AJ Ghent Purple Rain 6.11.16

Woodstock, Georgia:  Coaxing a fantastic noise from his red, custom made 8-string lap steel/Telecaster hybrid, AJ Ghent - in the purple spotlight - with his band created a perfect sonic syzygy covering Prince's Purple Rain.  Ghent's vocals alone soar effortlessly into the upper octaves - but with his finger cuffed in a glass slide, Ghent sends Purple Rain into another stratosphere of sound.  He accompanies his own voice with that of the red guitar - adding eerie dimensions beyond the Prince sound, venturing into a tone similar to the theremin or whale song. Ghent's playing technique hints of dobro mojo, both hands gliding - sometimes percussively, over the top of the guitar. The style - called 'Sacred Steel' - is a unique family legacy and imbues Ghent with the power to sock a double-whammy to Purple Rain. 

Performance reviewed by TLL, 6.11.16 at MadLife Stage and Studios - Woodstock, GA.
Photo from band website.

Trashy Bass and Bowie's Blue Suit.

There was Bowie - with his captivating peepers and covetable powder-blue suit - a man of the future. 

Searching for what I call "trashy bass" - a broken-sounding reverberating fog-horn bass - I found Bowie, looking futuristic, singing from the past "Life on Mars".

And I did find the trashy bass too - on Bowie's Fame and around 1:39 Marty Robbins Don't Worry, not quite twang - a bit static-fuzz - but it's sticking with me... that fat dapper tie, the striped shirt, the suit of baby-blue.

Savion Glover: Sound Your Shoes.

The crowd has gone and I'm still clapping for Savion Glover's SoLe Sanctuary.  Rhythm-rhythm-rhythm is smack-dab center spotlight in Glover's show - but, there is the conscious balance of stillness too.  No Busby Berkeley pretty girls, no glitz and dazzle - or musical shenanigans to pad the performance... because here - with Savion Glover - are the feet and the legs and the heartbeat, ears and memory of a tap-dancing hoofer who knows his art - the art of pure rhythm pouring forth from his soul to his soles.

Savion Glover SoLe Sanctuary program flyer - with addition of blue.

Reading the program flyer, prior to the show - there was promise the performance would be good - for the text itself was full of rhythm and thought:  "Entering the Monastery of His Out'ness, Gee Oh Dee, Tranes Tribute, Holy Strings, The High Priest of Gone, Improvography, Directed and Choreographed by Spirits Known, Meditation on the Art of Tap" - and listen to these rhythmic names... "Little Nuk Nuk, Cat Daddy".  And the performance overview:  "Savion Glover's Reverence for the Art of Tap is Put to the Stage Literally in the Form of a Living Altar... ."

If you are a fan of tap, rhythm, percussion, drum, bass - You just have to see SoLe Sanctuary for yourself.  The miraculous, glorious racket Glover - and hoofer Marshall Davis Jr. - make with their feet, I can only aspire to create with my typewriter.

As a Bravo-Encore-Shout-Out, here is my ode to SoLe Sanctuary:

Savion Glover, Sound Your Shoes

Shiva Nataraj of Clackety-Clack

Train on Track

Percussive Locomotion

Mediatation of a Hoofer's Soul

Circle and Slide

on Life's Rhythm-Ride

Tic Toc

Clip Clop

Drum Staccato

Pizzicato

Whisper-Crash and Clatter

pitter-patter-Morse Code 

Ode

to the Universe Pulse

Om

All Sounds 

Yin-and-Yang-of-Still-and-Quick

Quick and Still, Yang and Yin

Song Stepper

Hands Together

I Am A Color Sponge Wholly Absorbed by Ken Nordine.

Color beckons me. Not merely the look of colors, but their names too - reel me in.

Many years ago, driving to some now-forgotten destination, I heard - from Ken Nordine's Colors  Word Jazz album - the Green selection. 

In Green, Nordine's voice, the epitome of the phrase "cool as a cucumber", describes various shades of green - assigning them personalities. According to Nordine, "... green can be a problem... there's the green that should never have happened - the stupid green", but then - on the other hand, there's another green -  the one "to be seen with" . "We should spend the better part of our time - yours and mine - with a green like this," says Nordine about the green to be seen with.

Here's a link to a Jonathan Kaplan YouTube video word animation of Ken Nordine's Green.

Nordine's album includes what sounds like a whole coloring crayon box full of selections: olive, lavender, burgundy, yellow, green, beige, maroon, ecru, chartreuse, turquoise, white, flesh, azure, puce, magenta, orange, purple, muddy, russet, amber, blue, black, gold, crimson, brown, rosey, hazel, mauve, fuschia, sepia, nutria, cerise, grey, and coral.

Nutria was the only color that threw me for a loop. A nutria is an invasive rodent, so - as a color - it posed a challenge visually.

This Skip Heller article at Asphodel paints a nice picture of the making of Nordine's Colors album.

Trend Fascinations Produce a Far Out Dinner Party.

These genres, artists, designers, and trends are worth investigation:

• this forever perky and cheerful 70's Mr. Freedom Fashion video
•  sixties space age and mod fashion
• futurists (see Jacque Fresco documentary Future by Design)
• music by Piero Piccioni
• Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) remix of Jean Jacques Perrey's E.V.A.
• surf music and twang guitar of bands such as The Ventures 
• moog synthesized sound
• thinking forward, with only a small glimpse back
•  early twentieth century Futurists (see this post)

A dinner party featuring these personalitites and sound bites would produce a profusely creative ambience.

Booty-Shaking, Pop and Lock, All-Night Dancing: What to Wear.

Plugging into Electro-Funk 80's music turned me into a dancing machine. One 11-hour night, I tore up the dance floor with my dance partner of two first names - Billy Freddie. For a fund-raising Dance-A-Thon, with only 10-minute breaks on the hour, we unleashed all our uninhibited moves: the bird, the smurf, and a dance all our own that looked like rotating and spanking ourselves... sometimes we moon-walked. Slow-dancing was not our cup of tea. When Billy Freddie and I danced, we meant business and we burned calories. It's only fair though - to admit that my key to success on the dance floor that night must be attributed to the jumpsuit.

From experience, it was evident some dances didn't fit the look of a skirt or dress. Heels were out of the question for this kind of dancing. Big, jumbled piles of heels always grew on the outskirts of the dance floor.

Your realize, if you aren't new to exercise, that perspiration is a part of energetic activity. If you dance fanatically (acquiring a great pore-cleansing sweat), then you cool down very quickly and chill. To burn the midnight oil and showcase all your best moves, you need clothes that move with you, without constricting, and without looking bedraggled after a few hours... and a jumpsuit met all the requirements.

A girl in the dorm loaned the loose-fitting jumpsuit to me. It was made by Esprit I think - of either cotton or a synthetic parachute-type material. The neck was wide and the sleeves and legs narrow, but long - so that I could roll them and they stayed in place. It was sand-washed olive green and buttoned up the front.

With the jumpsuit I wore red pointy-toed flats (also borrowed... and by the way, it's a good idea to have a change of shoes if you plan to dance 11 hours, because your feet will appreciate the switch).

Double-belts were in style at this time and I wore my red one loose and low. Enormous red plastic earrings were probably involved - but I'd like to forget those.

Billy Freddie's dance-steps were familiar to me and he knew mine as well. Frequently one of us would invent a new move - the other would notice and try it out.

By 5 AM only one other couple still danced. We stopped, they danced a few minutes more.  I trotted back to the dorm and slept thirteen hours.






On a quest to pinpoint this type of jumpsuit, I found a 1985 Simplicity Esprit sewing pattern 7007 that seems very similar. Of the same cut are Simplicity 6394 and even a vintage Pierrot costume by Advance.

Simplicity 6394. Ditch the tie-dye, add a loose belt, roll the cuffs, you're ready to dance all night.

Ultimate jumpsuit freedom.

Want a little music to send you into jumpsuit dancing mode? Here are three links:

• Morris Day and The Time - The Bird (with video, so you too can learn some wing-flapping moves).
• The Egyptian Lover - Egypt Egypt.

• These Boots Are Made For Walking - Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra original remixed by BrianPOP 2008.

The first two songs fit into the dance/pop/proto-electro-funk/rap/hip-hop/breakdance category and the third is an amped-up retro remix (with original 1966 film footage featuring as much energy as I had that 11-hour night).