as a prelude to the good captain, a ballerina dressed in white, with a crown to match, did her stuff, followed by a belly dancer in all the traditional garb. after she exit-ed, rockette morton (mark boston) - looking like a gangster from the twenties - played a five minute bass solo. he has an exceptional stage presence as he moves down in a crouch (similar to chuck berry's duck walk) and prances from one side of the stage to the other.

the congenial captain, spiffily dressed in a red satin suit, was accompanied by rockette morton on bass and guitars, with zoot horn rollo (bill harkleroad) and winged eel fingerling (elliot ingber) plucking guitars. ed marimba (art tripp) exercised the drum kit while roy estrada (aka orejon and audi hon) - an original mother of invention - caressed the bass strings.

the band performed skits and the captain told a few jokes and recited some poetry. the members of the magic band were often spotlighted in their own solo spots. they played 'click clack', 'i'm gonna booglarize you baby', 'long black snake' (a john lee hooker original - t.t.), a surprise rendering of 'abba zaba', 'woe is uh me bop', 'alice in blunderland' and 'neon meate dream of a octafish' (not the song, but the bass line of it - teejo) before disappearing from the stage.

the audience stamped, yelled and clapped for more. after a good three minutes the captain came out and asked: 'what are you yelling?', to which the crowd replied: 'more'. at that point the spotlight kid gave way to a touching version à la whistle of the all time classic 'more' (the main theme of the popular docu-film 'mondo cane' - t.t.).

someone called for 'beg, steal or borrow' but i don't think the captain heard him because he went on to do 'my human gets me blues'. it was a unique experience - i only hope he returns soon.