During this time, late 1974 to 1975, I played with the R&B group Smoke (see above, Part Two, Chapter 12)
While I loved John and Huey’s playing, it seemed to me that the guitarist was just fair, and not really adding to the groove. But I thought if I could get Jack Jarnis, the brilliant wah-wah guitarist from Kelly St.John, into the group, we would have a tremendous rhythm section.
The leader of Smoke said Jack could sit in the next Friday, but before that Friday came John Kleckley gave us the grim news that next week would be the last time he played secular music: he had become Jehovah’s Witness! So for just one weekend I had the pleasure of playing with a dream rhythm section, and then it was all over. But I will always remember the beautiful living groove that my favorite trio – Jack, John, and Huey – created. Playing on top of their collective sound was like surfing for me – one of my most wonderful moments in music
Once Kleckley left, then soon after his rhythm partner Huey the bassist left too. And when Huey left, Jack took me aside and told me he also was leaving. “Lee,”he said, ‘”once Huey leaves, you will be the only real musician in the band, and there will be a lot of weight on your shoulders with not much compensation. Think about it.”
Well, the new drummer was a cymbal freak - I called him the man from Hammer films (that British movie company that usually opened its film with a muscleman smiting a big cymbal with a huge hammer)… It was all cymbals from the drums almost all the time, loud ones too, and as the new bassist was very weak, there was no groove at all coming from the rhythm section. I quit two weeks later.
Since Jack was still at loose ends I invited him to play on some of Ben Petrucci’s gigs. Jack and Ben met In my apartment, and their sounds melded right away. Jack was awestruck by Ben’s knowledge of theory, and ability to play on so many instruments and in so many styles. “Lee, the man is a genius! Playing with him will be like going to school.”” So for the next few months Jack played on some of Ben’s gigs.
Later, Jack described his admiration for Ben in a P.R. release Jack wrote for Creation CIty. “Ben has played every type of arrangement in Boston, from strip bars in the (Combat) Zone to social engagements at the Dorothy Quincy Suite of the Hancock building. His love and knowledge of all music, from Onette Coleman to Mancini have made him a musician’s musician … His arrangements are in the books of most of the working big bands in New England.”). Ben wrote out all the horn arrangements for our songs, staffed our band with players from his casuals gigs, and played saxophone, clarinet, and flute on the recordings that have survived. ) He also played oboe on a wonderful Near Eastern sounding jam that has been killed by CD/cassette rot, alas. Jack and Charley made the most wonderful groove on that lost track, and Ben’s oboe was killer – I can still hear it in memory.
Jack had similarly blown me away when we played together in Kelly St. John. He had the best and most versatile wah-wah guitar I have ever heard, then or now. Aside from the basic function of wah-wah, to keep a groove going, Jack could make it sound like a Near Eastern instrument, an oud or a zither. And finally, he could get great sound effects – hear his seagulls at the end of “Cranberry Dreams.”
The final five members came from Ben’s bands. Claudio Roditi was already famous in the jazz world – his later career included playing with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Rouse, and Herbie Mann. He got a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz album in 2009. Claudio played as a sideman on 51 albums, and as a leader on 19 more. He had come from Brazil to study at Berklee, and after less than a year was already the most well-known soloist from the school. You can’t eat fame, though, not right away, and Claudio was yet another musician whose gigs with Ben Petrucci kept body and soul together. Ben would pick him up for every gig in Ben’s TransAm along with the rest of his crew that might be carless.
The drummer on all the jams and the recordings was Charley Spooner, whom I thought of as the ‘Celtic Madman’, because of the wild expressions beaming out from his face when drumming. A short, muscular guy with blonde hair falling over his face. Charley was one of the two white drummers I worked with in my life who always played a solid and inspiring beat (the other being Steve Barbose from Chambray); he played with Ben and me when we did that Southie army farewell party with the broken piano (cf. ‘Ben Petrucci’
We went through two bassists = for “Spring Will Come” we had Lance Furbart, a Rasta-influenced bassist from Bermuda, who played in our studio session after finishing a gig with the Bermuda Strollers at the Sugar Shack (Boston). Ben’s regular bassist, Charlie Edwards, played bass on the other Creation City recordings. A big man, he could project that fat, rich sound that Ben always liked to give a foundation for his music.
The final member of Creation City was a high school trombonist and a pupil of Ben’s, Cory Nisson. Cory was still learning and didn’t play any virtuoso solos, but played with such strong feeling on his solos that some listeners said he had more heart than even Claudio. As I hear it, both horns are wonderful in the free jazz sections of Spring Will Come and Cranberry Jams.
While I loved John and Huey’s playing, it seemed to me that the guitarist was just fair, and not really adding to the groove. But I thought if I could get Jack Jarnis, the brilliant wah-wah guitarist from Kelly St.John, into the group, we would have a tremendous rhythm section.
The leader of Smoke said Jack could sit in the next Friday, but before that Friday came John Kleckley gave us the grim news that next week would be the last time he played secular music: he had become Jehovah’s Witness! So for just one weekend I had the pleasure of playing with a dream rhythm section, and then it was all over. But I will always remember the beautiful living groove that my favorite trio – Jack, John, and Huey – created. Playing on top of their collective sound was like surfing for me – one of my most wonderful moments in music
Once Kleckley left, then soon after his rhythm partner Huey the bassist left too. And when Huey left, Jack took me aside and told me he also was leaving. “Lee,”he said, ‘”once Huey leaves, you will be the only real musician in the band, and there will be a lot of weight on your shoulders with not much compensation. Think about it.”
Well, the new drummer was a cymbal freak - I called him the man from Hammer films (that British movie company that usually opened its film with a muscleman smiting a big cymbal with a huge hammer)… It was all cymbals from the drums almost all the time, loud ones too, and as the new bassist was very weak, there was no groove at all coming from the rhythm section. I quit two weeks later.
Since Jack was still at loose ends I invited him to play on some of Ben Petrucci’s gigs. Jack and Ben met In my apartment, and their sounds melded right away. Jack was awestruck by Ben’s knowledge of theory, and ability to play on so many instruments and in so many styles. “Lee, the man is a genius! Playing with him will be like going to school.”” So for the next few months Jack played on some of Ben’s gigs.
Later, Jack described his admiration for Ben in a P.R. release Jack wrote for Creation CIty. “Ben has played every type of arrangement in Boston, from strip bars in the (Combat) Zone to social engagements at the Dorothy Quincy Suite of the Hancock building. His love and knowledge of all music, from Onette Coleman to Mancini have made him a musician’s musician … His arrangements are in the books of most of the working big bands in New England.”). Ben wrote out all the horn arrangements for our songs, staffed our band with players from his casuals gigs, and played saxophone, clarinet, and flute on the recordings that have survived. ) He also played oboe on a wonderful Near Eastern sounding jam that has been killed by CD/cassette rot, alas. Jack and Charley made the most wonderful groove on that lost track, and Ben’s oboe was killer – I can still hear it in memory.
Jack had similarly blown me away when we played together in Kelly St. John. He had the best and most versatile wah-wah guitar I have ever heard, then or now. Aside from the basic function of wah-wah, to keep a groove going, Jack could make it sound like a Near Eastern instrument, an oud or a zither. And finally, he could get great sound effects – hear his seagulls at the end of “Cranberry Dreams.”
The final five members came from Ben’s bands. Claudio Roditi was already famous in the jazz world – his later career included playing with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Rouse, and Herbie Mann. He got a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz album in 2009. Claudio played as a sideman on 51 albums, and as a leader on 19 more. He had come from Brazil to study at Berklee, and after less than a year was already the most well-known soloist from the school. You can’t eat fame, though, not right away, and Claudio was yet another musician whose gigs with Ben Petrucci kept body and soul together. Ben would pick him up for every gig in Ben’s TransAm along with the rest of his crew that might be carless.
The drummer on all the jams and the recordings was Charley Spooner, whom I thought of as the ‘Celtic Madman’, because of the wild expressions beaming out from his face when drumming. A short, muscular guy with blonde hair falling over his face. Charley was one of the two white drummers I worked with in my life who always played a solid and inspiring beat (the other being Steve Barbose from Chambray); he played with Ben and me when we did that Southie army farewell party with the broken piano (cf. ‘Ben Petrucci’
We went through two bassists = for “Spring Will Come” we had Lance Furbart, a Rasta-influenced bassist from Bermuda, who played in our studio session after finishing a gig with the Bermuda Strollers at the Sugar Shack (Boston). Ben’s regular bassist, Charlie Edwards, played bass on the other Creation City recordings. A big man, he could project that fat, rich sound that Ben always liked to give a foundation for his music.
The final member of Creation City was a high school trombonist and a pupil of Ben’s, Cory Nisson. Cory was still learning and didn’t play any virtuoso solos, but played with such strong feeling on his solos that some listeners said he had more heart than even Claudio. As I hear it, both horns are wonderful in the free jazz sections of Spring Will Come and Cranberry Jams.
CREATION CITY IS BORN: RECORDINGS
Spring Will Come – description
This was a mini-suite, where the same basic two to three chord pattern was put through 4 very different styles, with the first section repeating at the end for a total of 5 sections. I composed the order of styles/grooves, while Ben composed all the horn parts and the written (as opposed to ad lib) ensembles.
First came a vocal sung by Jack, sort of as if Steve Sondheim had written a pop-rock ballad; then a hard-driving fusion rock solo by Claudio Roditi on trumpet; then Benny on clarinet, with just bass and guitar and light drums backing him up, no piano (the bassist Lance Furbart from Jamaica was with us just for this one recording); then I solo in a really old-fashioned Mexican style; finally we come back to the first style, enhanced by a lot of free style obbligatos and jack’s vocal experiments.
This was a mini-suite, where the same basic two to three chord pattern was put through 4 very different styles, with the first section repeating at the end for a total of 5 sections. I composed the order of styles/grooves, while Ben composed all the horn parts and the written (as opposed to ad lib) ensembles.
First came a vocal sung by Jack, sort of as if Steve Sondheim had written a pop-rock ballad; then a hard-driving fusion rock solo by Claudio Roditi on trumpet; then Benny on clarinet, with just bass and guitar and light drums backing him up, no piano (the bassist Lance Furbart from Jamaica was with us just for this one recording); then I solo in a really old-fashioned Mexican style; finally we come back to the first style, enhanced by a lot of free style obbligatos and jack’s vocal experiments.
Spring Will Come - recording
Cranberry Dreams = on archive
CRANBERRY DREAMS – description
“Cranberry Dreams” suffers from studio freeze for much of its 12 minutes. Also, the concept that this music was to reflect Provincetown – cranberry bogs, beaches and seagulls, and Mike’s parties – was not always understood.
As a result, the opening and ending work, while the middle is a disaster. So I have posted the first and last three minutes, and cut out the middle. So the listener is brought into the sweet beach scene of Provincetown at the start, and
then merges into the ending three minutes which go from one of Mike’s late night parties to the seagulls flying over the beach at dawn. The climax is Jack’s wonderful seagull sounds on guitar, augmented by Jerry’s help from the bass to end the piece.
Cranberry Jam - recording
(archive link)
We recorded a couple more home pieces, then it was time for me to pack up and go to the big city (first I would try New York, then Los Angeles). Mike Gullage sent me a letter from P’town with the exciting news that he had won a scholarship, complete with money for food and lodging, and was going to Los Angeles that summer. This was a strong incentive for me to choose that metropolis, but first I wanted to visit my parents at our family home in Westbury one more time, and check out the New York jazz teaching scene.
After I left, Ben and Jack tried to keep Creation City going, calling their sessions “Creation City East” while what Mel and I were doing was Creation City West. Jack and Ben tried to keep it going until 1977, when it broke up.
Ben continued his career as a performer and arranger/composer until now; he also started playing regularly in an African Christian church (for the details, see the ‘Ben Petrucc’ chapter in this blog).
The last I heard from Jack was a letter he sent in 1980. He was putting together a commercial trio with two friends – guitarist and drummer, jack playing bass. The guitarist was a Berklee teacher, where jack himself planned to enroll as a student in the fall. Jack’s biggest news was that he was going to get married on May 3, 1980, in Greenwich, Connecticut. He closed the letter saying he was “about to leave to go apartment hunting with Jane. Ah, the bliss and joy of nuptial entanglement!” He said he would mail me an invitation, but either I lost it over the years or it wasn’t sent. Victor heard a few years that Jack HAD married Jane, and that is the last that I or any of our mutual friends have heard of Jack.
Hey bro, thanks for all the wonderful bass playing and composing and jamming we did in the 1970s. You can hear your bass or guitar and/or vocals on 9 of the 100 plus pieces on my YouTube site,
Jack Jarnis is featured on these clips, all available on the main website link:
Spring Will Come; and the six Kelly St. John numbers:
- Don't Wanna Lose You
- Riverflies
- Rock and Roll Rainstorm
- Catchin Time on a Train
- State of Mind
- I Hear You Call My Name
And my favorites, of course, are the wah-wah guitar on “Cranberry Jam” and the seagull cries at the end of “Cranberry Dreams.”
I had come to Boston from San Francisco to learn music. Although combined with a lot of poverty and hard times, Boston gave me the music education I was looking for. And I sure had some ‘bright moments’ (a Rahsaan Roland Kirk saying) on the way - the jam sessions, the two months of life at the top in Baltimore, the philosophic dialogues at the Cooperative Artists Institute, and the really exhilarating and wonderful performances, starting with Frosty at the Other Side and continuing right up to my last gigs with Ben Petrucci. Not to mention the seriously good Italian cooking at restaurants throughout the city.
So, all in all, I had a fairly good time while getting the music education I needed. And all I needed for performing and for teaching. Thanks, Boston! You made me a musician.
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I had come to Boston from San Francisco to learn music. Although combined with a lot of poverty and hard times, Boston gave me the music education I was looking for. And I sure had some ‘bright moments’ (a Rahsaan Roland Kirk saying) on the way - the jam sessions, the two months of life at the top in Baltimore, the philosophic dialogues at the Cooperative Artists Institute, and the really exhilarating and wonderful performances, starting with Frosty at the Other Side and continuing right up to my last gigs with Ben Petrucci. Not to mention the seriously good Italian cooking at restaurants throughout the city.
So, all in all, I had a fairly good time while getting the music education I needed. And all I needed for performing and for teaching. Thanks, Boston! You made me a musician.
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