______ INNOVATION ______ LARKS TONGUES IN ASPIC PT. 2

ALL ABOUT ME

With 776,000 visitors more than a few have questioned me about my music. For about 5 years when I moved from the Garage to the Stage I played authentic Chicago Blues, not cover songs of the cool bands of the day. I even went on pilgrimages a few times a year to Chicago to buy records made by independents at a time when independent labels in Rock did not really exist.

In 1969 a Welsh keyboard player who as the cliche goes was 'Just Off The Boat' brought his Brit record collection and put me on to a record that just came out that he had brought just before leaving the UK.

It was a new band King Crimson and the record was In the Court of the Crimson King. I was blown away.

The only guys that played on this level of expertise were playing straight Jazz. The was no such thing as a Jazz Rock for another year. The music borrowed from Hendrix, BeBop players like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and included classical musicians like Bartok, Satie, DeBussy and Stravinsky. But they did not copy or clone these influences but used them only as the inspiration to create a new music. They invented a genre. Even Fripps played a Marshall stack using what can only be thought of now as a Metal sound. It predate Sabbath. Bands like Yes and Genesis were watching Crimson live before they even recorded a record. Crimson changed music. It allowed for Metal sounds, virtuosity and a free use of all of musics vocabulary to be part of Rock.

I quit my Blues gig and sought out the Crimson influences and started on a life time journey of playing my own music the same way by not copying other guitar players but making my own music  from the influence of listening to endless hours of listening to early BeBop and the cool Jazz that followed it along with Bartok, Satie, Debussy and Stravinsky.

By '71 I felt ready and hopped a plane over the ocean and moved to London's West End. I joined Tallis a new Prog Rock band and played the same clubs that 99% of all bands that made it big played before being signed.

In '73 Larks Tongues in Aspic came out. When I heard Pt.2 I instantly recognized it's main influence. The rhythm was from the Bartok 5th String Quartet with bit of Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring. I had written a different tune using the same inspirations. It was also a surprise that this Crimson had a violinist since Tallis had a violinist.

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the fine print

I saw the band I met Robert a couple of times.

I was offered a chance to take lessons from him along with 4 other players but I couldn't even pay my rent, lol so.

I am 76. I have since added a healthy dose of theory for my efforts. I was using most of it already but it was by ear and the formal theory makes a mathematical sense of it.

For about 5 years I have had a trio to play my music and have used the same bass player also a contributing member and 3 different drummers.

They all have serious session gigs. There isn't any serious money doing all originals, lol. All 3 guys love the music and I use whoever is free for the gig. I rehearse and write every day using a Drum machine for a timekeeper. When there is a new tune to learn than they come over and and learn the tune. The bass player quite often work with mr separately to collaborate and critique my tunes.

At present I am at the beginning of a long DAW curve so we can record the band.