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Golden Bard Fund Drive Alert
Entry 35 of 40 | show all | print this entry |
Note: The previous post (#34) has been corrected and all the url links now work if you wanna try them again.
(Amsterdam, May 19, 2006)-Today starts with a birthday prayer for two of my personal idols, Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh, both born on May 19th. Happy birthday, beloved comrades, and thank you for walking among us unfortunate souls on Earth.
We're also mourning the untimely loss of our old friend Teo Leyasmeyer of Boston, who passed on Tuesday, May 16 from cancer. What a beautiful cat. I first met him in 1973 at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival when he was John Lee Hooker's piano player, and Ted Drozdowski and I played for him several times at the House of Blues in Cambridge.
The obituary that follows was written by an uncredited journalist and edited for publication here:
In Memoriam: Teo Leyasmeyer
"For all of us who knew him, Teo was one of the great unsung heroes of Boston: he was perhaps best known as the booking agent behind the old House of Blues in Harvard Square. He was an extraordinarily sweet, friendly, humble creature. A great champion of the music, he was also a musician and a student of the music, and a musician's sensibility invigorated his stewardship of the club. During a journeyman's career touring the country and throughout Europe, he backed Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry, Big Joe Turner, Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, Linda Hopkins and Junior Wells, and he was a mainstay of Johnny Copeland's band.
"When he was summarily let go from the HOB in February 2003, it signalled the end of an era and the club closed soon after. Ted Drozdowski, who knew Teo professionally, personally and musically, wrote in the Boston Phoenix at the time that 'Leyasmeyer is a highly regarded figure in the nation's blues community and is credited with making the Cambridge House of Blues one of the premier touring stops for top blues artists.
"'For 10 years, Leyasmeyer was responsible for bringing the House of Blues a number of historic performers - including Otis Rush, Dr. John, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Ike Turner, and Solomon Burke - who would typically not play a small (225-capacity) club. He also introduced the raw Mississippi blues of Fat Possum Records to Boston, booking the first area performances of both Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside. In 1997 the Blues Foundation acknowledged Leyasmeyer's accomplishments with a Keeping the Blues Alive award as Promoter of the Year.'
"Teo's death came as a surprise even to those close to him. An illness that was thought to have been the flu had proved to be something far worse: Teo's kidneys were failing and he was not expected to make it through the week. This afternoon Sue Auclair explained: "Evidently he had cancer and was unaware of it until about two weeks ago."
"Plans for a fundraiser for his family are in the works, and a Teo Leyasmeyer Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 27 at 2:00 pm at the Hancock United Church of Christ in Lexington, MA. Cards and donations may be sent to Teo Leyasmeyer Family Fund, c/o Hege Leyasmeyer, 11 Hamblen Street, Lexington, MA 02421."
GOLDEN BARD FUND DRIVE ALERT
Funds are running low again in the Golden Bard Travel Fund and I must turn once again to my friends and co-conspirators for temporary financial assistance while I continue my travelsin Holland and western Europe this spring. I've got just over another month to eke out an existence here in Amsterdam with no visible (or even invisible) means of support.
Once I get to America June 22nd (god willing) I will start earning a few dollars right away and won't have to bother anyone for a while except for my airfare from Memphis to Los Angeles and some little train fares along the way. All my other tickets are paid for, lodging is no problem-even got a couple of hotel rooms for a change-and I'll be picking up enough honoraria to maintain the appropriate Food & Drug Administration budget from day to day and even bring back a few American dollars (actually worth only 70 Euro cents each right now, and it's hard to see it getting better). There's a USA Summer Tour update below for those who are keeping track.
But for the next month I'ma need all the help I can get, so if you've got any spare change (like we used to say) you can forward it to me if you would via this TravelPod log by punching the place where it asks you to support my travel fund and follow the PayPal instructions from there. I live a very frugal life in my little room above The Dolphins coffeeshop, where I'm serving as the Poet in Residence this spring, but (as everywhere else) they're demanding cash for food and the other necessities of daily life.
If you can spare a few bucks for the cause it will be deeply and eternally appreciated, and for $100 or more I'll send you a signed copy of the hardcover first (and only)(1972) edition of Guitar Army: Street Writings/Prison Writings. (Don't worry, Ms. Neti, your copy is finally on the way.) A $50 donation will bring you a signed poster from the BEAT HIPPY AUTONOMI PUNK exhibition in Rome last month. All the poems, stories, columns, news items & radio programs posted here are absolutely free.
"JUST ONE BIG HEART"
I was visiting with my friend Michael Erlewine in Big Rapids MI in 2003 when he gave me a transcript of an interview with Howlin' Wolf at the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, one of many interrogations he had conducted with the galaxy of living blues artists featured at that historic event (and just now beginning to be published in the pages of Living Blues magazine).
I was floored by Wolf's concept of "Just One Big Heart" and attempted to cast some of the interview into verse, but when I first performed the text it was too long, clunky and unwieldy, so I put it aside.
This morning I was reading a letter from my dear Dothy Goodman where she was visualizing "a heart with roots" and the Howlin' Wolf text leaped into my mind, so I pulled the poem out and edited it into something perhaps worth hearing (we shall see), remembering the Count Basie approach to arrangements submitted for his band: Chop chop chop, until nothing extra was left. (There were some good things Wolf said that I thought should come out of the performance text, and if I can find where I stashed them I'll put a couple in after the poem is over.)
"Just One Big Heart"
for Michael Erlewine
On August 2, 1969,
at the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival,
in an interview with Michael Erlewine
just recently published in Living Blues,
the Howlin' Wolf,
referring to his new song
"Coon on the Moon"
testified as follows:
"Some of them said years ago,
'We will never make it to the moon.' I said:
'You never know.' Today,
we settin' on the moon
& got a flag up there. You understand?
But they told me
that we couldn't do that. Don't never say
what we can't do.
"Next thing,
I'm looking for a man
walkin' down the street
with no head on his body. And
if they say they can't do it,
I'm gonna tell 'em,
'You're wrong. He gonna come down
sooner or later.'
"That's right.
He will have no head
& be all heart,
just one big heart.
Thousands of hippies,
hipped up children,
with great big heads
& tiny hearts,
trying to lose that big head
& get that big heart. The big head
& the hard heart
of rock & roll
& psychedelic music
has gone as far
as it will go. The heart
just has to be developed.
"I'm not a smart man. You see,
I got a little head
& a big heart. That's all I need.
You take people - when they got a big head,
they don't make it far. I'm not
a smart man. You see,
I got a little head
& a big heart.
"You got to know your keynote.
You got to know your notes
from staff to staff. If you don't know your notes
from staff to staff, I can tell
when you pick up your guitar,
you really don't know
what your doin'. I don't mean to be funny,
but if you let me,
I'll show you,
& tell you,
if you will accept it. But if you think
because I'm a Negro,
& you're not supposed to be told nothin',
you understand,
you're wrong. You're supposed to be
told somethin'
by anybody
when you're doin' wrong. Take a learnin'
from anybody. Somebody
can always tell you something.
"I don't have no education, see.
Now you can take my sense
& put it in a paper bag
& it'll rattle like two nickels. But you see,
understandin',
that's all I need. Common sense,
that's all a man needs now-
just get you some common sense
& pass on by."
-Detroit
May 30, 2003/
Amsterdam
May 19, 2006
Edited & arranged by John Sinclair
from the Michael Erlewine transcript
OUTTAKES from "JUST ONE BIG HEART"
@ May 19, 2006
"Because these performers
probably have the biggest hearts
in the entertainment business,
& there were 30 or
40 thousand kids here
trying to learn about heart,
about understanding,
about developing their hearts.
* * * * *
"& this, the first
of all the blues festivals,
promises much
to cross the generation gap
& bring the old
& younger Americans
closer than they have been
for the last decade.
* * * * *
"Because blues
is based on the common ground
shared by all people,
black & white,
young & old. Blues
is the story
of the human life,
of its loves & struggles. All rock & roll,
all jazz,
all American music
finds its roots
in gospel music
& in blues. Blues
is not unhappy music."
USA SUMMER TOUR DATE UPDATE
Thanks to your assistance, the scheduling for my Summer Tour of the USA is coming along quite nicely, with only a few problem spots remaining.
· The first leg, from June 22-July 18, is full except for Friday night, June 30 in New York City and the next night in Washington DC with Oranj at a venue TBA. Absent any word from Doug Kauffman in Denver, I've decided to remain in residence at the Two Stick in Oxford until I leave for Los Angeles July 19th.
COLUMBUS OH JUNE 23-26
Thursday, June 22 LV Amsterdam > Newark > Columbus OH
Friday, June 23 Columbus OH: OSU Blues Lecture
Saturday, June 24 Columbus OH: ComFest
Sunday, June 25 Columbus OH: ComFest Performance
Monday, June 26 Columbus OH: Recording Session
NEW YORK CITY JUNE 27-30
Tuesday, June 27 Columbus OH > Newark > NYC
Brooklyn: Union Pool w/ Ryan Sawyer
Wednesday, June 28 New York City: TBA w/Daniel Carter
Thursday, June 29 Brooklyn: Frankie's, Red Hook w/Daniel Carter
Friday, June 30 New York City: TBA w/Daniel Carter
DC-MD JULY 1-10
Saturday, July 1 Washington DC: TBA with Tom Dodd & Oranj
Sunday, July 2 Westminster MD: Common Ground on the Hill
Monday, July 3 Westminster MD: Common Ground on the Hill
Tuesday, July 4 Westminster MD: Common Ground on the Hill
Wednesday, July 5 Westminster MD: Common Ground on the Hill
Thursday, July 6 Westminster MD: Common Ground on the Hill
Friday, July 7 Westminster MD: Common Ground on the Hill
Saturday, July 8 Westminster MD: American Music Festival
Sunday, July 9 Westminster MD: American Music Festival
Monday, July 10 Baltimore > Memphis via air
MEMPHIS-OXFORD MS JULY 10-18
In residence at Two Stick, Oxford MS
· The Los Angeles section from July 19-26 is fully loaded thanks to Michael Simmons, Margaret Saadi Kramer and accomplices:
LOS ANGELES JULY 19-26
Wednesday, July 19 Memphis > Los Angeles by air
Los Angeles: Blues Hotel on KXLU-FM
Thursday, July 20 Los Angeles: Fais Do Do with Sarah Kramer
Friday, July 21 Venice: Beyond Baroque with Gerry Fialka
Saturday, July 22 Los Angeles: (T) Baked Potato
Sunday, July 23 Los Angeles: Synergy Lounge
Monday, July 24 Los Angeles: OFF
Tuesday, July 25 Los Angeles: OFF
Wednesday, July 26 Los Angeles > San Francisco via Amtrak
· The Michigan segment from August 4-14 is full as well, and Jim Epstein and I are all set to drive up from San Francisco to Seattle for the HempFest and back.
DETROIT & MICHIGAN AUGUST 4-14
Friday, August 4 SF > Flint via air
Davison: Eagles Hall with Marc Adams
Saturday, August 5 Davison: Blues Festival with Marc Adams
Sunday, August 6 Ann Arbor: West Park w/ Tommy Spaghetti >
(T) Ann Arbor: Housing Co-Op Barn w/ Gary Rasmussen
Monday, August 7 Detroit: OFF
Tuesday, August 8 Lansing: Creole Gallery with RJ Spangler
Wensday, August 9 Lansing > Big Rapids OFF
Thurs, August 10 Big Rapids MI: Two Sisters w/Michael Erlewine
Friday, August 11 Detroit: Buzz Club with R.J. Spangler
Saturday, August 12 Flint: Churchill's with Glowb
Sunday, August 13 Detroit: Your Place Lounge with RJ Spangler
Monday, August 14 Detroit > San Francisco by air
SAN FRANCISCO-SEATTLE AUGUST 15-20
Tuesday, August 15 San Francisco > Seattle w/Jim Epstein by car
Wednesday, August 16 San Francisco > Seattle w/ Jim Epstein by car
Thursday, August 17 Seattle: Hempery Party
Friday, August 18 Seattle: HempFest Hemporium Stage
Saturday, August 19 Seattle: HempFest with Chris Morda Band
Sunday, August 20 Seattle: HempFest Hemporium Stage
· I'm waiting to hear from Matty Lee and Frank Malfitano on my date at the Detroit International Jazz Festival on Labor Day weekend, and I'm booked in Ann Arbor until I leave September 7th for Rome.
DETROIT-ANN ARBOR AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 7
Friday, September 1 Detroit: International Jazz Festival
Saturday, September 2 Detroit: International Jazz Festival
Sunday, September 3 Detroit: International Jazz Festival
Monday, September 4 Detroit: International Jazz Festival
Tuesday, September 5 Detroit: OFF
Wednesday, September 6 Ann Arbor: UM Taping and
Ann Arbor: Public Library Concert
Thursday, September 7 Ann Arbor > Detroit > Roma
Where I need more help is with:
· The week between July 27 and August 4 in the Bay Area, where my comrades Walden Simper, RJ Spangler and Jim Epstein are trying to line some things up. We're talking about quite a few things, but specific dates and venues are still up in the air:
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA JULY 27-AUGUST 3
Wednesday, July 26 Los Angeles > San Francisco via Amtrak
Thursday, July 27 San Francisco:
Friday, July 28 SF Bay Area:
Saturday, July 29 SF Bay Area:
Sunday, July 30 SF Bay Area:
Monday, July 31 SF Bay Area:
Tuesday, August 1 SF Bay Area:
Wednesday, August 2 SF Bay Area:
Thursday, August 3 SF Bay Area:
· and the 10 days between the HempFest in Seattle and my departure from San Francisco for Detroit on August 31st. We will be driving back down the Pacific Coast and have one solid date at Lauren's in Boonville on Saturday, August 26 and would like to pick up more dates like these:
SEATTLE-SAN FRANCISCO AUGUST 21-30
Monday, August 21 (P) Portland
Tuesday, August 22 (P) Portland
Wednesday, August 23 (P) Eugene
Thursday, August 24 (P) Arcata
Friday, August 25 (P) Guerneville
Saturday, August 26 Boonville: Lauren's
Sunday, August 27 (P) Sebastopol
Monday, August 28 San Francisco
Tuesday, August 29 SF Bay Area
Wednesday, August 30 SF Bay Area
Thursday, August 31 San Francisco > Detroit by air
Some of these slots should fill in pretty soon and I'll keep you posted.
DEACON JOHN ALERT
From a press release:
Deacon John's Jump Blues HDTV concert will go into rotation on the PBS HD channel in June (all times Eastern Daylight Time)
June 6 Noon
June 16 2:00 PM
June 24 8:00 PM
June 24 11:00 PM
The concert, recorded at the historic Orpheum Theater in New Orleans (destroyed by Katrina), is an homage to the music and recording scene in New Orleans in the late 1950s and early '60s starring New Orleans music icon Deacon John Moore and featuring appearances by Allen Toussaint, Dave Bartholomew, Dr. John and Irma Thomas.
This critically-acclaimed project is part of an ambitious three-part production by the father/daughter team of Cyril Vetter and Gabrielle Vetter,
RADIO FREE AMSTERDAM
Our little shoestring internet radio station continues to grow. I'm accumulating programming for our Vintage Radio Vault and invite any of you with radio program productions on CD or in .mp3 files to forward them to me for airing on RadioFreeAmsterdam.com. Here's our current line-up:
RADIO FREE AMSTERDAM
GLOBAL ARTISTS INTERFACE NETWORK
Always On the World Wide Web at
www.RadioFreeAmsterdam.com
X X X
THE JOHN SINCLAIR RADIO SHOW
ALTERNATIVE AMSTERDAM
WITH SACHA KINSELLA
ACCIDENTAL MONDAYS
AT THE SUGAR FACTORY
IMAGEMAKERS
WITH ANTHONY MURRELL
JAZZ ROOTS
WITH TOM MORGAN
THE YAW SHOW
GLOBAL OPEN MIKE
WITH AMANDA
LIVE FROM THE
RED ROOSTER LOUNGE
VINTAGE RADIO VAULT
MARX MARVELOUS & THE
COSMIC PARADIGM SHIFT
SENOR JUAN BOTS & THE
CULTURE SHOCK ROLLER DERBY
X X X
We're proud to announce the recent arrival of Alternative Amsterdam #2 with Sacha Kinsella, captured 'live' last month by Henk Botwinik at a big spoken word show at the Winston International Hotel on the Warmoestraat.
Alternative Amsterdam #2 from the Winston Hotel with Sacha Kinsella (.mp3)
And here's Alternative Amsterdam #1 from the Radio Free Amsterdam vaults:
Alternative Amsterdam #1 from New Beatnix Generation @ deKring with Sacha Kinsella (.mp3)
Thanks for listening, and in closing I'd like to thank The Dolphins, 420 Cafe and the Sensi Museum Coffeeshop for their hospitality and kindness while I was working on this entry. Tomorrow I'll be going back over to Den Haag for a performance and I'll report from there....
Latest Comments (1)
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Let's call it paying for what you get (reply)
May 19, 2006 23:15 EST by joebryak
Instead of alms, I'm sending you recompense for all the time you've spent amassing music and interviews and such that you've put out and I've immensely enjoyed. Fabulous mixes! It's like buying a CD. Same thing. You've put in the time, and deserve to be paid for it like anybody else. I hope others will see it the same way and cough up. Cover charge, right folks?
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