E. Doctor Smith's Blog

As many of you gentle readers know, I've been a long time fan of singer songwriter Allen Clapp and bassist Jill Pries' pop-driven, outfit from Sunnyvale, "The Orange Peels". Their anthemic hits, "Back in San Francisco", co-penned by former guitarist Larry Winther of the Mummies, and "Jane Lane" are among my favorites. The Peels have seen a few changes over the years and with departure of Winther, Bob Vickers and "Ocean Blue's" Oed Ronnie, songwriter, guitarist/drummer John Moremen moved to over to lead guitar full time and added the talented Gabriel Coan on drums. Like the previous album "20/20", Clapp and Pries have continued to steer the Peels toward their pop-rock side. Moremen, better known as a guitarist and having had the benefit of drumming behind the various Peels line-ups for some time, has been free put his indelible stamp on their sound. Their newest single, "Aether Tide" on the MintyFresh label, is a un...

The Flecktones have re-emerged with a new album, on a new label, (eOne records) and announcing that for "the first time since 1991, pianist/ harmonica player Howard Levy has returned to the fold alongside bassist Victor Wooten, percussionist/Drumitarist Roy “Futureman” Wooten and banjoist bandleader Fleck to create some of the most forward-thinking music of their long, storied career. While all manners of genres come into play – from classical and jazz to bluegrass and African music to electric blues and Eastern European folk dances – the result is an impossible to pigeonhole sound all their own, a meeting of musical minds that remains, as ever, utterly indescribable. Simply put, it is The Flecktones, the music made only when these four individuals come together." Longtime followers of Fleck recall that he took up the banjo at an early age, growing up in Manhattan of all places, eventually migrating to Nashville. Once there, he aligned himself with the now legendary "Ne...

Well, it's time to head back to the theater gentle readers. For the comic book fans, there are a ton of superhero films due out this summer, Marvel rolls out "Captain America", "X-Men: First Class" and DC brings the classic 1960's Hal Jordan in "Green Lantern". Readers of my previous columns know that I have a love-hate relationship with these hi-or-miss films. "Spiderman", "Iron Man" and the previous "X-Men" films have stayed with the spirit of the original comics and characters. We won't dwell on the ones not in their league, we know who they are. Today, we turn our attention to one of Marvel's best known and loved heroes, the mighty Thor. It didn't hurt having Kenneth Branagh directing Anthony Hopkins as "Odin", Natalie Portman as "Jane Foster" and the newcomer Chris Hemsworth in the title role as "Thor/Dr. Donald Blake". Branagh successfully weaved the classic c...

Composer John Barry was perhaps best known for composing 11 James Bond soundtracks and was hugely influential on the musical style of the 007 series, along with the general feeling of the films. I'll never forget seeing Shirley Bassey of "Goldfinger" fame, belt out that theme at New York's Carnegie Hall, as well as "Moonraker" and "Diamonds are Forever". Barry's music was so influential to me personally, that I actually recorded two of my favorites, "Walkabout" and "Zulu". In a career spanning almost 50 years, Barry received numerous awards for his work, including five Academy Awards; two for Born Free, and one each for The Lion in Winter (for which he also won a BAFTA Award), Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves (for which he also won a Grammy Award) and Somewhere in Time (1980) (Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture). Barry passed away in January, but his musical legacy will liv...

This Sunday, the SIMM Music Series continues with a stellar line-up: "The Josh Allen Trio" featuring the amazing guitarist Henry Kaiser, saxophonist Josh Allen, drummer Mike Guarino and the group Forward Energy, featuring Jim Ryan on alto & tenor sax, flute, trumpet, Outsound and Edgetone Record's founder Rent Romus on alto, soprano, & C melody saxes, Scott R. Looney on piano, Eric Marshall double bass and Timothy Orr on drums. This show is guaranteed to challenge the senses and push the musical envelope in ways rarely heard seen or heard. Josh Allen has created his own personal language on the tenor saxophone with an emphasis on polytonal and asymmetrical phrasing, as well as extending the range and sonic ability of the instrument. Allen does this with constant emphasis and study of the overtone series, and the generation of multiphonics from the application of this process. He is currently teaching Fellowship students at the Brubeck Institute at the University o...

Bassist Stanley Clarke was barely out of his teens when he exploded into the jazz world in 1971. Fresh out of the Philadelphia Academy of Music, he arrived in New York City and immediately landed jobs with famous bandleaders such as Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Pharaoh Saunders, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and a budding young pianist-composer named Chick Corea. With Corea, Clarke would take the music world by storm alongside Lenny White and Al DiMeola in Return to Forever. Now some 40 years later, Clarke returns to Yoshi's in April, bringing with him his prodigious and unparalleled talents. All of these musicians immediately recognized Clarke’s ferocious dexterity and complete musicality on the acoustic bass. Not only was he an expert at crafting bass lines and functioning as a timekeeper – in keeping with his instrument’s traditional role – but the young prodigy also possessed a sense of lyricism and melody distilled from his bass heroes Charles M...

The Static Illusion Methodical Madness Music Series, (or S.I.M.M. Music Series), is a musician run bi-monthly music performance series bringing highly professional and truly adventurous music that would not normally be heard or supported by mainstream society. Since 2001 the SIMM Series has been curated by Outsound Presents and local improvisers/composers/sound artists Rent Romus and Bill Noertker. They present a cross section of sound artists and musicians from the experimental improvisation and composition genres. This Sunday's event features T.D. Skatchit & Company, 
featuring Tom Nunn and David Michalak on "skatchboxes
" with vocalists 
Aurora Josephson, Bob Marsh and Ron Heglin
. Opening the performance is Ross Hammond on guitar electronics and David Boyce on saxophones.
 T.D. Skatchit & Company is a duo featuring Tom Nunn & David Michalak playing Skatchboxes. As the story goes, one day while on a visit to his cousin’s workshop, David picked ...