Hot Salsa Addendum

A couple of notes on last night. The salsa band I was trying to think of is Timbason. Maybe Yardhog had too many mohitas last night. They were on special and he couldn't resist. According to D, mohitas are the current "in" drink. An unusual combination of rum and mint. Sort of a Cuban Mint Julep. Lots of jazzers in the crowd last night including Ken Clay, Jamey Aebersold, Marty Sussman and Patty Bailey.
     There has been a dramatic sea change in the Louisville jazz scene since the early days of clubs like Washington St., On Broadway and Just Jazz. I don't know where the people are coming from but they turn out in large numbers on week  day nights to hear jazz and other alternative music.

Addendum For Pete

Here's a quote from an article by Marc Stone from this month's edition of New Orlean's OffBeat magazine:

"Pianist Mike Hood grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and caught the music bug while still in junior high school when a friend's dad showed him how to play the organ parts to the Doors "Light My Fire." From there he began to teach himself, following his keen ear and the advice of older players. "I'm mostly self-taught, I guess but with a whole lot of help from the outside."
     "I didn't take lessons, I went out and bought books, and one day I actually did, I took lessons from a guy named Pete Peterson, who gave lessons where I later taught, at Mom's Music (in Louisville). I took about two lessons from him but I but I got away from it."

STORMY WEATHER

The most violent weather to hit the  Louisville area since 1974 has thrown the Hog off a bit in the last few days. Tuesday night a severe thunderstorm with hurricane force 75 plus winds knocked all our power out for the last two days but thankfully didn't cause any house or tree damage. According to the morning paper all this severe weather is due to an unusual weather pattern that has the Midwest locked into a type of severe weather cycle we normally only experience during the spring. Unfortunately they predict more is yet to come.

Volvo Land

20 June 2004 @ 12:07 pm

Due to the recent purchase of a new (used) Volvo 940, Yardhog has been thrust into the world of "Volvo Mania." Suddenly wherever he looks there they are; boxy, impregnable and ubiquitous. But it's yet another reason to start a conversation with a total stranger. And remember if you don't talk to people you don't learn a damn thing.
Just yesterday the Hog was sitting on street at a local coffee house during a respite from a morning bike ride, when he began talking to a middle-aged lady at a nearby table.
"Beautiful weather isn't it? By the way, is that your Volvo sitting across the street?"
"Oh yes! I've had it for years. The thing won't die. It's been wrecked several time....."
And on and on... Will everybody who owns a Volvo in the eastend of Louisville please stand-up. Then again, maybe not. It might start an earthquake. luv, yardhog

Ricky Lee Jones

Ricky Lee Jones blew into Louisville for a performance at Headliners Tuesday night in two very shiny, sliver tour buses.
After standing outside in the muggy evening air for 45 minutes, D and Yardhog were ushered into the cavernous music hall and took seats at one of the few tables provided.
After another 45 minutes or so Jones took the stage with her band which featured two horn players. Performing many of the songs off her new album "The Evening of My Best Day," Jones alternated between guitar, piano and several hats. Her one standard "On the Street Where You Live" was a disaster. Very sloppy with intonation problems galore but Jone's version of "Coolsville" accompanying herself on piano was hypnotic.
One other note, Headliners needs to get their air-conditioning fixed. At times Yardhog felt like he was in New Orleans at Tipitinas

BIKING & LOU LOU'S

07 June 2004 @ 10:14 am

Logged over 20 miles on River Road yesterday morning. Talked to a ice cream vendor on downtown's Water Front Park, who last week saw a tornado drop down across the river in Jeffersonville, Indiana. "I told my boss I'm getting out of here. I jumped in my car and took off."
The weather was much better this weekend. Gorgeous, low humidity and cool tempt. Last night Yardhog and D were invited to a "soft opening" of Lou Lou's restaurant on Frankfort Avenue. Housed in what was used to be "The Black Cat" nightclub, the new eatery specializes in an eclectic menu that features everything from pizzas to hummus dip. The pizza is wonderful. Very tasty crust and the cheeze is a delight.
The owners moved last month to Louisville from New Orleans where they operated "The Mystic Pizza" on Magazine Street.
Looking forward this week to seeing Best songtress Ricky Lee Jones at Headliners.

RANE-ING IN JIMMY

         The jazz guitar duo had just completed their last set at the Twice Told Coffee House when one of the guitarists came over to my table with some exciting news.

         “You won’t believe what I just discovered,” he said, taking from his guitar case a piece of notebook paper on which was a hand-scribbled note.

         “Shakespeare sonnets are constructed like a 12 bar blues. Listen,”

He said.

         Then, Jimmy Raney, 65, one of the world’s greatest and most influential jazz guitarists, played and sang the blues, lyrics provided by William Shakespeare.

         That kind of spontaneous imagination has always been part of Raney’s character. It led him to leave his Louisville home in 1944 and travel to New York City, and later Chicago, to play with some of the world’s best jazz musicians like saxophonist Stan Getz and band leaders Woody Herman and Artie Shaw, to name but a few.

         In 1954-55 he was voted best guitarist in Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll.

         Along the way he and guitarist Tal Farlow managed to transfer saxophonist Charlie Parker’s convoluted bebop jazz style and phrasing over to the guitar.

         Farlow and Raney have a lot in common. They both played with vibraphonist Red Norvo and Artie Shaw. And they both name each other as their favorite guitarists.

         But Raney is much more than a great musician. He is also a painter and his eclectic interests range from writing to quantum physics.

         During the 1950s, while Raney was living in New York City, he used to hang out at the Cedar Bar, well-known gathering spot for modern painters.

         It was there he became friends with artist Ray Parker, who he later dedicated an original song to, “Parker 51.”

         Raney said he became so obsessed with painting at one point in his  career he worried that he was devoting to much time to it.

         “I had to make up my mind what I wanted to be a musician or a painter,” he said.

         Raney still paints occasionally. One of his works, a self portrait, was recently on display at Twice Told Coffee House.

         This has been a good year for Raney. Despite a hearing loss which has plagued him for several years, his playing is as eloquent as ever.

         His newest recording, (he’s recorded over 40 albums), “But Beautiful,” Criss Cross Jazz 1065 was hailed in “Jazz Times” as “the most important guitar recording of the last decade.”

         Critic Doug Ramsey goes on to say that Raney is and has been since the late 1940s “the very model of the complete guitarist.

Danny O’Bryan

Leo Magazine

May 26, 1993

From the up-coming book “Derby City Jazz”