Brotherly Wisdom

ME: Hey Bro, I'm feeling down.

BRO: Why?

ME: We went out last night for the first time in months, got a babysitter and all, and the boys were being really bad before we left so that was ugly, plus Emilio was in a pissy mood and acted like a dick all night, and it wasn't even fun to dance with him. He started a new job and he's working with some frightening losers. He told me all about it on the way to the club.

BRO: Yeah, well, he's probably doing what I do, which is he's feeling depressed and so he's trying to take you down with him. I find myself saying stuff to my wife and then I replay it in my head and think, why did I just say that? To totally piss her off? So she can join me in my bad mood?

ME: That's so true.

BRO: I tell her, look, I'm working on not being an asshole, but it's not easy for me.

ME: [laughing] You know, I was kind of feeling like it was a bit of a male thing.

BRO: It is definitely very male. As a man it is a constant struggle, because it's just very natural and easy to be an asshole.

ME: [laughing] I'm so glad you cleared that up for me! Thank you!

On the Fence? This Presidential Election and the Constitution

With regard constitutional issues, there is much at stake in this election in terms of the freedoms, both constitutional and international, that we have taken for granted and allowed to be eroded over the past 8 years.

McCain voted for the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA), which Bush signed into law. This violates the constitutional principle of habeas corpus, or protection against unlawful and unlimited imprisonment. Thanks to MCA, the president has absolute power to designate enemy combatants and torture them. The question of torture and detention is also in violation of the Geneva Conventions which dictate "fair" practices in warfare such as not involving civilians. These positions severely jeopardize the U.S.'s standing in the world as a shining example of freedom and democracy.

Cheney (and now Palin) subscribe to an erroneous belief that the vice president is a member of the legislative branch who oversees the Senate. In fact, the VP's only role there is to break a tie vote. The reason it is so important that the VP not become a member of the legislative branch is due to the brilliant constitutional principle of separation of powers: The legislative, judicial and executive branches must remain separate to avoid the sort of concentration that can lead to dictatorial or monarchic power.

The PATRIOT Act continues to violate citizens' rights to privacy (though these are not codified in the Constitution, only implied). As those with expertise in software development should be aware, their approach to finding enemies of state is highly problematic: By illegally wiretapping all American citizens' international calls, the NSA has only magnified the volume of hay they are sifting through for needles, while making zero progress on actually finding terrorists. This needs to stop.

There are many more issues at stake (separation of church and state, for example), but I'll leave you with this: The next president will select one or more Supreme Court justices. McCain has vowed to choose far-right justices who will uphold his commitment to overturn a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. Again, it's a hot button issue -- but it doesn't have to be. People who are against it for religious or moral reasons have every right to express and uphold that view. But the government can no more effectively legislate the exact medical procedures that women will take than it can legislate other personal behavior. This is a right-to-privacy issue of the highest order.

And justices will make decisions on other areas of the Bill of Rights. The Constitution of the United States is one of the finest documents the world has ever seen -- widely copied by all modern democracies. Either we respect it, or we go the way of corruption and decline.

P.S. I wrote this to an undecided voter I know, but I posted in hopes it will help others in their decision-making.

Brought Tears to My Eyes

Alexa Weber Morales Band at Yoshi's Oakland November 25!

Oakland singer-songwriter Alexa Weber Morales performs at Yoshi’s Jack London Square with a crack team of musicians Tuesday, November 25 at 8 and 10 PM. The Alexa Weber Morales Band has enjoyed success throughout this year, starting with a three-night run at Jazz at Pearl’s in San Francisco and continuing through the San Jose Jazz Festival. At recent shows, the exuberant performer has emphasized the Brazilian segment of her repertoire, including selections from her Wayne Wallace-produced albums Vagabundeo and Jazzmérica; songs by Edu Lobo, Caetano Veloso and Guinga; and her own originals.

With her trademark spectrum of world music including salsa, Brazilian, Caribbean and funk, Alexa Weber Morales brings a refreshing authenticity to the stage. “I find her command of Latin idioms completely convincing, entrancing even,” writes Village Voice critic Tom Hull, while the San Francisco Chronicle predicts, “With a voice sweet, pure and strong, Alexa Weber Morales is poised to ride the Bay Area Latin jazz scene to national recognition.”

The Alexa Weber Morales Band includes Murray Low, piano; Omar Ledezma, percussion and vocals; David Belove, bass; Zareen, vocals; and Deszon X. Claiborne, drums. Both Murray and David are veteran studio musicians who can be heard on Alexa’s two solo recordings.

These two shows are free of charge as a special “Audience Appreciation Night” at the peerless jazz club. Reserve your tickets online today ($3 service fee applies)!

Yoshi's Jazz Club at Jack London Square
510 Embarcadero West
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 238-9200

About the Alexa Weber Morales Band


Since 2004, multilingual singer-songwriter and Patois Records artist Alexa Weber Morales has made six studio recordings, including her two solo albums, Jazzmérica and Vagabundeo. The latter, named “one of the greatest Bay Area recordings in recent times” by Latin Beat magazine, made top-20 airplay nationwide and received acclaim from around the world. Rio de Janeiro–based producer Arnaldo DeSouteiro (João Gilberto, Luiz Bonfá) calls her original compositions “rhythmically captivating and entrancing.” A June 2008 DownBeat review of Vagabundeo enthuses, “Her large-scale skill and talent encourages her all-inclusive dreams” and praises her “gorgeous articulation, flowing time sense and warm tone.”


Murray Low is a 30-year veteran pianist on the Bay Area jazz scene. Though he is a tireless performer, recording artist, and arranger, he is best known for his work with Pete Escovedo (since 1994); Grammy-nominated John Santos and the Machete Ensemble (since 2000); and Andy Narell, the pioneering steel pan player. His multifaceted career has also included international performances with Tito Puente, Bob Mintzer, Sheila E, Benny Golson, John Patitucci, George Duke, and many others.

Drummer Deszon X. Claiborne is one of the most in-demand session players in Northern California, whose professional credits seem impossibly diverse: from Ornette Coleman to Bo Diddley to Andy Narell and Charles Brown. A stylistic “shape shifter” who is equally at home in jazz and funk, Deszon is known for a powerful yet contained sound, and a lively, sensitive touch on the cymbals, described by jazz critic Lee Hildebrand as “complex, syncopated, and breathtaking.”


A Kansas City native, David Belove relocated to San Francisco in 1973 and soon became the Bay Area’s most prominent Latin and Brazilian bassist, working with Pete and Sheila Escovedo, Tito Puente, John Santos and Machete, Rebeca Mauleón, Edgardo Cambon y Candela, Rolando Morales, Homenagem Brasiliera, Wayne Wallace, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and many more. On the national stage, he’s collaborated with Joe Henderson, Blue Mitchell, Eddie Harris, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, Larry Coryell, Louis Bellson, Mark Murphy and Pat Metheny. Also an educator, David is on faculty at the JazzSchool, Jazz Camp West, SF Jazz and Mills College. In addition, he teaches bass privately at his studio in Oakland where he also enjoys photography and graphics projects.



Vocalist Zareen grew up in a small town outside of Boston. She has studied with Madeline Eastman, Kurt Elling, and Raz Kennedy; writes her own songs; and has recently released an album of original trip-hop tunes. Her repertoire also includes Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, and Latin American music. Zareen has performed all over the Bay Area, with several different bands including Los Boleros, Simply Jazz, and the Befores, but she especially values her performances with her third-grade students.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Omar Ledezma, Jr. has been taking the Bay Area by storm with his percussion-vocals skills and his professionalism. After graduating at one of the most prestigious law schools in Caracas, Omar packed one bag and one drum to begin his move to Boston while making a passionate commitment to study at Berklee College of Music. There he collaborated and toured with renowned artists in the US, Europe, Caribbean and South America. He has participated in more than 20 recordings and projects including CDs, DVDs and books.

Warning: Spinning Causes Exercise-Induced Euphoria

I love one of the spinning class teachers at my gym. She is definitely over 50, could in fact be well over 60, and she is the best motivator. I love watching her ride the stationary bike in her skimpy little outfits, mouthing the words of some disgruntled rapper set to a relentless digital beat. Why the hell not, I say!

There's always some point in that class (which I only recently revisited -- I was going a lot at the beginning of the year when I was training for the triathlon) where I feel moved almost to tears. She's shouting at us to "let 'em eat dust" or "don't give up" or "catch that mothersucker" while pointing at someone (afterwards the guy says, "Did she call me a mother*******?" "No, she said mothersucker!"). "How's the back row doing?" she yells. Some grunts come from a couple of 20-something guys who are obviously struggling. "Are you still with me?"

The song playing is a dance remix of What's Going On by Linda Perry. I am standing on the pedals dashing up an imaginary hill and belting "Hey yey yey eh eh, hey yey yeah, I say hey, what's going on!" I figure no one can hear me 'cause of the noise, but I find it impossible not to sing, even though we're working so hard. And inevitably at a moment like that there is a brief euphoria that I attribute to a rush of endorphins. Boy does it feel good. If I could just remember to get it every day somehow.

She Ate My Flower

Two thousand and eight has been a big year for charity, donations and pro-bono services for me. To be honest, I feel a bit tapped out what with presidential campaign donations, congressional campaigns, environmental lobbyists, the Red Cross and all the rest who phone me. The point is not to toot my horn but to say that I think I have done my part. So two days ago when a woman pulled up in front of my house and asked for my flower I was not inclined to give it to her.

I planted this yucca tree out front 12 years ago. In that time it has only bloomed twice. For the past few weeks I have truly enjoyed coming home and seeing that majestic white flower spike atop one of the yucca's several trunks. But it turns out that in El Salvador they fry that flower up and and eat it. She smiled at me, and her companion began asking me in broken English about the flower. I thought they wanted to know what kind of plant it was, so I told them, in Spanish. Then they made it clear that they wanted to cut it down. I gently said, "I'm sorry, but this is only the second time it's bloomed. Sorry, no. I really enjoy looking at it. Anyway, it's too high for you to get it." "Oh, we brought a ladder," said the woman. She got out of the car and began explaining how they cook it.

Just then Emilio came out and upon hearing the story expansively said, "Go ahead, take it!" "OK," I sighed. But I just wasn't feeling it. Sometimes I am more generous. At that moment, I did not want to give it to her. Then a voice inside said, "They're going to take it whether you say yes or not. They'll come back when you're not home and take it. Might as well give it to them."

When she cut it down I took a picture of it. It was about two feet tall. She promised to come back the next day with the cooked dish for us to sample. She didn't.

My only consolation is this: In another decade, that yucca tree is going to get too tall for anyone to cut its flowers down.

Inga Swearingen: Where Flamingos Fly

I recently came across Inga Swearingen, an occasional guest on the Prairie Home Companion, an acolyte of Bobby McFerrin and a West Coast musician like myself. Her voice is really peerless. On her website, there's a video of a dance choreographed to her singing Ode to Joy a capella. Recommended viewing (she should put it on YouTube so more people can see it).

Guinga is Everywhere

The Rio de Janeiro-based guitarist/dentist Guinga writes the most hauntingly melodic music -- he wouldn't remember me but I took a week-long class with him a few years ago at Brazil Camp. I am learning O Silencio de Iara, by Guinga and Luis Felipe Gama, for an upcoming show. Luckily, I have it in the songbook I bought at his quietly spectacular Yoshi's show last winter. (It's always advisable to buy Brazilian or foreign songbooks when the opportunity presents itself as they can be hard to get otherwise.)

As an example of the kind of stuff he writes, at the end of this song there's a repeated, held note in the vocal, a high F, while the accompaniment is an arpeggiation of this:

| Fm6 G7b9 | Ab#11 G7b9 | Fm6 G7b9 | Ab#11 G7b9 |

On the record, Noturna Copacabana, the arrangement has no drums, and consists of guitar and strings -- what sounds like a lot of strings, certainly more than a quartet, but not quite an orchestra. I had to play through the chords to make sure this would sound good in a traditional jazz instrumentation. I think it will.

Going through my iTunes I came across Gracinha Leporace (wife of Sergio Mendes), whom I have been compared to in vocal quality, singing Catavento e Girassol by Guinga and Aldir Blanc on the Sergio Mendes/will.i.am album Encanto (love it!). Turns out that's a Guinga song too! In fact, on his homepage it says it was recently recognized as one of the best songs of the century.

Original: Her Ways Wander

This is a song I wrote (with Vince Mansel and Wayne Wallace contributing on the music). Finally learned to play it on my new keyboard. The video isn't of a perfect performance but I got sick of trying to nail it -- this is the best of probably 50 tries! Phone rang, screwed up lyrics, kids screaming, etc...

You can find the lyrics at http://www.alexawebermorales.com/lyrics.htm

Esperanza Spalding: Concert Review

Someone once said that racehorses haven’t gotten faster because they don’t look at stopwatches, but humans have sped up ever since they began timing themselves. The same can be said for jazz: Even as the music becomes ever more esoteric and marginal, many college-educated players are displaying historic feats of virtuosity. They build on the harmonic concepts of bebop, but are influenced by the rhythms and instruments of the world. At jazz conferences and competitions, these Young Turks can seem almost robotic, however. The neverending complexity of the music, too, can be exhausting to a lay listener.

Then along comes a monster player such as Esperanza Spalding, whose two sets I heard last night at the San Francisco Yoshi’s. A child prodigy, now a Berklee instructor (the youngest ever), composer and seasoned pro, 24-year-old Spalding melds virtuosity and soul. With an unassuming, sylph-like stage presence and simultaneously playing a double bass foreshortened for her petite frame, she scats, subtly dances and improvises lightning-fast arpeggios while never breaking a sweat.

Unusual for a jazz singer, her clear, dynamic voice lies most comfortably in the soprano register but swoops easily down to huskier alto regions. It contains a hint of alternative R&B styling a la Erykah Badu but never any pop affectation. She easily switches from fluty straight-toned Brazilian riffs to throaty vibrato. Her melismas sound jazzy and scatty, but uncontrived and seemingly from an inexhaustible source of ideas. Her beautiful pitch, tone and joy make it impossible to turn away.

On a few tunes, the rest of the band (Leo Genovese on piano with dashes of Rhodes and Melodica, Ricardo Vogt on guitar, Otis Brown on drumset) sang as well, doing an excellent approximation of the vocal overdubbing on her eponymous record. One wordless (and, according to Spalding, nameless) tune, written by Genovese, was a mesmerizing duo that few singers could deliver, let alone shine on. Grooves and meters changed constantly, yet instead of a frenetic mess Spalding again revealed a glorious piece of art, often doubling the punishingly intervallic piano lines. Also notable, and not surprising, was the frequent use of bass hooks on most of the tunes. An example? The opening ostinato on Body and Soul (sung in English, not the Spanish translation on her record) -- flawless in a fast 5/4.

She repeated most of the English-language originals on her first set for the 10 o’clock show, but did add one additional Brazilian tune in perfect Portuguese. Guitarist Vogt sang it with her, revealing even more vocal talent on the stage.

Oh, and she was funny. In short, Esperanza Spalding is the Michael Phelps of jazz. What will she be like in 10 years? I simply can’t imagine, but I’ll be listening.

http://www.myspace.com/esperanzaspalding

So Erratic (Electile Dysfunction)

So erratic
Touch my ballot
Tell me lies
Be emphatic

Dividing us
Is so old school
Inciting us
To rage is cool

Registration
Its too late
Be apathetic
Its fun to hate

Loosen up the button baby
Sing your sexy bombing song
Love it when you act so crazy
Whispering about Iran

Separation
Of church and state
Dont make our nation
All that great

I aint no thinker
Thats dangerous
Follow the rich man
He talk like us

Aint no scholar
Thats fo sho
No fancy lawyer
No Wade v. Roe

So erratic
Touch my ballot
Tell me lies
Be emphatic

Kennedy Quote

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." John F. Kennedy

I Never Thought I'd Agree with David Brooks or George Will...

...but both of them have penned insightful columns about the anti-intellectualism (Brooks) and the economic and electoral college stats (Will) in this election.

When the Night is Cool and All the Boys Are Sleeping

Here are the lyrics to the song I just posted on YouTube.

When the Night is Cool and All the Boys Are Sleeping
Words and music © 2008 by Alexandra Leigh-Taylor Weber Morales

When the night is cool and
All the boys are sleeping
I remember the kiss you gave to me

No one understands you
Even I can’t stand you
20 years slip by so mysteriously

I gently close the door they
Turn on hidden flashlights
Drawing plans that I will never read

Once I met a man who
Blew the sky wide open
Threw his stars into my empty sea

Now I scan the clouds in vain
Searching for callow truth
Dashing desire pines for victory

I’ve done my best to leave you
Cast my bloody heart to stone
But I can’t let you sleep on the streets alone

There are things you can’t forget
And there are things I cannot think
And yet you drink it all away

Just for once can you just feel it
Kiss my lips and let fate seal it

When the night is cool and
All the boys are sleeping
I remember the kiss you gave to me

Sweeping up plastic soldiers
Grenades under the couch
Will they grow up to be all that they can be?

Communing with the bad boys
Vacuuming the sad noise
Your dirty footprints wind up everywhere

There are things you can’t forget
But those are things I don’t regret
And yet I sleep it all away

Just for once can you just feel it
Kiss my lips and let fate seal it

Original: When the Night Is Cool and All the Boys Are Sleeping

Diga NO a la Apatia: ¡Registrese para votar HOY!

Si es usted ciudadano de los EE.UU., le queda muy poco tiempo para registrarse como elector. En algunos estados, la fecha límite es 29 dias antes de la elección presidencial (ya faltan 28), mientras en otros puede registrarse faltando solamente 10 dias. Aprovéchese de los nuevos solicitudes en internet (y en español) y regístrese HOY!

En esta página web se encuentran solicitudes en español para cada estado.

También hay un listado de los requisitos y fechas límites en cada región aquí.

Esta elección es una de las mas importantes en la historia no solamente de los EE.UU. sino del mundo entero. Diga no a la apatía y la complacencia: Vota por Barack Obama, presidente, y Joe Biden, vice presidente, el 4 de noviembre de 2008.

No Apathy, No Complacency: Register to Vote TODAY!

Time is running out -- states have deadlines anywhere from 10 days to 29 days before the election (there are 28 days left until November 4) for you to register to vote.

Please go to https://electionimpact3.votenet.com/declareyourself/voterreg2_ret/ to register in your state. Or start at http://www.declareyourself.com.

If you want to go directly to your state's registrar and see what the requirements and deadlines are, they have an excellent state-by-state listing here.

Also, consider voting early if your state allows it. This election is serious. Your future depends on it. Vote Barack OBAMA - Joe BIDEN '08.

Edgardo Cambon and Candela CD Release Party!

In just three weeks, Edgardo and Candela will celebrate 20 years together with a wonderful CD entitled Celebrando 20 Años! This will be a show full of dance, music and vibrant energy from one of the Bay Area's best salsa bands. I won't be on stage, but I'll be there to dance the night away!

Unusual in its configuration, the nine-piece Candela boasts a crackling percussion front line of sonero/conguero Edgardo Cambón, bongocero Julio Areas and timbalero Omar Ledezma. The three trombones are manned by Jeff Cressman, Abel Figueroa and Marty Wehner, while vocals from Bay Area Brazilian songbird Sandy Cressman enhance the ensemble. Pianist Bob Karty and bassist David Belove maintain a tight and funky rhythm section.

The evening will also include special guests such as flamenco guitarist Jason McGuire and bandoneón player Seth Asarnow, as well as Juan Ceballos, Camilo Landau, Steve Senft, Walter Gonzalez, Jorge Dominguez, Natalia Bernal, Salsa, Flamenco and Tango dancers, Uruguayan Candombe drums and many other surprises!

Edgardo and Candela play Tuesday, October 28 at Yoshi's in San Francisco. Click here for tickets!

• Oct 28, 2008

• 8 pm $16
  10 pm $10

• Open Dance Floor!

Yoshi's San Francisco
1330 Fillmore St
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 655-5600

Grace Jones is So Cool

Suzanne Vega: Mother of the MP3 and Tom's Diner

In high school, my best friend Amy liked to give me mix tapes, and it was cool because her taste was different from my parents'. I remember Tom's Diner was on one of them. This is a witty, multifaceted account by Suzanne Vega on writing that song and how it became the audio test case for the MP3 specification (which frequencies to eliminate so as to compress files for online sharing).

There's so much good stuff in the essay, but I also liked hearing her thoughts about composing the song. It goes to show that the things songwriters use as jumping off points are often completely invisible to the listener. Which is really an indicator that craft matters. Here's the song's history:

I have a photographer friend, Brian Rose, who has taken pictures of the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the Berlin Wall. He told me once long ago that he felt as though he saw the world through a pane of glass. This struck me as romantic and alienated, and I wanted to write a song from this viewpoint.

I had been taking classes at Barnard with titles like “The Dramatic Monologue.” I was in Tom’s and I thought it would be fun to write a song that was like a little film, where the main character sees all these things but can’t respond to any of it unless it relates to him directly. The part about the actor dying was true — it was William Holden. Some fans recently looked up the day he died and named the next day Tom’s Diner Day. (In addition, see here.) I made up the part about the woman who was fixing her stockings.

The part where I sing about the “midnight picnic” is from an actual picnic I had with the songwriter Jack Hardy on the steps of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine one night.

The melody hit me as I was walking down Broadway, fast. I wanted something jaunty. I remember liking the near rhymes of “diner” and “corner,” “sitting” and “waiting.” Although it is actually Tom’s restaurant I changed it to diner as it sings better that way.

I was imagining it as a kind of French film soundtrack, something vaudevillian on piano, like a background to a Truffaut film. But I didn’t play piano and didn’t know anybody who did. So I kept it a cappella, and began to sing it this way in my live show. This detail, singing the song alone with no accompaniment, affected everything to come.

I noticed right away, at my shows, that whenever I opened my mouth and sang, “I am sitting, in the morning…”, people would stop drinking and talking, and immediately whirl around and stare at the stage. So I used it as an opening song. I can’t think of a single time that this didn’t work. Even at the Prince’s Trust concert in 1986, in front of 10,000 people, I went onstage as the opening act and began the entire concert with that song — and it worked!

Declare Yourself Video: Funny Yet Incredibly Sad