And I’m howling, gnashing my choppers, thrashing in a thicket of thorns and pouring Jack Daniel’s over the bleeding wounds, because I’ll be out of town and will probably miss it all. But I’m flying to NYC to interview Ornette Coleman on the occasion of his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award announcement, which kinda makes up for it. And if I’m back in time for the Super Bowl, Bakersfield Bill is whipping up his pepper-powered pheasant stew. Those shotgun pellets are ambrosia.
The weekend lineup:
Thurs., Feb. 1 at Otis School of Design: Steve Roden (see MetalJazz’s posting about his Rothko music) puts together another evening of improvisation to silent films with Glenn Bach, Jacob Danziger, Kraig Grady, Cat Lamb and Jeffrey Roden (9045 Lincoln Blvd., 7:30 p.m.).
Fri.-Sat., Feb. 2-3, at REDCAT: Wadada Leo Smith unites some of the raddest minds in jazz for his annual Creative Music Festival. Friday it’s the incredible (and rarely seen here) pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, founder of the AACM, along with Adam Rudolph’s mind-blowing improv mob Go: Organic Orchestra. Saturday brings an equally rare appearance by one of the few practitioners, prior to Rudolph, of orchestral conducting and improvising -- the great Butch Morris, in a tribute to our departed local godfather Horace Tapscott. Major, major stuff.
Sat., Feb. 3, at Spaceland: Onetime L.A. denizen Wino Weinrich, a primordial guitar/vocal god of doom metal with St. Vitus, the Obsessed and Spirit Caravan, revives his Hidden Hand; plus Kylesa take the same Sab template and pile on hot, bubbling layers murk -- one of the deepest sludge units I’ve heard, with femme vox to boot.
Sat., Feb. 3 at Café Metropol: Well-traveled jazz/samba drummer Bert Karl has assembled a wild trio with hot-fingered bassist Roberto Miranda and pianist Mike Garson, the guy who added such flowery weirdness to David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane.
Sun., Feb. 4 at Eagle Rock Center for the Arts (225 Colorado Blvd., 7 p.m.), Alex Cline launches one of the otherworldly solo percussion performances he hardly ever messes with anymore, in support of microtonalist Kraig Grady pumping his bizarre organ alongside violist Cat Lamb in the duo Space. The best local edgesters await listeners who require no Bowl to experience the Supernatural.
And: Pharoah Motherfeastin’ Sanders elevates Catalina’s every night through Sun., Feb. 4.
It’s safe to say the music season is rolling. (Greg Burk)