Otis Stomp album.
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Singer Rosalie Sorrells is up for a Grammy this year. She'll be at the Aladdin on Saturday for the annual Winterfolk concert, once again benefiting Sisters of the Road. This year's show is a tribute to Utah Phillips who died last year. She has an album out of his songs, and her own.
I'll never forget sitting in Lisa Lepine's living room a few years back, when she had Rosalie over after a gig. Somehow the subject turned to Percy Mayfield who we both worship (as should you.)
Want to hear what Utah called the funniest story he ever heard?
Lisa also sends this piece of news along:
Long an underground Northwest favorite and the inspiration for events like Daisychain Music festival, hat maker extraordinaire and twisted songwriter Corona Hats (imagine Dylan as a woman) recorded a her first full length album at the studio of Billy Oskay in the Columbia Gorge.
Corona's songs were captured "Field Recording" style and features the talents of Portland blues songster Lauren Sheehan, Felix Manz of the Kitchen Syncopators, and Eugene drum scorcerer Kenny Sokolov (Ras Cloud, Mapate Diop, Thomas Mapfumo, Ferlin Husky) plus Klaus Heyne, a bassist who just happens to customize high-end microphones for folks like Neil Young, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins & Usher among many others!
This illustrious ensemble came together for 2 days and left with 12 songs including a cover of Antonia Stampfel's Jeannine's Dream - a song made famous by the Holy Moly Rounders. Stampfel who lives in a nursing home in Florida, cried when she heard the recording played for her over the phone.
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Speaking of that part of the music world, you heard it here first that Arlo Guthrie will be in town on Thursday, April 2 to perform at Congregation Beth Israel for a fundraiser as part of their 150th Anniversary celebration and the Guthrie Center, a non-profit social service, - spiritual and cultural center located in western Massachusetts. Hardly seems like anything in Oregon is that old, but maybe it's later than I think. Oh wait, you tell me Oregon itself is 150 years old…this year? And Beth Israel, too? It's becoming clearer and clearer.
Arlo will have an 8 piece band. I'm glad he isn't with the symphony this time around. Bad ideas should be allowed to die a merciful death.
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Duff's Garage is going to be rocking this Friday. D.K. Stewart's band will feature the Heart Attack Horns with legendary English saxophonist Chris Mercer who has played with Dr. John, Bryan Ferry, Bob Marley and lots of others. Duff's is always fun.
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I'm going to be writing about the Curious Comedy Theater in the O, but how does this sound?
A new kind of mad performance art! Two delightful, musical maids will dazzle you with their bizarre, hilarious stage antics. Shoshinz is anglicized Japanese for "shy, timid people," but Shoshinz are maids who are subservient to nothing and no-one. These two maids never speak any words, but they sing and dance and make a variety of sounds with their bodies. They can communicate deeply with each other with their sounds and voices and hearts. Watching them, your imagination will soar, and will remember what your most precious treasure is.
Runs Thurs-Sat, February 5-7.
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I've updated my YouTube channel. Look for newly posted stories of mine at www.youtube.com/tdpdx
Listen to my KMHD show on Saturday nights 10pm-2am. Jazz till 12 and then The Bar opens at Midnight!
You can hear my political talk show, "D'Antoni & Levine" with DC-based reporter Art Levine live on Thursdays at 2:30pm PT and then archived thereafter. Listen here.
Just got back from spending a few hours at the remaining Music Millennium store here on Burnside, with memories of being present on the last day of the West Side Store before it shut down, and the resulting frustration. Lots of time to really take a good look at that place - all the artifacts, funky stuff, the posters, books, chandeliers, LPs . . . Picked up a few CDs on the lengthy wish list and ran into several folks - Lisa Mann, Patrick Lamb . . . heard some live music. Wistful and knowing that it is places like MM that ARE Portland. I remember when they closed Jazz de Opus - such a shame (and Jazz isn't even on the top of my list).
ReplyDeleteThe onus is on the community to support these reflections of who we are. (Weird, remember?)
With ALL THE E-MAILS I received telling me about today's event, I figured the lines would be out the door. Sure it was cute to see customers singing for their discounts, but my hope is that our community will continue to go into the store in these upcoming days and continue to show support.
And be sure to take a good look around while you're there.