Henry Kaiser's tribute to Pete Cosey and his guitar

[Steve F.]

some my-t-fine ax grinding here:

[vacuumtube1954]

DAMN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Steve F.

[Steve F.]

DAMN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Steve F.

Glad you enjoyed it. Me too!

I realize that HK is a 'crazy/out' musician, but it's amazing to me that there are so many people out there who think he really actually doesn't know how to 'really' play (see the comments on some of his other youtube vids).

Anyway, yeah. He can play.

[GuitarGeek]

Glad you enjoyed it. Me too!

I realize that HK is a 'crazy/out' musician, but it's amazing to me that there are so many people out there who think he really actually doesn't know how to 'really' play (see the comments on some of his other youtube vids).

Oh dear, GAWD, the day I found his early 90's instructional video on Youtube was bittersweet for me. On the one hand, I remember getting one of his album way back then, I think it was Five Heavenly Truths, which had an ad in it for the video, and I wanted to buy it, but for whatever reason I never was able to. So finally getting to see the video was pretty cool.

BUT, you had all these morons making derogatory remarks about everything on the video. It starts with people saying he's a lousy guitarist. Then you point that the rhythm section on most of the video is John French and Andy West. Then someone says "Oh, well Mr Trust Fund probably paid them very well to play this crap". Then someone takes a pot shot at Howard Dumble, saying that Henry must have paid him in hamburgers for those cool amps. It just completely ruined any enjoyment I would have gotten out of finally getting to see the video after 20-whatever years it had been since I missed my chance to buy the VHS.

But I've been a fan of Henry's since about 1984. I read about him in Guitar Player, and soon thereafter managed to find It's A Wonderful Life at the local library (yes, our local library was hip enough to have exactly one, count it, ONE, Henry Kaiser record that you could borrow). And I've tried to keep up with his work ever since, though I kinda lost trakc of him in the last 10-15 years.

Not only is he a pretty amazing guitarist, but he's an extremely knowledgeable guy about music in general. He wrote this great piece for Guitar Player's Essential Listening series of articles back in 84, which made me aware of people like Harvey Mandel, Derek Bailey, Hans Reichel, Terry Riley, Miles Davis, Sonny Sharrock, Conlon Nancarrow, and a bunch of other people he cited as highly influential for him. So that was kind of a seminal article for me, in terms of giving me ideas of what stuff I should explore in terms of moving beyond "commercial" music.

[walt]

While we're on the subject of Henry Kaiser,i'll put in my 2 cents and give a big thumbs up to the cd,Jazz Free, A Connective Improvisation with Kaiser,Nels Cline and Jim Thomas on guitars,Allen Whitman on bass, Weasel Walter on drums.Too bad i can't find any clips(YT or otherwise) from the cd,but i played it all the way through,and it's quite good.

A keeper for me.

Damn straight,Henry Kaiser can play.

[N_Singh]

Cool, thanks. I just sent this to Pete's daughter, who is a friend of mine . I think she will dig it and appreciate it .

[Mister Triscuits]

BUT, you had all these morons making derogatory remarks about everything on the video. It starts with people saying he's a lousy guitarist. Then you point that the rhythm section on most of the video is John French and Andy West. Then someone says "Oh, well Mr Trust Fund probably paid them very well to play this crap". Then someone takes a pot shot at Howard Dumble, saying that Henry must have paid him in hamburgers for those cool amps.

Good lord, it's way worse than I was expecting. How can people be such absolute SHITS?

[FrippWire]

I love Kaiser. A friend turned me on to him in the 80's and I've been buying, listening and enjoying his music ever since. What a fabulous player! It's gotten that if I see his name on an album I just buy it.

[GuitarGeek]

Good lord, it's way worse than I was expecting. How can people be such absolute SHITS?

Yeah I know. I couldn't believe it either. Especially the crack about Howard Dumble's physique. So what if the guy is overweight or obese or what. It's not like you're ever going to be able to build a guitar amp and get away with selling it for 10 grand.

[Steve F.]

(yes, our local library was hip enough to have exactly one, count it, ONE, Henry Kaiser record that you could borrow).

One is a billion, trillion times better than none.

Often, one is all you need to learn a lot!

Yeah I know. I couldn't believe it either.

The internet has unleashed a lot of good things and also the absolute nadir of humanity because of anonymity....

As my personal hero Taylor so wisely opined, "Haters Gotta Hate Hate Hate Hate"

[Steve F.]

Good lord, it's way worse than I was expecting. How can people be such absolute MORONICALLY UNINFORMED SHITS?

fixed it for you!

[GuitarGeek]

One is a billion, trillion times better than none.

Often, one is all you need to learn a lot!

Yeah, that's true. It at least gives you the chance ot hear something, so that when other records turn up at the local record emporium, you'll know what you should you put your hard earned money down for.

For what it's worth, our library also had records from John Cage, Tangerine Dream, Morton Subotnick, Wendy Carlos, and what seemed like all of the Stockhausen Deutsch Gramaphone LP's. I think they had that Varese album that Frank Zappa wrote the liner notes for (where he says he doesn't even know how to pronounce the composer's name), and I also recall borrowing a Penderecki CD from them too.

[Steve F.]

I'm a bit older than you.

When I was 14-15, my library had:

John Coltrane "Ascension" and "Sunship"
Ornette Coleman "Free Jazz"
Charles Mingus "Re-evalutation: The Impulse Years"
Bela Bartok complete works for piano
some Ives, some Stravinsky, a Cecil Taylor that I never did like, and some others.

I learned a lot....

[walt]

I wasn't turned on to "modern" music(jazz/progressive rock/20th century classical/minimalists/improv/blues/etc) until my mid 20's.My library was a man named Doug Walker,who knew about all these musics, and more.


I miss him.

[Dave (in MA)]

The only thing I ever learned from borrowing records and CDs from the library was The Tragedy of the Commons.

[GuitarGeek]

I'm a bit older than you.

Just a little bit.

When I was 14-15, my library had:

John Coltrane "Ascension" and "Sunship"
Ornette Coleman "Free Jazz"
Charles Mingus "Re-evalutation: The Impulse Years"
Bela Bartok complete works for piano
some Ives, some Stravinsky, a Cecil Taylor that I never did like, and some others.

I don't remember what classical music we had on LP. I remember later borrowing CD's of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, and a few others.

I do remember borrowing Africa/Brass Vol. II from the library on LP one time, after hearing a radio interview where Phil Lesh talked about the original Africa/Brass album being an influence ont he Grateful Dead in the early days. Not sure what other Coltrane records they had, or if they had any Mingus or Ornette. I know they had a few Miles Davis things, I remember borrowing Bitches Brew from the library. They also had I think one or two Sun Ra albums. Have no idea which ones, but they had them in those generic 12" sleeves with the hole cut out so you can the label (like they used to use for 12" singles), and the labels were hand drawn, but I think at the time, Ra wasn't quite on my radar.

I also remember they had Ry Cooder's Showtime, which for some stupid reason (well, mostly becuase I didn't yet know who Ry Cooder), I never borrowed. I never actually heard it until a couple years ago, and I rather like quite like it now. Not sure what I would have thought of it if I heard it when I was 9 or 10.

[GuitarGeek]

My library was a man named Doug Walker,who knew about all these musics, and more.

.

Yeah, we talked about Doug before. He was cool. I met him a few times, when Alien Planetscapes came to Cleveland or Columbus for shows. Always dug talking to him about music. In particular, he was one of the people who advised me to check out Area. I was actually curious to hear them anyway becuase of the description in the Wayside catalog, but Doug was like "Yeah, you have to hear them!". I also remember he was a big Thin Lizzy fan (something Bonnie Kane reminded me of when I saw her a couple months ago here in Cleveland, we started talking about Doug and she noticed that I was wearing a Thin Lizzy shirt, and she pointed out that although Doug had liquidated some of his record collection when he started having health problems, "He kept all his Thin Lizzy records!").

[Dave (in MA)]

some my-t-fine ax grinding here:

Sweet, but he could have picked a track from a Cuneiform release!

[Steve F.]

Sweet, but he could have picked a track from a Cuneiform release!

THAT BASTARD!!!!!!

[vacuumtube1954]

THAT BASTARD!!!!!!

[Steve F.]

just like the little man used to say on TV: "but WAIT! There's MORE!"

Henry Kaiser and Stephan Thelen (of SONAR)
"I Love The Smell Of Tritones In The Morning"

[vacuumtube1954]

just like the little man used to say on TV: "but WAIT! There's MORE!"

Henry Kaiser and Stephan Thelen (of SONAR)
"I Love The Smell Of Tritones In The Morning"

Yes Henry and Stephan yes !