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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Great Live Jazz on 18th St (NO COVER!)- The Butch Warren Experience

Hey friends,

Executive Summary: Butch Warren, legendary 1960s bassist, appearing with great jazz band at Columbia Station on 18th St. in Adams Morgan in Washington DC on Wed nights, Friday nights, Saturday nights, Sunday nights. No cover! Sparse crowd last night. Need to get the word out on this before its gone.


Lets get the word out on this! Even if you're not into live jazz yourself you might be surprised at who is!

I thought I'd help spread the word on this because if we in Washington DC don't support live jazz we are not going to have any live jazz.. And in Duke Ellington's hometown that would be an embarassment and a crime....( FOR MEAT AND POTATOES SCROLL TO BOTTOM)

It was pretty incredible musically and accesible (not crazy weird jazz, not modern fusion jazz but just great straight
ahead old school jazz) but there weren't too many people there so they need your support and that of your friends. Its rare to find this kind of level of jazz at a nice place with no cover (there is a $10 minimum expected expenditure and they band does play for tips).

Butch Warren is a DC jazzman. Plays the upright bass. Did so in the 1960s with many of the greatest of the greats... We're talking Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, Hank Mobley - THOSE KIND OF NAMES- and if you listen to many of the great Blue Note records of the 1960s (He's the bassist on one of the great sessions of all time- Dexter Gordon's "GO" along with Sonny Clark on piano)... anyways you may unknowingly have heard his work ... then again sometimes one takes the bass for granted but when its gone whooooooooooaaaaaaaaa nelly i'm bungee jumpin' and I ain't got no shorts on!

Anyways, Butch Warren went through some hard times(see link to Washington Post piece that delves more into that..) and who hasn't but he's back trying to make it in the real world and leading a jazz band called the Butch Warren Experience and I checked them out last night and was impressed. Butch Warren played on about half the songs and even sang a few tracks. He shares the bass duties with a stand in- Bill "Magic" Lavender. The saxophonist Knud Jensen was very impressive as was the pianist who acts as band leader, Peter Edelman. They played some standards (ie., Stella by Starlight) , some Charlie Parker (ie., Donna Lee) and some Butch Warren original compositions. The bandmembers are very congenial and you can interact with them in between sets. Its not every day you get to talk to a guy that played with these legendary cats but I didn't talk to Butch last night but will do so soon...

So please spread the word to your friends and check these guys out...

They're playing at


The Butch Warren Experience
appearing at COLUMBIA STATION
2325 18th St NW
Adams Morgan

Butch Warren/bass
Bill "Magic" Lavender/bass
Peter Edelman/piano
Eric Allen/ drums
Knud Jensen/tenor saxophone
Olivier Brown/trumpet

Wednesday 8:30 pm - 12:30 am
Friday 9:30 pm- 1:30 am
Saturday 9:30 pm - 1:30 am
Sunday 8:30 pm- 12:30 am

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2007/07/


thank you

Monday, January 21, 2008

Mr. Angus Young- Its time to rise up!!!!!!!!!

AC DC TO TOUR IN 2008?

Listening to AC DC on this MLK day early afternoon- the live album "If
you want blood you've got it"- which is an absolute scorcher. I've
been getting more and more into these guys over the past couple of
years and now they are the act I would like to catch live the most.
Angus Young is a mere 52 so there is no reason these guys shouldn't
kick some serious ass. The word was- apparently confirmed- that AC DC
was going to do a small club gig in Switzerland at the end of this
month but the plug was pulled. APparently word leaked out and it was
supposed to be semi-secret. My guess: they probably wanted to play a
show and see if they still wanted to do it for a big world tour laster
this year. Keep in mind they don't need the money and these guys - and
I'm thinking of the guys who run the band: ANgus and Malcolm Young-
don't do things for the money. They do not even have a greatest hits
album! Think about the money that they would get if they would do the
fairweather fans/mass buying public a favor and put the studio
versions of Highway to Hell and Back in Black (Bon Scott era and Brian
Johnson era) on one CD! It would sell millions. They just don't care
bout stuff like that and in spite of that according to something I
read they made 18 million dollars (australian) last year in spite of
not releasing anything new (DVD came out right at end of year is true)
or playing one show!

So is AC DC going to tour later this year. A friend of mine thinks
based on a live nationa ac dc store having gone up that the deal has
already been signed. I'll tell you one thing though : if these guys
play I am going to catch at least 3 of these shows. There is no band I
want to see more right now. The world needs AC DC right now. Need to
go back to that no frills just thrills Chuck Berry rock and roll.