Cracks In Sidewalks

If you read today’s “Daily Crack,” you already know that I’ve known Taj for a number of years and he is someone special to me.   And when you write about Taj it has to come from the heart, because that’s who he is and what his music represents to me, heart music.

I’ve been thinking about writing about Taj ever since I started my blog, but I wanted to wait.  I also didn’t know which side of him or song I would want to showcase first.  Over the years Taj has managed to mix together the sounds, rhythms, and flavors of the world and serve it up on a big blues buffet featuring a number of different specialty dishes.  But the trouble for me is I don’t just like one or two of the dishes he’s conjured up in his musical career, I like them all!   I just love hearing Taj sing and play, there is something joyful and uplifting in his presence and the songs he sings whether it’s Taj singing more traditional blues style songs, him singing and playing with the Hawaiian Hula Blues Band, the Tuba Band, or listening to Taj play with some of the music masters from Mali, the list goes on and on.  Taj is infectious.  He not only loves music and music from around the globe; is an ethnomusicologist; an accomplished player of multiple instruments; but he seems to truly love people, all different kinds of people.  Taj is a very warm person, and when you sit down for a taste of what he offers, he brings all of the above to his musical table for you to enjoy.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen Taj play, the different configurations of groups I’ve seen him play with, and the different types of venues in which I’ve witnessed his performances. But no matter the size of the group, big, small, or solo, or the size of the venue, the essence of the man always shines through.  He gives of himself and the audience feels it and knows it; and over the years I’ve come to think of Taj as some sort of great big human spirit musical connector.

I recently saw Taj for the first time in a very long time.  He was headlining the “Putumayo” 15th Birthday Celebration in Central Park playing at SummerStage.  He played as a trio and I couldn’t believe the big sound that they got.  And once again like so many other times before the second he started playing and singing people were smiling and dancing.  I was so happy to see Taj!  In recent years every time he’s played New York I’ve been out of town.  This time I was here and there was no way I was going to miss the show!  I made my date stand in the rain under the Putumayo tent for two hours during the previous acts in order to see him play.  But miraculously right before Taj came on the clouds parted, the sky got blue, the sun came out, and all was good.

Taj Mahal was born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks in Harlem, New York, but he grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts in a musical family.  His father was a West Indian jazz arranger and piano player and his mother a gospel singer.  To learn more about Taj and to hear some of his music I’ve included below links to his official website and also to his Myspace page.  If you’re looking to buy some Taj Mahal CD’s some of my favorites are “Giant Step”,  “An Evening of Acoustic Music,” “Senior Blues,” “Sacred Island,” and “Kulanjan,” to name just a few.  His newest CD “Maestro,” will be released this October.  Some of his most popular songs are “Fishin’ Blues,” “Gonna Paint My Mailbox Blue,” “Corrina,” “Stagger Lee,” “Built For Comfort,” “Cakewalk Into Town,” “Take a Giant Step”, and “Senior Blues.”

To connect to Taj’s website or Myspace page and hear Taj play and sing, either click on the links below or cut and paste them into your browser.

www.tajblues.com

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=96306092

Who needs Staples when I have a Kaya paper shredder?

When I think about bookstores or record stores for that matter, I think about independent bookstores and record stores.  I think about walking into a store and having it have its own personality.  Of being able to talk to a salesperson about books, get suggestions, and having that person be knowledgeable about the subject matter.  I look to these people for inspiration and I consider them to be experts who can guide me and lead me in an interesting direction.  Unfortunately the independent bookstore has become a rare commodity, and the independent record store is just as rare if not rarer.  With the likes of Tower Records and Virgin Records closing you can imagine how hard it must be for mom and pop books or records to stay in business and I rally my support around those who do and have stayed open.  They all can use our support.

I also need to mention a little independent video rental store in my neighborhood in NYC, Chelsea.  It’s called “Alan’s Alley,” and it’s the best!  Blockbuster moved in close by and couldn’t keep its doors open.  It was a really proud moment!  “Alan’s Alley” will have been open for 20 years this coming November and Alan is always a fixture in the store.  Everyone knows him and not only can you get great suggestions, but they have a large selection of smaller independent films and also a large collection of foreign language films.

In Santa Cruz, where I use to live there was “Bookshop Santa Cruz,” always at the end of the downtown mall on Pacific, that is until the 89 earthquake when it was forced to move to another spot on Pacific and into a great new store.  People in Santa Cruz wouldn’t know what to do without “Bookshop Santa Cruz.”  It’s a part of the town and therefore everyone supports it.  No one wants it to be gone, so they continue to buy their books, their calendars and their coffee at the store and use it as a meeting place for friends.

In New York City there is still the “Strand Bookstore” in the village that has been around for 80 years.  They advertise that they have 18 miles of books, new books, used books, rare books, out of print books, art books, etc.  Still family owned the bookstore now occupies 55,000 square feet, has an outlet down at the South Street Seaport, runs the kiosks in Central Park and does a thriving online business.  But still it is independent and one of a kind and no other store can resemble the “Strand”.

And in San Francisco there is the legendary independent bookstore “City Lights Books,”
founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and partner Peter Martin in 1953.  It’s been a destination for booklovers around the world and has stood as alternative culture’s literary landmark for decades. Their masthead reads “A Literary Meetingplace since 1953.”  City Light is also unique in that it has a publishing division as well.  “City Lights” carries a wide range of books on a wide variety of subjects but goes out of its way to stock titles from harder-to-find specialty publishers.

So those are just a few, and you know who they are in your own neighborhoods.  Don’t forget them.  Don’t just shop online or order “on demand.”  Support your local independent stores.  They need us and we need them.  I rely on them to be experts where I am not and I like talking to a human being about music, books, and movies.  Any thoughts?

Alan’s Alley
207 9TH Ave (btwn 22nd and 23rd)
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 645-0999

Bookshop Santa Cruz
http://www.bookshopsantacruz.com

The Strand Bookstore
http://www.strandbooks.com

City Lights
http://www.citylights.com/

For some reason today I got thinking about John Hiatt.  Maybe it was because of all the news about New Orleans these past several days.  And perhaps it was because I saw John Hiatt perform at the “New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival” along side Sonny Landreth and the “Goners” and he slipped back into my consciousness?  What ever it was I wanted to hear the sound of his voice today and I’ve fulfilled my wish and now I’m sharing it with you.

I was a major John Hiatt fan.  I played him all the time.  I knew his albums and lyrics by heart and I probably had a crush on him.  He could be so close, yet so illusive, troubled and talented.  He was an artist respected by many other great artists and writers and they were people I respected too, like Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, Roseanne Cash, and Iggy Pop.  He never seemed to quite have the fame and notoriety that I felt he deserved, kind of like a male Bonnie Raitt who played for years before making it big, only he never had the “Luck of The Draw” album to cross that line and break through to the other side of commercial success.  All the other great songwriters and players, his peers, were out there rooting for him too.  He had a big following of fellow musicians and does to this day.

I shouldn’t be talking about John Hiatt in the past tense because he’s out there putting out albums, writing new material, and touring.  I am simply being nostalgic about a musician I have so dearly loved and always thought more people should notice and appreciate.  In his singing there is a raw quality that one is drawn to or not, and there is an honesty in the way he writes; there is a lilt to his voice, a yearning in his sound, and a sense of humor and simplicity in his performance.

Seeming to put out an album about once every two or three years for the past several decades, the ones I am most familiar with are the ones he recorded with A&M Records, “Bring the Family,” “Slow Turning,” “Stolen Moments,” and “Perfectly Good Guitar.”  Being a consummate songwriter his songs have been covered by a number of other artists but probably the one most familiar would have to be Bonnie Raitt’s arrangement of his song, “Thing Called Love.”  With a style that has been described as a “rootsy fusion of rock & roll, country, blues, and folk,” his is a sound that appeals to me.  It strikes a chord so to speak, that and of course his soulful intelligent songwriting ability of which you will find a small sampling below.

To hear John Hiatt sing “Have A Little Faith In Me,” from his “Bring the Family” album just click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.

“Have A Little Faith In Me”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UkKTlzyLhQ

Today is Day 2 of our “Name the Cat Contest,” and I’ve added another photo of our little kitten for inspiration.  If you haven’t seen Day 1’s photo click on the “My Cats Tail” category if you already haven’t and scroll down.  Our little kitten is waiting for a name, and again she is a little girl.  You can also click under the “Comment” section below yesterdays photo to see all the names that have already been submitted or to add a submission.  Again you have til Sunday M to submit your name.

Ever since seeing the French musical group “Les Primitifs de Futur” this summer at the MoMA Thursday night concert series, and watching Fay Lovsky take a blues solo playing on a Theremin, I’ve been thinking of an old acquaintance of mine, Steve Martin (not the well known comedienne) and a documentary he did about the Theremin.  I must say that I’ve seen a Theremin being played several times, have heard it being played in numerous movies, but I’ve never seen or heard someone take a hot blues solo on one until that MoMA concert and it got my attention.

Some of you might be going, “what’s a Theremin?”  It’s an electronic musical instrument that is played without touch and was created in Russia by Leon Theremin in 1919.  It sports two metal antennae that sense where the player’s hands are with one controlling pitch (the vertical antennae) and the other volume (the horizontal).  The signals are then amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.  The instrument has an eerie sound, but one you would recognize from its use in scary movies (The Day the Earth Stood Still) and horror flicks and other avant-garde and popular musical pieces.

In the 1920’s Leon Theremin came to the United States to promote his new instrument.  He taught several musicians how to play and tried to bring his invention into the public eye.  In 1938 he was forced to leave the U.S. and return to Russia leaving family and friends, a wife, and a studio.  He was put in a Soviet prison camp.  He later worked for the KGB and designed other electrical objects for them including “the bug.”  He was out of the public eye for 50 years after having a very public presence in NYC and the world, leaving everyone to wonder where he had been and what had happened to this musical pioneer.

In 1993 Steve Martin made the documentary film “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey,” which garnered the prestigious Filmmakers Trophy at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival.   After meeting Steve in the late 90’s I immediately went out and rented the movie.  The film delves into the history of the man who created the Theremin, the instrument itself, and its most famous players including the musical-prodigy Clara Rockmore who had been a violinist until a problem with her hands forced her to give up the violin.  She was a student of Theremin’s and went on to become the world’s greatest player.  The movie also features interviews with music industry legends such as Robert Moog, who built Theremin’s before synthesizers, Todd Rundgren, and Brian Wilson as well as interviews with its founder Leon Theremin.  It is an interesting film definitely worth seeing so check your local video store, Amazon, or Netflix.

Below is a video of Clara Rockmore playing “The Swan” (Saint-Saëns) on Theremin, accompanied on piano by her sister, Nadia Reisenberg.  To catch a rare glimpse of the world’s greatest Theremin player simply cut and paste the link below into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSzTPGlNa5U&feature=related

I chose this Aimee Mann song from her “Lost in Space” CD because of her use of a Theremin (see today’s Daily Crack) in the song and today seems to be Theremin day on Cracks In Sidewalks.  Although I love Aimee Mann I would probably have chosen a more uplifting track for the blog if it were any other day but today.  But Aimee Mann is great what ever she sings!

Remembering Mann from her first successful musical venture “Til Tuesday” I’ve been a fan of both her writing and singing for some time.  Mann started “Til Tuesday” with Berklee School of Music fellow classmate Michael Hausman who in later years became her manager.  The band broke up in 1990, but is still on the all time favorite list of many.  At this point Mann started working on her solo career and I’ve enjoyed her music, her independent sensibility and artistry ever since.  She is a great songwriter/singer who has shined both as a part of a group and also as a solo artist starting with her first band, “The Young Snakes,” to the popular 80’s group “Til Tuesday,” through her first solo album “Whatever,” to this years release of “Smiler.”

Aimee Mann is married to musician/composer Michael Penn and through her husband began a friendship with Paul Thomas Anderson the film director.  Contributing 8 songs to his film “Magnolia,” including the Academy Award nominated song, “Save Me,” from which Anderson based some of his characters and situations, Mann’s demand increased and she soon found herself sought after as a soundtrack contributor as well.

Mann has also voiced her political beliefs joining the group “Artists Against Piracy,” and by founding with her husband and Hausman the independent music collective “United Musicians.” (see link below if interested.)

To hear Aimee Mann sing “Real Bad News” from her album “Lost In Space” and to hear the use of a Theremin in a present day song, either click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QldDKho0tI0

http://www.unitedmusicians.com/index.html

Here you go.  Pookie.  Delilah.  Paloma.  How about a name the cat contest.  Cat and cracks.

To submit your suggestion, just add your name in the “comment” section below the photo.  After the contest deadline, I’ll throw your suggestions back to the reader who submitted this photo along with my top pick and see what she comes up with.  As the kitten needs a name you have til Sunday 12M to submit your ideas.  You can submit as many as you want.  We just want a good name for her.  Yes the kitten is a little girl.  Once her name is decided I will post it on the site.