IRT Magazine

THURSTON MOORE

Maxwell’s

Hoboken, NJ 9/24/07

It seems to me that Sonic Youth, in one form or another, has appeared in just about every issue of IRT since our inception in 2002. So the act of giving Thurston Moore a copy of our latest issue this past Monday night at his solo performance at Maxwell’s, the kick-off night of his fall tour in support of his outstanding new solo album Trees Outside the Academy, was a very kool thing. A very big thank you goes out to my lovely fiancee Michele for laying on the pressure to hand him a copy of No. 9 as he walked off-stage, which he gladly took with a friendly “cool, thanks” and now joins the ranks of Scarlett Johansson, Aesop Rock, Dawson’s Creek hottie Michelle Williams, Tunde from TV On The Radio and Richard Hell as one of IRT’s celebrity readership. I hope he dug Anthony Parks’ review of the deluxe edition of Daydream Nation and the review of the long, lost Asylum Choir album written by his friend Jason “Coach Fingers” Meagher of Noneck Blues Band fame. And the better news is, after he took one, it inspired the rest of the crowd in attendance to pilfer the stack Michele and I brought into the place to hand out to the people. For the first time in our history, folks were grabbing the magazine out of MY hand rather than me shoving it into theirs. It was a good feeling, and I hope I see more of it as this latest issue papers the city. As for the show, it was one of the best times I’ve seen Mr. Moore perform, be it solo or with Sonic Youth, right up their with my second SY concert, at the old Academy on October 20, 1995 where they broke out a lengthy “Diamond Sea” jam for the ages or on my 30th birthday opening for The Stooges at Jones Beach. Seeing the man on-stage rocking an acoustic guitar for most of the night was a strange and refreshing site, and quite necessary given the calmer nature of Trees Outside The Academy, well most of it at least. His touring band consists of longtime SY drummer Steve Shelley, Samara Lubelski (Tower Recordings), Christopher Brokaw of such great 90s bands as Codeine, Come and NNCK bassist Matt Heyner, and they played excellently together. And structured, playing pretty much the entirety of Trees and a pair of aces from his last “pop” solo album, 1995’s fantastic Psychic Hearts, the title cut and “Queen Bee and Her Pals” (I wonder if he’ll break out “Ono Soul”, the best track on that MF. This was a true had-to-be-there type shows, as I cannot project how many times I’ll ever get to see the likes of Thurston Moore inside such a small club as Maxwell’s again. Maybe by then, he’ll ditch the band altogether for that acoustic guitar. -Ed.

JOHN COLTRANE

Interplay (Concord)

JOHN COLTRANE

Interplay (Concord)

As some of you faithful readers of this Interboro Rock Tribune may or may not remember, we did a story back in the Summer of 2005 about the Long Island home of John Coltrane and how it was in danger of being razed by greedy-ass local developers and the property to be drawn and quartered in order to build four more McMansions for four more rich, obnoxious families to breed in.

Well, you wouldn’t believe the smile on my face when I saw this little piece of news come through my Yahoo! mail earlier this week from Jeudith Cohen of The Coltrane Home Preservation Society:

COLTRANE HOME IN DIX HILLS,

NY RECEIVES

NATIONAL HISTORIC

DESIGNATION

Suburban Long Island Home of John & Alice Coltrane Receives Rare DesignationColtrane Home Seeks Continued Preservation and Creation of Museum and Education Center

Huntington, NY, September 4, 2007 - The Dix Hills, Long Island home of jazz musical greats, John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane, has just been added to both the New York State and the National Register of Historic Places. The home was the residence of the Coltrane family from 1964 to 1973 John Coltrane, a renowned saxophonist and composer, composed “A Love Supreme” - one of the largest-selling jazz albums of all time - at the home. John Coltrane passed away in 1967.

According to Robert C. Hughes, Huntington Town Historian, “It’s relatively unusual for a mid-fifties’ home to receive historic landmark designations. This attests to the significance of this site as the location from which the music of the Coltranes tremendously impacted the music world. This also confirms the Town of Huntington’s belief that this is a significant landmark.”

The attainment of these designations is seen as a key step in the complete preservation of the home; as well as its planned future conversion to a museum and archive of important jazz and music material, and educational center — as envisioned by the Coltrane family and the participants of The Coltrane Home, a not-for-profit organization devoted to the preservation of the home. According to musician Ravi Coltrane, son of John and Alice Coltrane, who lived in the home as a child, “It was my Mom, Alice’s express vision to help use this home to provide inspiration about music as an incredibly positive force, and explore the joys of making music for people of all ages. This is a great step towards that vision.” Alice Coltrane, harpist and pianist, passed away in January 2007.

The home of the Coltrane family was spared the wrecking ball in 2004, after Dix Hills historian Steve Fulgoni discovered that it had been sold to a developer, whose intended to clear the land and build luxury home on the site. Fulgoni, a long-time fan of John Coltrane, brought the situation to the attention of the Town of Huntington and succeeded in convincing them of the historical significance of the home. In 2005, with the support of musicians and jazz aficionados around the world, including Carlos Santana and Herbie Hancock, the Town agreed to purchase the site.

When learning the news of the Coltrane Home’s historic designation, Mr. Fulgoni’s said, “This has been a long, arduous effort to save the Home. We truly appreciate the State and Federal recognition of the legacy of the Coltranes, and this can help unlock some of the funding we will need to restore this home. This is a great, great step.”

The Coltrane Home is a 501(c)3 not for profit organization.

And to top off this Coltrane-filled week in addition to my fiance agreeing to make one of my belated birthday gifts the Heavyweight Champion box set that Rhino put out a decade ago is the arrival of Concord Records’ long-awaited Interplay box set, which is five discs filled with all of John Coltrane’s early sideman work for the Prestige label between the years 1956-1958, where he stole the spotlight on seven jam session-based albums featuring the likes of Kenny Burrell, Red Garland, Paul Quinichette, Art Taylor, Pepper Adams, Hank Mobley, Zoot Sims and Tommy Flanagan. All of these albums, including the indispensable Dakar, are featured on Interplay along with a ton of previously unreleased outtakes and alternate sessions.

Though not as transcendent as his later work on Impulse!, the music on Interplay is nevertheless documents a most crucial period in Coltrane’s all-too-brief career and is a must-own for the Trane completist.

And oh yeah, for anyone who is interested in checking out that story on the Coltrane home from IRT no. 5, just cut and paste: http://www.irtmag.com/issues/IRT005.pdf

Thank you. -Ed.