(This show preview originally appeared in Cleveland’s Scene magazine.)
Blue Cheer’s Dickie Peterson says his band has at least one thing in common with the James Gang: “Both bands play what I call ‘lateral blues.’” This is Peterson’s pet phrase for classic hippie-greaser funk, and he’s right. From the pummeling psychedelic boogie of Blue Cheer’s “Summertime Blues” to the post-Hendrix crunch captured on the Gang’s Rides Again, no freedom-rock band outgrooved either of these beasts.
The Schwartz Brothers, hometown bar-rock legends, will open for the Cheer. And as any veteran rock fan can tell you, Glenn Schwartz preceded the mighty Joe Walsh as the James Gang’s monster axeman, which can mean only one thing: Be prepared for a night of kick-ass lateral blues, man.
(This show preview originally appeared in Cleveland’s Scene magazine.)
Roy Ayers!
For those of us raised under the sign of the DJ, Roy Ayers is a total crate classic — a jazzbo vibraphonist and bandleader whose records contain a near-infinite number of popularly sampled beats. Hell, 1976′s Everybody Loves Sunshine probably contains half the grooves used in acid jazz, hip-hop, and modern soul. What’s more, Ayers is granddaddy to the whole smoooooth jazzzz phenomenon — his early ’70s work with the group Ubiquity is all about turning the lights down real low and letting that sexy sax melt you.
Question: Who is the funkiest human being alive? Answer: James Brown — duh. But keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith easily makes the Top 40. Just snag a copy of Cosmic Funk or Live at the Club Mozambique; not only will you cut a rug, you’ll also get a wee bit psychedelic. Back in the Watergate days, Smith was a far-out dude who mixed get-down jazz with hippie freakery. Now that Smith and Ayers are old men, their current sounds are more laid-back, but they haven’t lost their soul.
