Royal Lovers and Naked Holymen
LIVE AT THE SACRED GROUNDS -- THE BLUE FOX PROJECT
Hi Everybody! This is the music link. Above us is the cassette jacket for Royal Lovers & Naked Holymen. Premiere body of work of Dagga Cult. You can find out all about the people and story of this disk on the link entitled bio - "the story" . This piece of music also comes in compact disk form. The sound bite, "Lovers Conversation", is one of a selection of various dance rythms that are treated. There is everything from Reggae to Salsa, to even a little bit of a "Hip-Hop" taste on "Monkey Business At the Gas Station". You can get a copy of this disk or cassette by letting me know by e-mail. That's just for now. In the future, this process will be a lot more business like.
To make a note here, to use my most recent telephone number, which is (415) 467-1352. The phone numbers on the cassette jackets may not be up to date.
So here it is! The second disk! This took far too long to happen, but arrived just in time. I've set up a modest recording scenario, and this is the first product of DAE Records. It's inspired by the excitement of having the new equipment, and needing a project to learn with as well as the fact that my mother has not heard me play the piano for almost thirty years! Why "Garage Jazz"? Well, I've been listening to jazz all my life, and the totally extemporaneous tunes made up in those excellent moments when music had taken command of everyone, well, that was real jazz. Freedom! It took four months of plugging away to come up with a little more than two hours of material. Sketches that just possessed me at that moment. They either came out in one take just like that, and that's magic, or I had to play it three times or so to see if it would calm down and become something recognizeable. If no cognizant form took shape, I shit canned it. It was quite a three or four months!
Right here I have to thank Ken Wills, an excelllent drummer and sound technician; he's presently playing with more than one band, but Budderball comes to mind easily. Here, also, I have to thank Jim Sweeney, one guitarist from the band Glass Town who is also a great sound engineer. These guys are helping me learn how to do this! So out of two hours plus comes fifty-eight minutes. These are unedited, extemporaneous, caught live on tape. This is a modest effort, but it's honest. I'll bet you'll be able to tell the difference between the one's my mom will understand and the one's that even I don't understand yet! This is now available over the net at Music Match. This is in cassette form as well. You can also purchase the disk at Amoeba Records, Haight & Stanyan, San Francisco, California. If they do not have a copy in stock, which is usually the case, please order it! It's even better if you order it online. You may also request selections from this disk on KPOO Radio, 89.5FM San Francisco. KUSF San Francisco has also received a disk. They need requests! For now, I'm running around town giving it to people on my mailing list, and other musical compatriots; also I'll be giving it out to rooms with pianos that appeal to me over the years. See if some dreams won't come true. If they do, you can read about it here.
It was 1996. "Dagga Cult", the old band was no longer, but Drew didn't feel like being "no longer", so it was necessary to keep focus. Just get out there and play and find some new people. Pretty soon Drew Anthony became "Strange But Drew". He played the "Paradise" with Bay Guardian's [a free paper that caters to local talent] demo of the month winner Chris Murry. They played the Paradise (in the small room), and the Brainwash. Real good times! He got a set at the "Hotel Utah". It was every little room he could play.
Day-gigging up in Pacific Heights, a very posh part of town overlooking the bay; a very pretty section used for a lot of movies and commercials and stuff. Drew meets composer, guitarist Mario Desio of the trio "Tapwater". Mario and Drew buy some recording equipment and commence to produce a few "Demos". "Tapwater" drummer, Ken Wills, decides he wouldn't mind helping Drew out with some drum tracks. So, it's on to "Downtown Studios", which is actually almost out of town, which is south, near what was formally known as "Candlestick Park".
At this studio we were treated to a huge room with one wall consisting of windows! This is rare for practice studios, which are usually subhuman holes in the ground. Good work got done that afternoon as drum tracks went on four of five tunes. This building got sold recently and two hundred bands lost their practice space!
A few Months later at the Sacred Grounds Café in the upper Haight, Drew ran into Dave Mihaly. He was the drummer for the "After the End of the World Coretet" on Crystal Egg Records; Progressive Jazz. Nowadays he plays around in a host of musical scenes. You can hear him with a local talent such as The "Capital Sunrays". He's widely known amongst the unknown here in San Francisco.
Dave expressed an interest in Drew's compositions, which finally resulted in a series of recording sessions set up with Lemon DeGeorge. Lemon's latest effort is a significant amount of work on the soundtrack of the recent film release "Ghenghis Blues" on Tuva Much Records. Lemon is also a member of "Phoenix Thunderstone" of Heyday Records. These sessions were at 'The Crib", Lemon's Andover street studio in Bernal Heights.
This "quaint" little zone was a favorite of artists and musicians for Many years. Recent housing booms have put an end to a lot of the easy living that existed in this section of San Francisco, but I bet that's happening where you live too. Dave and Lemon worked out tracks for three or four of the tunes here. Lemon's phenomenal patience transformed the "car wrecks " he was given to wok with into recognizable tunes. Dave gave the songs their first rhythm and bass lines. Now they could be thought about as a body of work.
The following year, on a weekend stay in his daughter Anastasia's apartment in Sebastopol, California, Drew composes a poem, "My Temple", that is immediately recognized as a potential hip-hop number. Drew wanted a genuine product. After initial recordings at Mario's place in the sunset district, Drew is directed towards Mike Powell. Mike Powell is a genuine talent. One-time member of "Meatbeat Manifesto", he is presently on loan to Drew from Tinocorp Records, where he is providing "Tinobreaks". "My Temple" speaks for itself. He will inspire Drew as he does everyone who works with him.
For the better part of 1998, Drew knocked around with Gary Ferguson, Anne Marie Mazlan and Chris Warden. This was the original complement of the "Blue Fox Orkestra". It lasted for ten crazy months in which we played some great shows and started to record. Financial problems and other priorities put an end to that combination of people, but did remind Drew about all that recorded material that wasn't getting any closer to production!
On New Year's Day of 1999, Drew will have to move from the Haight Ashbury to Visitacion Valley, one of the most southern of San Francisco's neighborhoods. The Tioga Street Studios are born and DAE records comes into existence. On a visit to his auto-mechanic in Potrerero Hill, Drew is informed of a recording studio right next door. Through friendly inquiry he runs into Jim Sweeny. Jim is a sound engineer as well as guitarist for the band "Glasstown", a fairly recent arrival on the local scene.
With Jim's help, in 1999, The compact disc "Beads On A String" is produced. DAE records First offering, it's a collection of original "Garage Jazz" improvisations for solo piano. It is popular on the independent Radio stations and the internet.
Ken Wills, having received "Beads On A String", sets some of the tunes to his own dance tracks. As "Kenny Wheels", he calls it the "Space Dub Tango Mix". These pieces are sprinkled throughout the disc. Ken reveals ability on Guitar and bass as well as drums and electronics. He now produces tracks of all sorts on "Stump" records. He worked occasionally with the band "Budderball" as well.
Drew and Jim Sweeny continue collaborations into the year 2000. Jim will now record all of Drew's vocal harmony parts as well as Drew's flute and piano solos. Jim will also contribute guitar and bass to "Can of Snakes"
The body of work now travels across town again to the Filmore district for mixing and guitar and improv electronics. Eddy Gonzales, from the band "Hat" with Stump Records, will contribute guitar and vocal "flavor". From there, the very talented Ron Guensche of Icebox Records in Alameda, California, will help Ken with the final mastering. This task is more crucial than usual with electronic elements such as those on "Quest".
This disc is an audition, as well as some sort of pop odyssey! From this effort may emerge new members of the "Blue Fox Orkestra". This is a San Francisco product that is faithful to the casual irreverence that this city can flaunt so well. Drew loves this place; his home base for thirty years. Dae Records hopes music lovers everywhere will get a chance to hear and enjoy the "Quest For The Blue Fox".
DAE RECORDS, San Francisco, 2000
A disk devoted to songs written, that probably won't be put into a band format. Destined to be appreciated as simply as they can be performed. These songs were composed in a period of about ten years, inspired by a score of different rooms in San Francisco that hosted me for a set, or presented a regular open mike. They start off with "We Don't Do Anything", first performed at a music venue named "The Owl and Monkey". It was actually a restaurant taken over by musicians; this was in 1990. This song almost disappeared, remembered just long enought to finally get recorded. It deals with the idea that love makes us do everything; we can't really control ourselves at all. The last song, "Death of the Tiger" was published in 1999, but never really performed very much in public at all. It deals with how utterly misguided our efforts to protect our environment can become. Our uncanny ability to end up entertaining ourselves with our problems, instead of solving them. This text is not over, I will be adding to it as the months go on, revealing what these songs might be about.
For information and bookings, or just to say hello, e-mail drew [drewfox@sonic.net] or roger [rjsiegel@pacbell.net]
Dave Mihaly and Drew Anthony were both fixtures at the Sacred Grounds Café. The second oldest Café under the same name in San Francisco. It gets beat out by the Café Trieste in North Beach. Listening to each others music and finding kindred spirits, they decided to have a go at it.
They did it one Sunday afternoon and "Zee", who is Zuhair Sinada, the currant proprieter, liked them both so much that he would let them do it any time! Such a great feeling. They decided it would be OK to continue the positive momentum of the recently disbanded Blue Fox Orkestra and call the act The Blue Fox Duet.
Roger Siegel had been reading his poems to improv jazz for some time and he occasionally liked to publically read a poem or two to Drews' keyboard styles. He sat in on the third session and fit so well we quickly evolved to the Blue Fox Project.
The desire to record some of this chemistry, something akin to the energy that makes kids giggle at the table and play in mudpuddles, resulted in the recruiting of Fritz Schwarz, totally sympatico sound engineer, to reside over these "Live Recordings". They were so alive Fritz was playing along with a drumstick on the recording table!
Which leads to a mention for "CC" and Anne Marie, two ladies who came upon the scene to lend harmony and added percussion. Anne Marie had worked with Drew in the original "Blue Fox Orkestra". "CC" heard about us through Roger.
With the exception of two pieces, "Ballad of Jimmy Sugar" and "Grandview Boulevard", all the compositions were dreamt up extemporaneously on the spot. Out of four hours of such sound traveling there is, thanks to Fritz' expertise, this hour long disc.
People sit in with the project. An excellent example being the poetess Deetje Boler, long time resident of the "Haight", who lives a few doors from the Café. There is also a sample of Pallestinian folk singer Khalil Habash, who happens to run Cindy's Market, across the street from the "Grounds".
Some of this is comic in its chaos but all of this was fun to do and is fun to do for people who like the idea of music that is made right in front of them. Poetry that is of the project rather than an extra added attraction. An act to bring you little tastes of the many entertaining personalities residing in the neighborhoods surrounding the Sacred Grounds Café.
DAE RECORDS
San Francisco, Ca.
There are initially only ten copies of this "release". This is a work oriented project. The disks are for artists to study as they prepare to produce the ultimate disk. Even though this is essentially pre-production, DAE Records will consider this a separate release, simply because, it will not be in this form again. It is not a blueprint of the final product. By the time everyone who works on this project contributes their efforts, we don't know which particular pieces will "make the cut". This is going to be a great project. For the moment, Drew plays all the instruments and sings all the parts. That will, of course, change radically in most cases. What an adventure!
Copyright © 1998,1999,2000,2001 Andrew Anthony Autuori
Revised 9 November, 2001
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