Although not really a jazz musician there are few guitarists that stand as tall in late 20th Century music as Jorma Kaukonen. A founder of both the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna he has been tremendously influential in electric rock and blues as well as acoustic finger style guitar.
As well as touring solo and with Hot Tuna he also runs the Fur Peace Ranch a music school and concert venue in southern Ohio. He will be performing at the Odeum Theater in East Greenwich, RI on March 6, 2016. (in the interview I misspoke and said Odeon)
This is the 25th interviews that I have posted on Jazz New England it is also the fourth time that I’ve interviewed Greg Abate in the course of two years. His current album Kindred Spirits Live at Chan’s recorded with Phil Woods and the Tim Ray trio was released at the end of January. He has been working on his third recording for Whaling City Sound since the end of last summer.
I always enjoy talking to Greg. He is very gracious with his time and although he tours the United States and Europe regularly he still plays local venues when he is home in Rhode Island.
The recording of this podcast was an experiment. I have heard Greg mention Main Street Coffee in East Greenwich, RI before and I live only a short walk from there. Sometimes interviews can be stiff and awkward so I thought it might be good idea to sit and relax and have a cup of coffee and see where the conversation led. I recorded the conversation with my iPhone using a recording app with good noise cancellation. The sound came out pretty well and only needed a minimal amount of equalization. The interview went well too. The only problem being that the conversation was maybe too relaxed and I had edit to find the more focused parts of the conversation for the podcast.
We talked about writing music, Greg’s sextet performance, touring in the UK and his musical favorites and influences.
The sextet gig that We talk about has passed. We also talked about the reunion of Dan Moretti in Brasilia featuring Greg Abate which will take place April 9th at Chan’s in Woonsocket, RI.
It’s perhaps fitting that this is my first two part podcast considering that I’m interviewing is Jon Lundbom whose current project is a four-part EP release. Although Jon moved to Austin Texas about a year ago, the album was recorded last fall in New York with his group the Big Five Chord.
We talked about the group, which has recorded seven other albums since 2003 and other projects (Merle and the Hagards, Baltobom). We also talked about playing jazz in Austin and his philosophy of putting recording projects and music together.
Newvelle Records is a new vinyl only record label Launching in the spring of 2016. Using a curated subscription model the first years crop of six albums includes such artists as Jack DeJohnette, Noah Preminger, Frank Kimbrough, Ban Alison & Don Friedman. A series of albums for 2017 is already in the planning stages.
I expected my interview with co-founder Elan Mehler to be all about business and marketing demographics. Instead we had a long conversation about finding an economic vehicle to create a high quality product and empower artists. Artists retain the ownership of the masters and may release them later as they see fit after a waiting period.
A KIckstarter Campaign is underway for the first years pressings here.
