My Playlist from Last Saturday Night 3-28-09

10:00 PM Wayne Horvitz/ Duke/ Monologue
10:02 PM Esperanza Spaulding/ If That's True/ Esperanza
10:09 PM Chick Correa & Hiromi/ Windows/ Chick & Hiromi
10:17 PM Quadraphonnes/ 4951 Walnut St./ Music to Watch Girls By
10:26 PM John Scofield/ Chicken Dog/ A Go Go
10:33 PM Sound for the Organization of Society/ Poem of the Underground/ same
10:45 PM Nancy King & Fred Hersch/ Little Suede Shoes & Day By Day/ At Jazz Standard
10:53 PM Wayne Horvitz Sweeter Than the Day/ Disingenuous Firefight/ live at Goodfoot Lounge Portland 1/31/09 unreleased
10:58 PM Gary Burton & Michael Gibbs/ In the Public Interest/ same

11:08 PM Carla Bley/ Appearing Nightly at the Black Orchid/ Appearing Nightly
11:36 PM Andrew Oliver Kora Band/ The Funnel & the Vacuum Cleaner/ Just 4 U
11:40 PM John Stowell/ Laughing River/ Solitary Tales
11:45 PM Various/ Introduction & Balancing Signals/ This is Stereormama/ vinyl
11:47 PM Esquivel/ That Old Black Magic/ Other Worlds, Other Sounds/ vinyl
11:50 PM Ray Martin/ Shadrack/ Dynamica
11:52 PM Quadraphonnes/ Who Loves You Pretty Baby/ Music To Watch Girls By
11:56 PM Felix Slatkin/ I Get a Kick Out of You/ Cocktail Mix Vol. 1

THE BAR

12:05 AM Tom Waits/ The Piano Has Been Drinking/ Small Change
12:08 AM Roy Brown/ Saturday Night/ Complete Imperial Recordings
12:10 AM Prince La La/ She Put the Hurt On/ Me Itchy Twitchy Feelings
12:13 AM Champion Jack DuPree/ Nasty Boogie Woogie/ Blues from the Gutter
12:16 AM Dinah Washington/ Big Long Slidin Thing/ Risque Blues
12:19 AM Dave Bartholomew/ Who Drank My Beer While I Was In the Rear?/ Classic New Orleans
12:22 AM Wine-O-Wine/ Willis Jackson/ Atomic Cocktail
12:24 AM H Bomb Ferguson/ H Bomb Rock/ H Bomb Rock
12:26 AM Bobby Hendricks/ Itchy Twitchy Feeling/ same
12:29 AM Northwest Blues Pianorama/ Little Queenie/ live in Seattle (unreleased) David Vest, DK Stewart, Kenny Blues Boss Wayne
12:38 AM Archibald/ Stak A Lee/ Spirit of New Orleans
12:45 AM Ray Charles/ What'd I Say (Pts 1&2)/ Atlantic Collection
12:50 AM Ike & Tina Turner/ I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine/ Itchy Twitchy Feelings 12:53 AM The Meters/ Good Ole Funky Music/ Fundamentally Funky
12:59 AM Labelle/ What Can I do For You?/ Nightbirds

1:03 AM Albert King, Steve Cropper, Pops Staples/ Trashy Dog/ Jammed Up Together 1:07 AM Bar-Kays/ Soul Finger/ Instrumental Classics
1:11 AM George Clinton/ Flash Light (Groovemaster's Mix)/ 70s Party
1:17 AM MC Hammer/ U Can't Touch This/ Platinum
1:21 AM O'Jays/ Love Train/ Best of Gamble & Huff
1:24 AM Marvin Gaye/ Let's Get It On (futuro mix)/ The Ultimate Motown Remix
1:28 AM Watts 103rd St. Band/ Express Yourself/ Soul Years 1970
1:32 AM Stevie Wonder/ Love's In Need of Love Today/ Songs In the Key of Life
1:41 AM Paul deLay Band/ Could We Just Shoot Your Husband/ The Last of the Best
1:44 AM Phillip Glass/ Forgetting/ Songs from Liquid Days/ by Laurie Anderson voc: Linda Ronstadt & the Roches
1:52 AM Quadraphonnes/ Glass Saxophone Quartet Mvt. 1/ Music to Watch Girls By

QUADS INTERVIEW, SOME VIDEOS, A LITTLE NEWS AND NOTHING NEW FROM OPB/KMHD

While listening to a very out very exciting Cooper-Moore play "All Up In It" and remembering how much fun I had talking with him for a story last fall and how much fun it IS to meet and get to talk with talented creative people and how I can't stop doing it even if it means I have to invent my own place in which to do it…..

Which has nothing to do with the news about KMHD. There's nothing new to report and I'm going to hold for another time what will be a lengthy and pretty shocking story about how that place has operated in the recent past.

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AS PROMISED, THE QUADRAPHONNES INTERVIEW FROM MY SHOW LAST SATURDAY NIGHT

Mary Sue Tobin and Chelsea Luker made the long trek to Gresham to be on KMHD with me. It sounded something like this. Actually, it sounded exactly like this.



And then I got this note on my Facebook "How bout giving Quartette Barbette some ink too! LOL" And there you have it.

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BURNSIDE RECORDS THROWS UP……A BUNCH OF COOL VIDEOS.

Interesting videos of Portland musicians including this one of the Acoustic Guitar Summit.



See the rest here.
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A NOTE TO THE PORTLAND BAND "METH TEETH"

I will never go see you with a name like that. I have easier ways to induce vomit.

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BRAZIL AND PIZZA IS NOT THE NAME AN ART FILM

You can get some of both, however at Mizz Pizz on Saturday night, March 28 when z'Bumba and Vou Vivendo play while you eat. Don’t let them see you eating. It's not good for the creative process.
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BONZO DOG BAND….NEED I SAY MORE?

Click if you must. I got this from a Bonzo fan. I know for a fact that Mississippi Studios' Jim Brunberg and Music Millennium's Terry Currier are huge Bonzo fans, as am I.

Here's the problem. I periodically coorespond with two women who are into the Bonzos. It's fairly unsual for women to like them. Don’t' ask me why. When I asked where they had discovered the Bonzos they both said they had been turned on to them by their dads when they were kids. Oh great.

Here's a version of Canyons of Your Mind I had never seen.



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I WILL BITE YOU, BUT ONLY IF YOU'RE IN COSTUME

This Friday, March (I'm really tired of March) 27 at the Bossanova Ballroom, Avant-Emperor Noah Mickens will throw The Vampire Masqurade Ball Official Meet and Greet Party starring The Deadly Ensemble, Soriah, plus aerialistFaegann Harlow, The Sick DJs Burn, Megadeth, and Jimme Jamma, experimental cellist Uxe Mede and Bogville featuring NagaSita and Eyerish Heather Collins.

As you may realize by now, I swear by all things Mickens but you may not get to read too much of his writing. For instance:

The 7th Annual Vampire Masquerade Ball is drawing the Transylvanian diaspora from across the Globe to celebrate their common heritage March 28th in Portland Oregon.

Those Night Owls who are able to make it to town one day in advance will be treated to a very special Meet-and-Greet party at The Bossanova Ballroom, where the spotlight moon will illuminate the Works of two of our most revered artistic practitioners: the cadaverous cabaret of The Deadfly Ensemble and throat-singing ritualist Soriah.

Framed by DJs and brief performative turns from the dark fairytale musical review Bogville, we offer an opportunity for the very oldest of friends and Family to quench their thirst in the company of their peers, and make themselves ready for the evening to come. Housed in the vintage 1930s grandeur of The Bossanova Ballroom, and organized by the creative minds behind The Wanderlust Circus and Societas Insomnia, our Meet-and-Greet party draws out the unique magick of The Vampire Masquerade Ball to fill an entire weekend. Or at least, the half of the weekend during which the sun is down.

The ball itself is Saturday night. All the details are here.

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R.I.P. EDDIE BO

New Orleans R&B, soul, funk and jazz pianist Eddie Bo died last week. In case you never got to see him, here's a tiny tiny taste.

At the Louisiana Music Factory on Decatur St. in New Orleans in 2007



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IF YOU'RE READING THIS WEDNESDAY EVENING YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO GO

Downtown Pala Lounge has been around for a few years. It opens on the weekends and is best known as the home of House. There's something for Portland Electronic Music Lovers tonight. It's the lastest Underground Rising @ Pala! featuring DJs DJF and Superfunkdiculous as well as resident Tronic on the decks. Music will feature house, funky house, techno and progressive.

Plus there will be live painting by Abztrakt Synergy. If I put my radio show on in my office, think Ab will paint it while I'm Djing?

If you absolutely must dance on a Wednesday night.

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JAZZ AT CINEMA 21, LIVE AND OTHERWISE

A monthly combination of live jazz and jazz on the screen begins at Cinema21 Friday, March 27 at 9pm with Paul Newman in Paris Blues,"the 1961 Martin Ritt-directed study of two jazz bohos (Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier) gigging in Paris and juggling love affairs. From the novel by Harold Flender, "Paris Blues" is an "American New Wave" artifact--rolling in romantic existentialism--featuring Louis Armstrong as Wild Man Moore, with a Duke Ellington score (Newman does a great horn-synch to "Mood Indigo"). Preceded by two concerts: live on German television in 1963--the Thelonious Monk Quartet, and a house party filmed in Finland in 1970 of the Bill Evans Trio."

Mike Horsfall and Craig Snazelle Duo, on vibes and bass will play in the lobby.

On Saturday, April 25 they'll be showing Hud along with 1974's Headhunters and Return to Forever with Herbie Hancock and Chick Correa, duh. O's Shawn Levy will introduce the movie and preview his new book on Newman.

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I AM NOT A MONGRELLLLLLLLL

Seattle's Mark Graham and Orville Johnson, aka Kings of Mongrel Folk will be at blues/roots singer/instrumentalist Laruen Sheehan's birthday party at the Muddy Rudder Public House, 8105 SE 7th Ave. on Saturday, March 28.

In case you need some filling in, These mighty personages are the Kings of this universally loved music that holds within it the realms of folk, blues, country, jazz, and the odd bits that they make up themselves.

Lauren plays the Rudder every week.

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Listen to my KMHD show on Saturday nights 10pm-2am. Jazz till 12 and then The Bar opens at Midnight! Studio line 503-661-8900…call me sometime, it gets lonely out there!

Email me at tvdpdx@gmail.com

KMHD UPDATE! Things looking promising for current programming!

A source who has been in consultation with decision-makers at OPB, responsible for the decision to take over the operations of KMHD told me a few minutes ago that although OPB doesn't know exactly what they want to do with the station, KMHD will remain a jazz and blues station with much of the current programming intact.

This is not set in stone, but it is a much more optimistic reading of the situation than the one presented to me by a source at KMHD this morning.

It just makes sense. The KMHD audience is around 125,000 at the moment, a 10,000 listener increase in 2008. And it has a loyal group of members.

To be honest, many KMHD DJ's, me included, welcome a jolt of professionalism and competence in the KMHD front office. Former GM Doug Sweet made great strides in expanding the sound of the station, bringing in DJ Santo, Mississippi West, Lynn Darroch, Stephen Cantor and me. He's been gone since last summer and in his place there have been no radio pros running things.

I will expand on the sad, mad conditions of what's been the state of KMHD, but let me say one thing. Development director Calvin Walker has been the lone voice of common sense and sanity for quite a while now.

Wouldn't it be ironic if I went back to OPB to do my Saturday night show?

ADD AT 8:33pm

It is also the understanding of my source that the music library, including shelving, also including the untold number (hundreds? thousands?) of albums which never made it out of the "Music Director's" office (more on that later) will go to OPB.

OPB to Take over KMHD....end of KMHD as we know it? Source says YES!

KMHD as we know it will end on July 1, according to a Mt. Hood Community College/ Oregon Public Broadcasting Media release today which said that OPB will be absorbing the station (although not the licence).

A source at KMHD told me that none of the current DJ's or paid KMHD staff will be retained, although that is unconfirmed from OPB.

This has been in the works for quite a while. We KMHD DJ's figured something was up when an email came down a few weeks ago from JoAnn Zahn, who has been caretaker GM since Doug Sweet resigned last year. It said that the search for a new GM had been halted.

What will be retained is jazz programming. What Portland might lose is the variety of music and personalities found on the station right now. That is unconfirmed by OPB, however.

Stay tuned. This has just been announced this morning and things are still developing. I will have more about it as things develop.

Here is the release and the Q&A which came along with it.:


Mt. Hood Community College Proposes Partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting to Operate Jazz Station KMHD

GRESHAM, Ore.—Facing a significant budget shortfall due to state funding reductions, the Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) District Board of Education will consider a proposal to transfer the operation of Portland’s only all-jazz station, KMHD (89.1 FM), to Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) effective July 1. Under the proposal, MHCC would continue to own the station, while OPB would take over programming, operational and fundraising responsibilities.

MHCC President John J. “Ski” Sygielski said the board of education will give serious consideration at its April 8 meeting to this proposed partnership with OPB. A decision is expected at the May 13 board meeting. “This partnership would give KMHD the best opportunity to thrive in the future,” Sygielski said. “OPB’s intention is to continue to operate KMHD as a jazz station. With a current audience of about 100,000 listeners, we believe that the station can attract an even wider audience through increased promotion and higher visibility to OPB’s 1.5 million viewers and listeners,” said OPB’s president and CEO, Steve Bass. No changes in programming or on-air hosts are planned before July 1. “At this time, we expect to receive at least $4 million less from the state in 2009-10, with further cuts anticipated beyond next year, so transferring KMHD’s operations to OPB is one of the areas where we can reduce costs without compromising a music institution that is important to the College and the community,” Sygielski noted.

Sygielski, who became MHCC’s president in July 2008, has expanded the College’s outreach and visibility.

Q&A IN SAME MEDIA RELEASE:


Why is this happening?
A mutually beneficial partnership between Mt. Hood Community College and Oregon Public Broadcasting is being considered by MHCC’s Board of Education. If the proposal is agreed upon, OPB would begin operating the MHCC jazz radio station KMHD on July 1, 2009. MHCC would continue to own the station and OPB would be responsible for all programming,operating costs and fundraising. This arrangement would preserve KMHD’s unique music service for the benefit of more than 100,000 listeners in the Portland metro area. Arrangements like this are becoming increasingly common between colleges and independently-governed public broadcasting stations.

Why is MHCC considering a partnership with OPB to operate KMHD?
MHCC faces a formidable budget shortfall due to likely cuts in state funding. Because operating a radio station is costly and requires specialized expertise in order to succeed, the partnership will guarantee a brighter future for KMHD, while allowing MHCC to focus its resources on education. No changes would be made in the short term. OPB is committed to the jazz format and to providing the best music service possible to KMHD’s listeners. Finally, OPB and KMHD would promote Mt. Hood Community College and music events in the nearby community of Gresham.

Will KMHD stay a jazz station?
OPB’s intention is to continue to operate KMHD as a jazz station.

Why does OPB want to operate another station in this tough economic climate?
The current economic climate is the driving force for this arrangement. Because of OPB’s expertise in operating public broadcasting stations, OPB will be able to operate KMHD more economically than currently possible. Operating efficiencies will allow OPB to invest more in music programming and community outreach, elements that are essential for a strong public radio station in today’s environment.

Portland is fortunate to have three strong public radio stations with distinctly different formats (OPB offering news, KMHD offering jazz, KBPS offering classical music). This arrangement between OPB and KMHD will maintain and even enhance this strong public service. And because of the economies of scale that OPB already possesses (particularly in fundraising and engineering), KMHD’s current level of revenue will be sufficient to fully support its operation.

How will KMHD be funded?
KMHD will be supported in the same manner as OPB – largely through individual contributions and corporate underwriting. OPB’s operation of KMHD will not require any financial support from Mt Hood Community College. The capital costs for moving KMHD’s operations to OPB are minimal, due in large part to the transition of KOAC operations to OPB (we will be using much of the equipment in Corvallis to operate KMHD).

What changes will OPB make? When will these changes take place?
There will be no changes in KMHD’s programming, on-air hosts or operations prior to July 1 when OPB would begin operating the service. Over the coming months (and provided the MHCC board approves the arrangement), OPB will evaluate KMHD’s programming and on-air sound to determine what, if any, changes would improve the station’s public service.

How will OPB work with the local music community in operating KMHD?
As in our work on opbmusic, we will work collaboratively with local musicians, music venues and presenters in the greater Portland area to support the music and creative community. We anticipate to enhancing partnerships with the local jazz community so as to heighten awareness of Portland’s unique cultural assets.

What will happen to the current KMHD staff and volunteers?
KMHD’s current staff will be offered other employment opportunities within the college. We hope that KMHD volunteers will stay on to continue working with the station during the transition. OPB also expects that many KMHD volunteers will want to continue working for KMHD after the transition to OPB.

Where will KMHD be housed?
We are fortunate to have available studio space in our main building. KMHD will be co-located with opbmusic in the space previously occupied by the Golden Hours radio reading service.

What will happen to KMHD contributors?
From audience research, we know that about one-third of KMHD’s listeners also listen to OPB. Current KMHD members will be granted a membership in OPB for the duration of the time before their renewal date. Anyone who contributed during KMHD’s March on-air fund drive will be considered to be an OPB member from July 1 until March 2010.

How will the station be identified?
The station will continue to be identified as KMHD and its city of license as Gresham. It will be integrated into the OPB brand in some manner (but we haven’t yet determined how).

How will we handle on-air fundraising?
We don’t know yet. There are many issues to be worked out such as the timing of on-air membership campaigns. We haven’t yet determined whether KHMD on-air drives would be simultaneous with current OPB drives or not. Stay tuned.

How will staff be affected?
We anticipate that between 3 and 4 positions will be created to support the operation of KMHD. These positions will be focused on improving programming. We don’t anticipate that staffing will need to be increased in areas such as fundraising, engineering, or administration to support the station.

What is the timeline for the transition?
The MHCC board of directors will discuss this proposed partnership at its next meeting on April 8 and will likely make a decision at the May 13 board meeting. The partnership is only a recommendation of the MHCC Administration unless or until the board of MHCC formally endorses it.

Who’s responsible for making decisions about KMHD?
Please contact Lynne Clendenin, VP of Radio Programming, at. lclendenin@opb.org

My KMHD Playlist from Last Saturday Night 3-21-09

10:00 Wayne Horvitz/ Duke/ Monolgue
10:03 Joshua Redman/ Un Peu Fou/ Compass
10:08 Fly/ Sky & Country/ Sky & Country
10:14 Chicago Jazz Philharmonic/ An Afternoon with Mr. Bowie Pt. 2/ Collective Creativity
10:17 Quadraphonnes/ Georgia On My Mind/ Music to Watch Girls By
10:21 Quadraphonnes Interview ---- Listen on my Wednesday post.
10:33 Quadraphones/ Cry Me a River/ Music To Watch Girls By
QUADRAPHONNES GUEST SET
10:45 Rebirth Brass Band/ Trouble/ 25th Anniversary
10:51 Sun Ra/ Plutonian Nights/ The Nubians of Plutonia
10:56 Steve Grossman/ Time to Smile/ same
11:04 Frank Zappa/ Zombie Woof/ Apostrophe

11:13 Sound for the Organization of Society/ Constanence/ Poem of the Underground
11:19 Madeliene Peyroux/ Our Lady of Pigale/ Bare Bones
11:25 Marco Benevento/ Seems So Long Ago Nancy/ Me Not Me
11:30 March Fourth Marching Band/ Tora Bora Hora/ 5th Anniversary Live
11:39 Carla Bley/ Death of Superman/Dream Sequence #1 Flying/ The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu
11:48 Rolley Polley/ Blue Rhumba/ Cocktails Vol. 1
11:52 Al Jazzbo Collins/ Goldilox & the Three Bears
11:56 Rithma/ Champagne Time/ Upstairs at Larry's

12:05 Tom Waits/ The Piano Has Been Drinking/ Small Change
12:09 Roy Brown/ Saturday Night/ Complete Imperial Recordings
12:11 Big Boy Groves/ You Can't Beat the Horses/ single
12:12 Jimmy Witherspoon/ Barfly Blues/ Atomic Cocktail
12:15 Roscoe Gordon/ Booted/ single
12:18 Dirty Red/ Mother Fuyer/ Urban Blues vol. 1
12:21 Sam Cooke/ Somebody Have Mercy/ Live at Harlem Square

EDDIE BO TRIBUTE
12:30 Eddie Bo/ Check Mr. Popeye/ New Orleans Popeye Party
12:34 Eddie Bo/ Dinky Doo/ Get Back Up Again
12:37 Eddie Bo/ Hard Times/ Rounder Lousiana Collection
12:40 Eddie Bo/ I'm Through Dealing/ Keys to the Crescent City
12:43 Eddie Bo/ Hook & Sling/ same
12:46 Art Neville/ Another Blues Stringer/Keys to the Crescent City

COSIMO MATASSA SET
12:54 Little Richard/ Rip It Up/ Cosimo Matassa Story
12:58 Roy Montell/ Every Time I Hear that Mello Saxophone/ same
1:00 Roy Baldhead Byrd (Professor Longhair)/ Rockin' With 'Fess/ same
1:03 Lee Allen/ Rockin' at Cosimo's/ same
1:05 Royal Kings/ Teachin' and Preachin'/ same
1:07 Smiley Lewis/ Shame Shame Shame/ same
1:09 Eddie Bo/ I'm Wise (Slipppin' and Slidin') same
1:11 Little Richard/ Heebie Jeebies/ same

1:17: Tom Waits/ Saving All My Love For You/ Heart Attack and Vine
1:20 Gianluigi Trovesi/ Tocatta/ Profumo Di Violetta
1:23 Stephanie Schneiderman/ When You Touch Me/ Dangerous Fruit
1:28 Quadraphonnes/ Tango Suite #2/ Music to Watch Girls By
1:32 Pink Martini/ Everywhere/ Hey Eugene!
1:35 Ennio Morricone/ Secrets of the Sahara/ Soundtrack
1:39 Savara Nazarkah/ Peace Song (Iraq)/ Lullabyes from the Axis of Evil
1:44 Rickie Lee Jones/ We Belong Together/ Pirates
1:49 Gavin Byars/ Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet/ same
1:55 Staples Singers/ Got To Be Some Changes Made/ Soul Folk In Action

R.I.P. Eddie Bo

New Orleans piano legend Eddie Bo dies at 79
Posted by Keith Spera, Staff writer, The Times-Picayune March 20, 2009 6:40PM
Categories: Breaking News, Obituary, Top News

RUSTY COSTANZA / T-P ARCHIVE
Singer-pianist Edwin Joseph Bocage, known simply as Eddie Bo, works the crowd at last year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. He died Wednesday, March 18, at 79.
Eddie Bo, a potent, eclectic New Orleans pianist, singer, songwriter and producer who inspired a dance craze with his 1962 hit "Check Mr. Popeye" and later directed fans to "Check Your Bucket, " died Wednesday, March 18, of a heart attack. He was 79.

A prolific artist, Mr. Bo adroitly distilled an excitable synthesis of rock 'n roll, rhythm & blues, jazz and funk.

"He was one of the last great New Orleans piano professors, kind of a bridge between Professor Longhair and Allen Toussaint, " said New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival producer Quint Davis. "Everyone now has to remember to check their bucket on their own, without Eddie to tell us."

Born Edwin Joseph Bocage, Mr. Bo grew up in Algiers and the 9th Ward. He was heavily influenced by the piano style of Professor Longhair; he also gravitated to the jazz phrasing of George Shearing, Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum.

After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School, he served in the Army. Upon his return to New Orleans, he studied arranging and composing at the Grunewald School of Music, a training ground for scores of professional musicians.

He fronted various bands and wrote and released singles for the Ace, Ric, Apollo and Chess labels. In addition to "Check Mr. Popeye, " which was inspired by the cartoon character, his hits included 1969's "Hook and Sling, " which reached No. 13 on Billboard's R&B chart.

Other artists fared well with his songs. Little Richard adapted Mr. Bo's "I'm Wise" as "Slippin' and Slidin." Etta James scored a 1959 hit with his "Dearest Darling." He is credited with writing Oliver Morgan's signature "Who Shot the La La."

In 1975, Mr. Bo semi-retired from music and left New Orleans after the failure of both his marriage and a North Rampart Street club, El Grande, in which he had invested heavily. He said he "couldn't make ends meet spiritually" as a carpenter.

Neither his retirement nor exile were permanent. By 1989 he was back in New Orleans following seven years in Miami, where he studied at the Yahweh Institute. The institute, he said, "teaches men that we should seek love and distribute love, and seek to be moral." It was around that time that Mr. Bo started wearing a turban-like diadem on his head.

By the early 1990s, he was touring Japan and Europe, appearing on albums with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and George Porter Jr., and holding down an evening solo piano gig at Margaritaville. A German label issued his funk album "Shoot From the Root" in 1996. In 1998, he released "Nine Yards of Funk" on his own label.

He also busied himself with non-musical pursuits. He briefly operated a club, the Check Your Bucket Cafe, and ran a health food store with his sisters.

In 1999, an electrical fire destroyed the Tulane Avenue building that housed the health food store. Mr. Bo also lived in the building. The fire claimed his two keyboards, along with master tapes of unreleased and previously released recordings, musical charts he had painstakingly written over the years, and a collection of his own classic 45s.

Scores of musicians -- contemporaries as well as younger musicians influenced by him -- volunteered to perform at a benefit concert in the wake of the fire. "It gives me a deep, deep feeling of not really knowing how people care, until you have to experience something like this, " he said. "Then you really know who your friends are."

His most pressing need, he said at the time, was to replace his keyboards. "I'll try everything I can to get another keyboard, " he said, "because I'm lost without something to play."

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Here's a wonderful story on the funeral of Antoinette K-Doe who died on Mardi Gras morning.

As Promised: What I Would Have Told the City Council

The Portland City Council recently had a hearing at which the Regional Arts and Culture Council presented their "State of the Arts" report. You can see the whole thing here.

I was unaware that I could have signed up to add my two cents. Here's what I would have said:

Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, I'm not a part of an arts organization. I don't have a 501c3 or a 401k. I am a writer and broadcaster who has spent a long time documenting music and musicians and artists working in other disciplines here and elsewhere. I am also a published author outside of journalism. And I'm speaking only for myself.

This Council session is devoted to the question "What is the state of the arts?" There are several answers to that question. Without any reservation I can tell you one thing you already know...we have a startlingly vibrant roster of writers, film makers, musicians, painters…all manner of expression. So the state of the arts when it comes to the arts themselves is pretty thrilling.

What's not so thrilling is that because of the current economic crisis there is a major breakdown in how the rest of the public gains information about us. The Oregonian is incredibly shrinking. While I am envious of the good folks there who still draw a weekly paycheck, I know that they care passionately about the arts and are not happy with the way things are going, and that they chafe under the cutback in pages and space for stories. Likewise at Willamette Week.

Creative people communicate with other creative people on the web and there are many avenues to take in order to do that. But what about the rest of the public, the consumers, the people for whom we make our work? How do they know what's going on? Who is working on what? And where are the profiles of our creative people to be found?

We have not begun to feel the effects of all this yet. Well, I have. Assignments have dried up. I can tell you from experience having worked in TV, print and radio, when work in one of those media has been slow, there has always been another to turn to. That is no longer the case…in the arts.

When it comes to buisness, techincal, health or a few other areas, there is work, but not in the arts.

When the word about who is making art can't get out there, consumers don't know about that work and can't buy it. If consumers don't know who is playing where or who has a new album out or is working on something new or can't learn about that work in articles longer than 400 words, then they can't…consume.

And so clubs are emptier, music goes unsold and work dries up. This is beginning to happen now. It will only get worse under current conditions.

A wise head of one of our best organizations once said to me, "We're all playing to the same ten thousand people." That may be true. But there are a million other people in the region.

We're not organizations Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. We're just people with something to express. Where's our bailout? What do you propose? Without us there are no arts. We are the arts. And our state is fearful and not optimistic.

There is a new organization called CAN: the Creative Advocacy Network which is a step in the right direction. It is a little disappointing to see that there is no representation from our music community on their board. Still, you should check them out and do what you can...so to speak.

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Listen to my KMHD show on Saturday nights 10pm-2am. Jazz till 12 and then The Bar opens at Midnight! Studio line 503-661-8900…call me sometime, it gets lonely out there!

Email me at tvdpdx@gmail.com