Derek Bailey, John Fahey, John Cage, Steve Lacy, Thelonious Monk, Erik Satie, Duke Ellington, Albert Ayler, Morton Feldman, string bands of Papua New Guinea, Grand Papa Diabate, Ernest Tubb, Loren Connors, The Feelies
Sounds Like
There's an old story about Steve Lacy that probably can't be repeated too often. In 1968, the soprano saxophonist runs into Frederic Rzewski on a street in Rome. Rzewski pulls out a pocket tape recorder and asks Lacy to characterize the differences bewteen composition and improvisation in fifteen seconds. Lacy replied: "In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds." Later, Rzewski timed Lacy's response and discovered Lacy took exactly fifteen seconds to answer the question.
Greg was born in Galesburg, Illinois during the hard times of 1939. Greg’s father played the accordion and his mother accompanied him on bagpipes. Music was the only comfort the small family knew in those early years, and that wasn’t any comfort at all.
At the tender age of 7, Greg was orphaned (some reports say “abandoned”) and he had to learn how to fend for himself. Luckily, a warm-hearted kazoo maker took Greg in as an apprentice. There was something about humming into that metal apparatus and making the wax paper vibrate to the tune of Yankee Doodle that made Greg’s spirits soar. Greg would often refer to himself as a “Yankee Doodle Dandy” in those days. After being rightfully punched several times after making such statements, Greg wisely gave up the title.
In 1955, when Greg heard that rock n’ roll was the devil’s music, he was known to say, “The devil must not be nearly as interesting as I originally thought.” Greg immediately joined a church choir and referred to Satanists as “dullards.” With God and music on his side, Greg took off to explore the world.
I met Greg in 1969. I was doing a tour of basements when I caught his act for the first time. Greg would swallow fire for the first half of the show, and then play banjo songs to finish the set. I advised Greg to give up the banjo bit. He must not have heard me correctly as he kept the banjo and gave up the fire. Ironically, in 1972, Greg and I released two banjo-funk albums under the name of Henry C. Cobb Jr. and Banjo Joe. One of the albums, See You Tomorrow, sold 11 copies. I squandered my percentage of the profits on hog belly futures, but Greg wisely used his earnings to hitch his way to New York City.
By 1979 Greg was touring regularly with the internationally known The Scene Is Now. To this day Greg is an integral part of the group. Greg also continues to produce solo works that drench your soul like an ocean wave and leave you as lonesome as a patch of sunlight on a Sunday afternoon. A pity, really. He was the best damn fire-eater I had ever met.
Happy New Year's, chum. I also love your new stuff. By the way, I ran into Mike and Libby at Hy-Vee a few days ago. He said he'd give me a new 4-track recorder.
"Gregory Peterson has been hailed as 'an organist with imagination and verve' whose playing is 'competent and stylish.' He joined the Luther music faculty in September of 2005 as Assistant Professor of Music and College Organist, returning to his alma mater. At Luther he teaches applied organ and church music and plays for daily and Sunday chapel in the College’s Center for Faith and Life on the 42-stop mechanical action organ by Robert Sipe. ...
Dr. Peterson earned the B.A. degree in music at Luther College where he studied with William Kuhlman. He holds the M.M. degree from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where he was Hugh Giles Scholar and received the Harry B. Jepson Memorial Scholarship as a student of Charles Krigbaum. He earned the DMA in organ performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa where he studied with Delores Bruch and Delbert Disselhorst as a Rahn Scholar and teaching assistant. He undertook additional master classes at the Gothenburg International Organ Academy in Sweden. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda."
holy crap! remember those online paid survey things that i was taking to make extra cash? i just got my first check for $237!! and that was just for like a few hours of work! wanna go out this weekend? it's on me! you should do it, too. the money is so easy, then we can take a roadtrip in a few weeks.
ahhh well just hit the site up and check it out. its at
www.blingsurvey.com
im not sure how to make it so you can click on this link, so you can just copy and paste it into your internet explorer and check it out. whateva, just do it. you'll see. the money is sweet!
anyways, i gots to run, but gimme a call later on, k?
hailz greg.. whats up in the smile zone at academy? save me some bad metal cds and i will come by sunday and buy some. anything good ? i had to go to calif to put mom in the nursing home , what a year:(...hi to the gang .. jazz greetings -cheryl
hey Greg! Thanks for the ad! how are you? hey I think I saw you on TV! I'm maybe wrong but I think it was you, that was on a french show about NYC with one girl and one guy visiting the big apple..was it you in central park playing guitar and getting interviewed? if it's not the case it's probalbly your clone with a beard! maybe you grew one! well you'll have to let me know! I think I'll see you in NY, have a great day!
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