Musician-Composer-Trumpet-Recording Artist-Teacher
Pointer is the featured collaborative soloist in the internationally acclaimed River Cow Orchestra from Kansas City, MO
“Musings on Arirang”
E.E. Pointer®️2024
Biography
Trumpet/ Composer/Recording Artist/Clinician/ Teacher
E.E. Pointer is featured collaborative soloist in the internationally acclaimed River Cow Orchestra from Kansas City, MO. He has recently performed or recorded with the Nortons, Perfumed Nightmare, the Necessity Brass Band, the Loose Cannon Brass Band, the South Street Blues Band, and Sacred & Secular. Mr. Pointer performs on a custom crafted Harrelson “Summit” trumpet (LP #4, Bell #7), with a custom 5MM (modular design/delrin rim) mouthpiece by Jason Harrelson.
Pointer produced, composed and performed his six solo CD’s, “...Better Late, Than Never... "(co-producer, Murphy Tetley)(2004), “Vignettes”(2007), ”Necessary Road" (2020), and “Dialogues” (2020), “Quarantine Dreams” (2021), and “Incomplete Fool” (2023).
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Pointer’s Discography includes:
“...Better Late, Than Never...” (2004)
“Underpass” (2005) with Perfumed Nightmare,
Unreleased (2006) with Loose Cannon Brass Band
“Vignettes” (2007)
”Emerging”(2008), with RCO
“The Tyranny and Grace of Good Socks” (2009) with RCO
“Secret Sickness” (2009), with RCO
“Live at the Farris” (2010), with RCO
“Mother Tongue” (2011), with RCO
“Go Wake The Rooster” (2011)with RCO
“This Is Not a Bill” (2012),with RCO
“Going Softly into The Good Night” (2013), with RCO
“Finding Water” (2014), with RCO
"Waltz of Hearts" (2014), with RCO
"Can't Change The Weather" (2015), with RCO
"Cha Pooka" (2016), with RCO
"Too High, Too Soon" (2016), with RCO
“The Devil Inside The Box" (2016), with RCO
"Ipso Facto"(2017), with RCO
"Apples and 3.14"(2017), with RCO
“Grinder”(2018), with RCO
“Dichromatic Demons” (Live @ KKFI) (2018), with RCO
“InterGalactic Love Men”(2019), with RCO
“Serious Tools”(2019), with RCO
“First Bliss” (2020), with RCO
”Necessary Road“ (2020)
”Dialogues” (2020)
”Quarantine Dreams” (2021)
”Incomplete Fool” (2023)
E.E. Pointer was born, raised and schooled in Missouri and resides there today. His parents made his childhood years a wonderful experience for all involved. His brothers and sister are all talented artistic people who owe much to the time they spent in a loving and sharing musical home. Pointer started playing keyboards at the age of five and the trumpet at the age of ten. He attended and graduated from Swinney Conservatory at Central Methodist College (University) and solidified the beginnings of his musical journey. (Great teachers, great ideas, great friends 🎶). Before beginning a career in music education as an instrumental music teacher, (the last 24 years at Richmond (MO) High School), he had various character building work experiences, including working on a barge, working at farm labor, working as a track laborer on the railroad, sacking groceries, working in a library and working as a goldsmith. In his musical career he has played in pizza joints, churches, polka bands, brass choirs, concert bands, orchestras, art galleries, museums, pit bands, jazz ensembles, brass bands, R & B groups, rock bands, funk bands, blues bands, etc. In other words, like many other working musicians, Pointer is a trumpet player, composer, band mate, and teacher who is constantly looking for new musical challenges. He has raised two extraordinary children (a handsome son and a beautiful daughter) of his own, found a wonderful family extension with his wife, Sally, and her two extraordinary children (a beautiful daughter and a handsome son). He and his wife, Sally, have been blessed with nine glorious grandchildren.
RCO ... Fun Gig
E.E. Pointer is the featured collaborative soloist with the River Cow Orchestra from Kansas City, MO.
Back Story
“Incomplete Fool”
“Son, please refrain from acting like a complete fool.”
This is a statement I heard more than once as a youth.
Reaching the age of 71 is a milestone that prompts a fair bit of contemplation ... and a few realizations.
For me, the first realization was, “Wow, so far, so good.”
The second: “I am so lucky to still be able to express myself musically.”
And the third: “I have been blessed to have had so many musical experiences with so many incredible artists.“
My 2007 release, “Vignettes,” was a series of musical sketches, portraits and landscapes. I originally had planned to do another project along those lines.
But as it turns out, the “Incomplete Fool” project evolved into a series of musical novellas and short stories. The selections -- all inspired by experiences, musical and otherwise -- took me a bit by surprise.
The Muse was managing my memories. With these past adventures front of mind, the music began to take shape. The result is a collection of fondly remembered moments, such as a chance first meeting among three lifelong friends, early musical stylistic impressions, or a conversation with another species.
These brief musical tales also tell of inner personal struggles, traditional folk song settings, loving companionship, science fiction involving multidimensional realities, nightmare rehearsal scenarios, and, finally, the gift of aging.
As on earlier solo projects, I generated sounds via manipulated loops, nature sounds, filters, varied audio units, different keyboard sounds, different muted trumpet sounds, and my own voice. Different forms and styles of improvised music are featured throughout, and even the recording process was one of experimentation.
I hope each "story" offers an opportunity for reflection.
One big shout out to my brother, Jack, for sharing his many, many talents. Thanks, Bub!
Thanks in advance for listening.
Oh..., and Pops, I am still working on it.
EE
“Incomplete Fool”
E.E. Pointer(BMI)®®️, 2023
Hermanos
Incomplete Fool
The Mythos of Whales
Shenandoah (for Murphy)
Settanta
The Curse of Mulgrew
Another Thought
Portals
Lady
E.E. Pointer: Incomplete Fool
Kansas City area trumpeter and composer E.E. Pointer has done it again, offered up a very personal, meditative album, quiet but present, and thoughtful in every way.
INCOMPLETE FOOL opens with strong, long, full, trumpet notes. It is spacious, trumpet
and nothing else. “Hermanos”, a tune reminiscent of late decade Miles, opens the
album. It is a tune that then gets busy with something like electronic log drum, then full
drum set: the stick-hit closed hi-hat tick-tick-ticking two against three. It grooves--and in
a very contemporary way. And Pointer takes his time, stretches. Here is a musician who
embraces space.
Unlike with River Cow Orchestra, which Pointer steers, none of these tunes are quite as
frenetic and busy. This is not aleatoric music of the moment, but something else: more
meditation, prayer.
Overall, much o f the album is reflective, inward, and trance-like. Although it grooves, the
album also serves as a thought vehicle. You can spin the album disc, turn out the lights,
and think. Subdued, like whale song, the album is otherworldly, subterranean--cool and
smooth, but not drowsy. It is carefully provocative. One song is aptly titled “The Mythos
of Whales”.
Folksy and intimately personal, quiet, one of the known tunes on the album is a solo
piano version of “Shenandoah” and reminds of the Keith Jarrett version--so full of heart, so slow and mindful. Likely, this is the album’s only tune that is not an original, not on of E.E.’s new tunes.
These seem to be songs from a man who does not fear being alone. He embraces
silences. He’s ok being quiet. There is never that rush-hour push racing these notes, but
instead, the pace of a long, long walk.
“Portals” begins with glimmers and electronic splashes, like in a Star Trek song and then goes spoken word, E.E. reflecting on a spacey, Beat Kansas City-city night in an Uber. A little like the movie LULU ON THE BRIDGE or Sun Ra’s SPACE IS THE PLACE, jazz and space travel converge in the music and lyrics.
Zappa-like, Pointer merges music and cleverly ribald lyrics, but whereas Zappa seems overly pleased with his clever conceits, Pointer seems to wander into late-night Beat revelation: a diner, city lights, pie.
Everything has magic.
This is an album of a KC jazz musician who has fully come into his own. He does not
rush, not a note, not a phrase, not a song. A prolific composer, I find we are better for
his tunes. Diary-like experiments, they land like musical kaons. Dream; think; enjoy.
—Kevin Rabas
CD Reviews. June/July, 2023, JAM
“Quarantine Dreams”
Daydreams. Nightdreams. When one enters the otherworldly realms of dreams, one does not necessarily stop and analyze the experience. Or at least that was the case, up until about a year ago. Occasionally, I remember select dreams, but then, only if I wake to either record a verbal or written note about them. During the pandemic quarantine over the last year, I made it a point to try to do this, for the dreams I had during the quarantine furnished much fertile ground for the development of some of my musical ideas.
Some of the dreams were memories of my childhood, some, of my Conservatory days, some, of young parenthood, some, of my midlife lane changes, and some, music performances. My approach, to share these musings, is to let each listener form their own idea of what is going on in each dream sequence. I guess this is some type of Sonic Impressionism, if you wish. The titles of these compositions don’t necessarily give the plot of the musical stories of my dreams away, but they hopefully will give the listener the means necessary to think creatively outside the proverbial box in the forming of a musical impression and journey of their own design. By using a combination of winds and electronica, and different hybrids and organic combinations of styles (classical, improvisation, jazz, block technique, counterpoint, rock, funk, and world music), my dreams became multi dimensional.
So, here are the titles...
“Tesla’s Dance”
“Thugs from Beyond”
“In A Glance”
“The Tower”
“Winter Evening”
“Driving Through Frankenstein”
“Sycamores”
“Quarantine Dreams”
“Dialogues”
Notes for “Dialogues”
My newest project, “Dialogues” will be available (hopefully), December 1st, 2020.
This project has been in the back of my mind since last December (2019), the last time the RCO played together. I was contemplating doing some recording at home over our Holiday hiatus and the idea of a spoken word/music project seemed to be the point to be taken. Little did I know, the pandemic would hit our planet and physical isolation, in many forms, would become the rule of the day. No contact, no gigs. I had even more time on my hands to finish an immediate project (“Necessary Road”) and start plans for the next creation.
When performing with the wonderful folks and musicians in the River Cow Orchestra, I have been given much leeway in my improvisations and presentations. With a wordsmith and world class poet like drummer Greg Field to help fuel our musical adventures, I learned much about the artistic and poetic power of the written word. As our music and CD recordings progressed through the years, I realized I could open my yap at a session and share poems, thoughts, titles, etc. from my journals and notes. Brent Bowman calls them “words”.
So, at the beginning of this idea, I went back and listened to about a dozen and a half selections of the RCO where some of my thought collections were featured. As I transcribed the stream of conscious thoughts in the musical selections and rechecked my notes of those sessions I had prepared, the project became distinct and clear. I decided to use the individual spoken word as my guide. Although a few tunes had words from gig collaborations with my band mates, the majority of the selections I chose were from the discography of the RCO. The performances of these tunes by RCO stand alone and are musically incredible. Their playing influenced what eventually happened when I recorded, as I paired down my thoughts to a final total of nine pieces of music. I would hope one would visit the RCO catalogue (22 CDs and counting) and find the originals and hear those collaborations.
The final list of tunes is such:
“Completely Atomic”
“Tilting Buddha”
“Squid Magic”
“Her Hair Was Flexible”
“Dialogues”
“Mushroom Conspiracies”
“Skull Faced Trucker”
“Another Bedtime Story”
“Corrugated Love”
At some point in the future, I will share some background on each tune.
Here we go...
“Completely Atomic” began as a tune off the 2014 RCO release, “Finding Water”. It was entitled “Toxic Sweetness”. Without getting into too much strange detail, I had been watching the original Tobe Hooper “Texas ChainSaw Massacre” a day or two prior to our recording session. Obviously it was on my mind when I imagined what that dysfunctional household would have been like around the evening dinner table and the scattershot conversations that would have ensued. Although I only used a portion of the text, I covered enough of it to move the musical selection along as I experimented with manipulated horn sounds amid some palindromic motives. Finding a chainsaw sample that fit the selection was a bit difficult. Anyway, I hope it is not too creepy.
“Tilting Buddha” was taken from some prepared text I wrote and used in some live performances around 2017-2018. The inspiration was taken from a small garden statue gifted to me by Don McCarter, a fine and wonderful guitar player and a former member of RCO. I regret that since I have grown through the years my love of yard work has gone the way of the push lawnmower. (That is another story for another time.) After checking my sweet basil and rosemary in my yard one evening, after our yard guy had finished his work, I noticed my Buddha was leaning on some straw against a wall. The thought hit me that I had passed the Buddha hundreds of times in my yard, but I never really paid much attention to the symbolism it conveyed. It was then the text came to me. In the musical setting I used the words to get the process started. I used a musical motive and a structure/form that could feature both muted and unmuted trumpet, some back masking, and some synthesized tracks. Putting these singular tracks into a final product was a wonderful musical puzzle. The last chord was inspired by my lifelong friend, B. Murphy Tetley...(he knows why).
“Squid Magic” was a reading taken from the RCO CD entitled “Celery” from 2019. The tune was called “Fully Clothed Squid” named by the incredible word smith, Greg Field. A few weeks before this particular recording session, I revisited the book “Naked Lunch” by William S. Burroughs and once again was struck by the strange immediacy of this work, in particular, a non-linear story line and the scattershot approach the author employed. The stories and scenes in the book are amazing. So... my words were meant to portray a harmless event ( an everyday lunch) and permeate it with a twisted ending. The vocal part of the tune doesn’t appear until about half way through the work, in keeping with the non-linear approach I was taking on this selection. This tune ended up having trumpet take center stage, melodically. There is also quite a bit of ambience done with synthesized sounds and tonal colors on this composition. I used three different synthesizers: an AudioKit One, an Alchemy Synth, and a Moog Synthesizer. These programs were run through my Impact GX61 midi controller. I want to also thank my friend and band mate Michael LaGrega, for his inspiration dealing with electronic music and synthesized sounds. He is one of the most musical and creative artists with which I have performed..The musical interplay between the horn and the synths was challenging. Surprisingly, the ending of this selection was my first use of the B. Murphy Tetley chord. This was great fun to compose and perform, so I hope the listeners have as much fun listening to it, as I did in the creation of “Squid Magic”.
“Her Hair Was Flexible” came from the 2014 RCO CD release, “Finding Water” and was certainly an interesting composition to put together. All my band mates in the RCO are very supportive of my efforts (or at least they don’t say much about them), so being a huge fan of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, my musings sometimes are not ‘middle of the road’. The incredible leader and co-founder of the RCO, Dr. Brent Bowman has always been right there with his genius level comments regarding phrasing, musicality, balance, blend, etc. His inspiration, counsel, and friendship really helped me with this selection. The text was a simple straight forward telling of a fantastical story of a guy having a ‘date’ at home, while watching old science fiction movies on his television with his girlfriend. The fact that the protagonist is relating this story to no one in particular is sort of odd and strange. Anyway, the crux of the story happens when the couple is interrupted by his neighbor lady who is looking for a lost pet and wants to share some snacks. Questions: How did she get in to the house? How did she know they were watching TV? How did she know they needed snacks? Does she really have a pet? This is sort of a strange premise and one that is certainly not clarified by the music. Technically, I used the same synth set up that I used on “Squid Magic” and utilized both realtime trumpet sounds (muted and unmuted), treated/manipulated trumpet sounds, animal sounds, and of course the shadowy vocal track. This one was a lot of fun.
A spoken haiku. A trumpet. A Fender Rhodes piano. A synth.
One of my favorite quotes is from the piano genius, Keith Jarrett, who said,
“The more experience a person has, the more simplicity is profound.”
The composition, “Dialogues”, which is the title tune of this project, was my study in simplicity. While the synths were used as a counterpoint to the musical dialogue, the melody in the trumpet and the harmonies in the keyboard were set up as a simple musical duet to present the musical theme of the selection. The listener can find their own meaning of dialogues in the basic form that is offered here. The melody came to me early on a rainy morning and the harmonies played with me that afternoon. After a day or so, I started the construction of the composition, hopefully, short and sweet. This is what I discovered.
The backstory of “Mushroom Conspiracies” originally started in the offices of the Richmond, MO Chamber of Commerce, in the early 1980’s. Whether or not it was synchronicity I will never know, but I was in THE meeting when the idea of having our town be the ‘Mushroom Capital of the World’ was floated for the first time. (Again, another story for another time...). I had scratched the surface with a recitation from the 2019 RCO studio recording project “Intergalactic Love Men”, in a tune called “Mushroom Conspiracies: Fungus Planet”. That time and the ensuing years of ‘mushroom this and that’ (‘the circus is in town’) staked a spot in my memory that resurfaced during the pandemic quarantine. My reworking of the original featured all my synth programs, a Hammond B-3 program, both treated and untreated trumpet manipulations and sounds, self generated loops, and voice modulations. I used some snippets of themes from the selected trumpet improvisations to move this composition along. At a point in the tune, the organ and the trumpet engage in sort of a conversation (a dialogue, if you wish!) This was one of the compositions that generated quite a bit of tension towards the ending resolution. I guess those conspiracies became more than insignificant.
The genesis of the tune “SkullFace Trucker” is, of course, an oddball story. The protagonist of the story actually had many names when I was formulating this presentation(i.e. Benny, Frankie, and Charlie) prior to the 2019 recording of RCO’s CD “Intergalactic Love Men”. I finally settled on one of my favorite sounding names. ( I have at different times had a mannequin and a cement donkey both named Monty, so the name worked!). This was the story of a unique looking truck driver who, seeking entertainment during a long haul, misplaces his truck AND his cargo. I am not real sure when I came up with this scenario...perhaps the idea came from some sort of a fevered dream. Anyway, the RCO studio original was a great tune, with the band doing an electro funk style. (I can still see Brent Bowman’s facial expression,😲, when I started up with “Hey Monty?”) .When whittling down my choices for this project, I realized when choosing this text, I certainly could not improve upon the performance of RCO. What I wanted to do was look at the music from a different facet, so I settled on a ragga beat, sort of a faster sub genre of reggae. (At least that was my intent.) I used portions of the text and full compliments of vocals, manipulated loops, programs, and instruments at my disposal to extend my musical thoughts on this one. It was great fun on the original and it was an extended musical recess on this rendition.
“Black Dog and the Blue Devil” from the 2016 River Cow Orchestra CD release, “The Devil Inside the Box” was the inspiration for the title on my project, “Another Bedtime Story”. This initial phrase came from a book I was reading at the time, ( I think it was from the Inspector Rebus series of novels by Ian Rankin). I liked the sound of B-D & B-D word grouping, so I worked it into the recording session. In the re-listening phrase of this selection I noticed the scenario had a strange attitude. So I filtered the sequences, bolstered by the stories I would make up and share with my own children, Nathan and Meredith (when they were young), as I tucked them in at night. Although, I never made up a story like this about ‘goat freaks’ with them, they got their fill of stories with titles like ‘The Dogs of the Forest’, ‘Baby Aliens’, ‘ The Magic Possum’, ‘TheTreasure in the Trash Ditch’, and ‘Cracker Box’. This selection features a melodic piano tune using a program or two that are combined, along with the synth programs I relied on in earlier tunes. When those things were added to the main vocal, the enhanced (and manipulated) vocals, and a muted trumpet, the composition began to take shape. I even found a synth program that did a great job on a theremin sound. This selection became sort of an ironic tune that was, at the same time, cute and a bit creepy. Although my intent was to impart another angle on the human condition, on reflection, “Another Bedtime Story” ended up being a linch pin creation of this project.
What do the following have in common? :
Actor Peter Lorre, actor (“Island of Doomed Men’, 1940)
The Vandals, (a local 1960’s GarageBand.)
A haiku used in performance with RCO, 2019
Miles Davis fusion @ Isle of Wight Concert, 1970
Chicago (the band, 1972
Tito Puente (Latin percussion), 1977
These talented people and sparse writings all contributed to the last composition featured on the release, “Dialogues”, entitled “Corrugated Love”. I basically started with one little theme based on a line from the movie with Peter Lorre, where he states, ‘Keep that monkey away from me’...I loved that rhythmic bounce so, I started constructing this dance tune. Later, after coming up with the title and haiku that introduces the selection, I ‘jumped in’, figuratively speaking, with both feet into this musical mix, devising a Latin-Jazz-Rock Hybrid. I worked in some musical lines that helped move the composition along, with the trumpet and organ voices. This was another of the compositions that generated quite a bit of tension towards the ending resolution. I guess I tried to capture the feelings I experienced playing dances in high school (back in the ‘60’s) and arranging tunes and playing in a cover band at the Conservatory ( back in the ‘70’s). To this add in the euphoria of hearing the fusion of Miles Davis and the brilliance of Tito Puente as a young adult and you see how this tune started to stack up.
I have loved sharing these backstory thoughts with the readers. I also want to extend a special ‘thank you’ to my wife, Sally, who understood my need to disappear down the rabbit hole at times during the creation of this project. Although it was a quarantine dream, the project was also a labor of love.
Thanks for reading and I hope when December 1, 2020 arrives, you secure a download of “Dialogues” through your favorite service.
If you are interested in a hard copy CD of “Dialogues”, please contact me through my website, eepointer.net and we will work on it.
Take care and be safe.
Pax.
E.E.
The Zen Trumpet
“Quarantine Dreams”
Available, June 1, 2021
(iTunes, Amazon,YouTube, GooglePlay, Spotify,Napster, TikTok, etc.)
River Cow Orchestra
“Past is Present and Future is Perfect”
“Putting the River Cow Orchestra in some kind of musical niche would be a daunting task. How do you categorize music that at times sounds like Frank Zappa, Butch Morris, Miles Davis electric, Sun Ra, Heavy Metal BeBop, Steve Reich and performance art all wrapped up neatly in a Zen bundle? You don't. You just sit back, listen and enjoy."
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Review of “Incomplete Fool” by Kevin Rabas
Thanks to Kevin Rabas for his kindness; human and musical🎶 E.E. Pointer: Incomplete Fool Kansas City area trumpeter and composer E.E. Pointer has done it again, offered up a very personal, meditative album, quiet but present, and thoughtful in every way. INCOMPLETE FOOL opens with strong, long, full, trumpet notes. It is spacious, trumpet and nothing else. “Hermanos”, a tune reminiscent of late decade Miles, opens the album. It is a tune that then gets busy with something like electronic log drum, then full drum set: the stick-hit closed hi-hat tick-tick-ticking two against three. It grooves--and in a very contemporary way. And Pointer takes his time, stretches. Here is a musician who embraces space. Unlike with River Cow Orchestra, which Pointer steers, none of these tunes are quite as frenetic and busy. This is not aleatoric music of the moment, but something else: more meditation, prayer. Overall, much o f the album is reflective, inward, and trance-like. Although it grooves, the album also serves as a thought vehicle. You can spin the album disc, turn out the lights, and think. Subdued, like whale song, the album is otherworldly, subterranean--cool and smooth, but not drowsy. It is carefully provocative. One song is aptly titled “The Mythos of Whales”. Folksy and intimately personal, quiet, one of the known tunes on the album is a solo piano version of “Shenandoah” and reminds of the Keith Jarrett version--so full of heart, so slow and mindful. Likely, this is the album’s only tune that is not an original, not on of E.E.’s new tunes. These seem to be songs from a man who does not fear being alone. He embraces silences. He’s ok being quiet. There is never that rush-hour push racing these notes, but instead, the pace of a long, long walk. “Portals” begins with glimmers and electronic splashes, like in a Star Trek song and then goes spoken word, E.E. reflecting on a spacey, Beat Kansas City-city night in an Uber. A little like the movie LULU ON THE BRIDGE or Sun Ra’s SPACE IS THE PLACE, jazz and space travel converge in the music and lyrics. Zappa-like, Pointer merges music and cleverly ribald lyrics, but whereas Zappa seems overly pleased with his clever conceits, Pointer seems to wander into late-night Beat revelation: a diner, city lights, pie. Everything has magic. This is an album of a KC jazz musician who has fully come into his own. He does not rush, not a note, not a phrase, not a song. A prolific composer, I find we are better for his tunes. Diary-like experiments, they land like musical kaons. Dream; think; enjoy. —Kevin Rabas CD Reviews. June/July, 2023, JAM
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Review of “Dialogues” by Kevin Rabas
This is a review of my newest project and release, “Dialogues”. It appears in JAM magazine February edition, 2021. Thank you, Kevin! EE Pointer: Dialogues (2020) There is a unified sound to EE's new album. EE combines the trumpet stylings of Miles's electric years with straight-forward (but experimental) jazz poetry ala Jack Kerouac or Anne Waldman or Beth Lisick. There's the taste of "acid jazz," but only a touch, a dab. If you enjoy spoken word poetry or late Miles Davis fare, this album is for you. And it can be played either for ambiance (because it is fun and smooth to listen to) or as an intellectual voyage, where you focus on the words, parsing to find how they make sense of a fragmented, chaotic, postmodern world that’s at sea. If Thomas Pynchon could play trumpet (and loved poetry), this is maybe what he'd make. And no one disputes Pynchon's genius or appeal. If you know and love RIVER COW ORCHESTRA, this is in that vein, EE being the group's trumpeter and front man. And, like John Lennon, sometimes the leader must break off and do his own thing, explore new and alien worlds. In this case, EE may be on his way to join Sun Ra on Saturn. The album is that "out," and refreshingly so. I was surprised at how much EE's playing reminded me of Miles. Along with the intonation and phrasing, there's that imminent sense that EE is in total control. Every sound beneath him is a hum to support that brassy, electric sound--the bell of the horn tacitly tilted down. EE spoke of how Miles inspired him--and eventually this album: "When I walked in (to a party in college), I was blasted by this sound, and I said, ‘What is that?' And he said, 'That's Miles. His latest record.'...BITCHES BREW...and I'm telling you that really got to me. That really made an impression..." One line from EE's song goes, "As he slid away, I realized the squid was fully clothed." EE explained: "I go into a restaurant and ask for squid, and the waiter is a squid...so that's what that was." EE said, "This one (album) was important to me because it involved more...words than I usually use." Sometimes the words and phrases on this album come at you like a "non-linear story line and scattershot approach," as EE calls it, riffing off a method Beat writer William S. Burroughs adopted (or invented) in his middle and later works. A teacher for years, EE talked about when he started playing seriously again. "I retired in 2009...and I told my son I was starting to practice a lot more...and my son says, 'Are you gonna start playing again...Are you scared?...Get out there and try it.' I never would believe I could still be doing this...One of my teachers told me, 'A man doesn't stop playing his instrument when he gets old. He gets old when he stops playing his instrument.'….I'm 68." Over the years, EE taught 6th through 12th grade. "About 200 kids a day," he said. "It's an interesting time, (that age.)" EE is a long-time staple player in KC. With RIVER COW he can be seen playing more "out" gigs around town, especially at The Writers Place, in between poets at the podium. Or backing them. Without EE, a lot of KC poetry would likely be drier. With EE, there's absolutely no falling asleep. There is a sense with this album that we are in someone else's dream, looking through a microscope into someone else's mind. It's better than a book, better than a movie. It is its own thing. Even without the words, it would be remarkable. And with them, it makes its own sense. It calls out in soundbites, but unlike in pop culture ads, it does not ask you to buy something. It asks you to think, to feel. EE recorded this album all solo, all at home, during this pandemic. Before the outbreak, EE got some lessons on how to record: "Dwayne at 'Weights and Measures' studio is just fantastic, and he pushes us in different directions, and from him I learned a lot...about microphone placement and compression...things you don't learn as a trumpet player….I did them all (the tunes) right here (at home)...I've played north of 600-plus times with RIVER COW...and I tell ya, I miss that. I know how Greg plays...how Brent plays…(but here) I did it all myself. Most of the drum parts, I'm playing on an electronic drum pad. Same thing with bass. I use lots of different apps...midi stuff. (And) I did all the trumpet parts live." EE said he does miss gigging live, though: "I'm used to playing with the RIVER COW ORCHESTRA, but that stopped...in 2019 (because of the pandemic)...And I practice and do what I usually do, but I decided to put out some work...This one (album) dropped December 1 (2020)...I just gotta keep working. I get an urge to write something down, and do it...I've actually started another one (album). I have four or five tunes. I wish I were playing with my bandmates." EE's influences range from Miles to Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart to Keith Jarrett, and the album reveals that kind of variety, that kind of kindly riprap (small assorted stones layed down on the hiking trail to keep one from slipping). "I don't have to play of the things my colleagues play," EE said. "I have a decent retirement….I'm lucky enough to sit in my studio...and have the wherewithal to put it down….I have a good time with it, and I'd love for some people to listen to it...I read from one gentleman: 'Truth is perception,' and I thought. You idiot, 'Truth is gravity.' It's not something you perceive...You don't go off a cliff and float...When I'm playing with the COWS…(someone might say), 'That stuff, I can't dance to it'...(But) do you write your poetry for yourself or for everybody else? … If you do something the right way, it should be sweet enough for you...If someone else likes it, that's icing on the cake." The album can be found at EE's website: www.eepointer.net --Kevin Rabas
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