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The History as of Everyone comes from somewhere.
No one comes from NYC. Or so I thought, until I asked Tori
where she was from. She asked me to be specific. She asked if I needed to
know the location of the hospital, or the first home that she may or may not
recall. She was born at Gould was born in Be that as it may, everyone has their story. A fine storyteller, or as most cynics will suggest, a historian will take us on a journey through time and space. Many times, we are intrigued with provocative tales of passion, oppression, or deliverance. Other times, we are dropped off two stops too soon in a downpour with no umbrella. We are suspended amongst a multitude of wonderment where we must draw our own conclusions. We in turn pass along this information with a dash of subjectivity to keep things interesting. These dashes of subjectivity grow exponentially, and only take us farther from the truth. Preface aside. I am sitting out on the front porch on the longest day of the year. The temperature is typical of the season. Strong gusts have blown all day indicative of the surge of energy prior to a lightning storm. I find the aforesaid statement to be a metaphor of the Bossa Nova Beatniks current status. I met Gould during the winter of 1985. A friend of Gould's met a newly found friend of a friend of mine. I received a telephone call to fill-in for two gigs in the city. Coincidently, I was replacing a cat that I had gone to school with just several years prior. I had a great time playing with The Rhythm Bandits. However, due to my existing commitments, I was unable to join the band full time. A year of two later, I received
an invitation to a party at Gould’s house. Tom wanted to introduce me
to the O’Rourke brothers who were apparently in the market for a
drummer. The party was very cool and well attended. I met Gould’s
drummer Sandy, and the O’Rourke’s new drummer, Artie. Shortly
thereafter, Gould played the bass. I played drums. We worked out a bunch of material as well as a bunch of musicians; Mark Varon, Drew Zing, Gary Hood, Ron Rahilly, Alex Quinlan, Joe Quinlan and Joe Henderson. It was a bit of a revolving door, but the breeze it created was very cool. From a live performance stand
point, we had a blast. The variety of musicians brought a tremendous level of
excitement. Our only objective was to have fun and play our music. We played
a number gigs at various clubs throughout the Gould and I had discussed our next step. We decided that performing on a regular basis should generate some level of interest. We needed a cool place to play. Naturally, we decided to ask Tom Hosier for assistance. Hosier generously provided us with the Monday night early spot at the Nightingale. We committed to perform there for an entire year. Our opening line-up consisted
of Joe Henderson on guitar, Gould on bass and vocals and me on drums. Many
fine musicians sat-in with us or signed-on for a short period of time. Also,
many fine bands would follow us on Mondays after their weekends of traveling
throughout the tri-state area. We had the pleasure of sharing nights with
Blues Traveler, The Spin Doctors, God Street Wine, Michael Powers and Zen
Mambo. We also established wonderful friendships. Jerry Dugger
and Jono Manson from the Both of these gentlemen were
highly in-demand musicians. Jono would work six
nights a week and then spend his one day off playing with us. Eventually, Jono decided to move on. He has since moved out to the
southwest US where he continues to enlighten and thrill people with his
talents. His recording of "Miss Fabulous" was used in the movie
"Kingpin" and Jono himself was in Kevin
Costner's film, "The Postman". Fortunately, we were able to capture
a smokin' Jono track on
our first CD, Eleven Eleven. Jerry was also very
busy working with several blues projects and forming and fronting his own
bands, Slapmeat Johnson and the Titans (that
recorded a soulful version of Gould's "Behave Yourself" on their
"October Son" CD), and later Jerry Dugger
and the Black Pearls. After the departure of Jono and Jerry, we learned of the break-up of the Wren Boys. The Wren Boys were Eddie and Rob O'Rourke and graphic artist Artie on Drums. We hooked-up with Rob who played bass. We were hoping that he would enjoy our project and convince brother Eddie to join. After several weeks of rehearsal and "negotiations", Eddie arrived with his guitar. Immediately, this line-up established a brand new and exciting identity. The years of Tom and I playing together along with the O'Rourke brothers' telepathic communications brought a tremendous euphoria and inspiration. We had to capture this sound on disk. We had called ourselves the
Flyboys (even before the Fly Girls of Kenan Ivory Wayans’ In Living Color), then the San Diego
Flyboys so as not to confuse us with the Flyboys who were actually from Our first CD project was a
conglomeration of Gould songs and O’Rourke songs. This line-up seemed
magical. At times, no other communication was necessary but the sounds of our
instruments. There was one particular rehearsal on Since Gould was funding the
project, all was not lost. He scrambled to replace six O’Rourke songs
with other suitable Gould songs. Since he had to find material from his own
tunes, the completion of the record was relatively easy as far as song
selection was concerned, however quite difficult for loss on many levels. The
excitement of our first CD was dulled, though only momentarily. As the wounds healed shortly after the completion of the record, Gould realized that there is no place like home, and sought to assemble an ensemble to groove on sultry front porch swing and smooth Caribbean and Afro-Cuban rhythms very much like he had done at Carnegie Recital Hall some time ago with Roy Lechich, Cynthia Post, Catherine Romano, Randy Schweller, Donald Brown, and since departed percussionist Carl Bryant. Gould went to a party at Felice Diamond's house where he met George ‘Ding Ding’ Meier. He was playing congas. They jammed together for hours. He and Gould had so much fun that they decided to have a go of it. As they evolved, Ding Ding assembled an impressive rack-o-percussion, which included bongos, temple blocks, bells, tom-toms and a various assortment of other percussive instruments. Ding Ding’s impressive rack was aesthetically beautiful.............beautiful to behold in both sight and sound. The new band also consisted of Surfer John Wagner (Ditch Plains). Being the loyal chap that he is, Gould called me to let me know how much fun they were
having supporting the I went to a rehearsal and
played Gould’s bongos. I expressed to him that I didn’t hear
bongos on every song. But, congas as well as bongos would be a solid place to
start. I went down to the We were very happy doing our
acoustic bongo Beatnik thing that emphasized song and groove. Gould was playing
acoustic guitar. Ding Ding played the rack; Jerry Dugger and Surfer John shared bass duties. I was playing
congas. Our second CD Heart To Beat was well underway with the personnel
intact for the most part. We also brought in a cast of friends like Danny Wilensky, Roy Lechich -, Paul Gebhardt, Buford O'Sullivan from the Scofflaws and the
Lovely Wonderfuls (aka
The Sugar Magnolias), Terry Day, Kathy Kavanagh,
Annie Mark, Joan Pollack. In the mean time the
‘moon unit’ was performing at many outdoor festivals in and
around the Eventually, Nick left to pursue
his love of SKA music. He put together Spider Nick and The Maddogs who have enjoyed success throughout When it came time to support Heart To Beat, which was mixed and mastered by Katherine Miller, I ended up playing bass (after much pleading from Tom). We found another conguero, Ray Jensen. Ray brought a unique perspective and very solid hands. We considered Heart To Beat to
be a more cohesive effort than its predecessor Eleven Eleven
which we felt was more a collection of songs than a piece of work unto
itself. In Heart To Beat, we seemed to all have the same mind set-- chillin' and kicking back with your toes in the sand.
Apparently, listeners thought so also. We enjoyed success outside of our area
with air play and chart positions in The advance money from our
import afforded us new equipment, namely the Roland VS-880. Gould and I
started on preliminary tracks for our third CD. Initially, we faced several
challenges. Gould was learning how to operate the new machine and we were
laying down bass and drum tracks with hardly an idea of the direction of the
songs. Numerous tracks where collected and assembled and "Frankensteined" into the finished product. Much to
our delight, many people were impressed with the quality of our production as
well as the now characteristic Beatnik sound. The CD cover was a photo of a
wooden sign that read "Danger Bongo Crossing". No, it does not
refer to the drums. It refers to a vicious African deer. The CD cover is not
a paste-up but and actual photograph taken in During most of the recording process and early gig support for Bongo Crossing I was working on another project, Folk Fiction. Thera, Steve and company performed a post-punk gothic theatre show complete with costume changes and interpretive dance- quite the wild ride. While I was busy with Folk Fiction, Tom was again busy keeping the sound alive. Brian Hosey, Roy Lechich, Annie O’Hara, Paul McGinniss, Reggie Padilla, Justin Williams, Brian Starke and Tim Stapleton were contributing quite nicely, but as is the case many times, musicians needed to move from project to project. Practically everyone moved on to other projects. Tim, Tom, Annie O'Hara, and Paul Mcginniss became the stage Beatniks for the better part of a year until Paul and Annie drifted off to another project. Tim had become a staple. The introduction of Tori Mierlak helped to set the band on its most recent course. The door was again revolving. When it finally stopped, I was back playing bass, Tim was on congas, Tom was still playing acoustic guitar and Tori iced the cake with her smooth sensual vocal style. Not that we were convoluting, but we needed to go outside the Beatniks just for the sake of change. In 1995 Tom and I became involved with Heather Matarazzo, who wanted to perform at her high school's talent and variety shows. Her schedule didn’t afford her enough time to put together a group of her fellow students, so she asked Tom for assistance. At the 1999 Talent Show, ‘Crash Course’ consisted of Tom on bass, Mike Bifulco on guitar, Heather on guitar and vocals and me on drums. This particular line-up inspired the creation of yet another record. Once again, we descended into the basement to record our little side project. The Bossa Nova Beatniks in a rock ‘n’ roll adventure. We recorded Gould songs and several collaborative tunes. We made a conscious decision to do a stripped down rock trio record. In retrospect, we slipped a little outside of our realm. However, this little slip led us to the realization that the Beatniks sound is most easily achieved with a foundation consisting of Gould on bass and me on drums. This revelation mandated calls to Tim and Tori to round out the arrangements. Got Them Ray Guns is a departure from our usual sound. Electric guitars and snare drums resound. Also added to the mix were fine performances by Jerry Dugger, Sparlha Swaby and Roy Lechich. We have finally realized that the recording process is the culmination of our latest efforts. The live performances that follow our new releases are an indication of what is to come. The summer of 2000 finds us supporting Got Them Ray Guns with a live show that foreshadows our upcoming fifth record that we expect to be available November 2001. Mike has gone back to playing guitar for the Bluebeats. However, the ‘moon unit’ of Tori, Tim, Tom and George continued. Stay tuned for updates. Update Number 1. We have produced our fifth record. While we were putting together
our summer 2000 road trip, we felt that a trip to Tori, Tim, Tom and I hopped into my truck on
a beautiful summer evening for our trip to We arrived a few minutes before George's evening radio program's scheduled end. By the time we loaded-in our equipment, George as available to provide us with his full attention. We chatted as we set-up in a large storage room complete with Fry Babies and wonderful electronic stuff just outside the control room. The acoustics of the room were similar to that of a large club or dance hall. We were ready to play. We warmed-up. George set-up the mics, sound levels and equalization. A wonderful vibe transcended upon us. As we are playing, every one of us felt as if we were not playing, but listening to our music as if it was already recorded. We thoroughly immersed and enjoyed ourselves that evening. Our performance provided us with the boost of confidence that made our trip to the heartland so much fun. George Graham invited us to
come back when he was going to mix the tracks. As luck would have it, John
Stewart (Kingston Trio) was playing up in Originally, the trip was just for fun; a night of traveling, good friends and good music. As it turns-out, we were blown away by the sounds that George captured. We drove away from WVIA with a cassette of the final mixes and the fifth CD under our belt. This CD marks the first time that every performer is still involved in the project. We are able to reproduce the sounds of this disk in a live situation. The disk is called "The Moon Unit". This new disk is available only on our web site. Update Number 2. In 2001, Gould decided to stop
walking through the modern world blindfolded and enrolled in law school.
Rumor has it that law school is a lot of work. Gould's friends are quick to
point out that he was already living a very full life. Something had to give.
Gigging was sacrificed for the new adventure. Believe it or not, the space
created by discontinuing the gigging was an even match for the work load of
law school. While the live performances stopped, the music did not. In the
next 4 years the Bossa Nova Beatniks released 3 CD's. First was an anthology
disc which chronicled recordings from the Beatniks' pre-history to the
present spanning 18 years. That was called "Flyboy & the Rhythm
Bandits." The second CD of the law school years was a disc of Jerry Dugger singing all the leads on a collection of Gould
songs. It was called "New York Skyline." The third and most recent
CD was the first release of all new material since "Danger Bongo
Crossing" called "Moonlit Bossa." It was during the making of
this album that Tori moved on to pursue a career in
music therapy. As good fortune would have it Annie O'Hara was once again
available and stepped in to sing leads and play bass. Gould graduates from
law school in 2005. What happens after that? W K? One thing for sure, it will
include new music. Clearly, this website is rarely updated. To keep up to date on the continuing adventures of the Bossa Nova Beatniks, To be continued... |