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That’s right kiddos, it is once again time for the annual holiday music extravaganza with Graham Reynolds’ Golden Arm Trio (that’s Utah Hamrick on bass, yours truly on drums) giving Frosty a curb-job and taking Rudolph on a bender while dirty dancing with the Sugar Plum Fairies. After that, The Invincible Czars will take the stage and promptly throw The Nutcracker into a wood chipper. Fun for all ages and a popular seasonal favorite, show up early, get some seasonal libations in you, and stake out your spot because this is going to be one wild ride..

Golden Arm Trio – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies

That’s right kids, I’m hitting the road with Graham Reynolds and Utah Hamrick in June.  We’ll be bringing the sound and fury of the Golden Arm Trio release “Portraits of Ellington” to the west coast.  Forget what you may love or hate about “jazz.”  This is something different.  Graham Reynolds and I first met nearly 15 years ago in the basement of the Empanada Parlour (RIP) where a community of bands were cutting their teeth.  (Blue Noise Band, The Blimp Trio, Los Tiburones De Laredo, Young Silly Bitches, Chris Black & The Holy Ghost, and The Golden Arm Trio were all part of a buzzing hive of musical adventure that would eventually spawn the Grammy-winning 12 headed beast that is Grupo Fantasma.)

When I met Graham, he was playing both piano AND drums at his shows with his drum throne spinning 180 degrees to either side as he alternated between keys and kit.  I don’t remember the first gig I played with him, but apparently he did, and I’ve been making regular appearances ever since.  It’s only recently that I’ve had the free time to really dig into what kind of creative freedom and musical challenges lie beneath the surface of what are some of Duke Ellington’s best (and least) known creations.  Playing as an actual trio (an ironic rarity for the Golden Arm Trio) with Dr. Utah Hamrick (“not that kind of doctor”) on upright bass, the usual creative improvisational interplay has been amplified infinitely.  I’m usually the one in any given band to pull the rug and shake musicians who might not be paying enough attention, tapping their foot to what they’re playing vs the beat, etc.  With this trio there’s a palpable fury of three electrons in a violent orbit.  Add a couple more doctors to the mix on saxophone and trombone in the form of Dr. John Mills and Dr. Freddie Mendoza, and you get something that could only be captured in HD with about a dozen cameras.  Fortunately, Austin PBS affiliate KLRU was kind enough to do this for us in their Arts In Context feature on Graham Reynolds.  While the 16 minute version of “Caravan” (and my featured intro solo) didn’t make the televised cut, you can view it (and every song from the program) on Vimeo here, or simply click the link below.

KLRU Presents Graham Reynolds

So, if you like what you see/hear, check the following dates. If we’re in your area, we’d love to see you. We’re three dudes in a van with a piano, an upright bass, and a three piece kit that Bonham would approve of. We’re hungry, we’re thirsty, and we’re going to shake some foundations. For an extra special treat, we’ll be doubling as the backing band for the powerful Christina Marrs (Asylum Street Spankers) on select dates, so stay tuned!

June 17th – Tucson AZ – Solar Culture
June 18th – Los Angeles CA – Bootleg
June 19th – San Francisco CA – Red Devil
June 22nd – Eugene OR – Sam Bond’s
June 23rd – Portland TBA
June 25th – Seattle WA – Sunset Tavern

More dates to be added, times announced, etc.

Here are a couple clips taken from the road on the first night of my east coast jaunt with Graham Reynolds and Utah Hamrick.  By the way, what is it with me and bassists with formidable names? John Houston Farmer, Utah Hamrick, Chris Black, all dudes you kinda feel obligated to state their entire name when you greet them..    Anyway, Utah’s uncle was kind enough to shoot some footage that I finally managed to pull from a DVD, not quite preserving the integrity in the process, but still managing to squeeze out a few good tracks all the same.  So I present to you, in order of performance, Duke Ellington’s classics, “It Don’t Mean A Thing, Blue Pepper,” and “Caravan,” in all their raging glory.  Thanks to the small-but-enthusiastic crowd at Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville PA who not only tolerated our bombastic stage volume and Graham’s affinity for Julia Child’s cat magnets, but answered in kind with ear-splitting applause and endless gratitude.  Also props to the horn players who were Philly cats that we’d never actually physically MET before.  In fact, the sax player had only been emailed the sheet music days before, and the trumpet player at last-minute, swooped in to fill in for the original trombonist, whose wife had quite unexpectedly gone into labor a couple weeks ahead of schedule and, understandably so, couldn’t make the gig.  Solid professionals.  We would actually rejoin forces with the sax player and the original trombonist days later when we circled back to play Philly.  Footage of that show to come..

Enjoy!  And if you DO like what you hear, please stroll over to your friendly Amazon or iTunes and pick up Graham Reynolds and Golden Arm Trio’s “DUKE! Three Portraits of Ellington.”  You’ll make your ears happy, bob your head, and possibly freak out the neighbors all at the same time!

Golden Arm Trio – Don\’t Mean A Thing

Golden Arm Trio – Blue Pepper

Golden Arm Trio – Caravan

Fresh from the lab!  Simple circuits, but tight quarters..

Spring?  Is it really you?  Could it be the easter bunny?  Or have I finally knocked something loose?  It seems nearly everyone got smacked with a beyotch of a winter this time around.  Everyone, that is, except California, where the koalas laze in the sun any damn time they please, year-round.  In fountains of Ciroc.  But toughing out the occasional “hard” freezes (ow, my plants!), dustings of snow (look at my filthy filthy snowman!), or sheets of ice on the road (sheet!  sheet! ice, mang! slow down pendejo!), it’s worth it to get slipped an early glimpse of the pink glistening nipple of Spring herself, blowing a kiss that sends the leaves of Autumn Past skittering like Skeksis.  If you’re too young to get the reference, you’re not old enough to be trying to get all sexy with me in “anonymous” games of Words With Friends, so that should weed out some of the “competition.”  Your feeble little Generation tXt minds couldn’t think of where to put an apostrophe if it was dick-shaped and made of chocolate, much less count to eleven without taking off your damn pants, so don’t get all huffy and accuse me of cheating when I score a double triple-word on your ass with “tentacle.”  Resign all you want, or stick around and get spanked.  Either way, I’ll sleep on a pile of your sweet sweet losses.  Except for you, GasMaskBeauty.  Your kung fu is strong.  The saga continues..

In the meantime, I’ve been out on the road with Graham Reynolds, Utah Hamrick, and a van with a freaking piano in it, spreading the news of the Golden Arm Trio release of DUKE! Portraits of Ellington, available on Amazon, iTunes, and anywhere respectable music is sold.  A quickie to the east coast was a swirl of horns, food porn, and cocktail orgies.  And all the rumors I heard as a child were really true; there is FREE PORN on NYC hotel TVs.  Channel 69.  St Marks Hotel.  Lower East Side.  Best in tha freakin’ city..    But seriously folks, we had a blast.  We took in history (Duchamp exhibit, Rocky statue, Washington’s office, Stonewall’s headquarters, Alamo Draft House in Winchester VA, Liberty Bell), we drank the finest of libations (Milk & Honey, Draft House, Mayhuelo) and ate like kings (Veselka, H&H and Sullivan Bakeries, Morimoto).  Thanks to everyone that came out and for those in Austin, keep an eye on the gigs calendar for a few upcoming appearances with the mighty Graham Reynolds.  West  Coast, we’re coming to make sure your shit’s up to code in June.  At least we know the porn will be fresh..

Lastly, I’d like to give a quick shoutout to my kinfolk with Grupo Fantasma, who after 10 years of hard work and a tour schedule that just don’t quit, brought home a Grammy.  I’ve still not heard as to whether they each get one or if I get some sort of keychain model for my service in the “trench years,” back when a poor white child had to bang on snares without bottom heads, only the chaffest of cowbells, and another bottom-headless drum simply referred to as “the Grupo drum,” to help create what would grow from a rugged gang of “Young Silly Bitches” into a wandering street gang with instruments, enforcing the fundamental law and right of enjoyment and celebration through music.  It’s been years since I’ve been in the band, but getting on stage at the recent 10 year reunion show and now this Grammy, it’s really enough to make all that shit I have to hear with the “what, you’re not married yet?  do you even have a girlfriend?  you’d make such a great dad!” and other such mess slide off even faster than usual.  You see, I don’t need no kids.  I don’t need to see what I’d look like if I “didn’t eat so much cake.”  I adopted some nice young boys from Laredo back in ’96.  Or rather, they adopted me.  And now those nice young boys are grown men, many fathers, some of them in very tight silk shirts and Sheila E microphones but still, all kicking ass and bringing home something we couldn’t have dreamed of if you jerked us out of our sweaty summer days of jamming at the Manor House and pumped us full of mescaline..  Not that a few of us would have complained or lacked for trying, but those were different days and Laredo was a different place.  Kinda..

So a tip of the hat to my boys.  From keggers to Prince, Austin City Limits, a Grammy, and beyond.  Wherever you are, Ash Corea, I hope you are smiling.  For Brian, Wolfie, Alex, Rudy, JoJo, Lobel, Q, Gibas, Abuelo, Lou, Johnny, Toe, those fuckin’ new guys, Phrog, Mimi, Jaime, Ceci, Lilly, The Laredo Bucks, um..  Sammy The House, Bambi, AireSol Records, my Granny, all of you that were there from the beginning..  the haters, all of you.  Thanks.  We couldn’t have done it without you.

(cane pulls me off stage to exit music, curtain falls on head, security roughs me up)