Pat Martino - Scullers 2nd Set

I almost forgot that we had tickets to Pat Martino, until Mr. Johnson rang me up to confirm a meeting time. 10 pm set on a Friday is risky due to the lack of sleep during the week, but we went anyway. I'm glad I did! It was the first time I'd seen him and I don't think I ever listened to him too much, but obviously knew about him. He was playing his Benedetto signature model guitar, a solid body model with 2 pickups although he only used the front one.

Seating was general admission so we got a decent table a few "rows" back. It's a small club anyway, so not a bad seat in the house. The classic trio consisted of Pat, Tony Monaco (B3 organ) and Jason Brown(drums).

When they started to play, it was kind of a shock because the guitar was really loud and muddy - I always wonder whether the sound person has lost their hearing because it is so obviously wrong. Would it hurt to add a little treble into the mix?

The music itself was great! They came out smokin' with a boppish tune which I didn't know, followed by a blues which he seemed to call on the fly to the organ player (ah, just found that blues on youtube here), and a latin-ish tune. I think Blue in Green was next, with many liberties taken with the melody, but the signature tune intact.

The odd part of the night came when Pat called up his wife, whom he is clearly smitten with, to play 2 Wes Montgomery inspired songs with him - Heartstrings and Bock to Bock (also on a Derek Trucks album, btw). She's been playing "for a few years - 3 or 4, i think" and it looked like a student/master recital where the student plays some medium difficult chord changes while the master does his thing and makes it sound good....only in the first song, she couldn't find the beat to save her life. I just tried to concentrate on what Pat was doing instead.

Thankfully, the band returned and they killed another Wes Montgomery tune: 4 on 6. Tony Monaco is a sight! His facial expressions are priceless and animated - you could read the emotions (mostly joy) in his face and clearly he was enjoying himself at the B3 - relishing in the cheesiest sounds possible, then laying out a monster dissonant chord for emphasis. This was a highlight of the night for me.

They finished the night with Oleo, but it didn't seem like they were playing the standard thythm changes - I think it was more open than that (a la So What or Impressions) which gave the soloists more room to maneuver.

After the show, J somehow ran into Pat and shook his hand and gave him a few bows of worship. When we asked what his hand felt like, all he said was, "Boney."

Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards

Today we went to the ceremony down at John Hancock hall in Boston for Zach winning a silver key for a jewelry piece in the Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards, a regional competition. Apparently, the awards were established in 1923 and involve over 6000 students and over 10,000 pieces of art. Each student had to go up on stage and say something like, "Hi, I'm Zach Reckling and I won a silver key for a jewelry piece. I go to Brookline High School." It was kind of like an affirmation of the work they do.

Teacher's could submit up to 15 pieces from each school, so he actually had to get by that criteria first. Zach got a silver key for this piece of jewelry he made at school. It's on display at the Transportation Building in downtown Boston. We went over there to check it out, which is where I got cooperation for the above picture.

He also got an honorable mention for a print, pictured below.

And here he is on stage, following "in the footsteps of the masters". Afterwards we walked over to see the exhibit at the transportation building, then back over to Cheesecake Factory to stuff ourselves.

Congrats to ZR! - Chris/Dad

VT Instruments at Joe Val Festival

I met up with Adam briefly (so much music going on!) where he was hanging out with 3 of the nice instruments they made. I got a chance to try the little parlor guitar on the left - so loud, even with all those banjos playing in the same room. You can catch pictures of this and other guitars being made here: http://vermontinstruments.tumblr.com/ including a picture of Marc Ribot with the parlor (I think) and Jorma with the tenor guitar on this page. More pics of the tenor guitars and parlor are here. Neko Case apparently has one of them in hand now.

Good to see Adam - I must make a road trip up to Vermont (maybe wait for summer, though).

Chris

Bike Ride on the Cape

Last weekend we drove down to the Cape to ride on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. It's about halfway up starting in South Dennis, although we parked at the Headwaters further down the road. It was about 80 miles from our house, according to google, and it really didn't seem too long of a drive to me. We only made one wrong turn trying to find the entrance to Rt 3 in Boston - in typical fashion, no signage to lead you there.

We parked by a cranberry bog (more on that later) and off we went, traveling by a few ponds before heading into the woods. The trail itself was fairly empty, it being October on the cape, and I think we brought the average age down a bit. It was a nice, sunny day and about 64 out, so just perfect.

It's a bit strange because you are on the Cape, but you don't really know you are by the ocean at all. Most of the trail is in the woods, as you can see from the picture above. We made it all the way to Eastham, for a total ride of just over 23 miles. We made one detour to Skaket Beach, just to see the ocean, but it was really windy and kinda cold there, so I took a few pics and we kept going. We stopped for some food at a Taqueria on the trail that was really quite good - El Huapo's in Brewster. Yum!
It seemed like we were going uphill both ways, even though the trail was almost flat. The way back I think it was the wind in our face that did it. Once we made it back, I went and took some pictures of the cranberry harvest going on near where we parked.

More photos here.

All in all, a fine way to spend a day.

Chris

Red Molly Concert

On Sept 26 we went to the Homegrown Coffeehouse, in Needham, MA at the UU church to see Red Molly, an excellent group who we saw the past summer at Club Passim. Before the show, we went to eat at Sweet Basil, around the corner, a place that does not take reservations! Therefore, while we were waiting the 20-30 minutes, we went over to the church to see if we had to pay or what (Emily had ordered tickets online awhile ago).

While trying to figure out where the entrance was (on the side), I saw one of the group (Abbie) in the window and gave her a vigorous wave, to which she replied with her own wave. Then we went in and up the stairs to see the place and Abby and Laurie came out and chatted us up a bit. The guy in charge let us go in and put our coats on some seats in the front, which was fortuitous because when we came back to go in there was a big line, even at 7:30. The church is so small that there really wasn't a bad seat.

Of course, I can't remember the entire set list...but at the end, when we went up to the stage to chat them up some more (J had questions about the dobro - a Scheerhorn Wechter - and I wanted to get a closer look at the acoustic bass guitar - a $400 Dean), they said they had 16 songs over the 2 sets. Some of the songs that they did were, in no particular order:

Caleb Meyer (first song - Abbie in lead)

Summertime (by Carolann)

Wayfaring Stranger

A solo by Carolann

Long Ride Home (Patty Griffin)

The Mind of a Soldier (winner of the John Lennon songwriting contest)

It's Good-bye and So Long to You

A Tim O'Brien learned song I don't know the name of...

May I Suggest (a stunning a capella song that they did as an encore and in the center of the church with no mic's...a religious experience right there!)

Jud Caswell, of Brunswick, ME, opened the night with an excellent set. He sat down front without amplification to do "Blackberry Time", which made it all feel so cozy. He also came out in the middle of the Molly's set to sing the song that gave them their name, by Richard Thompson.

Red Molly comes up to the Boston area a few times a year, so make sure you go check them out when they do, before they get too famous and you won't be able to get close to them!

Chris

Zach. End of Summer Studios

Zach spent a month at the MassArt Summer Studios this year. It's a great program for high school students interested in studio art (or fashion or jewelry or graphic arts). Everyone has to take a "2d and 3d fundamentals" course and "Issues and Images" class, then you can specialize in various disciplines. Zach took ceramics and photography.

They visited a lot of museums in the area like the MFA, Gardner, ICA, and the Harvard Sackler, and discussed the work there and what it meant, etc. During drawing, they got to work with live models for the first time. At one point, each student brought in their work for a critique, which Zach enjoyed alot! He said he got great feedback and ideas. It seems like they got a lot done in a short amount of time and it convinced him to continue to pursue the arts. I'm not sure I would have predicted this when he was 2 yrs. old, but it makes sense now!

Each class had a final project due at the end, which was included in the student show last Saturday. Above is his photo essay, which had to do with smiles. Yes, we had to pose one night about 11 or 12 for this one. (In fact, working late at night, sometimes w/ assistance, might have been a theme, too!)

The ceramics final project was quite interesting, since it was more conceptual than the work we had seen before. It has to do with opening up....to me, it looks very organic and has a lot of movement in it. A lot of people at the show seemed to be impressed by it. I think Zach wanted the glaze to be a bit different than it turned out. We're trying it out in our garden now. :)

For the 2D/3D classs, he did a wire sculpture - actually 4 of them, with 2 figures each. It's showing a sequence of a kick...i.e. someone kicking someone else and falling. Here it is at the show. (His teacher suggested a larger figure, so the last one is bigger, but he used it for effect to show the other one being dominated.)

I won't post all the comments from the instructors, but I will say that he did well there and is looking to attend next year! Hopefully he can get the application done early and we'll be done with it.

I'll post more later or on his secret website, which is sitting there doing nothing so far...

Chris

Butterfly

The butterfly bush actually attracts butterflies! This isn't the usual monarch that we see around here, but it's pretty cool looking (and big). We saw this outside the front window and I ran out to take a bunch of photos.

Chris