xian ([info]bodega) wrote,
@ 2002-10-11 10:01:00
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Soothing the savage breast
Saw New Orleans piano genius Henry Butler last night with Amy DeNaio at the tiny 21 Grand performance space in Oakland (the show was produced by Earthwise, and Butler's appearance is part of a Basin Street Records "invasion" of the bay area also featuring Kermit Ruffins and Jon Cleary at other venues).

Wow!

Butler is so amazing. He draws on blues, jazz, country, classical, and just plain atonal weirdness. He has a muscular pounding style heavy on the syncopation, and an incredibly deep voice. One song was just a long serious of tuneful moans—a good fit for DeNaio who does a lot of vocalese in her work as well (she played an accordion borrowed from the next-door shop and later a sax with an effects pedal she played with her hand for her vocals).

Mixed in with his own material, Butler reinterpreted Georgia on My Mind and, most thrillingly, the Entertainer.

What a night. Turned my bad mood from the daytime entirely around, as tired as I was.

Tonight it's Bob Dylan at the Greek.


(Say, I've noticed that since I upgraded iTunes, iJournal is no longer able to detect the track currently playing....)

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was it Amy Denio?
[info]malium
2002-10-15 04:53 am UTC (link)
Spell check? Sounds like Amy Denio... she used to work at Muzak in Seattle, I saw her in an early band of hers, name escapes me, but circa 1986, prior to that I think she'd also been in a new-wavey band (Fred?). The duo was, aha, the Entropics, both musicians playing a variety of percussion with feet and hands while also playing saxes, keyboards and guitar. Amy used treated guitar with balls of wax on strings - was heavily influenced by Fred Frith and toured with Frith, I think, and also did the euro festival circuit. Saw her band the Tone Dogs in late 80s in SF and have a tape somewheres, and she did some solo tapes around then since on CD, Birthing Chair Blues, I think... Tone Dogs featured Fred Chalenor on bass, and I think drummer who later was in a more famous Seattle group, I the the rhythm section now back Jeff Greinke in Land, and also has connections to Soft Machine's Hugh Hopper in a band with him called Caveman Hughscore. Denio went on to an all women sax quartet, I think called Billy Tipton Sax Quartet, inspired by Tipton who dressed as a man and married, and wasn't known to be a woman until his death. For my money Amy Denio is one of the most interesting experimental musicians out of the US in the last two decades, and she's probably better known in Canada and France and other parts of the world. Haven't heard anythingby her for a decade but assume it's who you saw based on the description and suspect she's evolved to be even more talented then when I last saw her live in the late 80s.

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Re: was it Amy Denio?
(Anonymous)
2003-06-14 04:44 am UTC (link)
i 'm listening to tone dogs, i've seen once in France, with the great Amy Denaio... and the year after, i saw (in the same concert hall) her group the Billy tipton memorial saxophone quartet (exactly name...)
I 've also heard 1 cd of one of her groups, called "The Nudes"... and now i try to get informations about her activies, but don't find nothing... may be you could help me. i'm french, it's hard to find cd or tapes ...
i hope you'll answer me

stephaneappourchaux@hotmail.com

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