Abbey!
For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, I’d expect any Killdozer fan to also be a fan of Sidney Poitier movies. Maybe cos of The Defiant Ones. Ya see, i’d like to think that all Killdozer fans are hip to Richard Hell & the Voidoids. Prob’ly this don't hold up, but still, For the Love of Ivy, starring old Sid & Abbey Lincoln - & is also a Gun Club song that is one of the ones that Doesn't suck - is a great movie, and you otta see it. Abbey L. is dreamy, but doesn't sing in it. I dunno why.
Anyway, last April, in Amarillo, TX, 4am & I'm drinkin the awful coffee for which TX truckstops are famous, & I'm lookin at the cassettes for $3.99 that (presumably) truckers buy - Red Sovine and that "you might be a redneck" guy - when what to my wandering eyes should appear but a Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln tape that I been huntin for for like, 7 yrs. Live in Oslo, 1968. Wonderful record; it's got a version of Malindy on it that's even better than Booker Little’s arrangement, and it's one of the tunes that's got Steve Lacy on it where he doesn't suck, & thus gives you confidence in the viability of the soprano sax in the hands of anyone but Coltrane hisself. Now, I ain’t shoplifted anything in about 8 years or so & that was just to impress a girl who was an Audrey Hepburn fan ("I was the studious, bookish type"), but I hadda have the tape, and, while I'm at it, those BBQ Corn Nuts, too, so yeah, I stuck ‘em both up my sleeve, & now we got somethin to eat and somethin to listen to on our way to Tucamcari.
The tape in and of itself woulda made the trip worthwhile, even w/out the camaraderie of old pals Matt & Kevin & Kent who's Tucson's own geo-engineering Shaman, & the Jaqui Easter ceremony & lotsa other stuff besides.
When I get back to Louisville, I slide the tape to Adam , who was keeping time at the time for Front Porch Campaign, and damned if every time I try to take a nap I don't hear him figuring out "Drums Unlimited" from the cassette. Adam's hip to Max, and this recording rocks. Adam rocks, too. Life was pretty good at the old storefront.
There's some other good Abbey Lincoln Records, too. Abbey is Blue & That's Him are both on Riverside, so they're easy to find even tho I think they're out of print. Fuck! I’ll even make ya a dub if ya ask me nice, but you'll hafta wait til I get back to Louisville.
9 Sept. 97
[Tony]
