Plug: Monday night, a bunch of SNL cast members and writers are teaming up for a night of comedy and music to benefit the ACLU at The Town Hall And this is the really amazing part: 100% of the ticket sales of the “Comedy Fundraiser for the ACLU” will be donated to the ACLU.
Hosted by John Early the evening features SNL cast members Cecily Strong, Kyle Mooney and the 2017 Emmy nominee Vanessa Bayer; the SNL writers Julio Torres and Jeremy Beiler, and writer and actor Jon Glaser. The evening’s musical special guest is Chicago alternative country-rocker Robbie Fulks.
The evening is produced by Beiler and The Barrow Street Theatre to support the crucial work of the ACLU to fight against multiple Trump-era civil-rights threats and catastrophes, from Net Neutrality to DACA. I’ll be there. .
Alter-revews:
It’s that time of year again, ladies and gents. According to my friends at Jazz at Lincoln Center, it’s the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and so it is therefore time for their Big Band Holidays, which took place December 13-17. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis was joined by special guest vocalists Catherine Russell and Kenny Washington, playing old songs with some new and some not-so new arrangements. While Washington was a bit under the weather, he did a nice, inventive job with “My Favorite Things.” Russell did yeoman’s work on “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Merry Christmas, Baby.” The Orchestra’s highlight was, as it has been in the past the Count Basie arrangement of “Jingle Bells,” which, turns out, is an awesome song. I’ve never seen such an enthusiastic crowd, which worries me a little, because it was like they were excited that they didn’t have to listen to the orchestra’s more challenging fare. Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to J@LC’s tradition of “Relaxed Performance,” which as designed to provide families with children or adults with autism, learning difficulties, or other sensory and communication needs the opportunity to enjoy Jazz at Lincoln Center performances in a more relaxed environment. I wish more orchestras would do this kind of thing.
Oh and also around this time of year, we in the city get our Hot Tuna shows. This year they skipped the electric shows at the Beacon to do a bunch of intimate acoustic shows at City Winery. They are continuing their Fur Peace Ranch’s 2018 Concert Schedule and if you’re up in that area, tickets can be purchased through the Ranch’s website, www.furpeaceranch.com or by calling 740-992-6228. Tickets are also available at Blue Eagle Music in Athens. The concert hall, the Fur Peace Station, is a 200-seat showcase venue with quality acoustics and tiered, intimate seating. The Fur Peace Station is an alcohol-free venue with no age restrictions.
While attending a Fur Peace concert, attendees also can visit the Psylodelic Gallery and Museum, and the Fur Peace Company Store. The Station Break Café in the front of the concert hall, offers food and beverages. The Fur Peace Ranch is located at 39495 St. Clair Rd., Pomeroy, OH 45769,
Speaking of City Winery, I’m very excited about the On January 24th, 2018, special tribute to Gregg Allman it will be hosting by City Winery . Dubbed Southern Blood, which was also the title of Allman’s final record that was released posthumously this year, the show will serve as a benefit show for the GRAMMY Museum as well as in collaboration with Rounder Records. As of now, the lineup includes Devon Allman, Warren Haynes, Graham Nash, Bill Gibbons, Alison Krauss, I’m sure it will be reat. I’m also pretty sure “Southern Blood” is going to win the GRAMMY this year.
More Music:
There’s a new Dead box from the shows at RFK in 1989. I went to those shows—July 12 and 13 and man, they were hot. The Dead were pretty mellow. David Lemieux of “Dave’s Picks” terms this to be
“the start of a nine month period of sustained excellence, which ran from Summer '89 through Spring '90. The RFK shows are as good as any of the more famous shows from this period, including July 4 in Buffalo, July 7in Philadelphia, and the Alpine run." The six-cd, 38-song set includes the two previously unreleased concerts taken from the band's master 24-track analog recordings, which have been mixed by Jeffrey Norman at TRI Studios and mastered in HDCD by David Glasser. The collection's colorful slip case features original artwork by Justin Helton and a perfect-bound book with in-depth liner notes written by Dean Budnick, editor-in-chief of Relix magazine. Thing is, for some reason, they left out “Althea” of from both of these shows. I don’t get that. I do like the packaging, though, and so will you. You can get it at http://www.dead.net/store/1980s/rfk-stadium-1989-box
And my friends at the Criterion collection have given us a new version of
“The Complete Monterey Pop Festival,” this time on Bluray.
The now famous (and infamous) Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding, along with Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas and the Papas, the Who, the Byrds, Hugh Masekela, and Ravi Shankar. The camera crew that included the likes of Albert Maysles and Richard Leacock - D. A. Pennebaker managed to capture it all
The new bluray set includes: :
* New 16-bit 4K digital restoration of Monterey Pop, supervised by director D. A. Pennebaker, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack
* Restored high-definition digital transfers of Jimi Plays Monterey and Shake! Otis at Monterey with uncompressed stereo soundtracks
* Alternate soundtracks for all three films featuring 5.1 mixes by legendary recording engineer Eddie Kramer, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
* THE OUTTAKE PERFORMANCES: Two hours of performances not included in Monterey Pop, from the Association, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Blues Project, the Byrds, Country Joe and the Fish, the Electric Flag, Jefferson Airplane, Al Kooper, the Mamas and the Papas, Laura Nyro, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Simon and Garfunkel, Tiny Tim, and the Who
* Audio commentaries by Pennebaker and festival producer Lou Adler, and music critics and historians Charles Shaar Murray and Peter Guralnick
* New interviews with Adler and Pennebaker
* Chiefs (1968), a short film by cameraman Richard Leacock, which played alongside Monterey Pop during its inaugural theatrical run
* Interviews from 2002 with Adler and Pennebaker and with Phil Walden, Otis Redding's manager
* Audio interviews with festival producer John Phillips, festival publicist Derek Taylor, and performers Cass Elliot and David Crosby
* Photo-essay by photographer Elaine Mayes
* Monterey International Pop Festival scrapbook
* More!
* Trailers and radio spots
* PLUS: Essays by critics Michael Chaiken, Armond White, David Fricke, Barney Hoskyns, and Michael Lydon
I am also very happy to have the new two-cd collection “Rolling Stones On Air,” a collection rarely heard radio recordings originally broadcast on bygone UK shows such as Saturday Club, and Rhythm and Blues between 1963 and 1965. The tapes have gone through a process called “audio source separation”, which has vastly improved the sound quality you might have heard on bootlegs of these shows in the past.