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Sandy Bull Bio Sandy Bull's music has been inspiring musicians and listeners since the early sixties, starting with his first solo instrumental albums on Vanguard, and spanning a career which passed through these periods, locations and venues: Folk-singing in Washington Square and Paris street-busking in the late 50s; the Cambridge/Boston coffee house scene, where he met longtime friend Bob Neuwirth and sat in with Joan Baez (1959-61); the Greenwich Village club circuit where he played Folk City and the Gaslight Cafe with co-performers like Roger McGuinn, Bill Cosby, Pat Paulson and Koerner, Ray & Glover (on breaks he'd check out a new-comer from Minnesota called Bob Dylan across the street at the Cafe Wha?) 1961-63; Berkeley, Hollywood and San Francisco, where he played the Cabale, the Ash Grove, The Committee Theatre, and did a benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troop, organized by a young Bill Graham (1963-65); Egypt, where he played on Radio Cairo, and the London "avant garde" scene, where he played at Les Cousins on Greek Street and at the opening of the Indica Gallery (Paul McCartney gave Sandy and his amp a lift over from John Dunbar and Marianne Faithfull's pad (1966); the San Francisco / Love and Haight years where he played(on the same bill) at the Matrix with the Airplane, the Fillmore with the Chambers Brothers, Santana and Janis Joplin, the S.F. State Folk / Rock Festival with Steve Miller and the San Jose State Folk Rock Festival with Jimi Hendrix (1967-70); the N.Y.C. Max's Kansas City scene where the Warhol / Art crowd rubbed shoulders with cross-dressing bands in platform shoes...Bull played the Max's listening room along with performers like Waylon, Willie and Charlie Rich (at the birth of the "Outlaw" movement), Toots and the Maytals, and Bonnie Raiit, with side trips to Nashville's Exit Inn and the Last Resort in Athens, GA.(1971-72) In Hartford, he played oud to a standing ovation on Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review(1975); the mid-70s Bay Area period when he played many gigs including the Berkeley Community Theatre with Leo Kottke and the Oakland Paramount with Laurindo Almeida, Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis (1976); The Crater Festival at Diamond Head (with Journey, Flash Cadillac, Styx and Elvin Bishop); a solo concert at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York(1977); Miami, where he met producer/engineers Albhy Galutin and Don Gehman(1979-83); Los Angeles, where he based his music operations at Trolly Barn Studios in Venice and toured California, Austin, Santa Fe, Santa Barbara and San Francisco (1983-91); and presently Nashville, where his logistically flexible studio is called Strip Center Sound. Known as a master of plucked string instruments, his pioneering instincts in combining diverse musical cultures have always been ahead of the times. Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Brian Jones and Edward G. Robinson (Yeah...See?) have been among the admirers of Bull's recordings. Steve Winwood, in an interview for Guitar Player noted, "We wanted to blend musics from all over the world...Sandy Bull was a great influence because he did a song called 'Blend,' which was really what we were interested in doing, that same kind of thing." Lillian Roxon, the late Australian author of the Rock Encyclopedia, wrote: "His two records, made in 1963 and 1965, anticipate just about every style assimilated by the rock groups of 1968...his music has a sense of humor and a sense of the mystical and an inspired craftsmanship..." Born into a broken home in N.Y.C., Bull moved to Florida with his dad where he listened to Hank Williams on the radio, and learned his first guitar chords (Red River Valley) at age eight. He was fascinated by rhythms of a drum corps drifting on the night air from the Delray Beach High football field, and African drumming from sound tracks of "safari" movies like King Solomon's Mines. His Dad's heath failed in 1951 and as a result , Sandy moved back to New York to live with his mom, a fine harpist with a cabaret act billed "From Bach to Boogie Woogie." She taught Sandy to love all kinds of music, and her record collection included Woody Guthrie, Jimmy Rogers, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, "Leadbelly" and the Weavers. In the summer of 1954 he took 5-string banjo lessons with Eric Darling, and hung around the Village where he met artists like Odetta, Mary Travers, Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Eric Weissburg. Always drawn to the drone, he learned to play bagpipes around that time and by sixteen, he was getting some coffee house gigs. In high school, he grew to love Bach and other pre-1750 composers, along with ethnic, country and Caribbean styles, and became increasingly aware of the similarities and universalities of world music. After dropping out of Boston University, where he studied composition, string bass and sang and toured with the Choral Art Society, Bull returned to New York to persue a professional career in 1961. Sandy performed and recorded with his friend Bruce Langhorne in the group,The Washington Square Singers, who had a summer-long engagement at One, Sheridan Square (the site of the old Cafe Society). He met Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, who were playing with Ornette Coleman at the Five Spot on the Bowery, and when Bull was signed to Vanguard, he asked Billy to accompany him on his new guitar raga, Blend. The record, Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo, was released in the spring of 1963 and became an underground classic. As well as playing at the Gaslight, Folk City and the Bitter End, Sandy dee-jay'd and co-produced his eclectic Music of Man show on WNCN-FM. In September, 1963, Bull headed for California with his 00-21 Martin strapped to a 500 cc Norton. Stopping in Berkeley long enough to sell the bike and play at the Cabale, he went to Hollywood and opened for Lightning Hopkins at the Ash Grove (booked by Hugh Romney, a.k.a. Wavy Gravy, who Sandy had worked with in N.Y.C. at "The Phantom Caberet," a midnight show at the Living Theatre featuring Bull, Romney [doing mind comedy] and Tiny Tim). By this time, Sandy was sharing an apartment with the master musician, Hamza El Din, who had inspired Bull to take up the oud. Sandy and Geno Foreman had encouraged Hamza to come to New York after meeting him in Rome that summer, and helped get him signed to Vanguard. In 1964, Bull recorded Inventions in New York with Billy Higgins. In 1968 he did the basic tracks for E Pluribus Unum in Berkeley and finished the overdubs in New York at Vanguard's new studio under the Chelsea Hotel. He continued playing colleges, schools and clubs around the country, and in 1971 recorded Demolition Derby in New York, which reflected his growing interest in Latin/Salsa forms. In 1972, Bull took up the pedal-steel and in 1976 he studied sarod with Ali Akbar Khan. In 1980 he toured Europe with Don Cherry (Eagle-Eye played Melodica on one number). In 1987 Sandy recorded Jukebox School of Music in Venice, CA. Released on Keith Holzman's ROM Records, it featured the 25th year-reunion duet with Billy Higgins, "Truth." In 1989 Bull teamed up with Senegaleese percussionist Aiyb Dieng to open four sold out shows for Van Morrison at the Beacon Theatre in N.Y.C.. Aiyb joined Bull on his next release, 1991's Vehicles, which also featured guests Bernard Purdie, the Brecker Brothers, and pianist Hilton Ruiz. Bull and Dieng were part of Don Cherry's Multi-Kulti Orkestra's performance in Washington D.C. on the 4th of July, '91, and went on to play at the Bluebird in Nashville. In 1996, Timeless Recording Society released Steel Tears, an all-vocal album which, along with four original compositions, pays homage to American songs and artists that have influenced Bull over the years. Steel Tears was nominated best album in the "Folk" category by the Nashville Music Awards in 1977. Bull produced, engineered, composed the music, co-wrote the lyrics, played acoustic guitar, bass and steel on "Nashville," sung by Bob Neuwirth on the 1996 Watermelon CD, Look Up. In October, '98, Sandy played sarod on "Bastard Nation," from Kevin Welch's new release for Dead Reckoning, Beneath My Wheels . Bull is presently working on a collection of instrumentals for CD and DVD audio. We regret to announce that Sandy Bull passed away on April 11, 2001. Sandy was working on a new album which will hopefully be released sometime this year and be made available here
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