Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing

When the hurly burly's done (I may have time to write another blog!)...

but seriously folks...

Dunno about you ("they're cry-zy....they're all cry-zy...'cept for me and you...and sometimes, I even have me doubts about You" -- cockney asylum attendant to Dwight Frye in Tod Browning's 1931 "Dracula"), but I have been extremely busy lately (busy is good, not complaining mind you)...but...not much time to write these blogs, particularly in this clime...still...you axed for it...

'Tis the season to be...

Gary before performing "The Unholy Three", Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater NYC, 10/22/09 | photo by Bob Strano

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Premiered a new solo silent movie score at the Walter Reade Theater on Oct. 22nd--a commission from the Film Society of Lincoln Center--for Tod Browning's 1925 silent thriller "The Unholy Three", there's a clip of the film with my music on it plus an excerpt from my solo guitar score here...suffice to say it was a true labor of love, I must have looked at this film 40-50 times to get it right in rehearsing the mf, but hey I adore this film, which I prefer to the talkie remake...Halloween always brings with it the rattle of autumn rhythms old and new (breeze blows leaves of the mustard color yellow) and quite gratifying indeed to play for a surprisingly full house at my favorite shrine of the cinema in NYC and environs, thanks to Bob Strano for major assist in recording the score and to Film Society program director Richard Pena for greenlighting it and Sayre Maxfield for midwifing it, and Isa Cucinotta for scheduling and practical details, in the house were Film Comment's Gavin Smith, Cineaste's Richard Porton, The Hollywood Reporter's Doris Toumarkine, and some of my hardcore fans (new music lover Steve Spitzer for one, who pretty much has come to every single gig I've done in town for the last oh 15 years or so when he's not traipsing around in Japan)...

Gary, Richard Barone, Terri Roche and Deni Bonet cross over to "The Other Side", Tribute to Tiny Tim, Joe's Pub 10/30/09

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Had a slew of gigs over the last few days, did a one-off for Richard Barone's Tribute to Tiny Tim at Joe's Pub, I always had a soft spot for Mr. Khaury particularly his first album on Reprise produced by the excellent Richard Perry.. .many many years ago in a land far far away I was hanging on Marshall Street up in the 'Cuse deep in conversation with a kid with the longest hair I had ever seen on a guy at that point (musta been spring '68), a freak who had spotted me carrying The Move's first album under my arm and recognized me as a kindred spirit/stone anglophile, anywho he was sporting an acoustic guitar case emblazoned with his own hand red-lettered scrawl "Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band" across the front of it..."Who's that?" I asked innocently..."Oh that's a band my brother just produced in LA" he replied, and an hour or so later after a war toke or two or three something clicked and I proffered "Oh, is your brother Richard Perry by any chance?"...and yea verily it was his bro' indeed, I knew the name and what audio wonderment the guy was capable of having already imbibed deeply of the variegated linsey-woolsey wheezy whimsey that permeates the very warp 'n woof of this particular disc (Tiny Tim was a heavyweight talent, no lie...so much so that he even graces The Basement Tapes you never did get to hear officially) ..."God Bless Tiny Tim", yep...produced by Mistuh Perry...my favorite track back in the day was a mysterioso almost Hitchockian admonitory song/soundscape written by Bill Dorsey entitled "The Other Side" that in retrospect might have been the first mention of humans as fish fodder/global warming in a 3 minute pop song, can't think of another one right now dagnabbit since oh, uh, "Three Little Fishies" by Kay Kyser (woops, that's from the 40's) or Stubby Kaye's "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat" (nope, 50's) or, uh, Donovan's "Atlantis" (that's more like it), but I'm sure there have been others since then...and that is what I performed with great assist at Joe's from legendary Candy John Carr (onetime Donovan percussionist, great guy...I saw him onstage with Mr. Sunshine Superman at the War Memorial about the same year as Tiny's album came out when Donovan's father acted as the emcee and sold programs during intermission, very Colonel Tom-ish)...also the lovely Terri Roche and Deni Bonet and Richard backed me up on the chorus of "The ice caps are melting..." Was the music supervisor of the soon to open "2012" hip to this tune?

Nah, probably not...

Then I hied it over to The Living Room and played a particularly satisfying set with Gods and Monsters--sans fx!! save a Fulltone...how liberating...could be a trend...we were joined by special guests throughout the evening beginning with Molly Hickok, the principal light of Annie-B Parsons and Paul Lazar's delightful Big Dance Theater, their recent show at The Kitchen superb, totally massive in the press recently, I even read about 'em in the International Herald Tribune when I was playing in London recently, Molly did a particularly piquant reading of "Please Allow Me to Look at You Again" from my 30's Chinese pop album "The Edge of Heaven" (and did I mention that it is being re-issued with bonus tracks soon? Indeed I might have...but can't get stop now so here comes another plug)...Molly was followed by incendiary Felice Rosser who rocked out on spiraling ecstatic vocalese during our version of Abdullah Ibrahim's "Bra Joe from Kilimanjaro"...Last up, Cuturecatch.com's Dusty Wright brought it all back home with a fine reading of "Season of the Witch", there's that Donovan connection once again...

Monday before that back at Joe's the beautiful and mega-talented sirene de la fete Sabina Sciubba from Brazilian Girls delivered an incandescent set of cabaret-ish polyglot songs with echoes of Paolo Conte, Weimar Berlin, film music and more, mainly acoustic with a flamenco guitarist and violinist in the mix, looking superb in red after recently becoming a mom (her kid roamed hither and yon and sang along on cue)... really really lovely, some of her new songs brought tears to our eyes (Caroline is a big fan as well)...Go Sabina!!

Another wonderful momente musicale in town recently was attending a preview of the new production of "Fela!" directed by the amazing Bill T. Jones...which I raved about last year when it was off-Broadway, and now its moved uptown to the Eugene O'Neill Theater and is scheduled for a Thanksgiving opening...with swirling and stabbing defiant horn lines and hip-shaking grooves (not to mention the eye and ear candy of Fela's wives, a dozen gorgeous female dervishes who chime in smartly on the choruses) nothing beats this show's explosive and joyous energy, and its message of social liberation has never been timelier, Fela Kuti was an innovator and a hero and a martyr and the onstage band Antibalas plays the hell out of his songbook ("I.T.T.", "Expensive Shit", you name it--they nail it every time), and the night we saw the show understudy Kevin Mambo was fearlessly strutting his way through the title role, only the second time he'd done it on stage and he was damn good, unbelievable really, as the role is practically owned by the principal lead Sahr Nagaujah (who is iconic)... the audience was on its feet cheering and hollering at the end, literally dancing in the aisles...

and while you're at it...

Gary Lucas and Najma Akhtar

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Take a gander at 2 new videos I've just booted up on YouTube...

Namely, a clip of "Rishte", the title track from my celebrated album collaboration with the great Indian vocalist Najma Akhtar...we are playing the WOMAD Festival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain in a couple weeks with a tabla player, and LOOKOUT!! We've been itching to get this on stage for awhile, and our duets in London recently at the Jazz Cafe only whetted our appetite to bring it on home....we continue to garner rave reviews, here's a couple from The New Internationalist and Rock 'N Reel...and "Rishte" is a first ballot nominee for a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Album...all you members of NARAS, vote early and often!

Plus--

Check out this new Gods and Monsters video for "Climb the Highest Mountain", directed by Jill A. Black who did such a great job for us...

it's a track from our forthcoming studio album produced by the great Jerry Harrison and featuring Ernie Brooks on bass, Billy Ficca on drum, Jason Candler on alto sax and Joe Hendel on trombone and keyboards...

Here's a schedule of new appearances upcoming.

Hope to see you soon at a show near You!!

Gary at the Show Gallery, Staten Island before his solo concert for Mick Rock's "Glam!" exhibition, 10/16/09


Gary and Lulu, West Village NYC Oct. 09

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xxLove

Gary

ps More good news just in...

I am so proud to have composed music for Sebastian Doggart's new documentary "American Faust: From Condi to Neo-Condi"...which was just nominated for the Maysles Award for Best Documentary at the Starz Denver Film Fest!! The winner will be announced on Nov 21st, the day of our premiere there...

and some cool reviews of Fast 'N' Bulbous' "WAXED OOP" just in:

from Cadence and Disc of the Day at The Jazz Breakfast website.

Mmm mmm GOOD

also--new track up on my MySpace site now, the theme from "Sex and Lucia" (2001, d. Julio Medem) by the great Alberto Iglesias, recorded live at the Jecheon International Film and Music Festival August 15th last summer at my late night cinema music concert...translation by lovely Hena Yang, recording furnished by lovely May Lee...enjoy!!