calvino

I was able to catch the Kalamazoo show on Saturday. The venue (Wings Stadium) is great for a hockey rink. Low ceiling and very small. It was general admission on the floor and everyone around me was very enthused and dancing. I was lucky enough to have tickets for the Obama speech in Grant Park and was looking forward to this show to top the week off and Dylan definitely delivered. I thought his voice and keyboard was pretty high in the mix and sounded great for the most part. The rest of the band also played very well. He only played his guitar toward the end of HWY 61 and it sounded great.

Also check out Parker on Vandermark Powerhouse Sound CD (atavistic.com). His stuff with The Chicago Underground Trio/Quartet and Isotope 217 is also rather good. Lastly he's on a number of Fred Anderson disks (Live at the Velvet Lounge - Vol. Two and he is on a few tracks on the From the River to the Ocean.) Regarding the Exploding Star Orchestra, there is a live show (11.1.08 from Germany), where Roscoe Mitchell sits in with the band up on the Dime a Dozen website. Definitely worth the download.

Vandermark does help curate the festival. But since you brought this up, I don't remember him ever playing during the festival. So I looked at the past schedules and indeed he in not any of the schedules. Perhaps he wants to use the funds available on other players, which is a good thing.

Vandermark is on tour in Europe this month and most of next month.

I am planning to go to many of the shows. I won't be able to catch Saturday's show because I'm heading up to Kalamazoo to see a Dylan show. But the festival will be a great way to unwind from the election. All the nights look great, but I'm most looking forward to the Alexander von Schlippenbach /Paul Lovens duo on Wed. Tonight' show at Elastic (2830 N Milwaukee Ave) should be a great way to start the week. Elastic website states the show starts at 10pm, but in an email from Dave Rempis it showed a 9pm start. Z

No, not really. People from Chicago, like myself, might just a little. The post was meant to more of a joke.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/...ail-with-palin/ Oh no! See this is what happens when one votes early. I should have waited to see who the Da Coach stumps for. Oh well, at least Lovie's a supporter. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...earnt31.article Obviously I'm not surprised by Ditka's stance. But Ditka sure seems to have his hand on the pulse of the job situation in this country. "Departing somewhat from John McCain's argument that failures on Wall Street and in Washington have imperiled the American worker, Ditka argued that anyone seeking employment can f

That's what I have been telling my wife, but she is still nervous so we heading over to LaPorte, IN to canvas for Obama tomorrow morning. It would be great to turn Indiana Blue for this election. Last weekend we went to Fort Wayne to canvas, focusing on the early vote: for those who were home, most have voted already or were planning to before this Tuesday, so that was very promising. It was a bit funny in Fort Wayne, near Obama's election office all the parking meters had bags over them and no parking signs were post all over the area. We later found out that a Palin rally was scheduled f

Voted yesterday. Got in line at around 4pm and finally voted around 5:30pm. The polling place was on 64th and Stoney (in Chicago), so it is somewhat near Obama's backyard. The poll workers said the lines have been long since early voting started. Anyway there was no complaints for the long wait and people were actually excited and happy standing in line. It was impressive and a very encouraging site to see.

I did not mean to capitalize the "B", I meant the band (as in the band the Grateful Dead) ... sorry for the confusion.

Yeah, from what I read, Mickey took it the hardest (and rightly so). Again this is just speculation on my part, but honestly I can see them keeping him on the payroll. I think he had a studio at his ranch/barn where the rest of the band rehearsed and recorded during this time. The Band might of paid him for this... Plus the the rest of the guy's never blamed Mickey for his dad's activities.

It's very likely the Dead kept him on the payroll. Their payroll system (esp. in the early days) was pretty communal. This is just a guess on my part.

I thought the same thing when I watched it last week, I never saw Garcia so animated, ether. Watching it was fun and I think the camera person must have been indulging in something: at times the camera would drift up or down or sideways. I can see why (if this is the only footage they have) they did not commercially release the footage shortly after the shows like I think they planned to do to help recoup some of the money it took to go there. That being said, I am glad they finally released it.

Now that's a good one!

Thanks for the review, Lou. Wasn't able to catch the show.

Usually it is a suggested donation on Sunday nights. Normally Josh Berman, one of the curators, walks around with a hat and you chip in what you want for for the most part. This Sunday may be different or it the suggested donation may be a bit more than the usual $6 to $10 range. You probably can throw an email to contact@emergingimprovisers.org. and someone will let you know.

After a real quick search, I did not find this posted anywhere, I just came across it this morning: http://www.umbrellamusic.org/ http://eiorg.org/index.html This should be a great show. Jim Baker and Fred Lonberg-Holm are both excellent.

Just listened to Disk 1 and 2 of the latest Egypt run (Rocking the Cradle) disk from Rhino. The sound quality is indeed great and the stuff that are on the disks are rather good, the Looks Like Rain and most of Disk 2 (shakedown, esp.) are all played with vigor and I think the band played well. Haven't watch the DVD, yet. With all the chatter of the Taping Compendium's lately, the write up of the Egypt run is great. Ken Genetti's trip account, I thought, is great and reading it while listening to the CD's was a trip in itself. This account as well as others from famous runs of shows make the

Always liked the Bobby and the Midnites stuff. Could be cheesy at times, but always enjoyed it. nice sounding show on wolfgang http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/bobb...049738-848.html

Couldn't agree more.

Thanks for your reports Louie. I fucked my ankle up 'real good' Thursday, that left me pretty motionless since. Missed Fri and Sat, hoping the swelling and bruising will subside a bit so at least I could make it down tonight, but it's still not as good as I hoped it would be. It would be nice if WBEZ were still broadcasting the fest like they used to do, for a while there at least. I need to hobble down to my storage space and find some of my old tapes of the broadcasts. Anyway thanks again for the reports.

The afterfest at the Hungry Brain on Sat. and Sun. does sound very promising...I say I am going to hit them every year and like you I'm pretty beat when 10pm rolls around. Yet seeing Misha at the Hungry Brain will make up missing Rollins tonight...well almost.

Yes. I believe it will be packed, as long as the weather holds up. Sadly I will be not be able to attend tonight...Will be there for the rest of the weekend, definitely looking forward to Coleman on Sunday and Dave Douglas on Sat.

((((recommend any Dylan fan to see them play if they get a chance, (even if they are not necessarily into jazz).))) The "they" in my previous post was referring to Dylan fans who are not necessarily into jazz should check them out. Jewels and Binoculars is most a definitely jazz band. That would be great to get the disks, I do live here in Chicago. They had their whole catalog for sale at the Hideout gig, but stupid me did not bring much cash with me that night, oh well.

Were you able to catch Jewels and Binoculars at the Hideout last April? It was the first time I seen or heard them play and I was definitely impressed. Michael Vatcher's drumming is fun to watch and his playing is great. I guess one can say I'm obsessed with Dylan and seeing Jewels and Binoculars interpretation of Dylan's music was both enjoyable and the music of course was well played. They were completely "into" the music and a thrill to watch. I haven't gotten around to purchase any of their albums, yet, but I definitely recommend any Dylan fan to see them play if they get a chance, (even