E. Doctor Smith's Blog

The new album by The Paul & John has been dubbed “an exciting new collaboration between two of the Bay area’s best musicians; guitarist/vocalist songwriters Paul Myers and John Moremen”, and they wouldn’t be far wrong. Inner Sunset proudly carries the Mystery Lawn Music imprint and is released on three formats, including 180-gram vinyl, last July. Myers & Moremen both sing and play all the guitars on the recording, while John plays the drums and Paul plays the bass and wrote all the lyrics. On Thursday night, October 29th, The Paul & John debut their new album at the Bottom of the Hill, alongside the Orange Peels and Felsen. The two wrote all the songs together over three years at John’s studio in the Inner Sunset district of San Francisco, and then recorded and mixed the best of their collaborations with co-producer Allen Clapp (leader of The Orange Peels) at his Mystery Lawn studio in Sunnyvale, California. Once in the studio, Clapp proved to be a vital third ear in the...

Bay Area saxophonist and composer Rent Romus will premiere The Otherworld Cycle, a culmination of over 14 years of research into intersection between modern composition, improvisation, The Kalevala, and Finno-Ugrian traditions in music. The Other World thematic abstractly reference the Uralic “Body of Memory” embedded in Romus’ musical psyche refracted through the multi-faceted lens of improvisation and postmodern jazz. The Otherworld Cycle will make its premiere at theCommunity Music Center located at 544 Capp Street in San Francisco, starting at 8pm on Saturday, October 25 with a matinee show on October 26 at 3pm. Supported by the Musical Grant Program of the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music and community support from Outsound Presents, admission ranges from $8 to $15. The Community Music Center welcomes patrons of all ages and is ADA accessible. The first elements of the Other World Cycle took hold after Rent Romus returned home from touring in Northern Europe in the m...

Resonance Jazz Ensemble, the Bay Area’s one-of-a-kind jazz octet premieres new works pushing the jazz envelope in their “Fearless Force” concert at the SF Jazz Center’s Robert A. Miner Auditorium this Saturday night at 8:00 pm. The band will introduce new compositions by band members with arrangements of jazz and rock standards by Pianist and Bandleader, Steve McQuarry. Acknowledged by jazz reviewers for “offering a rich fusion of orchestral and big band sounds, with emotional character blending textures and colors of jazz that creates a harmonic canvas of pure delight,” Resonance Jazz Ensemble breaks ground adding strings to the traditional jazz sound. Unusual Instrumentation With an unusual blend of instrumentation that includes violin, viola, cello, sax, flute, piano, bass and drums, the band melds classical with jazz artists and styles into new compositions as well as works from their CD “Introductions”. Reviewers describe this unusual texture of sound explaining: “RESONANCE...

Saxophonist, flautist and composer, Dann Zinn is without a doubt, one of the Bay Area’s best musicians. When he isn’t backing up some the best names in jazz, (like Joe Henderson, Taylor Eigsti, Russ Ferrante, Jeff Tain Watts, Freddie Hubbard, Chuck Findley, Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, Barry Finnerty, Frank Martin to name just a few), he’s leading his own groups, or can be found teaching big bands at Chabot College. With four albums under his belt, Zinn emerges once more with another stellar outing and alongside the legendary drummer Peter Erskine and guitarist Chris Robinson. Zinn’s website aptly describes his latest effort, “Although scholars don’t all agree on the origin of the word, dictionaries are united in their definition of Shangri-La: a remote, beautiful, imaginary place where life approaches perfection. Dann Zinn’s new trio release, Shangri La, like that mystical world, takes the listener far from the familiar humdrum and into a place of wonder and newness. Zin...

Upon meeting guitarist Robert Fripp for the first time, the late, great Jimi Hendrix asked him to shake his left hand, because “It’s closer to my heart…” Fripp, like others who were similarly inspired by that mercurial genius, would go on to much deserved critical acclaim as the founder of the prog-rock entity known as King Crimson. Now in its 45th year(!), Fripp and his latest incarnation of King Crimson roll into the Warfield in San Francisco on Friday and Saturday night for two of their final three shows to end an incredible tour that began in New York last June. For those in the know, “Crimso”, as it is affectionately known, began in England, during the heady days of the late 1960s, alongside groups like Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and the Soft Machine, to name but a few. My earliest experience with the group came during their 1974 tour at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, featuring now retired drummer Bill Bruford, bassist John Wetton and violinist Dav...