Well.... if you want to know what living uncomfortably close to an uncontained wildfire is like, Joy Press has just written a piece about the last week in our lives.  

Our go-bags are packed and sitting patiently near the front door. Pretty unlikely we'll need to use them at this point - but then again, the winds pick up again on Tuesday, so who knows... 

Up the road from us - not just up the road, but in a fairly straight line steadily ascending to the foot of the mountains - lies the town of Altadena. Which is more or less completely gone. 

Didn't know this until a few days ago but among the area's residents is jazz legend Bennie Maupin, who played bass clarinet - what Miles Davis apparently called "that funny horn" - on albums like Bitches Brew and On the Corner. He also played a variety of woodwind and horn instruments with Herbie Hancock during his thrilling '70s run of albums -   and with too many others to mention. Maupin was also at the core of The Headhunters, as in "God Made Me Funky". Then there's Maupin's solo discography, among whose highlights is the classic ECM album The Jewel In the Lotus.  The fire consumed his home of 25 years - instruments, photos, memorabilia, everything. There's a fundraiser to help him and his family get back on their feet - do think about contributing if you loved those records, or even if you didn't. 

There's an in-depth interview with Maupin here at The Last Miles webzine, looking at his whole career but with particular focus on his work with Davis. 

Two songs from Crossings that Maupin wrote as well as played on - "Quasar" and "Water Torture". 

Maupin's own later very different versions for his solo record Slow Traffic To The Right

You gotta love this album cover.

Now this next tune was one of my Atemporal Faves last year

On Sextant, Maupin's credit name was Mwile - in addition to an array of woodwinds and brass, he also played afuche. 

From a latterday project with fellow Hancock sideman and synthologist Dr. Patrick Gleeson - jazzstep approached from the opposite direction

Bennie still got it... these are from just a couple of years ago, a collaboration with Adam Rudolph. The whole record is well worth seeking out -  moody, spacey atmospheres that would sit perfectly amid Jazz Satellites, the "electric jazz" compilation curated by Kevin Martin. 

Another LA-based artist known for spacey groovescapes esoterically steeped in decade upon decade of Black music history (I wouldn't be surprised if he's sampled Mr. Maupin at some point) is Madlib. He too  lost his home, studio, equipment, recordings, vast record collection... Here's a fund to help him rebuild. 

Local music webzine In Sheep's Clothing Hi-Fi has a piece by Randall Roberts on how to help the LA music community. 

From Budweiser to Bodhisattva

It was great fun reacquainting myself with the uuurv of Beastie Boys for this Tidal piece on Check Your Head, which is published in partnership with the  record-of-the-month club Vinyl Me, Please. There's also a playlist I pulled together juxtaposing Beastie tracks with formative influences and fellow travelers. 

Nothing beats Licensed To Ill of course (my favorite album of that year - or maybe equal first with The Queen is Dead). But there's moments across Paul's Boutique, Check and Ill Communication that get quite close. 

Funnily enough my favorite song on their transitional third is the least-Beastlie: "Namasté", which is more like Licensed to Chill. A floaty and flickering fusion-funk jam worthy of,  oh I dunno, Idris Muhammad or somebody like that. MCA sounds like he's already a good way along The Path to Bliss. 

Another good one in their new laidback and non-bratty mode

reading matters: friends + family edition part 2

Another dispatch from the frontlines of 2020s music - although in this case it sounds freakily like 1970s music - here's Kieran Press-Reynolds with a review of DOMi & JD BECK's hyper-fusion freakout Not Tight for Pitchfork 

A dispatch from the frontlines of 1970s music - my old Melody Maker comrade Frank Owen with a memory-lane guided tour to punk-era Manchester landmarks a.k.a. his old stomping ground. 

Dispatches drawn across decades in the form of Rolling Stone's 200 Greatest Dance Songs, largely selected and written up by Michaelangelo Matos. Nice to see Mescalinum United "We Have Arrived" in there - in between Fatboy Slim and somebody called Oliver Heldens.