Arts Rescue Mission -Aid For Aging Artists

   It all began, innocently enough, with a eureka moment, a brilliant fundraising concept cooked up between Houston artist James Surls and DiverseWorks: an idyllic picnic-like gathering for a contest to be held on Surls’ large studio ranch property out in the country under the trees near Splendora, Texas, forty miles north of Houston, a public call for participatory submittals in a friendly artist competition: unique musical instruments handmade from thrift store items.

   I have been a lifelong musician, performing with an endless musical maelstrom of rock bands, improvisational jazz groups, classical ensembles, over-the-top experimental collectives, composing for Shakespearean Theater, songwriting, making a name for myself as an unusual guitarist working with fruit and fresh vegetables, and even – at times - inflatable toys for maximum stage effect. There were extended times of actively playing in five groups at once, all while holding down a civil engineering day job. If I encountered some novel approach to music making, I invariably tried it. With glee. As Mr. Wilde once suggested, be yourself. Everybody else is already taken. I have always been myself. For better or worse.

   I met Michael Peranteau and Maximiliano Pruneda in 1982, when my band performed at the opening of the Center for Art and Performance (CAP), their new gallery/alternative art space, the site formerly a somewhat disreputable pool hall at 5613 Almeda Road, notorious for the brief visit (or non-visit) by Presidential Assassination Suspect David Ferrie (the roll of David Ferrie was played with such finesse by Joe Pesci in Olivier Stone’s film JFK, 1991), who had possibly dropped by on the day of the JFK assassination before definitely going to the Roller Skating Rink on Shepherd Drive, which later became part of the U.S. Post Office complex just north of Highway 59, all detailed in an astonishingly flat tone in the Warren Commission Report, 1964.

   Michael Peranteau and I hit it off and stayed in touch through the years, especially during New Music America, 1986, where I wore two hats, both as performer and sound engineer. Around that time, I became involved in the Commerce Street Artist Warehouse collective of artists. DiverseWorks came into being, showcasing visual, performing, and literary arts, before sadly burning down in 1989. DW soon moved over to The Docks near East Freeway, and Michael Peranteau requested I become part of the new series NewMusicTalks, discussions of Modern Classical and Experimental Music.

   I should mention that I have, as a lifelong writer, been incessantly drawn to the rather unorthodox historical nuances of Modern Classical Music, often termed Art Music, all those challenging pieces wealthy elderly patrons roll their eyes at while instantly manifesting a headache, precluding any remote possibility of attending the symphony tonight, please give my condolences, etc. Soon I became the Director of The NewMusicTalks. (Only later did I find out it was all with the behind-the-scenes help of the marvelous Deborah Grotfeldt, who relentlessly championed my cause. Eternal Respect.)

   I met a number of modern young composers through the Talks, and six of us coalesced into a Contemporary Music Ensemble – CHEMICAL WEDDING - to perform our compositions. The core group included Elise Kermani, Kelli Scott Kelley, Bill Kelley, Mark Larson and Bill Day. And myself, of course. We played art galleries, alternative spaces, art openings, CSAW, The Artery: anywhere that we could gather people to listen to unconventional music. Soon we were finding surprising success, pulling in sizable crowds, especially the Shout Out Loud Festival, gathering a curious audience of several thousand over a two-day run, an astonishing figure for experimental music. All of which brought us, in the early nineties, to receive an invitation to play James Surls’ fundraiser in Splendora.