it's jazz baby

Me – I’m going to the Tripod please.

Taxi Bloke – On Harcourt St?

Me – Yeah.

Taxi Bloke – What’s on there?

Me – Herbie Hancock.

Taxi Bloke – Who’s he?

Me – You might know him from that tune he did called ‘Rockit’ back in 1983.

Taxi Bloke – No

Me – He’s done lots of other stuff. Played with the likes of Miles Davis, Donald Byrd, Wayne Shroter, Chick Corea, Jaco Pastorius, did the theme tune to the Cosby Kids cartoon show, stuff like that

Taxi Bloke – Ah jaysus, all those musicians are up their own hole.

Me – Well he’s famous, but I doubt that he’s that bad.

Taxi Bloke – I’ve a friend who’s a musician and he’s up his own arse. He’s not in touch with reality. Are you going to Girls Aloud? You could go to that gig with earplugs in and you’d still enjoy it.

And so began the night. The Herbie Hancock Sextet was playing in Tripod last night and the Don Rosco weaved some magic and sorted me out with entry to the gig. We hooked up with The Mullet beforehand and managed to bypass the lengthy queue that had formed. Straight in. No chaser. Apparently it was supposed to kick-off at 8 sharp but it was 8.15 before Herbie and his ensemble arrived on stage. Last night he was joined by Lionel Loueke on guitar, Terence Blanchard on trumpet, James Genus on bass guitar, Gregoire Maret on harmonica and Kendrick Scott on drums.

Rather than being up his own arse Herbie was an entirely affable character (I can’t wait to tell that taxi driver). He complained a little about the cold, introduced the band, completed some general audience interaction, compared his well worn shoes with Blanchards silver sneakers and kicked off with the tune ‘Actual Proof’ which I think is from the second Headhunters album, Thrust. It lasted about twenty minutes or twice as long as the recorded version. When it was over there was some more audience interaction and it turns out that he’s not only affable but he’s a fairly funny, self-deprecating individual too. I’m really warming to Herbie now. He cracks into the tune ‘Speak like a child’ and after about fifteen minutes it segues into a version of ‘The Visitor’. Another fifteen minutes later and that tune ends. At this stage I’m beginning to wonder exactly how many tunes he’s going to fit into the gig.

Herbie then gave a special introduction to Lionel Loueke. I was reading about Lionel’s background today and his tale really is something special. From his poor beginnings in Benin, West Africa he’s now playing guitar all over the world with some jazz legends. Last night we were treated to a composition of his called ‘Seven Teens’ that featured on his recent release Karibu. It’s apparently written with seventeen beats to the bar, which I imagine is damn hard to play. This was followed by a solo improvisation with just his voice and guitar. The rest of the band left him to it and took a quick piss break. There was some crowd interaction when he got everyone clapping and chanting and he did a bit of mad shit with his voice that sounded like Huey, Louis & Dewey doing some human beatboxing. It was great value. The rest of the gig just melted together. They did a version of ‘Cantaloup Island’; a tune that many will know inspired the US3 cover version, Cantaloop. I don’t remember all that much after that. It was all done and dusted by 10.30 and we were sent home with the jazz fusion still ringing in our ears.

Never a man to miss a trick, The Mullet led us down to Anseo on Camden Street where we caught some of the set from UK dubstepper Plastician. The place was heaving downstairs so we popped our heads upstairs for a couple of quick swifties. A much more convivial atmosphere up there and the smell of body odour wasn’t as bad. Some times you have to know when to call a night a night and that time was upon me. The Carling Cup highlights beckoned me home and there I headed. Maximum respect to the Don Rosco for driving me home just in time to see the Arsenal kids stick a few in the onion bag against Wigan. All was right with the world.

blog! a rhythm?

I was reading the newspapers that built up over the weekend and I stumbled across a feature on Gerry Anderson. Not to be confused with the talented tv producer and writer, Gerry Anderson, the one I'm talking about is the not quite as talented bloke who always turns up on BBC Northern Ireland or BBC Radio 4. He's apparently courting controversy these days by claiming that Gary Glitter is a decent old skin.

The picture of Gerry served to remind me of a time about 15 years ago when the trad/folk band I was in entered the Opportunity Knocks talent contest held in Ballyshannon. I considered us a supergroup of sorts. We had a singer who went on to voice the character of Shadow in Bear in the Big Blue House. We had an accordion player from Cavan who was the only person I ever heard make that particular instrument sound good (Welcome to Hell! Here's your accordion!). We had a wonderful guitarist from Rossnowlagh and another talented bloke from Clondalkin and then there was yours truly on percussion. If my memory serves me correctly we won and collected a grand in prize money. Our win came courtesy of three independent judges: the aforementioned Gerry Anderson, the then Late Late Show in-house pianist Frank McNamara and someone else I can't remember. Needless to say we went on the batter with all the judges and other contestants afterwards and ended up in a boozer called Eoin Roe O'Neills I believe. The gargle flowed all night (probably at our expense) and Frank kept banging out tunes on the piano until the small hours of the morning. As the sun started to rise I realised that we had to get to Sligo to make a train back to Dublin. I distinctly remember the scornful look on my mates's mother as she collected us to bring us to the airport. Three drunk smelly blokes sitting in a car at about 7.30 in the morning pretending to be sober. I had some kind of lucid moment around Ben Bulben as that's the only part of the journey I remember. I think I kept calling it Ben's Bulb. That kind of stuff counts as funny when you've been drinking all night. What wasn't funny was the trip home on the train when we were collectively blanked by a clearly hungover Frank McNamara. That's stars for you. They're your best buddy one night and then your yesterdays news.

What the fuck all of that has to do with the rest of this post is beyond me. I'm banging on about that kind of nonsense when ther's things happening on the music and blogging scene all around me. In Dublin news a couple of new places have opened in the city. The first is actually new. It's some boozer called Le Cirk on Dame Street and it has some notions about being a jazz lounge. It appeared from behind hoardings some weeks ago and is trying to find its feet. I sent my wife and her mates to it the other night but they were having none of it and left after one drink. Maybe jazz isn't their thing. Apparently the music bookings are being taken care of by ex-Jazz FM boss, Ollie Dowling. The former pirate radio mogul will hope that this return to jazz promotion is more successful than his efforts with the Bleu Note on Capel St. The other new, but actually not new, venue is The Twisted Pepper on Middle Abbey Street. This was previously Traffic and for some reason I managed to never go there when it open. As such I've no idea if Twisted Pepper is any different. The Wobble Crew were promoting a night downstairs and it featured my old junglist muckers Don Rosco and Naphta. I only hung around for a while to check out Don Rosco and T-Woc weave some dubstep madness and missed Naphta as a result. The lure of my slippers and a hot cup of Ovaltine was too much for me. I legged it.

The DEAF weekender draws ever closer and I'll remind you again that the only place to be this Thursday evening is in The Sugar Club for the Sweettalk with Steinski, Maser and Alan Gilsenan. I'll be there. Carrying a copy of the FT under my left oxter and with a pink carnation in the lapel of my sports jacket. Another event worth checking is the White Noise gig being promoted by Mici Durnin and his cohort Darren of Maximum Joy promotions. I only met Mici at the tail-end of the summer. We had some oldschool football kickabouts with a motley crew of participants from the likes of The Jimmy Cake, Dave from Road Records and Claude from PIAS distribution. It harked back to those football games on the local green that would go on until it got pitch black. If someone had arrived with an empty glass milk-bottle full of water it would have completed the picture. Anyhow White Noise play The Sugar Club at 8pm on the 26th October. A DJ Set from Broadcast will follow.

I have it on good account that Twenty Majors forum is the place to be this weather. I went over just after it opened and it asked me to register. I hate to admit it but I'm a lazy auld shite when it comes to registering on websites, so I didn't. In any event, I have it on good account that it's working out nicely.

I'd read about the Casino in Marino way back in school. It featured in our art history studies back in secondary school. Yesterday we went en famille over Donnycarney way and visited the Casino. You can imagine my disappointment when I found there was no blackjack table there. Instead you're treated to an architectural wonder of symmetry, creativity and trickery. It's the bleeding business. We went on the tour with a German mother and daughter and some bloke who looked like he'd been forced there by his mother. We all had to put on slippers before they allowed us walk on the nice parquet floors. Freaky buzz but a top buzz.

Finally, it pains me to say it but the fabulous Blogariddims series has come to an end. Fifty blogariddims later, Droid, Slug and the rest of the weareie cru have called a halt to proceedings. These guys have achieved huge admiration for crafting podcasts for general consumption to anyone with an interweb connection. I for one believe they have covered themselves in glory. Well done chaps. You can check out the hugely convoluted but higly entertaining series of posts by all 10 contributors to the final blogariddims over on weare.ie. And here is the very first post by Droid

bashment juggling

I stumbled across this blog whilst traversing the blogosphere the other day. I was on the web looking for information about RDK HI-FI, a Brixton based soundsystem that I'd seen about 10 years ago in the Da Club just off Clarendon Street. It was a spliffing evening and the bass was rumbling in a jocular fashion. It was one of the best reggae experiences I've had in my life. A mate of mine bought their seven inch offering at the gig, a tune called 'Such is Life'. It was a reworking of an old reggae riddim by Lord Creator and Lee Perry from back in the seventies.I've somehow managed to come into its possession and I'm not complaining that i did. I was listening to it the other day and it was so good that I had to find out if they were still going. They never went away you know and they're busy creating dub vibrations in their home town of Brixton and all across Europe. Anyhow, The Clash Blogger, blogs all about reggae and has great mixes uploaded. It hasn't been updated since June but check it out for the older mixes.

Closer to home, tonight sees the Inishbofin Conemara Roots Festival take place. It has a smashing reggae line-up alongside the more usual suspects you get at any festival with the word roots in it's title. Some of the featured artists and soundsystems are Natty Wailer, Revelation Soundsystem and Rootical Soundsystem. Big up all Inishbofin Massive.

Finally, a new fanzine/magazine dedicated to the wobbly world of dubstep and all things reggae related has hit Dublin town. It caught a ride on a cheap Ryanair flight from London Town and landed in All City Records the other day. Resident shopkeeper Cool C handed me a copy and its only in hindsight that I'm wondering if I was meant to pay for it. The publication is titled 'Woofah' and one of its contributors is Dublin based DJ and longtime reggae/ragga anorak, The Droid. The Droid brings a wonderful diligence to his musical work that is rarely seen in DJ's. He makes any other DJ look like a lazy bastard. Droid, alongside two other stalwarts of Dublins music scene, Slug and Naphta, also run the weareie.com website. Woofah is available from All City, Spindizzy, City Discs and Reggae Family here in Dublin. If you're in the UK there's loads of stockists there.

saturday night, dance, I like the way you move

At the time of writing it's not quite Saturday night but it is Saturday evening. I'd forgotten about three seven inches that I'd bought on Thursday so now is a fitting time to run the rule over them.

First up was the premier single release from 'The Aliens' and their recent album 'Astronomy for Dogs'. The tune is called 'Setting Sun' and was actually released in March but for some reason I only came across it the other day. Their new seven inch 'Robot Man' is due for release on the 26th June. Anyhow, the single 'Setting Sun' There is heavy use of either a Hammond organ or the Farfisa Compact Duo keyboard that was ever present in the work of the Inspiral Carpets, courtesy of Clint Boon. There's nothing brilliantly original about this tune but I reckon it could be one of those live festival favourites. Check it and 'Robot Man' out on The Aliens MySpace.

Next up for shaving is the new single '3's & 7's' by 'Queens of the Stone Age'. It's a rocking good song but I must say that the b-side 'Sick, Sick, Sick' (listen to it here) is an awful lot better. Both tunes feature on their recent album 'Era Vulgaris' which is available in all good record stores. There's another tune on the b-side called 'The Designer' that is remixed by Adrian Sherwood and Primal Scream. That's all well and good but it really sounds like they've robbed the bassline from 'Enter Sandman' by Metallica.

The last piece of tuneage is by 'Mumm-Ra' and it's called 'She's got you high'. It's taken from the album 'These things move in threes'. The distinct British intonation of lead singer Noo's voice and the general guitar sound is reminiscent of a band from the 80's but I can't think who!. It's a brilliant piece of pop and I imagine it's very radio friendly if you're into listening to the radio. You can listen to it here.

The Don Rosco left a comment on the 'Dubstep' post below that directed me to the dubstep instalment from the Blogariddims crew. Check out this page for the background to the tunes and download the accompanying dubstep mix.

dubstep be good to me

I was listening to the SoulJazz compilation of dubstep entitled 'Box of Dub'. It's probably not the best collection of dubstep around but it would make for a good introduction to the genre. It's a genre I'm not overly familiar with but I'm listening to more bits and pieces every week.

You might want to check out Kode9's MySpace and listen to his tunes there. 'Find my way (9 remix)' is only two minutes long and it will give the uninitiated a peek into the world of dubstep. Essentially this kind of music appeals to fans of dub reggae and old junglists who can't jump around as much anymore. As with these other genres the bass line plays an important part in creating the dubstep vibe. In fairness a lot of it must tip its hat to earlier work released on the Basic Channel sublabel Rhythm & Sound. As with Dub Reggae, there is much joy in the space to be found in some of the music. However don't expect it all to sound like that. Other dubstep proponents such as Skream have a techno feel to the music. Some of it sounds like techno being played at a slower speed. In any case if you're over in Barcelona on June 15th at the Sonar festival you can catch both Kode9 and Skream. Also playing at Sonar are The Beastie Boys, Cornelius, New Young Pony Club and Devo. My final dubstep tip is to check out Burial and his more accessible dubstep sound. It's on a slightly more chilled out tip (or at least anything I've heard so far has been). You can check out his MySpace here.

I'm off to Cork tomorrow and to Bristol on friday. I've never been to Bristol but I'm going to see if they have any record shops that i can visit while I'm there. If I buy anything of note I'll write about it when I return on Sunday