I'm Sick About My Hat

John Corbett & Heavy Friends, John Corbett | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 31, 2009)
• Original Release Date: November 16, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: ATAVISTIC
• ASIN: B00001T3BY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #582,455 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

From Jazziz

Even if you don't know who John Corbett is in relation to the burgeoning Chicago post- rock/avant-jazz scene, you must admit he does have some heavy friends: trombonist Jeb Bishop, drummer Hamid Drake, multi-reedist Mats Gustaffson, and cellist Fred Lonberg- Holm, among them. Corbett, who is best known for his role as a Chi-Town promoter, organizer, and pontificator, has sparked these musicians to enter his half-baked soundworld of tape slicing and randomness. Trombone solos end in electronic swoops. Saxophone blurps create neo-Beefheartian squatpiles of uninspired improv expressionism. Creaky acoustic-guitar motifs, repeated throughout, fail to evoke the blues/folk tradition intended or to anchor the "pieces." Much of these moody yet skronky, uselessly abstract flavors create a definite whiff of art-prank. The Barnes & Barnes/early-San-Francisco-art-punk-style "cover" of James Brown's "Cold Sweat" is probably the most egregious outburst. Nothing more than the lyrics of said minimalist groove-anthem spouted onto pitch-altered tape, it fails to reveal the Dada poetry Corbett apparently felt was present in Brown's writings; instead, the listener glimpses a certain unmistakable grad-student smarminess. Real listener pleasure applications for this are frankly unclear.

--- Phil Freeman, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different opinion, August 1, 2000

By 

Amanda Labreque (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I'm Sick About My Hat (Audio CD)

I've enjoyed John Corbett's record. It took a few listens, butit's now among my often-played favorites. While I am aware that Corbett is a contributor to Downbeat, I allow that "I'm sick about my hat" is not intended for a puritannical jazz audience. Still, Corbett's a big man in improv jazz circles. He gets cred points from the contributors on his album, Mats Gustaffson and Jeb Bishop for example, to the people he' s produced: Peter Brotzmann, Hamid Drake, Ken Vandermark, etc. John Corbett also writes for the Chicago Reader, teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago, deejays a radio show, hosts a well-known improv series at the Empty Bottle, writes books, and so on and so on. The guy does not stop. For full disclosure, while I've had the pleasure of seeing Corbett play live twice, I am in no way his friend.

1.0 out of 5 stars Always preview songs before you purchase!, October 19, 2010

By 

cindy halbett "Cindotina" (Salem, MA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: I'm Sick About My Hat (Audio CD)

Awful album - was so dissappointed - just a weird collection of strange music that makes no sense.

3.0 out of 5 stars Green Andy Reviews: John Corbett and Heavy Friends - I'm Sick About My Hat, October 4, 2009

By 

A. ZIATS "Green Andy" (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I'm Sick About My Hat (Audio CD)

There are some albums in my collection where their purchase is a total mystery to me. Like this one: I fully remember where I bought it, and even how much I paid ($15.98), but I've got no idea what my motivation was. I didn't know who John Corbett is when I bought it,. I don't recall reading any reviews, and I'm not really the kind of guy who goes into a store and buys things at random. The album cover isn't that enticing. Was there a big display case of them at the store maybe? I have no clue. Anyway, I'm glad I've got it because it's a fun CD. I just don't know what compelled me to find out.

So it turns out that John Corbett is a well-known guy in the Chicago free jazz world, and that most of the Heavy Friends here are also from that scene. Apparently Corbett is a guitarist, but that's hardly the primary instrument here. The album is mostly focused on sound collages, and the guitar work largely fades away after the first few songs. Opener "Speed Hump" begins with some acoustic guitar, but quickly shifts to squalling saxophone and drums, chopped apart with different types of audio filters. Much more coherent is "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", where the guitar is a solemn bedrock for some pretty jazz vocals and taped-together birdsongs. My personal favorite songs on the album are "Parapoli, Rosa E.", a slightly clipped-apart reworking of some older ululating vocalist with accompaniment, and "Cold Sweat", a monotone vocal-only cover of the James Brown number. The only relatively unadorned recording here is the downbeat "Ready Kilowatt", with multiple horns that squawk menacingly. Everything else on the record is chopped apart to within an inch of its life, sometimes far past being able to figure out what the original elements were, as on "Road Rage".

I had to do a crapload of research for this review, since as I said, I didn't know anything about the album, and it seems like most other reviewers didn't have much patience for the noisier compositions on this disc. I guess it's a question of taste. If you're a fan of abstract music and improvisation, there's a lot of interest here for you. If you tend to be drawn to melodies and song structure more than pure sound, you might want to give this a listen before you buy it. John Corbett is also apparently a writer for Down Beat Magazine, so I'm sure he'd do a better job at this review than I would (although he'd have an obvious bias in this case), but the bottom line is I picked this up for reasons unknown and managed to enjoy it, and if you walk into it without any expectations I'm sure you will too.