When I first heard about Utopia’s new bass player back in 1977, I wondered if he would last.  “Who is this Kaseem Sooltan?” I asked.  The answer is extraordinary talent, a level-headed sensibility and a close eye on Todd Rundgren have kept him working with industry names such as Mick Jagger, Joan Jett, Patti Smyth and most notably as musical director for Meatloaf, as well as being part of the foundation of the Bat Out Of Hell original album and a right-hand man to Rundgren since Utopia’s evaporation in 1992.

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We want our customers to have a good time when they visit, and many folks make up their own fun.  This photo is part of a series posted by Teamsteam on Flickr.  We didn’t know they were doing this, but we sure like the results!

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Literally just back from an enjoyable but tiring road trip to New York City; I-95 seems to still be spooling out in front of me as I write this.  I decided Friday to take an impromptu road trip to visit my daughter in college in Brooklyn (the new hip place in New York), my brother in Joisey (New Jersey to you), buy a few records, and take in the Saturday Art for Art Show at The Living Theater on the Lower East Side.   Left Friday night and was back in DC for lunch on Sunday.  The trip  is a blur of images, sights, sounds, tastes:  delicious pizza at Pompilio’s in Westwood, NJ, traffic jams noon and midnight in NYC; LPs and more LPs; and blasts of passionate free jazz, and the sinuous movement of skilled dancers.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Robin Williams said if you remember the Sixties, you weren’t there.

One thing you couldn’t forget was the music.  Bob Dylan sparked an artistic renaissance in rock music which hasn’t been equaled since.  Most of those great songs of the Sixties are now available on You Tube.  Here are a few of my favorite music videos which you can check out for yourself.  (I’m recommending the You Tube video which contains the best available sound recording of each song.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Regular readers of this blog know that I have had some tussles with public radio in the past, most notably my ongoing critique with the disappointingly bland programming of WBGO (Newark, NJ).  Most recently, and closer to home, that is, my local jazz-public affairs station, WPFW, Washington, DC,, I have encountered some rather more serious reasons why I –and you– might want to look a little deeper into our public radio stations before we give them any more of our money–especially in this era when everyone else-from bankrupt banks to greedy CEOs– seem to want it also.  The question I wanted to answer was whether or not these stations handle the money they receive with the care and prudence which we expect them to handle it.  The answers I found were alarming.  Read the rest of this entry »

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There’s nothing especially rare here, but this collection is filled with tons of the classic albums that many of us grew up with, and it’s a pleasure to have them in stock.  Read the rest of this entry »

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So, are you into Iraqi jazz fusion yet?  Or maybe you never heard of it?  I had a chance to listen to it last night (Saturday, Feb 7) at the Smithsonian’s Freer Museum Meyer Auditorium, in a performance by Amir El Saffar’s Two River Ensemble, with El Saffar on trumpet, santur, and voice, Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto sax, Nasheet Waits, drums, Carlos De Rosa, bass, and Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone.  The place was packed– and your intrepid blogger was almost shut out. Read the rest of this entry »

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However, this week we have purchased a very interesting large Beatles and Beatles-related vinyl collection. Read the rest of this entry »

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Due to the extreme word count of the recent Todd Rundgren NYE Concert review, the comment section was disabled. Firstly, I’d like to use this unique opportunity to allow those readers who wish to comment on the review to do so at the end of this brief blog. When I started to receive emails at my home account containing comments about the review, I knew I would have to do something, well, like this! Additionally, I would like to extend tremendous thanks to Doug the promoter of the event for contributing fact checking and editing. So if you have a comment about the review I invite you to leave one after this blog. Thanks!

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DIONYZA

“Quite like Me”

Little Dizzy Records

DIONYZA has a polished sophistication to her skilled, soulful, modern R&B styled music. The daughter of Motown singer/songwriters Michael and Brenda Sutton is a welcomed newcomer to counterbalance the dime-a-dozen-divabots that are taking over the music scene. Her lyrical content and style heralds back to Chante Moore and Maysa Leak.

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Quick, name a top female saxophone player.   Quick, name a female tenor sax player in the free jazz, creative improvised music arena.  If nothing immediately leaps to mind, don’t feel too bad; unfortunately, it’s really not a crowded category.  I’m not sure what the reasons are for that state of affairs.  But it did add a bit of an edge to my interest to check out Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker, performing with Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, and Japanese electronics improviser Ikue Mori, the latter two now based in New York, while Anker remains based in her native Copenhagen.  I caught them this past Saturday at An Die Musik in Baltimore, last stop on their U.S. tour behind the release of their new CD, Alien Huddle.  Previous stops included Noo Yawk and Philly, and I had heard good reports on the show.  I was not disaapointed; in fact, the show continues to resonate with me. Read the rest of this entry »

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