Pumking On Draft with Shades Of Jade

Hot Sake- Cal Tjader MP3

10/13/11

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2010 Review of Pumking at thursdaynightrecordsandbeer.blogspot-

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Southern Tier Pumking Ale- Brouweji Lane- Greenpoint Brooklyn, NY- 32oz. Growler into Belgian Beer Glass - 8.6% ABV

Head- About a finger of head, which receded almost immediately after the pour

Color- Between light to medium orange

Mouthfeel- Medium to light mouthfeel, very mild fizzy carbonation

Aroma- Pumpkin pie crust is the best description. Nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar, etc.

Taste/ Overall- Pumpkin beer time again and I have been looking forward to these. This the first pumpkin beer I ever tried (last year) but this time around I got it on draft. Unfortunately it doesn't really seem to be any different than I remeber it. Maybe a bit less boozy. I was really hoping I may get a creaminess from the draft that I din't get from the bottle. Though I am enjoyinging it. I do think that this style would well in a Boddingtons Pub Ale style. Kind of a medium, heavy body with a creamieness to it and pull back on the spices a bit. I think this would really make for a drinkable pumpkin beer. This is good but probably wouldn't want more than two pints in a sitting.

On the turntable is Shades of Jade- Cal Tjader- This is a seminal record for me and it has been some time since I have listened to it. This was one of the first records that captivated me as an object and as an exotic style of music. My friend started DJ’ing and collecting records in the early 90’s and we were hanging around one summer night at his place listening to music and he pulled this LP out. At this point in my life I was about 20 yrs old and I didn’t listen to jazz or instrumental music. When he put this record on I was pretty much hooked from the get go. I can honestly say I had never really heard anything like it before.

Personally I didn’t really grow up with records. My parents didn’t listen to LP’s much and when I started to buy my own music, around 1989, it was in tape format. CD’s weren’t economically feasible or very accessible at that point and I didn’t have access to a record player so it was all tapes until about 1996. Even as a high school kid I started to accumulate a pretty broad, eclectic collection of tapes. I also taped songs I liked off the radio and then would seek out the bands I really liked in the music store. In addition to music I bought at the store I had a pretty nice lot of tapes I had dubbed from my friends collections. Unfortunately when I went to college, specifically my freshman year, I didn’t take very good care of my collection and the tapes dispersed through various hands and the collection was irrevocably damaged. In all honesty I was actually still buying tapes to some degree until about 1999.

On a brief side note in 2009, during my last move from Brooklyn to Queens, I actually threw out the last vestiges of my once formidable tape collection. It was sad to see what remained of the collection but even sadder to hold on to it in the condition it was in. I dumped the remaining 15 or so tapes, along with years of accumulated stuff from my 20’s and early thirties, into a dozen or more loads of garbage and bid them farewell. I have no nostalgic allegiance to tapes and the current resurgence of “tape” culture and bands issuing music via the magnetic tape format is a curious one. As a commercial product, used to distribute and store music, I don’t care for it to much. People always bitch about reading liner notes from CD’s but I know from experience that reading liner notes and/or lyrics from tape inserts was far, far worse.



Now, back to LP at hand Shades of Jade; I asked my friend if I could look at the LP jacket. I inspected the cover and the back. I quickly became infatuated with its bold colors, photographs and the detailed notes on the inner gatefold. However it was only today that I noticed that the jade statues on the cover were provided from my former employers personal collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had no idea who Cal Tjader was, the significance of Verve Records or who the dozen or so musicians listed in the notes were. I did know, on a pure musical level, I was hooked. That summer we spent a couple of nights drinking beer and just listening to his collection. A couple of LP’s which stand out for me was his Instrumental Banjo records, Barry Whjite, Memphis Soul Stew by King Curtis and the Hair Soundtrack. Those may not seem like ecclectic record now but those records were really foreign to anything I had been listening to at the time (Classic Rock, Alternative and a bit of Hip Hop). Despite my naivete I had instant connection and appreciation for that music. For me it was exciting to know there was so music out there I had no knowledge of. It would be a few years before I got my first turntable, which was given to me by the same friend, and started my own collection but the desire was conceived during those nights leafing through and listening to old, unfamiliar LP’s. Conducted by Lalo Schfrin and featuring one of my favorite jazz guitarists Jim Raney this LP is really a pleasure and posted above is one of my favorite tracks, Hot Sake.