Hello my beautiful friends!
April is upon us and it is time for a whole new thing.
We have decided to start a new Green Monkey subsidiary label, Oly Jazz.
What’s dat you ask? Well it’s like this. When I was making the Olympia: A True Story album, my pal Carla Wulfsberg told me I should do a song about Oly Jazz. I knew nothing. I interviewed a few folks around town and learned a lot about the jazz scene that flourished in years when I did not live in Oly, ‘75 into at least the 90’s. Pretty happening. I wrote the song “Jazz in Olympia” and got old school Oly jazzers to record it. It was totally fun.
Along the way, I started exploring the rich vein of Olympia jazz albums of the period. I started playing them on my FreeForm NW radio show on KAOS 89.3 FM Olympia. One thing that became apparent as I wandered, is that most of these albums are pre-internet. As a result, they mostly don’t exist online in any form. No bandcamp, no Spotify, no Amazon, just a few physical copies available on Discogs or ebay.
I thought that should change, so I am working with Oly Jazzers of that era to make their work available on the internet for the first time. I don’t think they will get rich from this, but I do think a bunch of great, often forgotten, jazz will get exposed and heard. When they have LPs or CDs that been stored in the basement for 30 years, we will make those availble to you.
Our first release in this series is going to be from Obrador, probably Olympia’s top jazz band for 30 years (1976-2006). We start with a previously unreleased studio album, San Francisco, CA 1983. Over the coming months we will be releasing all five of their studio albums as well as some great live recordings.
Members: Steven Bentley ~ Drums; Connie Bunyer ~ Clarinet, Guitar, Vocals;
Paul Hjelm ~ Guitar, Bass, Trap Drums, Piano; Steven Luceno ~ Bass, Guitar;
Michael Moore ~ Keyboards; Michael Olson ~ Percussion; James Pribbenow ~ Saxophone; Walter Thomas Russell ~ Flute, Saxophone, Clarinet, Piano, Guitar
We asked key-man Michael Moore to tell us about the album.
“It’s been nearly 40 years since Obrador pointed a big yellow step van loaded with gear & seven musicians south on Interstate 5. Destination San Francisco, where the group was scheduled for a 30-hour session at Russian Hill Studio. Against all odds, we made it there and back to Olympia without being arrested.
On arrival we were welcomed to a well equipped professional studio and an engineering staff that was probably more fascinated by the Obrador “scene” than particularly enamored of the music.
As the first session began, we were confronted with a problem. The engineers had no idea what to do with a String Bass. They had never worked with a Bass Violin and more than a few hours were eaten up trying to get an acceptable sound. Kudos to the Russian Hill staff and bassist Steve Luceno for their diligence.
What resulted from 4 or 5 different sessions was 8 original compositions recorded live in the studio. I don’t recall that we did very much overdubbing and several of the pieces were accomplished in one take. Steve Luceno’s beautiful ballad, “Return” was one take at 11:00am after a night of substantial partying over in Berkeley.
The music on this recording has been gathering dust in the band archive for decades and only a few of the selections were ever publicly performed. So, this is a rare glimpse into the instrumental repertoire of a band that played together for 30+ years; a band with no commercial potential that endured solely from the love between members and a passion to create a unique sound.”
Thanks for listening, Michael Moore.
Meanwhile …
Back in the rich fields of Strongbow land, we are releasing our second Mystery School album, Future History. It is available on the original CD as well as digitally.
From the liner notes: Jon – “Future History” is a compilation of the best of the first three Mystery School albums, which were available only on cassette. It has been totally remastered and enhanced by Ric Vaughn at the Wood Shed to reveal depths and sounds one simply couldn’t hear on the cassettes. This album showcases the brilliant fretless bass techniques of Martin Sutlovich, as well as the amazing electric violin mastery of Clayton Park. It also displays the playful rapport between genius drummer Davis Martin and multi-talented percussion maestro Mark Taylor. Oh yes, it also shows what a clumsy keyboardist I am! (such modesty -td) Still, I will be the first to admit the quality of the compositions is first rate. Even though I wrote nearly all of the music (Arabian Nites & Oasis sprang from the groove of the Mighty Marty Man) I have to credit the lads with their interpretation and their incredible creative collaboration. Not bad for a band that only existed for three years! Clayton and Mark have moved away from making music and are pursuing other careers. Davis is the pulse behind the popular Northwest band Mak-Tub, while Marty and I continue to dream of putting another band together and finishing the three albums we still have in the can. Even though Mystery School failed to make any real money or find a large fan-following, we were always creating and I had the presence of mind to keep bringing us into the studio to record everything. Hence, we have five albums completed and many more to come! May it come to pass! – Namaste!
We have another Strongbow print gem available this month. From Jon: THE OCEAN OF TIME is the third book based on the Secret City series. It is 88 pages long and focuses on the importance of dreaming oneself up. It retails for $9.99 and was first published in January, 2008.
Next month, more jazz, more Strongbow, more Von Cube, maybe even some True Olympians.
And coming this summer – 2 Day Extravaganza at Slims Last Chance in Georgetown, July Fri 14/Sat 15. Nine Green Monkey bands creating a ruckus all in the same place. More info to follow!
Oh yes, if you are not yet following us on bandcamp, please do!
https://greenmonkeyrecords.bandcamp.com/follow_me
That is it for now!
td