Tag Archives: Woodstock Birthdays

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
Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Bassist Charlie Bilello

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Bassist Charlie Bilello

November 3, 1943 – March 19, 1989
Bassist Charlie Bilello
Charlie Bilello (foreground) playing w Bert Sommer and Ira Stone at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
Bassist Charlie Bilello

Bert Sommer’s band

Here is another Woodstock Music and Art Fair performer for whom little can be found.

Charlie Bilello played bass with Bert Sommer that Friday 15 August in Bethel, NY.  Woodstock fan, blogger and autograph hound Jack Lokensky wrote that he has not been able to locate Bilello, but did seek out Ira Stone, the other musician with Sommer that day.

Jlokensky

According to Jlokensky, Stone and his wife Max were part of a fund-raiser the day he met Ira. Their [the Stones’s] set was dedicated to the memory of Bert Sommer. Three of the four songs they played were played by Mr. Sommer as part of his ten song set. “Jennifer”, which was a song written about fellow “Hair” cast member, and future singer, Jennifer Warnes, opened the set. Max then told a story about how Tim Hardin borrowed and made off with Bert Sommer’s guitar just prior to Mr. Sommer’s set. They then played Tim Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter”. They played a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”, a song which allegedly earned Bert Sommer the first standing ovation of the Woodstock Festival. They concluded with another Bert Sommer original, “Smile”.

Wade Lawrence

Wade Lawrence, the former director and head curator at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts’ Museum, had similar problems finding much about Bilello: Bass player Charlie Bilello hasn’t been heard from for a number of years and is presumed to have retired from the music business or died.

According to a comment made by a “Les” at the West Virginia Surf Report site, “Charlie died in an accident in 1989.”

According to a Facebook comment by Lynda Galindo: Charlie Bilello died n March 1984 when he was hit in a hit and run n West Hempstead New York…

I’ve since found after a communication with Charlie’s son Ryan Bilello said that Charlie died on March 19, 1989.

And another Facebook comment by Sharon Watts:  Charlie was a Sam Ashe music store employee, and on the Zax CD, you can hear Bert correcting himself to say Hempstead (the Sam Ashe branch). 

Sharon also mentions him dying in a hit and run accident.

A Nancy Dunn Kurlish commented on  my post: Here is a pic of Charlie sleeping. He was a friend when I lived in NY. We lost touch.

No photo description available.

In response,  Ryan Bilello  wrote: Hi Nancy Dunn Kurlish, my name is Ryan and Charlie Bilello is my father. Sadly, as Lynda Galindo stated, he passed in 1989 when I was 2 years old and my sister was 6. Thank you for sharing that picture of him as there aren’t many that we have. Please do let me know if you come across any others. All the best! 

Bassist Charlie Bilello

Music et al, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Daniel Natoga Ben Zebulon

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Daniel Natoga Ben Zebulon

Born September 4
From his Facebook page. “Doin’ what I do.”

Wade Lawrence was the museum director and senior curator at The Museum at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts from its opening in 2008 until 2020. He wrote in a January 2017 article about Richie Havens at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair: Richie Havens wasn’t scheduled to be the opening act of the Woodstock festival, but, in retrospect, it is hard to imagine anyone else doing it. The time for the festival to start had come and gone, all the roads leading to the festival were hopelessly congested with cars and people, and the audience was getting restless. Richie, Deano, and Daniel had been flown in by helicopter, and their setup was minimal, so festival organizers urged them to take the stage. The rest is history.

Daniel Natoga Ben Zebulon has a Facebook page. It states, “I am a percussionist who has played with Richie Havens, Isaac Hayes, and Stevie Wonder.”

I assume that that is accurate. I also assume that that is very limited.

In that same article referenced above, Lawrence wrote “Daniel Ben Zebulon is still active as a musician and has played percussion with Andy Gibb, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, and the Bee Gees.”

My memories of seeing Richie Havens always included the percussionist  Daniel Natoga Ben Zebulon and the guitarist Paul Deano Williams. As much a presence as Richie was, larger than life in so many ways despite his humility, Daniel and Deano were part of the fabric for any Havens concert.

 Daniel Natoga Ben Zebulon
 Daniel Natoga Ben Zebulon
Natoga and Paul Williams at the Woodstock site. Picture taken by Jack Lokensky.

The Allmusic site list of his credits is a long one.  In addition to the impressive names above, it also includes his working with: Juma Sultan,  The Rascals, Labelle,  The Manhattan Transfer,  Tim Hardin, and many others.

According to the guitarplayer site, Zebulon was once a part of the  Richie Havens Tad Truesdale Trio. It featuring Natoga on drums. Tad would just sing and Natoga would play these wonderful conga parts. His real name was Daniel Ben Zebulon, and he wound up playing with Richie for decades after that as well.

NY Blues Hall of Fame

As you can see from the certificate above, on December 22, 2016, Zebulon was inducted into the NY Blues Hall of Fame.

If you have anything you can add for this Woodstock Music and Art Fair alum Daniel Natoga Ben Zebulon and so much more, please comment or email. I’d love to hear more.