Fun 2 Know Podcast

Episode 23: Cellist Tomeka Reid We caught our guest today composer and cellist Tomeka Reid in the midst of a career moment. She arrived in New York City from Chicago on January 1st 2016 to join her quartet for their NYC debut, just two days after Ben Ratliff described Reid in the NYTimes as “A new jazz power source.” Over the next two weeks she played with a dizzying number of the East Coast's established and up-and-coming talent in gigs and jam sessions in DC, Philadelphia and Connecticut. In the midst of all this activity we convinced Ms. Reid take the train down from New York to join us in the studios at WPRB, where I host a weekly jazz show. Ms. Reid moved from the D.C. area to Chicago in 2000 as has recorded with flutist (and former F2K guest) Nicole Mitchell, drummer Mike Reid, vocalist Dee Alexander and the elder statesmen Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell among others. Ms. Reid also co-leads the internationally recognized string trio, Hear in Now who have performed in Poland, Paris, Rome, Venice, Milan, Italy and Switzerland. Over the course of the conversation we talk about the three albums she had released in 2016, Her love of Chicago, her experiences at part of the legendary AACM collective of musical improvisers, teaching and touring, the importance of women mentors, the differences between the classical and jazz worlds and more. You'll also hear me at peak enthusiasm for the chance to speak with a musician whose work I was right in the midst of a music lover's habit of compulsive playing and replaying, they're such fresh and engaging releases that reward one's savoring.

Multi-disciplinary artist Stephen Decky originally came out of Southern New Jersey but has flourished in his many artistic endeavors since moving to Northampton, Mass. twenty years ago. His paintings present Decky's uniquely sweet but treacherous world filled with anthropomorphized fruit and critters, angels and demons and 50's-styled spaceships that buzz his wide-open skies.. Decky has also created foam and cloth sculptures of these creatures that he has animated in his short films and more recently multi-media installations. Decky has also recorded and occasionally performed live with a trail of musical conglomerations, incl. Jeezus Jones Must Die, The Look-Ups, The Space Drunks & Steepletop. and the music we'll hear their music throughout today's episode in from Decky's voluminous catalog. I first met Stephen in 1985, when he was a teenage usher at the Deptford GCC movie theater and I was a 20 year old assistant manager. It was quickly obvious that he was furiously creative, already writing novels, painting a number of hand-stretched canvases and playing music with anyone he found game. Unusually sweet-natured and unpretentious and to this day the most-vigorously creative person I've ever met, I knew as a teen that Stephen was facing some particularly difficult challenges and I appreciate that he speaks about them so openly and honestly with the Fun 2 Know podcast. His final triumph over these adversities make this an unusually inspiring edition of the show. Today, Stephen teaches animation at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where he received his masters. His work is represented by the William Bacsek Fine Arts Gallery in Northampton and you can find out more about his work at his website: werewolfmovie.net.

Mike Ferguson, aka Mick Cancer of the Philly punk band The Sic Kidz is our guest. The Sick Kidz, the brainchild of Ferguson, were willed into existence as a literary prank come to life. The band can make their claim as being Philadelphia first punk band as that cultural revolution blew its shockwave out from New York City and across the globe. The Sick Kidz were fueled by Mike's deep love of music, being a witness to the birth of rock and roll in the 50s. to the counter-culture revolutions of the 60s, to the Southern pop of the 70s and the original punk wave as the 70s turned into the 80s. With the Sick Kidz, and his extravagantly theatrical alter ego Mick Cancer, Mike has turned a fan's love into a slow but steady stream of potently fun recordings with the bands Pink Slip Daddy, Das Yahoos and most recently the country punk of Dixy Blood where he has been re-dubbed “Clarence Cancer.” He's a longtime collaborator with popular producer and performer Ben Vaughn and Palmyra Delran of the NYC band The Friggs, and has shared intimate friendships with the late legends Alex Chilton and Lux Interior of The Cramps. We talk to Mike about his love and rock and roll and honky tonk music, the artists whose paths he crossed, his musical career and a couple of new projects coming our way.

Writer and novelist, Mike DeCapite is on today's show.. In the late eighties DeCapite began building a cult audience for his free-floating fiction when punk legend Richard Hell's literary magazine CUZ excerpted DeCapite's unpublished novel “Through the Windshield” in its first three issues. The novel is a gorgeously-written reverie to Mike's hometown of Cleveland as seen through the eyes of a young working class dreamer being given a tour of racetracks and betting parlors by his tale-spinning older friend, Ed. DeCapite's love of music imbues his work, which contains many musical references and his work has attracted an audience especially among musicians. Mike has done numerous liner notes for releases from the jazz band Curlew and as we post this episode, Mike has just completed a reading with the acclaimed singer/songwriter Amy Rigby in their hometown of New York City. Coincidentally, our last guest, documentarian Robert Gordon mentioned after our interview that he was still hoping to direct a film based on DeCapite's THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD as his first fictional film. Mike's work, as well as the work of his novelist father Raymond DeCapite can be found in Harper's ITALIAN AMERICAN READER, Red Giant Books has reissued a paperback edition of THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD and you can get a kindle edition of the fascinating book through Amazon, as well his short work CREAMSICLE BLUE and chapbooks RADIANT FOG and SITTING PRETTY. You can find Mike and buy his work direct at Sparklestreet.com I've known Mike since the mid-90s when we struck up a fast friendship over the counter from the record store where I was working, Streetlight Records in the Noe Valley neighborhood in San Francisco. We met weekly for a few years Monday nights at his place for dinner while Mike was working on his wonderful but as of yet unpublished novel, RUINED FOR LIFE. Meeting in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC, we discuss Cleveland, Alice Cooper, Dylan, writing strategies, the changing landscapes of New York and San Francisco, drinking, not drinking, autumnal love and much more. Mike is one of my most lively and humorous conversationalists I've even had the pleasure to know and its a special pleasure to capture some of his wit and wisdom for the show.

Writer, film director and musicologist Robert Gordon is a specialist in the music and history of the town of his where he still lives, the legendary American Music hub of Memphis Tennessee. He's written about Muddy Waters. Al Green, B.B. King, Otis Redding, Alex Chilton and beyond. Many writers have charted the course of Memphis music but almost none have done it with the emotional depth and deep historical knowledge that Gordon has and his works always stood out to musicians and music lovers as the work of a deeply-devoted fellow soul. Since 2003 Gordon has transformed himself from writer to filmmaker, making acclaimed documentary films, contributing to Martin Scorsese's THE BLUES series, adapting his Muddy Waters bio for the PBS "American Masters" series and producing works on ultimate cult band Big Star and Memphis' powerhouse r&b label, Stax Records. Gordon's vast curiosity and sense of history takes him away from music for his first theatrical film, the documentary BEST OF ENEMIES, co-directed with Morgan Neville whose documentary on the lives of backing vocalists 20 FEET FROM STARDOM won the "Best Documentary" Oscar in 2014. . BEST OF ENEMIES explores the debates between Conservative publisher William F. Buckley, and historical author, satirist and playwright Gore Vidal. Their ten articulately cantankerous bouts, held during the fledgling ABC Network's coverage of the Presidential conventions of 1968 are forever remembered for the moment when Buckley angrily lashed out at Vidal, threatening violence and calling Vidal “a queer” after Vidal labeled Buckley a Crypto-Nazi. The network news divisions saw big money in name-calling debates and the film suggests we've been down a dreary road ever since. We discuss BEST OF ENEMIES before falling into a conversation about Memphis music and arts, discussing Alex Chilton, Jeff Buckley, Tav Falco and Panther Burns, Isaac Hayes and the photographer William Eggleston.

Tara Murtha award-winning journalist and author of a new volume in the 33 1/3 book series on Bobbie Gentry. Murtha began to make waves with her writing in the early 2000s, focusing both about issues of social justice and writing about pop culture for the Philadelphia Weekly. Her coverage of criminal abortion Dr. Kermit Gosnell garnered attention and more accolades beginning in 2011, and she has worked for The Gun Crisis Project, RH Reality Check and the Women's Law Project. We talk about her experiences in journalism later in the interview, the opening subject at hands is Murtha's first book, inspired by the 1967 Capitol Record LP by Bobbie Gentry, ODE TO BILLIE JOE. The record was the debut of the 23 year old singer-songwriter and its title track reveals the mystery of a young man's death cryptically discussed over the evening's meal. There has been decades of conjecture over what Billie Joe and the song's narrator threw off that bridge but over time another mystery has emerged as the popular entertainer Gentry has disappeared from the stage, with no public appearances in over 30 years now. Murtha examines Gentry mysteries and career throughout her sharp and concise book and we'll learn a little about what she's found out as well as talking about Zelda Fitzgerald, female identity, letting Bjork be Bjork and we'll also here a bit from Murtha's favorite Gentry tunes After we finish geeking out on the music end we lead into a conversation about Murtha's experiences in the world of modern journalism, of “The Journo-Bro” as well as Tara's role in bringing light to the crimes of Kermitt Gosnell.

Nicole Mitchell, flutist, composer and bandleader is our guest on today's show. . Around 2001, Ms. Mitchell began to receive notice for her work around Chicago, quickly releasing a flurry of releases on the Delmark, RougeArt nad Firehouse 12 labels, all capturing her spirited flute and her deep well of memorable compositions. Her reputation began to stretch out to Europe and worldwide collecting accolades and commissions and fronting groups like The Black Earth Ensemble, The Black Earth Strings, Ice Crystal and Sonic Projections. In 2009, she became the first female President of the AACM, the legendary Chicago-born collective whose initials stand for The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and has been home to many of the greatest jazz musicians of the last fifty years. Ms Mitchell has been a Downbeat poll winner, was the Chicago Tribune's 2006 "Person of the Year," and in recent years has left her home in Chicago to live and teach in California at UC Irvine. If musically Mitchell wears her passions on her sleeve, she did in conversation too, easily discussing family dearths, the racism and other obstacles she has faced as well as her worries and fears. But she also laughs easily and often. We talked about musicians Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and her teacher Jimmie Cheatem as well as The Hunger Games, the travails of being an adjunct professor, jazz in Chicago, dwindling student diversity, the writings of sci-fi author Octavia Butler and more.

On today's show Filmmaker Mike Dennis. Mike is the founder of Reelblack, currently in its 16th year. Through Reelblack Mike has exercised his multifaceted talents as a production house for hire, as a producer for his own films, making content for their YouTube channel ReelBlack TV (currently at 5 million hits and climbing) and as a promoter of over 200 film events in and around the Philly area. Check out their regularly updated website at Reelblack.com Besides being a ingratiating conversationalist, Mike is a graduate of film programs of both NYU and the American Film Institute. Mike's own story as a filmmaker spans a fascinating era in black cinema, heading to New York at few years after Spike Lee broke out of NYU with SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, then going to school in LA in the 90s, where he interned on THE COSBY SHOW and was a witness to Hollywood in the years when films like The HOUSE PARTY series, MALCOLM X and Mario Van Peebles POSSE were being produced. We get to hear how Mike's career found its feet amongst this history as well as some more free-wheeling talk about black film today, John Waters, Eddie Murphy, Steven Speilberg, The Rock, TV's EMPIRE and BLACK-ISH, the blaxploitation era and more.

Jordan McLean on today's show, the composer, Antibalas trumpeter and co-founder of the System Dialing record label. Antibalas is the Brooklyn Afrobeat band that took the lead in re-popularizing the classic sound of Fela Kuti's revolutionary music beginning in the late 90s. Antibalas' success and McLean's probing playing has presented numerous musical opportunities for the trumpeter, including collaborations with David Byrne, Angélique Kidjo. Daptone Producer Mark Ronson, The Roots, St. Vincent, TV on the Radio and Valerie June. But it was his collaboration with jazz legend Ornette Coleman that led to this discussion. In 2009, McLean, Amir Zev, and Adam Holzman, partners in the band Droid, worked together with Ornette on a series of recordings that would be released late in 2014 under the title “New Vocabulary.” The recordings brought Coleman's saxophone into soundscapes unlike anything he had recorded over his 40 odd year career. I heard a few jazz purists complain, but that's certainly nothing new when it comes to the music of Ornette and I found the record to be hugely enjoyable, and not just for another rare chance to hear the octogenarian blow his horn. I found McLean to be an exceedingly earnest gentlemen and we hit it off with a great, free flowing conversation. He has a seeming ocean of varied music to draw from and we'll feature excerpts of his work with Antibalas, Droid, his solo trumpet and electronic project World Gone Mad and McLean's Piano Music & Song Trio. Over the course of our discussion we talk about McLean's NYC education, the early years of Antibalas, Lily Tomlin, McLean's time spent playing in the groundbreaking Tony-award winning Broadway play FELA!, a musical drama set during Fela last show at his legendary Nigerian nightclub The Shrine as well as McLean's collaboration with the great Ornette Coleman.

Kathy O'Connell, the Peabody award-winning host of WXPN's KID'S CORNER and formerly KIDS AMERICA is our guest. In a medium famous for its transient careers, Kathy has remained an institution in Philly, broadcasting her children's live call-in talk show for over twenty five years, bringing generations of kids to their radios with her gregarious nature, her library of music for for taking calls from kids engaged by a wide variety of topics the show has touched on over the years. Kathy's skills flow so naturally in part because she spent a good portion of her youth as a somewhat crazily devoted fan of kid's show legend Soupy Sales, who ruled the New York airwaves in the 1960s. Kathy haunted the show's taping with a small army of similarly obsessed, mostly young girl fans, and fomented a relationship with the comic in his later years. While Soupy and his wife Trudy became like parents to Kathy, the story of her own family exudes some very real drama, as well as her travels throughout her radio career, including a late 70s stint at New York's fabled listener-funded community station WBAI of the Pacifica network. Along the way a lot of old show biz names are dropped, we talk about kids today, the joys of television, The Beatles, John Lennon's death and lots of discussion about the life and career of Soupy Sales, with Kathy's dog Colby occasionally calling from off-stage.