In the year of the Charlie Parker Centennial, a six volume set of Eddie Chatterbox documentation has been prepared. Very little of the material has been previously available and almost none of it in exactly this form.

Project Omnibook:  the Bruce Gallanter reviews

 As the main force behind Downtown Music Gallery and one of the most avid music listeners and gig-goers in history, the comments of Bruce are something I take seriously, once past the basic watermark of not giving a flying fuck what anyone thinks about anything I do. 

             Herewith are his comments regarding the six volumes in the Eddie Chatterbox “Omnibook” series. Enthusiasts who are mystified by the content of these recordings may find Bruce’s comments enlightening. 

         Bruce’s patience and love of weirdness is truly appreciated. As an artist the chance to comment on a review is too rare to pass up when circumstances dictate, so in response to some of Bruce’s comments about collage techniques, I would trace my own interest in this to recordings heard as a teenager on underground radio in Boulder by Charles Ives, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tod Dockstader and George Crumb; the latter two also had a local presence during this period.  Further on I became quite inspired to get deeper into this art by things I heard during my travels, two events stand out in particular: (1) an encounter between several large machines of demolition and a large concrete block building in Amsterdam (the machines made by the Van Vliet company!) and (2) listening to simultaneous sets by a rock band (upstairs) and a jazz band (downstairs) at the Court Tavern,  New Brunswick, New Jersey.

VOLUME TWO;  MUSIC, HASHISH AND BLOOD

Featuring Eugene Chadbourne on guitar & banjo, Pat Thomas on keyboards, Jimmy Carl Black and Schroeder on drums. Since the pandemic (starting mid-March, 2020) has forced just about everybody to be shut-ins, many of us collectors have been going through our collections to see what actually have and finally spend some time listening, reading, thinking and creating. Touring musicians have been hit especially hard since they can’t tour or even play anywhere where it unsafe. Hence, it seems that the good old Doctor Chadbourne has spent the time going through his vast archive of unreleased recordings and has just released six discs from varied musicians and groups. The overall theme of this series is a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker and the birth of bebop, the type of revolutionary music that he helped invent. On this disc, we get four bebop classics. The featured musicians here include Pat Thomas, UK keyboard wiz who has played with many: Derek Bailey to Lol Coxhill to Daevid Allen and original Mothers of Invention drummer, Jimmy Carl Black (“The Indian of the group!”). Doc Chadbourne and Jimmy Carl Black toured together several times and were always captured both the humor-filled side and jazz/progressive tendencies that the Mothers helped to invent. This disc starts off with some solo banjo and guitar(s), all acoustic and perhaps overdubbed. Our next stop is a cool version of “Ornithology” for electric guitar & drums, the Doc & JC Black, most likely. I like this since, the duo is in no hurry and plays this difficult music with a relaxed sense of calm. Dr. Chadbourne does a fine job of piling up several layers of acoustic & electric guitars and banjo, without letting things get too dense. These pieces work well since Dr. Chad knows how to interact with his own playing, adding spurts and layers in between, on top and underneath whatever was recorded first. Sometimes a solo from another place or time floats in and takes over for a bit, before things fade into another dimension. At a few points, Chadbourne adds some sound collages with different voices or samples and always to good effect. This long disc is more of a solo effort with bits & pieces of other musicians or groups floating in and out of the mix. It takes some time to mellow into the more relaxed spacious side of this journey but it is well worth the trip.