Chris Robinson
@chris-robinson
Music writer, saxophonist, steel guitarist, PhD in American Studies, bylines in Downbeat, Point of Departure, POW Mag, elsewhere. Day gig: Duke University Press.
The cool thing about The Odyssey is when our cat Monsignor Waffles finally learned the glory of being a too big cat in a too small box.
You know it's hot when the weather people have run out of shades of orange and red and are having to head toward fuchsia and then after that, I guess purple?
I mean I'm not Catholic, and at most agnostic, but if Pope Leo wants me to finish my Blindfold Test book, I better get to it and finish the damn thing. I wouldn't want to disappoint His Holiness.
So yeah, this is a bonkers combo of pedals - fuzz, delay/looper, a flange/chorus, and a weird reverb, but dial everything in right, and it will melt your face. Or do it wrong, add it's a hot fucking mess. I need to add my bizarre phase locked looper to the mix and get really out there.
I finally finished Roberto Bolano's sprawling beast of a novel, 2666. I'm still trying to process it. There's nothing that hits quite like big complex dark, sad, tragic, unfathomable book that goes for the parts of the human experience that we usually don't want to think about.
Look closely and you'll see that I too am throwing my hat in the ring of Sonny Rollins remembrances. Coming soon to the best rap (and jazz when they let me) publication in the game.
Why yes, these are an original (I'm pretty sure) set of Anthony Braxton's Tri-Axium writings, why do you ask? I visited my man Kevin Whitehead last weekend and I got to raid his book collection. The bindings are shot and need to be addressed, but still, damn.
I have no idea what Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche is doing on this. All I know is that it is bananas and I like it. Whatever is in the water in Montreal, I want some. If McGill Queens University Press came knocking on my door I think I'd have to start taking French classes and move north.
Did I score this fully functional Blip Blox synth at a thrift store yesterday for $1.99? Of course I did. It was in the children's toy section, which makes sense. It's so much fun, but unless I was into samplers and had a 404, I'm not sure how useful it is. Maybe I need to throw it into some pedals.
This one from 2005, not on ECM, is also killing. There's one track where Chris Potter goes absolutely bananas.
Happy belated bday to drummer Arthur Taylor, who in addition to being a monster behind the kit, also happened to write one of the best books about jazz.
I've seen Questlove and Paul Motian and a bunch of other baaaad drummers, but Victor Lewis stands out to me.
I saw that Blue Note just released a Tone Poet edition of Andrew Hill's Compulsion, which I haven't listened to in forever. I forgot just how great it is.
Durham turned out for No Kings. Marchers all the way to the building in the background and presumably more around the block.
Waffles is really paying attention to this pedal steel lesson video. He wants to make sure he's got his bar on the right fret.
There is nothing that Waffles will not put in his mouth. Right now he's working on the small Bose badge on my bookshelf speakers.
Ok, time to mellow things out with some jangly indie pop that flirts with shoegaze. Desolation Wilderness's White Light Strobing. A bit of a deep cut from the aughts on K Records.