Attendees of music festivals are often required to make excruciating decisions. I’ve been tortured by a particularly agonizing scheduling conflict coming up on Friday at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. Ralph Towner and The Comet is Coming play simultaneous showcases at different venues.
Towner, 71, has blown my mind since I fished Sargasso Sea out of a discount bin at Classical Westport as a curious teen. Friday’s show is my first- and likely last- opportunity to see the guitarist.
In contrast to the relatively staid Towner, the energetic the Comet is Coming is one of the most fashionable acts in the world. The cool kids have glommed onto the London based trio as their token jazz act of 2019. A commensurate allotment of coolness will be conferred on everyone at the band’s showcase on Friday.
Alas, the release of the Comet is Coming’s major label debut made my choice a lot easier. Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery doesn’t live up to the hype. The best bits resemble a solid Pharoah Sanders tribute while the worst passages sound like a mashup of the late prog-rock keyboardist Keith Emerson and the manic jazz ensemble Moon Hooch. It’s cheesy.
So while fashionable folks dance to the Comet is Coming at a nightclub, I’ll be seated with my frumpy brethren in an Episcopal cathedral listening to a septuagenarian guitarist. No regrets.
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I created an audio feature about RL Brooks and Seen Merch for KCUR.
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The process entailed several listening sessions, but I finally worked my way through Jordi Savall’s 146-minute epic Ibn Battuta, the Traveller of Islam. While the music is uniformly compelling, the goofy narration is intrusive.
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It’s difficult for me to image Jim Keltner and Mike Watt in the same room, let alone in the same recording studio. Yet the classic rock drummer and the intrepid punk bassist support Mike Baggetta on Wall of Flowers. The guitarist’s attack falls somewhere between Terje Rypdal and Joe Satriani.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
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