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Parma guitarist Rick Kalister has played with name musicians over the years, but has stayed off the media hot seat by teaching high school English for three decades before getting the urge to do some recording again. OhioOnline music correspondent Peanuts caught up with him the other night to find out a little about "Rick Kalister's Progressive Jam Experiment," his latest studio effort. |
| OO: |
And where are we going to start this little odyssey? |
| RK: |
"On June 16, 1967, I saw the five-man version of the James Gang with Glenn Schwartz on guitar at the Hullabaloo Club at Kamms Korners in Cleveland. To this day, I have not recovered from that experience." |
| OO: |
You seemed to always be playing with progressive musicians of some ilk. |
| RK: |
"Long ago, I played with punk legend Peter Laughner, whose work was later covered by Guns and Roses, among others. From there I went on to play everything from blues and country to free jazz and classical." |
| OO: |
Any other influences you want to mention? |
| RK: |
"Early Eric Clapton, Roy Buchanan, John Coltrane, John McLaughlin and Joe Walsh. Walsh agreed to give me one-on-one guitar lessons, but, before we could start them, the James Gang became a national act and he was gone." |
| OO: |
Who would you like to split a bill with? |
| RK: |
"I think my band would match up well with any bands in the current jam scene. Widespread Panic would be one example." |
| OO: |
How do you describe your music? |
| RK: |
"I play many kinds of music, but I would call this disc 21st century blues." |
| OO: |
What is the number of releases you've had out? |
| RK: |
"This is my seventh recording under my name, though bootleg recordings done with Peter Laughner are all over the world. That's what people tell me anyway." |
| OO: |
Let's talk a little about the studio experience. |
| RK: |
"This was recorded at drummer Ashley Shelton's home studio. The three musicians, bassist Rob Rodgers, Shelton and myself, had never played together previously. All tracks are first take improvisations, kind of like 1970's Miles Davis. It's nice to be able to relax in a good home studio without worrying about the studio clock ticking away." |
| OO: |
Favorite Ohio venue? |
| RK: |
"The Beachland Ballroom in the north Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland. I played there many times with Homeless Gardens, which is led by ex-Pere Ubu drummer Scott Krause." |
| OO: |
Long term plans? |
| RK: |
"My long-term plans are to keep expanding the perimeters of what the guitar can do, while never forgetting the blues. A musician friend from New York recently spent a week in Cleveland. When asked what he thought of the visit, he said, 'All Cleveland has is bad barroom blues and corny oldies bands.' This really hurt because the region has many great musicians."
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| OO: |
You didn't take him to the right bars. Final thoughts? |
| RK: |
"The first ten people who drop me a line at rickalister@hotmail.com and include their mailing address will get a copy of the disc."
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