E L E P H A N T T A L K The Internet newsletter for Robert Fripp and King Crimson enthusiasts Issue Number 566 Thursday, 14 January 1999 Today's Topics: KC IN "GUITAR" MAGAZINE TOYAH/FRIPP J.G. Bennett continued Entry to the "Real World" J.G. Bennett, Sound Quality new album? + ordering DGM / CC products in Norway The Kings' New Clothes NY3 classified somebody's post about "Lizard" For Sale: FLAGS on cd (Moraz/Bruford) Box Sets Lizard DGM Guestbook and ET SCHIZIOD DIMENTION liner notes The Bruford Tapes Happy Birthday! Norbert Fragg: The Frost Diaries GIG REVIEW: CGT - 1/11/99 Borders Books - Mesa, AZ ------------------ A D M I N I S T R I V I A --------------------- POSTS: Please send all posts to newsletter at elephant-talk dot com To UNSUBSCRIBE, or to CHANGE ADDRESS: Send a message with a body of HELP to admin at elephant-talk dot com or use the DIY list machine at http://www.elephant-talk.com/list/ To ASK FOR HELP about your ET subscription: Send a message to: help at elephant-talk dot com ET Web: http://www.elephant-talk.com/ Read the ET FAQ before you post a question at http://www.elephant-talk.com/faq.htm Current TOUR DATES info can always be found at http://www.elephant-talk.com/gigs/tourdates.htm You can read the most recent seven editions of ET at http://www.elephant-talk.com/newsletter.htm THE ET TEAM: Toby Howard (Moderator), Dan Kirkdorffer (Webmaster) Mike Dickson (List Admin), and a cast of thousands. The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. ET is temporarily being produced using Cheetah PRO Mailing Systems (c) Black Cat Software Factory (info at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk) ------------------ A I V I R T S I N I M D A --------------------- Date: Monday, 11 Jan 1999 18:26:14 From: dwool at yesic dot com (Donal Wool) Subject: KC IN "GUITAR" MAGAZINE Hello King Crimson fans from around the world! :-) Just wanted to let you all know that there is a feature on King Crimson in the February issue of "GUITAR" magazine. (Formerly known as "GUITAR FOR THE PRACTICING MUSICIAN") Peace out, -Don- ------------------------------ Date: Monday, 11 Jan 1999 19:36:48 From: DANNYSTAMPER at webtv dot net (DANNY STAMPER) Subject: TOYAH/FRIPP Does anybody out there have a copy of "The Lady or the Tiger" on CD? Did it ever exhist on CD? Will it ever be brought back out on CD? Does anybody out there want to sell their CD? Danny ------------------------------ Date: Monday, 11 Jan 1999 17:29:49 From: sgoodman at earthlight dot net (Stephen P. Goodman) Subject: J.G. Bennett continued Mark Fenkner put forth some good books; I recommend "Making a New World," which offers a lot of links to Gurdjieff's works with elaborations as needed. It was my first dipping into this material, prompted by RF's references to G. and others in articles, and of course the album notes and monographs. In general you will have trouble finding Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, or Bennett in mainstream bookstores. Personally I believe this to be the doing of a combination of factions, most notably the psychiatric community, which must have been obviously furious at the statement that "Psychiatrists have ruined Psychology just as Priests ruined Religion," or something similar. To say nothing of the obvious conceptual burglary of concepts like the Enneagram; as a kind of result, you'll find all three of the above authors-philosophers relegated to the Occult section in any library, via the more-than-well-established Dewey Decimal System. Best bets for finding them though would be online. I know that Amazon carries a lot, since I set up a "store" page linking to them, which includes quite a number of the above. It's at http://www.earthlight.net/Bookstore.html in case this assists. The Claymont Society for Continuous Education can be sourced for a lot of material via their catalog, which I believe can be obtained via http://www.claymont.org - though I've found no inherent link so far. I got onto the mailing list (non-email) through the address RF put on the back of "Let the Power Fall". :) Stephen Goodman - It's... The Loop Of The Week! EarthLight Studios - http://www.earthlight.net/Studios ------------------------------ Date: Monday, 11 Jan 1999 23:16:28 From: dandor at erols dot com (Dan B.) Subject: Entry to the "Real World" In reference to those seeking a beginning entry into the ideas and concepts of Bennett and Gurdjieff, I strongly recommend the G.I. Gurdjieff book "Views from the Real World" published by Arkana. It is, in my opinion, the most concise and valuable reference to the understanding of Gurdjieff's principles on awareness and insight (and I feel qualified, having read all his works). The book is a collection of Gurdjieff's early lectures and is therefore solely concerned with the understanding of his approach to self-realization. These lectures were transcribed by pupils, not Gurdjieff himself, and although not being from his actual hand, to me this is advantageous, as anyone who slogged through "Beelzebub's" can relate; Mr. G. often times would take numerous pages on a thought or example which sometimes could be expressed in a page or two! This book "Views from the Real World" can change your life--it did mine. P.S. I concur wholeheartedly with the poster who made the comment regarding the original versions of "Cirkus" and "Pictures of a City" contrasted to the live versions on CC#2. Boz and Ian Wallace were an inferior rhythm section when measured against the originals; and this did interfere with my enjoyment of #2--though obviously live and studio are two different animals--and those earlier guys did choose to leave the band anyway (unfortunately)! The drumming on Lizard is some of the most creative, original and best I've ever heard. Dan Buxbaum dandor at erols dot com ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 00:36:25 From: swinghammer dot 1 at osu dot edu (Jon Swinghammer) Subject: J.G. Bennett, Sound Quality I have been hearing references to J.G. Bennett on ET lately and have a few questions: 1.) What does his philosophy involve exactly? Such as what branches of philosophy does he address specifically? I'm guessing Ethics and Metaphysics however I'm curious. 2.) What published works does he have in print currently? Any famous works that I might have heard of? That is all on that subject. I've been listening to king crimson for awhile now and I'm also into elp and genesis and I have noticied something I don't think I like. The remastered versions of the KC albums are kinda poor in comparison to say a Genesis album or an ELP album from the same time. In the Court... is good and In the wake... is as well and Lizard isn't bad. But Islands is poor. I mean Ladies of the Road needs to be cranked so that I can understand the lyrics or hear the music clearly. Is this just me or do I just have bad copies? Or is it due to limitations of being on an Indie label? Just curious really but it does bother me. Not to say I don't think I got my money's worth or anything cause that's not what I'm saying at all but I think that the quality can be poor to barely average. The 80s stuff is much better but still isn't wonderful. I dunno but this seems odd to me. While I love my KC cds I'm kinda bothered by a few at the same time. Anyone share my thoughts? Jon ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 10:39:03 From: rolfk at romsdal dot vgs dot no (Rolf Klausen) Subject: new album? + ordering DGM / CC products in Norway Hi, this is my first post to ET. A norwegian newspaper recently printed a list of new CDs coming out this year and there it said that King Crimson would release a new album this year. Does anybody know anything about this? Is it the result of the ProjeKcts? I am sorry if this already has been talked about in ET. I have just started to read it. I live in Norway. Is it possible to order CDs from Discipline Global Mobile when you live in Norway? How do I pay etc. ? I have no credit cards. And is it possible for me to become a member of the ColleKctors Club? And if so, how do I do that? All answers appreciated. :) Rolf Klausen rolfk at romsdal dot vgs dot no http://www2.romsdal.vgs.no/~rolfk/ ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 11:28:13 From: ganderso at notes dot cc dot bellcore dot com (Gordon Emory Anderson) Subject: The Kings' New Clothes MJF stated....... "Another thought: Fripp would seem to have posited in recent years that he doesn't feel KC to be a "prog" band in the sense that we all roughly define the term. " One thing I have long felt about KC is that it has always seemed to have clothed itself with elements of a contemporary musical venacular, as opposed to really being a product of a musical "movement" or whatever. Actually, when I first started listening to KC in the late 70s, i wasn't very thrilled with ITCOTCK (still don't have all of it!), but I thought Red was really relevant. Note I was living (and still do) in NYC, and the NY underground had no use for "Prog" at all. Years later, however, I realize that even the early KC was merely clothed in Prog, but had an essential element shared by the later incarnations, though perhaps a little more hidden. This has become even more apparent with the live releases. In the 80s it would be easy to look at KC and even a lot of the album material and hear "New wave" if you really wanted to. But in Concert that cloth would be tossed off, at least most of the time. LTIA Pt2 from Absent Lovers is a good example. Even now, the 6-member KC seems to kind of share that "Wall of Attack Sound" sported by some of the "grunge" bands, like STP or Soundgarden, while still maintaining the same essential energy (actually, I like to say to other KC fans that the double trio make heavy metal irrelavant). Actually, in this case the musical similarity is no coincidence, as many of these "grunge" guys seem to quote Red as an important influence. I still think it would be cool to kidnap some kid with an AC/DC shirt or whatever and drag him into a double trio concert. He'd either be scared shitless or see religion! -Emory ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 02:09:23 From: humbaba at bigfoot dot com (Eric D. Dixon) Subject: NY3 classified James Crary wrote: >Does anyone know the name of the New York family who Robert >Fripp humiliated and whose rights he violated in the making >of "NY3" on the album Exposure? I would like to see if they >would help me. Help you do what? Incidentally, the couple humiliated themselves by arguing loud enough that they could be heard through the walls. And Fripp didn't violate their rights in making the recording. Rights of privacy don't apply when you're shouting loud enough to be heard in the homes of others, and even if the couple claimed copyright violation (having a copyright interest in the phrases they created while arguing), Fripp is well within the Fair Use boundaries of copyright law by using some of the words they vocally broadcast into his home and altering them -- developing them into a new artistic form. Eric D. Dixon http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/6072 ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 07:34:39 From: badler at hehe dot com Subject: somebody's post about "Lizard" If you can find "The First Three" Box, which I own, there are the '89 "Definitive Versions" of said picture disks (ICofCK,IntheWofP, & Lizard). Benjamin Adler (Crimson newbie) "You Can Find All You Need In Your Mind If You Just take The Time. Dream Theater: "Take the Time" ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 11:22:53 From: Mike dot Heilbronner at adidasus dot com (Heilbronner, Mike I) Subject: For Sale: FLAGS on cd (Moraz/Bruford) I've emailed privately with someone about this, but I lost his address. So, now officially for sale, is my copy of Moraz/Bruford: Flags It's open to everyone. Email privately with offers if you are interested. Thanks Mike. ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 17:47:27 From: leper at mindspring dot com (earthblind, starbound) Subject: Box Sets >I went to the 800.com site & they list that they have both >"Frame by Frame" & "The Great Deceiver" box sets, at really >good prices with free shipping. >Vinny Papia Be warned, however. Expect long wait times from 800.com. Meaning don't expect your order in the month that you order it. Possibly a helpful caveat. *Consider yourself warned.* -- Grendel (Industrial/Electronic Prog): http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/4664/grendel.html Against a Sickness: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/4664 ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 20:14:55 From: calmanor at pce dot net (Drew W. Eaton) Subject: Lizard Hey. Pat Nolan inquired about upgrading his vinyl Lizard and was discouraged about the lack of a remaster....Pat, as I understand, the entire back studio catalog is going to be released on 20-bit Japanese gold discs. Shipping is supposed to start maybe early February....very limited. Drew W. Eaton ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 1999 15:10:56 From: nomad_stem at hotmail dot com (Nomad Stem) Subject: DGM Guestbook and ET I'm finding the DGM Guestbook to be any increasingly amusing read. I am particularly amused at the number of people who make jabs at ET for its content, only to post their guestbook entry amid a mass of inane guestbook chatter about snuffing out rodents, pleas for Fripp/DGM to consider this or that historical gig for release, or suggestions about artists DGM should consider starting an association with. Let's face it, most of the useful news any of us read about, other than that interspersed in Fripp's diary, comes from ETers posting to the newsletter. And to all those that get upset that the newsletter is moderated should thank Toby and Mike for filtering out discussions on mouse traps. But to even compare ET with the DGM guestbook is like comparing apples with oranges. The later is a guestbook, and is generally treated by those making entries like in any guestbook. ET is a forum for discussion that naturally touches on contentious issues because we don't all agree (that's a pleasant fact of life). So let's cut the ET bashing - it's getting old. Nomad ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 13 Jan 1999 13:10:43 From: BasileJ at rams1 dot rasd dot k12 dot pa dot us (Joseph S. Basile) Subject: SCHIZIOD DIMENTION liner notes Blessed New Years To all Eters! Over New Years, Eve brother-in-law Tommy Diamond and I were listening to the Trower CD, with Fripp's liner notes that I copied a few Ets back (Thanks again Steph P.!). He asked if there was another liner note that he would be a good read. So listening later to STARLESS (Thanks Tim Ryan). I mention that the SCHIZOID DIMENSION a Tribute to King Crimson would be an enjoyable read to most Crimson fans. The writing by David Thompson seems to express many ideas, which I never would be able to put into words (Comparable writting to Neil Talbot's soundscape reviews!). In addition, the CD is an enjoyable piece of music. Here is David's work taken from the above mentioned CD. "King Crimson," Robert Fripp said recently, "is not the Robert Fripp band. If any doubt, ask the other members." The guitarist is vehement on the subject, but throughout King Crimson's nearly three decade long career, one man has remained constant to the ever changing line up, and one man's musical vision has epitomized the group's work. Quite simply, Robert Fripp can, and through his solo albums, does, exist without King Crimson. But King Crimson has never existed without Fripp, and so it is that in paying tribute to the group, the bands featured on this album are also paying tribute to the man who, with very little competition indeed, can be said to have written some of the most fundamental laws of modern music-including the one which insists there are no laws to begin with. King Crimson was never a conventional rock band, of course. From the groups very inception in 1968, it began redefining an audience's expectations, leading the press a merry dance as it sought to keep up with the group's conventions. "At the beginning of 1969," Fripp wrote, "Crimson were 'underground.' By the end, they had become 'progressive.' After 1972, and into the 1980's, Crimson became part of 'Art Rock'.'' So many tags, but so little definitions: by refusing to stand still, King Crimson also refused to accept any of the myriad musical crowns they were offered. Indeed, one gets the distinct impression that if the band could have changed it audience as easily, and as frequently as it changed it's members and styles, no one would be happier than Fripp. For King Crimson were many things, but they were never static. >From the beginning, the band refused to accept that music had boundaries. How could it, when even their debut album, "The Court Of The Crimson King" swung from the grinding protometallics of "21st Century Schizoid Man," to the almost folky whimsy of "I Talk To The Wind", from the Gothic darkness of "Epitaph," to the symphonic majesty of the title track? Add to this the jazz heavy incursions of the band's 1969 live set (preserved on the "Epitaph" boxed set), and the traditional concert closing rendition of Gustav Holst's "Mars, The bringer Of War," and even in its infancy, King Crimson was a precocious giant. This precocity was to remain King Crimson's calling card, through the first half of the 1970's, when the band reigned supreme on the western rock circuit; into the 1980's, when with renewed life and vigor, Fripp resurrected the band for three new albums; into the 1990's, when a third generation of Crimson king gathered to challenge the accepted order of things. It has, in fact, became a recurring pattern; no sooner does rock and roll think it has found a purpose, Psychedelia, New Wave, or Grunge, than King Crimson is back to show it new direction, and offer fresh food for thought. Fripp himself has never been frightened to documents King Crimson's convolutions. From the sometimes impenetrable side streets of in concert improvisation which highlights "Earthbound" and "The Great Deceiver" live albums, to the spawling instrumental monoliths of "Red" and "Lark's Tongues In Aspic"; from the pulsing dance percussive of "Elephant Talk " and "Discipline," to the distinct discordancy of "THRaKaTTak," and "Cage",; wherever one turns in modern rock influences, a facet of the ubiquitous Crimson King will be waiting there. It is that ubiquity which fires this tribute. The bands here may not necessarily be those whose names are not instantly aligned with that of King Crimson, but for each of them, Robert Fripp and co. have left an indelible musical mark, as individual as any of the original group's most adventurous numbers, and as adventurous as the sheer individuality which Fripp has surrounded himself over the past years. Greg Lake, later of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, was a founding member of the Crimson court; Adrian Belew, that most startling of young guitar stylists, was a star of the band's Eighties regime. Bill Bruford of Yes, Peter Gabriel's Tony Levin, Asia's John Wetton, Bad Company's Boz Burrell, all have passed through the court of the Crimson King at different times, bringing their own kind of magic to the brew, and vindicating Fripp's own self effacing commentary as well. King Crimson is not the Bob Fripp band, but Bob Fripp is the Crimson King, and this tribute, to the band, to the man, but most of all, to the music, is a testament to the chemistry which erupts when all that comes together. Let that be their epitaph. Written by Dave Thompson For SCHIZOID DIMENSIONS A Tribute to King Crimson Featuring David Cross, Brand X, Chrome, Metal Euphoria, Controlled Bleeding, Pressurehed, Xcranium, Spirit Burning, Astralasia, Alien Planetscapes, Architectural Metaphor, and Solid Space. Purple Pyramid 1997/ CLP 0123-2 /Careers BMG Music Publishing INC I hope I kept to CD liner notes, but I am typing/ spelling impaired. In addition, it helped me understand this writing by looking up three words I didn't know. It made this writing more powerful. Which three words?Sorry too embarrassing. On embarrassing how, did I fall for your April 1 post? Rereading this was a hoot! Blessed New Years' To All, Basile By The Frozen Three Rivers & Ex Steeler Fan ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 13 Jan 1999 02:00:03 From: vanamonde at fabula dot it (Marco Passarello) Subject: The Bruford Tapes > MARABUS at aol dot com wrote: > > I really love the music on B.Bruford's(The Bruford Tapes).2 > questions: Was the complete show ever released-if so is it > available on cd? The musicians that play on it;Did they ever > record a studio lp together? If you can assistplease e-mail > me. The musicians in "the Bruford Tapes" are: Jeff Berlin (bass); John Clark (guitar), Dave Stewart (not the one of Eurythmics, but a wonderful keyboardist who played before with Egg, Hatfield & the North and National Health, and then made some beautiful pop albums with the singer Barbara Gaskin). The same musicians made subsequently a studio album titled "Gradually Going Tornado". There are two other studio albums, coming before "The Bruford Tapes", where the guitarist is not John Clark, but the far more famous allan Holdsworth. Hope this helps. Marco Passarello ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 13 Jan 1999 10:06:41 From: ekausel at hotmail dot com (Edgar Kausel) Subject: Happy Birthday! Happy 30th Birthday to the best band ever to emerge in the universe. Thanks for tons of awesome music through these years. ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 13 Jan 1999 20:38:16 From: Bknt at aol dot com Subject: Norbert Fragg: The Frost Diaries Dear Team, While stumbling south on America's famous Highway 61, which links numerous Faulknerian Mississippi Delta hamlets each claiming to have been the birthplace o' the blues, I chose for my evening's rest the Memphis-themed Heartbreak Hotel, selecting what purported to be the very accommodation that inspired the late Rock n' Roll Doctor Lowell George to write the intemperate blues ditty "Cold, Cold, Cold." To my frigid revulsion, I discovered, in a fetid chamber reeking of dismally distilled bourbon and the cheapest of rose-scented cheap perfume, beneath the appropriately flea-infested mattress, shoved thoughtlessly among forgotten socks and an autographed Little Feat promotional panty, a still- chilled cube containing the frozen scrawlings (some would say drawlings) of the perpetually skittish but inevitably British guitarist Norbert Fragg, the Man with the Blame whose Bartok rock and other suspiciously complicated reifications of musical infetishmento, performed by that rebarbatively enfluenzal recording ensemble, Cringe Plumpton, have apocalyptically, if not infinitesimally, nudged the titanic vessel of mass culture ever onward toward its cynical icebergerac extinction. Yes, it was the very Fragg, composer of such bouyant ballads as Spat Food, Heptaparapish-in-a-pot, Rabies of the Load (available only in Japan) Va-Voom (a limited Correctors Club release marked "return to offender" after it was sent in sympathy to the American President Bill Clinton), and Quack, which, Fragg told us in the liner notes to his combustible 5-CD collection of Internet musings, Flame by Flame, "is the sound of 117 ducks attempting to interrrupt a Guitar Wonk session for the purpose of acquiring autographs from Patrick Le Petomain' Methanely." While I would generously abandon these frosted flakings in the frozen food section of my local supermarket, I believe that Fragg's comments regarding his new career as an after dinner mint and his insights into the Fears of the Running Man are of such vital significance that I just HAD to foist them, with my own petard, upon the gullible public. Thus: Efforts on behalf of my sister to secure her Quibble Bruvver instant fame and glory as a post-prandial wit-slinger threaten to dash themselves upon the rocks of perdition when I mention unfortunate tendencies among hypothetical audients. For the act of wording to occur, audients must not only refrain from photography and recording, they must also forsake the taking of notes, as that is an act of taking and I just can't take being taken anymore. To this my sister replied that few, if any, of my audients will be sober enough to take notes, and those that might be will remain soporfically content to merely remember my presence. This runs counter to my observation, based on nearly 30 years of failing to get the worshipful attention and commercial support from any but Earnest Young Men, that the act of remembering can, and will, interfere with the act of wording, especially in regards to what has passed, c.f. "Rememberance of Gas Passed" by Marcel Foost. Sister replies that all of this is beans--beans I say!--and that my initially malordorous objections to being persecuted as an object of inexpensive entertainment by those who don't know a fundament from a fundamental will dissipate as soon as I cease cutting off my nose to spite my face. An appointment with a plastic surgeon is not necessary, she adds. We Fraggs have always had a smell of sense, and, having consulted an infumous southern Californian claiming to be expert in aromatherapy, she has instructed me to repeat, "the nose blows" several times daily, and otherwise sniffle cheerfully. I surround myself with the groundscrapes from the Tainted Bribe, a Washington, D.C. night club said to be the favorite of many politicians, while remembering an incident that prefaced, but did not deface, this musical coffering. Arriving somewhat delayed before the performance, I was basking in pre-gig unease when I removed myself carefully from a van and saw, amidst a polite and smiling collection lobotomized reified musical mung beans sufficiently pathetic to part with hard-earned pay for my services, a vaguely Italiante person of unbridled enthusiasm proceeding toward the Standing Man with untoward haste. With instincts honed in the slag pits (some would say Fragg pits) of audient abuse, the Standing Man became the Queasy Man who, though not necessarily a Great Man did not desire to be a Late Man as the now Running Man said, "Where have you been?" Having been here, there and inbetween, the Standing Man became the Dashing Man who evolved rapidly into the Crashing Man when the High Grossing Mass Culture Artists Only entrance was locked. Wishing he could morph into the Slashing Man, the Squeamish Man became the Peevish Man and vaulted back into the van, where a few panicky polyrhymic foot taps upon the accelerator turned him into the Driving Man, but inadvertantly transformed the Pursuing Fan into a Bug on the Windshield. Before he slid off, the now Expiring Fan called out, "Fragg-thy-am, will you eat green eggs and Spam?" "I will not eat them in a van, I will not eat them as you planned," said the Shouting Man. "I will not eat them at the show, I will not eat them when I go. I refuse to eat them when I play, and would not contemplate them any day! Though Fragged I am, I spit upon your fetishized demand!" After the performance I was sent a note by the Late Fan's wife that he was, or rather, had been, the slightly well-known Italian orchestra conductor Riccardo Muti and that he had wanted to schedule a performance with myself and fellow Italians Luciano Pavarotti, Quentin Crispi, Brian Enetti, Adolfi Bowie, and some guestbook posting ax-man named Three El Keneallli. Quoth the Cold Man: "Hock-tooey, Muti." (At this point, the diaries melt into an slagg-infested piffle of volcanic eructations as lambently lackluster as a malfunctioning lava lamp.) Bill Kent ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 13 Jan 1999 12:24:55 From: lantz at primenet dot com (Bill Lantz) Subject: GIG REVIEW: CGT - 1/11/99 Borders Books - Mesa, AZ Finally, some quality live music in Arizona! Internet friends of mine know the drought I've gone through lately in the live music area due to my state of residence and my particular musical preferences, and I'm happy to say that it is temporarily over now thanks to a largely sucessful evening of music by the California Guitar Trio. I was very happy to see around 100 people crammed into a tiny corner in the music section of Borders. It was beyond standing room only! Tony Geballe opened the night up with about a 30 minute peformance including pieces from his solo CD and some exquisite music that was influenced by time he had spent in Turkey. I'm not totally familiar with his CD yet, this material may be on his CD. He explained the "rare" 12-string guitar he was using was tuned similarly to the non-standard tuning used by the CGT and the LOCG except that he tunes down 1/2 step. So his low C string is a B Flat and so on. I enjoyed his set thoroughly and it was a surprise that he was there, really a major bonus. The CGT took the stage and played some of their familiar pieces from their CD's and also took the opportunity to play portions of Pictures At An Exhibition, specifically The Hut of Baba Yaga and the Great Gates of Kiev. Classical musical lovers as well as ELP fans can relate to these pieces and their re-workings were terrific. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was also re-worked by the trio with the first half being a rather standard approach (for them) and the second a frenzied, precise attack. Paul took an opportunity to read from a recent review published in a guitar publication recently, it actually was a very positive review, but some of the authors wordings were funny to hear him read it, you could tell they found it humorous (and an honor at the same time) still being called Fripp disciples. The title cut from Pathways was great too, I really enjoy when they pass notes back and forth in essence making the sound of one guitar. I've seen the Crafties do this in a large setting, great stuff. The set closer was Caravan, and being the Zappa fan I am, the "Caravan with a drum solo" phrase starting rolling through my mind and lo and behold, the three of them muted their strings and did a "strum" solo. Hilarious! And the fun all three seemed to be having added so much to my own enjoyment of the set, I think I was smiling the entire time. They were joined by their "one time and current" teacher Tony Geballe for an un-plugged version of Yamanashi Blues, playing it away from the stage and over by one of the retail counters. Paul also took a few minutes to show off their new guitars, I didn't catch the manufacturer, but the fretboard is the most unique I've ever seen. It is fretted wide on the bottom strings on thin on the high strings, causing the frets to slant. He said this helps them take better advantage of the tuning they use. I couldn't stay afterwards, but they made themselves available to sign merchandise, so go preprared if this is something that interests you! Thanks CGT, hope to see you again soon. Bill Lantz Mesa, Arizona PS To anyone that was there and is reading this - I was the guy with a Thrak hat on. Next time you see me, say hello - I can count on one finger the number of people I know in Arizona that are into Crimson and all the side projekcts as much as me - or - just drop me a line now! ------------------------------ End of Elephant-Talk Digest #566 ********************************