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Show Vlystery of the airwaves Static clouds concert chords If By VAL NESS Chronicle Staff other day, the old Bozo and I ime across one of the most Viazing radio broadcasts I've 1 er heard. We were listening to e cosmos over his short-wave ' mylomerate when some quirk in e ionosphere caused us to hear jam originating from mebody's backyard in L.A. ie phenomenon was apparently ,e to a signal generated by the ignetic cores of about 50 highly iplified speakers, each of which is connected through an lplifier to a guitar, microphone, "J some other instrument. hoi, livtrere were definitely more 3ftarists than we could tinguish, but some names were ntioned over a public address ' tern, and enough other clues e evident to reveal the nature Sthe gig. As we tuned in, it nded like the chorus to "76 mbones" with feedback. 'rell it ended quickly, though, with tj flourish from somebody mnding a lot like Johnny Winter. A voice then introduced Eric Clapton, John McLaughlin, George Harrison and Sonny Sharrok, with Captain Beefheart on vocals for a searing rendition of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." We tried to tape it, but we got interference in-terference every time the recorder was switched on. The next song was mainly a 45-minute 45-minute version of "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with Roscoe Holcomb, Earl Scruggs and Dylan-style vocals by somebody called Blind Boy Grunt. We lost the signal again during the next song, titled "Cow Pie Boogie." It was supposed to allow a three-minute solo for' each man on stage, but they were still going an hour later when the static interfered. Billy Preston managed to get a key stuck again, and the crowd went wild. There were six or eight drummers trading off on three kits during the set; they did a joint solo that lasted for about twenty minutes. I'm pretty sure I heard the names of Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Cmger Baker mentioned somewhere during the broadcast. Too bad you missed it. In other weird news, I received a note in my mailbox instructing me to look underneath a particular par-ticular rock in City Creek Canyon to find a very pleasant surprise. Well, after a long hike (the road was closed) I came to the rock in question, and peeked underneath. un-derneath. Lo and behold, there was a box with a note attached, explaining that enclosed were the lost tapes of the final concert of "Iron Man" Eric Dolphy! According to the folklore, this was also Dolphy's first and only concert with Cecil Taylor, whom Dolphy had admired throughout his career. During their first song together on stage, the story goes, Dolphy simply fell dead from joy. Sly Stone and Eamily are coming, as you know, electronically. I've seen and heard some pretty good concerts on film and television (especially some PBS productions), produc-tions), and so this ought to be interesting. If it can be pulled off successfully, this could mean cheaper music with bigger names, but I'm sure promoters will still charge whatever they think they can get. I'm also sure there are going to be some pretty frustrated groupies at the SEC April 7. There's also another Rosalie Sorells concert in the works, and watch for the May Day Eree Fest in one month. The Space Warp Express has scored a thrill-packed movie depicting de-picting a colony of viruses gaily multiplying their way through "Life?" which is the title of the movie and the album. The liner notes recommend that extremely fast travel and a snort or two of nitrous oxide are most conducive for listening. I agree Mystical revelations are a lot more fun at about 185,000 feet per second. |