Harmonica player Mark Bell is an aging baby-boomer who picked up his first harp in 1973, when he was seventeen. For Bell, it was an epiphany. “I played John Mayall’s `Room to Move’ by ear,” he says, “and I’ve been cursed with it ever since.” Bell’s way with a harmonica…
Lord of Word and the Disciples of Bass, Sunday, September 17, at the Denver University athletic fields, is far from the only act to appear at the second annual Rocky Mountain Music Association Musicfest; the bill also includes Chaos Theory, the AUTONO, Jux County, Avatar, the Hillbilly Hellcats and twelve…
part 1 of 1 The display contained the kind of paperwork most of us accumulate as we move from conception to death. A birth certificate from 1943. A doctor’s report on the newborn; under the heading “Shape of Head,” a nurse had typed, “First day–Idaho potato.” A hospital bill–it cost…
part 2 of 2 That afternoon the press was invited to enjoy free grub on a pleasure boat, the Goodtime III, rented for the evening by Radio Shack. There was finger food and liquor aplenty, as well as a band featuring a man in a sailor uniform playing Kenny G…
Steve Turre, Wednesday, September 13, at the Mount Vernon Country Club, is best known to television audiences for his stint as a trombonist in the Saturday Night Live band. But in jazz circles, he’s revered for his collaborations with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ralph Moore and Woody Shaw, and…
Henry Threadgill Makin’ a Move (Columbia) That Threadgill–a jazz-based saxophonist whose work with the trio Air and a variety of bands that have borne his name has ranged from the indescribably beautiful to the merely gorgeous–keeps landing on major labels is a credit to his perseverance. Clearly, he’s not in…
As what was once called alternative rock has become the music of the majority, Hollywood–our national trend barometer–has jumped onto the bandwagon with its usual gusto. While challenging post-punkers and their ilk once were as likely to land a slot on the soundtrack to a mainstream blockbuster as was Lawrence…
Acoustifuxx, Tuesday, September 12, at the Lion’s Lair, is one of two bands to feature Denver original Big Mike–the other, Splatterhouse, is at the Lair on Wednesday, September 6. But under whatever moniker Mike chooses to perform, you can be guaranteed that you’ll get a lot more than the government-recommended…
Bracket, with SNFU and the Joykiller, Friday, September 8, at the Glenn Miller Ballroom, contradicts the pundits. The band is proof positive that at least some of today’s corporate punk-rock acts are actually better than their forefathers of a decade or two ago. On 4-Wheel Vibe, the band’s second release…
“My grandmother, Sadie, she’s like 93 or 94–she and I have always been very close,” says guitarist/vocalist Jennifer Trynin. “And since she’s getting older, she can be kind of out of it–she’s not always all there. But on my thirtieth birthday, she suddenly became as lucid as she was when…
He may be only 22, but Denver-based techno/trance artist Jesse Allen (aka Kid Sonic) is already more business-savvy than a lot of musicians many years his senior. He owns a studio, dubbed Savage Land. He oversees his own publishing company, Alchemy Trance International. And he actually understands the kind of…
Po’ Broke ‘N Lonely? Forbidden Vibe (Big Beat/Atlantic) Sure, the music of Boyz II Men is fixated on sex–but it’s sex of a sanitized, airbrushed kind that most of us know about only from watching movies like The Blue Lagoon. Po’ Broke ‘N Lonely?, by contrast, recognizes that it’s possible…
For three decades, two words have described saxophone playing at its funkiest: Maceo Parker. Parker joined James Brown’s back-up band in 1965, and before long he’d created the immortal, punchy riffs that dominate Brown classics such as “Poppa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “Popcorn,” “Lickin’ Stick” and “Cold Sweat.” Along…
“Forward is the key,” proclaims Winston Rodney, better known to the reggae-loving public as Burning Spear. “You need to look forward. But sometimes in life, you have to look at the past, also–look at the past, and at the present, in order to move into the future. That way, everything…
John Vecchiarelli, Thursday, August 31, at the Mercury Cafe, with 40th Day and Idle Mind, won’t be here to kick around much longer; the Boulder-based singer-songwriter is moving to San Francisco October 1 in an effort to further his career. So this show is one of your last chances, at…
Infectious Grooves, Sunday, September 3, at Fiddler’s Green, headlines Gra-fx, one of the last shed-sized alterna-festivals of the season (also on the bill are Voodoo Glowskulls, Stanford Prison Experiment, Sincola, Sinister Dane, Lord of Word & the Disciples of Bass, Sick, El Dopa, the Reejers, Da Bush Babies and Love…
According to bassist Darien Waldhoff, he and the other members of Denver’s industrial/ goth act Filmstrip “should just get exorcised and get it over with.” The musicians (Waldhoff, singer/programmer Brendan K. Russell and keyboardist Ruth Saringer) can’t say for certain that they were born under a bad sign, but there’s…
What was probably this summer’s most anticipated modern-rock amphitheater show proved conclusively that the music’s not just for punks anymore. In fact, the August 23 Red Rocks performance by Live, a young Pennsylvania act whose latest disc, Throwing Copper, has sold 5 million copies, was not just pleasant, tuneful and…
Foo Fighters Foo Fighters (Capitol) First off, let’s make one thing clear: This debut long-player from former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl’s new band isn’t the “new Nirvana album,” as many of the rock geeks out there have been claiming. Nor is it one of those alternative “supergroup” things that have…
Singer Clarence Fountain was already a member of the Five Blind Boys of Alabama when the group–perhaps the greatest gospel ensemble to emerge this century–turned professional in 1944. Within three years he would become the pilot of the crew. Nearly fifty years later, Fountain, 66, says the act has survived…
Charlie Hunter, a guitarist whose self-named jazz trio has become an unexpected favorite of the nose-rings-and-tattoos crowd, doesn’t like being painted into a corner. When asked about attempts by some jazz purists to define what is and what isn’t jazz, he replies, “That’s totally limiting. It’s limiting for us, and…
In Boulder’s neohippie scene, there’s a thin line between playing original music and merely regurgitating a popular sound. However, the members of Aquarian Voodoo have found a way to skirt this problem–by doing both at once. The performers (lead singer/guitarist Chris Leonard, mandolinist/harmonica player Bill Browning, guitarist Chris Melia, drummer…
