Buzzy Speaks ! July 31, 2004
Buzzy Linhart is on the phone from Oakland Saturday Evening, July 31, 2004 at 8:35 PM EDT (5:35 PM Pacific Standard Time).
His main page is http://www.buzzylinhart.com/
We start by talking about Buzzy's upcoming book on coincidences, "Shaka Pifi":
"Yesterday I noticed that there was a connection ...to remind everybody that "Shaka Pifi" has to do with different parts of different words standing for different things. "Pussycats Can Go Far"
(Buzzy's 1973 Atlantic album released in 1974) to me seems to have a hidden message even though you can kind of tell what it is about, it's about being good, but there's ... if you take the first two letters of every word in there (the title of the album) this is something that I was doing about ten years ago, and now it's pretty common.
J-Lo for instance - - so many people are having nicknames based on the first two letters. PuCaGoFa (would be the first two letters of the four words that make up the album title)- it represents a way of doing a fast speak, quick speak.
"Short hand speak?" I interjected.
Buzzy's reply: "That's a good...it's already happening Ebonically in the black neighborhoods.
August 3, 2004 3:25 AM
I was writing a book, calling them Nina's - short for Nickname - YOU COULD NEED A NINA - (something along those lines). The fact that it should happen so fast...that it was happening on one level in the black neighborhoods and I didn't know about it...I was kind of pushing it as an intellectual inter-cultural thing. For example, if you're feeling bored, perhaps all you need is a name change, you know?
So you start off with the first two letters of each, assuming you don't despise your name, you start off with the first two letters of all of your names and see what you can come up with.
It's just a place to start from.
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We picked up the conversation on Sunday, August 1, 2004 7:13 PM EDT (4:13 PM PST):
The next thing I'm interested in came up because I have two nice reviews from the New York Times. The first one is by Mike Jahn from NY Times June 18, 1971 - Gerde's Folk City -
BUZZ LINHART SINGS AND PLAYS JAZZ ROCK IN FOLK CITY RECITAL...by Mike Jahn
Buzz Linhart can be called one of those unusual cases. As a singer and guitarist he is so different from the general run as to make you wonder if he isn't really a brilliant fantasy that happened to work out. Mr. Linhart, playing guitar and vibes and backed by Luther Rix on drums and Bill Takis on bass, is playing through Sunday at Folk City, 130 West 3rd St. I supposed you would call it Jazz/Rock. He sings in a jazz style, flowing and round-cornered, grimacing, vibrating up and down, head bobbing. In the soft jazz edges of his voice and the absurd melodrama of his movements, he affects a brilliant image balance between babe-in-woods and drunk-over-piano,
rather odd but great fun to watch.
He plays guitar mostly with his right hand, and is developing into one of the great rhythm practitioners. Like Richie Havens, he slings chords around in ever changing rhythms, a light rumble that is backed superbly by Mr. Rix's drums and especially by Mr. Takis' s bass.
The two accompanists have cigarettes permanently attached to their lower lips and play along most intently, brows furrowed, while Mr. Linhart weaves happily in front. Buzz Linhart sings
mostly his own songs. "Friends" and "That's The Bag I'm In" are regular features. He often works into a medley of familiar songs, such as "Season Of The Witch", "Feelin' Alright" and others. Mike Jahn
===================================================================== THE NEW YORK TIMES January 15, 1972
SINGING AND PLAYING BY BUZZY LINHART SHOW VERSATILITY
By Don Heckman
(co-producer of Blood Sweat & Tears 2nd album)
The singer/instrumentalist Buzzy Linhart, appearing at Folk City this week, does almost everything well. He sings the blues, he sings folk music, he scats jazz and plays the guitar,
he pounds out drum solos and plays improvisations on the vibes. Multi talented is a good description, but the old enigma of the jack-of-all-trades keeps rearing its ugly head. At Folk
City Thursday Night, Mr. Linhart was in rare form, performing as well as I've ever heard him,
his musicality not at all dimmed by the fact that he was leaping around the stage from instrument to instrument like a madman. A good portion of the credit for his fine show has to go to his current back-up group, surely the best he's had, and one that could develop into a major rock/jazz unit. Mr. Linhart dependence upon them was obvious in the contrast between his fairly lackluster singing of one or two bland, folk-style tunes and the high potency power of his versions of "Take Me To The Pilot" and an original "Cheat Cheat Lied".
Luther Rix, drummer, Jeff Baxter, guitarist, and Peter Ponzol, saxophonist, set up driving streams of rhythm that Mr. Linhart dipped in and out of with all the natural enthusiasm and elan of a daredevil riding the Colorado River Rapids.
With his current musical accompanist, Mr. Linhart just might be able to find the focus that has eluded him in the past. The talent obviously is here. The question now is whether versatility can be channeled into stardom.
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(To be posted and to be continued. Bear with us, folks. It was 9:55 PM EDT July 31 when we went offline, back online 7:13 PM EDT August 1)- we spent over an hour putting this together on the Saturday night (July 31), back on the job Sunday and Monday and Tuesday. We are here, where are you?
Keep Checking with this BLOG - it is the 8th Icon on http://www.buzzylinhart.com/
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http://search-desc.ebay.com/Buzzy-Linhart_W0QQfromZR7QQsotextsearchedZ2
