Wow, here's a pair of odd bedfellows for your plans this weekend: Jeff Gauthier and Chip Fitzgerald.
Tonight at 8pm our Fearless Leader continues his subversive plot to destroy all musical boundaries by leading his Goatette -- keyboardist David Witham, bassist Joel Hamilton and percussionist Alex Cline (no, L.A. Times, Nels will NOT be playing) -- in the CD release party at West L.A.'s Palmer Room for the ensemble's new Crypto drop House of Return. Not to miss -- and I'm not just saying that because he's the boss...hahhhaahahhh (trailing off weakly)
Our friend Greg Burk has a cool metal/jazz blog called, you guessed, it, Metal Jazz. Read his interview with Mr. Gauthier here.
Beginning at noon on Saturday in Leimert Park, at the KAOS Network/Project Blowed space, there will what be a day-long series of events in support of Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald, the longest incarcerated Black Panther in the United States. (38 years -- and Fitzgerald's parole hearing is set for July 2.) Documentary films will be shown, people will speak -- including former Black Panther Elaine Brown (whose Seize The Time, her 1969 collaboration with Horace Tapscott was just reissued). For more info on Fitzgerald and his case, go here. To read a compelling account of more fallout from that ugly, volatile time in American life, check out Matthew Fleischer's LA Weekly article Children of the Revolutionary.
"When the world is running down..."
Cinema du Musique PostScript: if you're not too tuckered on Sat. night, they're running a new documentary downtown on the glory days of the famed L.A. session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew (California Plaza Amphitheatre, 350 S. Grand Ave., dwntwn; Sat., June 28, 8 p.m. Admission free). Then, have a good sleep (after watching the rebroadcast of the very first Saturday Night Live with the recently vacated first host George Carlin), go check out an early music-film masterpiece in the comfort of an outdoor graveyard. Cinespia will be showing Steve Binder's 1964 concert doc The T.A.M.I. Show, featuring Chuck Berry, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and, of course, the showstopping, career-making performances by Ike & Tina Turner and James Brown. Then, go home and collapse and have someone put a cape over you.
