The Zig Gazette

The Zig Gazette
Mar 05 2008
Thezigsband.com Myspace.com/thezigsband
Jim Ziegler, Bill Raffensperger, Frank McPeters
Michael Mad Dog Johnson, Jim Downing
This Saturday March 8th:
MOONEY’S SUNSET BAR AND GRILL – DISNEY, OK
KWOATS
"Life can't be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years." William F. Buckley, Jr.
"The only tune they play in 4/4 is 'Take Five!'" Zoot Sims-talking about the Don Ellis band
"If I could play like Wynton (Marsalis), I wouldn't play like Wynton." Chet Baker
"Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them." Richard Strauss
MIA
We’re looking for several people and things.
Does anyone on our mailing list have contact info for Pride Hutchison or his brother Scott? We can’t give out the details on why we want to know, but it could be a very neat deal. Or if you know someone who might know, drop us a note.
And what ever happened to The Fuller Brothers? It seems like they vanished a dozen years ago. We may be sorry we asked.
We and others have in our possession some big reels of tape. We’re speaking of big; two-inch sixteen track analog tape, to be exact. Some of these need to be remixed for possible re-release. Does anyone around town still have a two-inch machine? That Tractor guy has one but it’s in mothballs at present.
Feedback
Timbrewolf commenting on the “Are You Too Old To Be Gigging?” questionnaire said that his stage wardrobe more resembles the Dude in The Big Lebowski.
We won’t repeat what Wanda said about Chuck Berry, but we found out that he did win two Grammies, after they were long overdue.
Joe Johnston tells about a songwriter who came to Nashville as a painter and slept in his truck behind Acuff-Rose Publishing. He wrote a hit song, sold his truck and bought a Cadillac. He didn’t have another hit for three years, but at least he was sleeping in a Cadillac.
Our auxiliary Zig, Steve Bagsby, played the Bob Wills tribute at Cain’s and yes, the sound was not great. He didn’t recognize the place. “It was like Body Snatchers in stucco” he riffed.
This Saturday March 8th:
MOONEY’S SUNSET BAR AND GRILL – DISNEY, OK
Flotsam
There’s a band called A Fine Frenzy on Letterman. The pretty chick channels Raggedy Ann with orange hair and clashing pick cheeks. She can sing five notes and play the white keys with her right hand. We’ll bet she’s self-taught. Her atmospheric keyboard guy looks wistful with his fedora and muffler as his spidery hands hold inaudible chords. They are anything but frenzied. Irony, get it? Yawn. A few nights later Ludacris sounded like an avalanche hitting Frankoma Pottery.
A newscastress was talking about infill in midtown. Developers or individuals buy a house in an old neighborhood, tear it down and build two little ones or one huge one with no yard. “This home takes up almost the whole entire lot!” she yells. Not just the entire lot, but the whole entire lot. That makes it more worser.
We got a cell phone text message and the subject was GTFOOH. It was from Melissa who said she saw our profile and said we are ‘kind of cute’. Would we like to chat? She even has her own web site, but we have no profile that she could have connected to this phone number. We also get friend requests like this on myspace, from girls who have lost their brassieres. They all seem to like hip hop and football too.
Why are couples in Cilais ads sitting outside in bathtubs? We get the one about the faucet erupting, but we miss the Freudian symbolism of the tubs.
This Saturday March 8th:
MOONEY’S SUNSET BAR AND GRILL – DISNEY, OK
Move Up A Notch
In case you missed it, Mike Smith, lead singer of The Dave Clark Five, died of pneumonia last week at 64. Smith had been paralyzed from the ribs down since 2003. The Dave Clark Five played Tulsa in 1964. Jeff Healy lost a lifelong battle with cancer at a young age. Buddy Miles passed away last week at the age of 60. Buddy played Tulsa with Wilson Pickett 40 years ago, and headlined at Mayfest about ten years ago.
I was lucky to have met him a couple of times, and he was very friendly. We have a mutual friend in Bobby Jones, who grew up in Omaha with Buddy and the other guys from The Electric Flag. When I mentioned Bobby, Buddy’s eyes lit up. Jones had these memories of Miles:
I suppose I must've thought about Dumplin in someway or another most every day of my life. Not like we were close like we were in the early days, but still there were plenty of things would play into my mind (like Them Changes - I wonder who's going to do that tune now??)
You must know this - Sugar Dumplin was not a derogation, it was a endearment. Not everybody could call him that obviously, but he loved it because it originally came from Stemsy (Hunter). What that meant was that Buddy was IN and he'd come into the bigger circle. This nickname came from the top of the elite in Omaha. Stemsy was always the brightest, cleverest, playest muhhh that we all knew. So when he made up an endearment like Sugar Dumplin, it meant so much for Buddy. He was incredibly proud about that.
You will notice that Stemsy was on both Electric Flag albums. Herbie Rich was as well. There was a long running dispute between Buddy and me, because he told me that when Herbie came out of the Army, he'd get him. And of course I disagreed, because I had plenty of things I needed Herbie to do - WITH ME! And of course (once again), Buddy was correct - when he put the Flag together Herbie Rich was right there at the perfect time. What a band that was - sheeee-wowa! I don't know if you ever saw them, but it was absolutely incredible. I remember saying at the time that it was as exciting as James Brown's entire show, and buddy, that was exciting!
I remember so well the first time I heard the first cut of that album - you were there. I had no idea who it was we were listening, but I said, "Man - that is the blues, cat!" So when I asked, 'Who is that anyway?' and who brought the album into the house. I heard “The Electric Flag” and I lit up like a Christmas tree, and wanted to paint to town - I was so happy for them - I will never forget it.
You asked me for comments, but you don't need an entire column - I really could easily write a lovely little book about Buddy. You were absolutely correct, he was always perfectly warm and full of joy for loving what he did. He loved the music, and loved the people that played it. So we had many terrific times together. RIP Dumplin....
- Bobby Jones
This Saturday March 8th:
MOONEY’S SUNSET BAR AND GRILL – DISNEY, OK
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