Well, The Anti Social Club is finally out. I can just hear people talking after they listen to it for the first time. "Wow, I didn't know Alan Pasqua played Fender Rhodes. It must be something new he's been working on..." The Anti Social Club is not a new branch of my creative tree, rather a return to it's roots. All that nice, pretty introspective piano trio and quartet music that I recorded (Milagro, Dedications, Live at Rocco, Badlands, My New Old Friend, Body and Soul, Standards, etc) is certainly music that I love.
But The Anti Social Club is conceptual music that I evolved with in my early years. I never played in a piano trio in Boston. I never played in an acoustic quartet there either. Everything I did was ELECTRIC. I played in a band whose leader was a great trumpet player/ composer named Stanton Davis. That is where is learned the ropes. Stanton was a protege of George Russell, and like George was many years ahead of his time. Stanton Davis and Ghetto Mysticism. 1974. Here's what we looked like:
The music was BAD!!!!!! It was heavy groove, trance, modal, free. It was unbelievable. The guys in it are L to R: Jerome Harris, Leonard Brown, Les Lumley, myself, Stanton Davis and Vinnie Johnson. We were making music. Taking chances. Not the formulaic, intellectual jazz that we have today. This had spirit, heart, soul and it was OUT!!
The Anti Social Club is all that and more. it is a political statement against the establishment and the way our world has become. It is an organization that says NO to the nonsense in our world, our government. It is a homage to Boston, my favorite city, to the Red Sox and all its nation, to my family, to all the musicians I love.
It is also a flip of the bird to big business, fast food, corporate anything, dumbing down, fear, organized religion, a government full of selfish liars and and war.
And I'm not playing a Fender Rhodes...it's a Nord Stage 88. it is made in Stockholm, Sweden by a small group of very smart and caring individuals. It is a unique instrument, very intuitive. It is just like an acoustic piano for me , in that when I play it, I sound like myself, not a rip-off of someone who put the Rhodes on the map.
How refreshing.
Now go do your homework.
