greg tate

A marvelous obit: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/greg-tate-tribute-rob-sheffield-1268200

In the introduction to Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, the first anthology of Lester Bangs' work, Greil Marcus wrote, "'What this book demands from a reader is a willingness to accept that the best writer in America could write almost nothing but record reviews." I feel like that sentence is a thousand times truer when applied to Tate than to Bangs.

yep

Photos of an excerpt from my 1993 phone interview/ story on Greg Tate for fanzine Uno Mas appear with the tweet

Writer/author/musician/ teacher/ activist Greg Tate just passed away @ age 64. In 1993 when his Flyboy in the Buttermilk book came out, I spoke to him on the phone for Uno Mas fanzine. This Howard U grad, & longtime Village Voice writer explained his style : pic.twitter.com/oaPdGg0Smi

— Steve Kiviat (@SteveKiviat) December 8, 2021

For the past 6-7 years, some of Greg Tate's most immediate "published" thinking/writing was taking place on FB, a major reason we remained on the app. Y'day, @jsmooth995 elevated this Tate post from July '16. Fantastic in myriad ways, it serves as a helluva "keep going" sign-off pic.twitter.com/gcw34vAq15

— Dada Strain (@dada_strain) December 8, 2021

Aw, this intro was in Robert Christgau's new Consumer Guide report:

The dismaying and totally unexpected news of Greg Tate’s death reached me the day after I finished this Consumer Guide and the day before it was scheduled to go up. But although it included Greg’s latest Burnt Sugar album I felt no need to rewrite even a word, because my breakthrough to Angels Over Oakanda occurred exactly as described. It had been years since I’d seen him for more than a quick hello, although I did do a Zoom panel with him a few months ago. But I was so blown away by not just his acuity but his warmth in the Miles Davis documentary Birth of the Cool that I decided to relisten to the new one with ‘70s Miles in mind, and not only did I hear the connection I intuited would be there, I loved it—the vamp tracks began to function as a kind of chill-out music that I replayed more than any review required. Hence Burnt Sugar’s first full A, arrived at exactly a week ago. I was so looking forward to laying it on him, just as a gesture to a man and colleague I’ve marveled at for 40 years.

The new Burnt Sugar really is good; I reviewed it back in October.

Love that Tate is getting the full obituary feature treatment on NPR. Fully deserved.

Kevin Powell:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/greg-tate-writer-appreciation/2021/12/08/5e0ef1b2-586c-11ec-a808-3197a22b19fa_story.html?tid=ss_tw

Listened to this this morning while cleaning, really amazing

https://vimeo.com/427222208

Love and Theft release date 01/09/11, Tate's dossier follows:
https://www.villagevoice.com/2001/09/25/intelligence-data/

In 2013 Tate and Burnt Sugar teamed up with DC go-go musicians and some DC poets for a special gig -Drums along the Potomac, a Go-go Fantasia. They did a gig in NY and one in DC . I saw the DC one and it was a lot of fun—noisy and funky. I did an email interview with Tate before the shows.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/412353/greg-tate-on-go-go-burnt-sugar-the-arkestra-chamber-and-what-makes-him-giddy/

Cool.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/the-portal/the-portal-greg-tate

Glad the Wire made those articles available

Yeah---I know Burnt Sugar relatively better-- in recent times, esp. via https://burntsugarthearkestrachamber.bandcamp.com/ Top Tenned All Your Zombies, Dig The Luminosity several years ago: dialectic sparks of Afropunks x Afrofuturists (some of whom may be played by the same people, a la Parliament-Funkadelic): "It's A Family Affair" indeed. Some of their instrumental epics challenge my sense of dimensionality altogether, while immersing me in it (recent example: The Rites), but then again, this year'sAngels of Okanda just seems---pleasant---will have to try again. Meanwhile, archival 2021 release Making Love To The Dark Ages incl at very least an LP's-worth of instrumental goodness-to-greatness(good measure, in this vinyl-high, "post-album" age)---that is, my fave raves so far are the second half, at least impact-wise: "Dominata (the gabri ballad)"(15:47), and the two-part title work: https://burntsugarthearkestrachamber.bandcamp.com/album/making-love-to-the-dark-ages-livewired-2009

Other archival 2021 releases, ones I need to get to next: Twentieth Anniversary Mixtapes Groiddest Schizznits, Volumes One, Two, and Three.

Back in 2011 or 2012 I conducted long email interviews with Tate and Burnt Sugar co-leader Jared Michael Nickerson about the band's first decade for the fifth issue of the Burning Ambulance print zine; I'm currently preparing an online version that I'll post early next week.

Great, looking fwd! Now listening to yet another of their 2021 releases, younger contingent up front this time, Tate & other elders still along for the ride: https://burntsugarthearkestrachamber.bandcamp.com/album/the-darknuss Brides of Funkensteinoid for openers--

"No coluds, no coluds allowwwed,"The Darknuss, by REBELLUM ~ Burnt Sugar Arkestra's Avant Funk & Roll Splinter Cell

Idly wondering if the Clinton interview in Flyboy is the origin of the Eddie Hazel 'imagine your mother died' story? I'm hardly an expert but I don't recall the second part of Clinton's direction - 'and then you find out she ain't dead' - as part of the usual mythography.

Scratch that - the Tate interview is '85. Still, don't think I've heard that half of the anecdote before.

The fucking Today Show just ran a segment on Tate - part of their "A Life Well Lived" series on celebrity/notable deaths.

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/11/1063200404/greg-tate-critic-memorial-tribute-guide?utm_term=music&utm_campaign=nprmusic&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com

A lot of folks have focused on his writing about hip-hop, but I'm going to be talking about his jazz writing (and our interactions — he blurbed my Miles Davis book, and contributed a piece to Marooned, and we hung out a few times) in my upcoming Stereogum column.

Just now sent out via Greg Tate's publicist, @HowardWuelfing pic.twitter.com/AMhs21Zpot

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) December 13, 2021

The long-ass interview (7500 words, it turns out) with Tate and Jared Michael Nickerson about Burnt Sugar's first decade is up now on the Burning Ambulance site.

Voice writers and editors remember Greg Tate, in a succinctly conversational way ( and now I'm interested in that oral history of the Voice that Tricia Romano says he encouraged her to undertake)---and we get to see his 1983 P&J ballot (good choices!); also, though I'm not a fan of Sasha Free-Jones, he makes a good point about Tate's coverage of early 80s Downtown jazz, even though he's much more predictably associated with Public Enemy etc.https://www.villagevoice.com/2021/12/13/flying-high-remembering-greg-tate/

I wrote a little more about Tate, specifically his jazz writing, in my final Stereogum column of the year.

A terrific essay, unperson. I reread the King Sunny Ade piece yesterday as it happens.

Seconded. I came for the Tate and stayed for the rest of it as well.

Fantastic piece unperson. I'm reading Fly Boy 1 now as well. Have read quite a few bits of Tate over the years but never the collections and uh, yeah, wow.

more good stuff here: https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/greg-tate-s-invisible-jukebox-with-alan-licht

Tate’s Hendrix book send to be out of print.

I scanned a library copy and I'm sharing it on s0uls33k fwiw. If anyone is looking.

The Greg Tate jukebox is so good!

Seriously. It’s so rare to see critics talk about music with that level of knowledge and perceptiveness

Haven’t read any of his stuff in decades, kind of amazing how it holds up, how much I absorbed by osmosis the first time around or through the wider culture or something.

CULTURE
Greg Tate (1957–2021)
December 14, 2021
DAPHNE A. BROOKS, ROBERT CHRISTGAU, SASHA FRERE-JONES, AND CARL WILSON
https://www.bookforum.com/culture/greg-tate-1957-2021-24752
More by Xgau, w links to Sheffield:
https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/misc/tate-21.php
Oh and I did get into Angels Over Oakanda more, duhhhh
(But also, don't sleep on Making Love To The Dark Ages and their "Splinter Cell" Rebellum's The Darkness--all three are in Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber's Bandcamp trove.)

My just posted piece for Washington City Paper on how Greg Tate’s life in DC impacted his future. I talked to a lot of people for the story. Original draft , later shortened by my editor for space reasons, had more from actor and former programmer of NY’s the Kitchen on seeing go-go with Tate and more on P-Funk. Still covers his roots and more I think.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/544093/remembering-flyboy-greg-tate/

Nice!

Did not realize till someone told me, that actor Bob Wisdom (of the Wire fame and other shows and movies) was Tate's roommate for a bit in NYC and was a programmer at the Kitchen. He had lots of stories (several of which I wish I could have fit in the article). Wasn't able to speak with video artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa who was best friends with Tate from Howard U days on through to recent NY projects together

long Robin D. G. Kelley interview with Bongani Madondo about Tate: https://bostonreview.net/articles/the-invisible-hand-of-greg-tate/

Haven’t heard it yet but there’s an aquarium drunkard podcast interview with Tate now available ( recorded the day before he passed)

Also, Tate might be in November or December issue of UK magazine I-d , guest -edited by Arthur Jafa, video artist recently profiled in NY Times, who went to Howard with Tate, talked on panels with him, and was friends with Tate since college.

https://events.stanford.edu/event/greg_tate_virtual_symposium

Greg Tate free virtual symposium Wednesday June 1. Special Guest Panelists Include — DJ Lynnée Denise, Daniel Gray-Kontar, dream hampton, Mark Anthony Neal, Shelley Nicole and Dawn-Elissa Fischer.

seems to be no Greg Tate in the Irish library system which is a pain. Was looking for him last week after he was being talked about in something I was reading.

That’s not good.

Stanford panel still going right now. Inspiring ( but sad )

Dream Hampton talking about Tate was special (and emotional)

http://www.lincolncenter.org/series/summer-for-the-city/celebrating-greg-tate-more-than-posthuman-rise-of-the-burnt-sugar-arkestra-mojosexual-cotillion

https://cityparksfoundation.org/events/greg-tate-tribute/

Greg Tate tribute panel discussion stream @ 6:30 pm Mon June 13 via http://livestream dot com/schomburgcenter

damn, going to be somewhere else so is it going to be archived?

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pre-lit-fest-2022-celebrating-the-work-of-greg-tate-tickets-343229266977?fbclid=IwAR3r-02-mcuEh7YnHjFBTIxZ1r_vpG4H7VGCyQo4HgeGcubpXxslujYh31I

Maybe this has more info for the Monday June 13 6:30 pm to 9 pm eastern US time event

ok Eastern US is 5 hours later.

can't seem to get the livestream link to work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xG75ad7flc

https://www.gregtatewasloved.com/

A new posthumous piece from him now available, on the genius of A.R. Kane

https://www.luakabop.com/products/a-r-kane-americana

He went deep in that

huge wall mural portrait of tate in Brooklyn near BAM, can't seem to find any online pictures for some reason.

Per a tip via unperson's newsletter, a remarkable celebration of him by Vijay Iyer

https://www.movementsjournal.art/volumes/1-dissonance/fanfare-for-a-warrior

That is very nice .

Ah now this is phenomenal!

https://mreeves.substack.com/p/cutting-room-jams-greg-ironman-tate

Earlier this spring, I picked up a collection of back issues of Musician magazine from a person I found on Craigslist. Musician was a favorite of mine growing up and the person, who lived in San Rafael, gave them away for free. Most of the issues were published in the early 80s and included cover stories on Prince, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and others.

Fast forward to October 16, when I caught a post by Michael Gonzales on Twitter/X celebrating the late Greg Tate’s birthday.

When I responded to Gonzales’ post that I found a handful of Tate articles in Musician magazine that I couldn’t find online, he asked me to post them. I refuse to contribute original content to Twitter/X any longer for obvious reasons, so I have posted them here.

Cool, thanks.

Wow!

nice!

Thanks! I think I understand harmolodics slightly better now thanks to his intro in that Tacuma interview.

Does anyone know where Greg Tate's De La Soul piece "Yabba Dabba Doo-Wop" first appeared? I assumed it was in Village Voice, but it's not on their site.

(I know it's in Flyboy in the Buttermilk.)

Writer Michael Gonzales referenced the article in a piece he did, but he doesn’t link or cite specific place where he first read it. He just refers to Tate and the Village Voice

Thankscurmudgeon. All I needed to know was where it first appeared. Weird that it's not on the VV site!

Think it goes back further than the digitized (also the search function on current uh of that site is not always reliable)(which is why I made my own archive of my own VV offerings)

That is, *if* it was published in the Voice---would be 80s-to-early 90s, since Flyboy came out in '92.

Yeah, the Voice website is not 100% reliable (I sometimes find pieces I wrote but they're not archived under my byline) and doesn't contain everything.

I don't remember seeing anything on there from before, say, 1995.

Yeah. The De La review is 1989, so I would have expected to see it on the VV site since there are quite a few of his pieces from the period up there. But it's probably true that the site is not at all exhaustive.