SOUNDTRACK: LOGAN RICHARDSON-Tiny Desk Concert #734 (April 23, 2018).
Logan Richardson is a jazz saxophonist.
I’ve been down on saxophones lately, but I do really like the sound he gets. I’m a bit more impressed by the rest of his band, though.
Since I don’t know Richardson, I’ll let the blurb speak for me, with some of my comments.
Richardson ‘s latest project, Blues People, … was derived from the early slave calls that inspired the earliest American jazz and blues musical traditions. Here at the Tiny Desk, the saxophonist revisits that history with four remarkable songs from the album, all performed with a hope that our country’s future will be less painful than its past.
“80’s Child” is a reflection on the decade Richardson was born. Its colorful melody complements the band’s energetic fusion groove. Continually pushing forward with momentum and anticipation, its 8/8 time signature moves seamlessly into 10/8 to create an intensity that is both focused and free.
I love the opening guitar work (by Igor Osypov) which sounds very un-jazzy to me–you could hear an alt-rock sound being built out of that. While Igor is doing a simple but pretty guitar solo rhythm guitarist Justus West keeps the rhythm work with some interesting whammy bar bending. About three minutes in, drummer Ryan Lee gets some great little improv moments. I really enjoy the song even if I find myself tuning out the sax and listening to the guitar.
Richardson notes, “The desk is tiny but it’s mighty. I have a tiny saxophone that I forgot to bring.”
The next groove, “The Settlement,” maintains a similar tone and features DeAndre Manning slapping on his funky bass.
This song feels more jazzy to me–prominent sax with jazz guitar chords. But I do love the jazz/prog rock section with the slap bass and the guitars following suit. I definitely tune out the sax to listen to the great riffage from the strings
While the band is ringing out the last notes of the song, Richardson introduces the next
The song gently segues into the only vocal piece, “Black Brown & Yellow,” a lovely reminder that racial diversity is something to celebrate.
They do a short chant of “Black, brown and yellow is beautiful.” It’s a pretty, almost sensuous song sung first by West and then joined by everyone else.
I love that I am now quoting someone quoting some else about this last song:
“Anthem (To Human Justice)” ends with brilliance best described by my colleague Nate Chinen, “By design, too, Richardson’s alto saxophone often functions more like a lead vocalist than as a virtuoso solo instrument. He’s a good conduit for soaring, plaintive melody…. And however the band surges or thrashes around him, there’s a feeling of urgent communion in this music.”
The backing music is once again excellent and interesting, with cool time changes a nifty guitar solo (while the second guitar is doing some other cool stuff too) and some great bass work. I really like the way the whole band jams it out at the end–the band sounds great and Logan’s sax is right there with them soloing the whole time.
I feel like this is jazz for people who don’t like jazz.
[READ: March 17, 2018] Olympians 10
I’m still not sure how many books O’Connor has planned for this series, although in his introduction he talks about saving his favorite books for the end, so I assume there are at least two more (although 12 seems reasonable).
Here’s the summary of the man himself:
George O’Connor is a massive geek and Greek scholar. He has done lots of research for these books, including going to Greece and visiting sites and antiquities as well as comparing all manner of ancient stories to compile the most interesting pieces. He explains that since these stories were orally passed down, they were modified over the years. He doesn’t change the myths, he merely picks the story lines that are most interesting to him. And then he adds a lot of humorous modern touches (and dialogue) which keep it from being at all stuffy.
O Connor’s drawing style is also inspired by superhero comics, so his stories are presented in a way that seems much more like a super hero than a classical hero, which is also kind of fun.
Each book ends with an author’s note which is hugely informative and gives plenty of context. It also has a bibliography, but more importantly, it has a list of notes about certain panels. Do not skip these notes! In addition to providing a lot of insight into the myths of the characters themselves, there are a lot of funny comments like “Greeks raced in the nude (point and laugh)” which really bring new depths to the stories.
Hermes: Tales of the Trickster (2018)
I have always enjoyed stories about Hermes, the trickster. And it’s clear that O’Connor does as well. And who wouldn’t? He’s a wicked, impish kid who can charm everyone, even his father’s wife.
This book is set up very differently from the others as well. It opens with a man walking down the street with his dog. They see a herm–a marker named for Hermes. As they walk past it (and the dog pees on it), they see a sad cow tethered to a tree. The cow is being guarded by a creatures with eyes all over its body (Argus Panoptes–where you get the name panopticon).
The wanderer asks the multi-eyed man if he can rest there for a bit in exchange for stories. Argus agrees.
He opens with a story about dogs (and I have to say, I don’t love the way O’Connor renders dogs, something seems askew). It’s the hilarious origin tale of why they sniff each other’s butts. It essentially has to do with dogs meeting Zeus and being so overwhelmed by his presence that they popped on the floor. It smelled bad, so the dogs decided that when they met him again they would drink some perfume to sweeten the smell. It didn’t and made Zeus even madder. And now the dogs sniff each other two see who was responsible for drinking the perfume. Love it.
The first story about Hermes involves his mother Maia, the brightest of the Pleiades (daughters of Atlas). Maia caught the ey eof Zeus, but she was no fool and kept their love a secret. When she gave birth to Hermes, Grandmother Earth kept him safe and Maia planned to live with him in a cave. But Hermes was mischievous from day one (literally). He walked out of the cave to see what he could get up to. He stole Apollo’s cows and went to elaborate precautions to disguise who he was. He put palm fronds on their tails to sweep the earth, he cut out giant footprints to throw off Apollo. He went to a lot of effort. But Maia caught him and he said not to worry. No one would notice.
But of course Apollo noticed and he was mad (I love that it’s Artemis who easily figures out exactly what happened in a second) . Apollo quickly sets out after the young scamp. In the end notes, O’Connor says to find the music for “Yakkety Sax” (the Benny Hill Show theme) and play it over the several pages of Apollo chasing the bald baby.
They eventually wind up at Mount Olympus, with a super angry Apollo and a bemused Zeus. Even Hera (who surely knows that Zeus cheated on her (again) to have this boy) chuckles at Hermes’ boldness. She says, “This one I like.”
To make it up to Apollo, Hermes invents a lyre for him (made of a turtle shell). Apollo in return gives Hermes his winged staff. Eventually Hermes trains two snakes to entwine around it, and that became one of his symbols.
Hermes became the god of
- peacemakers
- astronomy
- calendars
- writing
- thieves and liars
- language and eloquence
- politicians
- merchants and trade
- hospitality
- travel and boundaries
- athletics
- divination and gambling
- flocks and shepherds
- He is also:
- the god who brings you your dreams
- and who will bring you to the underworld
Hermes has had many children including Priapus, Hermaphrodite, Eros and the goat-human hybrid Pan.
Pan was of two worlds simultaneously–half human/half goat. Half wild/half civilization. There’s even the tale of how he came to make Pan pipes. Pan also had a crazy yell that could induce a statue of yes, panic
The final, lengthy story revolves around Grandmother earth who always resented Zeus. She created one last child–a huge monster, a creature of storms like Zeus bit bigger with 100 heads of all the beasts of the world. His name was Typhon (typhoon) and he took the snake woman Echidna as his wife Their children were: Cerberus, Sphinx, Nemean Lion, Ladon, Lernaean Hydra, Chimera and more.
When Pan tried to escape the wounds of Typhon, he jumped into the water and became half-goat / half-fish (the symbol for Sagittarius). Typhon found all of the gods and made them take animal form and to flee Olympus. Everyone did, although Zeus stayed to fight. The Greek gods had fled to Egypt (and there’s a page with the Egyptian gods and their Greek counterparts (I never knew any of this before)). Pan returned with the gods who aided Zeus in defeating Typhon.
After all of these stories, Argus believes he has caught on to who the storyteller is. He knows that he cannot fight an Olympian and he believes that this storyteller is Hermes himself. (It proved not to be… and the truth is even better).
We also learn that Argus has a history. The upshot is that Argus’ many eyes became the feathers of the peacock (which is pretty cool).
O’Connor is an amazing story-teller and all of these volumes are great. #10yearsof01
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