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Check out this timely short one minute 25 second dynamic, brilliant, red vs. blue rap by Sharad Kakkar:
https://x.com/sharadkakkar/status/1808971313161310557
excellent double-duty (red vs blue) rap only 1:25 long
Last night 7-28-16 at Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, Long Island, NY
a fantastic band ‘Revel In Dimes’ blessed the stage with hot
pungent punktive bluesy rocking cosmic musicianship and humility.
Premo on the bass looks Hendrixy with his Afro, and plays near
that Jimi level on his instrument with his long fast funky exacting fingers.
My favorite rock bassist ‘of all time’ is/was, of course, Jack
Bruce of the Cream. The late great Jack Bruce, departed Earth last
year. Right now, on the strength of last night’s performing, it’s Premo.
He can do so much with his instrument, plus he plays harmonica, sings,
dances all around, makes animalistic noises that fit right in with
the extremely hard-to-resist danceable music Revel in Dimes produces.
Here’s 10 minutes of this fantastic band, starting with ‘K-i-s-s-i-n-g’
Primo singing the lead; Kia Warren right there beside him harmonizing!
Eric Simons from rural Kansas is the R.L. Burnside kine of guitarist,
but with a juicy 2016 electric fertile flow of sound, and bluesy
jazzy penetrating infiltrating satisfying seemingly ever-present
tasty licks emanating from his person/guitar/soul raising the music
to wondrous heights of beauty and rockingness. He’s one of my
favorite guitarists now. Riffs galore he supplies as each song progresses,
that ‘Little Axe’ kind of Mississippi voodoo late at night misty-rain-falling
in a quiet southern town, yet urban and contemporary futuristic, what
you will always want to hear if you love guitar and especially electric
guitar. Eric Simons. Don’t forget that name.
Drummer Washington Duke is great, right there in the middle, supplying
the essence of the bottom and the beat, pumping up the music, keeping it
solid and potent, especially with Premo’s bass playing off him and vice-versa,
and Simons contributing his licks and magic from the other side.
Kia Warren sings, and plays some kind of instrument that is very small and
sits on a pedestal. I never asked what it was, but I think it punctuates
and elevates and amplifies the music. Her voice is perfect, no
Alicia Keys/John Legend warbling thru and around the notes. She’s the
personable front person, focuses the energy of the venue and the band,
sings well and strongly.
It was a great night. There was a terrific version of ‘Whole Lotta Love’*
amidst the four-song start of the second set, wherein the band
let up a happy accomplished young little white woman to jauntily lead sing
and play her rhythmic baby blue guitar, while Premo/Eric/Washington played some
amazing music behind her. ‘K-i-s-s-i-n-g’ was another highlight
with Premo singing the lead and Kia harmonizing. The rhythm and sound of
this band is unique – it infiltrates your feet and body and mind. This is
a now group that you should not miss if you ever get a chance to see them,
if they come to your town, or a town you can travel to. I could definitely
see them playing the Super Bowl halftime show, their professionalism and
power suitable for them to take over any stage and blow the shorts off
everyone that loves modern music in the fortunate audience. REVEL IN DIMES!!
P.S. the band returns to the Talkhouse for your dancing listening grooving pleasure Aug 25
and Sept 16 @10 PM both nights, and will be in Montauk Aug 11. See ’em somewhere!!
*Originally done by Led Zeppelin
‘Passione’ is a new movie by John Turtuffo, one of our great actors, who also has a great passion for Naples or Napoli in southern Italy on the Mediterranean, and its music. We see everybody singing, lots of beat up walls, some classic art and unique architecture, very expressive enactments of songs, plenty of history, people digging out of a 1944 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, but mostly all sorts of music. And some fantastic dancing, especially one piece framed in a four story building with a central archway and a dancer per balcony, 3 to each floor. I think
all beautiful women – can’t recall any man on one of those balconies.
The title connects to the jazz song ‘Passione’ played by James Senese’s band, Mr. Senese on saxophone. He speaks about being black in Italy, and the prejudice he had to go through, as there weren’t too many black folks in Italy until after the USA invaded the land of Mussolini and overthrew the Fascists at the end of World war 2. You can see how happy a lot of Italians were to see the Americans rid them of Mussolini. Remember, they hung the mug-chinned dictator by a lightpost in the streets when the people had the opportunity to do so.
Mr. Senese explains that his father was a black soldier from North Carolina, and his mother was a Neopolitan (which means she came from Napoli or Naples).
Five men from the band Avion Travel perform in a building-framed square, then are asked who the best singer was from Napoli. Three of the five say Sergio Bruni. Then the middle person of the five sings one of his most famous songs, to the joy of the others. Then Turtuffo provides us with some footage of
the man himself on black and white film, dressed in suit and tie, with a lovely voice and a big Italian schnozzola, with a unique flute soloist interacting with Mr. Bruni on the tune provided.
Riaz, of mixed descent, does a great reggae tune, very MTV, shot in the poor streets of Napoli, with beautiful women walking
throughout the filming, including going thru this one tiny door cut out of a temporary steel wall in a building that is being renovated – which is so typical for Italy and most of Europe.
If you love music and Italy, go see this one. It’s playing one more night in Westhampton at the Performing Arts Theatre, Thursday August 11, 2011, where Wynonna Judd arrives and plays on August 13. The fantastic ‘Incendies’ will be in the Theater midweek, next week. French, terrific plot/story, but yes
quite heavy. I highly recommend that one too.
P.T. Walkley and his band were a magical surprise show at the Stephen Talkhouse
last Saturday, June 6, 2009. P.T., a rather experienced songsmith and singer, with
terrific phrasing skills and a great lyricist – – with the words not flowing quite as
expected they would – – proved that going out to the Talkhouse, after missing Reel Karma a few nights before, still made for a wonderfully inspiring evening. Many of the tunes were short and sweet. The tang and beauty of the melodies linger still, especially the guitars as they faded away in the super short pieces: Lizzy Lee Vincent (no relation to Gene ???) from Birmingham (Burmingumm) UK
was the man in the black tie and gray shirt on the lead, and P.T. did his overall choreographing/trumming and plucking and driving songs from beginning to end. Mike Nolan was loverly in his little hat on the pedal steel, especially on the last few songs. But the star for me for joie de vivre, energy, and expertise was the vibrant, wild, sometimes manic, fiddler Earl Maneein. He had a brimmed Mao Tse Tung kine of green hat and stomped his brisk feet whether he was firing thru
a song or stomping about the extablishment. Absolutely loved him and his contribution to the music. The Brothers Kulund, Nicky (drums) and David (bass) bottomed up the rhythm section with fire, constancy and pizzazz. Marc Trachtenberg played pretty extemperaneous fitting piano
noteage thru each tune upon which he tickled his keys – – he also contributed to the vocals.
How about this for an example of Walkley’s lyrics: from ‘Comin Over’ with the great last line >
Biding my time/One glass, I’m passing through/Waving goodbye while whispering I love you/I think about you/I think without you I’d be blue/Is it coming over you/Wake me when my dream comes true…..
Yes, P.T. is a very romantic fellow. In fact, his tall slim beautiful wife Michel sings in the band and plays the tambourine. Many of the tunes are actually rather Beatle-esque. Though without a doubt in my mind, the hottest song done by the band that night was ‘Four Cheers.’ Apparently, this song was originally done with/by P.T.’s former band the Blue Jackets. There is a video of
it available on the internet via YouTube, but it pales in comparison to how they all did it live at the Talkhouse toward the end of the show (after a ‘Suicide..’ David Bowie cover that was mildly fair). Lizzy Lee played some really hot licks to begin the tune, his loose tie ahangin’ over the guitar neck, then the band came in, and they cooked. My advice to P.T. is: record your current members doing this song either live or in the studio and release it! If it comes out close to how you sounded on June 6, 2009, maybe you will have yourselves a beeeeeg hit!?!
The two songs ‘Mediocre’ and ‘To Be Somebody’ were interesting to end the CD ‘Mr Macy wakes alone’ and similarly in concert…but not the ideal subjects for music to play over and over again.
P.T. Walkley has a very very bright future. He and his band sound great in person. Go out and see hem whenever they come to your town. They/he may likely become a familiar and popular ame/phrase/buzzword in American culture in the years ahead.
http://ptwalkley.com/videos