"Oregon: A Band Comprised Entirely of Olaf Schuberts"
During my compulsory time away from work I've been listening to a lot of music on Youtube. One of the bands I've been indulging in is Oregon. They were (and are) a sort of fusion between Jazz and World Music. I got into them a couple of years ago when I found a pile of the LPs at Goodwill. I'd never heard of them, but I decided to take the plunge. Sometimes you can tell just by looking at the album covers. Their album, "Out of the Woods," has a picture on the inner gatefold of the four guys in the band sitting in a field somewhere (Oregon?) Just four goofy-looking hippies. I like that.
One of the albums I don't own by them is their 1980 live record "Oregon in Performance." It struck me just now looking at the cover art on Youtube how much it looks like Olaf Schubert playing soprano sax to his own twin seated before him playing the tabla. Do you know of Olaf Schubert? He's a German comedian and songwriter. Through my German studies I discovered him. He's very funny. Of course, Ralph Towner, being a little more olive-colored, a little more stout, doesn't look anything like Olaf, but I'm sure they'd get along if they ever met. There's an unspoken bond among the idiosyncratic artists of the world.
I don't know how far that unspoken bond would extend between Donald Fagen and Olaf though. The latter would probably just annoy the former. Maybe Walter Becker would have gotten along with Olaf, but there's something too impossibly classy about Fagen. Of course, Olaf's bass player, Bert Stephan, is the kind of guy who could get along with anybody. Wouldn't it be great if Bert was Fagen's bass player? And Paul McCandless was the sax man? I guess that would leave Maserati to be the rest of the band. Been listening to them a lot lately too. I'm such an emotional wreck right now that even their instrumental spaceship post-Rock makes me weep.
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