“Music is simply the sugar syrup that the medicine of the Divine name is hidden in.”
New York City at the Church Of St. Paul & St. Andrew in October 2013
Sometimes a happenstance event becomes that stone thrown in a still pond and the ripples vibrate out to the lakes’ shores and into history.
In April 1965, the Beatles were filming the movie, Help!. The script called for a scene in an Indian restaurant with Indian musicians playing.
George Harrison saw a sitar for the first time.
Norwegian Wood
On October 12, 1965, the Beatles began working on their Rubber Soul album and during the day’s second session they started to record “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).” Harrison played sitar on the song.
On my tours at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts I emphasize the importance of the Rubber Soul album and how it changed the scope of pop music. I joke about how when I first listened to the album, intently staring at and reading its covers, I found a typo: someone had misspelled guitar! They spelled it s-i-t-a-r.
And just as Harrison had accidentally discovered Indian music (and thus Indian culture), so too happened the teenage Western listener.
He had first learned yoga asanas [postures] on the floor of a tenement apartment on the Lower East Side in 1966 from a guy who had just come over from India.
Jeff also loved rock music and was in a band. He wanted to be a star.
The Soft White Underbelly would go on to rock fame as Blue Öyster Cult and sell more than 24 million records worldwide.
Jeff Kagel Krishna Das
Krishna Das
As much as Jeff Kagel wanted to be a rock star, he felt spiritually lost. In the winter of 1968, he made a decision: move to New Hampshire visit the spiritual teacher Ram Dass (who, in his former incarnation was Harvard professor Richard Alpert as in LSD researcher with Timothy Leary).
Later, Kagel traveled across the country with Ram Dass as his student, captivated by the stories of Dass’s recent trip to India where he had met the legendary guru Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-ji.
In India, Krishna Das [Kagel] also encountered kirtan, or the chanting of God’s name. “I heard it and I couldn’t believe it. I thought, this is fantastic. I was always musical and I always loved to sing. I didn’t really do it at first as a spiritual practice, in a heavy way like that. I sang because I loved to do it.”
He spoke of his guru with great love and respect: “Someone like him is like the sun. To be in his presence and to be connected to him is to be doing the best thing you can do for your own blossoming. He didn’t give meditation techniques, he didn’t give mantras. He ripened you from the inside.”
For awhile, Kagel became “Driver” because he was in charge of driving the one car that’s how many referred to him, but…
Neem Karoli Baba gave Krishna Das his spiritual name. Das means servant, and Krishna is one of the names of God.
NYT interview: Krishna Das lived blissfully at Neem Karoli Baba’s temple until 1973, when he returned to America at the guru’s behest. His teacher called him back about a year later, but Krishna Das, who was making money and enjoying a new romance, hesitated. Within months, Neem Karoli Baba died.
Jeff Kagel Krishna Das
Lost/Renewal
After Baba’s death, Das became lost. Eleven years of substance abuse and depression followed.
He returned to India and came to the realization that although Neem Karoli Baba had left his body, his presence remained.
From his site: Over the years, he continued chanting, developing his signature style, fusing traditional kirtan of the east with western harmonic and rhythmic sensibilities.
Does he still love rock? Does he ever tire of kirtan?
I do, all the time! You should hear us at sound check. We do Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Rolling Stones. We do everything. We’re totally nuts in sound check. [YJ interview]
Jeff Kagel Krishna Das
One Track Heart
In 2012, director Jeremy Frindel released One Track Heart, The Story of Krishna Das. It is how I first heard of and heard KD. And again I found myself asking, “How is it I never heard of him before.”
Bob Dylan’s famous flubbed intro to his 115th Dream with Tom Wilson laughing and saying “Take 2.”
There are many people who the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted onto its hallowed list. Most are, obviously, performers, but there are those non-performers whose contributions to rock and roll are so important that they, too, are inducted.
But a search of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Tom Wilson yields “0 RESULTS FOUND.”
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Waco, TX
Thomas Blanchard “Tom” Wilson Jr was born on March 25, 1931 and grew up in Waco, TX. As with many black families, music, particularly in church, was an integral part of life.
After a year at Fisk University, he transferred to Harvard. He officially studied economics, but being a part of the Harvard Jazz Society was his first love.
He graduated from Harvard University in 1954 and started Transition Records. The first musicians he worked with were–at the time– struggling unknowns.
He did it all at Transition. Photographer. Album design. Liner notes.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Columbia Records
Financial difficulties forced him to shut down the label. He worked with United Artist and some other labels before becoming a producer at Columbia Records in 1963.
His first assignment was the young, somewhat brash, and unknown Bob Dylan. John H. Hammond had produced Dylan’s first album in 1962. It went nowhere.
Wilson wasn’t a big folk fan but thought more musicians behind Dylan might improve the sound. Dylan and Albert Grossman, his manager, declined. Wilson and Hammond co-produced Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. It fared better.
Wilson alone produced Dylan’s third album, The Times They Are a-Changin’. Again, though, Dylan was the sole musician.
On June 9, 1964 Dylan alone recorded and Wilson alone produced Another Side of Bob Dylan. That’s not a typo. They did the album in one day. Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, NYC.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Bringing It All Back Home
Seven months later, Wilson and Dylan were back in the studio. This time, for Dylan’s first time, they divided the album into an electric side (side 1) and an acoustic side (side 2), although the acoustic side included some tracks in which other instruments were backing up Dylan and his guitar, but no drums were used.
That album changed everything. Until then, Dylan’s image was that of a talented folk singer. With Bringing… he became, at least, a folk rocker if not simply a rock artist.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Like A Rolling Stone
Bringing was the last Dylan album Wilson produced, but not the last song. That was, according to many, the greatest rock and roll song ever: Like a Rolling Stone.
The song’s unforgettable salient is the organ that jumps in just after the rim shot. That is, as you likely know already, sneaky Al Kooper. Kooper was a friend of Wilson and Wilson had invited him to the studio that day. Kooper, a guitarist, slipped in behind back, sat at the organ and joined in.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Simon/Garfunkel
In 1964 Tom Wilson had produced Simon and Garfunkel’s first album, Wednesday Morning 3 AM (when else is 3 AM but the morning?) The acoustic album went nowhere. Simon went to Great Britain; Garfunkel back to Columbia University.
One song from the album, The Sounds of Silence, attracted a bit of attention in Boston and areas of Florida. Unbeknownst to the absent duo, Wilson decided to electrify the song and brought in musicians Al Gorgoni and Vinnie Bell on guitar, Bob Bushnell on bass, and Bobby Gregg on drums.
That is the version we know today. Wilson’s tweak sparked a career.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Verve/MGM
In 1966 Wilson left Columbia [some suggest the “Al Kooper Incident” may have been part of his Columbia fall] and became the head of A & R at Verve/MGM Records. One of the first groups Wilson signed was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Their musicianship and fusion of styles appealed to Wilson. He produced their first two albums.
“Tom Wilson was a great guy,” Zappa later said. “He had vision, you know? And he really stood by us.”
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Velvet Underground
While at Columbia, Wilson had tried to sign the Velvet Underground. He succeeded in signing them at Verve because he promised them artistic freedom.
John Cale later said to the authors of Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story, “The band never again had as good a producer as Tom Wilson.”
In 1967 Tom Wilson had eight albums in the Top 100.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Outside
Irwin Chusid writes: In 1967 and ’68 Tom Wilson hosted a free-form radio program called The Music Factory, sponsored by MGM-Verve. It premiered on WABC-FM (New York) in June 1967, before going national via 12″ vinyl discs distributed to interested radio stations. Wilson hosted 25 hour-long syndicated episodes, each of which featured interviews with musicians, producers, and engineers, as well as tracks from MGM, Verve, and affiliated label releases.
Here’s a link to the first show:
Wilson was also integral in getting The Record Plant recording studio on successful footing. In early 1968, Gary Kellgren and Chirs Stone began building a 12-track studio at 321 West 44th Street, creating a living room type of environment for the musicians. It opened on March 13, 1968.
As the studio was nearing completion, Wilson persuaded Hendrix producer Chas Chandler to book the Record Plant from April 18 to early July 1968 for the recording of the album Electric Ladyland.
After he left MGM, he began the Tom Wilson Organization in 1968.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Exotic man
That same year, on September 29, the New York Times ran an article on Wilson. Among the many things Ann Geracimos wrote were that Wilson was an “exotic man in an exotic field.” That, Wilson strolls in wearing his work-a-day special: antelope suede jacket, lightweight white candy twill bell-bottom trousers, purple crepe shirt.”
She also implied drug use and in an October 20 letter to the editor Wilson took issue with the implication. He wrote, “Let me state unequivocally, that I do not advocate the use of drugs in any form. In my early years, while producing jazz artists, I saw many great musical careers destroyed or diminished by drug addiction.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Discography
Tom Wilson’s discography is impressive for both its astounding amount yet brevity in terms of years. His first was Herb Pomeroy in 1955. The first of six albums that year. His last year was 1978: Professor Longhair‘s Live on the Queen Mary and that was recorded in 1975.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
1978
Wilson’s grave marker with his parents. His death year on the marker (1975) is incorrect. It is 1978.
In 1978, Wilson and his business partner, producer Larry Fallon, were working with Danny Sims, the manager of singer Johnny Nash. Wilson and Fallon had written an R&B opera called Mind Flyers of Gondwana .
But the opera was not to be, nor was anything else. On September 6, 1978, Wilson died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. He was only 47.
Record Producer Tom Wilson
Disillusioned
A 2003 article from the Blog Critics site quoted Coral Browning, an early 1970s London girlfriend of Wilson’s: “Tom felt let down by blacks. He felt that after the civil rights successes of the ’50s and ’60s, blacks should stop complaining and get on with it. He felt they caused many of their own problems by carrying such large chips on their shoulders.”
He had been head of the Young Republican Club at Harvard.
My original plan was to write a book about Tom Wilson. But I didn’t really want to write such a book—I wanted to read one. But there isn’t one. So I decided to launch a Tom Wilson website—because there wasn’t one.
Ancillary goal: to get Wilson inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. No-brainer.
Bob Dylan: The producers that have meant the most to me are Tom Wilson, John Hammond and Bob Johnston.
Van Dyke Parks: Tom Wilson signed me to MGM in 1965. He was such an ebullient spirit — charismatic, statuesque, and curiously empowering for those in his orbit. That he was Ivy as well as street smart (viz. Cecil Taylor) was a jaw dropper
Luis Gasca played in Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues Band at Woodstock. That’s why I’m doing this blog piece, but like so many other times in my life, I’ve discovered that that momentous performance is simply one small piece in Gasca’s nearly lifetime of performances.
Trumpeter Luis Gasca
Houston
Luis Gasca grew up poor in Houston. His parents made and sold tamales. Earning a living was first for them. Performing music was not part of the picture, but one day Luis saw two men playing trumpets and he felt something.
By the time he was 15 he was playing gigs and by 16 getting paid to play.
He was drafted, but afterwards lived in Japan awhile–playing trumpet, of course. Then to Oahu.
When asked abouthis love of the trumpet, he answered, “”It’s a very demanding instrument…. And I’ll never quit learning it. I got that at an early age: Never let anything slide. I have a hunger and a thirst for music. That love for something, that is the impetus to make you never never quit, to make you give it your all. That love cannot be taught. One has to love the music and the knowledge. I’m 100 % joyous playing music with other masters.”
Trumpeter Luis Gasca
Janis
Here’s a wonderful video montage of Janis (mostly), but some with Luis.
Count Basie and more
One of his greatest achievements was being a part of the Count Basie Band.
In 1969, he released “The Little Giant” album. on Atlantic. Interestingly, one of the album’s cuts is “Motherless Child” the same song made famous as part of Richie Haven‘s famous Woodstock improvisation of Motherless Child/Freedom as well as the very next song played at Woodstock, Sweetwater‘s cover of the same song.
Gasco’s cover is like no Motherless Child you’ve ever heard:
Trumpeter Luis Gasca
Malibus
In 1972, Gasca was playing in The Malibus, which became Malo. It had released its first album eponymously named “Malo.” By the way, the lead guitarist in that band was one Jorge Santana. Jorge has a pretty famous older brother by the name of Carlos.
From a WBGO article: “Nena” opens [the album] with a face-grabbing bass riff by Pablo Telez over a driving son montuno with rock rhythm generated by Victor Pantoja (congas), Coke Escovedo (timbales) and Richard Spremich (drums), and a fiery brass intro. Trombonist Ron Murray, famed jazz trumpeter Luis Gasca and organist Richard Kermode are featured.”
I featured the song “Just Say Goodbye” from that album because Gasca co-wrote the song.
Another interesting member of Malo was keyboardist Richard Kermode who was also at Woodstock and also played with Janis Joplin there.
Solo artist
Gasca’s “For Those Who Chant” album cover
Gasca released three other albums: For Those Who Chant (1972), Luis Gasca (1972), and Collage (1976). And though that discography may seem short, have a Snickers nearby if you’re going to look at his extensive credit list at AllMusic.
Among the names listed are Santana, Van Morrison, and Mike Bloomfield.
That’s right…most of the Santana band played on the album.
Bob Weir
As mentioned above, Gasca has played for many people [see Allmusic listing]. Among them he played for Bob Weir on his first solo album, Ace.
Gasca played on “Black-Throated Wind”, “Mexicali Blues” and “One More Saturday Night.”
The Musician’s Life
As sadly happened to many of his generation’s fellow musicians, the lifestyle overwhelmed him and he left music until the 90s.
“I stopped (playing) because I was self destructive. I was burned out,” he admitted. “That’s when I knew it was time for me to go.” He came to realize that in order to save the musician, he had to sacrifice the music.
Here he is in 2012 leading an all-star Latin Jazz Big Band – The Mambo Kings on the second night of a three-day Latin Jazz Festival.
Thank you, Luis, for everything you’ve given to our ears.
Trumpeter Luis Gasca
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
