Once I had finished the course, I needed to get into Cal State LA. I was ready to go to L.A. I had sent Mickey enough money to rent a piano for the apartment earlier, I had gotten my passing ‘B’grade, my parents had bought me a used but still functioning VW Beetle, so all was set for my move West.
For around ten minutes this parallel motion – me in my VW, the columns in their military formation – continued, and then thankfully the highway veered left while the tornadoes continued moving straight down their own path, so we went our separate ways.
Now the average music or pop star biography goes like this: starting with an exciting episode from the height of the star’s career; then going often deeply into the family background and adolescence of the star, then following the star’s progress until we finally reach the time of the exciting episode which begins the book.
Now I think this is a really confusing and off-putting approach. The reader jumps from the hot episode into the long cold bath of family background, so that by the time we reach the stage of the subject’s career which started the book, we have forgotten a lot of what that episode was about – so we get a recap.
So I decided to put the ‘family and youth’ (Part Four) right where there was a natural break in my life. From Berkeley to my decision to move West makes one continuous story line. I went directly from my San Francisco hippy band to my Boston studies and precision country-rock band (literally: after my last Berkeley band performance one of their friends drove me to the airport, and by the next day I was rehearsing with Frosty’s band.) The break-up of Frosty’s band led directly to my period of poverty, which is when I started my private teacher lessons and at the same time, my studying and playing with Tribal Rhythms, and almost simultaneously, playing with Ben Petrucci’s combo. Then the Kelly St. John band grew directly from Tribal Rhythms (two members of the band had been hanging with or even a leading member of Tribal Rhythms). Then came my Kenmore Square solo life, but still studying with the same teachers as before, still playing with Ben Petrucci, still having my revivifying visits to the Tribal Rhythms commune, and still enjoying the occasional visits of Michael Gullage. So you can see that from the time I started free jazz until the mid-70s, it was one continuum of music and learning and fun.
But once I moved to LA, a new continuum began. Being in LA, on the Southwest part of the US, directly opposite of the Atlantic Northeast, I played with a whole new set of musicians and bands., and what teaching I received was informally from church and R&B keyboardists, not written but, as Mingus has said, “mostly mouth to mouth”” (Mingus, “Freedom””, from his suite Epitaph).
So my drive West makes a natural breaking point in my narrative – so what better place to insert my family history, as my VW moves Westward. With nothing to see but those 5 minutes of terrifying tornadoes, lets entertain ourselves with the most interesting things I can tell about my family and how each family member made a different impact on my musical beginnings. They all have pretty interesting stories about their own lives, which I will include in summary form along with some photos.
I will give each family member a chapter, focusing on what they gave me musically. Now if you are not interested in any family stuff, just skip ahead into Part Five: Mel Wiggins. Creation City, and the Joys of Hollywood and East L.A.
But just so you won’t miss the essentials of what my family gave me, here they are:
Dad – the Ozark/’hillbilly’s style of country melody, and eyes to see; family hikes on the New England mountains.
Mom – classical ears and classical technique, and jazz of the 30s and 40s; and some really fine English and French cooking; and her and Dad’s intellectual soirees.
Maria – tremendous enthusiasm pushing my music and for me to keep going no matter what - and a George Russell recording and her own life moving from adolescent despair to a being a prize-winning novelist and a beloved member of feminist and Jewish circles in Berkeley and Albuquerque.
Mike – introducing me to Afro-American music of the 50s and 60s (almost all of it), and leading a clique in high school which kept me sane and happy for two years. (This chapter includes a list of 50 of the R&B and jazz musicians that most influenced him).
Me - closing with Me and some of the local African-American community, which during my worst Asperger years (ages 9 to 15) gave me
shelter, as a sort of ‘’protected species’’, so that I never even once had to endure the beatings that were so often handed out to Michael Gullage and his friends.
They also were the first to tell me I was a Jew, which led me eventually to my high school introduction to Judaism.
So that for me Martin Buber’s Hasidic tales and WLIB’s
Gospel Train fused into one joyous road to Adonai. Hallelujah!
As I said, above are the basics of my background, so if you want to continue the plot , just jump into Part Five, meet Mel, Leigh, Lino Rodriguez, Sabine and many other fine people from 1970s Los Angeles – what a blast that was!
But if you go right on reading this Part Four, it sure is more fun than
watching the acres of farmland and endless highway go on by. It’s a fourday drive to Los Angeles, after all.
For around ten minutes this parallel motion – me in my VW, the columns in their military formation – continued, and then thankfully the highway veered left while the tornadoes continued moving straight down their own path, so we went our separate ways.
Now the average music or pop star biography goes like this: starting with an exciting episode from the height of the star’s career; then going often deeply into the family background and adolescence of the star, then following the star’s progress until we finally reach the time of the exciting episode which begins the book.
Now I think this is a really confusing and off-putting approach. The reader jumps from the hot episode into the long cold bath of family background, so that by the time we reach the stage of the subject’s career which started the book, we have forgotten a lot of what that episode was about – so we get a recap.
So I decided to put the ‘family and youth’ (Part Four) right where there was a natural break in my life. From Berkeley to my decision to move West makes one continuous story line. I went directly from my San Francisco hippy band to my Boston studies and precision country-rock band (literally: after my last Berkeley band performance one of their friends drove me to the airport, and by the next day I was rehearsing with Frosty’s band.) The break-up of Frosty’s band led directly to my period of poverty, which is when I started my private teacher lessons and at the same time, my studying and playing with Tribal Rhythms, and almost simultaneously, playing with Ben Petrucci’s combo. Then the Kelly St. John band grew directly from Tribal Rhythms (two members of the band had been hanging with or even a leading member of Tribal Rhythms). Then came my Kenmore Square solo life, but still studying with the same teachers as before, still playing with Ben Petrucci, still having my revivifying visits to the Tribal Rhythms commune, and still enjoying the occasional visits of Michael Gullage. So you can see that from the time I started free jazz until the mid-70s, it was one continuum of music and learning and fun.
But once I moved to LA, a new continuum began. Being in LA, on the Southwest part of the US, directly opposite of the Atlantic Northeast, I played with a whole new set of musicians and bands., and what teaching I received was informally from church and R&B keyboardists, not written but, as Mingus has said, “mostly mouth to mouth”” (Mingus, “Freedom””, from his suite Epitaph).
So my drive West makes a natural breaking point in my narrative – so what better place to insert my family history, as my VW moves Westward. With nothing to see but those 5 minutes of terrifying tornadoes, lets entertain ourselves with the most interesting things I can tell about my family and how each family member made a different impact on my musical beginnings. They all have pretty interesting stories about their own lives, which I will include in summary form along with some photos.
I will give each family member a chapter, focusing on what they gave me musically. Now if you are not interested in any family stuff, just skip ahead into Part Five: Mel Wiggins. Creation City, and the Joys of Hollywood and East L.A.
But just so you won’t miss the essentials of what my family gave me, here they are:
Dad – the Ozark/’hillbilly’s style of country melody, and eyes to see; family hikes on the New England mountains.
Mom – classical ears and classical technique, and jazz of the 30s and 40s; and some really fine English and French cooking; and her and Dad’s intellectual soirees.
Maria – tremendous enthusiasm pushing my music and for me to keep going no matter what - and a George Russell recording and her own life moving from adolescent despair to a being a prize-winning novelist and a beloved member of feminist and Jewish circles in Berkeley and Albuquerque.
Mike – introducing me to Afro-American music of the 50s and 60s (almost all of it), and leading a clique in high school which kept me sane and happy for two years. (This chapter includes a list of 50 of the R&B and jazz musicians that most influenced him).
Me - closing with Me and some of the local African-American community, which during my worst Asperger years (ages 9 to 15) gave me
shelter, as a sort of ‘’protected species’’, so that I never even once had to endure the beatings that were so often handed out to Michael Gullage and his friends.
They also were the first to tell me I was a Jew, which led me eventually to my high school introduction to Judaism.
So that for me Martin Buber’s Hasidic tales and WLIB’s
Gospel Train fused into one joyous road to Adonai. Hallelujah!
As I said, above are the basics of my background, so if you want to continue the plot , just jump into Part Five, meet Mel, Leigh, Lino Rodriguez, Sabine and many other fine people from 1970s Los Angeles – what a blast that was!
But if you go right on reading this Part Four, it sure is more fun than
watching the acres of farmland and endless highway go on by. It’s a fourday drive to Los Angeles, after all.
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