24 Oct - Driving Milano, Italia to Worgl Austria..

FUTURE MEMORIES LIVE: Patrick Moraz (1979)

Today we started the leg of the tour with our rented van and driver, Peter Ullrich. Peter is a real cool guy -- we're lucky that he is also a ex-musician (horn/classically trained) and now a music-maker "I play the computer" . He also taught me the right way to say "Behringer". (The "ger" is said with a hard "G" , as in "anger", not like "danger")

We took off from Milano IT by 8:30h and after negotiating some traffic we hit the highway. (Buildings above just as we got on the highway. Man this damn iPhone camera is not bad for what it is...)

Dammit !! As we drove away from the hotel we realize we were mere blocks from a fantastic section of town with load of fresh produce sellers, all seemingly right from the farm. Just what I live for -- the locals and their fresh fare....and some local fresh live food...

Always happens tho' . When I'm PLAYING on tour I get a bit more walk-around/explore time... but when Tour Managing, it's often mostly hotel-room time, ironing out stuff for upcoming shows..tweaking gear requests, planning interviews for days off, crunching some numbers .

Anyway nice drive thru northern Italia into Switzerland. Would totally move here in a minute, love it. And -- feeling luckier all the time that Cheri & I moved to Asheville NC...we have mountains as awesome as this, no doubt. Not the cool chalets etc . But really -- the peaks are kinda reminiscent...

So todays musical tie-in is Patrick Moraz.. just 'cos he's from the little land locked "neutral" place they call..Switzerland. Like I said -- there's no rhyme or reason to what triggers a particular musical choice during the day -- but I DO try to listen to someone or some piece somehow connected to where we are....

SWITZERLAND -I love this place, always liked the idea and first came here in 2006 on tour with Al DiMeola, for the AVO fest in Basel. A crazy end to THAT show was coming back to the hotel late night to have a beer -- and running into one of my fave drummers, the inimitable Vinnie Coliauta, at the hotel bar! Even better -- getting into a conversation with him about the crazy unanswered questions surrounding 9-11. Vinnie was in town with Herbie Hancock and Nathan East to play the next day. Sick!

I love to tweak my ill-informed republican pro gun friends and shock them with the info that 'evil socialist switzerland' actually has perhaps the most guns owners per capita on earth! Why? At one point it was the LAW that you had to own a gun, and the state could randomly check up n you - check yr gun , ammo, etc. You had to learn HOW to use, clean, hold, store, load a gun.

The state was the one who organized this, very sensibly. I think that's called A WELL REGULATED MILITIA. That's the part of the 2nd Amendment that EVERY gun nut I have queried on this wants to skip by. Test a pro- gun person on that sometime (when they're not HOLDING a gun....). Most of them FAIL the test -- if you ask them if the "2nd Amendment is iron clad" and they think it should be "law of the land". They always say YES OF COURSE, I LIVE BY THE 2nd AMENDMENT.

Well- I always then ask them - "Why do you think it' s ok to SKIP the 1st half of the amendment.??" you should pause and look at the Amendmment yerself....HERE

They love citing the example of Hitler being 'socialist' so that means socialist take your guns. The usual stunted mental capacity of the US gun nut. Using the one bad example of Hitler (who was just a MANIAC and inexplicable) --their logic goes --because Hitler seized guns... then socialism is bad 'cos he was a socialist.....huh??? It's fun watching the election circus from afar this year..and seeing the right sling around the word 'socialism', a concept few of their supporters , much less Ms. Palin, could actually define. Hilarious. Here's a woman who JUST got her passport at age, 43 was it?, telling us about socialism. Fucking moron. And she might win.
ANYWAY -- THE MUSIC !! Even though we are just passing thru today -- we're going to AUSTRIA after all....Switzerland rocks!! I am just starting to read about about their crazy history --and Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz is just one of their great imports......remember his early 70s prog-trio with Refugee with Brian Davison and Lee Jackson of the Nice (early band that Keith Emerson's was in....)

Patrick has.....so many great records like "the story of I", "Out in the sun" and of course the great Bruford/Moraz LPs and tours , which I was lucky enough to see in NJ back in about 1985, a great show at which I met keyboard/violin legend Eddie Jobson. I met Eddie again thanks to the week we all spent in Russia (Belew Trio, Tony Levin, P@ Mastelotto, Patti Smith Band, Keith Emerson, KTU ( gunn, mastelotto, pohjonen) [see my August/September blogs & photos abt this amazing trip at Robin Slick's IN HER OWN WRITE page.

This Moraz album is so unsung and ahead of it's time.... really it is.
I'm kind of a synth freak, I've had the pleasure off performing ojnstage wiith Don Preston while Bob Moog was in the audience (bragging, I know!! but I mean, C'MON, Bob Moog!)

I've owned three Moogs so far (RadioShack Rogue, classic Rogue and currently a Minmoog-Voyager RME) and countless synth classics like a Sequential Circuits Six-Trak, Korg Poly-800, Korg Poly 61 (the LAST non MIDI synth they made, in fact the first one was the Poly 61-M), Korg Mono-Poly, Emu Proteus, Emu World, Kawai K1 II-R, Ensoniq Mirage, various guitar synths, sequencers and samplers.

And I'm here to say that if you love 70s classic analog tones, creative music, and live solo performance - and haven't heard this album, do so. The reissue tacks on two introspective solo piano pieces "Black Silk Pt.1 , Pt. 2"

But the synths kick in for "Eastern Sundays Pt.1 , Pt. 2". What Patrick did was have a live performance on TV, you have to see the picture sheet in the LP to believe it, for 1978, amazing stuff for solo playing. He is in a room FILLED with at that point state-of-the art gear,...every major synth it seems is in there -- Moogs, Oberheims, sequencers, drum machines...and the goal was to create pieces of music for...Live TV. I think the experiment was a success.I've been spinning this Lp for 25 yrs or more and it's still fresh sounding....

You can now get this all on DVD -- and there's some great video of the event here

"Metamorphoses Pt.1 and Pt 2."
After some bubbly sequence and a funky drum patch sets up the groove.... Pat plays around with some textural stuff over the top of it -- white noise, sampled vocals, R2-D2 blips, percussive synth teases.... And then - throwing a sonic curve ball amidst all the technology....some good old fashioned PIANO takes the lead voice for a while.. I love that contrast. There's an almost Indian/tabla duel on some sort of electronic pads, and what sounds like sampled Gyuto Monks chanting.... I mean , this is realy an amazing album considering, again , that it's THIRTY YEARS OLD , and at times one would guess it's Aphex Twin or Bjork...


Part 2 goes deeper into the vocal samples...and some really cool funky Moog stuttering bass , all the while shifting moods. really cool driving music, some of the rhythms are very train-like, propelling...the one lame track is the closer/bonus "Paris In Bottle" the title gives it away, it's that lame "blowing on a bottle" pan pipish synth sound , a syrupy melody over an insipid little beat.. ugh! I wanna jump off one of these mountains when I hear this!


ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO:

The gig tonight was at a rock club KOMMA, cool place - bar with "rauchen" (smoking) downstairs. I like saying "rauchen" because it sounds like "rrr-rocking!" And tonight the band was "rrr-rocking!" as they do when it's a standing place with a rock -stage feel, light show etc. they are introducing this set to the new EU audiences, and that they did indeed.... as usual people soaked up "e" like they knew it already, (maybe they DID from youtube..?) great supportive crowd, the band sounded great....

Ade had a pair of 2x12 Marshalls tonite, sounded great. For sure we love the Marshalls, have been getting 4x12s (1960 A and B) but this was a sweet change. A tight sound , maybe a tad lacking in low end but cool...



A nice wide stage, and great sound system with Meyer speakers and subs (Meyer is just..the best, or close to it,. It's what they have at the Berklee performance center - the entire PA).
Here's the cool poster they made for the show -- we saw them all over town on the way to the venue.....



















We stayed in this amazing Austrian Chalet, the KRAMSACHERHOF....looking out the window you had lousy views like:



I like the Austrians. Some may say - you're crazy, Andre' -- they are the source of Hitler and so much xenophobia. Well- I respect that. They're up front about it! And hey -- WHY can't you decide to keep your country ANY way you want to -- if the majority says so?? Isn't that democracy, Isn't that what we SAY we want?? Until the voting disagrees with what we dream of ..?? I'm all for local rule.

Today -- at least the minority of people here, in places like switzerland, germany who think a certain way -- have the SPINE and BALLS to call it what it is. They actually form parties with names like "Keep Austria Pure" , "Switzerland for the Swiss" etc....and they campaign, run their candidates & issues, and win or don't win.

BUT THEY'RE NOT HIDING BEHIND some crap lie like "we're the party of Lincoln" while unleashing the same racist/fascist policies....or winking at vicious racists at their rallies. So here's to Austrian, Swiss and other real-politik. Tell me what you really mean. I prefer that.