In the late nineties, Bill Groot and Brent Gutzeit founded BOXmedia and focused on releasing albums from Chicago's experimental and improv music scenes. Gutzeit had been a presence in the scene for a few years but started performing in Kalamazoo as a student at Western Michigan, playing with his college friend Thomas Deater. Thomas Deater self-released his debut album Linkage in 1992 on his own Gentle Giant Records.
The first three songs each uniquely set the tone for the cassette. The first "Violins" is Deater on guitar that's then run through tape manipulation (speed changes, reversing) to evoke the sonic feel of the title instrument. The second,"Ugly Bell Suite," is a live performance with Blaine Townsend also on guitar and Gutzeit on instruments of his own making (credited as "woodstrings" and "metalstrings" by Deater.) The song's title also evokes another instrument to the same effect, achieved this time through Gutzeit's arhythmic percussion and controlled noise. The third song, "Linkage," is a post-rock improvisation with another guitarist Kirk Decker. All three songs produce a common ambient sound despite the differences in means, and all three means of production end up being layered to different effects on the rest of the album in addition to finding a greater structure through more rhythmic foundations.
The album is available for purchase here. Special thanks to Brent Gutzeit for his generosity in sharing these albums and answering my questions.
Here is the discography surrounding Thomas Deater's debut album:
Josh Abrams juggled playing bass for The Roots in Philly—busking, doing open mics, recording, the like—with school at Northwestern. After graduation, he would stay in Chicago where he became a notable presence in both the jazz and improvised music scenes. After Organix, his next full album recording was Town and Countrywith his band of the same name. The independent music label BOXmedia released the album in 1998.
Town and Country describe their sound as "back porch minimalism." Their use of "minimalism" places them in the modern classical tradition. It's audible in how they construct their songs through a layering of drones and melodic repetition. The "back porch" implies a folk approach to the classical. It starts with the primary instrument choices: two bass (played by Josh Abrams and Liz Payne,) guitar (played by Ben Vida) and especially the harmonium (played by Jim Dowling.) The "back porch" also brings into account the band's improvisation, unrestricted by rigid sheet music, and the embrace of imperfection. The band's improvisations are slight and can be as simple as one of the drones shifting notes or as rare as the introduction of an unexpected melody amidst the layers—all in search of new sonic combinations. And error, too, can lead to new paths.
Of course, drone music is not for most people, but the "back porch" quality is an invitation to come and go as one likes or even join in. After all, the "back porch" is also a space as can be the music. This music has a flexibility to it. It can occupy a space but also warp that space or bend to it. Because the music is ruled by its minimalism, it becomes a deep exploration of the qualities of each instrument, their breath and texture and their amplitude. The musical space these explorations create can be loose enough to welcome natural sounds (especially if played where their descriptor implies) or dense enough to drown all thought in. The distance traveled from one to the other is the tension the music thrives on.
I think I'd like to listen this album again, outside, on a rainy day.
Here is the discography surrounding Town and Country's debut album:
Sonance Quarry (1997 compilation songs by Odradek and Belokwa String Ensemble)
Town and Country
Town and Country - February 5, 1999 BOXmedia Festival
The best and most tasteful decision Jimmy Fallon ever made was hiring The Roots to be his Tonight Show band. Considering the history of music on the Tonight Show, the bands—meant to entertain and hype audiences leading up to shoots and during breaks—have all been versatile with popular song. Only Branford Marsalis, who played what he wanted, bucked the job description. Kevin Eubanks and his band brought rock, R&B and pop into the show's repertoire, and The Roots could do all that and bring in, naturally, Hip Hop. Even before hiring them, Jimmy envisioned The Roots playing a bigger role than just as a hired audience to laugh at his jokes. In a call back to Carson, Jimmy features their skills regularly in sketches, and games and musical routines. The best thing about Jimmy's tenure is his palpable camaraderie with The Roots, a relationship not prominent between host and band since Carson and Doc. "Retiring" to the regular job for Tonight came after nearly twenty years of albums and hard touring. The Roots self-released their debut album Organix in 1993.
At first, The Roots found it difficult to get signed. Not gaining any career traction in their native Philadelphia, they moved to the UK and toured Europe and had to self-produce their debut. As such, Organix lacks studio polish. Instead, The Roots were still finding their identity and sought to chronicle that growth on record. Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson on drums and Josh "Rubberband" Abrams/Leonard "Hub" Hubbard on bass are the album's beat and melody in an radical embrace of stark minimalism that has a flexible affinity with jazz, funk and R&B rhythms. Guitar and keyboards are only occasional touches to get the listener moving a bit. Overtop is almost always Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter who delivers breathless rhymes as the primary emcee. He can fall into similar rhythms and rhyme schemes from song to song but delivers with undeniable power and cleverness.
In this freeform chronicling of artistic growth, each song owes a lot to The Roots's Hip Hop influences with the jazz-attuned Tribe being undeniable. They try a few times to replicate their own versions of earlier alternative rap hits like "Can I Kick It?" or De La Soul's "Buddy." Songs like "Grits" and "Pass the Popcorn" allow lyrical play with a rather undefined metaphor but don't have the same ear for a single. Despite the spare instrumentation, the rhythm section already has a deep well of musical references to pull from, incorporating them into songs in a manner halfway between sampling and jazz quotations, and Black Thought is just as willing to rap as to try slam poetry or scat. The experimentation can be just as silly as serious like with a bass line call back to the "Inspector Gadget" theme song or just a 14 minute-long, "Longest Ever," posse cut featuring the Foreign Objects, The Roots's attempt to create a hip hop collective akin to the Native Tongues (Tribe, De La, Jungle Brothers,...) "Good Music" is the album's musical and lyrical peak opening with a nod to underground radio world-building, incorporating storytelling and band lore, using a clever echo-like round in the chorus and breaking down into a fun time.
I don't think I really needed to say all this because Black Thought says it all in "Leonard I-V":
And I speak up loud so you can hear me yo
Is it a Tribe Called Quest? Is it the JBs?
We're cool like that, but yo we're not the DBs
It's the group, The Roots, with the organic rap style
Plus the groove from the rhythmic rhyme file
Umm...I'm a big fan of the Soul
But I'm trying to get this Roots shit in control
So I hate when people say
"Umm—you remind of me De La Soul,"
'Cause I got a soul of my own, and umm
Yo, The Roots are taking big steps and
You can listen as we progress in
Sometimes I might come to teach a lesson
Other Times it's with a crazy question like...
Yo, whatever happened to Leonard Parts One to Five?
The result is a testament to Thompson and Trotter's pursuit of a destiny written in song. Shaggy, fun, full of potential, devoted and indebted: The Roots are trying a little bit of everything to start. They don't know quite who they are yet but they know where to go to find out and we, the listeners, get to witness the first steps.
Thus ends the year-long-plus journey through the audio history of The Tonight Show. Thank God. Wouldn't have done it in hindsight, but I...really wanted to cover The Roots.
Here is the discography surrounding The Roots's debut album:
Organix
"Pass the Popcorn" by The Roots
"Essawhamah?" by The Roots
Questlove Remebers When Jimmy Won The Roots Over
Know Your Roots with Questlove and Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter
Jimmy Fallon, The Who & The Roots Sing "Won't Get Fooled Again" (Classroom Instruments)
The only person to really benefit from the Tonight Show's Leno/Conan/Leno hosting shuffle was Jimmy Fallon. After a six-year stint as one of SNL's most popular cast members and a misguided turn as a film star, Jimmy Fallon fell into Conan's open seat on Late Night and thus became the natural heir to the Tonight Show desk. (Unlike for Letterman and Conan, Fallon's Late Night tenure felt more like on the job training for future, bigger stakes.) Leno lasted four more years before retiring. Jimmy took over as host of The Tonight Show on February 17, 2014 and has been behind the desk since. Before he was on TV, Jimmy Fallon was a stand up comic. While he was on TV, he released his first comedy album The Bathroom Wall in 2002 on DreamWorks Records.
Jimmy Fallon's hefty bag of impressions impressed Lorne Michaels enough to hire him for SNL where he was a valuable utility player: good for celebrity lampoons and silly-voiced bits. His bag also includes musical impressions; he can break out a guitar and a convincing Dave Matthews yowl. So, the album is naturally designed around this skillset—however far that will carry—and is made up half of musical genre parodies and half of his pre-SNL stand up material. The anchoring routine is also divided into halves. The first half is a run of impressions of celebrities vying to be the spokesman for Troll Productions Inc, makers of Troll Dolls. The second is a run of musical parodies of bands vying to write a jingle for Troll Productions Inc. Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Gilbert Gottfried, then U2, the 4 Non Blondes, R.E.M. et al switch in at breakneck speed, inspiring the awe of recognition. and leave before any one voice or song gets stale and before the audience catches on that the bit is stupid and bereft of actual jokes.
Like any musical parody album, the songs jump through a variety of genres and "parodies" them by contrasting expected lyrical content with actual lyrical content. What if a punk band sang about a snowball fight? What if the Beastie Boys couldn't hoop? What if Prince was an "Idiot Boyfriend"? The characters in these songs are all the same pathetic white boys and the jokes detail exactly how pathetic. Mark Ronson and Justin Stanley handle the production to at least give the songs a professional sheen that helps sell the parodies. But they weren't in the room for the worst musical bit on the album, the closer. A live bit reverse engineered to show off Jimmy's ability to sing off key...I mean, sing popular songs in a way that is vaguely familiar to the originals. The conceit: you can play MC Hammer's "Hammertime" under any 80s pop song. Sure, you can do that, but it doesn't work. It's also not a joke. Good crowd work, I guess.
Back to the stand up material because Jimmy Fallon is more than just impressions though impressions sneak in anyway (see the unfortunate "Chris Rock Was My RA" bit.) The material is all college jokes—roommates, community showers, mini fridges, etc.—and probably been the filler to his routine for nearly ten years at this point (and definitely five years since he was performing the set a year before joining SNL.) But college jokes are timeless especially when delivered to college audiences. On the recording, the college kids are slightly drunk and very generous and unwittingly give voice to the flaw running through Jimmy's whole routine. Impressions and jokes are greeted alike with cheers, not laughs. But Jimmy's a nice guy and the audience wants to have a good time with him and wants him to succeed. So does Lorne, so do NBC executives, and so do his agents. Turns out, doing only one thing well can take you pretty far.
Here is the discography surrounding Jimmy Fallon's debut album:
The Concert for New York City (To Benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund) (2001 compilation song)
MTV TRL Christmas (2001 compilation song)
The Bathroom Wall
Hammertime (2002 promo single)
Idiot Boyfriend (2002 promo single)
Selections from The Bathroom Wall (2002 EP)
Jimmy Fallon Stand Up
Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Debut
Jimmy Fallon Hosting the 2002 MTV VMAs
Jimmy Fallon Interview Before Taking Over Late Night
Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show Debut Monologue (delivered as if it's his last)
So, Jay Leno returned to The Tonight Show, as did Kevin Eubanks but only for a couple of months. After the drama surrounding the Tonight Show shuffle and a desire to spend more time with family, Kevin stepped down as Jay's bandleader. Industry veteran Rickey Minor and his TV Band (hired away from their gig as the American Idol band) took the stage in May 2010. Minor brought with him his television professionalism and complemented Jay by playing energetic pop songs and classics that would reinvigorate the audience during breaks in the recording. He started his career as a bassist, playing in groups and in sessions, and notably joined Whitney Houston's band before becoming her musical director. That job title would become his career as he worked with artists across the pop landscape and on shows like American Idol and The Oscars. In the middle of working for Whitney, he recorded with Jazz Express on their debut album The Songs of Diana Ross released in 1992 by the Japanese label Sound Design Records.
There's not much information out there about Jazz Express—probably because there's not much history. They were a studio band that recorded a series of smooth jazz albums with each album focusing on covering hits by a particular artist. They released five albums in 1992 alone and the "first" release I chose—I couldn't find exact release dates—is only based on the earliest catalogue number (SDCH-1016.) Rather than a band with a vision, Jazz Express looks like and sounds like and jazzes like a session job.
The first three songs are dominated by the soothing sax sounds of Michael Paulo. His saxophone's velvet texture is pillowed with organ chords, shimmering cymbals and a touch of chimes in the opening seconds of "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" and creates that cozy sound perfect for when you're contemplating the wonderful end to a romantic date (in the 80s,) enjoying a bubblebath surrounded by scented candles (in a cheeky Old Spice commercial,) or on hold waiting for your doggy daycare's customer service representative (still.) But then the album of Diana Ross covers drops a couple players favoring a smaller combo. Michael Paulo isn't on the rest of the album and neither is guitarist Buzzy Feiten. The main players left are Rickey Minor, drummer Ricky Lawson and pianist Neil Larsen. Neil Larsen punches up the remaining songs by speeding up the tempo, introducing tension, and allowing the two Rick(e)y's larger roles including a nifty drum solo on "Stop! In the Name of Love" and more melodic and prominent lines from Minor. These tracks veer away from the programmed smooth jazz, though still smooth and perfect for background at a convenience store, to a style with a little more forward motion...though not quite enough to be invigorating.
Here is the discography surrounding Jazz Express's debut album:
The Songs of Diana Ross
The Tonight Show Theme
Kevin Eubanks Discusses His Decision to Leave The Tonight Show
"Be Yourself...Unless" by Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers featuring Steven Page
When Conan O'Brien shifted to Tonight, he hired veteran Daily Show writer Rob Kutner. As a writer, Kutner extended his output beyond just monologues. He's written books, web series, panel comics, graphic novels and...comedy albums. Teaming up with frequent collaborators the Levinson Brothers (Stephen and Joel Moss) and recruiting a cast of famous friends, he released It's OK To...Do Stuff in 2012 through Rooftop Comedy Productions.
The short album was recorded and released to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of Marlo Thomas (and Friends') Free to Be...You and Me. A seminal children's album, TV Special and book, Thomas brought together musicians, actors and comedians to record a series of songs, sketches, poems and stories that challenged typical gender norms in both an earnest and subversively comic fashion. Kutner and the Levinsons couldn't just write a "comedy" version of Free to Be because it was already funny, and they didn't want to simply lampoon Thomas's feminist efforts. Instead, they landed on a formula to poke fun at the beloved classic by writing songs that were a bit too adult to have made the original's cut.
Joel Moss Levinson handles the music and the comedy is a team effort. Their songs speak to those who grew up on Thomas's lessons but then, like on "Divorce Makes a Family Twice as Big," got a dose of reality and a bit of cynicism from a world still trying to live up to her ideals. "Divorce" is the comic stand-out on a listenable Side A, but despite base material ripe for satire, Kutner and the Levinsons run out of steam quickly and close out the album with some comic clunkers, especially the closing "Everyone's Equally" that hasn't faith in the people of the world nor any sense of comic rhythm.
The wrangled stars that bring the album to life include musicians Steven Page of The Barenaked Ladies, Jane Wiedlen of The Go-Go's and comedians Samantha Bee, Wyatt Cenac, and James Urbaniak among many other of Rob Kutner's co-workers and friends. Unfortunately, they lack the charisma to better sell the material. Not like there was enough to work with, most of the big names only get a single line.
The album is unfortunately too song-forward and doesn't try for the balance of poetry, skits and stories that mixes so well on Free to Be. The exception is the two comedy sketches "Girl Meets Boy" and "Girl Meets Droid" which are comic extensions to the wonderful Mel Brooks/Marlo Thomas sketch "Boy Meets Girl." Like the rest of the album, the sketches are shadows of the original material. It's OK To...Do Stuff is a fun concept and devoted to the original, but it also feels rushed and needed more attention for it to be anything more than a few laughs...
But if you wanted any more proof that Rob Kutner and tbe Levinsons' hearts were in the right place, all proceeds from the record were donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a favorite charity of Marlo Thomas.
Note: Conan O'Brien's long-time Late Night and Tonight Show and Conan sidekick, Andy Richter, has a role on the song/sketch "Friends of Friends." Making this Tour stop was mostly an excuse to get Richter, by whatever means, into this ongoing Tonight Show history. It was either this or the All Hail King Julien soundtrack just for the song "I Love Your Toes" where Andy sings as the character Mort. After a few listens of that song: I, too, wish I were mort.
Here is the discography surrounding Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers' debut album:
It's OK To...Do Stuff
"It's OK to Do Stuff" by Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers featuring Jane Wiedlin
"Girl Meets Boy/Droid" by Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers featuring Fred Willard, Lizzy Caplan and Eugene Mirman
"Divorce Makes a Family Twice as Big" by Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers featuring Colin Hanks and Kimmy Gatewood
When Conan O'Brien took over The Tonight Show, he brought with him his Late Night band The Max Weinberg 7, rechristened Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band. Famously, Max was an erstwhile member of the E Street Band when Conan offered him the job as Late Night bandleader. He stayed loyal to Conan even when The Boss reformed E Street in 1999 and he had to balance his Late Night duties amidst touring. Before Max originally joined Springsteen in the mid-70s, he had played in a few other college and Jersey bands and first recorded his drumming as a member of the short-lived five-piece, Blackstone. The eponymous Blackstone came out in 1971 on Epic Records.
The single "Love, Love, Love" leads off the album with a debt to Led Zeppelin. The scream-singing vocals, dubious lyrics, a clever bass and emphatic drumming are all patterned on the hard rock quartet. The simple guitar and unambitious production are the only elements that aren't. There's an obvious difference in virtuosity as each band member either pales in comparison to or comes close to their musical models. Is it sacrilege to say that the young Max Weinberg nearly gives John Bonham a run for his money? By maximizing every fill, Max claims the song for his own. Only the solo gives away that he's still a click behind Bonham as it doesn't match the creativity of his fills. Of course, the song and the band couldn't just settle for being a less-than Zeppelin dupe, so that's why you add a keyboard (especially if you're also a fan of The Zombies.)
Only about a third of the songs scattered throughout Blackstone owes so much to Zeppelin. The rest of the tracks are a flowery, pop psychedelia dominated by lead singer Tom Flynn. The songs feel dated even though they're only two years removed from the late-sixties they evoke, while also harkening to the dim future of derivative corporate rock. If it's not clear already, the album lacks any identity or style of its own and suffers the unfortunate fate of being so unremarkable to be easily forgettable...except for the drumming.
Here is the discography for Blackstone:
Blackstone
Love, Love, Love (1971 single)
"Thinking" by Blackstone
Max Weinberg Leaves Late Night with Conan O'Brien for the First Time
