Fun 2 Know Podcast

On today's show, Sun Ra Arkestra guitarist DM Hotep. Philadelphia-born DM Hotep has been a part of the Sun Ra Arkestra for over 25 years. The musical group was originally formed in the 1950s by the keyboardist known as Sun Ra. Ra's all-encompassing imagination claimed his origins were from the planet Saturn, and with light shows, flamboyant costumes and group chants and a musical palette elaborately versed in both the earthly and celestial, the Arkestra were forerunners of the concept of “Afrofuturism,” contributing to the African diaspora's interaction with culture, technology, astronomy and sci-fi themes. “Space is the Place” was one of Sun Ra's main credos, with interstellar exploration and space reoccurring as a regular motif. Sun Ra's band the Arkestra has continued on since his passing in 1993, today led by the 101 year old longtime Arkestra saxophonist Marshall Allen. We talk to DM about his fascination with the guitar, how he got pulled into the reestablished Arkestra's orbit and how he found hi

On today's show, the pianist and composer, Digba Ogunbiyi. Digba is originally from Lagos, Nigeria and came to the states to pursue his dream of a career playing jazz piano. His diligence has earned him a doctorate in musical studies and a position at Syracuse University as an instructor of jazz piano. Digba currently resides in Philadelphia, where a chance meeting at a neighborhood cafe led to our discussion  presented here.  Digba's story makes for an unusually moving episode of Fun 2 Know, telling of how his love for piano led him to jazz music, a genre that does not have much of a following in his native Nigeria. This led to his journey to the U.S., where his talent was recognized and nurtured.  Talking to Digba and listening to his music reinforces the suspicion that him and his talent are on the cusp of big things.    Stick around for the end to hear info on Digba's upcoming gigs, including one at Philly's Chris' Jazz Cafe in July.

On today's show, the saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis joins us for a spirited conversation. James Brandon Lewis has become a prominent figure in the world of modern creative music, showing himself to be prolific both as a band leader and as a player on a number of others' projects, building a thrilling body of work, and personally, some of the most-played in my collection over the past five years. His album 2021 release JESUP WAGON with the Red Lily Quintet, a tribute to George Washington Carver seemed to heighten interest in Lewis, winning the Downbeat album poll and his 2023 release FOR MAHALIA, WITH LOVE would win the Best Album from the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. He has also recorded with his own trios and in collaboration with the D.C. rock group The Messthetics, all showing a different side of his musical personality and talent. In early June I met with James at 8:30 am, the morning after his sold out gig at Solar Myth in Philadelphia. The conversation came easy, we talked about his

On today's show, it's the Baltimore-based pianist, composer, and bandleader Lafayette Gilchrist. Lafayette is an extravagantly-gifted instrumentalist and composer, the type of pianist often described as a “two-handed player” for the strong rhythms of his left hand and his nimble melodicism of his right. His deep understanding of the music's history find him schooled in piano styles that go back at least a century, as well as having a modern spirit that places him in conversation with the piano's contemporary improvising explorers. Born in D.C., Lafayette could be seen as an example of great tradition of the area's musical talent, players that had to be versed in the ideas and the styles of the North while containing the soulful feel of Southern sounds. Since his debut THE ART IS LIFE from 1993, Lafayette has produced over a dozen releases, playing solo, in duos, in trios and with often his septet, The New Volcanoes. He has also toured and recorded with saxophone legend David Murray and his music is heard

Here's the part where I give a brief introduction to this episode's guest, something particularly difficult with a guest as extravagantly talented as Steven Erdman. He might be best described as a one-man production company, having skills as a graphic artists with hand-illustrating skills, a songwriter and producer, an animator and filmmaker, and set designer and creator and over the last thirty odd years has worked on projects at Nickelodeon and MTV, contributed artwork to numerous publications and gave birth to the weirdo rock sounds of Lard Dog & The Band of Shy, known for their surreal theatrical performances. Erdman has rubbed shoulders and collaborated with a cavalcade of well-known talents, over the course of the episode we'll hear anecdote about everyone from James Brown, Van Morrison, Natasha Lyonne, Clarence Reid aka Blowfly, The Sun Ra Arkestra's Marshall Allen, one-time bandmate Norah Jones, and more. It all makes for a decidedly epic and entertaining conversation, as Erd discusses his many set

On today's show saxophonist, flautist, composer, poet, Elliott Levin. Levin is a Philadelphia-born talent, who has traveled far and wide in his career, establishing himself as an iron man of music, ubiquitous across the city of Philadelphia since the 1970s, playing countless gigs across numerous styles.  Soon after picking up the saxophone, Elliott fell under the spell galvanizing jazz pianist Cecil Taylor while Taylor taught at New Jersey's Glassboro State College. Levin first found acclaim touring around the world with Philly International giants Harold Melvin & The Blues Notes for over a decade and his career in jazz and improvised music has seen him performing and recording with The Sun Ra Arkestra's Tyrone Hill & Marshall Allen, Mother of Invention keyboardist Don Preston, Sonic Liberation Front, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, The West Philadelphia Orchestra and Odean Pope's Saxophone Choir and his poetry has been published in The L.A. Weekly.  I'd been wanting to get Elliott in front of a microphone for somet

On today's show, it's the second appearance of writer Mike DeCapite (previously on F2N Ep. 20), whose latest novel, JACKET WEATHER was published in late 2021 by Soft Skull Press, home to works from everyone from Dennis Cooper to Noam Chomsky. DeCapite is originally from Cleveland and the son of novelist Raymond DeCapite, a novelist whose well-reviewed work was first published in 1960. Mike DeCapite moved from Clevleand to Brooklyn in 1987 and moved in the circle around fellow Clevelanders Pere Ubu, the seminal art punk group. DeCapite's poetic fiction would be appear in various publications over the years and his naturalistic slices of life have always revealed a deep connection to music and has made fans of an impressive range artists of various backgrounds; JACKET WEATHER includes blurbs from filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, Sonic Youth bassist Lee Ranaldo and writer Lucy Sante. DeCapite's 1998 novel THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD drew raves for Mike's story of kicking around with small time gamblers in the city of Cl

It is the interview I conducted with director Sean Baker that planted the seed for today's episode, which is the long-delayed fiftieth episode of Fun 2 Know. It was three years ago that Rob Burson was in pre-production for his debut film HELL OF A HEARTACHE when he stumbled across the Fun 2 Know interview with Sean Baker, whose films PRINCE OF BROADWAY and THE FLORIDA PROJECT were inspirational as examples of vivid, compelling character studies made on a strict budget. Rob “friended” me on Facebook after hearing the interview and we would occasionally discuss film on-line while I was vaguely aware he was shooting a modestly-budgeted feature with a small crew near his home in Arizona. Then almost a year ago, just before X-mas, Rob asked me if I'd like to take a look at his feature, humbly asking me to keep my expectations low. Knowing the difficulties of such a limited budget I was prepared to look at the film with a forgiving eye but instead was a bit dumbstruck at the captivating, sure-footing telling of

On today's show: Austin, Texas musician and thereminist, Aileen Adler. I first met Aileen back in the late '80s during the halcyon days of Tower Records, when we both worked at store #173 on South Street in Philadelphia. I moved to Alaska and then San Francisco in the early '90s, around the same time when Aileen moved to another artist's hub, Austin, Texas. We lost touch with each other for a couple decades after that, finally meeting up again in the Facebook era. From there it was that sort of half-awareness you got from social media, I'd see pictures of Aileen looking striking in theatrical clothing, entertaining at events, but what it was she was actually doing was somehow lost on me. Reading that she was back in Philly for a visit, I thought it would be a perfect time to crack the mystery of Aileen Adler. Aileen was always a dynamic character, and I wasn't disappointed. We discuss her early years arriving in the Philly, her move to Austin, singing and adopting the electronic instrument the theremin

Our guest today, guitarist Nick Millevoi. To quote his bio, “Nick Millevoi is a guitarist and composer whose music searches for the sonic cracks between jazz, rock and roll, noise, and modern composition.” Nick has performed with Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Nels Cline, Marc Ribot, and Jamaaladeen Tacuma, the duo Archer Spade with trombonist Dan Blacksberg as well as making five full-length albums with the trio Many Arms. Since 2016, Nick's main vehicle is The Desertion Trio, featuring Johnny deBlase on bass and Kevin Shea on drums. Their first two records also featured Jamie Saft on organ and their third, the just-released TWILIGHT TIME on the Long Song label features guest stars Ron Stabinsky on organ and Sun Ra Arkestra vocalist Tara Middleton. It's a collection of radically reworked tunes from the oldies era and has already won notice from Rolling Stone magazine, who listed the new record's title cut as a “Song You Need to Know” in their May issue. Nick has drawn a lot of press over the years,

Today, bassist extraordinaire, Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Jamaaladeen was our guest back in Episode 11 of the podcast, where we talked about growing up in Philly, his discovering the bass in his teen years, his joining Ornette Coleman's electric Prime Time band while still a young man, as well as his world travels and his love of fashion. A few months back I had him back as a guest on my show on WPRB-Princeton, at the time promoting his annual Outsiders Festival, where he's brought a number of improvised music line-ups for some incredible shows in Philadelphia. The 2018 edition brought back Ornette's Prime Time Band, now led by Coleman's son Denardo. I've edited the promotional conversation, but that still left much of interest. We discuss Jamaaladeen's recent TONIGHT SHOW appearance, his friendship with the band The Roots, the return of Prime Time, winning the Benny Golson award, working with the kid's rock sensations The Wiggles, Jamaaladeen's Red Carpet Room boutique, having kids, saxophonist Keir Neuringer an

On today's show: music historian Elijah Wald. I was just hanging out in my South Philly neighborhood when I happened to get introduced to Elijah, a music historian who has written over a dozen books, mainly on the subject of roots music but also on subjects as diverse as hitchhiking, the cultural phenomenon known as “the Dozens” and the genetics industry. Elijah won a Grammy for his liner notes in 2002, had the book he co-authored with Dave Van Ronk adapted for the Coen Bros. 2013 film, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS as well as making the scene as a guitarist rooted in the folk blues tradition. It's just one of Elijah's books that we focused on in this episode, the 2009 publication, “How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music” from the Oxford University Press. The Beatles don't actually appear until near the book's climax, the book's main focus is as a corrective to past musical tomes that distort 20th century history by focusing on the canon of artistically “important ar

Early on in the show's history I had Monnette on the short list of Philly-area musicians with which I wanted to interview. I'd long been a fan of the records she recorded in the mid-1970s for the prestigious Steeplechase label, a Danish label who continues today to make important records for artists who have gone slept-upon back here in the states, artists including Archie Shepp, Chet Baker, Jackie McLean, Dexter Gordon, Anthony Braxton, Andrew Hill and more. Monnette was spotted at the Newport Jazz Festival playing in Sam Rivers band by staff at the label who would go on to produce a trio of Monnette records starting in 1976 with TIME FOR A CHANGE then LIVE IN EUROPE and BRIGHTER DAYS FOR YOU. Ms. Sudler has continued to record regularly, playing over the years with the late drum great Sunny Murray, Kenny Barron, Dave Holland, and many more and has a plethora of awards she has collected across her active career. Monnette talks about her beginnings in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, her coll

F2K Episode 44: The enduring musician, Kenn Kweder It's the show's proud third appearance from our most popular guest, musician Kenn Kweder. Kweder (who appeared previously in Ep. Six, Ep. Seven, and Ep. 30 of the FUN 2 KNOW podcast) has been a beloved fixture of the Philadelphia music scene since rising up from the Philly streets in the mid-seventies with his band, The Secret Kidds. In his first interview here we talked about his near-brush with national attention and its comedown but Kenn's real triumph is his unwavering dedication to live performance, playing a hundred-plus gigs every year for decades and being one of the free-est souls you'll ever meet. On this latest show we talk about Ken's influences and legends like Capt. Beefheart, The Stones and Bob Dylan whose performances he has witnessed over the decades. We also talk about what still drives him at sixty-five, hear near-unbelievable stories from a lifetime spent singing in bars, pay tribute to the drug Propofol, discuss the era of Trump,

Kenn Kweder talks about his 1975 gig with Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye at Glassboro State College in New Jersey. From the soon forthcoming episode 44 of The Fun 2 Know podcast...

On today's show, with trumpeter and composer Jaimie Branch. I'd seen Jaimie's name in the credits of releases by bassist Jason Ajemian, in the large band of Keefe Jackson, with cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and saxophonist Jarrett Gilmore but she didn't really capture my attention until her stunning debut with her band Fly or Die arrived on the International Anthem label in early 2017. This rock-solid quartet featuring former Fun 2 Know guest Tomeka Reid on cello, newly-minted Philadelphian Chad Taylor on drums and Jason Ajemian on bass provide a spacious landscape for the propulsive trumpet and compositions of Ms Branch, over a beautifully-paced record that pulls you through it like a great record should. Branch has collected plenty of accolades for the record, including winning Top Debut in the NPR 2017 Jazz Poll (she topped my ballot as well) Jaimie was listed in the June 2017 Rolling Stone as “10 New Artists You Need to Know” and the Village Voice called Branch “fearless” and described her album as “eerily

On today's show, Matt Prigge. Matt has written about film since the late 1990s, originally at The Philadelphia Weekly, then for four years as the film editor at The Metro, the free commuter paper that has editions in New York City, Boston and Philadelphia. Matt is a particularly engaging writer with an unusually firm grasp on a wide range of cinema, finding what is worth celebrating in everything from low-grade action films to finessing the metaphors in the work of Lars Von Trier. We get rolling on a tangent-rich conversation but also chart and mourn the decline of independent weekly newspapers, that served the variety of cultural function for city dwellers until the new millennium when many of their services could be transferred easily to the internet. Across the country those papers have withered and died since the internet's rise and lost is the paper's role as a magnet that brought journalists and artists under one roof to share ideas and energy. Along the way we also discuss growing up in Mechanicsbu

On today's show, Heather Henderson and Emery Emery, who together host both the award-winning Ardent Atheist podcast as well as the podcast, Skeptically Yours. I've known Heather since back in the early 2000s, when she was part of the Philly-based burlesque troupe The Peek-a-Boo Revue, who specialized comedy and satire along with classic strip routines. Heather was a memorable performer with the troop, but I knew that her experiences as a performer went back to the 90s, with a stint as a dancer on the very popular locally-produced shows Dancing on Air and Dance Party U.S.A., which like their Philly-launched forerunner American Bandstand featured teens dancing in a studio set to the latest pop and dance hits. Heather also acted, appearing in Mannequin 2 and Annapolis as well as singing with the r&b group Soulamite. In 2010, Heather relocated to Los Angeles where she continued as a burlesque performer and also met her partner comedian Emery Emery, who toured extensively as a stand-up and has worked as an edit

On today's show, our guests are Michelle MF Ausman and Kimberly Vice of the musical duo Hestina. Named after a genus of butterflies, the duo's 2016 nine-song release, BLOSSOM TALK is a tour-de-force of harmony vocals, literate lyrics and rhythmically-propelled melodies that haunt long after they hit their climax. With the easy accessibility of modern music, favorite songs can come and go fast but Hestina's music lingered with me and got replayed regularly over the last year and a half. Visiting their website at hestinamusic dot com a few weeks back I had discovered that the duo have moved recently from New Orleans and relocated in the Fun 2 Know Podcast's hometown of Philadelphia Pennsylvania. A few Facebook messages later, like magic we were talking in our kitchen and even knocking out a few beautiful tunes live. What an ingratiating pair, we talked about about New Orleans vs. Philly, early mix-CD revelations, religion, singing harmony, pleasing your parents, bars that never close, Jeff Buckley the moder

On today's show: Film director Sean Baker and film critic Piers Marchant. First, a very recent conversation I had with filmmaker Sean Baker. I was so taken with Sean Baker's 2015 film TANGERINE, famously and beautifully shot from an Apple iPhone, that I started tracking down his earlier work, four fascinating films, including two brilliantly-executed micro-budget indies, 2004's TAKE OUT set in the world of NYC Chinese food delivery, and 2008's PRINCE OF BROADWAY, about an African immigrant selling knock-off designer bags who is unexpectedly left alone with a baby that might be his son. Baker's 2012 film STARLET centered around a friendship between an elderly widow and a sweet up-and-coming adult film star, played by Muriel Hemingway's daughter, Dree. But it was the 2015 film TANGERINE that was Baker's breakthrough, hitting the zeitgeist right as transgender issues were making big news and following two streetwalkers on a wild and unapologetic 24-hour tour through the Hollywood strip, and featuring incredib