RIP Rod Poole

[HighFives]

http://bradlaner.com/blogger.html

 

 

From Nels Cline -

"It is with great sadness and deep shock that I sit here in my hotel room in New York pondering the senseless murder of one of my favorite artists of all time, Rod Poole. I formed a microtonal improvising trio with the guitarists Rod, Jim McCauley, and myself called Acoustic Guitar Trio. One of my motivations for this was to just get closer to Rod and his art, to the haunting beauty of his music. What with my constant road work and divergent personal realm, Rod and I had been in touch less and less frequently, which really felt bad. Rod was a true artist, probably a genius. He had an amazing capacity as both music fan and autodidact musician visionary. He was stubborn, thorny at times, but always because of his intense feelings and ideas concerning creative expression, especially that of the sound world. His death was pointless, and from reports, horribly violent. I feel sick. We are a disaster as a society. I can't stop thinking about him and his wife Lisa. What a nightmare... And it hasn't even really fully sunk in that I will never again see this man, never play music with him again, never hear him play, sit in his Hollywood apartment listening to music, drinking fine beers, thumbing through his recent eBay acquisitions of Sun Ra, Hendrix bootlegs...never again play music with him. His solo CDs "The Death Adder" and "December 96", both out-of-print (WIN Records) are shining examples of artistic vision and depth, his just-intonated Martin acoustics spinning beguiling arpeggios resonating with majestic/intimate sonorous beauty. All possible love to you, Rod. I thought I was speechless, but here are the words, and here come the tears..

 

Here is a sample of some of the music we made together as Acoustic Guitar Trio.

 

Rod Poole is arguably one of the most under-documented masters of our time. Not that there weren't any recordings made. Rod had recorded a lot of material that has not seen the light of day. His last CD ("Mind's Island"), a beautiful series of duets with vocalist Sasha Bogdanowitsch could easily have been followed by many great solo recordings that he was waiting to do the right way - either with the nicest label, on the best vinyl, etc. I do know that Acoustic Guitar Trio has tons of stuff "in the can", not the least of which is a 'live' recording from the Downtown Playhouse we called VIGNES, plus some studio recordings done at Scott Fraser's place, plus lots more 'live' stuff thanks to the fact that Rod recorded everything. Further illumination of this brilliant individual may be possible. Time will tell. "

 

http://nelscline.com/news.html

[NationalDust]

anything that makes Nels sad is a sad sad thing

 

in case anyone was wondering what happened, here's the story:

 

Police have arrested a husband and wife on suspicion of stabbing a 45-year-old man to death in the parking lot of a well-known Hollywood eatery.

 

The incident occurred about 9:45 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of Mel's Drive-In in the 1600 block of Highland Avenue. Officers answered a call of an assault with a deadly weapon and found Roderick Poole, 45, with multiple stab wounds. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he died at 10:06 p.m.

 

Poole, of Hollywood, was walking with his wife when he got into an argument with a woman in a car, said Los Angeles Police Det. Larry Cameron. Witnesses told police the woman, with her husband, nearly ran over Poole.

 

They exchanged words and the couple allegedly attacked Poole, police said. Michael Sheridan, 25, allegedly stabbed Poole several times before the pair drove off, investigators said.

 

"This was incredibly dumb," said Cameron, referring to how a minor disagreement turned into a killing.

 

Detectives later arrested Sheridan and his wife, Angela Sheridan, 24, both of Los Angeles. They were being held in lieu of $1-million bail each.

 

Hollywood, among the city's safer areas, has seen a 5% increase in violent crime so far in 2007. Poole's killing was the sixth in the district this year.

[aricandover]

ah man, that's terrible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

i have that Acoustic Guitar Trio album, it's pretty good. interesting stuff to listen to

[OOO]

I eat at that mel's all the time.

 

This is very sad

 

[MattZ]

RIP Rod.

 

I can't wrap my head around this.

[gogo]

Hi. Ok. Before the tour news I wanna say something. I

[owl]

Damn.

[alison the wilca]

thats just crazy. and also why i really prefer not to get in arguments with stangers... you never know what they will do. how tragic

[Hixter]

Guitarist Rod Poole pushed the envelope on music

 

In the wake of his tragic death, friends remember 'a true artist' who loved to explore new sounds.

 

By Greg Burk, Special to The Times

May 19, 2007

 

Guitarist Jim McAuley had no trouble this week recalling his first meeting with fellow guitarist Rod Poole. It was at the home of Nels Cline, well before the three recorded their "Acoustic Guitar Trio" album.

 

"I was standing in Nels' kitchen, sipping coffee, when these amazing crystalline tones emerged from the living room," McAuley said. "Rod Poole was just tuning up, and already I was mesmerized by his sound."

 

Cline, a key player in L.A.'s experimental music scene and now a member of Wilco, described Poole as "a true artist, probably a genius" in a note on his website, posted after Poole was stabbed to death on Sunday in the parking lot of Mel's Drive-In.

 

His wife, Lisa Ladaw-Poole, was there when it happened.

 

The couple was walking toward the restaurant, after attending a concert at the Dangerous Curve art gallery downtown, when a car nearly struck them and other pedestrians. The musician spoke up; the vehicle's driver and passenger both got out, the latter allegedly with a knife, according to police. A half hour later, Poole died.

 

A security camera provided images that led to the quick arrest of Michael and Angela Sheridan. They were arraigned Wednesday.

 

Ladaw-Poole fielded a lot of phone calls this week, many of them from the parents of Poole's guitar students who hadn't gotten the news and were wondering why he didn't show up for their children's guitar lessons.

 

"These children loved Rod," Ladaw-Poole said Wednesday. "He was really kind with them."

 

Poole was a highly unusual guitarist, equally drawn to the distorted sound bombs of Jimi Hendrix and the spontaneous microcosmic tracings of Derek Bailey.

 

"I never could quite figure out how one man with one guitar could generate such an all-enveloping aural space," said Devin Sarno, an electronic drone artist who recorded Poole twice for Sarno's W.I.N. label.

 

Having left his native England in 1989 to find a more exploratory climate, Poole fell in with a devoted cloister of Los Angeles pathfinders that included Kraig Grady, Brad Laner and Motor Totemist Guild.

 

Grady, who composes in microtonal scales that employ the frequencies between Western music's traditional 12 tones, introduced Poole to his own mentor, Erv Wilson. Wilson is a pioneer in microtonal music and "just" intonation, which tunes to vibrations' natural mathematical ratios rather than the tempered scales used in orchestras.

 

Never one to take halfway measures, Poole lived in Wilson's house for more than five years and emerged with his own way of hearing.

 

He had a Martin guitar re-fretted to 17 tones and, using his already precise, shaded finger-picking technique, began improvising trance-bound variations on spacious arpeggios that could extend until time vanished.

 

Poole's solo, group and bowed-guitar recordings have appeared on the W.I.N., Transparency and Incus labels (the last being Bailey's imprint).

 

Poole's music was the first and last thing heard Wednesday on KXLU-FM's (88.9) "Trilogy" show, this night hosted by old Motor Totemist friends Emily Hay and Lynn Johnston.

 

Pinging and plucking, gently contracting and expanding, with "just" harmonies fluttering their intangible physicality throughout, the improvisation exuded an uncanny sense of peace. In contrast to its quiet beauty, it was titled "The Death Adder."

 

Earlier in the day, Johnston described Poole as "a low-key guy

[the_ashtray_says]

holy shit! i used to take guitar lessons from him! this really bums me out. he used to come over to my apartment for an hour lesson and we would have a beer after the lesson was over and talk music. i shared a few of my hendrix bootlegs with him as well. he was a wonderful soul. this is truly sad.

 

he gave me a couple of his albums awhile back i think i'm gonna dig one out and give it a listen this evening.