MASLEY, MICHAEL; American instrumentalist and composer; b. Trenton, Michigan, September 22, 1952. He studied creative writing at Northwestern Michigan College (1970-72); in 1973 began working with hammered dulcimer player Bob Spinner, who became a mentor. He played using traditional 2-hammer technique until 1979; during months at a fishing lodge in northern Michigan, he developed a 10-fingered "finger-hammer" technique. In 1982 he engaged the dulcimer maker William Webster of Detroit to make him a cymbalom (a large chromatic concert dulcimer); he added violin bows to the finger hammers in 1983, creating his unique "bowhammers." In 1982 he moved to Palo Alto, California, where he met guitarist Barry Cleveland (1983); they performed as the duo Thin Ice, releasing the recordings Thin Ice Live (1984) and 1st Frost (1985); he also played on Cleveland's later albums, Mythos (1986) and Voluntary Dreaming (1990); moved to Berkeley, California in 1985. His own recordings include Cymbalom Solos (1985), The Moment's River (1987), Bells & Shadows (1989), and Mystery Loves Company (1990). His innovative cymbalom technique enables the player to strike, bow, or pluck notes with all 10 fingers in any combination. The resulting timbral distinctions are used to create unusually complex contrapuntal textures for a solo instrument, to which he often adds pitched and tunable percussion instruments.
-- Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (8th edition)
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SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE --Rob Morse 11.3.2
Berkeley street musician Michael Masley has appointed himself "the Artist General." [http://ArtistGeneral.com] He is an accomplished player of the large hammered dulcimer and was grand marshal of the How Berkeley Can You Be Parade... "Patriots for a Fair Contract with America" [http://LieJinx.com] asks "Martial Planners"... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/03/MN19057.DTL
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____________ARTIST GENERAL'S WARNING: Conformity is Addictive.
Don't abuse it.
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________"ART OFFICIALLY FAVORED"
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_____5 MIN TRAILER:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEICJR_RpuE
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Michael Masley's music has been heard in a diverse array of venues and contexts including original contributions to the soundtrack to Geronimo: An American Legend, on which he worked with guitar legend Ry Cooder. Masley has also recorded with producer and Garbage drummer Butch Vig and appears on the multi-platinum release Garbage: Version 2.0.
In addition to these collaborations, Masley's music has been heard in NFL broadcasts, The 1994 Winter Olympics, Entertainment Tonight, HBO programming, and most recently in Martin Yernazian's upcoming documentary, "Art Officially Favored" by Pyrotecnia Productions. Masley has also been profiled by NPR's All Things Considered (http://artistgeneral.com) where excerpts from his CD, Mystery Repeats Itself, still occasionally surface in their programming. His song "Six White Horses" is featured on the All Songs Considered CD, published by NPR Classics.
Masley (pronounced MAZElee) is also politically "active" online as "The Artist General", a cabinet-level self-appointment conceptually indebted to San Francisco's "Emperor Norton" and the U.S Surgeon General-- expressively-dedicated to Progressive-Political Performance Artistry and "protecting and promoting the ends, means, and ways" of the Imagination as the cultural cutting-edge of American Consciousness.
