Clavius Productions presents an evening of solo acoustic guitar, honoring the release of the Imaginational Anthems compilation, which includes all three performers on the bill:
Saturday, November 5
611 Florida Ave NW WDC
http://www.claviusproductions.org 9pm, $5 suggested donation
for more info, call 202-360-9739
BYOB!
Max Ochs (from Baltimore/Annapolis, original Takoma fingerpicker!)
Glenn Jones (from Boston, of Cul De Sac, on Strange Attractors)
Sean Smith (from California, on Isota Records)
The newly-formed, NYC-based indie label Tompkins Square Records plans on officially kicking things off on October 25th with their first CD release,
Imaginational Anthems. A collection of acoustic guitar music, the 16-track set spans 40 years of performances from 1965 through 2005. Compiled by Tompkins Square founder/former Sony Music executive Josh Rosenthal, the album will feature the talents of obscure six-string wizards like Harry Taussig, Steve Mann, and Max Ochs, alongside better-known artists like John Fahey and Sandy Bull. In several instances, the long-lost musicians unearthed by Rosenthal recorded their first tracks in decades exclusively for
Imaginational Anthems. "I've been a devotee of solo acoustic guitar music since I bought my first John Fahey record when in high school," Rosenthal told Billboard. "About two years ago, I found a very rare LP,
Contemporary Guitar, Spring '67, on Takoma. The album featured Bukka White, Robbie Basho, Fahey, Max Ochs, and Harry Taussig. I was haunted by the Ochs and Taussig tracks and needed to know what happened to these two artists in particular, as I could not find any info about them. I wanted to unearth some great players from that exciting experimental time in music and juxtapose them with today's torchbearers." Tompkins Square will be releasing albums by some of these exciting guitarists in the future, and a second volume of Imaginational Anthems is already planned for next year, featuring unreleased tracks from John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Fred Gerlach as well as new recordings by Sharron Kraus, Peter Lang, James Blackshaw, and Jesse Sparhawk.
Max Ochs Max Ochs was featured on the very first Takoma Records compilation,
Contemporary Guitar, Spring '67, and has since been criminally unrecorded. He was born in Baltimore, is Phil Ochs' cousin, was responsible for turning Robbie Basho on to folk music, and played in the seminal, if obscure, ESP raga band Seventh Sons. Admittedly enamored with Pete Seeger, Ochs until recently operated Annapolis' 333 Coffeehouse, where he occasionally performed. This is, incredibly, his first DC appearance in years. More information on Max can be found in this interview:
http://www.bayweekly.com/year04/issuexii12/lifexii12.html Glenn Jones ??I'm sure you know who Glenn Jones is, but just in case: Glenn's full-time band, Cul de Sac have amassed a huge following and have been releasing records since well into the Grunge Administration. Despite their long running career, they have only just recently hit their peak with the stunning Death of the Sun (also released by Strange Attractors). And, while this is Glenn's first solo release, he has been playing solo shows for some time around the Northeast, perhaps most notably at the notorious (was it?) Brattleboro Free Folk Festival a couple years back. He also recently lent his guitar prowess to Jack Rose for a track on his second LP,
Opium Musick.
This collaboration is very fitting for Glenn, as his solo music is very much in line with Jack Rose's. Jones has an incredibly adept control of the guitar. Over the course of this album's 43 minutes, his guitar soars, stomps, and burrows its way through your speakers with many faces. It opens with the blues-tinged title track, which mournfully moans its way into the deeply moody "Sphinx Unto Curious Men" which was originally released, in greatly truncated form on Cul de Sac's most recent effort,
The Strangler's Wife. "Linden Avenue Stomp" has a ragtime feel and may sound familiar: it is the only song on this album with a guest appearance (Jack Rose), and it is the song that Glenn co-wrote for Jack Rose's album (though it is a different take than the song on
Opium Musick). "The Doll Hospital" shows Glenn's obvious love for Fahey's music, and "One Jack Rose (That I Mean)" is a richly melodic take on Americana.
Glenn's technical abilities are above any kind of criticism. The first time I saw him play, I was literally watching in disbelief, as the movement of his fingers didn't seem to be matching up with the music coming from his guitar. And I've played guitar for 10 years. I'm generally able to pick apart basically everything I see performed live. But I wasn't prepared for that first time seeing Glenn. But, beyond that, he has the musical wherewithal to release an album like this, packed full of hints, influences, and references to a myriad of world and especially traditional American musics, but make it all so hard to pin down to a single thing.? (Sean Hammond, Fake Jazz)
Sean Smith http://www.seansmithlives.com/ "Guitarist Sean Smith plays strictly instrumental music in the tradition of Fahey, Basho and Peter Lang, but he alludes to that same sensation of connection in the song notes to his new self-titled CD. For one piece he writes, 'Looking through the pines upon the pseudo-disguised industrial/commercial developments, I glanced to a dark grove of trees and realized, with indescribable visions, that I had begun to be dealt coincidental consequential challenges and would not soon be rid of them. Perhaps, for the first time, my existence was affirmed and presented to me.' For another, he quotes architect/author Gyorgy Doczi: 'When we look deeply into the patterns of an apple blossom, a seashell or a swinging pendulum...we discover a perfection, an incredible order, that awakens in us a sense of awe that we knew as children.'" (SF Gate)
Upcoming 611 Florida events: Sunday 11/13: Michael Chapman (legendary UK folk/psych singer/songwriter on Harvest/Decca)/Benjy Ferree/Donny Hue & the Colors
Friday 11/25: Mikroknytes/Mountains (Apestaartje)/Sharks With Wings
January 2006: free jazz legend Arthur Doyle!
