Deluxe double album featuring Blue Note inspired back cover! The set was slightly re-arranged and minimally edited necessarily to fit on four sides of a double album but a purchase of the album gets buyers an unedited digital version of the album in the original sequence!
Includes unlimited streaming of Live at Tubby's Double Album
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
Purchasable with gift card
$28USD
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Buy the vinyl here instead and get the full version of the concert as a free download. If you are only interested in the digital, please go to the 75 Dollar Bill bandcamp page and buy it from them (for cheaper). We have priced the digital the same as the vinyl to discourage folks from buying the digital here as our deal with the band is to sell the vinyl with a free download and allow them to retain the digital sales through their own page.
75 DOLLAR BILL LITTLE BIG BAND | LIVE AT TUBBY’S | Grapefruit Records | December 11, 2020
NYC’s 75 Dollar Bill began its prolific career in 2012, after percussionist Rick Brown – a veteran of the indie underground (Fish & Roses, Run On, V-Effect) – and noise scene guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Che Chen – connected via MySpace. Since that initial jam session, when Brown began experimenting with his signature plywood crate drum rhythms, they have released 3 LPs and a clutch of self-released cassette and digital releases. Last year’s 2xLP I Was Real received serious critical acclaim – The Wire calling it 2019’s Album of the Year.
On their first live album, Live at Tubby’s, 75 Dollar Bill assembled a unique “little big band” [Sue Garner on bass, Cheryl Kingan on sax, Steve Maing on guitar, Jim Pugliese on percussion and Karen Waltuch on viola] for the small Kingston, NY club show. Recorded on the last day of their spring tour, the record puts a new perspective on themes from their body of work: a little more intimacy, a little more freedom, a little more controlled chaos. Brown’s idiosyncratic rhythms are all the more hypnotizing in Tubby’s cozy setting, and Chen’s furious guitar work cuts and hums with sounds seemingly only attainable on stage. It's an album both challenging and immediate. The expanded 75 Dollar Bill's affinity for improvisation and the avant-garde even leads to a rousing take on the Ornette Coleman classic, 'Friends and Neighbors' that feels right at home in their own repertoire. The listener can't help but feel present and part of the communal joy and catharsis being shared here in this room. This performance at Tubby’s turned out not only to be the last show of their tour, but the last show possible as the pandemic hit. Originally offered as a digital-only release on 75 Dollar Bill’s Bandcamp, Live at Tubby’s now documents a highlight and closure of sorts; this kind of musical improvisation and community interaction being on hold for the foreseeable future. The double LP on Grapefruit will have to tide us over until it can all happen again. NOTE: When you pre-order the record here, we will send you a full album download.
From Rick Brown:
75 Dollar Bill has always been a duo of Che Chen and myself, but many of our most satisfying and just plain fun experiences have involved some (or almost all) of our great crew of friend musicians who've worked with us for years and who play on our studio recordings, like 2019's I Was Real (Thin Wrist/Glitterbeat). Live at Tubby's presents a couple of sets recorded just as Spring and the coronavirus were arriving on the scene. We didn't plan for this as a “Little Big Band” concert, but we took advantage of timing and geography - as well as the fact that “everybody knows how to play WZN #3” - and sent out a call for any who could make it to come to Kingston, NY for the night's blowout, the last gig of a short tour we'd done as a duo. The material comes from I Was Real and its predecessor Wood, Metal, Plastic, Pattern, Rhythm, Rock plus a cover of the great and inspiring Ornette Coleman's song “Friends and Neighbors.”
Hopefully, you'll agree it turned out pretty good – at the very least, it should be obvious that we had a good time! We sure do miss playing music with our friends and for our neighbors.
credits
released December 11, 2020
Rick Brown: plywood crate, percussion, funnel horns
Che Chen: guitars, violin (F&N, WZN#3/verso), cowbell (WZN#3/verso)
Sue Garner: bass guitar
Cheryl Kingan: alto and baritone saxophones
Steve Maing: guitar
Jim Pugliese: drums, cymbals, bells, shakers (he's hidden behind Karen in the photo)
Karen Waltuch: viola
March 7, 2020 at Tubby's in Kingston, NY.
Live sound by Zoots
Recording and photo by Jake Lyons
Editing, Mix and Cover Design by Che Chen
Mastering by Steve Silverstein
Grapefruit is a record label founded by Simon Joyner & Ben Goldberg in 2011 to release underground and experimental music
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