eremite grieves the passing of one of our favorite musicians, marion brown.   like eremite marion brown lived many years in western massachusetts.  check out this piece from today's daily hampshire gazette, with comments from numerous "valley" jazz characters.  love & respect to marion brown, thanks for everything!

stuart broomer weighs in on joshua abrams natural information

abrams natural information society autumn 2010 tour
21 october: toronto, music gallery
22 october: ann arbor, elk lodge
25 october: cambridge, harvard school of design with theaster gates sermons of the city 
27 october: montreal, casa del popolo
28 october: brooklyn, issue project room with c. spencer yeh
29 october: pittsburgh,  garfield artworks

meanwhile eremite is really digging mike watt's comments upon hearing john coltrane's "welcome" in october 2010 wire magazine invisible jukebox feature. watt says "[whispering] He just seemed like a true believer.  He really believed.  & lived it.  Took the train when I was 40.  Found out where he was buried.  Train stops off there.  Madison Square Garden to Long Island Railroad.  Had to go twice.  First time I thought I would just find it.  Amongst 2000 other graves.  Next time the gardener guy told me.  I found 'em.  & i just laid there.  Laid back on him.  Face up [laughs].

I went to the Louvre.  By accident i got first in line at a gate & i got to stand in front of the Mona Lisa & after a while start takin' (sic?) away at her face, to just her eyes.  & they were John Coltrane's eyes.  He's just somebody.  He's just a dude 'n' shit.  But the music thing, there is something about it.  Not to push others away.  It's to bring everyone on.  He was...something about it.  Beyond.  It's a promise of something.  Nobody's gonna get hurt here, nobody's going to get hated.  Everyone is going to dream their most intense dream & not be scared.  Not try to push it all the fuck away.  Ya know? Of making & creating.

Coltrane's thing is about those eyes, that horn, that sound.  Just wants to make it safe for us to go crazy.  I've got a lot of interview of him talking.  He was kinda country.  North Carolina.  Real gentle with his answers.  Lotsa time he'll preface it with 'I could be wrong.'  How about that?  & ten, 12 hours of practising, like that.  This guy I played a show with, he went to the Hiroshima show & Trane's been blowing for three hours.  Guy wants to get his album signed, goes backstage & Trane's got a towel on his head, practising!  After the gig [laughs]!  Miles writes about Trane practising after a gig.  Rashied [Ali] said he'd be at the airport & pull out the flute!  He says, 'Why? He was so good.'  I could be wrong but i think i know why.  He'd get going on something & it'd lead to other things.  He'd chase them down.  So to me, there is something about it.  Music is real strong on me.  Something about it changed my life, big time, this thing with D. Boon.  This thing.  Coltrane gave it to us.  He's a big symbol in a lot of ways.  Not a boss.  I listen to him everyday, but i cannot memorise it.  My brain is a housing barracks organizing that math of the bass --liberated." 

joshua abrams natural information society plays consecutive nights in chicago, opening for bonnie 'prince' billy & cairo gang 28 september at ronny's & 29 september at lincoln hall.  more info at drag city

joshua abrams' natural information continues to receive super-positive notices in the press.  read ben ratliff's 19 september new york times "playlist" review & brian morton's review in the october issue of the wire

michael lucio sternbach, a friend dating back to the halcyon days of eremite's amherst unitarian meetinghouse concert series, directed a cool profile of peter brötzmann that includes live footage & an interview with pb from the early 2000s.  see it here

apparently rahsaan roland kirk requested that after death his ashes be mixed with the finest gage & smoked by his friends. here's another inspired option for when the album that is life finally reaches the end.