During a house renovation in Mill Valley a couple
of years ago, a stash of reel-to-reel tapes and 45s was
discovered beneath the floorboards. Caked in grime, the collection found its
way to nearby resident Jack
Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto, whose own large sound archive included several
records released by the
owner of the collection: Henry Jacobs. Remarkably preserved for all the exposure
to the elements, the more
than eighty tapes chronicle wild collaborations with close friend and theologian
Alan Watts, San Francisco
soundscapes, riffs with Ken Nordine, fictitious radio spots, warped tabla beats,
feedback mayhem, hipster
parodies, and goof conversations. In collaboration with Henry Jacobs, Jack Dangers
has selected, restored,
sequenced and mastered this audio stew into a seamless travelogue. Equipped
with a reel-to-reel, a
microphone, and insatiable curiosity, Jacobs created a breathtakingly original
approach that deserves to be
appreciated by a much wider audience.
Concerning the Henry Jacobs archival tapes, the several of them found
underneath Henrys old house in Mill Valley,
you should know that Sandy, which is Henrys nick name, has tapes hidden
away in many places, usually along long
stretches of inaccessible beaches, hence his nick name. The fact that this set
of tapes was found under one of his
houses and not along a long beach is a deviation from the norm, one that history
will thank you for.
Ken Nordine
Father of Word Jazz