“… HIP-HOP CHILDREN OF BE-BOP PARENTS…”, LA GETS HIP WITH DAAOOD, TRIBLE, AND THE WHOLE INDUS VALLEY

I haven’t heard anything like it since listening to Jack Kerouac over Steve Allen’s piano (on tape, a**hole, I’m not THAT old)… okay, so maybe not since McClure and Manzarek anyway… the power of poetry- GOOD poetry- being spoken over music- GOOD music. That’s what we lucky ones got Friday night at Cal Plaza’s Grand Performance, in this case by Kamau Daaood- legendary Watts Writer- and a band that included such jazz luminaries as Otmaro Ruiz on keyboards and Justo Almario on reeds. Add to that the vocal stylings of Dwight Trible, and you’ve got an evening to remember. If for Trible the voice is every bit as much an instrument as a saxophone is, then for Daaood the spoken word is every bit as much an instrument as thought itself. Daaood stir-fries words like peppers and onions and meaty healthy tofu on a hot Chinese wok and then tosses them onto your plate over a bed of hot rice percussion to wash down with copious quantities of jazz mead wine. “I do not fit into form; I create form,” Daaood says in his ‘I’m not for Sale’ ode to master Horace Tapscott. You can say that again.

Dwight Trible is something else again, but meshes really nicely with Daaood in a kind of back-and-forth sing-song antiphony. He simply must be seen to be appreciated. Know how blind people ‘let themselves go’ in a way that sighted people can’t? While the short take might be that ‘they don’t know how silly they look,’ I suspect the reason is more one of balance. Close your eyes and see how quickly you lose yours. Dwight Trible resembles a hyper-balanced organism defining the relationship between earth and space/space and time, and his voice reflects this ethereal balancing act, constantly in motion, constantly re-positioning itself with what came before and what is yet still in mind, a mathematical variable seeking resolution.

Frankly Daaood and Trible could suffice with no backing at all, the two aspects of voice- as word and music, then harmony and melody- complete between the two of them. But the percussion gives it rhythm, and the jazz is the icing on the cake. It’s a shame nothing more has been done with the format, but then not much has even been done with the much vaster- and easier- concept of putting together moving pictures and music OR words. Look how MTV made a mockery of that without even really trying. Any body who thinks ‘it’s all been done’ lacks imagination. If it takes a trip down to Leimart Park to see these guys, I’d heartily recommend it… though downtown LA certainly makes it easy. The amount of jazz talent in LA that’s willing to come out and share itself on any given night is simply incredible and a resource not to be taken for granted.

So after a short break most of the opening band’s key members just changed jackets and came back out to back Badal Roy and his ‘Indus Valley Civilization.’ An off-shoot of the ‘Miles in India’ project of a couple years ago, this band is all about music- heavy on the percussion- not vocals. Interestingly enough Latinos Ruiz and Almario are very familiar with the Latin side of percussion, so this is something completely different. Do the two complete the two sides of the jazz percussion psyche? May be. They played a brilliant set anyway, all members taking turns at lead. The use of drum and percussion AS LEAD INSTRUMENT- not just solo rhythm- is something that should be explored much more extensively.

The Mexican band Troker played the third set of the evening, but I cut out early. I get bored on breaks. So I went down to Pershing Square and never made it back up. They sound pretty good on MySpace, though. I’d go back. Other than that there’s not much to report on last week’s offerings. Fishbone at Pershing Square sounded good on the last couple songs I caught, so I’d like to see more of them. Razia Said at McArthur Park was competent enough, but failed to excite me. This week’s looking really good, though. The chill deal looks like Friday evening at Cal Plaza once again, with Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba opening and LA’s much-beloved Dengue Fever coming out later. DON’T MISS!

Other than Dengue Fever, Tabou Combo next night at Cal Plaza sounds good, real island stuff out of Haiti! Besides that The Budos Band and Charanga Cakewalk at Mcarthur Park on Thursday and Friday nights, respectively, look like good bets. Jose Rizo is doing his take on Mongo Santamaria at LACMA’s Latin night, too, so there’s no shortage of tunes this week… and then there’s the clubs. Me, I’ll wait til it gets cold for that. See you at the water court, livest acoustics in town. Just don’t get caught in a dead zone…