6166 - PORTER BATISTE STOLTZ Featuring PAGE McCONNELL - Moodoo (2008) (REPOST)

PORTER BATISTE STOLTZ FEATURING PAGE McCONNELL
"MOODOO"
NOVEMBER 4, 2008
69:10

1/Ausnacious (Porter) 9:11
2/Comin' at Ya (Batiste) 9:36
3/I Get High (Porter, Smith) 7:46
4/All We Wanna Do (Batiste) 7:51
5/Message from PBS (Nocentelli) 7:45
6/Introductions 1:00
7/Check out Your Mind (Mayfield) 6:07
8/Funky Miracle/Sing a Simple Song/Rainy Day Women (Dylan, Modeliste, Neville, Nocentelli, Porter, Stone) 11:22
9/Out in the Country (Jr., Modeliste, Neville, Neville, Nocentelli, Porter) 8:13

Russell Batiste - Drums
Brian Stoltz - Guitars
George Porter Jr. - Bass
Page McConnell - Keyboards

REVIEW
by David Paul Kleinman
Listening to Porter Batiste Stoltz’s newest release, MOODOO, I can’t stop thinking of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley and his great keyboardist, Joe Zawinul, particularly the album Country Preacher. Adderley may or may not have invented soul jazz, but he did it better than anyone else. While he only flirted with actual dance music, he played a big part in creating music you can dance to, think about, and have your soul lit up by all at the same time. That is why it is fitting the true gentleman of jam-nation, Page McConnell, appears here with Meters co-founder George Porter Jr. and his longtime funky Meters bandmates Russell Batiste Jr., and Brian Stoltz. It was their former and current band who played a funktastic role in inventing funk music. It was McConnell’s former and future band, after all, who demonstrated intelligent, soulful dance music could force otherwise reasonable people to lose their jobs, girlfriends, sobriety, sanity, and transmissions just to make it to shows. From Stoltz’s raunchy guitar on the opening track, “Ausnacious,” to the beatific closer, “Out in the Country,” MOODOO is the funky voodoo that you do.

For example: “All We Wanna Do.” Some players blow their load the first time through the chords and wind up having nowhere to go and nothing to say. But a gentleman like Page McConnell has patience. He listens. He waits. He bides. He lets the music happen on its own terms. He lets his piano do the talking. On “Message from PBS,” a familiar keyboard sound arises, something that is certain to raise the it-looks-like-Phish-will-return boner in us all. From there we move onwards and funkwards to the Curtis Mayfield tune, “Check Out Your Mind,” which is followed by a three-song medley ending in “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.” Hearing this stupendous version of the Dylan classic from Blonde on Blonde, my thoughts turned from soul and funk music to realize what it is I like so much about this oft-derided jamband music: its willingness to draw from as many sources as possible. Having a liberal attitude is what leads to the invention of new ideas and new forms of music, and this attitude is at the heart of MOODOO. While it draws heavily from the past, it rings with novelty and will rightfully take its place in history, waiting to be heard and re-formed by a new generation of musicians.

BIOGRAPHY
by William Ruhlmann
Porter Batiste Stoltz are something of a New Orleans supergroup, consisting of three veteran musicians who worked as sidemen for decades before coming together in the trio. Bass player George Porter, Jr., joined the Meters in 1965. Over the years, he played on recording sessions with local performers such as Allen Toussaint, Earl King, Lee Dorsey, and Johnny Adams as well as such national and international acts as Paul McCartney, Jimmy Buffett, David Byrne, Patti LaBelle, Robbie Robertson, and Tori Amos. Drummer Russell Batiste, Jr., the son of New Orleans musician David Batiste, began playing drums at age four. His sessions include work with Robertson, Harry Connick, Jr., Champion Jack Dupree, and Maceo Parker. In 1989, he joined Porter in the Funky Meters, the successor to the Meters. His band Orkestra from da Hood released the album The Clinic. Guitarist Brian Stoltz was a member of the Neville Brothers and has done sessions with Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Daniel Lanois, Dr. John, Edie Brickell, and Linda Ronstadt. As a solo artist, he has worked as a singer/songwriter, releasing the albums East of Rampart Street and God, Guns & Money. He joined Porter and Batiste in the Funky Meters. When Art Neville, another member of the Funky Meters, left the group to rejoin the Neville Brothers, Porter, Batiste, and Stoltz determined to strike out on their own. The initial result was the debut Porter Batiste Stoltz album Expanding the Funkin' Universe, released in 2005. On November 2, 2007, at the Club Metronome in Burlington, VT, they recorded their second album, MOODOO, with former Phish keyboard player Page McConnell sitting in. The album was released September 30, 2008.

6164 - VIDA BLUE - The Illustrated Band (2003)

VIDA BLUE
"THE ILLUSTRATED BAND"
OCTOBER 14, 2003
61:34

1/The Illustrated Band (McConnell) 12:24
2/Charmpit (McConnell) 24:06
3/You Don't Know (McConnell) 4:21
4/Little Miami (Reputation) (McConnell, Yeomanson) 20:48

Mercedes Abal - Flute, Vocals
Lazaro Alfonso - Percussion, Vocals
Russell Batiste - Drums
Oteil Burbridge - Bass
Tomas Diaz - Percussion, Vocals
DJ Le Spam - Turntables, Sampling
Page McConnell - Keyboards
John Speck - Trombone

REVIEW
by David Jeffries
Vida Blue never felt like a side project, but a real band with its own funky, electro-injected style and only sonic hints of each member's "other" bands (Phish, the Allman Brothers, and the Funky Meters). Tape traders can tell you the gigs have been getting better and better, and the band's debut album pointed them in the right direction. Their second full-length, The Illustrated Band, makes for a funky good-time listen, but it's not the big payoff one would have hoped. Pieced together from jam sessions with the already multi-genre Spam Allstars, the album bridges Vida Blue's top-notch jamming with Spam's lively Afro-Cuban textures. It has more than its fair share of good ideas but they rarely pay off, and the whole thing feels like the first set of the night (a time when a lot of jam bands spin their wheels before delivering a driven and focused second set). Keyboardist and Phisherman Page McConnell handles production, giving so much of the spotlight to the Spam Allstars one has to wonder why they don't get a big credit on the cover. McConnell is actually the least heard on the record, leaving Vida's Oteil Burbridge and Russell Batiste with more airtime than previously, and numerous solos from Spam flutist Mercedes Abal appear throughout. DJ Le Spam pulls out some fitting samples, but it never turns into a frenzied scratch session. Things really pick up on the closer, "Little Miami (Reputation)," and if the rest of the tracks were as well-constructed it would make the album a winner. Sometimes it sounds like it's going to turn into Miles Davis' On the Corner without the grit, other times Mongo Santamaria's Watermelon Man. With so much funk, Latin jazz, and scratching being executed so well and with plenty of heart, it's hard not to like the album while it's playing. A little more to latch onto would have warranted repeat listening.

BIOGRAPHY
by Jesse Jarnow
The Vida Blue is Phish keyboardist Page McConnell's first solo project. When Phish decided, after 17 years, to take an indefinite hiatus, McConnell was undoubtedly the least prolific bandmember in terms of both composition and extra-curricular musical activities.

Nearly a year after the break began, McConnell traveled to New Orleans, where he convened with the Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge (a mainstay on the jam band scene Phish helped ferment) and Funky Meters' drummer Russell Batiste. McConnell had known Burbridge for over a decade, as Phish had often shared bills with the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Burbridge's seminal early-'90s band. Batiste and McConnell had first come into contact while working on a track for Get You A-Healin', a benefit album, with Phish bassist Mike Gordon and others.

The trio improvised a good deal of music, which ranged in tone as McConnell experimented with acoustic pianos and various synthesizers. Turntablist DJ Logic joined them for a session. Ultimately, the band latched onto an electronic sound, not entirely unlike the New Deal. McConnell shaped some of the material into songs, adding lyrics, and the band's self-titled debut was born.

The band played their first live shows in late 2001 in Burlington and New York. At the latter performance, on New Year's Eve, they were joined by Phish's Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon. The Vida Blue began to tour in earnest in early 2002, playing small clubs and theaters throughout the country, often playing with younger jam bands (such as the New Deal and the Slip).