Moments In and Out of Time
Music from the Vault
Thank You for visiting. Below are reminiscences, sometimes explications of The Music. Occasional photographs of a moment here, a moment there, as the spatial relationships among the celestial bodies change — which after all, is what time is. In a word, Motion.
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
TS Eliot. Burnt Norton. The Four Quartets.
The small being at the top of the page matured in the presence of music and a piano. His first professional instrument was electric bass although he established some miniscule notoriety as a popular music pianist and Hammond B-3 organist. At college there were no “pop” pianists to speak of so hence, he was called. Graduate school followed college and music performance such as it was went into hibernation, although he retained a core set of “jazz” tunes from high school days that acted as a sort of lifeline to the past.
The stars did not align for an academic career, and with some other college acquaintances likewise at loose ends The Band of Desperate Men (BDM) came into being. There followed various associations and relocations until one day when the stars realigned, and music took a back seat to physics for the next 25 years.
So much for chronology. What follows are vignettes without order. __________________________________.
New Mexico. Daylight.
Immediately below are links to works under contract: what I call here The Concord Collection. Circa late 1970s-1990s. Many of the versions below were rendered in the latter stages of my MIDI studio and printed to DAT even if composed/recorded many years earlier. Some were put to lyrics and recorded by others. All were submitted to and contracted with Lowery Music in Atlanta whose catalog was bought by SONY ATV; later sold to Bicycle/Concord.
((Please note — files that open and play in the site can only be stopped by clicking on the pause button. Not helpful if you scroll down and want to open another file while the one is playing. I am in process of embedding links to audio.com for most files which will open in new tab/window (file underlined). Making it easy to keep your place in the thrilling narrative. For now if the site player is present then I have not yet gone through the tedium of linking or rendering the file to audio.com.))
Below are three songs from the Collection. (Songs have lyrics. I compose primarily tunes without words.) At one point in my education I was told there are only two types of songs: love won and love lost. I have written “non-love” songs too, but not in the group below.
Almost Over You (vocal by Terry T)
If We Could Go Back in Time (vocal by Kathy Mac)
Dig A Little Bit Deeper in my Heart (vocal by Terry T)
The Collection continues below. Conceived at various times from the late 70s-90s and recorded and re-done at numerous times in the evolution of my home studio. I recorded a few at Lowery’s Southern Tracks (more on that further on…)
Diana (see Band of Desperate Men comment further down…)
Key West (earlier version included below from Southern Tracks session)
Overture (discussion in Batman Ballet below)
Bopsters (Batman Ballet)
Back Bay Blues (yes, even the Elite 0.1% suffer occasional melancholia)
Slow Dance (Batman Ballet)
Etude Japonnais *Song version recorded by Bertie Higgins as “The Breath of God”. Discussion much further below.
Berlin Recent minimalist sketch:
Berlin Bertie Higgins recording. Kept pretty close to my original demo:
Brasilia As above, first a recent sketch followed by the Bertie Higgins recording. My demo to Bert had slightly different chord colors at various moments than my latest revision.
Brasilia Bertie Higgins recording.
Papillon Recorded by Bertie Higgins. See much further below…
Mind Over Matter (Later Midi studio version, also recorded at Southern Tracks. Paul Buzine — see Airtite recollections below — remarked “this has a lot of forward motion.”)
Lucky Lady (Recorded at Southern Tracks; audio file below…)
Precious Love (Love Won. Digitized B side of 45rpm. Lowery/Southern Tracks project.)
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Miami FL. Twilight.
Improvisations
In 2019 I devolved to part-time in the Real World and started creating again. Channeling the spirit if not the left-hand rhythmic structures of Keith Jarrett I went free-form, or no-form; maybe Impromptu (which in Schubert’s case were improvisations later rendered into fixed compositions). Or Nocturne? as in Chopin? He and Schubert are on another level entirely… but they didn’t have the internet distracting them. Anyway, I just begin playing and stop thinking. And sometimes hit the record button. Yes, harmonic and rhythmic patterns stored in my subconscious flow and create intersections, new junctions, forks in the road. Sometimes it works; sometimes not. There are a few where I began with a harmonic or melodic concept and returned to it. Or as in the case of Song 32 a harmonic progression spontaneously evolved and repeated. I call them all Improvs for the most part. With one I consciously channeled Ashokan Farewell — the plaintive Appalachian -style piece made famous by Ken Burns’ The Civil War. I named it Tradition.
A group of Havana FL historians used it over the credits in a state-funded video-oral-history of Havana residents during the Second World War:
https://www.voicesofhavana.org/voices-ii.html
Nestor (Unsettled anger as Tropical Storm Nestor threatened havoc on the same area which exactly one year earlier was devastated by Hurricane Michael. La Mer.)
Song32 Yamaha P-515 CF sample. This began as pure improvisation — as in there was only an emotion and no “plan” — but during the course of it I decided I liked the development, repeated more or less, and concluded with could be considered the tonic. Later I plotted out the chord changes and tried to record again but as is usual failed to recapture the original feeling.
Song34. Yamaha P-515 Bosendorfer sample. Tweaked. If Ruth Laredo is listening please know that I enjoyed your recording of Scriabin sonatas while in grad school. I still own the vinyl as well as the CDs.
Southern Tracks Session
In the mid 80s Bill Lowery (more on Bill below) allowed me to record four compositions in his Atlanta studio. I include two of the four here; later versions are in the Concord Collection above, except for Lucky Lady which seems to elude capture; it is evolving into a piano exercise. The session was somewhat experimental utilizing IBM/DOS computer control of DX7 and RX11 (drum machine). This must have been with the now long obsolete Roland MPS software, synched up via FSK, although I cannot specifically recall. We hired studio players (sax and guitar). I’d include the great guitar work on Mind over Matter but the DX7 bass timbre distracts. Bill was always very generous with me, as with many others. Bertie Higgins launched with Bill’s support (more about Bertie and me later on). He gave the Band of Desperate Men a Shot but alas fate decreed otherwise.
These were all recorded and re-recorded as my midi studio evolved; Key West may have 5 or more iterations.
Key West. Has that midi quantized stiffness that ages poorly. It took much experience and different software (MOTU Performer) to avoid gridlocked excess.
During the late 70s fully immersed in music and out of Academe I composed solo piano pieces some of which I still play today. These are actually written out and are not improvs or Midi studio sketchpad creations. Note: I am NOT classically trained despite the best efforts of my great aunt (could sight-read anything) and my parents who did not force me even though I was accepted into the Peabody at age 5 I think it was. But, as Popeye used to say, I yam who I yam.
I also composed “jazz” tunes written out generally in lead sheet-type format: what is called a “head” or melody and chord symbols. These existed only as frameworks for improvisation, in some cases as material for the spin-off BDM project bassist Billy Burke named “Spare Parts”. We might have had some gigs here and there; I don’t recall. (BB by the way got me the gig with Doug Kershaw which was short-lived, but educational.)
In any event 40 years or so later I am less taken by improvisation over tunes — soloing through chord changes — and more interested in the mental discipline of playing the great composers where the notes are written; not a matter for negotiation or by momentary good fortune. Chance has its place in the universe to be sure, and in the hands of the masters spontaneous creation can realize pure musicality devoid of cliche and distraction: the moment out of time at the still point of the turning world.
Photograph above (as-is; no tweaks) taken with my i-phone Xr 17.5.1 out my rear window looking north over the yard about 8:30PM August 5th 2024 following the passage of tropical storm Debby. As they say, “take the shot.” I saw this uncanny glow and somehow the camera rendered it. Chance.
Well beyond the Atlanta period — post Virginia, Franklin MA, Boston MA… maybe in Woodbridge CT — there was the Batman Ballet. Suggested by my daughter in a profound comment. It remains a dream, or a perpetual possibility only in a world of speculation. Just need choreographer, libretto, stage design, dance company, promoter, umm…. Easier dreamt than done. Nevertheless some of the music has been deemed appropriate:
(The lobby lights have flashed and the audience is settling in; A major motive establishes a serious mood. In the now-darkened room diatonic steps upward as the curtain rises. Revealing shimmering light shapes on a darkened stage, movement… upon recapitulation of the A major motive, spotlight focuses gradually on The Batman).
Stage lighting reset: urban scenes ; jazz choreography: Bopsters
(balletic duet…. Is The Batman looking on from without as his Best Friend entwines with Batman’s true love interest — an interest which cannot be revealed because of his Batmanic alter ego? Envy? Jealousy? Lust? Sin and archetypes abound…). Martian Arts and Brother Pi 3.1416 open ACT 2 after intermission. Possibly Dance of the Sugar Plum Robots… apologies to Pyotr… Someday if the fates allow I’d be happy to collaborate with people who know what they’re doing and together finish and perform it. Other pieces such as Decline and Fall, Here In My Heart, perhaps others, I thought could be relevant and dramatized through dance. The Batman character sort of gears it toward children… although recent film treatments have taken it elsewhere.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Robots. (maybe while changing the set…TBD… it’s a bit of a jam session)
To this day I save motives and harmonic progression fragments for later exploration. With storage virtually free why not? When my studio was wired I could save even more elaborate though unfinished Sketch Pad items that were not really “final” recordings, such as Sunrise.
Note the abrupt fade. Also known as the cassette tape ran out. (Back in the day I used to print the mix of the moment onto good old cassettes which were in use then and apparently in some quarters today are making a minor comeback.)
Juan Valdez (see also further down), and
Tensions 1 which was never quite finished but it’s close enough for jazz, as they say:
This is a re-write of Tensions which dates from the fusion phase of The Band of Desperate Men days. What began as “Exotic Country Chamber” whatever that is (think Liberace’s candelabra on a Rhodes piano, Martin steel string guitars, clever country music lyrics) evolved into somewhat fusion-jazz-Steely Dan-ish influenced tropes. It was a bit schizophrenic. Aesthetic friction is good up to a point. But it was at a minimum truly creative and refreshingly naive. Various other pieces found their way into and out of the BDM repertory, with Diana one that I fussed with later. Solo piano pieces from this era such as Theme from Tyrone’s Place and Spring Fever were not performed publicly and were/are to an extent exercises– excepting The Theme from Tyrone’s also known as The Beginning of Time (there’s a lyric…)
Spring Fever
Some might find traces of a Bill Evans influence to which I reverently admit (among others: Keith Jarrett, Gabriel Faure, Schubert, Oscar Peterson, Jimmy Smith, Wayne Shorter, et. al.). For a few weeks prior to going out on the road with Doug Kershaw I took a gig with Guitarist Jerry Byrd, who was, as musicians say, legit. He told me with justifiable pride that Wes Montgomery gave him the guitar he played. Anyway one night a couple came in who knew Jerry and the woman was very upset because that was the day Bill Evans died and they were close friends. She said to me “you play like Bill”. Which was a sort of embarrassment to me especially in front of Jerry who was accomplished whereas I — let’s just say — had much to learn and we both knew it. Out of the blue I googled Jerry recently and this is informative. Died in Bangkok. He gave the Wes Montgomery guitar to George Benson and now Pat Metheny owns it.
Back when Atlanta was just emerging as the self-professed center of the universe The Band of Desperate Men were tasked with providing an hour of entertainment at the OMNI hotel in honor of Ted Turner, whose Day of Appreciation it was. Turner inherited an outdoor billboard company from his father (who committed suicide) and parlayed his original inheritance via local TV into a broadcast and cable media empire. He worked hard, married Jane Fonda, and became an environmentalist. One still has fond memories of James Brown’s show Future Shock on Turner’s local uhf channel — specifically Brown’s hosting of Tiny Tim who sang Tiptoe Through The Tulips strumming his ukulele to a dumbstruck if not downright befuddled audience of black teenagers. One recalls the sponsor — Party Ring… A Beautiful Work of Gold-Plated Art. I’m sure Ted has a drawer somewhere filled with these. But I digress. Ted was a big sailor (understatement…google America’s Cup) so Patrick Cobb, The Desperate Men Man For All Seasons who hailed from Rhode Island where he worked the Block Island ferry, donned a classic yellow fisherman’s rain-gear complete with the elongated hat brim (cf. the Gorton’s Seafood logo) and strode out at the appointed moment on the pedestrian bridge where the Band had set up overlooking the atrium. He and we sang the classic sea shanty with the refrain “Haul Away, Haul Away, bound for the shores of Australia” substituting “Ted Turner” at appropriate moments in the verse. I am not sure when exactly whether immediately after this or later, but a drunken hotel guest came raging across the bridge pushed over Jim Bullard’s bass amp (thankfully it did not fall down to the ground level) screaming about all the noise, etc etc. It was maybe 3 in the afternoon. Tony Ippolito, the Band Manager immediately sprang into action shouting “Security! Security!” and grappled with the man. Things more or less concluded at that point. I recall there was a settlement with the enraged hotel guest’s insurance carrier and The Band got a bonus.
This would have been relatively early in BDM’s evolution. Bullard had replaced Dave Kozinzki on bass and Joe Barron had replaced Rich Hight on drums as the evolution away from Exotic Country Chamber was underway. Tensions would have been on the playlist at that time. Not sure when Diana was in the active repertoire but here it is re-recorded in the mid 90s MIDI studio.
When the BDM dissolved I joined a “blues” band named Cool Breeze. I put blues in quotation marks because while we may have played a bona fide blues or two (meaning strict adherence to typical Ix-IVx-V substrate) the repertoire was in fact old line R&B or “Soul” or Black if you prefer. The singer, Bill Sheffield, convincingly copped the “vauntz” (his made up word meaning the essence, the being) of various artists: Bobby Blue Bland, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and others I cannot recall right now. Hal Berry and Richy Kicklighter on guitars, and various rhythm sections over the time I toured with them. We opened for some well-known acts (Average White Band) and some future well-knowns opened for us (Stevie Ray Vaughn). We played some of Richy’s tunes which were harbingers of the Smooth Jazz yet to be; Richy went on to produce several CDs of his works and achieved a level of fame and fortune thereby. He is presently still playing in the Sarasota area (with Sheffield and Thom Doucette who played harmonica with the Allman Brothers way back in the day and sat in with the later BDM). Although this group was not an avenue for my chromatic composing at the time, I have unearthed one blues-jam piece Richy and I co-wrote from the time we opened for the AWB and their sound crew was kind enough to make a tape of either the front of house or monitor mix (see appendix). The transition from Cool Breeze to gigging around Atlanta, to Kershaw, back to Atlanta, to Bertie is unclear in my memory. I think I was playing a lot of tennis then.
In the New Year’s Eve 1967 photograph up above near the top showing The Classics performing at New Year’s my BPI (Baltimore Polytechnic Institute) and musical colleague Frank Dalzell is shown on guitar, I to his left, both of us studiously reading the charts. As with all of my friends from high school and Baltimore we lost touch. Somewhere in the mid-teens Frank found me via social media (not mine as I had no FB or other presence except Engineered Power Products email) and we began to correspond. I chanced to be in Baltimore a few times thereafter and we exchanged notes in his home studio. Frank was probably my closest musical compatriot during the late 60’s and it was good to be back in touch. He had become well-known in the classical guitar community of Baltimore. Anyway, it happened that the moment he found me I was fumbling around in my archives trying to find at Bertie’s request a recording that he and I both could recall from a session In Tarpon Springs (more on that session later). In the course of that fumbling I chanced upon a sketch of a tune from decades before I had forgotten and voila! Frank’s Tune was christened. I first re-recorded on the Yamaha DGX650 with Piano/Bass/Rhodes but unfortunately left a take with a Rhodes “soloing” over the changes, per dumb habit, and once removed from the “User Song” section of that instrument it is what it is and can no longer be excised, edited, or redone (except pulling teeth via MIDI). I could have used the word “noodling” in place of “soloing” (long ago Stewart Copeland of The Police did the music for a TV show “The Equalizer” and his efforts were dismissed by a critic whom I forget as “jejune noodling”). In the case of Frank’s Tune take 1 the pejorative connotation of noodling is apropos. I have become less interested over the years with soloing through changes (jazz) and more attracted to a fully thought-out approach where every note has been carefully and deliberately chosen (as in JS Bach). As I said or will say elsewhere, in the hands of true masters jazz improvisation is musical creation at its most pure. The rest is, well, noodles. Or “rides” as the Popular music contingent would say. Some genres, for example Bluegrass, keep it tightly within bounds without extended explorations into every harmonic or melodic nook and cranny. OK, maybe there is a tradition here harking back to Theme and Variations. But for the most part, considering noodles, rides, solos, and etc., The Goldberg they ain’t. But back to Frank: he too had moved on beyond the confines of popular music finding at the end of his life greater satisfaction in the thought-out notated piece, well executed. Frank died June 3, 2020, at U of Md Medical Center. Yep. You guessed it. Smack dab in the midst of the Covid hysteria. Had a history of heart disease and had “died” once before. Nothing to do with Covid. He died alone. They would not let his wife be with him at the end because of The Science. Flatten The Curve. We’re All In This Together.
I redid Frank’s Tune on my Yamaha P-515 which has a remarkable Yamaha concert grand sample. Added minimal acoustic Bass. No solo. RIP brother.
There was a brief period post BDM, post Cool Breeze when I guess I was gigging with Bertie off and on and playing in a fun jazz quartet which included a marvelous singer Octavia (last name escapes me), guitarist Dan Coy and Al Nicholson drums (who was in the final stage of BDM). Octavia did some vocalizing for me in my Atlanta studio version 1.0.
Al had a theory that hit music was composed by lifting bits and pieces from well-known popular music and using as bass lines or melodic fragments or whatever worked musically (he contended that for example Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart” was incorporated in the B section of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”). We co-wrote a few tunes and with Dan collaborated on his Vertex T project. There was one performance, Dan on guitar, I on l.h. bass and with r.h. on what room was left, and drum machine that Al had programmed. Al/Vertex was up front rapping. Our opener was a reinterpretation of “Tequila” wherein the stop-measure lyric was the spoken word “Cybernetics.” See Appendix for The Vertex Sampler audio file which also includes such gems as “Maggie’s Farm” a la Vertex T, Earth Girl, and Diamond Jim, and snippets of two tunes we co-wrote which also were performed at the gig. For a while early in the Virginia phase, 85-87, I continued the technique with Shooting Star (Starry Starry Night; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence).
Probably done on TEAC 4-track that everybody back then had sooner or later. Yamaha DX7; breath controller sax patch (yeah, well, this was before Ray Kurzweil). Yamaha RX-11 drum machine. Had to program it in advance in the days before sequencing software. Yamaha TX 81Z. And Korg Poly 800. Primitive. Another in this series was A Day At The Beach (Beach Boys: California Girls; Beatles: Get Back, Eleanor Rigby).
Deborah Hoch is a lyricist I collaborated with for a while when living in Fairfax. She is excellent and it is one of those random lottery-like aspects of the biz that our work did not find an audience somewhere: Personal Star, New York Night, and Sugar Daddy (an instrumental from the mid 90’s version of my MIDI studio).
We never found a bona fide vocalist. I recall a charming person who sang in the little girl mode fashionable at the time (early Madonna) but there were pitch problems… Terry T who sings on Personal Star is a real vocalist though the piece is just a notch or two above her sweet spot. We were trading audio cassettes between my studio in Connecticut and hers in Florida.
Deborah also worked on a lyric to Key West which at the time was in process of being set to lyrics by Bertie and Sonny Limbo. I cannot say that what they came up with is my favorite effort from them but since it was Bertie’s record my opinion, unless I had an outstanding alternative, was just an opinion.
Personal Star could be part of a Marching Band Portfolio. There’s a very real 2 feel, not that I imagine modern marching bands are beholden anymore to 2/4 time. I know nothing of them save for the fact I have seen the movie Drum Line. Could be there’s a demand for 5/4 pieces for marching band. Hmm. Maybe Jobim?
I thank Lalo Schifrin for his treatment of “that extra beat” in a world dominated by 4/4 enforced by the monotonous tyranny of the snare drum. While on the subject, during the BDM days I composed a piece entitled Let’s Go Shopping! with an A section in 7/4, B section in 4/4, and C solo secion in 5/4. People danced to it, which is a testament to some innate communal party capacity of the Boomer generation; or a testament to the intellectual dulling effects of various intoxicants of that time. In any event some day I will rescue it from its present state as a piano exercise and unleash it on an unsuspecting world.
Darkness From the version of my MIDI studio in Boston MA, circa 1988-1993. The non-fade concluding with a closing hi-hat is intentional. I put it here only because on an archival playlist it followed Jobim by chance and I like the contrast. The concept of Darkness referred to life events involving corporate treachery and betrayal which signaled an end to the Boston experience. Nothing to do with the city. Boston is a great place — a real city where people live and work downtown. In fact it was there I walked with my bag the quarter mile to to Islington MTA rail changed to subway at South station and maybe there were more changes on the way to Logan airport (too far back to recall), boarded a flight to Tokyo and emerged from public transport at the hotel. That in my view is damn civilized.
Rebels Without a Cause. Flush with the fame a major hit song brings, in Japan at least, a request came to write another Casablanca. So Bill Lowery arranged for Sonny and Bertie and me to go do it. I could be wrong, but my recollection is that we flew into Gainesville FL, rented a Fender Rhodes piano, and drove to Cedar Key staying at an historic old hotel in need of renovation. This would have been 1982 maybe…. I believe Rebels was the only fruit of that labor, although I remember playing alone in my room and exploring what later became Thief of Hearts with Bert. Rebels was part of a Japanese movie soundtrack, produced in Japan and frankly, very good and better than what we were doing in Atlanta/Lookout Mountain. They sampled the sound of an analog camera shutter opening and closing which is that odd sound placed in the instrumental figure. Japan in the 80’s was in the vanguard of digital media technologies as well as a leader in quality manufacturing. I was last there in January 2018 in connection with my electrical power career. If their experiment with Modern Monetary Theory was in process of imploding I could see no evidence of it. Still there was a difference with the heady days of Japan Inc when we used to stroll the crowded streets of Ginza (then home of the highest cost per sq ft real estate in the world) with Jason Nakamura, he with high denomination yen bills dropping out of his pockets…. Figuratively speaking of course. Money, lots of it, seemed to be everywhere. Jason was a marvelous, generous host. Took me out alone a few times for sushi in off-tourist spots, up elevators in nondescript unadorned concrete buildings. Once, as we got to our floor and the doors closed behind us, he whispered that the two guys who got in the elevator at the same time we did were Yakuza. I replied with a “what?” look and he held up his one hand explaining a finger that was missing from one of the guys. Jason lost one of his arms growing up on a farm; bad day with a tractor. You’d never know it though — he always had a smile on his face and was totally at ease with his polymer prosthesis which attached somewhere below the shoulder and simply crossed across his torso with the false elbow making a roughly 90-degree bend. The fingers were arranged in such a way that he could stash things in the hand. His girlfriend (this was never completely clear) was an extremely attractive model. Bertie told me that they got drunk one night in his hotel room and Jason took off his false arm and with the other started waving it around like a Samurai sword.
At this point I should explain the association with Bertie Higgins. Bert came to Atlanta in 1980-81. He had previously met Bill Lowery through the Lowery Group artist Tommy Roe and the West Pasco County FL band The Roemans, touring with the Roemans as drummer. Sonny Limbo and Bertie linked up and radio-perfected the lyrics to what became Key Largo, submitting to Bill who offered his recording studio.
Sonny, Bill, and Tommy Roe
Meanwhile in Atlanta a band coalesced that included me, Bert and friends from Tarpon Springs and other local musicians. Arch Pearson bassist. Had worked with bluegrass artist Vassar Clements, who lives on as the origin of the turn of phrase: “Boys, that was Damn Adequate”. Bill Marshall drums, who went on to work with Hank Williams Jr. Ed Higgins, percussion/congas, and Jeff Pinkham, guitar/mandolin had been part of a famous local trio with Bert at a bar in Tarpon. The band managed to get bookings locally and elsewhere in Georgia. I recall one road gig in Augusta I think (20 East from Atlanta… drove back during the Taurid meteor shower… Bert’s Chevy Malibu station wagon). Anyway we played various original material including Key Largo and it resonated with audiences. This band ended up putting down the rhythm tracks at Lowery’s studio (maybe a few overdubs too); subsequently Joel Katz and Kat Family records (CBS group) had become involved as label. They used their machinery to promote to local radio and dang if it didn’t hit. Then the rush was on to create the album. This occurred at Lowery’s and at Scott MacLellan’s studio on Lookout Mountain TN. Sonny was in charge of production and brought in session players from Shoals. In the meanwhile the band had dissolved, there was a falling out between Pinkham and Lowery, and Bertie and I were working as a duo. Given that first the band and then he and I essentially worked out the song arrangements and feel, I was part of the Lookout Mtn sessions. These were players on the map and I was in their skeptical eyes just another bar musician but the attitude was positive and the tracks went well. Between Key Largo just getting out of the starting gate and the Album sessions and release Bill Lowery arranged for Sonny to accompany Bert and me to a gig I had booked in Winter Haven FL through a family relative of Larry Schulz of the BDM days. We each had rooms at a local motel and I guess I must have lugged my Rhodes piano back and forth to have an instrument to work with. Anyway, at one of these writing sessions I played the melody on a song of mine from way way back (titled “When Your Love is Gone”… ugh… spare me) that was never realized/finished and the magic clicked. Bert and Sonny had been riffing on old movies and Casablanca resonated with the mood of the music and the lyrics fell into place. To complete the pop music form Bert provided a II-V-I-VIx etc chorus. The music and lyrics were a true collaboration. Bill Lowery proclaimed that we had come up with “A Beaut.”
CASABLANCA. A significant hit song in Asia. Began in Japan, thanks to Columbia records New York A&R dept who pitched to Sony artist Go Hiromi (search Go Hiromi Aishuu No Casablanca) and ultimately China, India, Korea, et al. Not in the USA. The story ran approximately thus: The “Starmaker Machinery Behind the Popular Song” (per Joni Mitchell) following Key Largo and then Just Another Day in Paradise, was not in agreement as to the third single release. Bill Lowery was adamant regarding Casablanca; the record co. execs decided on a sightly more raw, more rock image, away from Julio Iglesias in sandals. (The Starmaker Machinery must create a brand.) The song Port-O-Call was their candidate and was insisted upon by a radio guru whose name I cannot recall. This in brief described the unknowing meet-up of a prostitute and customer between a young man and his mother; I guess an unconscious take on the Oedipus complex from the minds of Sonny Limbo and Bertie. Bill was outvoted, Port-O-Call was released and Bertie’s older, adult contemporary radio audience was shocked and scandalized. At that point the record was finished. There may have been a half-hearted attempt at resuscitating Casablanca in the US but I don’t specifically recall and the damage was done. Despite losing its shot in the US Casablanca has done phenomenally well in Asia and elsewhere internationally. Artists as varied as Nancy Wilson and Richard Clayderman recorded it, along with a small army of Asian YouTubers.
During the early 20-oughts -teens Bertie was performing in China often. According to him Casablanca was voted as one of the 10 most important songs of all time. Not sure what Chinese entity did the voting but I’ll accept my share of the honor. After my retirement from the Electrical Power world I was hoping to go on one of these tours not as band leader or even pianist but as a guest. An honorarium for my contribution from long ago in Winter Haven Florida (China does not pay performance rights royalties). Unfortunately it appears relations with China have become strained. Such is life. Anyway around 2011 Bert got in touch asking my input on how to execute a key change in Casablanca to accommodate the difference between his range and that of a 12 year old boy who was apparently a Chinese singing star. I offered my thoughts and the resulting rendition Casablanca (China) was released. Pretty solid production keeping close to the original 1982 USA version. The producer incorporated my 2-5-1 type mods which were very skillfully performed by the musicians utilizing native instruments. Neat sonic textures. Â
I moved from Atlanta to Fairfax Virginia with a TEAC 4-track and eventully trasitioned to Roland MPS sequencing software. Yes, I still have the MPS software/documentation for IBM/DOS computer. But the ATT computer (Intel 8086) is gone to cyber trash heaven, and dummy that I am, later discovered with the MPS hardware interface installed. I kept the computer for a long time thinking NASA might be searching for 8086 chips which were in use by the Space Shuttle. We parted ways when the Shuttle was retired. DOS 2.0. Those were the days. That blinking cursor is still there, peeking out from behind Windows when things go sideways. Microsoft should have stopped with XP. Anyway my studio was pretty sparse. Two pieces below are typical of this moment:
Hong Kong. Composed and submitted to a Roland (Musical Instrument Mfr) song competition. I used Yamaha DX7 for all the voices. I didn’t win. Surely they knew it was me!? Maybe an augmented 9th chord too far? Recording too primitive? Can’t recall if I used Roland MPS software… If so I guess that wasn’t enough Roland for Roland. (BTW I have today lots of Roland gear; e.g., MKS-70, MKS-80 for you connoisseurs. Is it too late to win something? Anything?)
The End of the World I’d place it somewhere between Virginia and Franklin MA (1987) where we lived briefly before moving to suburban Boston. I added an Oberheim Matrix 6 and a Yamaha TX81Z. Still on Roland MPS.
Best Yet is also mid 80s. Adheres to the Simply Melodic recipe book better than most; possibly even best, justifying its file name. I remember this piece from “opening” for Bert/Paradise at an outdoor venue in Key West and playing to tracks I made on the Tascam 122 cassette recorder/player with a double speed option for better audio. If I recall correctly we used the 122 for tracks during the phase when Ed Higgins, BH and I went to Hong Kong — Causeway Bay supper club. Anyway back in Key West Don Perry, who worked for Katz, was along on that trip for whatever reason — it’s coming back to me… he went to Hong Kong with us as well as Baby Huey (Hugh Rogers) the booking agent. This was the old Hong Kong airport with the difficult approach. Hugh was on the can in the bathroom when he shouldn’t have been during the approach to landing and it was very rough and choppy. His head hit the ceiling.  Anyway again — Don liked what I had done. Affirmation is always gratifying. I think he went on to find fortune in the Atlanta urban music scene which was just getting underway back then. Don was/is like a lot of the business guys who inhabit the fringes as well as the centers of the popular music biz. Some really smart and intelligent people. I wish everyone all the best.
Best Yet Redone on Yamaha DGX in Havana FL.
BTW, on the second excursion to Hong Kong Bert was talking about himself going through customs and let on that we were playing in Causeway Bay. No one told us to claim mere tourism as our reason for being there; to work required a visa. Ed and I got through and were waiting and waiting on Bert. He finally emerged from an office with a female customs official who explained we were to be deported as “this is not proper” spoken in perfect King’s English. Our local contact – Rick Mayo? “Save me, Rick!” — intervened with her and promised we would behave and just be tourists. We played anyway under threat of arrest and deportation. Rick said the authorities would not bother coming to Causeway Bay as it was “too far out there.”
While in Virginia I had been submitting demos to Bill Lowery and Bertie (such as Berlin and Brasilia up above in the Concord Collection). A composition that was a bit different became with Bert’s lyrics Blue Never Looked Good On You. Appropriately named and conceived. Bill released it as a Southern Tracks single and it was a random “pick” by a reviewer in Billboard. I don’t think Lowery had quite the horsepower at that point to make the necessary investment in the radio world. Regardless, it remains musically valid to me and followed my demo in every detail, including not only an arranged ending but — gasp — a modulation!
The ZONE Series.
Speed Zone. End Zone. School Zone. And Battle Zone (kind of the satellite member of the group not sharing the same signature figure; see further down). Speed Zone was a Desperate Men jam offering for a while; it has devolved to a piano exercise as of this writing. School Zone never made it to performance; it was preserved for posterity in an early incarnation of the Virginia studio around 85 or 86. What sounds like the trusty old DX7, RX11, Korg Poly800, and maybe a TX81Z for the “jazz” guitar all rendered to the TEAC 4-track. Except for drum machine it’s all live.
End Zone (recorded recently on Yamaha DGX 650 bare bones arrangement)
End Zone as it turned out landed on the Airtite playlist (96-97). Robert Wawoe, the virtuoso bassist of that Jazz/New Jazz ensemble (Marc Clermont vocals and drums, Paul Buzine guitar) recorded it at a club on W. Kennedy in Tampa and to my somewhat surprise I found it in my BMI catalog of clearances with Robert as 50% publisher. Hey, that’s fine with me. I can’t seem to find the Airtite recording. Marc and Paul and Robert were/are exceptional and fun to be with. Sometimes the music takes a back seat to “the hang” — as in who you’re hanging with.
In the photograph above Marc, Paul, Yours Truly, and a legit violinist whose gig it was and whose name I cannot recall are captured performing at the Gasparilla for one of the races during the weekend festivities. As the runners went by on Bayshore Blvd we were supposed to play energizing music to keep the spirits high. All basically ad lib. Robert must have had a better gig that day (not outside in the sun and heat).
I first performed with Airtite (no rehearsal — just read the charts and go) at Michael’s on East in Sarasota; an upscale restaurant. Paul at that time was in conformity with the Guitar God commandment of an enormous stack of amplification/processing. Not sure where that started — maybe Pat Metheny? Anyway, I was inserted into a crevice in the very back with this enormous stack of things to my left, Marc was upfront, and Robert was off to the right side. The typical mantra of the generic Club Owner, Event Coordinator, et. al. was often heard that night: “Turn Down.” And that was directed only at the 60 cycle ac hum emanating from Paul’s stack. I did write a piece called Airtite near the very end of my sojourn with them. Not sure what I was after sonically. The structure and harmonies were in a new jazzish vein, maybe a little dark, with patches of lightness.
Speaking of first gigs playing unrehearsed material from lead sheets of varying quality, Mike Eisenstat had been asking me to play with his Jewish music ensemble. I resisted for a while as I did not want to learn a new book and had just started my new career in technical sales and etc etc. Finally I said OK. The event was a Bar Mitzvah in Sarasota. What was it about Sarasota? Anyway, we began the night with a cocktail set of standards which was straightforward enough and then the festivities really began with the Hora which is ethnic dance music spliced together in a medley lasting as long as Mike deemed necessary (our record was 45 minutes — also in Sarasota at a Conservative wedding where various vodka stations were stationed around the ballroom. As the partygoers got drunk and the rebbe in charge got even drunker he announced on his authority that men and women were now allowed to dance together. For the hora the dance floor was separated by potted palms and women danced with women and men with men. A cry of joy went up and the palms were pushed aside and dirty dancing commenced for the remainder of the evening). But back to the first gig:  Mike put the Jewish book on my music stand and opened to the page for the first song — Hava Nagila of course — although in a rhythm that was not what I expected. As I was playing left hand bass things such as rhythm and chord clarity were important. Anyway we went along for a while and Mike, who sang and played clarinet, came back over, took the book and started leafing through the pages, found what he wanted and put it on the stand pointing to the middle staves as there were three separate pieces fit onto the one page, and then bam we are into that piece and he walked back to the front. After a short while he would come back, ask “you got it?” and grab the book anyway, and so on until the end. Tony King the guitarist was used to playing with players who were not as fluent with their left hands (my early career as bassist gave me a foundation) so he compensated with fat root voicing that did not aways correspond to what I was seeing for the first time on the sheet music. I was torn between my ears and what I had in front of me as the music chugged on continuously in robust 2/4 time. After 20 minutes or so we reprised Hava Nagila and that was that. I was soaking wet with sweat. I ended up playing with Mike and then his colleague Kevin for close to 20 years.Â
This was during the time of my employment in the real world during which my midi studio was in storage and I more or less suspended composition. I collaborated with Bertie on a few pieces during this period (mainly China-related) but between working in the real world and gigging on weekends there was little time. I also did some volunteer youth soccer coaching further enriching my store of life experiences (mild sarcasm there… the kids were great. I’ll leave it at that). To this day one of my most proud accomplishments is coaching the U-10 Palm Harbor girls to the Div II championship decided by a one-goal game which was as dramatic and exciting as any in all of sports history. I am not exaggerating. Sport and live music are very closely related. The transcendent moment.
Sweet Suite/Autumn/Brave New World
These were realized in the 97-98-99 range, the final days of the MIDI studio period. The A-B-A-B-C-(A*)-B-B-Coda structure maintaining tight control. At this point I had the sense of being in a rut, and bored, and not just musically; it was time for a change. (July 1997 marks a dividing line as profound as the 1976 metamorphosis from scholar to fully committed musician. It was in one sense a return to the rigor and teaching of Baltimore Polytechnic as I commenced learning how electrical power systems work.) The Praying Mantis March conceived at the very end of the MIDI studio days represented pretty much the pinnacle of my cynical ennui. Still, I can hear a marching band performing this somewhere…in a galaxy far far away.
BraveNew World, Juan Valdez (and to an extent Renaissance) share an emotive architecture, with coda headed off to another dimension. Senor Valdez, picking coffee beans in Columbia, climbs to the top of the mountain with his burro and looks over the other side, which is utterly new and different — a brave new world. Recall the final scene of Apocalypto wherein the 16th century Mesoamericans pursuing each other with murderous intent arrive at the end of the trail overlooking a natural harbor. A Spanish galleon lies at anchor. A boat filled with armed and armored Spaniards, priests, and flag bearers lands on the shoreline. Well, there goes the neighborhood.
Battle Zone — title derived from last name (Battle) of vocalist Bertie took to Japan for a couple of gigs one weekend, main gig being a wedding where the host requested Beatles music, which Bert would not play. Long time ago… Cannot recall much about Battle’s repertoire or the gigs other than that I was hungover for the rehearsal in Tokyo. I forgot protocol and left my shoes on in the practice room. We had the honor of working under the direction of Hiroshi Takashima, guitarist. We flew to an onsen (hot spring) resort on Kyushu island one of the islands south of Honshu where Tokyo and other major cities are located. I can still recall the steam rising from all the fissures as the flight descended. Hugh Rogers was with us. At gig time Bertie would not answer his hotel phone. It was off the hook. This went on until Hugh decided to jump the gap between his balcony and Bert’s. We were maybe on the fifth floor? Hugh was no athlete either.
Anyway, back to Battle Zone: typical simple melodies segue into solo section, breakdown section, recapitulation, and — imagine that — an arranged ending.
We lived in New Haven CT (Woodbridge) between 93 and 96 during which time my MIDI studio evolved close to its final form: MOTU Performer sequencing program, MAC IIci (which I still have), various synth modules, outboard effects, Kurzweil 88 key controller, and the legacy stuff from yore (TEAC 4 track 10″ reel to reel). Still no digital audio capability. I produced/engineered a dramatic spoken word recording for a Research Publications series on American History. And traded tracks back and forth with others in Florida: Terry T Almost over You, etc, and Bertie, with whom I did a session in Tarpon Springs at a small local studio. I prepared rhythm tracks (still trying to recall how I got my sounds/mix onto the 1/2″ tape there. ) among which were Jamaica Me Crazy which Bert later rejected to the dismay of Roger Burns, the engineer. It is/was in retrospect a bit outside Bert’s comfort zone. One has to imagine a vocal line over the bed along with overdubbed guitar and other voices. This was how we worked back then.
Some years later I rethought it to Jamaica Blue.
I can recall flying in and out of Tweed airport in New Haven. Small prop plane. My seatmate on the way back was getting airsick and I remember mentioning the Chinese trick of pinching a location in the palm which she then recalled (she was a Doctor in the Yale complex). I guess Bill Lowery must have paid for the flight. Anyway, another of the tracks fared better. Bert did include it on one of his CDs as The Breath of God. I own it as Etude Japonnais.
Yeah the coda goes on for a while and no fade but I like it. Not sure why the chorus and solo sound angry (this version is built from the original rhythm tracks and was recorded in the late 90s.). In any event the session master is somehow lost. I think I got demotivated when Bert opted for a more homogenized Jamaica and if I had roughs of the work we did I can’t locate them. Other titles from the session never finally realized were Thief of Hearts and Dancing with The Devil, both derived from melodies I had written in the early 80s (Thief of Hearts was from a riff I developed at the Hotel in Cedar Key where Bert, Sonny and I went to create the next Casablanca). One title that did make it to one of Bert’s CD releases is Papillon, which is one of his favorite collaborations. I recorded it about the same time as Etude Japonnais again building from the original rhythm tracks.
Dan O’brien worked with Bertie as guitarist/leader in Florida during the years I was living in the North. I met him shortly after moving to Florida when their keyboardist could not make the gig and I of course knew Bert’s book. He had a studio on the top of his house in Dunedin and once developed a client from the Middle East (Munir?) who, under the influence of Yanni the New Age phenom, was seeking to realize his own compositions in actual recordings. Dan brought me into the project but it was not a good fit for me temperamentally and I bowed out. I guess as a reaction to the experience I composed a piece named, appropriately, New Age.
It owes a bit to looping sections, a technique that midi sequencing makes easy. With Miles (recorded in the Connecticut studio) I looped a bass line and invented parts that play off it at different moments not related to whether the bass line was at its beginning, middle, or end. Anyway, I offer with nothing but reverence for its namesake. The quintet with Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter remains my favorite; I had the pleasure of hearing them at a Jazz Festival at Towson State I guess in the late 60s. Yes, Miles played with his back to the audience.
Johnny and the A-Tones An Un-Project
As in atonal. Well, not really. More Vertex-T-like. Not a project either. Just riffing on a musical thought and letting the direction choose itself. I indulge in such from time to time. Related to the improvs but with considered motives and overdubs. The first two below sound like Virginia phase 85-87. Swamp Tones from Florida late 90s. Channeling my inner Miles. Speaking of Miles (In A Silent Way), I might have put Dance of the Sugar Plum Robots (Batman Ballet) here but the method was not quite the same.
12tones
Sax Sonata
Swamp Tones
The Christmas Project
Joy and Emmanuel were pure improvisations based on the well-known public domain works. Emmanuel was overdubbed as voices were added but the essential keyboard substrate was laid ad hoc over the percussion pattern. (Yamaha DGX-650). Joy I just sat down and played. I have tried adding voices, playing on different pianos, etc etc, but I cannot improve on the original, warts and all. Sometimes it just works out that way. Rose (Praetorious with modifications) evolved on my ancient Roland RD-500 whose voices remain valid almost 30 years later. Even though the keyboard itself suffers from arthritis the venerable MKS-20 sounds keep me hangin’ on.
Three Ways to Look at Three Ships
Blue Silent Night (This one has been difficult to capture. On one hand the urge to build up to a screaming guitar entrance on verse 2 is opposed, on the other hand, by the need for restraint inherent in the tender lyric.)
The Blues Project
Well, who knows? Every so often I get the urge to make one last live statement. Living now in the Tallahassee area with a major music school (FSU) in town there are always players here. The thought of putting together a horn section, maybe calling on colleagues from Orlando and Clearwater for rhythm section, and having one killer set of material…. sounds like a lot of work. And a lot of fun. Throw in an original or three and blast off.
The above was the later studio. Directly below is an example from what is likely the Boston MA phase. Still sounds like RX11 rather than Alesis D4 drums. Still using DX7 breath controller sax. It is what it is. Which is what was at the time.
New Bluz Late 90s recording. Conceived in mid 80s. Deborah Hoch may have written a lyric first draft (Love Left to Chance?).
There are other suitable compositions for this project that were in fact performed by an Atlanta band: Circle, End of the Line (a blues shuffle song!! with the signal characteristic of never going to the V chord) but alas the recordings of these are full of woe and regret, warts and clams.* These were the days before ProTools corrected vocal pitch and excised musical misfortune from the finished product. In the AI future droids will perform perfectly clever and perfectly analogical music distilled from all world sources providing a never-ending soundtrack to the metaverse. Resistance will be futile.
*Nevertheless in the interest of moving forward the progress of Western Civilization, and perhaps against my better judgment, I hereby submit End Of The Line, warts and all. Apparently even at a tender age I was concerned with Time, here informed by a politics of constructive nihilism.
Recent Works-In-Progress. (not improvs; revisions continue…)
Hymn 1
Hymn 2
Wistful Thinking
In Memoriam
CODA: TSE
We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
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APPENDIX : Co-Authorship
The Vertex T Sampler:
Talking in Africa Derived from onsite recordings of actual African group songs and The Talking Heads, per my memory… Just a snippet. Vertex did all drum programming. This and Brotherland I did in the earliest Virginia studio. Pre Midi.
Brotherland I cannot definitely recall from whence the melody and bass line came. I kinda remember Rush (bass line) and Pat Metheny, but…
Cool It Cool Breeze Band opening for Average White Band at Capri Ballroom in Atlanta 1979-80 ish. Presented here in the sprit of warts and all. Rushed tempo, overplaying, too long arrangement etc. But it was live and everybody was having a good time. Co-Writer Richy the K playing the strat lick; Hal Berry on a 335 playing IV chord melody line and first solo.