If, Bwana - Western Swing '88 by Al Margolis

If, Bwana (read as "I") went to California and Colorado for nine performances from September 1-1 9, 1 988. A wonderful time was had by all (or at least by me). And then I went home. The End. Well, no. What can I say?.. Met lots of my mail contacts. Plus got to see and spend a bit more time with the people I'd met last time.

I was In the San Francisco/Bay Area from September 1-11. Stayed at Don Campau's and Das and Tina's place. Also my old buddy Sam's for a night. I was fetched from the airport and hung out for a day or so with Jack Jordan. Did some recording with Don Campau and also got to do his radio show. After many years of mail contact got to meet G.X. Jupftter-Larsen of The Haters. We even played together. The first few days were spent more in 'hanging out', as I didn't have any gigs scheduled until September 6. While at Don's did some recording which turned up on his SEPARATE BUT EQUAL mail collaboration tape. Some trombone and effects. Yeah, that's what I'd brought along - a trombone, a Korg guitar synth (an old analog model) for processing, and a couple of backing tapes. One of my hopes was to keep recording each gig and then use the preceding performance as the backing tape for the next one. Only got part way through that, though. After lounging and visiting and staying up late for a few days it was time for music, which I guess is why I was there.

September 6, 3 P.M. I'm In Berkeley for the first of two radio performances. KALX, on Al-X's show. This was my first meeting with Al-X. He played a batch of records and some tapes. We chatted and then I got to play. Unfortunately he didn't know all the equipment, and there was no engineer, so I couldn't set up the synth. So (gasp) I had to play 'straight" trombone. The first. piece went well - a piano on the backing tape, and me playing, percussing, and just making noise with, on and through the trombone. Then it was back to some records, etc. AI-X also does some story/poem type things, so I backed him up on one of those, which also came out fine. Lastly, AI-X helped out with some records and noises on the last piece. During the show a friend from New York, Fred Lonberg-Holm, who is attending Mills College, came by. Fred, an excellent cellist would join me in performance later in the week. He makes a mean dinner too.

Later that evening at midnight I did my second performance of the day, aided by Das, on KPFA. It was John Gullak's show and it was nice to finally meet him. He was also having Monte Cazazza and Deborah Valentine on his show, promoting Monte's new film. Elden of Allegory Chapel dropped on in too. Das and I did about 45 minutes of trombone and harmonica processed noise with backing tapes, including a loop Das had compiled of Gullakisms from the preceding few years of John's show. It took John a bit to catch on. The show was fun. No musical breakthroughs, just a good time.

The next day, September 7, 1 had a performance scheduled at the Force-Nordstrom Gallery, an old dance space converted Into an art gall a r y. Great acoustics with the wood floors, high ceiling and long and thin. It overlooks Market Street. The original plan had been to do this gig with a dancer. We would mike the floor and run it through some effects so that the dancer would provide the rhythms while Dave Gardner and I would do some trombone duets. Unfortunately, the dancer backed out the evening of the gig. She wasn't 'in the artistic mood' or something like that. So Dave and I played to a backing tape from the KALX show. We were also aided by Martin And Sean who 'played" the floor with bottles, combs, superballs, glasses, whatever else was at hand. We played trombone straight and effected, wandering throughout the space at times, which gave an eerier sound to the blaring trombones. For the second piece of the evening Martin and Sean retired, and we were joined by Kris Force, who played violin through a delay. The music from two trombones and violin was calm and moody. This show and one from KGNU in Boulder, Colorado was released on my SOP label as the tape CACHE LA POUDRE. Kris has also been putting on some shows at another space in SF, so she's becoming quite active in getting some live alternative shows together.

Thursday, September 9 was Das Day. Yes, time to go down to KZSC for hours of on air fun and games. We were joined that evening by Elden, G.X., Mic & Suz of Crawling With Tarts, the people from Lint Festival, and a special guest appearance by Don Campau in a delivering capacity. We were on the air from 8 P.M. to around 2:30 A.M. Between playing lots of tapes, round robin interviews, and lots of live music we had a blast, as most people who do Das' show will agree. First, Bwana did separate sets with The Haters, Allegory Chapel and Crawling With Tarts. This was followed by a massive Bwana All-Star session, with everyone who was there doing or playing something. Everyone was running around, switching instruments. There were synths, percussion things, records and tape loops, trombone and harmonica, and whatever other goodies that were around the studio. Two and a half hours of music - some of it quite sick - made and broadcast live.

Friday wasthe 455 show, with Allegory Chapel, Doll Parts, and If, Bwana. Some videos were due to be shown, too, but unfortunately the video equipment was needed elsewhere, so that never materialized. We got down to 455 (which is a warehouse space where a number of people live and have a studio, and allow the Another Umbrella Corporation, which is Das, Brook Hinton and AMK to do occasional shows) around 3 in the afternoon to start setting up. Lights needed to be set up, the sound system, chairs, equipment and the cassette table, where lots of independent tapes are sold. The show was fairly well attended with about 60 or 70 people there. Allegory Chapel opened. It was Elden's first live in-front-of-people show - a man, his synths, and tapes. It went pretty well, good music coming from the Foetus/Coil school. Elden was so intense that he was bleeding on his keyboards after he cut himself doing - what?

He was followed by Doll Parts, who just relocated from Boulder, Colorado, and they were celebrating their record release on Subelectrick Institute. From what I was told, they hadn't played together in about a month owing to their move, so they were supposedly less tight than usual, but I was impressed nonetheless. I believe the expression that was used to describe them and which summed it up was 'Turkish Cabaret", or was it "Turkish Carnival"? Any way, they were fun. Lastly it was Bwana time. This evening I used my ORGAN LIFE tape for background. So the first piece was 'Organ Life" as the backing tape, with myself playing effected violin, Das on percussion, Daniel and Jano from Katharsis on percussion and voice respectively, and Elden on sampler. The piece started out quietly and built and built and built and then was over, slightly past its peak. The second piece was Kris Force on violin, Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, and me on bass guitar, with "Loop De Loop" as backing. This piece ended up being quite moody, droning, and from what I was told - moving. A successful performance and again I'd like to thank everyone who played with me.

On Sunday Brook and I went to do Don Campau's show on KKUP In Cuportlno. I was kind of beat and burnt, but Don played tapes and then the three of us played for about 45 minutes live. This was refreshing and a treat, as I hadn't had a chance to do any playing with Brook. This would wrap up the California phase of the tour. I enjoyed the chance to play and visit with all those I met. I mustn't forget to thank Robo too.

After leaving SF, I was aflying out to Colorado Springs for a week out there. I had the traveler's nightmare - spent more time in airports than in the air with a flight being cancelled, topped off by them temporarily losing half my stuff - my trombone and clothes. Needless to say, when Jeph Jerman and Lance Barton picked me up at the airport I was less than thrilled. Those guys put me up. Again it was a situation of a few days off before any performances were scheduled. And frankly, that was fine. I was a bit tired out at that point and the relaxing was good. Got to see some of the sights, a beautiful area. Plus Jeph, Lance and I did a couple of sessions at their place which were combined, and now exist as LIFE IS HARD by Big Bwana Parts, a BBP/SOP release. (Yeah, where the hell is my copy? - Editor) Unfortunately, no gigs were scheduled in Colorado Springs or Denver.

On that Thursday we bopped up to Boulder to play In a room next to a coffee house called Penny Lane. The gig was with Architects Office and Little Fyodor, plus a couple of Stan Brakhage films. Here I got to meet some more of my mail contacts - Little Fyodor, Paul Dickerson, Joel Haertling, Dave Clark, Mark Brooks. Also, G.X. was out here. Fyodor opened with one of his funrocking sets, even got everybody to sing along. An electric guitar, a grin and a wide, wild tie. Bwana was up next with special guest Jeph Jerman on tapes and SK-1. Turned out fairly well. Jeph and I had fun, though it might have been a little less successful than I would have liked. The trombone was wearing a bit thin for me by then, which I guess may happen if you really can't play the thing. The set was slightly aimless perhaps. We were followed by AO, who played a good set which was allegedly shorter than usual. Next day was spent getting the tour of Boulder by Joel, who is a lifelong resident - a real pretty place in and near the mountains.

That evening Fyodor, Babushka and I went up to Ft. Collins to do a radio on KCSU with Lantz Barbour.' They have a good station up there, or at least Lantz and his cohorts are trying to build up the noisier, more experimental side. So, using all the turntables and tape decks that were available in the station, plus what the five of us (Fyodor, Babushka, Lantz, Jeff Benjamin and 1) had - trombone, synths, Casios, percussion stuff - we proceeded to pretty much make a mighty raucous ruckus for around two hours on the Ft. Collins airwaves in the middle of the night. There was an ebb and flow to this, as there is bound to be when five people who've never played together go for that long unstopped (or is it unstoppable?). Overall, quite a fine performance, and again one in which the joy and fun of playing with new people was the highlight. After spending the night, or what remained of it, at Lantz' place, F, B, and I were off for a drive through the Rockies, which were magnificent. We then jammed at the Miracles' place, who have absolutely no connection with Smokey Robinson. A nice place out in the mountains. Supposedly Richie Furay lives nearby. Could see stars, many, many stars.

Then It was back to Boulder an-d the final show of the tour on Little Fyodor's "Under The Floorboards" show on KGNU. Just him and me - a toy piano, tapes, a Pro-I and Casio SK-1 through the guitar synth and various effects. 45 minutes of music and noise using the piano tape for the first piece, in which a toy piano was played over it - a piano duet. This was followed by 'Organ Life" as backing, the SKI sounding like an organ, and the Pro-1 doing its thing. The piece went from subtle to noise and back again. The show went well and I breathed a sigh of relief. - I was done.

I was looking forward to going back home to Brooklyn, and a couple of days later I was. The trip went well, was successful both musically and social/ contact-wise and was great fun. Glad I did it. Thanks again to all who made this a great swing.

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