Spiderman Jazz Can Take You Places

Lizards Walk Among Us

In 1981 I walked into a record store on Granville St, where CD Charlies' is now located. There stood the usual racks of vinyl and, near the door, a service island with listening posts: turntables and headphones. I handed the clerk a white album with a black and white picture of five skinny guys in white shirts and black ties lounging around an upright piano and he slit it open for me. It was a new release out of New York entitled The Lounge Lizards, featuring John Lurie and his brother Evan. The reviews mentioned something about the jazz being something out of a cartoon and it intrigued me enough for me to bring to the clerk and request that I get a listen.

I dropped the needle on the first track, Incident on South Street and within minutes I was shelling out 12 bucks and taking this baby home. In 1981 I was listening to Pere Ubu's Dub Housing, Daryl Hall's Sacred Songs (about which more in a later post), Robert Fripp's Exposure, and Brian Eno's Music For Films (and notwithstanding the indelible scream of "will you turn that fucking thing off!?" if I ever die in a fiery car crash with my lungs filled with the smoke from Turkish tobacco, my bloodstream electrified by bourbon, and the taste of infidelity on my lips I want Music for Films to be the soundtrack that accompanies me into the blackness.)

The Lounge Lizards were a combo out of New York and they played a style of jazz that was part Spiderman soundtrack, part Miles Davis, and part Stanley Clarke and Return to Forever. Their drummer was Anton Fier, who played like a Gene Krupa who had decided to hit his drum kit fewer times but to hit it harder. Guitarist Arto Lindsay's contribution was either the jangling noise from a badly fretted chord (imagine a box of pots and pans tumbling down stairs) or a single note zig zagging inside and outside the boundaries of the song.

The main force behind the album was John Lurie and his sax playing. Smooth, melodic and slightly menacing. Unlike a lot of jazzmen Lurie's playing wasn't introverted into itself. On each track the saxophone takes the centre of attention and tells an urban story of traffic jams, images reflected in the mirrored glass of store windows, men in suits on street corners watching men in the back seats of cabs as they drive by. The rest of the band, from Fier's drumming to Piccolo's bass playing to Evan Lurie's piano, add the rhythmic energy of a bustling metropolis. Released by Editions EG Records and distributed by Polygram The Lounge Lizards was an impressive first LP and has survived 25 years of listening.

I bought tickets to see The Lounge Lizards when they came to town that year. They played at what was then known as the Robson Square Media Centre (it now houses UBC conference rooms). The opening act was a band called Phish, and to be fair and cruel all in one breath, they were more of a 'conceptual art' piece than a musical act.

The Lounge Lizards performance showed a surprising difference in dynamics as live performers as compared to the record. Evan Lurie's piano and keyboards took over, the songs took on Evan's point of view, his melodies and his chorded percussions forcing the sax player to the outside. At one point Evan played a melodic run with heavy reverb on his keyboard and before the notes had faded he followed it with another run. You could almost see the sounds washing up the audience further and further, receding a bit before the next stronger wave reached higher.

It was as if the whole audience had gotten inside Evan's head and were listening to the music the way he heard it, a jazz song's version of Rashoman (without the rape, natch). Given the difference in their instruments, Evan Lurie's playing was more percussive than his brother's and changed the tone of the material, which was strong to begin with, into something with much more muscle.

Afterwards, I stood in the street on Robson, smoking the original Player's Special Blend and thought (not for the last time), 'that was fucking awesome.'

John Lurie and The Lounge Lizards continue to produce records and music. Click here for their website. Evan Lurie also composed music for films. Click here for a list of his credits. Arto Lindsay's sojourn in the Lounge Lizards is only a tiny part of his story. Click here for a fuller history and discography. Anton Fier's career can be pieced together here. Steve Piccolo now lives in Italy and his musical story can be read here.