If it’s Friday night, then it’s time to open the Froggy Bottom Jazz Lounge again, where the music’s hot, the drinks are cool, and the hippest amphibia can hang out and groove after a week of work and political mayhem.

“To save the planet, I had to go to the worst spot on Earth…and that was Philadelphia, which is death’s headquarters.”

Is that our host Booman Speaking?  No, it’s Sun Ra, one of the more “out-there” figures to visit planet Earth – not to mention Philly – during the 20th century…

Our current political mayhem got me thinking about the Reagan Administration, which made me think of Sun Ra.  Why?  Well, there’s a certain piece he came out with in 1982 called “Nuclear War.”  Here are the lyrics; they’re repeated a lot in call-and-response fashion; given the situation with Iran I thought it might be timely to revisit them:

Nuclear war. Nuclear war. They’re talkin’ about Nuclear war. It’s a motherfucker, don’t you know? If they push that button your ass got to go. Gonna blast you So high in the sky. You can kiss your ass Goodbye, goodbye. Radiation, Mutation. Fire. Hydrogen bombs, Atomic bombs. (Tell ’em about it, Tyrone…) What you gonna do, Without your ass? Melting… People… Buildings… Burnt grass… Farewell. Goodbye, ass.

He tried to sell this song to Capital records as a dance number, but was immediately rejected.  But then that’s kind of the story of Sun Ra; I mean, I’m a big jazz fan and I have trouble wrapping my mind around him and his music.  He is, literally, out there (he claimed to be from Saturn, even to the point of listing it as his address when hospitalized for a stroke a year before his death at age 80.  While I’d only recommend his music for the more adventuresome of you, his life story is quite a tale, and I think you’ll find it interesting:

Wikipedia version  //  more detailed version (worth it if you have the time and interest).

Sun Ra has gone back to Saturn (or wherever), but his Big Band the Sun Ra Arkestra (still based out of Sun Ra’s rowhouse in the Germantown section of Philly) continues to perform.  Here’s a 3’19” clip of them in performance, as presented on Brazilian TV in 2004.

I wrote the above earlier this week, and I was planning to end it there with maybe a snarky remark like “Sun Ra – Giving Tinfoil Hats New Meaning”  (The Arkestra performed/performs in unusual, space-themed headgear).  But something kept nagging at me, and I’ve been rolling Sun Ra around in the back of my mind, thinking that that’s a cheap shot, even if I don’t care for all his music.  I don’t care for a fair amount of Picasso, but I don’t call him a kook.  There’s a fine line between genius and madness, and Sun Ra was one of those brave souls out dancing on that highwire without a safety net.  His music may be dissonant, may seem chaotic – but look at the times he lived in.  Maybe he was channeling the zeitgeist.

So I’m left more informed than when I started this diary, but no less unsure what I think of Sun Ra, his music, and his philosophy.  Feel free to give me your take on the matter.

(back off the thin ice to safer ground after the fold)

So what am I listening to this week?

Mrs. Dem in Knoxville, DVM, got me an iPod for my birthday (which was yesterday), and I’ve been playing around with it, downloading podcasts of Air America Radio programs, environmental programs, hockey programs (looking for more of those, BTW), and – to get back on topic – a jazz podcast.  It’s called “D. D. Jackson’s Living Jazz Podcast;” Jackson is a Canadian-born, New York-based jazz pianist/composer.  You can find out lots more about him and the podcast at his website.

Speaking of Canada, someone last week mentioned that we might all want to listen to the same station’s webcast while the FBC Jazz Jam is in session, so here’s a nominee, a station from Toronto that I discovered while on vacation there: Jazz FM 91.

One thing I liked about this station was that they played a lot of Canadian artists (probably to comply with Canadian content broadcast rules?) many of whom I hadn’t heard of before, and gave a lot of information on the local music scene, upcoming events, etc.

I was inspired while in Toronto (as if I needed a lot of arm twisting, LOL) to hurry on down to Younge Street and buy some CDs to commemorate my first Canadian vacation.  One of the CDs I bought was Oscar Peterson’s Canadiana Suite, which Jazz 91 FM will be playing in its entirety at Monday Aug 15th at 6 PM to celebrate Peterson’s 80th birthday.  Go to the Jazz FM link above for more details, as well as other current jazz news.  You might want to bookmark the page (good website!) while you’re there.  I sure did.

Continuing to riff on what seems to have evolved into a Canadian theme this week, another CD I bought was “Peaceful Valley” by the Stephane Crytes Quartet, recorded in September 1997 and October 1998, and released in 2001 by DSM records out of Montreal.  Crytes is from Quebec, and the liner notes are in French, which poses a challenge to us that don’t speak French, but music is the international language.  The CD is good, if you can find it; amazon.com wanted $22.99 for it (!), and I didn’t see anything by Crytes on eBay at the moment.  The quartet consists of keyboards, sax, bass, and drums.  Crytes is the drummer, and for perhaps this reason some extra care was taken while recording so the drums and bass aren’t buried in the background sound.  An enjoyable CD.

Unfortunately, no sound clips on Amazon for you to test drive.  🙁

Ran across a site folks might want to check out, called Jazzcorner’s Speakeasy, which bills itself as “Where Jazz Fans Go To Talk!” and “The busiest bulletin board on the web for jazz.” (Other than here, of course!!)  It’s part of the Jazz Corner website, which also features news, interviews, and links to many artists’ webpages.

After last week, I now know that several of you are Louis Armstrong fans, and so I thought I’d pass along the following quote by Pat Metheny, the guitarist from near Kansas City that I recommended in the comments last week:

“[in reference to Kenny G’s overdubbing of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”] `When Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man [Louis Armstrong] who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis’ tracks, he did something that I would not have imagined possible…”

“And if I ever DO see [Kenny G] anywhere, at any function – he WILL get a piece of my mind, and maybe a guitar wrapped around his head.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Missouri, or know anyone from Missouri, but Mrs. Dem in Knoxville is from outside Kansas City and she assured (?) me before I moved there that everyone there is as brutally frank as her, Pat Metheny, and Harry Truman.  And they pretty much were, which was quite refreshing once you got used to it!  Of course, she also told me that “the winters weren’t that much worse than in Philly.”  After experiencing 40-below wind chills for the first time, I came home from work and told her: “You Lied!  You Lied To Me!”  So take it for what it’s worth, and keep in mind that she is a descendant of the James family (as in Jesse and Frank) on her mother’s mother’s side…  ;-D

Since I gave you a couple of quotes last week on jazz and democracy, I thought I’d pass along another that us progressives might relate to:

“Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.”  – Miles Davis

The revolution may not be televised, but hopefully jazz will be part of the soundtrack…