Greg Burk

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Wrong Is Right

Greg Burk
Photo by Tara Cook The four quarrymen called Pillow of Wrongness do everything that makes for the most hellacious rock and pop: They drink, they sweat, they break strings, they charge around and bang into things. They’ve got the meatiest songbook in town. And they’re smart and congenial enough to......
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Ray Charles Hits the Road

Greg Burk
Ray Charles did not seem happy to be dead. Mouth closed, of course, no big teeth flashing out, he looked waxy and diminished, not (as people think corpses should) natural and restful. The unease had something to do with the wraparound sunglasses they put on him — he probably never......

Monster Mosh

Greg Burk
You might not get to be a rock star even if you’ve got Lucifer’s own ego, but if you ain’t got it, forget it. Three first-rate L.A. Film Fest documentaries poke windows into the pride that goeth before the rises and the falls. Though few will wet their pillows over......
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Vibrate Yourself

Greg Burk
Photo by Gregory Bojorquez Chas Smith makes beautiful music and striking visual art out of metal. The art’s impact springs straight from its functionality: The material that carries the sound glows with an intrinsically attractive sheen, and music is all about relationships — proportional sequences of notes in a scale......
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Fullness

Greg Burk
The year was 1946, and Gerald Wilson was on top. His big band was about to hit the road with 13 dates of fat paychecks. He was co-billed with Louis Jordan, “the biggest man in show business at that time.” He’d been making music with Ella Fitzgerald. He’d already scribbled......
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Feeling in the Dark

Greg Burk
Photo by Jack Gould It happened again today. I got into Z’ev’s orbit, and reality was no longer real. This time the instigator was a CD of two recordings Z’ev made in the early ’80s, as Uns. He was using a bunch of cassette players, a bunch of amps, a......
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The Gentle Transgressor

Greg Burk
Photo by Roberto Masotti “I’m a very transgressive person.” Fear not: Enrico Rava looks rather like a wolf, but gobbling tykes is not his bag. In fact, when that richly pigmented smoke floats out of his trumpet, you’ll wave him into your brick edifice and offer him your bed. While......
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Billy and Charles

Greg Burk
Listening to Which Way Is East is a strange experience. Uncomfortable, even. Here are two jazz all-timers, Charles Lloyd and Billy Higgins. They’re making the deepest music. But not for us. Not for anyone, really, except each other. And maybe for One Other that they serve. It’s like reading somebody’s......
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Bastard Power

Greg Burk
Photo courtesy of Elektra Records He’s so uncool. That’s one of the first things you notice about James Hetfield, the guy who’s been vocalizing and playing guitar for Metallica these 22 years. And you gotta like that. The dorky speaking voice. The uncomfortable “fuck yeah” crowd exhortations. The uncool facial......

Moved by Movies

Greg Burk
Photo by Gregory Bojorquez Jennifer Nash was seized by music. The spirit just pointed a finger: You — singer, songwriter. No other explanation seems to make sense. Obvious chanteuse? No. Valley girl, you’d think, the San Diego–raised version. (She lives in Sherman Oaks.) When Nash talks, the words spill out......