John Hendow

Cachao left us today, and while I’m sad at his passing, I am very happy that he was among us for eight decades of seriously heavy groove. He was the master (some say the inventor) of the mambo, the recipient of numerous Grammy awards, and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. More recently, he was featured on the cover of Bass Player magazine, which was a touching recognition of his towering importance in music. Many current bass players are rediscovering the classical rhythmic function of our instrument, and his playing style represents a tremendous compendium of style.

I sometimes think of all the great Cuban jazz that we never get to hear. Cuba is off limits to US citizens. No travel. No trade. We’re lucky that some of this wonderful music makes it way to us, but I do hope that someday soon we’ll be able to legally travel to Cuba to hear the next Cachao in action.

I was a late discoverer of Cachao, and can thank my bass teacher for turning me on to his music as part of transcription assignment. Get out there and dig that groovy, baby.

David Torn is a mad scientist / guitarist / composer who has something of a gift for sonic mayhem. He’s worked with some of my favorite musicians including David Bowie, Mick Karn, Tony Levin, Laurie Anderson, and so on. David was a student of Leonard Berstein, and was also taught by another of my favorite guitarists, Pat Martino. David Torn is something of an “experimental” musician. He tends toward incorporating unusual constructs in his music such as loops, heavily processed tones, and non-idiomatic playing techniques. I have long enjoyed his music and consider him a tremendously interesting artist. Read the rest of this post for recommended listening.

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This is perhaps my favorite concert DVD. I’ve owned it on no less than three formats (Laserdisc, Video Tape, DVD), and I actually have both versions on DVD. So I accept that I might be something of an extreme enthusiast on this one.

I’ve always loved Peter Gabriel’s music, and it’s especially great that his band includes such musical luminaries as Tony Levin (one of my favorite bassists), David Rhodes, Manu Katché, Shankar, Paula Cole, ‘Reddy’ Mela Amissa, Papa Wemba, Jean-Claude Naimro, Lévon Minassian, and ‘Styno’ Mubi Mutadi. The music is inspiring and beautifully recorded, and brilliantly staged.
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A friend of mine from college has a nine-year-old son who is a total rock star and goes by the stage name Vincent Blackshadow. So far he’s played three gigs and they’ve all been pretty amazing. He has invented a KISS-styled makeup look for himself, along with a total rock costume complete with bowler hat. Take a look at some photos I took at his performance on 2/2/2007 in Burien.

Vincent plays guitar and belts out the tunes… what can I say? This is cool and I don’t think I EVER rocked this hard… certainly not at the age of nine. Vincent Blackshadow, I salute you.

Back in 1975 I became aware of KISS for the first time. At the age of 11 it was pretty much a perfect combination of forces: loud, scary, and completely parent-disapproved. There was also something really cool about the four characters in the band. Overall, it really resonated with me.

I freely admit that I still think KISS is pretty cool. And for pretty much the same reasons as before. Ultimately, either you get it and like them, or you don’t. No amount of explanation will convince you either way.
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Today I found out Prince will headline the US Superbowl halftime entertainment on February 4th. I, for one, applaud this choice. He’s a stunningly talented musician / songwriter / performer. I have long been a fan of his royal purple funky weirdness, and this will make the Superbowl all the groovier. It’s up there with the year KISS played during halftime… the Superbowl is a high-definition entertainment extravaganza, and the halftime show should be as over-the-top as humanly possible.

Einstürzende Neubauten first performed on April 1, 1980 in Berlin. They’re generally considered an “industrial” band, and that is a reasonable description of their sound, although most people think of industrial music as having more of a techno beat, e.g. Nine Inch Nails or Skinny Puppy. I would be tempted to classify their music as being similar to the futurist style of Luigi Russolo, in which the music is inspired by the sounds of human industry.

EN employs wide array of instruments of their own construction, along with found objects and some traditional instruments. Their music has a complex compositional style and the band has invented its own notation system for internal use when arranging and recording. The band’s name Einstürzende Neubauten means “collapsing new buildings” or “new buildings falling down”. Their logo is reputed to be an ancient Toltec design, and it happens to be tattooed on my right arm.

Back in 1988 I was a subscriber to “Guitar Player” magazine. In the back pages of each issue, the editors would review musical submissions from up-and-coming guitar talents. One of the big mentions that year was an enigmatic guitarist who called himself “Buckethead”. It’s generally believed that his real name is Brian Caroll, but he is something of a mystery. Buckethead wears a white plastic mask covering his face and a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his head. He is 6’6″ tall (over 7 feet tall with the bucket) and never speaks when on stage. And he claims that he was raised by chickens and lived in a chicken coop. Moreover, he is fascinated with Disneyland, particularly the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. His web site is essentially a strange haunted amusement park full of monsters and robots. Many of his CDs carry this theme as well.
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