hey there -- just found this posting looking for some of my friends and former band members...I was the bass player in ILTAR featured on this record, and actually have a few vinyls hanging around my archive. I'm amazed that it's out there since it was recorded pre-internet (around 1979) on a steaming hot summer weekend in a dusty basement of a funky hair salon in some armpit neighborhood in philadelphia. glad to see that some folks appreciate the music. it was a blast making it. I hope Mike Urbanek and Dave Kossoff are still around somewhere...I believe that Sir John died in the 80's or so....Elliott Levin and Steve Buchanan are still kickin' last I've heard. Mike and Dave, if you see this, look me up! I'm still living in NYC on the Lower East Side. http://pg.mediafilter.org
Ah, Iltar...I still have a copy of the album, and, in fact I still have the master tapes, since I was the one who financed the ventured, played guitar, and founded the band along with saxophonist Steve Buchanan...'Iltar' was released on the Tiwa label, one of the first artist owned independent labels in the USA...Tiwa also released the 'Olduvai' album and one by Holly Curran Adams & Jim Richards...the albums were distributed by New Music Distribution Service, out of NYC, affiliated with Carla Bley & Michael Mantler...the album was recorded by another group of Philadelphia musicians, the Notekillers: NOTEKILLERS However, they neglected to tell us that the recording was done in a format incompatible with vinyl mastering at the time, so the sound was poor...I was especially disappointed, but you live and learn...the music was a precursor of 'punk-jazz' 'harmolodic jazz' and so-called 'no-wave' music that acheived some notoriety in the early 80s...also, a precursor of 'Sonic Youth' type stuff, although we had horns, too...the other guitarist, $ir John Henderson, was WAY ahead of his time, an African-American original artist who was punk before the term existed, and played electric guitar in the Hendrix/Funkadelic 'sci-fi' style...He died around ten years ago, after a long battle with drugs, and, literally, of a broken heart...He was unique and ALWAYS full of surprises...he used to put his amp, speaker cabinet and huitar in a shopping cart, and push it a mile up a big hill to rehearsals...that was dedication...anyway, the album got some airplay in Hungary (!), and, about two years after the album was released, I receive a letter from the Japaneses 'Nippon Broadcasting Company' praising it, and asking if we were interested in touring Japan...the group had scattered to the winds by that time...since I still have the master, with today's digital technology, it might be possible to re-do it and improve the sound...anyway, that's it...you can go to my MySpace site: Michael Mantra, and hear what I'm doing currently, which I refer to as 'World Music Fusion'...Peace Be Unto You
i picked up this LP several years ago, and have been looking for more info ever since. the closest i have come is via Elliott Levin.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.animusmusic.com/id20.html
Kudos on the very excellent blog. It is continuously amazing and ear opening.
hey there -- just found this posting looking for some of my friends and former band members...I was the bass player in ILTAR featured on this record, and actually have a few vinyls hanging around my archive. I'm amazed that it's out there since it was recorded pre-internet (around 1979) on a steaming hot summer weekend in a dusty basement of a funky hair salon in some armpit neighborhood in philadelphia. glad to see that some folks appreciate the music. it was a blast making it. I hope Mike Urbanek and Dave Kossoff are still around somewhere...I believe that Sir John died in the 80's or so....Elliott Levin and Steve Buchanan are still kickin' last I've heard. Mike and Dave, if you see this, look me up! I'm still living in NYC on the Lower East Side. http://pg.mediafilter.org
ReplyDeleteAh, Iltar...I still have a copy of the album, and, in fact I still have the master tapes, since I was the one who financed the ventured, played guitar, and founded the band along with saxophonist Steve Buchanan...'Iltar' was released on the Tiwa label, one of the first artist owned independent labels in the USA...Tiwa also released the 'Olduvai' album and one by Holly Curran Adams & Jim Richards...the albums were distributed by New Music Distribution Service, out of NYC, affiliated with Carla Bley & Michael Mantler...the album was recorded by another group of Philadelphia musicians, the Notekillers: NOTEKILLERS
ReplyDeleteHowever, they neglected to tell us that the recording was done in a format incompatible with vinyl mastering at the time, so the sound was poor...I was especially disappointed, but you live and learn...the music was a precursor of 'punk-jazz' 'harmolodic jazz' and so-called 'no-wave' music that acheived some notoriety in the early 80s...also, a precursor of 'Sonic Youth' type stuff, although we had horns, too...the other guitarist, $ir John Henderson, was WAY ahead of his time, an African-American original artist who was punk before the term existed, and played electric guitar in the Hendrix/Funkadelic 'sci-fi' style...He died around ten years ago, after a long battle with drugs, and, literally, of a broken heart...He was unique and ALWAYS full of surprises...he used to put his amp, speaker cabinet and huitar in a shopping cart, and push it a mile up a big hill to rehearsals...that was dedication...anyway, the album got some airplay in Hungary (!), and, about two years after the album was released, I receive a letter from the Japaneses 'Nippon Broadcasting Company' praising it, and asking if we were interested in touring Japan...the group had scattered to the winds by that time...since I still have the master, with today's digital technology, it might be possible to re-do it and improve the sound...anyway, that's it...you can go to my MySpace site: Michael Mantra, and hear what I'm doing currently, which I refer to as 'World Music Fusion'...Peace Be Unto You