"Kenny Davern, Ab Baars, Michael Moore in the hallway at Outpost Performance Space -- There's a real story behind this: Kenny & Elsa lived in the eastern mountains outside Albuquerque, and on this evening (October 25, 2oo4) Kenny and I were on the telephone but I had to get over to Outpost and I said to KD, ""Man, if you got any sense you'd make this concert because these guys are so far out that they're back in, one of the great bands on the planet"" and I didn't actually expect Kenny to come, but about 15 minutes into ICP's first set in the door comes Kenny, and I groaned to myself, man, I hope Kenny likes this madness or he's going to kill me ------ Well, at the break he comes over to me with eyes sparkling and wildly says, ""THESE GUYS ARE GREAT!"" And I looked at him wondering what he had been smoking? They of course WERE great, but Kenny was somewhat a traditionalist, even though he is on record as approving of Ornette at the 5 Spot 1959 (his published letter to dOWNBEAT at the time) and also dug Albert Ayler, but he could be pretty tough on much else in the avant garde. SO, I take him backstage and introduce him, and everybody's happy, and Kenny even pointed to Han's rolled up pant's cuff and said ""Cliff Leeman"" and Han jumped out of his chair with glee because he knew what Kenny was talking about (Eddie Condon's drummer Cliff Leeman did the same thing with his cuff), and so the librarians in the band were flipping through their book and pulled all the old Duke, Hoagy, Louis, 1930s things they had and the entire second set was for Kenny, and Kenny just fell in love ------- afterwards, as they were packing Kenny says to them like a kid who wants to join the circus: ""Take me with you"" ----------AND SO THEY did: on their subsequent annual return to Albuquerque the next year (2005) Kenny played the entire show in the reed section. AND THAT's another story, pure glory, luckily we have it recorded . . . . . . ."
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