Sunday May 17

THE THIRD MIND

Introducing:

DAVE ALVIN

DAVID IMMERGLUCK

MICHAEL JEROME

VICTOR KRUMMENACHER

and featuring:

JESSE SYKES

$25 Adv/ $30 DOS / Doors at 7:30

(Tickets on sale Friday March 13 at NOON)

I had a crazy idea and was looking for musicians who perhaps didn't think it was so insane. Many years ago I'd been reading John Szwed's excellent biography of Miles Davis, "So What", and was fascinated by his thorough descriptions of how Mr. Davis and his producer, Teo Macero, created some of his classic electric albums like Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson. Basically, Miles would gather great musicians in a studio, pick a key and a groove and then record everything live over several days. Then he and Mr. Macero would edit and shape these improvisations into compositions. Having never recorded like that, I had a fantasy to try it someday if the fates ever allowed.

One night after a gig in San Francisco, a decade or more later, I mentioned this fantasy to Victor Krummenacher. I'd known the always musically adventurous Mr. Krummenacher for a couple of decades (since he was a young buck bassist in Camper Van Beethoven) and hoped he would understand. Turns out, Victor not only understood but quickly suggested a way of paying for a few days of recording, but then he also recommended guitar whiz David Immergluck as the other guitarist. I was familiar with David from his many years with John Hiatt, Cracker and other artists, and thought the two of us playing together would be educational for me as well as some loud fun. David and I came from different musical worlds and play entirely different guitar styles but making some noise with David, along with Victor, sounded good to me. When Victor then informed me that the extraordinary drummer Michael Jerome, whom I’d known since he joined Richard Thompson’s band many years before, was interested in participating in these exploratory sessions, I knew that no matter what happened in the studio, the groove would be rock solid. Looking to add a distinct vocal element to these sessions, we reached out to the unique and wise singer/songwriter Jesse Sykes to come sing with us. She sweetly and enthusiastically agreed to join in the project despite the fact that we weren’t exactly sure what was going to happen. We knew we had to get from Point A to Point Z somehow on each track but we’d have to cut our own pathway to get there. Using the Miles Davis technique, there were no rehearsals or written musical arrangements. Just decide on a key, start recording and see what happens. During the sessions we simply sat in a circle and looked and listened closely to each other as we made everything up live on the spot. We chose songs/compositions primarily identified with the 1960s underground scene as a tribute to the open-minded music of that period as well as to the fearless musicians like Alice Coltrane, Michael Bloomfield, Fred Neil and Roky Erickson who helped create the sounds of that era. So this is my fantasy recording session finally come to fruition. Is it commercial? Will it get played on the radio? Does the world want or need an album like this now? Hell if I know but here it is anyway.