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TIMELESS RECORDING SOCIETY

Read Some Selected e-mail Sent to T.R.S.:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I don't know how long the website has been up, but I have checked browsers from time to time looking for SB with little to no success, and it's good to see something at last. Even better is to see someone (even Vanguard, at last?!!) putting out some re-releases. From my first listening in 1966 or 67 to today, the music has remained with me. I remain amazed at the artistry that came out of such a relatively young artist and the staying power of the music. Manha de Carnaval became one of my favorite tunes and songs, and Carmina Burana Fantasy one of my favorite versions. I have amassed several copies of most of the early record LPs. And am looking forward to hearing some of them on CD.

How is the quality of the CD recordings? How were they made? I hope they don't have the hollow tinny sound of some CD recordings; what have your more critical listeners had to say? As you can tell, although I have had a CD player for as long as the format has been available, I still love the sound of well recorded vinyl.

Thanks again for the new website; I'd love to hear if SB does a concert on the west coast. I live in Portland, OR now, but got to know his music in the Bay Area in the 60's. We have a few nice venues here in Portland, by the way.If you have any contact with the artist, please pass along my good thoughts, best wishes, and thanks for the music.

Sincerely,

Dave Chaffin,
Portland, OR

I've been an unabashed fan of Sandy Bull's music since my "Jukebox School of Music." I remember finding it at random. I'm excited at the prospect of hearing more of his music. I recently came across an old vinyl copy of "Inventions." Hearing the transcendent poetry of Chuck Berry or the joyous romp of "Blend" has been pure listening experience.

A couple of questions-

1. When will the the Vanguard Sessions compilation be released? I've seen conflicting dates.

2. Since this site is sponsoring a mail-order campaign of Mr. Bull's discography, will there be a chance for a fan-who-can't-wait to purchase his music in stores?

3. Any tour dates or performances upcoming?

--Anonymous

Dear Tim,

Thanks for researching and responding so quickly to my question about the "zap" on "Manha de Carnival." You went straight to the source for the answer. Wow !!! What customer service.

Perhaps Sandy Bull would appreciate hearing from an old fan who would like to go on record as saying that "Gospel Tune" is one of the coolest, most powerful and under acknowledged guitar instrumental performances ever recorded.

As a garage band kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid sixties, I was first introduced to the song by the developing underground radio scene of the time, i.e., KMPX and later KSAN. When I entered Cal in '67, I would often forego class to stay and listen to these stations, waiting for my favorite underground "classics" to be played -Gospel Tune being one of them.

I have spend a good part of my adult guitar playing life trying to figure out how to play that song. Literally hundreds of hours have been spent with a cassette recorder, a vibratoed stratocaster, guitar transcription paper and pencil trying to recreate what I was hearing. The reward for my efforts is a somewhat sketchy, albeit earnest attempt at the original. After all these years, I've come to the conclusion that SB either a.) double tracked himself on the guitar or, b.) actually has six fingers on his right hand. If there is a c.) that he actually played that straight, then I guess I have nothing left to say.

Any information that you could provide about how this song was recorded e.g., how many takes there were, brand of amp, vibrato settings, strat settings, gauge and brand of strings, kind of picks, time of day and (well, you get the idea) would be honestly appreciated.

But mostly, I'd like to say thanks to Sandy Bull for giving us this classic guitar gem. It pulls me into its magical groove every time I hear it. Truly a "Timeless Recording."

Sincerely,

Ralph Weber

comments: Hey. I've been lookin for you. Thanks for showing up.

Used to hear Sandy Bull at loft parties in Soho back in 71, maybe 72 (I'm lousy with dates but I think I was living in what was later called Tribeca at the time...) playing with his back to the party. So of course we wouldn't invade his privacy, watch him actually doing this hypnotic exhilarating STUFF! I mean what do you call it? It just creates its own river and you can sail or swim and he doesn't really care one way or the other, his job is the river...

Anyway I'm going to get the two CDs I don't have - god only knows what happened to my albums. Talk to you later -

SMP

comments: i just got re-inventions a few days ago. it was like getting reaquainted with a long lost college friend from the '60s. all my vinyl lps had been sounding like shit for at least two decades, my turntable died about ten years ago and my periodic searches at record stores never once yielded a sandy bull cd. then, through the internet and vanguard's re-inventions, i struck paydirt. on first listen, i knew some things never change. for example, sandy's memphis is STILL my favorite instumental of all time and it is still impossible for me to listen to it without moving my thumbs, my hands, my head, or my whole body to the beat. it's good to know an old friend is alive and kicking.

Anonymous

I have followed Sandy Bull since the early 60's and know some of the same people. I am an oud player and human rights professor and combine it with work in the middle east where I have introduced Sandy Bull's music to a lot of people.

I have copies of all the c.d.s listed on your web page. I am interested in purchasing copies of any and all other music by Sandy Bull whenever it becomes available.

Please keep me posted.

Jim Torczyner

Dear Sandy,

Just wanted to let you know that I did get the three cd's all in good shape (though it took 2 weeks for the package to reach me). Well, I just returned at 6:00 A.M. on Nov 15th from the sad, frightening, and frightened city of Johannesburg ( my bank's H.O.), kind of frazzled --aside from results of a typical BS corporate meeting, a lightning bolt hit the plane coming in over Sumatra. The package was awaiting me. So, a Melatonin tab, and "Vehicles" on the CD player. I have been searching for that recording for years now all over the place -- the Far East, the US, Sweden, UK, South Africa, you name it. And finally got it, from the Maker, no less! You know, I really can't understand how such excellent music and musicianship should be so obscure when there's so much schlock and drek out there. I know at least a few Sandy Bull fans (out here in the Far East even!) ---guys like me who still hoard their 60's Vanguard LP's to this day. A few years ago in Jakarta I was playing the "Jukebox School of Music" one night for a dinner guest (without mentioning what it was). After a while he said "Hey, that sounds like Sandy Bull". So, it just goes to show, you've got fans in surprising places.

I recently read the article on you in Folk Roots (good writing); you've got much more music to give, I'm sure. Anyway, everything on "Vehicles" is fine and neat. I particularly liked "Walking to Missouri" and "Together Again" (Boy! that latter really brought back '60's tent memories --- yep, your fans even include Viet Vets like me, hope that's A-OK with you). Very sweet thick steel sounds alternating with your characteristic "punchy" 6 string breaks. Good Stuff! And Concerto for Al-Oud. Very good indeed. Adventurous. Ecumenical. By the way do you know the German group Sarband? I think you you'd very much like what they do.Western medieval and Islamic medieval, Together Again. Proper stuff. Good history.

Anyway, this is all by way of saying THANKS and wishing you good health and continued recording.

GWF--Singapore

Dear Folks,

It was 1966 and I was a college kid in Portland, Oregon when I turned on to acid, Ali Akbar Khan and Sandy Bull in that order. The music got me as high as the drugs. At the time, I thought that Sandy Bull's vibrato was the acoustic equivalent of a strobe light and meant to create that same perceptual wah wah you can experience when your're really stoned. Somewhere in my gypsy wanderings I gave away my Ali Akbar Khan and Sandy Bull albums to a sympathethic soul who took me into his home and heart and walked a short way with me along my journey. When I finally settled down long enough to begin acquiring treasured possessions, the Ali Akbar Khan music was findable, but I searched in vain for Sandy Bull's music. What delight to accidentally discover Reinventions and, through the album notes, this website. The music translated well to the CD and all these years later still makes me feel high. What amazes me now is how the young man who performed Gospel Tune, younger then than my youngest child now, had such amazing emotional insight, or if the music was not the product of emotional insight, then how that young person managed to get out of the way and let the music come through him. I wonder if Sheila Chandra and Loreena McKinnet appreciate that Sandy Bull pointed the way to the territory they are exploring with their Hindu/medieval chant and Arabic/Celtic fusions. And I wonder if Sandy Bull realizes what incredible pleasure he has given to others through his music. Thanks for then and thanks for now, too.

Greatfully, C.E.

Great page and a great resource. Sandy Bull has been a profound influence on me; his playing usually follows the intuitive directions I hear in my head, giving me that "kindred soul" type feeling that is really rare in music. I haven't been a fan as long as some of these others (about 8 years or so, but I'm in my 20's fer chrissakes), but Sandy Bull's music speaks to me like few others can. The blending of raga, rock, folk, jazz and blues is not easy, yet it feels so natural in his work (especially the first three albums). For some it's Fahey, for some it's Jansch or Renbourn, but I'll take Sandy Bull. Thanks for the great page once again.

Erik

Email: whitetrashcooking@yahoo.com

Comments: sound effects: new compositional intentions: plunderphonics

Although his “Inventions” came out in 1965, I didn’t really experience this in full until summer of 1966. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent with my mind immersed in my first headphone experience, suspended and floating on a sea of purple and red stripes that made the madras, the subdued orange hue from the Macintosh amplifier tubes slightly illuminating the wall, the round japanese paper lantern shimmering like the softest sort of moth wings, with Sandy Bull whispering his sweet somethings in my ears. His beautiful lp “Inventions.” What a lovely perspective! And what a delightful retrospective!

Without knowing he did so, he taught me so much about music by teaching me to listen to his. “Blend” has been duly and endlessly praised as a visionary piece, an exquisite improvisation, “a guitar raga.”

This "Reinventions" collection also shows Sandy’s sense of understatement. He’s a masterful musician, and you know that he can play anything anywhere at any time. But he relies on his inherent good taste and his own perfect timing. He knows just when and where to drop in that perfect note belled like a meditation chime and he isn’t at all pretentious about it. That’s his intention. The music pulses and transforms as it ebbs to flow back in on itself, the rhythms shifting into changing patterns something like the sand you see beneath you as you’re floating on the surface of clear bright water. It’s all true, and “Blend” just one of the voyages. I trust where he’s going to take me next, and I am more than satisfied to rest in the water awhile held aloft by his “Manha de Carnival.”

This record has a whole lot of Sandy’s treasures. How much better can things get than the reverb vibrato on “Gospel Tune” until Sandy is immersed in the spirit of that song and starts tapping his foot to get the hi-hat cymbal going to accompany himself. You just have to smile at this point.

By the time he recorded this song, Sandy had moved up from strapping a tambourine to his foot
with a bent wire coat hanger and finally borrowed a foot cymbal to record with.

Hey, everybody knew he picked that trick up from Jesse Fuller, and Sandy would be the first to
tell you he had. What’s more, I felt I knew why he did and it was every bit as sweet as it was
funny and cool. Sandy Bull is always pure and charming about what he does and completely
sincere in the way that he does it.

By the time you recognize the truth of that, you realize he’s been doing something few others attempted at the time, he’s been fingerpicking his electrified stratocaster. You wonder how much better any of this could possibly be, until you get to “Memphis.” There’s that vibrato electric guitar again, and Billy Higgins can barely contain himself as he starts drumming his way into the intro and he starts shout-singing soft jazzy jumbled phrases of encouragement, like some jazz drummers do, and the mood for that one is definitely on the upswing.

Thanks for including "Carnival Jump" on this one with the "spare change" percussion.

It’s not often in life that you can boast that you were introduced to a legend early on, but I feel somehow privileged that I can say that honestly about some people I have encountered. My part in it was my happening to be in the right place at the right time to be able to witness early expression of wondrous talent or genius. Thereafter, their contributions can in a way be measured in terms of their importance or significance by having a long-lasting effect on nearly any one who has come in contact with them in any way.

Although I suspect that Sandy Bull most likely discovered himself first, I have to tell you that his reputation preceeded him to the West Coast. I first heard of Sandy before he had made his first record. A friend of mine from Boston area had heard him perform somewhere back East, and said reverentially, “Wow. That Sandy Bull ... (long pause looking for a suitable adjective) ... He’s boss!”

Back then in 1963, Vanguard was recognizably hip to have Sandy come by and record his “Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo.”

I always feel a little privileged listening to Sandy Bull, and I was glad to see him perform when he moved out to California. I remember seeing him at the Cabal, what was once called in print “a crummy beatnik coffeehouse” in Berkeley back in 1964. The owners of the Cabal responded by taking that definition as their own, and painted “a crummy beatnik coffeehouse” as their slogan on an exterior wall as a form of advertising.

Then I saw Sandy on the same bill with the Staples at the 1967 San Francisco Folk Festival. He played solo and had recorded some other parts on a big reel to reel taperecorder, and he would
step on the button with his foot to bring those parts in at appropriate times during the
performance.

By that time, the “crummy beatnik coffeehouse” had gone out of business, but another one
popped up down the street in a lower rent district. Once again accused in the press of being “a “cheap little hippy joint” and so they painted that on the outside of the building as their advertising motto.

A few years later, Sandy lived a few doors down from me, sharing a house with Shakey the cat,
and Sandy would play for hours in the basement flat trying to coax the right sort of sounds out of his pedal steel. You’ll get to hear his success with that on a 1988 cd called “Jukebox School of Music.” I’m sure it’s not the same cantankerous colicky instrument he was trying to train back in 1968 (you kept hoping that one would discover language and start talking soon, but he would practice for hours trying to encourage his baby to just say “mama!”). I’m sure you won’t believe what you’re hearing there on “Jukebox School of Music,” either. I often wonder how it is that pedal steel can be both the most melancholy and the bounciest sort of instrument, but Sandy brings all that feeling out through the steel strings.

1968, I think that was the year that some television show which dialed out random numbers to
give away prizes people didn’t have to do anything to win other than answer the phone happened to call the “Free Store” on San Pablo. The “Free Store” was just that, a store full of things that people were tired of, so people would donate these items to the “Free Store” and they in turn allowed any one who wanted or needed these items to take them away. That was a particularly hard hit area economically, just down the street from “a cheap hippy joint.” Though the “Free Store” was run by “hippies,” hardpressed folks in the neighborhood eventually used the place. That day, the tv host announced that the “Free Store” won some tickets for a chicken dinner or something, but the people at the “Free Store” said “Oh, that’s cool” and promised that when the coupons arrived they’d stick them up and let somebody take the tickets for free. (And that’s just what happened).

Yay, Sandy! So glad you made it! Now you have made a few more records that I plan to send
away for today. I hope you can find a band to play with if that’s what you want to do.

Your admirer for close to 40 years now,
wtc

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