Biodun & Batik Afro Jazz Band at Freedom Park - Audio Tracks

On Stage at Freedom Park in Lagos
with Biodun & Batik Afro Jazz Band

I was invited to Freedom Park on Lagos Island on Friday night to perform as the guest of trumpeter Biodun with his Batik Afro Jazz Band. Freedom Park is a relatively new venue on the site of the former colonial prison, an open air stage inside a walled prison courtyard that has been converted into a green space – an urban performance place in a sculpture garden surrounded by food stalls. I had heard of Freedom Park as the site of occasional Seun Kuti gigs, but it is relatively far from where I stay and I had not previously ventured down there. It is a very nice spot to spend an evening and I recommend it to music fans in Lagos. Biodun met me at the gate and introduced me to the park director, who turns out to be Fela Kuti’s son-in-law.

Biodun is a fine Hugh Masakela-influenced trumpeter – I wrote about him when we first met in May of this year. His pedigree includes stints with Fela and Lagbaja. At Freedom Park, he fronted his Batik Afro Jazz Band of keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, and occasional girl singer. I had met bass player Mike before at Biodun’s home studio, but the rest of the rhythm section was new to me, fairly young but highly competent players. When Biodun phoned me to make the gig, I asked for a set list. He said not to worry, no set list, they probably would not play any standards, just some pop tunes and highlife in I-IV-V progression, and I could just jam along.

Two Tenors -
With Saxophonist Seun Olota

I realized the morning after the gig that Biodun and Batik play an incredible diversity of music – from jazz tunes by John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter to reggae, Fela's afrobeat, Igbo and Yoruba highlife, Afro-pop, originals, 60’s rock, and even some requisite smooth jazz hits and pop covers by the likes of Whitney Houston. I played tenor on the jazz tunes, most of the highlife, and had my first experience performing a Fela tune live – Water No Get Enemy, which I learned from Showboy last year and actually remembered. During the second set, another tenor player, Seun Olota, joined the group, making it an octet. He and Biodun looked to be old friends and Seun fronted the band on two Fela tunes, singing and dancing Water and Lady to the crowd’s delight.

I have posted a few audio tracks from my Zoom: here are links to Water No Get Enemy, Footprints, an Igbo highlife of unknown title, and Equinox (320 kbps MP3 sound files). That’s the good. The bad is that the sound system was not great, with the bass dominating, the snare drum too loud, and the piano down in the mix. The lead instruments were somewhat buried all night – especially the tenor sax, of course, which particularly gets drowned out by loud bass guitar since their frequencies overlap. But the music itself is nice.

There was no ugly.

Two Original Tracks from Saxophonist Dotun Bankole

Tenor Saxophonist Dotun “Dotsax” Bankole dropped by my house the other night for a jam. He plays a 156k silver plate Mark VI which is about a year younger than the horn I've been playing lately, a 148k Mark VI that is basically bare brass, having been stripped of its silver plate a long time ago. The horns are brothers from the late 60's, although his has a high F# key and mine doesn't  Dotun really liked the resonance of my horn and we traded instruments for the evening. He is playing on a Jody Jazz metal mouthpiece which was given to him by the manufacturer while on tour in the States a couple of months ago with Femi Kuti.

Dotun was bemoaning the scarcity of jazz in present-day Lagos. There is not a single venue in this city of 17 million that features live jazz every day. I thought maybe it was just me because I have played out less this past year than in any year in recent memory, although I have been working in a city which is lauded in some media circles as one of the really happening places in the third world. Not really happening for jazz since there is practically no place to jam, even for excellent local players, and not much happening even for home-grown styles like afrobeat although the music press refers to afrobeat as being really popular worldwide – I've previously written about that paradox.

In any event, Dotun continues to improvise and create on his saxophone. Recently he has been working on two original tracks in the studio: Irawo Owuro and Aja Nti Ele, where he plays soprano sax rather than his more usual tenor. You can listen to these two works-in-progress here and look for and buy the CD when it is released. Click on the track names to download and listen. Meanwhile, you can catch Dotsax playing tenor behind Femi Kuti at the New Africa Shrine in Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday and Sunday evenings.

Seun Kuti Premieres A New Song at the Shrine

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 performed last night at the New Africa Shrine in Lagos, their first Shrine appearance in 2013. The performance was sparsely attended; probably only 100 or so in the audience, baffling for a band that toured all over the globe last year including sell-out performances in the US, UK, Australia, and Japan. It wasn't because the tickets were outpriced either. I hardly spent ten bucks including my gate fees, drinks, and taxi money in a city known for high prices. 

Egypt 80 led off a bit after 11:00 pm with Fela’s Dog Eat Dog and then proceeded through a warm-up set of an hour and a quarter, with Showboy vocalizing and directing the horns. Seun came on at about 12:30 am dressed in red pants. The crowd was..shall we say…interesting? First a big rat ran across the dance floor, then an older woman in full-length local garb and high headdress got out front and danced wildly, at one point flinging her headdress, bag, and shoes onto the middle of the floor, collapsing, then getting back up and continuing to dance for the rest of the night. A whole lot of people were taking poor quality hand phone videos of the show, which never cases to baffle me since the quality is worse than a 1980s VHS camcorder, but nobody seems to care. 

Highlights of the set included the frenetic and always-crowd-pleasing Zombie, then Seun’s rap preceding Slave Masters, where he compared locals working for multinationals down in Lekki with slaves living in master’s house in exchange for an easier life than their brethren. 3% of Nigerians thinking everything is fine. About 2:00 am Seun rapped about Kalakuta; this week was the anniversary of the 1977 police attack on Fela’s compound that left Fela with broken bones and his mother beaten so badly that she would ultimately die from her injuries. That led into the première of a new composition dedicated to Kalakuta. Here is a somewhat fuzzy Zoom recording of the world première piece, which hopefully will spur you on both to see Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 live on tour and to buy their next recording.

Ain’t Nobody’s Business

The Penang Blues Brothers reconvened at Kim Gooi’s place for a late night jam last weekend, just prior to my return from Penang to Lagos. I joined Joe Goh on electric guitar and Kim on harp and acoustic. The blues spirit flowed freely as it always does when we get together, helped along in this instance by the product of the Isle of Jura. It is rejuvenating to play with these two – we routinely reach the sought-after (and all too rare) state of mind where the musicians are on the same wavelength, pick up their instruments, begin to play, time suspends, and the clock moves three of four hours ahead before the music pauses. 

I've been tied up with settling back in to work after the holidays and haven’t had sufficient time to go through and master all the recordings from last Friday. Of course, the batteries on my Zoom quit after about 2-1/2 hours, leaving some of the most spontaneous and creative parts of the jam in the air, never to be captured again. I did, however, cut out one track for sharing – Ain't Nobody’s Business – in tribute to the classic 1959 session by Jimmy Witherspoon with Ben Webster on tenor. “I'm three times seven, that makes twenty-one” – the age at which I first appreciated ‘Spoon’s rendition. Long, long ago now, a clear memory in the dim past. An appreciation that survives until today. Fortunately, I edited out most of my insipid vocal.

The Penang Blues Brothers Ride Again – Audio

Following our end-of-year blues jam the Little Penang Street Market, Kim Gooi hosted a get together last Friday night at his house in Tanjung Bunga. Joe Goh came up with his guitar from KL for the New Year and Kim’s friend Chiang, a Penang native who spent much of his life in Sweden, dropped by ‘round midnight to join in on second guitar. The blues spirit was flowing and we jammed for nearly four hours, caught on my Zoom recorder. From blues classics like Stormy Monday to Miles Davis to free blues jamming - Kim on harp, Joe and Chiang on guitars, and me on tenor sax. A good time was had by all; I had the chance to play my 1948 King Super 20 which is just a fantastic instrument. We plan one more blues jam before I head back to Africa for work.

Here are three downloadable audio tracks from last Friday’s jam – Sweet Home Chicago with Chiang on vocals, Folsom Prison Blues (where I make my vocal debut in the background), and Blue Monk. They are  MP3s at 320k.

By the way, Kim Gooi just published his book Health Tips: Maintaining a Long Life and Seeking a Spiritual Link with the Supreme Spirit which is available here from amazon.com. Kim’s life as a journalist landed him in a Burmese prison in the 1970s and the story of his survival is recounted in his book. An interesting new non-fiction from the man behind the blues harp on these recordings.

Tribute to the Late Nigerian Saxophonist Dare Peter

Nigerian Saxophonist Dare Peter

Saxophonist Shola Emmanuel came down from Abuja to visit and we jammed for a quick hour before heading off to the New Africa Shrine to hear Femi Kuti. Shola and I hadn't seen each other in four years but it didn't seem to matter, either musically or in friendship. I was taking the opportunity to catch up on hap'nin's of some of our other musician mates in Abuja when I learned some shocking news: in Shola's words, Dare is no more.

Bandleader and saxophonist Dare Peter passed away last month after struggling with a long illness. I don't know Dare's exact age but he couldn't have yet reached 40. He came across as kind of a hard-nosed Rasta type with his dreadlocks and Rastaman hat, but that hard exterior was far from the full reality as Dare proved himself to be a musician of heart and integrity in the time I knew him.

Dare Peter and Ron Ashkin in Abuja, 2008

Back in 2008, I walked in to the legendary Elephant Bar in Abuja and heard Dare playing Sonny Rollins' Doxy on alto, supported by a great local rhythm section. He immediately invited me up on stage to join him (here is an audio track of us doing Doxy). That cemented a musical relationship for the rest of the year when I became his second saxophonist, playing tenor, and we played his regular Elephant Bar gig as well as going out to other venues like Silver Spoon and the Arts & Crafts Village. It was at Silver Spoon with Dare's band that I backed up Dede Mabiaku, not knowing at the time that Dede was Fela Kuti's protégé and famous throughout Nigeria. Someone in the audience dashed me a bottle of Champagne that night.

Dare was inclusive and accepting as a bandleader, giving me plenty of chance to stretch out and improvise as the ideas flowed; not competing with me, cutting me off, getting in the way, or making me feel like I was stepping on his toes. There were plenty of times where he gave me the feeling that I was being featured by the band and not just playing a supporting role. He had a repertoire that spanned from jazz to highlife to pop and often a set would progress through all three styles; I'd usually play the jazz opening set and the highlife closer but usually chose to sit out on a lot of the chick singer vocals. Playing with Dare really opened up my desire to perform.

As a musician, Dare had an easy facility on alto sax with a screaming altissimo. His signature tune was Grover Washington's Mr. Magic. Here is a video Dare playing Mr. Magic in 2008:

I've posted this before, but this time it is for posterity (more videos can be found here as well). I understand that Dare married soon after I left Nigeria and leaves behind his wife and young son. Dare Peter, Nigeria's Mr. Magic, rest in peace.

Amayo from Antibalas Guests with Femi Kuti's Band

Femi Kuti's regular Sunday night performance at the New Africa Shrine featured a special treat last night - vocalist Abraham Amayo from Antibalas sat in with the band during the warm-up set. Antibalas is a Brooklyn, New York based afrobeat orchestra that gained notoriety during the Broadway run of the Fela! musical. Amayo can really sing and he didn't move like an American. I googled him this morning and now it makes sense - he is of Nigerian descent although born in the UK and domiciled in the US. He may be the most capable guest artist I have seen at the Shrine these last few months. His two songs actually received applause from the usually stoic regulars at the Shrine. Have a listen. 

In researching Amayo and Antibalas (a very good afrobeat band, but incontrovertibly a US-based revival band), an irony became apparent - Antibalas made the front page of the New York Times Arts section about a month ago while at the same time, in its home country of Nigeria, afrobeat is virtually nonexistent outside the walls of the New Africa Shrine. Many of the artists and musicians who formed the style are lingering in obscurity and poverty. The NYT article spoke of afrobeat's "momentum" - which must be happening outside of Nigeria because it ain't much happening here. You have to wear big sunglasses, drive a huge car, and do hip-hop to be deemed a successful musician in Nigeria these days. Afrobeat is considered strictly "old school." Once again, the West has 'discovered' and co-opted a unique ethnic art form while back at home, the art form is on its deathbed. 

Catch this quote from the NYT article: “Now every town we go to in the States, Canada or Europe has its own local Afrobeat act,” he [the band's trombonist] said. “Or two or three or four.” Are you kidding me? I'm still looking for one place in Lagos other than the Shrine to hear live afrobeat. With so little interest in playing afrobeat among Nigeria's young people, I wonder if it will survive the decade as living culture in its homeland. Highly questionable. I really don't know what can be done about it since 42.8% of the Nigerian population is under the age of 15, which means they were born after Fela's death and have little or no exposure to his music. May be that afrobeat is something you will only hear from revival bands in Brooklyn in the future.

Fela's Legend Lives On - Seun Kuti and Egypt 80

Seun Kuti at the New Africa Shrine - Fela's Musical Legacy

Yesterday was the last Saturday of August, time for Fela Kuti's youngest son Seun to bring Egypt 80 to the New Africa Shrine for his monthly midnight gig. 29-year old Seun and the band just returned from touring Europe and Japan a few weeks ago and this was their first Lagos gig in three months. The 500 Naira gate fee at the Shrine is one-tenth or less of what international fans pay to see Seun on tour.

Another Direct Link to Fela - Showboy Leading Egypt 80

I came in as Showboy was putting the band through a meticulous sound check; as a saxophonist he balances the horns particularly well so each instrument's part can be picked out cleanly from the audience. The warm-up set started just after 11:00pm with Showboy leading the group through about half a dozen numbers lasting 90 minutes. Seun came out at 12:30am and started wailing on alto sax; like brother Femi he has mastered circular breathing. I stayed until 3:00am and Seun was still going strong when I left, having removed his shirt right before I split which makes him look uncannily like his father. 

Seun gives lots of solo room to his musicians and there is plenty of improvisation by the horns. Egypt 80's current standout soloist is the baritone saxophonist, following in the tradition of Fela's band's being anchored by a strong baritonist. Showboy held down that chair until his accident three years ago. Click to hear Mister Big Thief performed live on Saturday night. 

Seun continues his father's political activism. The topic of the night was the new 5,000 Naira note announced recently by Nigeria's central bank. The largest note is currently 1,000 Naira; most Nigerians I talked to think the new large-denomination note is a bad idea and expect inflation to follow rapidly. Why is a 5,000 Naira note even needed when 90% of Nigerians live below the poverty line and the minimum wage is 18,000 Naira (just over $100) per month? Corruption is rife, commonly thought to be more widespread now than when Fela was alive, and the corrupt typically keep large stashes of cash packed away in Ghana Must Gos. The new notes will make it more convenient to store and transport large amounts of cash. 

The new 5,000 Naira note will feature a picture of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Fela's mother and Seun's grandmother, a noted women's rights activist. Seun said that nobody consulted the family about this. Ironically, Funmilayo died as the result of being thrown of a second-story window at Kalakuta by Government forces in 1977. The family never received compensation nor even an apology. Seun told the audience that he prefers justice for his grandmother and they can keep the money.

Dotsax - Tenor Saxophonist Dotun Bankole

Dotun "Dotsax" Bankole

Currently featured in the tenor sax spot in Femi Kuti's Positive Force band is 36-year-old hornman Dotun Bankole, aka Dotsax. The band just returned from its summer tour of England, France, and Spain and I had the chance to catch up with Dotsax at the Africa Shrine in Lagos last Thursday during Femi's rehearsal.

We spent a couple of hours jamming on Saturday afternoon and in between the music I was able to explore Dotun's musical interests and background, on top of jamming on one of his original tunes, Coltrane's Africa, some blues and some free explorations.

The Silver Mark VI

Dotsax started on trumpet rather late in life, at age 19 or 20, and played until his trumpet was stolen at age 24. He switched to sax because he had access to one, and learned it by practicing 12 hours a day for six months. His interests started with highlife but he found himself fascinated by jazz after fellow musicians introduced him to the sounds of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins. He's played with Nigerian masters like Peter King and attributes his current sound to the music he heard in his village growing up plus his fascination with jazz improvisation. Over the past decade he fronted his own band with his brother on keys, although the jazz scene in Nigeria is rather limited. Around nine years ago word was that Femi Kuti was looking for him, and four years ago he finally joined Femi's band full time. He's been touring and recording with Femi ever since and you can catch him and his silver Mark VI on stage at the Shrine on Thursdays and Sundays. 

In addition to his regular gigs backing Femi, Dotsax wants to develop his own original music with a group of his own that offers more room for improvisation. At our jam Saturday he showed easy fluency on tenor and instinctive harmonic knowledge, no problem ripping off interesting and coherent unaccompanied solos. He and I discussed a shared idea of recording a further fusion of jazz and afrobeat and I hope that can come to fruition in the next year. Listen to Dotsax perform a couple of his original compositions here on his MySpace site, which also contains a detailed bio.

Femi Kuti - Caught In The Act of Creation

I was fortunate last night to witness an act of musical creation, on hand while Femi Kuti composed a new tune and he and his musicians worked out the arrangement and backing parts live on stage. 

I came to the New Africa Shrine at about 7:30 pm to watch Femi and band rehearse. Previous Thursday night rehearsals have been more of an informal show than a working session, but last night was different. I arrived to hear Femi working out a line on keys and his horn players rushing to match the line and scribble notes on paper. I knew something was up because the band plays without scores and it was the first time I had seen anything being written down. 

Femi's keyboard line was a 4-bar ascending figure over a bass vamp, quite simple in itself but built into a compelling whole through repetition, layering, and dynamics. The band worked on it for about an hour and a half, saxes, trumpets, and rhythm section each figuring out their parts while Femi directed. The lion's share of time was spent on the bass line and bass/drum coordination. With parts sketched out, Femi walked out into the audience to listen intently from the dance floor and the mixing booth. 

Femi played keyboards almost exclusively last night although I did see him he pick up his tenor for the first time since I've been in Lagos. He blew it for a short while, facing the band rather than the microphone as if he was figuring out how to approach his solo on the new tune. 

After working out the arrangement to his satisfaction, Femi took a short break at around 9:00 pm. When the band came back, they performed the new tune for the first time. It sounded as if it could have already been in the book for a year. The process of musical creation is fascinating and it was a privilege to be present at the premier performance of this piece of music, which we may find in Femi's regular repertoire in the near future. Here is an audio snippet.

My 15 Minutes of Fame Passed Quickly

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. I really asked for it. Only two weeks in Lagos but carrying the dream of playing at the Africa Shrine for a long time, and there I was blowing my horn on the Shrine's main stage with Femi Kuti's Positive Force band behind me, standing in the spot of the man himself. 

"And then you woke up." 

No, really. Last night I went to the New Africa Shrine at about 6:00pm to meet up with Femi's tenor saxophonist Dotun Bankole. While I was waiting around Femi showed up and introduced himself. I brought my horn; Dotun had his silver-plated Mark VI with him and took me up on stage. We assembled our horns and started blowing. It turned into a 30 or 40 minute free jam which I found really enjoyable - we had no problem communicating from the first note as we alternated trading licks, playing unison lines, riffing and laying down rhythms for each other. Dotun is an excellent player and it was a blast. He made me think, blow, and sweat hard. One of the most fun times I've ever had playing the sax, seriously.

I was told that Femi rehearses his band on Thursday nights so my expectation before I went was an informal working session with the band. Not so; the band worked through some arrangements led by the music director before Femi joined up, but after 8:00 Femi came on stage and played a three hour set straight through! It was as intense a show as Sunday night's performance, only Femi and the band were dressed in street clothes and the dancers were not made up and costumed. When Femi says his performance runs 7:00 to 11:00, he means nonstop! And on Thursday nights, admission to the Shrine is free. Where else in the world can you see an international star and his genre-leading band perform a four hour set for free? 

After we jammed, Dotun asked me to sit down for a while and he would call me up on stage...I thought to join with the horn section and work out. He kept my horn up on stage and assembled it next to him. Right after 7:00 the band started playing, then about halfway through the first hour I heard my name announced from stage on the PA. The entire band broke into a fanfare. I had no clue. I put my harness on, went up on the riser next to Dotun, and picked up my tenor. He pushed me out into the spotlight, right into Femi's spot at the front of the stage with Femi's horns on their stand at my feet. I was in the man's spot facing the audience with the 12-piece band at full blast behind me. There was no choice but to blow. 

Hmmm. I've been around too much to say I was terrorized, but it was definitely nerve-racking and it took me a moment to get my footing. I hung at the mike for around seven minutes, soloing over the polyrhythms and horn punctuations, and the proof is here for posterity. Not my best-ever solo, but I take solace in the fact that Sonny Rollins can't stand listening to his own recordings either. Then it was over. I want more. 

Yes, I did it. I played on center stage at the New Africa Shrine with the world's very best Afrobeat band behind me. Whew.

Two of Penang’s Best Young Saxophonists

Today I’ll feature a couple of young players who are already deep into the horn in their teens. Hopefully you will hear much more to come from these two. 

Emily Brokaw: Emily is 17 years old and soon to graduate from Dalat International School. She has been playing for more than 6 years already, since entering middle school at Dalat, which has an American-style band program. She chose saxophone because both of her parents were professional saxophonists! Emily’s mom, Valeri Brokaw, is the middle school music director at Dalat and also directs the high school jazz band (along with a ton of other duties; Valeri is extremely hard working and you’d be hard pressed to find a nicer person). Dalat has the best school band program on the island and Emily is Dalat’s premier saxophonist. 

I asked Emily a few questions about her interest in the saxophone and here is what she wrote: 

• I currently play both tenor saxophone (a Yamaha intermediate horn) and alto saxophone (currently, a Selmer Mark 7). 
• My favorite music: Concert band - anything by David Holsinger (Gathering at the Ranks of Hebron and Havendance) and Holst's First and Second Suites; Jazz band - Take Five, Blues in the Night, most anything; Solo work - Tableaux de Provence by Paule Maurice. 
• Most memorable performances were in the 2010 and 2011 South East Asia Honor Bands and all [Dalat] Fine Arts concerts. 
• Future plans: I plan to study music education in university [in the U.S.] next year and continue playing in ensembles of all sorts. 

Emily is still a bit shy of improvisation but I am sure that will change as she progresses. You can catch her solo on Take the A Train with Dalat’s jazz band on YouTube. 

Jackie Ashkin: 15-year-old Jackie plays alto and has been playing for 2-1/2 years. In middle school, to my delight, she decided on saxophone. Valeri Brokaw was her first instructor. Jackie is a fast learner and traded in her POS Yamaha school horn for a vintage King Zephyr circa 1937 once we found out that she liked playing. If you like playing on a YAS-23 you will LOVE playing on a Zephyr! 

Jackie has a great voice and has been singing in school since about fourth grade. In Kazakhstan she performed for the International women’s group at age 9, singing in both Russian and English and playing dombra, the local two-stringed instrument. She continued with voice lessons in Malaysia and the ear training has paid off in an accelerated ability to play sax. In Dalat’s high school concert band she gets the chance to play every day, which keeps her chops up and has seriously improved her sight reading. She has played in Dalat’s jazz band for the past two years (both on alto and as featured vocalist – see the A Train video), and she has paid her dues in town doing section work with the Northern Jazz Ensemble big band. 

On stage with Jackie at the G Spot, Summer 2011

Last year I started taking Jackie out on gigs with me and basically just threw her in at the deep end. She had her first professional gig at age 14, at this point has performed in public quite a bit for her age (although never enough). She is learning to improvise by ear, as opposed to reading her solos like most of her peers, who are either scared to death of having to improvise or else sound like a bleating billy goat when they do. She is not afraid to get up on stage, she knows what sounds good, and she is her own worst critic. She intuitively understands key concepts like swing and syncopation and knows that music is all about sound, not about dots on a page. A big advantage is that she has actually listened to the greats of the tradition (Dexter, Jug, Dolphy et al.) and knows what a saxophone is supposed to sound like. Jackie currently plays on a Johnny Hodges-era Buescher Aristocrat (ca. 1936) that gives her the intonation necessary to play in concert band along with the flexibility to play jazz. You can see Jackie in action on our YouTube channel. A 15-year-old already playing Trane and Miles and improvising with originality. 

Go girls!

Audio Files - The Penang Blues Brothers

Here is a zip file containing the audio tracks from the Penang Blues Brothers +1 Sister jam this past Sunday. These are MP3s at 320k. Download, decompress, and add to your iTunes. The zip file will decompress as individual tracks. The sound is much clearer than on the YouTube videos.

Stormy Monday - Audio Tracks From Blues Jam

Today being Monday, I will start the week by posting some audio tracks from yesterday's marathon blues jam with Joe and Kim, following on the heels of the "Blues Are Universal" post from a few days ago.

Here are three takes of T-Bone Walker's classic Stormy Monday. I couldn't decide which one to post so all three are available - one instrumental and two with Joe on vocals - you decide. It was an informal jam so each take has its moments as well as its flaws, hopefully more moments than flaws. Played from the heart in any event. These are MP3s at 320K.

Stormy Monday - Take 1

Stormy Monday - Take 2

Stormy Monday - Take 3

And here is a 14-minute jam on Kim's favorite, Big Joe Turner's Flip, Flop and Fly. The vocals were not miked so they are subdued. Kim has to learn to shout like Big Joe! I missed recording the beginning coming down the stairs, so I started the track at the first full chorus.

Flip, Flop and Fly

Old Friends, Blues Jam at Kim's, Penang, Malaysia, recorded March 4, 2012. Joe Goh, guitar and vocals; Kim Gooi, harp and vocals; Ron Ashkin, tenor sax and whisk broom. Recorded on a Zoom H2.

Audio Files, China House on February 24

The audio from our China House gig on Friday, February 24, 2012, is available for download in 320k mp3 format at First Set and Second Set. The zip files decompress as individual tracks.

As a taste, here is our rendition of Eddie Harris' Cold Duck Time.

These are audience recordings on a Zoom H2. Plenty of noise from the bar!

First Set

1. Killer Joe and band intro
2. Equinox
3. Doxy
4. Bemsha Swing
5. Blue Monk
6. Lady's Blues
7. Cold Duck Time

Second Set 

1. Chitlins con Carne
2. Folsom Prison Blues (Jackie vocal)
3. Night Train
4. Blue Bird
5. Tequila
6. Over the Rainbow
7. Listen Here

The Chicago Jazz Quartet +1 Live at China House. Ron Ashkin, tenor sax; Jackie Ashkin, alto sax and vocals; Adrian Jones, bass; C.Y. Chee, guitar; James Peterson, drums. Recorded at China House, Georgetown heritage district, Penang, Malaysia, on February 24, 2012.

Audio Files, China House on Friday the 13th

The audio from our China House gig on Friday, January 13, 2012, is available for download in 320k mp3 format at First Set and Second Set. The zip files decompress as individual tracks. These are audience recordings on a Zoom H2.

First Set

1. Killer Joe and band intro

2. Beatrice (tribute to the late great Sam Rivers)

3. Equinox

(L to R) Leonard, Jackie, Adrian, Ron, James  

4. Flintstones

5. Hold 'Em Joe

6. Kidney Stew

7. Blue Monk

8. Cold Duck Time

9. Mamacita

10. Someone Like You (Jackie vocal) 

Second Set 

1. Doxy

2. Song for My Father

3. Tequila

4. The Black and Crazy Blues

5. The Happy Blues

6. Listen Here

7. 'Round Midnight *

The Chicago Jazz Quartet +1 Live at China House. Ron Ashkin, tenor sax; Jackie Ashkin, alto sax and vocals; Adrian Jones, bass; Leonard Selva, keyboards; James Peterson, drums. Recorded at China House, historic Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia, on January 13, 2012. 

* for some reason, the second set closer, 'Round Midnight, did not get recorded and does not appear on the audio file.