Danny Kalb: How to have fun and still play the blues

Crawdaddy!, 18 February 2009

"Danny Kalb, a 'commie kid' who grew up with folk music in the house but always ground his axe in his own fashion, was paid 75 bucks for two acoustic blues numbers on an LP that moved 300,000 units. The record was a compilation, 'The Blues Project.' "The Danny Kalb model has always sought to push music in a different direction. On the Blues Project's 'Projections,' their first studio album and their only studio recording of the classic line-up, they amplify the Delta Blues with Chicago electricity and elevate it in an attempt to capture 'the highest aesthetic forms but in the R&B genre.' 'Flute Thing' is a jazz jam helmed by flautist Andy Kulberg; 'Steve’s Song,' by Steve Katz, is an elegant psychedelic pop song with a hint of the baroque. But at the root of everything is the blues, and this model was set forth by Kalb on the previously mentioned 'Blues Project.'"

Crawdaddy!: [So] you grew up in the city? In Brooklyn?

Kalb: Born in Brooklyn and grew up in Mount Vernon.

Already tired of my line of questioning, Kalb picks up his huge, acoustic Gibson and plays, giving me a taste of this funky folk music. Taken aback by the musical outburst, I can think of nothing but to ask the make of his guitar. Before I can even finish the question—

Kalb: It’s a J-200. Same guitar as Gary Davis played. We all got these—Dave Van Ronk had one. So I copied both Dave, my teacher, and Gary Davis, his mentor.

Crawdaddy!: It’s an extra large body.

Kalb: Yeah, this is the biggest one they make. Occasionally, Kalb breaks up our talk with spontaneous struts across the fretboard. He also plays to make a point about his style: “See, a lot of this stuff started with Dave Van Ronk, and I extended it. I took it a lot farther, technically.” He demonstrates Dave Van Ronk’s style, and then “add[s] to it” by running all over the same few chords with some Big Bill Broonzy, Pete Williams, and John Lee Hooker inflections. read more

My Brother's Keeper:

Bound by honor, Chris Gotti definitely proves that blood is thicker than water 

The Source, February 2006

"'I thought he was homeless. I never hired him. I gave him a new identity,' remembers Chris of his generosity toward Nichols. 'I changed his life and he comes to bite me in the ass.' 

"Another of the prosecutors' nonsensical arguments involved a Baltimore Vice Squad officer laying out Chris' personal gambling records. 'Who keeps gambling records?,' asks Chris. 'I keep gambling records. I always wanna know if I'm winning or losing.' But if it's that simple, why did the prosecution spend so much time on the matter? 'From a gambler's standpoint, they was grasping at straws.'" clip image

Jill Scott's Sexual Healing

SF Weekly, 4 February 2008

"The proudly monogamous woman portrayed on Scott's first two records was replaced on last September's 'The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3' by a man-slaying divorcée who maintains a lively roster in her bedroom. Like Bob Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks' and Marvin Gaye's 'Here, My Dear,' this is Jill Scott's divorce album. It's a grown-ass record, sad and nasty. 

"'The Real Thing' sounds downright randy on first listen, but much of the subject matter is imagined. Scott explains, 'During the course of my separation and divorce, I had to keep it easy — and what I mean by that is celibacy.' The resulting song, 'Celibacy Blues,' describes the practice: 'Scratching it right / I get some new batteries almost every night.' 

But she isn't planning lifelong abstinence: 'Nah, I'm done,' she says. So the vibrator is presumably taking a nap while Scott is 'taking applications' for possible suitors." read more

Interview with the Dodos 

Crawdaddy!, 25 June 2008

Crawdaddy!: Was this your first time touring Europe?

Meric Long: Yeah, it was good. The crowds were awesome for being our first time over there.

Crawdaddy!: What were your favorite towns? Interview with the Dodos

Logan Kroeber: Amsterdam, but not for the reasons you think… smoked a little bit of hash there, but it was our driver who bought it. It was just a beautiful town, really sort of a romantic town. Every street you turn down there’s some bridge over a canal and boats everywhere. It seemed even more of a romantic place than Paris even. I was really surprised by the cleanly and romantic—

Long: Well, we didn’t see the Red Light District, so maybe—

Kroeber: Yeah, yeah, true.

Long: We missed out on all the—

Kroeber: The skeez.

Long: The snuffs.

read more

The time is now - Sa-Ra counts down to their debut 

Wax Poetics, July 2007

"'We're about to show these motherfuckers what time it is,' says Om'Mas Keith, who established Sa-Ra Creative Partners with Taz Arnold and Safiq Husayn. Speaking of their debut LP, 'The Hollywood Recordings,' Om'Mas's vigor is understandable, because, as Taz recounts, 'We have recorded, over the past five years, about three to four albums' worth of material, and we haven't released an album yet.'

"Sa-Ra's previous full-length effort, 'Black Fuzz,' is currently embroiled in the fallout from the demise of Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music. Om'Mas is respectfully vague on the issue: 'You know, we're going through some restructuring as it pertains to that whole thing. So I'm not really at liberty to talk.'

"Amidst the disarray at G.O.O.D., a rumor surfaced that a member of Sa-Ra was splitting. Taz jokes about the issue, 'I thought it was exciting when I heard that rumor. I was like, damn, that's big.'"

J-Dilla / Jay Dee - Donuts 

The Source, February 2006

Beck - Modern Guilt 

Crawdaddy!, 16 July 2008

"I got my first listen of this album at a friend’s basement in Brooklyn while seeking respite from a party that was a bummer for a couple of reasons, and while my friend scooped the files off the internet with a gargantuan mouse and pivoted in a busted wheelchair-turned office chair that gave him the look of Dr. Strangelove, I remarked that this brand of party music would be perfect for the foul melee that was going on upstairs." read more

Passport - Cross-Collateral 

Wax Poetics, 7 June 2007

"[Klaus] Doldinger (credited as playing tenor and alto sax, Moog, and Mellotron) would later compose the soundtracks for 'Das Boot' and 'The Neverending Story,' and Schultze had already been busy scoring films, so their penchant for filmic overtones is well marked in songs like 'Jadoo,' which could have been the anthem for 'Shaft in Germany,' and the first minute of 'Homunculus,' which could have introduced 'Das Warriors'--had there been such films."

Watermelon Slim and the Workers - No Paid Holidays 

Crawdaddy!, 25 June 2008

"Slim’s legend starts back in Vietnam, where he learned how to play slide guitar backwards on a lap dobro with a jagged pick cut from a tin can and his standard-issue Zippo lighter subbing in as slide. Slim is credited as the first Vietnam veteran to release an album, 1973’s self-titled protest blues record Merry Airbrakes, which contains lines like, “If I die in battle / Pick up my AK-47 and fight on.” read more

Walter Becker - Circus Money 

Crawdaddy!, 2008

"The raw pulse of this album is driven by Becker himself, who makes an exciting return to the rhythm section in his old niche as bassist, and drummer Keith Carlock, a young maniac whose precision and creativity has earned him a spot on all recent Steely Dan configurations [...] The fiercely lyrical Becker doesn’t let up for a second with tales of degradation, loss, and dubious love. Those familiar with the Steely Dan oeuvre will have no trouble finding compassion with the losers on this set." read more

Mos Def and Gil Scott Heron at Carnegie Hall, New York - a Jill Newman production Crawdaddy!, 28 June 2008

Freddie Hubbard at Yoshi's, San Francisco 

Jambase, 4 April 2008 - (late show)

Super Furry Animals at Sub 29, Cardiff, UK

Crawdaddy!, 26 May 2009

Steely Dan at the Greek Theatre, Berkeley, Calif. 

Crawdaddy!, 26 July 2008

Anti-Nowhere League at Annie's Social Club, San Francisco 

Crawdaddy!, 11 April 2008