OYSTERHEAD ON THE HALF SHELL
“It’s kind of mind-boggling how exciting this is all turning out to be,” drummer/composer Stewart Copeland declares, concerning the May 4th recital by Oysterhead, the “super group” that includes himself, Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and Primus bassist Les Claypool. The concert, presented by Superfly Productions at the Saenger Theatre, sold out within minutes and tickets are now being auctioned on ebay for over $2,000.
“Actually, I have my own little personal view of that,” Copeland confides. “When the tickets sold out in 13 minutes—thank you very much—I figured, well, those are not my fans. My fans have got to get their kids to school. But when I heard about the $2,000 thing, I thought, well, my fans may be a day late but they’re not a dollar short!”
His compatriots in Oysterhead, until recently, were not familiar names to the former Police percussionist: “I’m so far up on my ivory tower that I’d never heard of any of these guys. I got a call out of the blue—I guess just over a year ago now—saying would I like to produce this band called Primus. And I asked around and people said they’re really great and a seminal band and they started a whole genre. I listened to their music and ‘Shit yeah!’ I went up there and stayed a week and produced this track. I discovered that everyone else had heard of them and fuck, they’re a really good band!
“Then Les called up and said, ‘Hey, look—there’s this show in New Orleans and we can get a band together and I think my old buddy—a guy named Trey—would be interested. And I said, ‘Cool, cool—is he good?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, he’s great!’
“So I went up to Vermont because Primus was on the road and happened to be playing the same town where this guitarist lives. Damn! Vermont turns out to be Phishdonia. Each member of the band owns a county.
“Trey bought this 70 acre ranch with nothing on it but a barn and they built a studio there. Les and Trey and I sat up there and jammed all day and fuck me! The synergy was pretty inspiring! I didn’t know who these guys were but they fucking played great! When I got home, I had these stereo recordings—because they’ve got a studio in there—and I cut it all up and damn—there’s some pretty serious stuff going on here. I’ve played with a lot of the greatest musicians in the world but that isn’t what it takes to make great spontaneous music. I’ve played with the greatest guitarists and bass players and it was pretty cool. But that thing that you get from just certain guys is like Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr make better music together than John McLaughlin and pick the world’s greatest drummer—Billy Cobham for that matter. I really think old Trey and Les have got something for me.
“All three of us are thinking, ‘Shit, this works,’ so maybe we’ll do like one show a year. For them, it’s no big deal. For me, it’s kind of fun to be in a band—I haven’t been in a band in ten years.
“We started out with a really cool concept—we were going to go out there and we were going to play the first Led Zeppelin album front to back with some improvisation of our own. Like a concept rather than do the supergroup ego thing—that was my idea.
“And Les and Trey were saying, ‘Okay, okay, Stewart, okay,’ but I could see they weren’t really into it. But as soon as we were jamming and Les was saying, ‘Look, Stewart, I promise you—this is what they want to hear.’ And I’m going, ‘You can’t go out there and just noodle for hours!’ And he says, ‘No! No! No! That’s what they want!’ It’s sort of against my religion of music, which is that you do a two-minute song and okay, you can stretch it out to five minutes but basically, you go out there with material and a song. I think somewhere in the middle is where we’ll end up”
In the meanwhile, Copeland will keep his day job—composing film scores: “I’ve done like 50 films—that’s what I do. In film music, there’s no rules—the music is completely variable. Film music takes you into every aspect of music whereas pop music only covers a small sliver of music.”
After his local performance with Oysterhead, Copeland flies to Poland, where he’ll conduct an orchestra performing his serious musical works. A visit to the Jazz Festival, Copeland fears, would require the accompaniment of several armed bodyguards because of his penchant for defaming the sainted Miles Davis and his love of jazz-bashing: “All my musician friends worship at the altar of jazz. It’s just too easy to rattle their cages. And they get all pompous and hurt and enflamed. Jazz is a real easy shibboleth to rattle.
“The term ‘jazz,’ as used in New Orleans, has an entirely different meaning from ‘jazz’ when used in Los Angeles. The old traditional jazz works for me. What doesn’t work for me is this cold fusion stuff that lacks soul and is all about attitude and technique. Most New Orleans jazz people would probably agree with me. So I guess I don’t need my armed guard after all.”
Zigadocious
Zigaboo Modeliste, now known as “The King of Funky Drums” (no debating that), returns to his hometown for a series of live performances commencing with a CD release party for his new Zigaboo.Com album on April 27 at Howlin’ Wolf, a late show (1:30 a.m.) on April 30 at Tipitina’s Uptown and the 2nd annual Krewe of Zigaboo party at Howlin’ Wolf on May 7.
Zigaboo.Com has something for everybody, Zig says: “It’s like a smorgasbord—somebody might want some peas, somebody else might want some of that okra.” Among the cuts are “Funky Nasty Cigarettes,” “Black on Black Crime,” “Nanny Goat Cheese” and “Zig Me,” co-written by Modeliste and his former Metric partner, George Porter, Jr. This latter cut contains the finest, most luscious drum solo Zigaboo Modeliste has ever recorded. The most incendiary solo in his drumming history: “George and I were cutting it and looked over and the board was in flames! We destroyed it—no joke!”
Rarity
Documentary director Stevenson Palfi’s 1982 Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together, which examines the art of Professor Longhair, Isidore “Tuts” Washington and Allen Toussaint, will get a rare screening on the big screen at the Prytania Theatre on May 3. Palfi, who is at work on a film biography of Allen Toussaint, ponders that there might be a generation aware of Professor Longhair only as an image on that banner at Tipitina’s and that his film is the ideal introduction for these neophytes. Plus you can munch on popcorn while you watch.
Uncool
A tentative, personal list of cool local bands you won’t see at the Jazz Festival: The Rubber Maids, Liquidrone, Egg Yolk Jubilee, Rhudabega, the Atomic Thunk, O.L.D., Coffee, Mr. Quintron, the Geraniums, Juvenile, John Fred and Alex Chilton. I rest my case.
