174. Henry Kaiser Discusses Captain Beefheart, The Spotlight Kid

Guitarist, improviser and research diver Henry Kaiser visits YMAAA and introduces Al to Captain Beefheart’s 1972 album The Spotlight Kid. Henry talks about his personal connections to Captain Beefheart’s backing ensemble, The Magic Band, and particularly his connection to Elliot Ingber, who passed away just days before this episode was recorded. Henry recalls how seeing a live performance of one of the tracks from The Spotlight Kid led to him taking up the guitar, and how he developed as both a fan and a colleague of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Henry also talks about his deployments as a research diver in Antarctica, as well as some of his recent musical projects, including his work on Two Views of Steve Lacy’s The Wire.

Henry had mentioned that he found a video of the Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band performance at Tufts University that inspired him to become a guitarist. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzDaFDhkv9A. The specific moment that Henry mentioned begins at 5:19.

You can find Henry’s music on his website, http://www.henrykaiserguitar.com/, as well as on the Cuneiform Records YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@CuneiformRecords). Among many other videos, that’s where you can find Henry’s recent Elliot Ingber tribute video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpoVA6qkEX0).

Al is on Bluesky at @almelchior.bsky.social. This show has an account on Instagram at @youmealbum. Subscribe for free to You, Me and An Album: The Newsletter! https://youmealbum.substack.com/. You can also support the show on Buzzsprout at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542814/episodes or at the link at the bottom of these show notes.

1:24 Henry joins the show

1:45 Henry talks about the important role that Elliot Ingber played in his life

8:58 Henry explains why The Spotlight Kid was not loved by The Magic Band

10:49 Henry recounts the first time he met Ingber and other members of The Magic Band

12:52 Henry talks about his first experience with listening to The Spotlight Kid

16:15 Henry discusses his YouTube videos, including his tribute performances

18:48 Henry talks about how The Spotlight Kid was a different kind of album for Captain Beefheart

20:00 Henry explains why he chose The Spotlight Kid for this episode and what it’s like for him to listen to it now

22:15 Al picks his favorite tracks from the album and explains what he gets out of them

29:10 The Spotlight Kid gets overshadowed by several other Captain Beefheart albums

29:54 Henry cites his favorite tracks from the album

31:36 The Spotlight Kid had some commercial success

32:41 Henry’s Captain Beefheart fandom was shaped by his inside knowledge of the band’s workings

36:01 Henry identifies what makes The Spotlight Kid unique among blues rock albums

38:05 Henry talks about becoming a diver and his path to becoming a scientific diver in Antarctica

43:00 Henry discusses his recent Steve Lacy cover album collaboration

46:33 Henry enjoys reworking some of his favorite music

48:13 Henry talks about his recent projects

Outro music is from “Esteem” by Ackley-Chen-Centazzo-DeGruttola-Kaiser-Manning.