--- begin forwarded text

Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Asian Music, Accompanied by the A Train
Date: Wed,  7 Jul 2004 00:04:30 -0400 (EDT)

The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by normans@....

Asian Music, Accompanied by the A Train

July 6, 2004
   By YILU ZHAO

Zhisheng Zhang, the 10th-generation descendant of a Chinese
court musician, descended into the Times Square subway
station and unfolded his stool on a platform. He took out a
Chinese mouth organ, called a sheng, wiped it carefully
with a piece of clean cloth and closed his eyes.

As notes from the prelude of "Carmen" pierced the humid
air, Mr. Zhang - whose great-great-grandfathers played for
Manchu emperors, whose father performed for Communist army
generals and who was himself a member of China's best
traditional music orchestra - began another workday,
playing for the subway riders of New York.

There are many like Mr. Zhang, established musicians from
China who perform daily in the city's bowels. Convinced
that the best music, Western or Asian, is truly borderless
and that their own talents are sufficient to make ends meet
anywhere, these artists have converged on New York like the
philosophers and poets who swarmed to Athens in classical
times. They feel not just lured, but pushed; China, in
their view, has turned its back on traditional music in
favor of the pop dazzle of Britney Spears.

"I want to try my luck in New York," Mr. Zhang, 42, said,
speaking in Mandarin. "In China serious artists like us
aren't as respected as pop singers. That's not right. Maybe
Americans can see the true appeal of Chinese music, and I
can make my way to the grand concert halls in New York."

Though many of the underground musicians dream of fortune
and homes in the suburbs, or at the least of bringing their
children to the United States after gaining footholds
themselves, for now most of them live in simple apartments
in Chinatown or Flushing, Queens, and barely eke out a
living. Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many of the
musicians said, an eight-hour day of performing at a subway
station fetched an average of $70. Since then their income
has dropped by roughly a third because of the economic
doldrums and, they speculate, increased suspicion of
foreigners.

Besides the subway, they often perform concerts at
universities, community centers, parks and at the Asia
Society in Manhattan.

"We have some very high-caliber Chinese artists here," said
Rachel Cooper, director of performing arts and public
programs at the society. "We have a very discriminating
audience here in New York, and there is a real hunger,
openness and appreciation for fine music, including Chinese
music. There is a real hunger to understand it."

Cultural organizations in Chinatown and Flushing also know
many of the musicians and invite them to play. Occasionally
New Yorkers who have met them at subway stations ask them
to perform at weddings or birthday parties. Some of the
musicians have tried to supplement their incomes by working
in restaurants but have found the work too tedious for the
small wages.

Mr. Zhang lived in Beijing until January, when he was
invited by the Wossing Center for Chinese Arts, Language
and Culture in Chinatown to play in a concert tour at
universities and public libraries in the northeastern
United States. Soon after the tour he decided to stay in
New York and apply for permanent residency. Many other
Chinese musicians of similar rank have become legal
residents and American citizens by proving their
exceptional talents to the federal immigration agency.

Unlike most professional musicians in China who studied in
formal conservatories, Mr. Zhang learned as a child from
his father how to play the sheng, a multipiped instrument
invented at least two millennia ago. Mr. Zhang's family,
originally from a village outside Beijing, has passed the
secret knowledge, possessed only by top performers, from
fathers to sons for 10 generations, he said.

"I love this stuff, playing the sheng," Mr. Zhang said.
"It's in my blood. I don't want to give it up. If
traditional Chinese music gets fashionable in America,
maybe it will become more popular in China, too."

Often, though, the musicians have a dim view of their art
form's future in China, and they blame the flood of Western
and Hong Kong pop music for its dwindling popularity.

"When a young child expresses some interest in studying
music, the parents would say: `You learn to do the pop
stuff. That brings you money and fame,' " said Hao Qian, a
well-known performer on a two-string instrument, the erhu,
who used to travel in the same musicians' circles in
Beijing as Mr. Zhang.

"It's the music from our 5,000-year civilization that's now
worthless," added Mr. Qian, who now also makes his living
at Manhattan subway stations.

The relentless destruction across China of temples,
monasteries and nunneries under Mao Zedong's rule between
1949 and 1976 added to the musicians' woes.

"Most of the old Chinese music is really meant to be played
in temples," Mr. Zhang said. "Without the temples, how can
one perform true Chinese music?"

Since the early 1980's government subsidies to music
troupes have gradually dried up with China's embrace of a
market economy, and private donations have not picked up
the slack. While most pop music groups take in extra income
by playing at clubs and parties, some traditional music
ensembles, particularly those based outside major cities
like Shanghai and Beijing, sit idle for months on end.

Huadong Liu, who played yang qin, a dulcimerlike
instrument, in a prestigious troupe in northeastern China,
said he made just over $100 a month - less than most urban
residents - before coming to the United States three years
ago. Now he races to claim a choice spot in underground New
York.

"Sometimes I spend two to three hours in the morning just
to find the right platform," said Mr. Liu, who calls his
wife and 17-year-old son in China twice a week as he saves
money to send for them. "If you get stuck at a platform
with little foot traffic or lots of hurried people, you
cannot even make $20 a day."

Julie Tay, director and founder of the Wossing Center, said
such musicians can find the adjustment to the United States
hard. "Since their language is muted, their art tends to be
muted, too," she said. "The worst thing is to see them come
here, get frustrated, start driving a limo two or three
years down the road, and the traditional Chinese music goes
down the drain."

Mr. Zhang is divorced and has a 15-year-old son back home.
In China he performed mostly in grand concert halls like
the People's Great Hall in Beijing. He was designated as a
"national first-class performer" on the sheng by the
Chinese government, the highest level available and an
honor won by only 10 other performers.

At first he had a great deal of trepidation about playing
his sheng at subway stops.

"The Chinese have always seen street musicians as beggars,"
he said. "Where would I put my face if somebody from home -
or worse, somebody from the orchestra - finds out?"

He has overcome that anxiety now, he said, after running
into other subway musicians he considers top-notch. "It
looks to me that many musicians from other countries come
here to New York, and everybody starts from the subway
station," he said. "I figured out that it's a New York
tradition." Mr. Zhang says he sends $200 home to his son
and former wife whenever he can.

For many of the transplanted musicians the day starts at
8:30 a.m. They hurry to their favorite subway platforms
lugging their instruments, stools and sometimes amplifiers.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority allows musicians
to perform at subway stations without permits so long as
they do not interfere with traffic. "It's a protection of
their First Amendment rights," said Mercedes Padilla, an
M.T.A. spokeswoman.

There is a pecking order of subway stations understood by
almost everybody in the trade. The Columbus Circle stop and
the station at Lexington Avenue and 59th Street top the
list. The Times Square station and those close to New York
University can also bring brisk business. Stops at
Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal are all
right on weekends. But whatever the location, the platforms
are humid in summers and frigid in winters.

Many musicians change locations from day to day so as not
to bore commuters, most of whom, the artists say, have
showed them proper respect.

"When I put my heart into the performance," said Xuanpei
Ge, a player of the di, a one-pipe Chinese flute, "I get
really warm, prolonged applauses. I could see the
audience's respect from their eyes, the attentiveness when
they listen and the way they bow after you finish. Some
even give me water and fruit in hot summers. It's just very
moving."

Mr. Zhang speaks little English and is taking night lessons
to catch up. Some subway riders have tried to speak with
him, he said, and he could only speculate whether they have
asked him about his instrument, invited him to perform at
parties or said something else entirely.

"If I want to seize opportunities to advance my career," he
said, "I must learn to speak English."

Like many musicians, he has discovered that Western music
adapted (often by him) for Chinese instruments draws the
warmest response. Although the Chinese scale differs from
the Western scale, lacking some half notes, the musicians
have adapted pieces as different as Mozart's nocturnes and
the soundtrack of "The Godfather."

"The subway riders seem to really like the tunes they are
familiar with, particularly the fast, happy ones," Mr.
Zhang said. "Once I played a slow, sad Chinese song, and it
made one old lady cry. She made a gesture to ask me to
stop."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/arts/music/06CHIN.html?ex=1090173070&ei=1&en=a\
e6b296019388075.


Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

--- end forwarded text

Here's the latest Gary Lucas recap/update, to be posted on the website shortly:


Gary's European Grand Tour and American Autumn Almanac

Gary Lucas, recently cited as one of DownBeat's "66 Hot 6-Stringers" (alongside
John McLaughlin, Richard Thompson, Pat Metheny and others), just got back
from his most successful solo tour of Europe to date.

Highlights included a near sold-out, rapturously received 2-hour show in
London at The Spitz on Sept. 10th, where he premiered new work, revisited
old crowd favorites like Kraftwerk's "Autobahn", and was joined by members
of Alabama 3 for an acoustic rendition of their theme from The Sopranos,
"Woke Up This Morning". Gary's concert was picked, with photos, in both
"Time Out London" and "The Metro", and received a 4-star  review from The
Guardian's John L. Walters.

While in London, Gary also recorded a session for BBC Radio 3's "World
Routes" Show featuring his arrangements of '30s Chinese pop from his acclaimed
album "The Edge of Heaven", to be broadcast October 18th. And he went into
the studio with Alabama 3 to work on their new album. On his way leaving
London for a show in Lucerne, Gary was pleasantly surprised to pick up
the October issue of "Mojo" magazine, which featured a 4-star review of
his recent compilation "Operators are Standing By -- The Essential Gary
Lucas". The album also received 4 stars in the August issue of the UK magazine
"Jazzwise".

Other tour highlights included an outdoor show under the balmy skies of
Bordeaux...two nights in Paris at the Sunset Jazz Club, where his concert
was picked 2 days in a row in "Liberation", and where he jammed with the
French accordion whiz Arnaud Methivier. Plus a well-received appearance
at the Venice Biennale (where Gary disarmed the Italian national press
with grace and good humor at a press conference the day before), accompanying
the silent film "The Golem" (1920) with his original live score.

Two new charity CDs are out now featuring Gary's work: "Light of Day",
a double collection of Bruce Springsteen tributes including contributions
from Elvis Costello, Garland Jeffreys, Graham Parker and others, with proceeds
going to Bruce's favorite charities: the Parkinson's Disease Foundation,
and the Kristen Ann Carr Fund. The album features Gary with his band Gods
and Monsters (Jonathan Kane and Ernie Brooks) tearing it up on "Ain't Got
You", from the "Tunnel of Love" album. The Boss liked their rendition so
much that they have been invited to play on Nov. 1st at the Stone Pony
in Asbury Park, New Jersey at the 4th annual Light of Day charity concert.


The other charity CD featuring Gary Lucas is "Guitar Harvest", a double
CD benefiting the Lucy Moses School's Guitar Outreach program at the Kaufman
Center, and was produced by WNYC's John Schaefer and the New York Guitar
Festival's David Spelman. Guest artists include Pierre Bensusan, Andy Summers,
and Ralph Towner, and Gary is featured with a tribute to his former
bandmate/collaborator,
the late Jeff Buckley with an acoustic instrumental composition "Dream
of the Wild Horses" -- Gary originally gave the music to Jeff Buckley as
the instrumental foundation for a new song for his followup album to "Grace",
but the singer died tragically before completing it.

Upcoming Gary Lucas appearances include a lecture/performance on Oct. 28th
at Columbia University entitled "Tales of a Wandering Musician", similar
to his recent classroom appearances at the University of Hawaii and at
New York University; and an appearance with The Magic Band at the All Tomorrow's
Parties Festival in Long Beach, California alongside the Queen Mary, on
Nov. 8th.

Lastly, Gary will present a concert at the Czech Embassy in Washington,
DC on Nov. 17th of his solo guitar arrangements of Czech music old and
new -- including works by Dvorak, Smetena, Janacek, and the Plastic People
-- in honor of the 14th Anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Gary is of
Bohemian ancestry on his father's side and performs frequently in the Czech
Republic.

A few radio alerts!

Dutch radio 4FM will broadcast on Saturday September 6 at 24:00 CET a 1
hours excerpt from Gary's Fast 'n Bulbous project live @ the Saalfelden
Festival, Austria - August 25,2002 (http://www.omroep.nl/nps/4fm/)

Belgian Radio 1 will broadcast on Monday September 8 at 21:00 CET an
interview with Gary regarding the Magic Band's "Back To The Front" CD.
(http://www.radio1.be/programma/cuca/index.htm)

I'll be taping both on DAT. Anyone interested in trading for other live
concert/radio recordings, please contact me off list.

Hans

This item will be up in the News section on the website soon, but here's
a sneak peek for the mailing list members!

Best, Tanya
____________________________

GARY'S SUMMER OF FUN, FOREIGN FESTIVALS AND MUSIC MADNESS

The summer of 2003 has proved to be Gary's most diverse and enjoyable season
of international music making in his career--kicking off with the double
honor of Gary being cited by the editors of DownBeat magazine as one of
their "66 Hot 6-Stringers" (alongside Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Pat Metheny
and others), as well as The Wall Street Journal devoting a half page profile
on Gary's Chinese pop album "The Edge of Heaven", praise of which this
year spread all over the U.S. with its release through Harmonia Mundi and
into China itself, where it garnered press raves in Hong Kong, Macau, and
Taiwan.

  Gary's live summer action began with a stellar appearance at the prestigious
Holland Festival in Amsterdam, where Gary was the overwhelming crowd favorite
in the famous Concertegbouw's "Night of Guitars" which featured short
appearances
by other guitar greats in the old classical music sanctorum, including
Marc Ribot, Mike Kennealy, Kelly Joe Phelps and Japan's sonic kamikazes
Ex-Girl. The 3 Japanese minxes later turned up to catch Gary's full solo
set the next night at his favorite venue to play in the world, the Paradiso
(Gary's 17th appearance there in his career(!), going back to his first
show there in 1980 with Captain Beefheart). When not making music Gary
hung with his pals the actors Willem Dafoe and Kate Valk from the NYC based
avant-garde theater company The Wooster Group, who were also appearing
at the Holland Festival.

Next it was a hop west to LA where Gary made a solo acoustic appearance
at the Knitting Factory Hollywood, and celebrated his birthday on the Santa
Monica pier with old Yale friends actors Harry Hamelin and Bill Moseley.
While in LA he also hung out with fellow Magic Band guitarist Denny Walley
and "Ice Cream for Crow" drummer Cliff Martinez.

Early July saw Gary take off for Russia for his premier concert appearance
there, to join Future Sound of London for their first ever live appearance,
which took place in St. Petersburg in the throes of its 300th anniversary
celebration, at the Stereoleto Festival. Outdoors under the famous starry
White Nights sky that never darkens, the band, comprising leader/dj/sampler
Garry Cobain, blind sitar virtuoso Baluji Shrivastav, and Gary, took the
stage before 2000 ravers and blazed new sonic territories for a nonstop
2 hour rave improvisation complete with absent FSOL member Brian Dougan's
computerized digital lightshow projected behind them. Their set left the
ecstatic crowd begging for more as the three musicians signed autographs
after the show to swarms of excited fans well into the wee hours of dawn.
Thanks especially to organizers Sasha Cheparukhin, Yuliana Galitskaya,
and Ilya Bortnuk for making the dream a reality.

Early August and Gary flew way west to fabulous Honolulu for a special
3 night stand at the University of Hawaii, comprising a lecture about his
life in music "Tales of a Wandering Musician", an acoustic music workshop
for specially enrolled guitar students, and a gala acoustic concert on
the last night which sold out early on, thanks to a massive promotional
effort by organizer Alan Hunley which saw elaborate preview and feature
newspaper profiles on Gary running in the 3 largest papers in Hawaii before
the show. The 3 night stand a tremendous success with attendees, organizers
and the performer himself. Gary then took off to Maui for some much needed
r and r on the beach at Wialea.

In the midst of this midsummer madness, Gary managed to play several NYC
based shows at Joe's Pub and the Knitting Factory both solo acoustic and
with his Fast 'n Bulbous Captain Beefheart tribute project; helped promote
the release of The Magic Band's new CD "Back to the Front" (ATP) with live
radio appearances on Vin Scelsa's "Idiot's Delight" show and on WFMU and
WNYC FM; and attended Roxy Music's incredible reunion show at Radio City
Music Hall as the special guest of Bryan Ferry, who Gary had the honor
of playing with at Royal Festival Hall in summer 2000.

Upcoming: Gary's fall solo tour of Europe which will take him to London
first for a show at The Spitz Sept. 10th where he will be joined for a
song by his buddies Larry Love and the Rev. Dr. D. Wayne Love of Alabama
3 ("Woke Up This Morning" from The Sopranos, one of Gary's favorite shows);
then off to Bordeaux France, Lucerne Switzerland, Venice Italy (an appearance
at the Biennale); and lastly 2 nights in Paris, before it's back to hometown
NYC.

Hi there, I'm new to the world of Gary Lucas.  I found a link to the
GL website at Gtr Oblq - Kronosonic (a damn fine site for weird
guitar)

http://kronosonic.com

and am now checking things out over here -- see ya around.

bot

Thanks for sharing, Grimble!  I love the solo electric stuff too (ok, I love it
all, but I especially love solo electric).

Do you have any more details? What was your favorite song?

Best, Tanya

>---- Original Message ---
>From: "Grimble Gromble" <hipgnomis@...>
>To: garylucas@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [garylucas] Re: Reminder - GL at the Paradiso, Amsterdam
>
>And what a sublime concert this was! Total bliss!!
>
>Grimble
>
>---garylucas@yahoogroups.com wrote:
>>
>> We would like to remind you of this upcoming event.
>>
>> GL at the Paradiso, Amsterdam
>>
>> Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2003
>> Time: All Day
>>
>> Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland
>>
>> Gary Lucas solo electric performance

And what a sublime concert this was! Total bliss!!

Grimble

--- In garylucas@yahoogroups.com, garylucas@yahoogroups.com wrote:
>
> We would like to remind you of this upcoming event.
>
> GL at the Paradiso, Amsterdam
>
> Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2003
> Time: All Day
>
> Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland
>
> Gary Lucas solo electric performance

Thanks for posting that, Paul!

I've changed the 'front page' of Gary's website a bit -- at the top there's
now a history of website updates.  This way, you can see what's new in
the entire site, not just in the 'News' section.

Also, the 'Press Quotes' section has been completely re-done, check it
out here: http://www.garylucas.com/www/quots.

Best, Tanya

>here
>
>http://www.garylucas.com/www/grfx/knit.jpg

here

http://www.garylucas.com/www/grfx/knit.jpg

Thanks Paul for posting the WSJ article. There is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file
on Gary's site where you can see the caricature of Gary that accompanied
the article. A direct link to it is here:

http://www.garylucas.com/www/rvw/Edge_of_Heaven_Review-WSJ.pdf

Best, Tanya

The Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2003

Guitarist Gary Lucas Blends Chinese Pop With the Blues

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN
Gary Lucas
Indigo (Harmonia Mundi)

By Jim Fusilli

On his latest album, "The Edge of Heaven" (Indigo), guitarist Gary
Lucas, who's best known for his work with the avant-garde rock composer
Captain Beefheart, explores mid-20th century Chinese pop music,
specifically the songs of Bai Kwong and Chow Hsuan, vocalists who were
based in Shanghai before World War II and remained musical icons in the
region for decades.


The definition of a cross-cultural exercise, "The Edge of Heaven" is
an extraordinary work. Mr. Lucas's sophisticated, hybrid style on
guitar, which relies on open tunings, string bending, blues
finger-picking and slide, seems to strip away the gloss from the music,
leaving its emotional core exposed. When he's joined on six songs by
vocalists Celeste Chong, a TV star in Singapore, or Gisburg, the
Austrian vocalist, the music is deeply moving--tender-hearted, romantic
and mature; sugary yet not at all cloying.

Its effect on Western ears is not unlike what Mr. Lucas experienced
in 1976 when the then 22-year-old Yale English major moved to Taipei to
join his father Murray's import business by day and play music by night.

"I had only a vague idea of that music," he recalls. '"I mean, what did
I know from Chinese culture? But this was a complete revelation to me.
There was a sweetness to the singing, an innocence, and it evoked a
fantasy of pre-war Shanghai. I was completely spellbound."

The music, says Mr. Lucas, has elements of Chinese folk, U.S.
western-swing music, Billie Holiday-style blues and Broadway show tunes.

"Shanghai was a cosmopolitan city before the war," he says, "with a lot
of Americans, particularly Jewish-American musicians. These guys
introduced people to jazz and swing and klezmer. Chinese pop eventually
reflected all of that; the music of the period, at least in Shanghai,
was sort of the Chinese take on jazz and blues."

It wasn't until almost 20 years later that Mr. Lucas got around to
playing the music he'd heard back in Taipei. By then, he had come home
to New York, performed with Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, Lou Reed,
Patti Smith and Joan Osborne, and developed a reputation as a strikingly
original guitarist.
Some of his best work can be heard on the recently released "Operators
Are Standing By: The Essential Gary Lucas 1988-1996" (Knitting Factory).


His gig with Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band shaped his approach to
music and indirectly influenced "The Edge of Heaven."

"I thought he was the most compelling conceptualist I'd ever heard," Mr.
Lucas says of Captain Beefheart. "He'd taken the structure of the jazz
and blues and rebuilt it like no one else had. To play his songs, I had
to relearn the guitar. It was pretty rigorous training."

Spurred on by what he had to learn to play Beefheart's compositions, Mr.
Lucas developed a knack for rearranging other challenging music for solo
guitar--he's reworked Wagner, Sun Ra and traditional Jewish music. When
friends asked him to play the music of Bai Kwong and Chow Hsuan at their
wedding in New York's Chinatown, he agreed and set out to build
arrangements based on the pentatonic scales essential to Chinese pop and
American blues.


Without using sheet music of the original compositions, Mr. Lucas
assembled the songs harmonically and decided to approach them as if they
were country blues while remaining true to the music's ethnicity. It
worked, he says.


"The bride's mother, who flew in from Hong Kong, had tears in her eyes,"
he recalls. Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth was among the guests at the
reception, and he encouraged his fellow guitarist to play the material
in concert.
Mr. Lucas added a few Chinese tunes to his repertoire and included two
of the songs on his '97 release, "Evangeline." He recorded the new album
in 2000 with members of his "Gods and Monsters" band, adding Ms. Chong
and Gisburg for vocals.

  From the outset of "The Edge of Heaven," Mr. Lucas seems intent on
making the music of Chow Hsuan and Bai Kwong accessible to Western
audiences by reinforcing its affinity with American country blues. The
opening number, "Old Dreams," is a melange of guitar loops and'delicate
notes tapped on the strings before opening to a reflective folk tune
reminiscent of the music of Appalachia; later, "Where My Home Is," a
solo number for electric slide guitar, sounds like something Muddy
Waters might've played down in Rolling Fork, Miss. "I Wait for Your
Return" is offered as an easy flowing country ballad.

When either of the two female vocalists enter, "The Edge of Heaven"
becomes sublime. Gisburg, who Mr. Lucas met in the New York Downtown
music scene (and is, Mr. Lucas says, "the only Caucasian I knew who
speaks Cantonese"), has a smoky voice, steady and assertive, while Ms.
Chong's birdlike vocals effortlessly soar into the upper register. Their
complimentary styles bring out the romance in the songs Mr. Lucas has
adapted, so much so that translation of the lyrics is unnecessary. Thus,
Mr. Lucas's poignant and daring cross-cultural hybrid works not only as
a homage to Bai Kwong and Chow Hsuan, but as a tribute to the tenderness
of the human heart.

this will be up till next Sunday on streaming Real Audio
go here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/#

click on "Launch BBC Radio Player"
select by Radio Station "Radio 3"
then "Mixing It"

you'll have to plow though a bit of "experimental" stuff to get to it


(and thanks to Paul K for putting me onto this)

********************************************************************
The Magic Band:
Moonlight in Vermont
Sun Zoom Spark
Dropout Boogie inc. poem
Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do
Big Eyed Beans from Venus
Recorded in the evening on Sunday 6 April
The Magic Band have reformed, minus Captain Beefheart:
John 'Drumbo' French (vocals/harmonica/drums)
Gary 'Mantis' Lucas and Denny 'Feelers Reebo' Walley (guitars)
Mark 'Rockette Morton' Boston (bass)
Robert Williams (drums when John French is singing)
Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do and Dropout Boogie appeared originally on Safe As
Milk (1967)
Moonlight in Vermont appeared originally on Trout Mask Replica (1969)
Sun Zoom Spark and Big Eyed Beans From Venus appeared originally on
Clear Spot (1972)

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site,
go to http://www.guardian.co.uk

Captain fantastic
Beefheart may be a recluse, but his Magic Band are back. And it makes
Simpsons creator  Matt Groening feel like a teenager all over again
Matt Groening
Sunday April 06 2003
The Observer


On February 8, in the tiny Paradox recording studio in the desert town
of Palmdale, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles, I found myself hunched
down on the floor between bass player Rockette Morton
and guitarist Feelers Reebo, while a few feet away Drumbo pounded the
drums and Mantis clawed his guitar through an astonishingly precise
version of Captain Beefheart's My Human Gets Me Blues. If
you're a sentimental fool like me, you'll understand why, even though my
ears felt like they were bleeding from the excessive volume, I had tears
of joy in my eyes.

This song took me back to 1969, when all my teenage weirdo buddies and I
were in thrall to everything that pushed beyond the flower-power culture
then in full bloom: we dug R Crumb's filthy Zap Comix,
Frank Zappa's multi-track masterpiece Burnt Weenie Sandwich, assorted
LPs by the Fugs, the Bonzo Dog Band and Sun Ra, and what we considered,
and still consider, the greatest avant-garde rock album of
all time: Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band's Trout Mask Replica.

Casual listeners might hear it as a lot of clatter and wailing (which is
how it struck me on first hearing), but once you get past the audacious
unfamiliarity of Trout Mask Replica, you realise that
this was not just some big improvised mess, but in fact the most tightly
composed polyrhythmic rock'n'roll ever written. Don Van Vliet, also
known as Captain Beefheart, created an entirely original
music by grafting the unsentimental blues growling of Howlin' Wolf and
Son House to the stringent performing demands of Igor Stravinsky,
Ornette Coleman and Van Vliet's high-school pal and
collaborator, Frank Zappa.

Beginning in 1966 with his debut album, Safe as Milk, and continuing
through his last LP, 1982's Ice Cream for Crow, Captain Beefheart
delivered an eccentric alternative to the rhythmically
repetitious pop music of the day, and he did it with passion, virtuosity
and deadpan surrealistic brilliance. (I once asked Zappa if Don's whole
Beefheart persona was a put-on, an act, and he said,
"No, Don was just as strange in high school. Stranger.")

I saw Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band perform in assorted line-ups
over the following decade, and each time was floored by the intricacies
of the songs and the almost hive-mind precision of the
band, who nailed the rhythms and changes with the perfection of a
classical chamber ensemble and yet still rocked out. My first Beefheart
show, the greatest concert I've ever witnessed, was in
Portland, Oregon, in 1970, and it has ruined most of the rest of
rock'n'roll for me ever since.

These days Van Vliet is a recluse in northern California, where he
continues his second career as a highly successful painter. But his
disappearance from the public scene has merely fuelled the folk
myth. The record bins are full of Beefheart reissues, outtake
collections and bootlegs, and the internet is alive with fans trading
tapes and speculating on rumours about their beloved Captain. I've
heard amazing unreleased Beefheart performances from Zappa's legendary
basement vaults, so I know the legends will continue.

And in response to the folk myths, after more than 20 years of dormancy,
the Magic Band has reunited in tribute to their leader. This incarnation
of the band consists of Mark "Rockette Morton" Boston
on bass, Gary "Mantis" Lucas and Denny "Feelers Reebo" Walley on
guitars, and John "Drumbo" French on drums, harmonica and vocals. Their
repertoire extends from the early Dropout Boogie to the late
Floppy Boot Stomp, with John French stepping up to the   microphone to
provide a surprisingly authentic and exuberant replacement for the
missing Van Vliet. Robert Williams, the Magic Band's drummer
in the late 1970s, will sit in for French during the songs with vocals
and harmonica. To celebrate their reunion, the Magic Band has recorded
Back to the Front, an informal, live-to-tape CD on the All
Tomorrow's Parties label. And they will be performing live - in London
tonight, and at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Los Angeles in June.

For those who have yet to experience the Magic Band's truly ambitious
weirdness, these shows will astonish you. And for tried and true
Beefheart fans like me, these are deliriously momentous occasions
with maybe a nostalgic, avant-garde sniffle or two.

· The Magic Band play the Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, W12 (0870
771 2000), tonight.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

First of all, I have become a huge fan of Gary's music since listening to
his other albums (besides "Songs to No One").  His music is simply
phenomenal!

I found something on the web that I thought I'd pass along.  Guitar.com is
compiling a list of the top 100 guitarists and is soliciting votes.

At the end of the following URL, it says:

"Send your top 10 nominations to: info@... - Subject - Top 100
Guitarists"

http://www.guitar.com/features/viewfeature.asp?featureID=361

~Jennifer

_________________________________________________________________
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Hi everyone,

I just added the following to Gary's website:

One very cool new photo added to the 'Pictures' section of Gary with his
Gibson Firebird at The Magic Band reunion rehearsals/recording session


Three dates in August at the University of Hawaii added to the 'Upcoming
Dates & Past Shows' section

Added a News item: Gary Lucas Joins Springsteen "Light of Day" Tribute
CD for Charity

Also be sure to check out the promotional ecard created by the Knitting
Factory for "Operators are Standing By" -- it's linked from the blurb on
the home page, or you can see it by clicking this link:
http://www.chaoscontrolnetwork.com/instinct/gary.html


Best, Tanya

Hello Tanya,

Thank you very much for the recommendations.  I've done a bit more
reading on Gary's music since I first posted, and I am simply
astonished at his versatility!  I've ordered a few CDs that you
recommended and am very much looking forward to the day when they
arrive.

Btw, hopefully your snow is melting, and all the slush will soon be
removed.  Here in the midwest, we were at nearly 55 degrees F, which
was a heatwave compared to what we had been experiencing!

Thanks again,

Jennifer

I've just made a few updates to the website, including:

Dates -
Added May 9th "Edge of Heaven" apperance at Real Art Ways in Hartford,
CT

Changed the date for "The Golem" in Venice (Italy) from Sept. 15th TO Sept.
18th

Pictures - added 3 new photos

Reviews - added the following wonderful Amazon.com Customer Review for
"The Edge of Heaven":

5 out of 5 stars
"Western Hands, Eastern Voices, One Heart", February 3, 2003
Reviewer: Chris Dee from New York, New York USA

"If you listen to music almost constantly as I do, you come across something
like this every five years or so: something that has the combination of
virtuosity, strangeness, passion, intelligence and delicacy that makes
a work of art not just beautiful, but beautiful in a new way. I have never
written a review for Amazon before but I feel that I should do what I can
to get this record into as many people's hands as possible.

What kind of music is it? I hope that I can describe it in a way that doesn't
make it sound like a stunt, or some kind of insipid musical tourism, which
it absolutely is not. This is a guitar record, with voice on almost half
of the tracks, and a drummer and bassist in the background on four. The
songs are Lucas's arrangements for fingerstyle guitar (electric, acoustic,
National Steel) of Chinese pop ballads of the mid-20th century. Seven of
the tracks are instrumental; the other six feature a female vocalist: in
three cases Celest Chong, in the other three Gisbourg. The vocals are in
Chinese. Are you still with me? Please, please give this music a chance.
Some of the arrangements are, I imagine, close to the flavor of the original
recordings (which I have not heard); some are given more of a blues inflection
(even electric slide on one), and sound more familiar.

If you know Gary Lucas you will not be surprised by the jaw-dropping strength
and dexterity of his playing here but you may not be prepared for how achingly
beautiful and "inside" it is. If you are really familiar with his work
you may have heard instrumental versions of this music on two earlier albums:
"The Wall" and "Songstress on the Edge of Heaven" on Evangeline and a live
version of the latter song on @Paradiso. Those performances are highlights
of their respective albums, but this CD makes them seem like rehearsals,
which is what they are. This is not "blues guitar meets China" or any other
kind of stupid musical hybrid. This is about the deep level at which the
emotionality of Eastern and Western music is the same, an idea which surprises
on first hearing but which should really surprise no one, and about the
melting away of that surprise to reveal the core of calmness and beauty
inside it. I love this record, and you won't be sorry if you go a little
out of your way to hear it."

Best, Tanya

Sorry, that should have been "Level the PLaying Field", not Paying Field!

Hi Jennifer, welcome to the GL list/message board! (I cc:'d your Hotmail
address to be sure this reaches you.)

I also think "Songs to No One" is wonderful!  Gary is incredibly versatile
and has put out many different styles of music (which is very cool), but
it can make it hard to recommend a specific CD.

"Improve the Shining Hour" is a good starting point, it's a fairly broad
overview. From there (and with "Songs..." as a starting point), I'd first
recommend the band-oriented material. Gary's new CD, "Operators Are Standing
By", and "Level the Paying Field" are good choices since it's a collection
from 3 of the 'band' CDs. Also, one of my personal favorites is "Skeleton
at the Feast", which is an instrumental CD that showcases Gary's unique
guitar delay (and other) techniques. But as amazing as he is technically,
it's the emotion that he manages to convey with that guitar that truly
amazes me!

I hope this helps :)

Best, Tanya (currently being buried by snow in NYC)

>Hi, I am a huge Jeff Buckley fan and recently purchased the
>CD, "Songs to No One," and love it and decided to further investigate

>the music of Gary Lucas.  Because I live in a small area,
>unfortunately, none of his other CDs are available here, but I was
>looking at his website, and from the way his music is described, I am

>extremely anxious to hear it!
>
>Here's my question.  I'm sure it's very difficult for anyone to
>narrow it down to what are his best albums, but considering that I
>love Buckley's style, what couple of albums would you recommend that

>I choose?
>
>Thanks very much!
>
>Jennifer
>
>note: the above e-mail address will not receive mail, except from one

>person -- I have it set on "exclusive" thus my e-mail should read
>as:  modbohemian@...

Hi, I am a huge Jeff Buckley fan and recently purchased the
CD, "Songs to No One," and love it and decided to further investigate
the music of Gary Lucas.  Because I live in a small area,
unfortunately, none of his other CDs are available here, but I was
looking at his website, and from the way his music is described, I am
extremely anxious to hear it!

Here's my question.  I'm sure it's very difficult for anyone to
narrow it down to what are his best albums, but considering that I
love Buckley's style, what couple of albums would you recommend that
I choose?

Thanks very much!

Jennifer

note: the above e-mail address will not receive mail, except from one
person -- I have it set on "exclusive" thus my e-mail should read
as:  modbohemian@...

yes erik, come to sussex

your show sounds cool, why not something on the golem next?


gary

On Thu, 06 Feb 2003 17:28:31 -0000 "erikovo <erikovo@...>"
<erikovo@...> writes:
> HI GARY, so now I use YOURS mailing service to tell you, that I was
> successful to talk to RICHARD.
>
> He is working on your and MIRKA recording, soon I will go there to
> hear it /oh, why not right now?, what´´ d I like most of all/.
>
> Maybe I will have a chance to meet you in Sussex ATP fest in April -
>
> would like to prepare a trip to there!
>
> We are now developing a TV document about GREAT HUMANISTS of 17
> century - Caesar Rudolf II, Comenius, Copernicus, ancient alchemists
> -
>  will you be interested more?
>
> Soon will write more
> cheerio e.
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> garylucas-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

Hi everyone,

Gary is currently out in the desert rehearsing with The Magic Band. I wanted
to share a couple of updates he sent:

On Friday, Feb. 7th:

"yo people--in the middle of magic band reunion rehearsals here in the
desert which are going great guns, what an exhilarating rush to play this
music with mark, denny and john, who are all in superb form (we nailed
a whole slew of songs to the floor today, tunes from trout mask, decals,
strictly personal and clear spot, in a marathon 8 hour session)

denny and I are off now for a little r&r to see jody williams (one of wolf's
great guitar players) perform in la tonight..."

and on Sat. Feb. 8th:

"we have a set of 20 odd (haha) songs pretty much set in stone, as of today
we've tackled them all and are feeling pretty swaggeringly good about the
way it sounds--especially considering we had never played together as one
discrete magic band unit before...we're definitely in a good groove

elaine shepard, who produced the artist formerly known as captain beefheart
vid for the bbc, showed up today and is filming the sessions for a documentary
about the reunion

and john french is in amazing voice, laying down vocals over the tracks
with effortless ease...

wish you all were here

all the best

Gary Lucas"

Today (Feb. 9th) Gary says they're in the studio.  I'm really looking forward
to the upcoming "Magic Band" CD!

Best, Tanya

HI GARY, so now I use YOURS mailing service to tell you, that I was
successful to talk to RICHARD.

He is working on your and MIRKA recording, soon I will go there to
hear it /oh, why not right now?, what´´ d I like most of all/.

Maybe I will have a chance to meet you in Sussex ATP fest in April -
would like to prepare a trip to there!

We are now developing a TV document about GREAT HUMANISTS of 17
century - Caesar Rudolf II, Comenius, Copernicus, ancient alchemists -
  will you be interested more?

Soon will write more
cheerio e.

Hi everyone,

Visit the website (http://www.garylucas.com/)for details on "Operators
Are Standing By: The Essential Gary Lucas 1988-1996", released today
on Knitting Factory Records!

Also, a new review of "Songs To No One" has been added to the 'Raves &
Reviews' section.

I've changed the look of the home page slightly, using a uniform font
and making it look a little 'cleaner'. If you have any comments or
sugestions, you can post them here, or email me directly at: panacea
at inch dot com.

Best, Tanya

As Gary mentioned Friday morning, there is now a fabulous shot of Gary and
Denny Walley at Denny's house in Atlanta, Georgia for Magic Band reunion
rehearsals here: http://www.garylucas.com/www/pict/

Isn't that a fab 12-sting Denny is playing? It looks like a strange sort
of Danelectro to me...

I've also added a link to a review of "Edge of Heaven" from Rolling Stone
at: http://www.garylucas.com/www/rvw/

Finally, as an update to the earlier post, the link to "Pacific Time" at
KQED in San Francisco includes the UNBROADCASTED 25-minute interview/performance
with Gary. If you missed it, the link is:
http://www.kqed.org/programs/program-landing-local.jsp?progID=RD37


Best, Tanya

You can listen to Gary's appearance on KQED's "Pacific Time" program through
the internet here:

http://www.kqed.org/programs/program-landing-local.jsp?progID=RD37

You can hear the entire show, or just the portion featuring Gary (scroll
down the page for the link).

Best, Tanya

I just added one new photo to the web site, of Gary at Denny Walley's house
rehearsing for the Magic band shows:

http://www.garylucas.com/www/pict

Best, Tanya

Hi everyone,

There were several updates made to the garylucas.com website today:

o Added 2 new reviews for "The Edge of Heaven", linked through the
blurb on the home page as well as in the 'Raves & Reviews' section

o Added 1 new news item: Gary to be Featured on NPR's "Pacific Time"
Show

o Added 3 releases to the Discography (Disc-O-Mat):
     Jozef Van Wissem & Gary Lucas - Diplopia
     Gary Lucas (with various artists) - fRoots No. 19
     Gary Lucas with DJ Spooky (with various artists) - Sound Unseen

o Added 1 new photo to the 'Pictures' section

Also, once again the ATP Los Angeles tickets did not go on sale. The
'on sale' date is now tentatively scheduled for Feb. 1st, I'll keep
you posted. It's worth waiting for, these ATP people put on a great
festival.

That's all for now! If anyone has any comments, questions,
suggestions, or just wants to ramble, it's always welcome -- go ahead
and post!

Best, Tanya

Happy Holidays to all the GL fans out there! Gary sends his Best
Wishes too. We're having a white Christmas here in NYC, for the first
time in quite a while. It's beautiful unless you have to be out in it!

I've made several updates to garylucas.com recently, here's a quick
summary:
______________

Changes/add'l info for upcoming Dutch tour dates:

The venue and address for the Monday and Tuesday (12/30 and 12/31)
Dutch shows is the Werkteater, Oostenburgergracht 75, Amsterdam.
The Monday (12/30) show is solo acoustic at 9:00pm, and the Tuesday
(12/31) show is an acoustic duo with Josef Van Wissem on lute at
9:00pm.

The Wednesday (1/1) show is now at Kloveniersdolen, Middleburg,
Zeeland. The show starts at 8:00pm.
______________

Added 6 titles to the Discography (Disc-O-Mat):
"She is Free" by Jeff Buckley & Gary Lucas, French promo CD single
"The Deep End, Vol. 2" by Gov't. Mule, CD
"Magnetic Hands" by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Bands, CD
"The Isness" by Future Sound of London, CD
"Don't Shoot the Toy Piano Player", Various Artists, includes a track
by The Du-Tels (GL & Peter Stampfel), WFMU-FM (91.1) fundraising
premium CD
"Walking in Time" by Barrelhouse, CD
______________

Added a news item titled "The Kindest 'Uncut' of All -–
Buckley/Lucas Album Chosen as One of the Best of 2002", including a
link to a mini-review of "Songs to No One" in RealAudio format from
NPR (National Public Radio).
______________

Added a link in the "Edge of Heaven" blurb on the home page to a
performance (RealAudio format) by Gary and Min Xiao-Fen, from John
Schaefer's New Sounds show on WNYC-FM in October 2002.
______________

Added a 'search' function to search the garylucas.com site.
______________

Best,
Tanya