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Heard Out

Reviews of live performance


  Leo Kottke/Olu Dara and Alonso Gardner Duo 

  (Blue Note) 


October 13, 2003
   review by rawly calamari
  2003-10-29

i'm not into folk but got kottke to sign the one & only lp i own by him. you know the one on takoma with the picture of the armadillo on the cover. it's an original & i've never listened to it. kottke played his 12-string well, i guess (he ain't no fahey) ... wow, matt lavelle is playing his ass of on this moshe cd ... oh i digress ... well kottke said something about how he didn't like to play songs that lasted more than 3 minutes & most didn't tho some went to about 5. big problem here was that every time he spoke between tunes & don't get me wrong some of the stories like the one about him & larry coryell were downright homey & delightful, he spoke interminable. folkies seem to do this kind of reminiscing the most. can we count david amram as a folky then 'cause his long raps have everyone beat? anyway the place was packed, the set delightful if you're a kottke fan. so why was i there? like i said. to get the lp signed & also out of curiosity of course. to see someone i've never seen. it was a good natural set. he was very generous & affable. swift grace picking, did an interesting version of the classic byrd's tune "eight miles high." his voice deep flat & dry both when he sings & speaks. his humor as well. one great story was about this nicotine soaked pedal steel guitar he bought yrs ago & except for one time has been too afraid to play. really witty. definitely a nimble-fingered teller of tales. ditto olu who i expected to like more but became extremely bored with. very into race. that's ok but his manner was just too laid back for me. as was that of gardner. (o.d. played slide guitar, trumpet, mouth harp etc. gardner bass, as well as mouthharp on what was best piece of the set, an harmonica duo.) On some levels tho, olu's 1st 2 pieces & maybe in some bizarre way his entire set did more for the blues & its history than the overly personalized awful uneducational & uninspiring tv series that scorcese's produced. but more on that in the future if the tentacles of squid's ear deem it. anyway among the lowfi hilites were olu's rendition of the great sam cooke tune "you send me" that he played on what he claimed to be an old aboriginal wooden trumpet he found being kicked around in a museum some 30 odd yrs ago. gave us some good history but never let loose, oh how i wish that trumpet would sing more .......... i get what he's after but just don't dig it ....





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