AN AMAZING RECONNECTION (6/21/2011)

The day was absolutely perfect for outdoor concerts and I had my lineup of events for Make Music New York.   Meira Warshauer had called and we had plans to meet up at around 1 pm at the Wall Street performance of Hoketus.   I planted myself smack in front of the New York Stock Exchange.  A gentlemen sitting beside me struck up a conversation with me.  He had heard the work several times before and was looking forward to hearing it again.  As we talked he mentioned that he worked for the publisher C.F. Peters and had a life-long involvement with American music.  Eventually, he gave me his name, Don Gillespie, and I think I shocked him a little by noting that we had been in graduate school together at UNC-Chapel Hill many years before.  He was completing his Ph.D. as I was beginning my graduate study so he did not remember me but I remembered him.  Both of us had lots of affection for one of the theory/composition professors there at the time, Dr. Roger Hannay. 

We parted ways but met up again for a beer to reminisce.  He invited me to a CD release gathering at the loft of Phill Niblok, one of the fixtures in the New York downtown music scene for years.  The person being honored was Charles Morrow, another important name in the New York music scene.  At the gathering Don introduced me to several of the long-time musicians.  Entering the loft was like entering a shrine.  It has not changed in years and the ghosts of such figures as John Cage, Morton Feldman seemed to linger in the room.

                                                 Phil Niblok's Loft building.

Mr. Morrow gave quick performances of some of the vocal works on the CD and then played some clips from the multiple CD set.  A highlight was an extended segment of his Toot and Blink.  Originally designed for Navy Pier in Chicago in 1982,  this soundandlightscape took place in 1982 and involved coordinating over 100 vessels.  Charles Morrow never thinks small.

It was so good to reconnect with someone who was around one of my alma maters when I was there.  I hope at some point to meet his wife, who is a musicologist.