Reviews by Dawoud Kringle
Artist: Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra
Title: Piety Street Adjacent
Format: album
Label: Adjacent Records
Genre: Downtown Music/NO WAVE/electronic funky music
Buy here
Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
During my stay in Tokyo I loved to watch YouTube videos before going to bed. By chance I found this one and felt that some of my readers might be interested in this great musician who passed away two years ago. I heard the first time about Captain Beafheart when I was in Japan maybe around 1976. A friend of mine had a cassette of a Frank Zappa live recording featuring Captain Beafheart on vocals. This album is still one of my favorite one.
Don Van Vliet, born Don Glen Vliet, January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist and poet widely known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 13 studio albums. Noted for his powerful singing voice with its wide range, Van Vliet also played the harmonica, saxophone and numerous other wind instruments. His music blended rock, blues and psychedelia with avant-garde and contemporary experimental composition. Beefheart was also known for exercising an almost dictatorial control over his supporting musicians, and for often constructing myths about his life. Read more about him here.
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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Yesterday one of my music heroes died !!! Don Van Vliet, better-known as Captain Beefheart, has died from multiple sclerosis in California, aged 69. He leaves behind his wife of more than 40 years.
The first time when I heard of him was in Osaka,Japan in 1976 when my French buddy had a cassette of Trout Mask Replica which was released in 1969 on Frank Zappa’s newly formed Straight Records label. Some time later, when I toured California for the first time I bought the album in LA, which I gave as a present to my Japanese girlfriend. Listening to Capatain Beefheart in Japan was like a foreigner eating umeboshi for the first time. It was satori!!!
Date: Monday, September 13, 2010
Time: 8pm
Venue: The Stone (located at Avenue C and 2nd Street)
Ticket: $30
Genre: music seminar
Gary Lucas performed on stage during the 1980/81 Beefheart tours and played lead guitar on the album Ice Cream For Crow. For this symposium he presents a lecture/demonstration about the music and methodologies of rock legend Captain Beefheart, followed by a Q&A.
