Who is Mitch Mitchell?

I went over to "Posh The Salon" to get my buddy Steve Hillard
to cut on the few hairs I have left on my head. Kind of sad. I
have so little hair left that he has to trim the hair on my back.
It's my theory that these hairs became lost on the way to the
top of my head. Besides giving wonderful haircuts to all who
sit in his chair, Steve also has a talent that I'll bet most of his
clients don't even suspect: Steve is a great hard rock singer.
I always end up talking about all of our musical friends that
we know or have know. We're both Durham boys. We went
to several of the local high schools and could talk for hours
about all of the local bands that are no more. One topic that
we dwell on concerns the guys we knew first starting out that
could duplicate singers,drummers and guitar players to such a
degree, they really did sound like the person they were copying.

Casey Haskins, who is now a professor of philosophy at SUNY
could play anything that John Bonham of Led Zepplin could do.
It was creepy how he could do all of the bass drum stuff on
"Good Times,Bad Times." Another guy, Graham Willams could
ace all of Jimmy Page's playing. Louie Myers could do all of
the bass parts Jack Cassidy(Jefferson Airplane) played. I
did a good a job on Duane Allman and Carlos Santana. But the
people's playing that I admired the most were never properly
duplicated. Never. Until I heard Stevie Ray Vaughn do Jimi
Hendrix, I did not think it was possible. But, his "Little Wing"
channels Hendrix to perfection. The other guy that I loved
was Mitch Mitchell. Mitch played for Jimi Hendrix on nearly
all of his recordings, excluding "The Band of Gypsies". The
drummer on this splendid album was Buddy Miles. (This album
was great in spite of Buddy's playing. Best job of musical coat-
tail riding in all of rock music.) Back to Mitch. Mitch was a
musical partner to Jimi Hendrix. His capacity to swing rock
music made Jimi's music soar. If Jimi had found another one
of the chittlin' circut drummers like he worked with for Wilson
Pickett or The Isley Brothers, you would't have heard anything
from Hendrix. The records that he made prior to going to
England, grooved o.k. but they were dull,dull,dull compared to
the great awakening of his music that took place when a great
drummer like Mitch came on the scene. Jimi's music found
it's pulse with Mitch. The cool playing he did on Jimi's masterful
writing just made great even greater. One of the things that still
kills me about Mitch is that he played a very hip,powerful big
band sound that did not sound like jazz. It sounded like rock
music. A brand new, yet to be duplicated blending that took
Rock to a new place. These guys seemed to be just as happy playing
very mellow as they were playing so loud and hard that it felt like
your head was being sawed off. This was known as Jimi's electric church. Praise the Lord and pass the ear plugs.

In the bad old days, prior to large scale sound systems, the
drummer did not have a bank of mikes sending his every tap to
a 64 channel board going into a 20,000 watt bank of speakers.
At Dorton arena, when I saw Jimi Hendrix play, Jimi had a mic;
Noel Redding,the bass player, had a mic and Mitch's bass drum
may have had a mic. This went through 4 "Voice of The Theater"
speakers (The ones they use to put behind the movie screens at the
local cinema) This, in turn, was driven by less power than the butt
heads have on their car stereos these days. Above all of this, a wall
of Marshall amps for Jimi. A wall of Sunn amps for Noel's bass.
Somehow, Mitch played loud enough sans mics to play up and
ocassionaly over Jimi and Noel. Hard rocking music back then
was known to damage the toughest of drummers. Not Mitch.

It makes me sad that he's gone. But, I'm glad to have had the

privilege of hearing him play. I have yet to hear anyone duplicate

Mitch Mitchell's playing. However, Ed Shaunesy, The drummer

on the old Johnny Carson version of The Tonight show did a

damn good imitation of Mitch when Jimi dropped by one night.

Hmmm.....I guess this means old farts can rock, too.

Mitch Mitchell 1946-2009

Too many guitars?

Recently, Sara and I had company over for the evening. As is the
custom, we give the 25 cent tour on your first visit to our humble
abode. This entails seeing all of the lovely tile work that Sara has
created and installed in our house. (Sara Is a potter who does just
about anything made of clay that does not involve a potters wheel.
The wheel just isn't her thing.) The first floor is decorated
according to Sara's likes. This is a good thing because she has a
really good eye for detail and balance. It takes me a while to
find the form in a decorating scheme that she seems to see in a
flash. I can't imagine what she could have done if she had married
someone with more resources than ol' Geno. That's what you get
if you marry for love.

Upstairs, are the assorted sleep chambers. Our bedroom is
another one of Sara's design triumphs. I won't go into detail on
this room, except to say that it is lovely to look upon, not unlike
it's designer. One of the bedrooms is designated as
"Gene's music room". In this room, I keep a tool bench, a small
drill press and a bench grinder. This stuff isn't what you see when
first entering this room. Looking in the door, you see a good size
bookcase. Loaded floor to ceiling mostly with books. What a
suprise. You'll see to your left on the wall a a few meager examples
of my education, bands I've played in and the odd
poster. Below these pictures you'll see a book case loaded with all
sorts of guitar strings, effects pedals and live music doo-dads. Just
to the right of this is a Carvin electric guitar amp. I have yet to use
it on a live band gig. I would have to be playing a band to do this.
No bands for Gene anymore. At least for now.

To your right is my recording set-up. Microphones and a music
stand. On the wall are yet more music doodads,art work and a
sample CD of all the CD's I have played on including my stuff,
Sue Witty, Kid Sister and my pal David Glenn. I haven't described
all the other stuff in this room, either. Including several smaller
guitar amps, a meditation/prayer altar and slew of neck ties.
I only mention this because when people come in the "music
room" they don't see anything but the guitars. -"Jesus, do you
need all of those? Damn, how many do you have?" "I haven't
bothered to count them" I say. I think to myself, each one of them
has a story but I guess you might not want to hear them. Do you
tell your mechanic that he has too wrenches? The thing that
floors me about the "too many guitars" concept is that only
people who don't play feel the need to ask about the guitars.
At least they don't ask how much money I have in them. But,
for whom it may concern: not much. Really. But if I had some
money, I think I'd rather Sara have it for the house.
Besides, 42 guitars isn't really too many, is it?

New word....New catch phrase, please!

Our culture seems to thrive on taking a word and
then pounding it in the ground. The current word that has
been over done to death is amazing. Can we please have
our next word. Please. Amazing has become the buzz word of all buzz
words. If we're forced to used a descriptive phrase, you may
be assured that the A word will be lurking nearby. Margo has
just lost 42 pounds on the Gagfast diet. Her gal pals will
tell her that she looks amazing. If the kids have just finished
Dr.Wacko's latest behavior modification program, the change
is simply amazing. 38 miles per gallon on the old fliver, well
you get the idea.

While I'm carping, I'd like to talk about the phrase:
"-not a problem." This seems to be filling a space formerly
reserved for actual manners. I remember when someone
performed some small service for someone, you would thank them.
Then, they would say"-your welcome."
What's wrong with simply being gracious? Are we past that, now?
Amazing.

Shut up and play the guitar.

From my last posting, you may have detected a slight hint

of negativity. We have all been dealt a hand that is going

to be hard to play. We know the game is rigged. We know

that while we're trying to do our jobs, a group of people are

busy trying to beat us out of our pay without actually doing

any of the work. I can hear my Dad say:"That's the way it is,

now deal with it." Well, old Dad had a point there. Of course,

my reply has been: the long suffering just get to suffer longer.

I guess it would be best to to thank God for all that we have.

Complaints without action have never solved any problem.
Problem solvers are the people who get sick of hearing us

complain. I guess the best thing for me to do is just shut up

and play my guitar. Frank Zappa was a wise man. Come to

think of it, Frank complained all the time in his music and in

print. Gee, I guess that makes me a bit like Frank.

Sure it does. Frank still sells millons of recordings. Me, well...

I've got several CD's for sell. Meet me in the nearest Wal-Mart
parking lot. I'm the guy in the beat-up green Honda with a

trunk load of Jazz guitar CD's. I'll make you a deal.

Watch That First Step, Eugene....

I don't know where this will take me. Perhaps I'll find my voice

after I've done this awhile.It seems to me that with the lay-off

frenzy that is taking place, there will only be 17 people left with

jobs. The rest of us will be going down to the unemployment kiosk

every day. I know the current situation is causing lots of fear among

those of us still employed.It should have never come to this. We had

lots of fear and loathing to spare, before the greed-quake took place.