Mega Platen at Jaarbeurs Utrecht

The John Sinclair Radio Show #81

Bessie Before

Mega Platen, Jaarbeurs Utrecht

Sunday, April 9, 2006 @ 4:00- 5:00 pm [20-0611]

Henk Botwinik and I took the train over to Utrecht this Sunday afternoon with Sascha Kinsella to make a program at the spring edition of Mega Platen, or what I call the Giant Record Show, at the Jaarbeurs exhibition hall. We were here in November and are happy to see our friend Cas Bosland, the organizer of the temporary "vinyl capital of Europe," as he calls his 25-year-old operation. I get to talk with a young woman named Fay Lousley who's a professional theramin player from Amsterdam, and Jaap Schut of the Rock & Art Hall of Fame/Dutch Pop Museum in the Hook of Holland, and there's music from the Pin Stripe Brass Band, Professor Longhair, Dr. John, Glen David Andrews, Louise Bogan (misannounced on the show as Louise Johnson), the Forgotten Souls Brass Band, a track from the forthcoming Criss Cross album by John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema, and a cut from the forthcoming Blues Scholars album Natural From Our Hearts that's dedicated to Frantic Ernie Durham, who's featured in the first installment of our new program series Vintage Radio Vaults on Radio Free Amsterdam.

Bessie Smith

Listen here: #81 Mega Platen, Jaarbeurs, Utrecht, April 9, 2006 (.mp3)

Playlist #81:

[01] Opening Music: Pinstripe Brass Band: Higher and Higher with Intro & Opening Tokes from The Dolphins with Henk & Sascha

[02] Professor Longhair: In the Wee Wee Hours

[03] Dr. John: Sweet Home New Orleans

[04] Comments & Conversation with Amsterdam musician Fay Lousley

[05] Glen David Andrews: Reefer Song

[06] Louise Bogan: Shave 'Em Dry

[07] Forgotten Souls Brass Band: Funky Nuts

[08] Comments & Conversation with Jaap Schut of Rock & Art Hall of Fame/Dutch Pop Museum

[09] John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema: april in paris

[10] Closing Comments & Outro

[11] John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: Train Fare Home

Scarab Ass Signing

Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam

Produced & Engineered by Henk Botwinik at Jaarbeurs Utrecht

Executive Producer: Sascha Kinsella

Special thanks to Cas Bosland and Gus McIlhenny

Sponsored by Mr. Gus, The Dolphins and Mega Platen

©(P) 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

Posted @ April 10, 2006

Steve Gebhardt sadly reports that the great Cincinnati deejay Oscar Treadwell passed away last week. I'm going to attach a poem from the book of monk that's dedicated to him but actually refers to the Bird tune and to a trumpet player called George Treadwell, who married Sarah Vaughan and managed her career and also managed the Drifters, one of the greatest vocal groups of all time.

from thelonious: a book of monk

#22

"an oscar for treadwell"

for paul lichter, ron esposito

& the great oscar treadwell

shoot a straight line

back thru time, from the 6th of june

1950, midway

thru the 20th century -

shoot it thru the centerpoint

of a human triangle

made of spirit & flesh,

monk & bird & dizzy -

shoot it back to the end

of the 1930s

in new york city,

harlem, clark monroe's

uptown house

at 132nd st. & 7th ave,

on the old site of the rhythm club,

where the set started at 4:00 am

& the house band was bird sometimes,

vic coulson & george treadwell on trumpets,

allen tinney piano, ebenezer paul

on bass, & from brooklyn

a very young max roach

at the drums - & leading the band,

the man with the plan so tight

that they named the joint after him,

clark monroe,

"the dark gable,"

with a sharp eye for business

& a regular hit for the band

in midtown, every night

from 9 pm to 3 am,

7 days a week

with every 7th week off -

georgie jay's 78th st. taproom

employed this splendid ensemble

with clark monroe doing his little dance steps

fronting the band all night

& then they would tear off

to harlem & hit

after the taproom gig

from 4 to 8 am

at the uptown house

seven mornings a week, all juiced up

& ready to cook thru dawn

with anybody who was ready to sit in -

the clark monroe outfit

set the pace

with its tight little arrangements

& the trumpet of vic coulson

& players would come up to monroe's

from all over town,

after their gigs,

or if they were in the city

with the big bands that toured

they would come up to harlem

& get with what was happening

in the jazz center of the world,

where the cats who could really play

were cutting a new edge

on the shape of the music, pointing it

into the future, out in

front of them, where they could kick it

square in the ass

& make it go

where it had never gone

before-in 1942

when the new music

called bebop was new, like even before

it was called bebop, & monk

& bird & dizzy

were wild young men of music

with insane ideas

& incredible technique,

desperate

to push the music

forward,

at clark monroe's uptown house

where coleman hawkins & roy eldridge,

say, & five cats from the glenn

miller band, plus lester young,

billie holiday,

a few students from columbia

including jack kerouac

& jerry newman, who took down the music

on his little wire recorder

that his daddy bought him for college,

plus some sailors on leave,

whores, pimps, & dope sellers,

young musicians like monk

& benny harris, there might be

dexter gordon in town from the west coast

with the benny carter orchestra

& more cats from harlem

with their lady friends,

this would be the crowd

between 4 and 8 in the morning

when the music would start to take off

& bird would play some shit on "cherokee"

that would make people's jaws drop,

whew,

where did this motherfucker come from,

thrusting his intelligence & drive

into the heart

of the old music, cutting a new channel

where something could be said

about what was happening right now,

bam,

bop,

splee dooley ooo bop,

this was the way so many people

had been feeling inside, & say dizzy

climbs up on the stand

& puts in his 200 million dollars' worth

& suddenly there is monk

at the piano, & kenny clarke

`klook mop' on drums,

& coleman hawkins says whoah, let me

get up there with these young bloods

& feel this out for myself,

ba-weep,

spla-doop,

sploo-eee doolee ree-bop,

this is the shit,

blooo-wee bop she bam,

the heavens opened up & the holy feeling

entered the participants

from above & below, until they were infused

with the new spirit

of the new music,

blue-eee bop,

beee-eee-eee-bop,

bird & monk & dizzy

wailing thru the harlem night

at clark monroe's uptown house,

turning on the world

& spinning it around

on a whole different axis

--kansas city, mo

november 14, 1986/

detroit

may 27/july 22/september 28, 1987