Piano Night on WWOZ (4/30/07)

Summary: I think the David Torkanowsky set was the best. Other stuff not worth saving onto tape. This Dan Dyer had no place being there. A bad precedent. Selling out. Piano Night should feature piano players, not the next 5 min trend.

From OZ's web page:
Artists scheduled to appear this year include -
Marcia Ball!
Eddie Bo!
√Topsy Chapman!
√Jon Cleary!
Dan Dyer,
√Casandra Faulconer (on bass)
Henry Gray. Do they mean Henry Butler???
√John Gros!
√Joe Krown!
Matt Lemmler,
Nelson Lunding,
Jesse McBride,
Fred McCray,
Tom McDermott,
Conun Pappas,
Joshua Paxton,
√Renard Poche, (gtr in backup band)
√Shannon Powell ~ (drums in backup band)
Herlin Riley,
√Big Sam (trumpet or trombone player)
Wil Sargisson,
√Larry Sieberth, (in backup band)
Marc Stone,
David Torkanowsky!
Mike Wadsworth,
√Donald Ramsey (bass in backup band)
and many more.

Let's see who's on when.

Starts 8:30 NY time.

They're playing a killer "If i would ever leave you" by a woman. They stop it dead in the middle of it with no explanation or ID. They then go cold to a live performance of Jonathan Batiste. Then a marble-mouthed DJ mumbles something about the show starting soon.

This DJ is a jerk.

Good. We hear John Boutte singing LA 1927 from last year's fest. A great version.

OK, then they cut that off with no explanation and go to some woman singing some jazz standard live. WWOZ sucks.

Her talk after the first song is off mic or better yet, out of the mix. Round Midnight next. Other singer is off mic/out of the mix. There we go, now she's in. Now a third singer is out of the mix. Is she in now? Possibly.

This is Larry Sieberth, Shannon Powell, Topsy Chapman! and a few others.

Saturday Night Fish Fry. Good band behind her. t1>1404

Tom Morgan's mic gets found then he intros Jon Cleary then SILENCE! God I hate poor live mixes.

1697

Cha Cha All Night Long. (He takes requests.) Nice with the band kicking in. (w/ Donald Ramsey and others)

Jelly Roll Morton tune.

Tom Morgan still out of the mix. There we go, sort of. Henry Butler coming up. (They don't have Henry Butler on the list! lol)

Almost silence follows. Hear a little crowd noise. No DJ/on air presence. Why not? They like to break in when there is music. Why don't they talk now when there isn't any?

I wonder how long this will last... Does OZ think it does have someone yakking away right now? Maybe they do for the on-air signal but they sure as hell don't for the internet feed.

I guess I can consider this some good audio verite of the House of Blues... Trouble is, I don't want any.

Then, about 5 minutes of just background noise, they go to some brass band, with no explanation. That stops with no explanation then we hear the crowd clapping and cheering as Henry Butler comes on stage. Tom does intro him, good.

Henry Butler. t1<1314> 1748 He sings off key. Level comes up in second chorus, then something shifts in the mix.

DJ. Are they gonna interrupt every song now?

Fred Tackett ID'd. Level is low again. Now it goes up.

Ophelia! And Joe Krown on organ, yeah!

Yes we can can.

City's lookin better? Yeah. Yeah you right.

John puts all this bs behind us and I start to enjoy the show. He ain't a good singer but that's ok. Sing Sing Sing.

DJ comes in. They fade the hall out altogether, They don't have to do that. Now DJ is back. No hall.

level goes down... during this solo piano piece.

John Gros is done. No DJ, good. Tom Morgan... oh well too good to be true, a DJ barges in. Long silence before CD plays if it plays at all... Dead air... I stop tape. Another DJ says they are having technical problems then they play a CD. "If I ever leave you" again. I'm sure they'll interrupt it when they want to... Yep. they did.

Someone intro-ing the band. Low level. No clue from the DJ who this might be. Good. Just tell us what's going on, ok?
Level comes up slowly. Now way up. Technique, guys, technique. Bring the faders up slower...

It's an old black man who's played with Howlin Wolf for 14 years.

Sweet Home Chicago

DJ comes on. Who the fuck is playing!!! He doesn't say.

Is this Henry Gray? Someone yelled out, Go Henry. Level goes up briefly. One weird piano lick at the end there, bro. Wrong key...

DJ steps in a-fuckin-gain. IDs the station but not the performer.

Getting monitor feedback/ring now.

Tom Morgan's announcements are out of the mix. Good.

More out of the mix Tom.

DJ comes on. Who was that? Henry Gray. Thank you. The guy doesn't know the names. Joe Krown up next at the 19 annual... Should be the 19th...

They come back to Joe Krown. Low level. Oh, -30 db, that's all.

Still low level. OZ is really clueless.

DJ. Asshole. Fix the goddamn level.

Tipitina. They figure out the level, no just the vocals, half way in. Piano and band are low still.

Big Chief. Piano finally comes up. Alfred Doucet.

DJ, doesn't ID. Good.

Organ sounds good.

He's done. DJ comes on. Go to CD of Tuts Washington. On next CD, level goes low again. -30db,

DJ comes back on and his level is fine. Dan Dyer next. James Booker - Let Them Talk for two seconds then back to the stage. No, back to the James Booker CD.

Dan Dyer sounds good. Level goes back down soon into it. Not a very piano-based sound. Level comes up.

Next... Does this guy even have a piano in the band?

I go to bed, 20 after one NY time. He finally plays a piano. Walk on Gilded Splinters, not like the Dr John version at all.

***

I left the computer on, recorded the rest of it and it worked! No computer freezes.

So, catching up it looks like it went on for about another hour and a half. (1:38)

James Booker - Am I Getting Through To You, nice

David Torkanowsky comes on (~14). Like last year, he comes on with some sassy talk.

Quite the alternate version of Goin To New Orleans (Prof Longhair).

level goes up for next tune.

dedicates this tune to ALL the people of New Orleans. Sounds sweet. Great intro. (27:43) Sleepytime Down South

Big Chief w/ Alfred "Uganda" Roberts. Alfred sings. George Porter Jr on bass. Herlin Riley on the drums!

Y'all not piano'd out yet?

Eddie Bo comes out. Background vocals out of the mix for Eddies song.

Goin To New Orleans again. Marcia Ball comes out.

Eddie: 'We goin to go find 'fess.' Big Chief. Falls apart at times. Mostly a mess. Not sure if it's due to a bad mix (onstage) or the playing.

Dj comes on. Encore.

Whoa. Marcia's playing Crawfish and some other tune starts playing. Good, OZ. Better playing towards the end of it.