Goodbye, Captain: Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, dies at 69

This is really sad news Phatties. Avant-garde rock giant Captain Beefheart, best known for his landmark 'Safe as Milk' and 'Trout Mask Replica' albums of the late 1960's passed away this afternoon from complications of multiple sclerosis at 69. While his music was always viewed as challenging and never sold particularly well, his avant-garde music, based in blues rock conventions, has influenced generations of musicians, and his records are consistently rated as among the greatest ever made by adoring rock critics. Legendary DJ John Peel called Beefheart perhaps the only true rock genius, and John Lennon called 'Safe as Milk' his favorite album of 1967, displaying two bumper stickers with the album art at his Weybridge home. Influencing everyone from R.E.M to Devo to Tom Waits, Beefheart was truly one of a kind. Captain, you will be missed.
A story about Beefheart was related to me by Terry Shaddick, singer/guitarist of great British band Tranquility and co-writer of Olivia Newton John's smash 'Physical', who toured alongside Beefheart's Magic Band. Apparently, Beefheart would record in a seperate building from his band, without headphones to hear what they were playing, accounting for some of the odd time signatures and off-kilter sounds of his classic out records.

RIP Marion Brown

Sad news, jazzers (and all you dance music-freak Pitchfork reading hipsters who should educate yourself in a little boplicity). According to magazine/blog/record-lable/all-around-source-of-funk WaxPoetics, "Alto saxophone great Marion Brown died in Hollywood, Florida, on October 18. He was seventy-nine." Sad news indeed folks. See, for those not in the know, Brown was a rare thing; a free jazz great who thrived on melody and lyricism in addition to creative free-for-all blowing sessions of mad anarchic chaos in sound (though he did his fare share of that shyzer too; check this puppy from 1967 out, called Porto Novo [if you can't make it through, just skip to the middle where it gets really intense]). He played on John Coltrane's monumental statement of jazz liberation, Ascension, as well as some great Archie Shepp records worth checking out, among others. But above all, this guy had pure soul. The beauty of a tune like 'Vista' here is just marvelous; reflecting the influence of 'Trane and Sanders yet with his own sensitive finesse, this group gets the afro-spiritual-Jazz thing going like no other. Man, this cat will be missed. Marion, Phat Fellas salutes you.

In Honor of Rosh HaShanah- Some Funky Jewish Music

For all of you Hebrew hipsters who want to spice up your Jewish new year with something a little funkier than the Malavsky Sweet Singers of Israel Family Choir (more on them and their ramshakle charm another time), check out these cool, funky, obscure, and yes, Jewish LP's that will sweeten your holiday while keeping yourself firmly within your cool, Pitchfork reading, indie image.

Herbie Hancock Sextet- Hear O' Israel: A Prayer Ceremony in Jazz
The title really says it all; this classic period "lost" Herbie Hancock album (only a couple hundred copies were initially pressed) is a Jewish prayer service set to jazz tunes commission by Rabbi David Davis and written by 17 year old Jonathan Klein. The work was preformed at Friday night prayer concerts, and recorded in 1968 with the absolutley stellar lineup of Herbie Hancock, Thad Jones, Ron Carter, Jerome Richardson, Grady Tate, Jonathan Klein , soprano

and contralto vocalists and Rabbi Richard Davis as reader. Much of the album is made up of Coltrane style spiritual jazz, hard boppin' Blue Note-style tunes or Herbie Hancock piano explorations, yet the Hebrew singing gives it a whole different twist. Indeed, the vocal charts are pretty out there and are an aquired taste that can occasionally grate on the listener, but not enough to scare them away from this swinging and beautiful peice of Jewish soul Jazz. A really unique and spiritually moving record, "Matovu- Borchu", "Sh'ma", "Sanctification" and "Torah Service- Adoration" are among the highlights of this interesting, surprising and often beautiful record. Never thought you'd hear a Herbie Hacock song called Kiddush, right?

Various Artist-Soul Messages From Dimona

The musicians on this extraordinary compilation first worked together as part of a group of session musicians from Chicago called the Metrotones. After becoming involved with Ben Ammi Carter's Black-Hebrew Zionist vision, these musician moved to West Africa, where they encountered many a hardship (including the abduction of band members Shevat Boyd and Yehuda Whitfield). Re-christened the Soul Messengers, the group moved to the settlement of Dimona in Southern Israel's Negev Desert.

Augmented by female singers Spirit of Israel, teen group the Tonistics (the black Jewish Jackson 5), and male singers Sons of the Kingdom, the musically collective became popular for their free shows during the Yom Kippur War.

The music included on this collection is diverse; songs range from Jewish psychedelic gospel to spiritual soul Jazz to disco infused funk. Most songs have religious subject matter and all are ridiculously funky. For all of you Hebraic Fela Kuti worshipers, this is the album for you. I am hesitant to peg this one with the "Jewish" tag; this is simply one of the best soul releases of any sort I have heard recently. And come on, where else can you hear a Hebrew rewrite of Steam's "Na Na Na (Kiss Him Goodbye)" ?

Oren Bloedow and Jennifer Charles- La Mar Enfortuna

Sephardic indie rock? What, what? Yes, you heard right. The masterminds of the indie rock group Elysian Fields explore the music of the Spanish Jews on this 2001 release as part of avant-garde jazzer John Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture imprint of the Tzadik record label. The reinterpretations can be radical; "La Rosa" is transformed from sultry love ballad to a menacing and sexy blues workout while "Ayyu-Ha S-Saqi" becomes an avant garde Arabic drone workout, complete with requisite backwards tapes, oud and saz. The 10 minute "Porke Yorach" is slow, jazzy and sexy in a way that few music is. These reinterpretations are alternately edgy, dark and creepy or sultry and passionate; although respectful of the music's spirit, this is, as the label suggests, radical Jewish music. Jennifer Charles is a very sultry and passionate singer, and approaches these songs with heart. Embracing jazz, funk, avant-garde, rock and Latin, this indie-Sephardic record is a unique jem.

More on Jewish grooviness another time, peeps. So, Jewish folk, happy new year.

Additional Jewish Grooviness: anything on John Zorn's Tzadik label