Two-Headed Doctor: Listening For Ghosts in Dr. Johns Gris-Gris by David Toop
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was my first encounter with David Toop, who is thorough and comprehensive in wondering how other-worldly effects derive from cramped rooms infused with reverb, recorded in multiple tracks, and processed into stereo channels. He analyzes each track of the Dr. John album, and all the players, and all their history, with impeccable scholarship and wild interpretations, all of which wrench more than the most careful of listeners might expect from the album and from Mac Rebennack's musical journey.
He depicts writer/producer/arranger Harold Battiste as a primary influence on both Rebennack and Sonny Bono, who was not shy about copping credit for Battiste's work. He casts light on the nature of creative partnerships, their ups and downs.
His arguments of appropriation as both a sacrament and a ruse really beef up the whole. Set mostly in LA and New Orleans, the retellings of events surrounding 3 Rebennack albums bear up well to support his purposes. And the essential mystery that motivated his exploring of this topic is never too far away. If you can hear a world you can be in it, even if for a moment.

View all my reviews

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's as good as everybody says, and the author is phenomenally skilled at keeping attention riveted on characters who flaunt their ordinariness in the regionalist way that Mainers are known for. Their traits mirror traits of all humanity, at least in prosperous Western civilization terms. I'm just curious if anyone else felt that Strout might be tiring of these people. How the Burgess boys deal with their past, and how love is distributed around like plates of cookies. I kind of got the impression of what a National Lampoon parody of Trout might be like, when parodies were gentle but pointed.

View all my reviews

Dear Congressperson, President Biden has opened up a chance to re-affirm justice in the face of a generalized collapse in the rule of law. All indications are, that American citizenship no longer protects the least of citizens; those with powerful connections are more protected than those with exhausted pleas or little recourse. Many different circumstances will be affected, in pockets of life where rights cannot be exercised without full pocketbooks. Federal prisoners can still be sentenced to death, and re-visiting the privilege and nature of capital punishment is necessary. But what I'm suggesting, should not take an act of Congress. While there is still time, as my political representative, dear congress representative, please beseech your fellow lawmakers and anyone of influence, to make sure that President Biden commutes the death sentences of all Federal prisoners on death row. They can take their places beside his son as recipients of Christian and royal mercy. The federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988. Three federal executions were conducted in 2001 and 2003. There were no more until the previous Trump administration, when the attorney general of Trump, resumed them. The new administration is promising widespread vengeance. Ten death row inmates were federally executed during July, August, September, November and December 2000. Three more death row inmates were federally executed during the first two weeks of January 2021. These were under the previous administration of the current President-Elect. As President Biden has now stated, the politicization of federal law has reached so far as to affect his own son. 40 prisoners currently await their federal death sentence. Some have waited more than 30 years since their original sentence of death by federal execution. If you are not opposed to capital punishment, please ask yourself if President Biden can help re-affirm the role of mercy in justice. If capital punishment must stand in our law as a utilitarian contribution to society, so must mercy except the law when so demanded. Our current President must commute all federal death sentences before leaving office. As for non-federal prisoners on death row, he should require some accountability from states which pursue their own executions. Society in general no longer approves of capital punishment as a deterrent. States with death on their minds should have a tax category. The hunger for killing has gone too far in society. A commutation is a mere band-aid, to make sure a future government reaching for excessive power doesn’t cost more lives than it may already. Please help send a message to President Biden. You pardoned your son due to your lack of faith in the judicial process. This is your opening. Commute the death sentences of all federal prisoners on death row before President Trump takes office. It is not right to legislate the taking away of a life, when capricious acts become the norm in the administration of government. Michael Pellecchia

Columbia C-31 7-8 both sides

“Take Me To That Land of Jazz”: Texas Serenaders feat. Christy Foster (W...

Headlines from NY Times music obits collected over years

 Litany of Influence

Headlines clipped and saved, from

newspaper pages flattened in scrapbooks, mostly not cut or detached but 

yes, folded, creased, and all that

they scream the importance of branding your life in advance

they tell the importance of age in increments of tens and fragments of those

Nat Hentoff, a Writer, A Jazz Critic and Above All a Provocateur, Dies at 91

Levon Helm, Drummer and Gravel-Throated Singer for the Band, Is Dead at 71

and likely still dead

Hal David, Award-Winning Songwriter, Is Dead at 91

and is probably still dead at 92

Imagine Dying at the age of Something-One

Jack Hardy, 63, Folk Singer and Keeper of the Tradition

Earl Hagen, 88, “Andy Griffith” composer

Wilma Cozart Fine, 82, Record Producer

Levi Stubbs, powerful voice for the Four Tops, dies at 72

Hank Thompson is Dead; Country Singer was 82

Jimmy Giuffre, Imaginative Jazz Artist, Dies at 86

Harold Leventhal, Promoter of Folk Music, Dies at 86

Jack Lawrence, Writer of Hit Songs, Dies at 96

Jim Stewart, 92, Dies; Unlikely Record Maker of Black Soul Music

Yes, if you hadn’t guessed, the headlines are all composed in New York City

in the Land of All That’s Fit To Print u won’t see me there a pity

Dorival Caymmi, Singer of Brazil, is Dead at 94

and is probably still dead at 95

U. Utah Phillips, 73, Folk Troubadour

Bob Brookmeyer, 81, Jazz Master and Mentor

Don Helms, 81, Who Put the Twang in the Hank Williams Songbook

John Martyn, Folk and Jazz Guitarist, Dies at 60

Johnnie Johnson, 80, Dies; Inspired ‘Johnny B. Goode’

Hank Crawford, 74, Prolific Saxophonist

John McGlinn, 55, Restorer of Musicals

Flute Music Wafted in Caves 35,000 Years Ago

Jim Dickinson, 67, Player In Memphis Music Scene

Singer-songwriter Del Shannon dies

Nick Ashford, 70, of Motown Duo, Dies

Stanley Drucker, 93, Longtime Clarinetist For Philharmonic, Dies

Sam Butera, 81, Saxophonist for Louis Prima

Billy Lee Riley, 75, Sun Records Singer

Neal Hefti, Composer of ‘Batman’ for TV, Dies at 85

Bo Diddley, Who Gave Rock His Beat, Dies at 79

Odessa, Civil Rights Voice, Dies at 77

Seattle Bids Tuba Man a Sad Goodbye

Consuelo Vela’zquez Dies; Wrote ‘Besame Mucho’

Gene Pitney, Who Sang of ’60’s Teenage Pathos, Dies at 65

Boots Randolph, the ‘Yakety Sax’ Man, Dead at 80

Chuck Stewart Dies at 89, Jazz Photographer Left His Mark on Album Covers

Rudy Van Gelder, 91, Audio Engineer; Helped Define Sound of Jazz on Record

Chuck Berry, Rock ’n’ Roll’s Master Theorist and Statesman, Dies at 90

these people all seem to have had to do with popular music in the last half of the 20th century

James Brown, the ‘Godfather of Soul,’ Dies at 73

Mickey Baker, Guitarist, Is Dead at 87

Pete La Roca Sims, 74, Postbop Drummer

Earl Carroll, 75, Lead Singer of the Cadillacs

Greg Lake, a Progressive-Rock Icon Of King Crimson Fame, Dies at 69

Jesse Winchester, Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 69

Enduring, With a Half-Smile and a Song

Curly Putman, Songwriter of Heartbreakers, Dies at 85

Giorgio Gomelsky, 81, Rock Music Producer Who Gave the Rolling Stones Their Start

Marie Knight, Rich-Voiced Gospel Singer, Dies at 89

Sam Carr, 83, Delta Blues Drummer

Bob Marcucci, 81, Backer of Fabian and Frankie Avalon

Pinetop Perkins, Delta Boogie-Woogie Master, Dies at 97

Hubert Sumlin, 80, Master of Blues Guitar

Velvet-Voiced Ferlin Husky Dies at 85

Ross Barbour, 82, a Founding ‘Freshman’

Creed Taylor, 93, Dies; Producer Who Shaped Jazz Sound for Decades

Now read this in reverse

 Delirious Guy

Here is a lonely old "spoken word" from many years ago, after immersing in Shep Shepherd Jr.'s great recordings and radio transcriptions.

At the time, I was enamored particularly of "Shifting, Whispering Sands." Both Part 1 and Part 2.

Sam Thomas had a bunch of Jean Shepherd records I had never seen. While we were needle dropping on his vinyl one night, I asked if he had anything Italian because I had to play an Italian wedding that weekend.

He didn't, but he had an old mandolin. He handed it to me and we spilled a few cans of Texas Pride beer doing the hand-off. I wondered how hard it might be to fake playing it.

He let me take it home to use on the gig that weekend.

Coincidentally, I'd been making cassette tapes of me playing with the great guitarist Dave Lincoln, and we had a draft of "autumn leaves" which I practiced to, hitting strings on the mandolin to get the typical sound as close as possible.

Overdubbing the mandolin onto that cassette basically ruined it for any practical further purposes. Who wants to hear someone fumbling with a mandolin.

But since I can't throw anything out, I decided two mistakes were better than one. I wrote some lyrics that I could picture Jean Shepherd Jr. reading over the mandolin and guitar track.

I'm writing this because the story behind the song is possibly more interesting than the song itself.

Sam Thomas was an inspiration who made tapes for me of tunes I should learn on sax and clarinet. A few days after the wedding I heard he was found dead in his apartment.

He and his son did not get along, his only living relative. I thought, I could keep the mandolin and Sam would not have minded. But he lent it to me, not gave it to me.

I went to his apartment with the mandolin and knocked. No answer. I pushed on the door and it was open. I didn't want to look inside, because even when Sam lived there, every surface was covered. His career involved delivering groceries to families on the North Side of Fort Worth. His recreation was going to hear live jazz and playing records; how we met up.

I put the mandolin inside the door.

I learned later that his son had sold all his records, and mandolin, etc. to Sumter Bruton at Record Town, the store we all hung out at.

Now as the weather turns colder I thought of the key line in the spoken word "Delirious Guy"-- "Somebody May Still Care."

Click on "Delirious Guy" at the top of this if you want to hear it.