15-60-75
Jimmy Bell's Still in Town

Cleveland, Ohio must be a nice place. Factories, smog, polar winters, and a lake as big as a sea, providing just that bit of claustrophobia that doesn't hurt. Luckily, today's youth can watch LeBron James, the Chosen One of basketball, play about fifty times a year. Those just a bit older than the writer had the privilege, in the mid-'70s, of being the first to hear amplifiers explode from the Rocket from the Tombs, who later became Pere Ubu. I envy them wildly.

But even idols have their idols. David Thomas, for example, must consider Mr. Robert Kidney, originally from Kent, Ohio, about 40 miles south of Cleveland, as such. And, we are sure, not just for "neighborly" relations. Robert Kidney was and still is the deus ex-machina, main guitar and voice of 15-60-75. Obscure from the name itself, as it is an esoteric base-15 projection of the progression of chords 1-4-5 (tonic, fourth, and fifth degree of the scale), the foundation of all guitar blues. Thankfully, for convenience, fans decided to call them The Numbers.

"For 30 years (...) The Numbers have contributed to keeping the blues genre alive. Where the guardians of the form let it wither without any innovation, 15-60-75 fueled the abstract evolution of the blues. Where the priests of Traditional Blues replicated the old catechism monotonously and mechanically, 15-60-75 aspired to a visionary reading"

So wrote David Thomas himself, drafting the accompanying notes for the CD reissue of Kidney and company's first album, twenty-five years after its release. The disc in question originally came out in 1976, capturing the Numbers live on stage at Cleveland's Agora on June 16, 1975, when they had a good half hour to ignite the audience that came to worship His Majesty Bob Marley. "Jimmy Bell's Still in Town", that is the title.

I must repeat myself: I envy those young people wildly. There are only six songs. But I thank those who decided to master them to make the group's first vinyl, after five years of well-established live activity (with this social reason, only two more would follow, as rare as the phoenix). Listening to the performance, you cannot help but agree with the judgment of the pantagruelian Thomas. We are in the territories of a visionary rock-blues that urgently grinds the classics of the genre with punk (the eleven minutes of Jimmy Bell), Beefheart from "Safe as milk" and Sun Ra (Narrow road), Stax's home R'n'B (About the eye game), and pub rock (the opening Animal speaks), with their horizon also including Talking Heads and no-wave (Thief).

The leader's and Michael Stacey's guitars, amphetamine-fueled and mercurial, you don't know if they've emerged from Quicksilver or are ahead of Television (the sarabande of the concluding About leaving day). The saxophones of Jack Kidney - Bob's brother -, Terry Hynde - Chrissie's "pretender" brother - and Tim Maglione are authentic blades in the back. The rhythm section (Drake Gleason on bass and David Robinson on drums) goes full speed ahead without a moment's hesitation. Need anything else? Yes, for someone to know them...

"We are not interested in making hits, we are interested in making history", the short-sighted Kidney once said in an interview.

Perhaps it didn't quite go that way, even if the status of cult artist (a resume boasting names like Golden Palominos and much other art-rock, guess with whom? Oh, look, with David Thomas...), that, Robert, no one will take it away from you.