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Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine

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Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine

Not sure which one is the obviously younger Gilles. Picture from his FB page which doesn’t indicate which player is him.

Gilles Malkone (pronounced jeel malkeen) was born in Paris on November 7, 1948 and played with Tim Hardin at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on that famous festival’s opening day.  What is he up to nowadays?

According to Wade Lawrence’s WoodsTalk piece on Tim Hardin, “Gilles Malkine, guitarist, lives in Woodstock, New York, and is an actor, guitarist, artist, writer, disability advocate, illustrator, cartoonist, and composer.”

It’s always more valuable to have some first-hand observations from the performers themselves and according to some email exchanges from Gilles:

Tim [Hardin] was not scheduled to go on first, Sweetwater was, but they were held up in traffic.

Bert Sommer was queasy from the helicopter ride – he was not fond of heights. Tim was asked to start the show but declined, as many are likely to do. Richie, to his everlasting glory, accepted.

Tim did perform solo for the first six tunes, then brought the band on for the last four. 

Gilles Malkine
Gilles at Woodstock

Mikhail Horwitz

Gilles Malkine is often part of a duo with Mikhail Horwitz. According to their page, they “…have been confounding Hudson Valley and cross-country audiences since 1989. Their original, zany, and imaginative verbal acrobatics and updated parodies of classic folk tunes have left onlookers laughing until they’re gasping for breath. Their satirical takes on world currents consistently hit the mark, as do their rap versions of such literary classics as Moby-Dick, Homer’s Odyssey, and Waiting for Godot.”

And their version of “This Land Is Your Land.”

Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine

Sounds like fun

The site goes on to say that, “Individually and as a duo, they have appeared onstage with John Sebastian, Tim Hardin, Natalie Merchant, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, Ed Sanders (The Fugs), Prof. Peter Schickele, and Allen Ginsberg, to name just a few unwitting collaborators.”

Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine

Gilles Malkine

It is interesting to this Woodstock alum that Malkine does not mention the Woodstock Music and Art Fair performance to any great extent. That’s my own bias, of course.

According to his Facebook page, Gilles “…was raised in Woodstock and began acting (publicly) at the age of 11 in the 1960 summer stock season at the Woodstock Playhouse. He later studied the Sanford Meisner acting technique with Brad Dourif at the Woodstock Film and Actors Guild. His stage career has included many theater, film, and video productions, serving as actor, singer, musician, musical director, composing, arranging, performing, and recording songs, scores, and sound tracks for various projects—the list ranges from guitarist at the 1969 Woodstock Festival to co-starring on Off-Broadway. He has made many recordings including a brand new solo album, and has been performing comedy with his partner-in-crime, Mikhail Horowitz, for the past 22 years; it has been said they have been doing to performance poetry what freon has been doing to the ozone. He is currently starring with Melissa Leo in a soon-to-be-released film titled Persephone.

Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine

Persephone

The movie Persephone was released on October 12, 2012.

IMDB does add that Gilles has also been in The Arsonist’s Affair, a short also in 2012.

Here is a great video showcasing Malkine’s guitar playing.

The description below the video says, “Gilles Malkine is a guitarist from Woodstock, NY, and a veteran of the 1969 Woodstock Festival as guitarist in Tim Hardin’s band. He loves writing feel-good music and is delighted to share this tune from his 2012 album TimeDog (available at CD Baby and other purveyors of fine music). On this cut, Martin Keith is on upright bass and Harvey Sorgen on drums and washboard.”

Gilles Malkine

Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine

Acoustic Folk

His own album description was: “Acoustic folk/blues style, with a little mellifluous classical and romantic South American thrown in; mostly original material on subjects as life, love, war, time, and dreams, with an occasional humorous and satirical twist.”

Activist

In closing, Gilles Malkine continued to entertain and teach us. One might say he’s continuing the spirit of Woodstock, but more likely he is one of the roots from which that spirit grew.

“Retired“

Mikhail Horowitz and Gilles Malkine. (Photo by Dion Ogust)

On December 1,  2021, hv1 reported that on “Friday, November 19 [2021] was the end of an era. The occasion was billed as the final performance ever — at that venue, at least — by “wordshpritzer” Mikhail Horowitz and guitarist Gilles Malkine. The satirical duo have been performing their verbal and musical gymnastics at Unison since 1989, soon after they first teamed up, and invariably sell out the venue. Now both in their 70s, they’ve decided that they’re not up to the demands of a full-length performance anymore.

“We’re not broken up,” Gilles insists. “We still will perform together.” 

Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine

Gilles revisiting the site:

Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine
Malkine on the site of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair
Woodstock Guitarist Gilles Malkine
Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Richard Bock Woodstock Cellist

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Richard Bock Woodstock Cellist

Richard Bock Woodstock Cellist

A 2016 Phoenix New Times article about Richard Bock began this way: Not every neighborhood Italian restaurant can claim a world-class musician as its owner — but Giuseppe’s on 28th in Central Phoenix can. For nine years, owner Richard Bock was the principal cellist for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra in Italy. And if that’s not impressive enough, he played with the Phoenix Symphony for 24 seasons, toured throughout the United States and South Africa as a part of Frank Sinatra’s orchestra, and played in both Carnegie Hall and The Forum in Los Angeles.

And????

For those of us who are Woodstock Music and Art Fair alum or those who are not alum but big fans nonetheless, the omission of Bock’s participation with Tim Hardin at that famed event is glaring. I suppose we must step back for a moment and accept the reality that that festival was not and is not the be all end all of everyone who performed there.

And looking at that “partial” list above from the New Times, one can understand why. 30 minutes with Tim Hardin doesn’t quite measure up to 24 seasons with the Phoenix Symphony.

Richard Bock Woodstock Cellist

Path to Woodstock

Bock’s path to the festival was, as with many things in life, a matter of circumstance. In 1969, Bock was in the  Paul Winter Consort. So was Steve Booker.

One night Steve had been to the Cafe Au Go Go in NYC’s Village. Tim Hardin had been part of  a jam there. Tim told Steve if he ever needed a gig to let him know.  Tim was living in Woodstock.

Steve and Richard had coincidentally just decided to leave the Paul Winter Concert and so decided to visit Woodstock and Tim.  Tim Hardin was putting together a band for the upcoming festival and asked Steve to join. Steve recommended Richard. Tim said sure. Thus…

Richard Bock Woodstock Cellist

Italy

According to Richard Bock’s restaurant’s site,  Bock “grew up in New York.  …[and while] playing in a club on East 84th St in the city with Dave Brubeck’s son, Darius…a customer in the club, who lived in Florence, filled Richard’s thoughts with images of Italy, the culture, the music, the people and the food. He extended Richard an invitation to come to Italy, and 2 weeks later, Richard was on his way!

Soon after his arrival, he was walking the streets of Florence when he bumped into an old college friend, a pianist, who was involved in the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, the most famous theater in Italy. Soon after this chance meeting, this friend got Richard an audition for conductor, Riccardo Muti. Muti happened to be looking for a Principal Cellist for the orchestra, so Richard decided to perform and was offered the position. He thought he would stay a year, but stayed almost 9! It is here where his love for the culture blossomed.

Richard Bock Woodstock Cellist

Restaurateur

Richard Bock Woodstock Cellist

In 2002 became the owner and operator of Giuseppe’s on 28th in Phoenix, AZ.  He is both the restaurant’s chef and cellist. I will assume that there are few restaurants anywhere that can make that claim.

Nor can any claim that their musician chef was, “a part of Frank Sinatra’s orchestra for 5 years, touring throughout the United States and South America. [And that] He performed in concerts with Tony Bennett in Boston and also performed in Carnegie Hall and the LA Forum.

Nicely done Richard Bock Woodstock cellist!

Richard Bock Woodstock Cellist
Birthdays, Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Glen Moore Jazz Bassist

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Glen Moore Jazz Bassist

Happy birthday
October 28, 1941
“Oxeye” by Glen Moore

The opening day at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was planned as a folk-oriented one. Folk musicians often play solo, but only the unscheduled Melanie did that on Friday. And other than Sweetwater–and  not exactly a folk band–each performance carried the name of their leader.

Richie Havens, Bert Sommer, and Joan Baez each had two others accompanying them. Arlo Guthrie had three others, and surprisingly (to me at least) Tim Hardin had the most,  five others. I say surprisingly because of all the performers, Hardin was the one to my mind that would have, could have performed solo.

Glen Moore Jazz Bassist

Glen Moore

Glen Moore Jazz Bassist

Glen Moore played bass in Hardin’s band that day. He was 27 years old and had been playing bass for 14 years already. He continues to play bass today and like many lifetime musicians, his credit list is a long one (Allmusic.com list). Using that list as a guide, it seems that Moore is only associated with Hardin on one album, Bird on a Wire, and that two years after Woodstock.

Oregon and beyond

Glen Moore is best known for his part in the band Oregon. He had helped form the band with Ralph Towner (who also played at Woodstock with Hardin) in 1970. Towner and Moore had met in 1960 as students at the University of Oregon and like so many musicians before and since, found themselves in New York City by 1969.

There they worked with Hardin, but also more importantly began working with the Paul Winter Consort whose style of music let to the formation of Oregon. It was while Moore was playing with the Paul Winter Consort that that band recorded the song “Icarus” the well-known  instrumental, particularly to fans of the late Pete Fornatale, one of the first DJs for New York’s famous WNEW-FM. Fornatale used “Icarus” as his theme song and its melody transport his fans back to those days.

Moore remained with Oregon until 2015 and by then the band had released 28 albums, but he has played with  Larry Coryell, Misty River, Susan McKeown, String Alchemy,  Afrique,  Rabih Abou-Khalil,and many more. Also, he has been credited as a composer on dozens of albums. Here is an amazing performance in a collaboration with David Friesen:

He has also released of eleven of his own albums. The most recent was Bactrian in 2015 with David Friesen.

In other words, although my personal “discovery” of Moore may have sprung from his sitting beside the “star” Tim Hardin at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Moore’s lifetime oeuvre  far surpasses that 30 minute performance however famed it may have been.

Glen Moore Jazz Bassist