FROSTY 2: FROM THE DUKE TO PURPLE JUMPSUIT
3a) The Other Side - Opening the Ears of Boston's Gay Crowd
One week Frosty felt that the band was getting slack, with all these note-for-note covers we were playing. So he decided that for one week, we would practice at least 2 hours a day individually, 2 hours full band practice, no grass, alcohol, or any other intoxicant, and half an hour of physical exercise running, jogging, pushups and pullups - whatever was our favorite.
So, when we hit the Other Side for the start of next week's gig, we were ready! By a lucky chance one of the more famous queens had a gay wedding celebration that afternoon, and the whole regular Other Side crowd had been invited. So, the whole Other Side audience that night was loose as a goose and high as a kite, open to whatever musical treat we could bring them while we were tough, tight, in peak physical and musical shape. Sounds very masculine-feminine, doesn't it? It definitely had that aspect. They were ready to receive whatever music we gave them, and our music was as hard and flawless and inspired as it ever was.
So, we wailed! After the first song we played it was obvious that the crowd was ready for any musical adventure we gave them - and so each song was longer, with more solos, longer solos more adventurous arranging, and each song got more applause than the one before. By midnight we were playing as well as we ever had. Then Frosty called that Van Morrison classic, "Gloria". With its repetitive 3 chord ostinato it was ideal for soloing to the max. Each soloist cut all who had preceded him, so the music ascended from better to best to better than that. Jerry started it off on bass, then Frosty took the second solo, I went third and when I was through, I thought to myself "ok, no one can top that!' But then Brent came in with the final solo on Gloria, and his solo put all the preceding ones to shame. It was as good as any human or deity could play on that song. I stopped playing chords for a second, just watched and listened as Brent did his amazing thing, then did my best to give him adequate backup.
And then! at the stroke of midnight! A musician's ultimate dream became true! As Brent was reaching his smoking peak, in walked Frank Racette with ... a member of Duke Ellington's band! Now this must be every musician's dream - certainly it was my fantasy on every gig - that during my solo one of my favorite and most revered stars - Coltrane, Mingus, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Winwood - would walk in, hear us live, and give us praise and a leg up the career ladder. So here it was actually happening on the best solo on the most well-played song on the most artistically successful night of all the bands I'd worked in with Frosty (even though it was Brent's solo not mine) - in walks one of Duke Ellington's orchestra!
And now you need to know that by this time I had worshipped Duke for years. During my teen days I liked Duke, but my number one jazz men were Mingus and Coltrane, the biggest jazz stars of the early 1960s. Mingus kept saying in liner notes he wrote for his own albums, and in interviews and elsewhere, that Duke was the biggest influence on his work, that no other jazz leader would ever be as good as Duke, etc. etc. So, I started giving Duke more serious attention, and one afternoon I listened intently to Duke's album “Afro-Bossa” - where he went non-stop into his 1960s Afro-Latin style - and heard for the first time the incredible orchestrations and contrapuntal lines that Duke put behind the solos.
Duke – “Bonga” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtsTH0vX_-o
Then Duke made the album “Money Jungle” as a trio - him on piano, Mingus on bass, and Max Roach on drums - which the critics panned but musicians went nuts over for the next ten years. (I had over 6 copies of that album 'borrowed' and never returned.
Duke –“Money Jungle” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9CfWuUIhvk
3b) Meeting the Duke/The Duke's Guests
Now what we didn't know was that Duke disliked rock musicians as being inferior players. In his autobiography he put down that very same band member for acting as a 'cheering section' for bands 'that weren't that good.' Although maybe Duke would have liked us if he had heard us.
On the other hand, Duke was a big fan of western people from the Wyoming-Idaho area. According to one biography, he was so pleased that some fans would drive hundreds of miles over mountainous terrain just to see his show that he would play a concert for them even if the pay barely covered expenses. And you couldn't look more "Western” than Brent and Jerry!
And also, giving a bit of advice and sharing food and drink with young serious musicians of any style was par for the course for the Duke and his men. One Duke Ellington site quotes a young beginning musician who on a band break was treated by Duke's drummer Sam Woodyard to a healthy swing of beer and 5 minutes advice on drumming technique.
(For this anecdote and tons more stories and rare recordings, see Jean- Marie Juif’s Duke fan page https://www.facebook.com/jeanmarie.juif )
What we did experience was the lavish red-carpet treatment the Duke gave this unknown country-rock band. He shook each of us in a two-handed clasp, strong but gentle - more like a blessing than a handshake. While giving me this warm handshake he looked deep into my eyes, as if he was reading my soul with laser beams, and then said "My associate says you are great players, and so you must be. What can I do for you?"
Well, that version of Duke's band had Wild Bill Davis with him. (Wild Bill was the initiator of the jazz organ sound that got so big in 190s R&B). So, I said, "Duke, I see Wild Bill Davis is with you. I would love to learn how he sets the drawbars, since I am a beginner on the Hammond organ." (You see, the unique feature of a Hammond organ is that the sound is shaped by a set of around 10 drawbars, one set for each bank of keys, and how long the different drawbars are drawn out determines the sound). Duke called over a waiter and had him sit me up on the floor right above where Wild Bill's organ was, so I was able to look over his shoulder and see every move his fingers made. Wild Bill never said a word to me, but didn’t chase me away either. I learned only 3 basic drawbar settings, but they became the heart of my Hammond sounds for the rest of my Hammond career. One was "all stops out" for the thickest and loudest sound; another was in a semi-circle, like a human jaw - this made the bottom and top of the sound very strong and the middle weak-; the third one was a semi-circle, but in the opposite configuration (middle drawbars out, top and bottom in).
Duke had told us to sit at the band table, that everything was comped, and we would share everything the band had that night. Seeing as how later a group of very elegantly gowned Boston society ladies came in, each carrying a silver platter with a different delicacy inside (beef wellington, asparagus hollandaise, lobster, cheeses, etc.) and the platters were passed down the band table with everyone taking a hit, this was a wonderful gift for our brown rice deadened palates! To top it off, in the middle of the show Duke announced that he was going to play a piano solo 'dedicated to my fathers, who were far greater men than me", and played the most wonderful piano solo I have ever heard: rich, intellectual abstruse and still funky and earthy, encompassing every music style in European and American history. And did I mention that Coltrane's drummer Elvin Jones dropped in to catch a set, and exchanged hellos with Duke in the middle of a set, calling out to each other from bandstand to audience?
The next day we walked together on the boardwalk, and he said "Lee, you don't really like the night life and bars and drinking and all that. You want to be a part of a nice family with your gay lover, stay home and read your books. And in the Philippines they will just accept you as another part of the family! So yve to come to the Philippines. The family of your lover will take you in as part of the family, an in-law… And that's really what you want.”
Well that was not so appealing to me. Philippine cuisine is noted for pork seafood (shellfish) and pineapples. And being really hot. Now pork and seafood are illegal for Jews, and I hate pineapples and like snow. So I said "Maybe, maybe not."
And my friend replied "You will see, Lee, you will see." He gave me his camera and I took one of those instant-development photos that were big back then.
After that, Mike Gullage and I had another “make-up just to break up” back and forth, and eight years later we broke up for good as romantic partners. I had a lot of sex and several serious lovers after that - a lot of Black church singers and keyboardists (who gave me some lessons in Gospel music after the loving), a long affair with the rehearsal pianist for Dinah Shore and others of that era, some devoted Puerto Ricans when I was in New York; some gorgeous White boys in New England and West Hollywood - not to mention constantly going back and forth with Mike Gullage - but all the time I kept that photo and thought of the prophecy.
Well, in 1987 my Rabbi was terrified that I would catch AIDS, and commanded me "Lee, you need to find someone who will satisfy your mind and soul and keep you from running around into danger."
So that same night I went to several gay bars looking for a possible lover, but all the people seemed cold, arrogant, and looking for sex with no attachments. Finally I went to a bar near my apartment - Mugi's - which specialized in Asian-White romances. And of all the different nationalities I had balled over the years, Asians struck me as the most intellectual. And the clientele in Mugi’s seemed much more friendly to each other, and there as much for conversation as for sex. So I thought to myself “This bar seems to be more humane than the others.”
So I went into Mugi's, leaned against a wall, and in less than a minute Rodel came up to me and we talked. I instantly asked him if he wanted to come home with me, and he said "Deliriously!" Well, I loved that unique phrasing Rodel has, and he was absolutely beautiful at that time, and since Rodel is a quarter-Chinese I thought he was Chinese. All I remember of that night is the next morning, when I woke up feeling more refreshed and energized than I had in years, and instantly proposed. And that's when I discovered that I had married a Filipino after all!
(And just as well I did, as Rodel is a brilliant doctor and in two weeks cured me of some chronic diseases and a swollen gland) And 35 years later, here I am in the Philippines - still avoiding pork and shellfish, but discovering delicious salmon, tuna, bangus, and other Jewishly legal seafood;
Rodel's family found us a home in the second coolest part of the Philippines, Tagaytay-Mendez region, and a job for me paying keyboard for a large Methodist church in whch they were long-established, and at last count I had well over 2,000 books which I read nightly when not watching Netflix with Dr. Rodel. When I I fell victim to with Parkinson's disease, his doctor sister and doctor nephew came down from Manila to keep me company. So the prophecy was fulfilled, 15 years after it was made.
4) Sweet Blindness: Death by Purple Jumpsuit
Once the Other Side audience had opened their ears to our San Francisco style of long improvisations, there was no going back to the note-for-note copying that they had wanted before. And with our self-confidence boosted to the skies after the Duke Ellington experience, we played consistently better and better. So now, with our record of blue collar and frat bar successes, we got the interest of one of the biggest music booking agencies in Boston.
They signed us up, but with the following conditions: a) change the band name from Pavlov's Dogs to Sweet Blindness; b) add a woman singer who would bring more variety to our repertoire; and c) wear a uniform of matching purple jumpsuits with a white ruffled shirt, almost a blouse. With these changes they thought we were ready to move up the economic ladder to classier bars, cocktail lounges, and the most expensive bars and lounges in Boston.
At first all went well. Our new singer, Elaine, had a more rhythmic repertory that emphasized soul and Latin rock. I loved the music change, because now I could dig into the Black and Latin grooves where my heart was, while still refining my country-rock skills with the rest of our song list. And we made much more money: we moved up from hamburger helper to Italian hero sandwiches and pizza, and could afford to see movies and buy books.
But then, by a year later, all went South and the band broke up. The first problem was that Elaine, voluptuous womanhood personified, was smitten by Frosty, the ultimate in classy machismo. (The two would have made a great cover for a 'bodice-ripper' paperback romance). So, they had an affair. Now I tried to warn Frosty against this: because all the time I was in the San Francisco rock scene I was told over and over again that it was fatal for two band members to have an affair, because unless they became permanent partners, once they broke up the band's demise was soon to follow. But Frosty was sure that two mature people could handle such a situation.
Well, not. After a few months they did break up, and Elaine could no longer work in the same band as Frosty, so out went our female singer and all of her repertoire. We were back to the same repertoire we'd had as Pavlov's Dogs - but now, with a totally inappropriate image.
We had lost the woman singer who was the reason for the name and clothes changes, and the new image we had did not fit our repertory and style at all! The blue-collar bars that liked our country-rock did not like this half-gay, half mid-60s glitter band look. And our most macho members - Frosty and Brent - looked ridiculous now. I mean, Brent was 100 percent cowboy, and looked it. You just can't look more cowboy than that! And in a Velcro purple jumpsuit with big white ruffles sticking out from the shirt neck, well, it was totally incongruous! And Frosty now looked like the Homeric episode of Achilles among the women, when the Greek hero to avoid fighting in the Trojan War disguised himself in women's clothing and stayed inside the women's quarters for a year.
And of course, the name change - Sweet Blindness - bore no relation at all to our country-rock blue collar repertory.
So, once Brandy left, our bookings went downhill. We made less money, played grungier and grungier clubs, until finally we were put on what might be called 'the tax-loss circuit'": lounges designed to lose money to fit the tax scheme of the corporation that owned them all. We wound up playing to audiences of less than 10 people in shoddy Las Vegas-style lounges.
After a few months of this, the band split up. Brent and Jerry went back to Wyoming. I stayed in the original apartment, but at this point I was idiotically into gay politics, and wanted a gay apartment-mate along with me and my spouse Michael Gullage, and so Frosty moved to Cambridge (really an idiotic move, since Frosty was the one who married us in his capacity as Universal Life Church Minister). Frosty immediately got work in several rock bands, while no one wanted to hire an out-front gay keyboardist with just average technique.
This was the start of the two most poverty-stricken years of my life - the Basement and Beacon Hill years described in the next section of this memoir. Frosty worked as a rhythm guitarist with some famous 60s acts for a while- notably Chubby Checker- became a superb guitarist, but then gave up music for law school. After passing the bar exam in California and working as a lawyer for a few years, he decided he hated law and lawyers. Frosty wound up as the postmaster of a coastal Hawaiian town, which gave him the opportunity to surf daily. He continued reading a lot, exercising tremendously, and having affairs with beautiful blondes, often stewardesses, before settling down to a permanent relationship with Judy around 2008.
Frosty and I stayed in touch via the internet, and we have visited each other several times, from Hawaii to the Philippines and vice-versa. His neighbor is the brilliant writer Paul Theroux. They became close friends, and supposedly Paul combined parts of Frosty's life and character with those of several other surfers he knew to create the hero of in his recent novel “Under the wave at Waimea”. (Here's a fun game: using my story about Frosty as a base, see if you can figure out which parts of Paul's surfer is Frosty: hint - Frosty completed college and is not tattooed. So what parts ARE Frosty?? Hmmmmm .......)
Brent stayed with country and guitar, and is now a regular in the Nashville scene. He became famous when playing in a Broadway production based on the life and songs of Johnny Cash, and then travelling Europe as 'the Global Cowboy’, playing in Switzerland, Austria, and elsewhere in Western Europe. Brent's career shows the advantage of sticking to one main style - in his case, the western side of country - for most of your performances, while adding a little extra on the side (playing mariachi trumpet in border-style compositions of his). Check out his website and on my YouTube site, his fantastic solo on Ghost Riders in the Sky, live in Europe.
“Ghost Riders” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5wvHN7iZzM
One more story - a joke on me! I was always putting down country music as compared to jazz, to Brent's great annoyance, not to mention acting and talking as if he was musically way below my lever. So sometime around 1974, after Brent had moved to Nashville, he showed up at my apartment with a chord chart and his guitar. He said "Lee, let's play this song here. It was a very fast waltz with lots of chords, most of them just triads, but a different chord every measure (and since it was a waltz, only 3 beats to get that chord, not the usual 4). So of course, I flubbed it, was lost by the fourth measure and had to stop playing. "Ha!" exclaimed Brent. And he picked up the sheet and left. By 12 years later we were on good terms again. Brent and Frosty came to watch Creation City play at the Co-Art coffeehouse, and Brent sat in for the last four tunes. Now we are Internet buddies, sharing posts, and I tip my hat to Brent's playing and international success.
Brent Sitting in with Me, Mel and David Gaines at Co-Art Studios – Rev. James Cleveland’s “May the Lord G. Bless You Real Good” (unrehearsed) c. 1984
Brent Moyer with Creation City - “May the Lord G. Bless You Real Good”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTgkaCn51D0
And this story does have a MORAL, one very important for any artist to know: DON'T KNOCK A STYLE UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY MASTERED IT, or else sooner or later there will be a lot of EGG on your face!
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| Reunion after 30 years: Me, Frosty, and my spouse Dr. Baldoz having finished a wonderful meal at Wilson's Bed and Breakfast in Anuling, three days before the COVID shutdown. |
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