Well, the summer is over and autumn is here, although that doesn't mean a hell of a lot in Southern California. Still, all in all, a good time to look at what were some of the memorable musical moments of the season just ended.
Definitely the best rock show I saw was The Who at the Hollywood Bowl during the week of the Democrtatic National Convention. Actually, that week was really good for aging rockers; the always reliable Saccharine Trust played at The Fold and Mike Watt played an outstanding show at Al's Bar. Watt's set included classics from the minutemen songbook and covers of Lou Reed, Roky Erickson and (of course) Blue Oyster Cult . But the highlight was at the very beginning of the set when he invited MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer (and veteran of the 1968 DNC) to the stage for a free improvisation/meditation on America's obsession with the bomb and a ripping version of Kick Out The Jams. The only disappointment for me was in the crowd. I mean, thousands of anarchists converge on LA and they don't come to see the punk rock legends? The cover was like $5 at both shows. I guess they didn't read the Weekly. Reagae greats Black Uhuru w/ Sly & Robbie played an amzing show at the Roxy, the most profound grooves I've ever heard outside of a P-Funk show. Otherwise, unless I'm just getting too old, it was not much of a summer for rock. Distortion Felix, Crack & 400 Blows continue to lead the local pack, with the Lords of Altamont being the most interesting new entry onto the scene.
LACMA highlights included Ernie Watts, Bill Cunlife, Buddy Collete and Vinny Golia with Nels & Alex Cline, while MOCA brought in a number of big names during their summer nights at MOCA series. The first show featured venerable tenor man George Coleman and pianist Harold Mabern with an A+ rhythm section of Billy Higgins and Jeffery Littleton. They were outstanding; the highpoint for me was their version of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, memorable not only because the solos were outstanding, but also becaue in the middle of it I stumbled onto the great Pharoah Sanders watching the show with an attractive young woman. The same rhythm section, with the help of William Henderson on piano, closed the series out in September behind the great alto sax of Jackie Mclean. The best show may have been the one the week previous, a sort of avant-garde supergroup called Friends featuring Arthur Blythe, Bobby Bradford, Nate Morgan, Roberto Miranda and Don Littleton. That show was recorded and a CD is forthcoming. I should note also that the museum's exhibition of 20th century was really amazing and worth several looks, even if my skin does crawl when I hear the name Frank Gehry. Other LA shows: Charles McPherson at the Bel Age hotel and, saving the best for last, The Sun Ra Arkestra at the new Hollywood Knitting Factory. I also managed to sneak in a trip to New York and caught Henry Threadgill's new group which sounded, as my friend Nathan put it, "Very, very circus." (Translation: it sounded a lot like his old group) The next night we caught Archie Shepp in an amazing group which included Roswell Rudd, Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille and a trombone player who fell down the stairs. On the last night,

we had the unlikely pleasure of seeing the great harmolodic guitarist James Blood Ulmer playing at a hippie club called Wetlands with a hippie band called Fat Mama. The show was really amazing, and I was really surprised by how well Fat Mama played behind him. We stayed for part of the second (non-Ulmer) set long enough to determine that Fat Mama had somehow managed to play above their heads during the Ulmer set and their regular fare was not really for us.

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