E. Doctor Smith's Blog

While Bela Fleck and the Flecktones enjoyed a year off from the trials and tribulations of touring, they also found time for a variety of new endeavors; Fleck journeyed to Africa to record and discover the roots of his beloved banjo, and bassist Victor Wooten and saxophonist Jeff Coffin led their own groups on tour. Roy "Futureman" Wooten, the eclectic percussionist of the group, led his own trio, the self-titled "Futureman Project", combining his electronic drumming with jazz hip-hop keyboardist Jeremiah "Street Maestro" Able, and guitarist Robert "Area 51" Provine". Wooten's use of his "Drumitar", (a guitar synthesizer he converted into a drum machine), his "Roy-el", a custom piano sampler, turntables and more, made for quite an interesting blend of jazz, improvisation and hip-hop. In 2005, Wooten wrote, " I have a year to explore some different directions in music. The first is the concept of what ...

Lately, I've found myself fondly recalling some of my favorite saxophonists, from the incomparable Wayne Shorter and his work with Miles Davis, and later with pianist Joe Zawinul, his co-founder in Weather Report; the tender tones of Joe Henderson with Chick Corea; Bennie Maupin's "Chameleon" with Herbie Hancock, to the unmistakable tenor of Stanley Turrentine, whose "Salt Song" features prominently in my iTunes playlist. There are many, many more of course, Bela Fleck's Jeff Coffin, Bill Bruford's Tim Garland, and Washington's own Ron Holloway, to name but a few, however one Bay Area icon has continuously sparked my attention, San Francisco's legendary Charles Unger. Unger has performed for numerous years at Les Joulin's Jazz Bistro on Ellis, and the Rasselas Jazz Club on Fillmore, to the delight of regulars, tourists, purists and jazz aficionados alike. Surprisingly, more have not experienced this legendary reed player. Unge...

Former Subterraneanz rapper and host "LCJ" and True Justice, bring their unique vision of "DJ battles" to the Elbo Room, 647 Valencia in San Francisco, on February 22nd, for "Just Scratch 2". This remarkable format pits DJ and rappers against each other with one proviso: You must rap and scratch with John Coltrane! You heard me, any Coltrane LP, instrumental of your choice, but it must be Coltrane. I must say, I've never seen anything like this, and it's a novel concept. In the 1990's William Burroughs blended jazz recordings of Miles, Weather Report, and others with his spoken word, and saxophonist Branford Marsalis used the works of Maya Angelou and others over his music with "Buckshot LaFonque", but nothing like this. Judges for this elimination battle will be famed bay Area icon Kevvy Kev of the Drum/ KZSU, Gelo- Jus'Scratch Champion, Pone-Canned Beats Transplants, and Deeandroied-Skratchpad. The event is being spo...

In 1986, British jazz drummer Bill Bruford launched his first Earthworks, a jazz quartet featuring some of England's best young jazz musicans; pianist/trumpeter Django Bates, saxophonist Ian Ballamy, bassist Mick Hutton and later, bassist Tim Harries. At that time, Bruford had introduced electronic drums into the fray, most notably England's popular hexagonal Simmons pads. Bruford's ability to play samples, chords, and melodies from the drums, was a musical first, however, after much acclaim and success, the tempermental nature of the Simmons drums and the growing demand for his now famous young trio, ultimately gave way to new members and an all acoustic drum kit. Now, 20 years later, Bruford and his latest incarnation of Earthworks celebrates its 20th anniversary with the "Earthworks Underground Orchestra". Bruford and co-leader, saxophonist Tim Garland took fresh arrangements of some of the band’s best loved tunes over to NYC, to work with some of...