Paulo Diaz & Quim Cardona : Bitchin’ and brewing

When I got in touch with Balthazar, world-reknown artist and psychedelic surrealism icon Mati Klarwein‘s son, he mentioned how he had been a hardcore skater since he was a kid in Mallorca, and how that’s why the art his dad did for Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew LP ended up as a collab with Western Edition -the amazing little story is all explained in this article.
But you know how people like us (nerds?) go: we need to get to the bottom of things. It’s a disease, almost. So when Balthazar mentioned Paulo Diaz’ and Quim Cardona’s random and impromptu visit to his dad, I couldn’t help but reach out to Quim and have him explain how it all went down, and where his passion for Mati Klarwein’s art came from. Cazart! 

When did you start to get interested in Mati Klarwein’s artwork?
Quim Cardona : We grew up with a close friend whose dad was a well-known Jazz promotor, Teddy Powell. We listened to The Last Poets, Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, P-Funk, and many others.  Mati created  cover art for many of those artists… Before recognizing who the artist was, we knew his art.

Also, there was this skateboard company that Teddy skated for, it was started by Chris Pastras from New Jersey. In the early ’90s, I remember they printed a Bitches Brew board in Everslick. I bet that’s something a lot people forgot about.

Mati Klarwein in his NYC studio. © Bettina Rheims

Did anybody in particular introduce you to Mati’s work?
I met Paulo Diaz when I first turned pro in 96 In San Francisco skate contest for the first time. A couple years later met again while we shot the commercials for Adidas in 98′. Later we travelled together to places like France, Finland, Prague, and throughout Europe… On this tour, Paulo was studying an art magazine called Juxtapoz and there was this article about Mati in there, titled “The Most Famous Unknown Artist Alive”.

Balthazar Klarwein © Nicholas Middleton

We had instruments with us, staying at hostels, touring through Europe. The article totally reintroduced us to Mati’s art and now we realized who his name was. The craziest thing was that his phone number was at the end of the interview! So Paulo picked up the pay phone and called. Low and behold who answered? The man himself.

The funniest thing was that Paulo introduced himself and I as two pro skaters. Mati said, “If you guys are pros, then my two sons should know who you are.” Both Salvador and Balthazar knew who we were… The next day or so we called and he invited us to visit Mallorca. He gave us directions and we hopped on a cruise boat from Place de Colom in Barcelona. We bunked with a musician from Argentina who played the guitar.

When we got there we caught a taxi to the part of the island where they lived. One thing Mati told us to look out for was the orange gate at the driveway. The sun was hot, and the land had a dry, arid climate in August, filled with these beautiful old olive Trees. We walked up a windy dirt road and the house of Mati appeared. It was a very beautiful place. There wasn’t much to skate but a slab of cement from the foundation of a room.

Paulo Diaz, rare guitar-less appearance. Courtesy Balthazar Klarwein

Enjoying the company of Mati’s children, we talked and admired the view of the landscape and ocean with no other neighbors or cars in site.  Later that day, he cooked for a whole party of people. Invited a circle of friends, artists, musicians from the neighborhood. Music played all night, everyone ate, danced, there was wine. Paulo serenaded everybody with one of his song on the guitar. Mati was dressed in a long white robe, and he played the African drums to the music and we danced. The night we stayed over, he put us up in the studio where he worked. Waking up to a Mati painting in your face was surreal!

In the two days we spent we didn’t have the experience to get to know the man that well, other than he was really sweet and kind to welcome Paulo and I as guests in his home. We spoke shortly in the morning before we took off to Barcelona to continue our journey. Mati Klarwein and family are really good people and I’m glad to have crossed paths.

Quim Cardona and a very stoked Balthazar Klarwein (far right). Courtesy Quim Cardona

Bonus round : The Ian Johnson interview

Putting jazz artists on skateboards is nothing new to Ian Johnson, Western Edition’s art director -it’s even become somewhat of a trademark. Thing is with the Mati collab: this time, it was fully official. 

Did you know/worship Klarwein’s artwork besides Bitches Brew‘s cover?
Ian Johnson: I was aware of his work on that album and other albums but i did not know his name or how prolific he was.  I didn’t worship it, I thought it was cool but wasn’t really into pyschedelic art when I was younger. But getting to do this project and learning more about him has led me to be more fond and appreciative of his work, which is hopefully what happens to other people.

What are some of his pieces that you like most?
I think the Crucifixion is pretty amazing.  I also like the Yusef Lateef and Eric Dolphy Iron Man ones to quite a bit but thats probably because I’m big fans of theirs as well.  He has a pretty amazing body of work, so many rad pieces.

Concept-wise, how did you decide to go this way with bitches brew’s artwork?
Well, it seemed to be the most obvious interpretation on decks for me really given that that is how it was laid out on the cover.  it would have been a bit much to do an 8 deck series, but this was you can make it like that if you choose by getting 2 sets or just get one and flip it around as you choose.

Did his son Balthazar submit a bunch of pieces you picked up from?
Yes he had a few, this one just made the most sense for us.  It’s also a bit of tip of the cap to an old Blue skateboard deck that was out around the time I moved to SF so its a bit nostalgic in that way also. The others were cool to though, and I would love to do a one off in the future…

As a jazz fan, is this collab more special than others?
It is more special for sure plus it’s a big series and done in a style that i don’t remember ever seeing before, the double sided series. I’m not a huge fan of the album, truth be told, but it is obviously a seminal and important record in Miles Davis’ evolution and transition into fusion.  It’s always great to be connected to one the greats in anyway, both Mati and Miles.

Can you give me a few examples of jazz artists or their estate being pissed off at WE for using their image on skateboards?
I never got any pissed ones really, we are so small compared to a majority of skate companies that most of the time I don’t think many people in jazz really see them.  I think I remember hearing Don Cherry’s daughter saw one, I don’t think she was pissed.

The only other time was Jimmy Cobbs people were kind of bummed at first about not being compensated for the Miles series we did a while back but we apologized and explained that we aren’t doing to steal or get rich and gave him a set and a percentage. Then they were happy and wanted to do something in the future.

Going nowhere heavily

Sorry was busy with these prints on the other side of the blogosphere…

Also, in a rare, menage a trois-type of promotional move, I wanted to inform those who care that I just started a rare reggae reissue (vinyl only!) label, making sure I picked the most obscure, unsellable 12″ ever to make sure I’d bomb commercially. Brilliant !

Anyway. The label is called Reel-Heavy Music, the 12″ in question is coming out in a couple weeks,  and its life and tribulations are documented over here…

Interlude⎢Geoffrey and the Pacemakers

When legends collide! Thanks Arto for the raddest portrait I’ve seen in a long time… Photo © Artofoto

Sometimes, being a freelancer takes you to unusual places, where you end up talking about football (I’ll never call it “soccer,” suckers!) with a pro skater for an hour or so.
Such was the case with Geoff Rowley regarding his multiple winks to footballistic culture -the most famous being of course his use of Gerry And The Pacemakers’ You’ll Never Walk Alone in his Really Sorry part, which doubles as Liverpool Football Club’s anthem, duh.
How did that one tune come into the picture? Geoff explains.

**********

“If you’re from Liverpool, especially where I grew up -2 miles from the Anfield Road stadium-, everyone is singing that when you’re a kid.
The generation that came before me, they adopted it as the song for the city because of what it meant: the passion for the city. You’ll Never Walk Alone reflected the passion for the Liverpool FC, too.

It was just the right time for it, for me and for to use it. It fit well. The band is from the city also, it’s Gerry and the Pacemakers, my dad’s brother played with musicians and various bands from that kind of era, the Beatles and all this movement of the Merseybeat bands came from all that scene.

It was a pretty fucking rad message and it came from a really small town. That meant a lot. So, that’s why. Every song has to mean something to me or it means nothing to me, I can’t just go, “Oh, that song is so fucking cool.” I put a lot of passion into my skating cause I love it, it’s personal like that for me. I don’t want it to be the same shit.

When it came out, I gave the video to a lot of people in my family. My dad’s brother, like I said, who was in a lot of these Merseybeat bands from the 60s, he got a kick out of it. They all did. And my grandmother before she passed away, she got a real kick out of it. Imagine that old lady watching that skate video, saying, “This is a song from my youth, at least that means something to me. Good job, Geoffrey,” you know? That was cool.

And a lot of my friends from the City kinda appreciated that I fucking didn’t forget where I came from, you know what I mean, that I wasn’t trying to be something else, and that I put something in there that fucking… meant something.”

The skateboard version…

… The solo version… 

… And the version with a 40,000 people choir:

Sample size

True procastrination is easy to discern: it’s when you suddenly decide that your freezer needs to be defrosted this minute, right now. But what does procastrination sound like? Ahem, like that.
All of a sudden at some point today, for no other reason than realizing I needed to jeopardize that sorta-blossoming career of mine, it became crucial for me to search for the samples tunes used on some of the most notorious hip hop tunes from skate flicks.
Now, that was some time cleverly spent!
The only consolation being, now I have something to share. Oh well…
Feel free to guess all the video parts in question in the comments, and win nothing but a little procastrinative relief on your own. Ah, the guilt. Delicious.

Teach Me Culture : the John Cardiel (strictly reggae) interview

You know what’s really time consuming? Making a documentary for TV. I’d suggest you don’t get into it if you have more important things to do in life, such as updating a blog. Anyhoo, four months later, I’m back. I think. To get back into the groove, here’s this interview I did with John Cardiel regarding our mutual, often frown upon in skateboard circles, love for reggae music.  It came out in TSM a few issues ago, but I figured I’d archive it here. So… enjoy! Or not. Photos are mainly from a little stroll in Paris we went onto with John when he was invited to that Public Domaine art show last summer. 

The road to Patate Records. © Seb Carayol

Life and its tribulations did it: they just turned John Cardiel into Juan Love, a reknown reggae riddim sommelier. Having fed each other with rare Jamaican music over the last few years, it felt just natural that some day, we’d have to sit down and talk strictly about a music that, you might be surprised to find out, doesn’t have anything to do with hippie-ness. Or maybe it does: just dare and call Sizzla, Barrington Levy or Scientist “tree-huggers” next time you bump into them. Results may vary.

******

When did you start collecting reggae?
I really started playing music probably when I got hurt. Before that, I used to collect reggae CDs and make mixtapes before trips. At the time, it was more ska music just cause it was such an upbeat tempo, Prince Buster type of stuff. Then somebody told me about Sizzla when he just started to come out with his Praise Ye Jah and Black Woman and Child albums, in maybe 1996. It was more of a conscious sound, conscious lyrics.

Who got you into Sizzla?
We were in Boston skating the Cambridge Pool, and we ended up skating the vert ramp at ZT Maximus’, accross the street, cause it started raining. It was me, Julien and Joey Tershay, and this guy from the park, I really wish I remembered his name, just blasted Praise Ye Jah. It blew my mind. I wrote down the name, did some research and from then on, I started following the new roots music, Xterminator label, Luciano and that whole scene.

A few personal favorites, en passant. -Seb

Did Julien and Joey feel this music the same way?
No, they weren’t even tripping. It was a connection between me and this guy from ZT and we’re just vibing. He was a DJ at the time. It just seemed like he told me about it at the perfect time. To me, reggae had hit a weird stage through the early 90s, it was poppy, so I kinda lost touch with it, it wasn’t holding me. I was listening to harder music until then.

When did you discover the importance of the 7-inch?
After I got hurt in Australia, I was sitting down and healing and I had a couple 7-inches, so I bought turntables on Ebay for cheap, and I got a mixer, and I thought that if I had to sit down, cause I was in a wheelchair for about three to four months, I needed something to do. So I started to buy the big tunes that I liked in 45s.

Did this music help you heal a little?
Yeah, just the vibes, the energy, that music is coming from a real place of real desperation, so it seems when you listen to it and you’re hurt, it almost gives you strength to push on, with a strong respect to more powerful beings than you.

What was the first 7-inch you bought?
Oh, man. It makes me happy to just think about it. The first record I must have bought was Fade Away. By… what’s his name again?

Junior Byles?
Yes! Yes. And then I got the Glen Washington vocal on the same riddim [instrumental -Seb's note], Jah Glory. It built up from there. I got really excited about the records. Actually touching the music, it was wonderful, man. It came to life. Reading the labels, Joe Frasier, whatever, I’m starting to understand the music more and soak it up. It gave me a broader understanding of what the people were doing and why their heart is in it so much, cause there’s so much more to it than just the words and the beat. It’s just the real way to listen to reggae music.

Junior Byles. © Small Axe magazine, 1986

Did your taste in reggae evolve?
Yeah, definitely. At some point a few years ago, the latest artists that were coming out were starting to ride a little bit more digital bass lines and it was getting very out there, more hip hop. So I started going backwards in a sense, to the earlier music, to Barrington Levy and the 1983-85 era of reggae music.
Maybe even earlier, Scientist dubs, all the Greensleeves records, that opened up a new chapter for me. And doing that, finding the original tunes and matching them to their Scientist instrumental dub counterpart, that began to be a whole new adventure.

You’ve been mentioning Scientist quite a bit, lately.
When the box of reggae music opens up for you, it seems like the most powerful figures keep popping up. [Sound ingeneer/dub master ] Scientist is one of them. You start to see his name on the back cover of the big tunes he mixed. You start to think he had something to do with the energy that’s coming through it. He’s almost as a conductor, he orchestrates the vibes.

Non-photoshopped background! The actual, elusive Scientist under that weird bridge in Echo Park. Los Angeles, 2011 © Seb Carayol

Do you still buy a lot of records today?
My record buying is very scarce nowadays. I’ll probably buy maybe 10 to 15 records a month now. Just whatever I’m really wanting to keep for a long time. I’m getting more mature in my selection.

How did DJing come into the picture?
Once my collection became substantial, I looked at all these boxes of 45s and I felt like I was caging them up. I needed  to let this music out. That was my direction to DJ music. Nowadays I’m part of a crew called Capital City Rockers, with my friends DJ SF, DJ KDK and Ras Matthew, Matt Pailes.

What are some recent finds you got?
Juts found Too Poor by Barrington Levy on Greensleeves for fairly cheap. You turned me on to these Greensleeves 12-inches. Oh, I’m looking for that album, Purpleman Saves Papa Tullo In the Dancehall. The big tune on it is called King On The Way… And on and on. Reggae is crazy, man. You’re finding new gems constantly.

The tenth life of Paco

Did you choose the music in your video parts?
“Not in the Powell videos, but in the 101 videos I did. The Powell video was Chuck Treece. For the 101 videos, I used Black Sabbath and the Beetles. I’ve always loved Sabbath. And then your musical tastes start expanding. From hanging out with Paulo, we listened to a lot of soul, a lot of funk, a lot of old-school stuff. If you notice the Chocolate videos, it’s got this old soul. My song in La Nueve Vidas de Paco is called Cramp Your Style by All The People. It’s pretty rare. One of Paulo’s friends had this amazing record collection and he’d make us mixtapes. His name is Justin Palomini. I’d drive around, and we’d listen to them all the time”.

**********

Just a little exerpt from the interview I did a few months ago with Gabriel Rodriguez in his Mid-City LA house for Skateboarder, which was put online last week.
Gabriel was amazing and opened up on a lot of funny, and a few touchy, subjects pertaining to, you know, the rocky path the afterlife of a pro skater career can sometimes become.
Other thant that… six months? Damn time flies.  After preparing, getting insomnia, and going through that skate art show thing in Paris, I needed a little break from the whole skateboard thing, ha ! I should be back soon. Maybe.

Interlude ⎢ Loose trucks and bastard grooves

Tommy Guerrero © former “la Lettre” mastermind Benjamin Deberdt

Every now and then I get hit by a question from a reader, and alas more often than not I totally forget to do my research and reply to it. Which is a shame as most of the time, it’s a question I’ve wondered about for a minute too…

So, yes dudes and dudettes, and once for all, one of the few tunes from Stereo’s A Visual Sound (1994) that didn’t come out of the Ululation album –reissue coming out in 2011, Wax Poetics records promised !– was that hard-hitting “Hey, ha hey” tune on Matt Rodriguez’ part  and was indeed Tommy Guerrero‘s. Unless you collect all the 10″ records coming out of Galaxia records, its title remained mysterious to most.

It’s actually called Slow Ride Soul, and came out in again 2002 along three other great tracks on the Backintheday (one word) slab of vinyl  -it originally was out a first time in 1995 on the New Breed label. Now go buy it, loosen your trucks and go wear some baggy baggies !

If you ever need to get in the mood first, check this nice piece of Tommy playing at the Arkitip gallery in LA…

Re: Music ⎥ Another brick in the musical wall with Brian Anderson

(Photo courtesy of 6×7 photography master, Sam Smyth)

What were you doing three months ago? It’s so far back that memories are a bit hazy for me but now, wait, I remember: I was busy writing the last post before this one on the blog! I’m really running out of semi-funny intros to apologize about not having time to “generate content” (it’s the XXIst century way to say “write for free”) so I think I won’t bother anymore.
Anyhoo, some kind of spasmodic action is back on A Visual Sound with one of my all-time fave skaters, the Street Pirate sometimes referred to as Brian Anderson. Having always marvelled  at the impeccable musical selection on his video parts that priviledged good music and sometimes just friendship (very noble, the Muska thing), it was just natural to ask BA his own audio perspective.

Pink Floyd: Brick in the Wall Part II
As used in: Welcome to Hell (Toy Machine, 1996)
“It was my first video part. All new to me, and J. Thomas was editing and said he thought that Pink Floyd song was perfect. I was never a huge Floyd fan, but that song worked great.

I was totally OK with Pink Floyd though, but I was suprised cause I feel songs like that are so valuable. I guess I was sort of flattered that Jamie would think I was worthy of such a “classic.” What a great video. Except I never ever watch slam section anymore. In any video. I really can’t remember if I had any other songs I really wanted myself.

I watched my part with Floyd with Elissa and Maldonado. We slept at Tum Yeto for a while with Jamie. Playing pool editing, eating vegan sandwiches. Jamie worked so hard!”

Gabor Szabo : Bacchanal
As used in: Life of Leisure (Sheep shoes, 1997)
“Mike Manzoori and I sat in a small garage in Santa Rosa smoking a lot of weed. It was a rainy groovy time period in life. The Gabor Szabo track was so fitting. That was a great time in my life. Broke, stoked, and just about to go pro.”

DJ Chad Muska: Master B
As used in: Modus Operandi (Transworld, 2000)
“Now Transworld, I think it was too expensive to get this Young Bloodz tune, with a “Z”, it’s an artist that Mike Carroll turned me on to. The song was called 85 (Billie Dee interlude) and it’s funny, cause Young Bloods with an “S” at the end is some dumb college white boy bullshit.
Anyway, couldn’t get  it and Chad had been making a lot of beats and songs. I just kinda let him do his thing, I’m sure it was fun for Ty Evans to edit to Chad’s wild song. Once again, good memories, touring with Carroll, M.J. For first time.”

Interpol: Obstacle 1
As used in : Yeah, Right! (Girl, 2003)
“Interpol was just growing in the music world and I found out about them juuuust before they go too big. Ty liked the song and I think it worked really well. That whole album is excellent. And I was honored to be in the Girl video.”

Capitol Years: Train Race
As used in : Thrasher SOTY video (2003)
“OK, so the Thrasher video I haven’t seen in a while but I knew The Capitol Years ’cause they were friends of ours from back East and they would crash at our house in S.F. when on tour.
So they were stoked to have their music in a skate video. There was another tune on the part [Paik: Low Batter Transmission] but I’m terribly sorry I don’t remember it at all -Thrasher has a music sheet to pick from off a label they are “allowed” to use.”

Totally gratuitous Andrew Allen top 10 tunes

‘ see, I told you it wasn’t dead yet. I really need to find a book about the greatest excuses for not updating a blog. How about: “I was really tired to see the Oompah-Loompahs below every day?” Thats would work.
Anyway, out of the blue, here are ten tunes that Andrew Allen is listening to at the moment. I’m not gonna lie and say I’d like to turn this into a regular feature, because if I definitely would love to, I’m pretty sure I won’t and A Visual Sound is gonna slide again into a semi-coma. So, please, enjoy this post for what it is and while it lasts. And see you in … six months?

1. Fear : Living In the City
2. The Velvet Underground : Pale Blue Eyes
3. Roxy Music : If There Is Something
4. Lil Wayne and Birdman : Leather So Soft
5. T.I. : What You Know
6. Elvis Presley : Burning Love
7. The Replacements : Androgynous
8. Lil Wayne : I’m Me
9. Merle Haggard : Okie From Muskogee
10. Devo : Gates of Steel

[On a side note, my maison-garçon Valery posted the same list on their mag's website, but in a manner that you can actually listen to the tunes. That's some 22nd Century process that I, unfortunately, don't think I have the necessary tech level to reproduce. Check it here. ]

Thursday song ⎜We are the music makers, and also happen to be the dreamers of the dreams

It was gonna be some kind of “top 5 411 commercials tunes”, something of that magnitude, but then I realized I only own 411#3, 4, 5 and 6 so the compilation would have been very biased. Plus, well, laziness. Anyway, these volumes still bare what I think is still the best tune ever used in any skate commercial, and you have to remember what it looked like with Paulo Diaz’ arms all over the place. The Oompah-Loompah song, as used in that Chocolate ad sometime in 1995 I’d guess? Su-perb !