dial 1212-674-2987 for scheduling information
from
Antimatters, October 1998Report from the Fort
September 18, 1998
Peter Dizozza's Songwriter's Salon"My inspiration for the inception of this salon," Peter Dizozza explained, "was the need for songwriting inspiration. More specifically, I enjoyed such a salon throught the Songwriter's Guild of America."
So, through email and phone, and, with suggestion from Mr. Steve Espinola, Dizozza invited a panoply of songwriters to his home on THAT DATE. Attending were Rebecca Emery, her companion Phil, Dave Wechsler, Dan Killian, Espinola, Tom Warnick and Anne Kadet, the musical legend Biff Rose and his companions in the Wandering Menstruals, Elizabeth Suggs and Carla Grant, as well as Dan Kilian's friend, Matt. Dina Dean made a cameo appearance but could not be persuaded to perform without her left handed guitar.
"I suggested she write out the chords and we could accompany her." Dizozza said with a shrug. "Well, maybe next time."
He and room-mate, Faith Palmer-Persen took turns presiding over the evening.
Rebecca played guitar and sang a playfully innocent/disturbingly matter-of-fact song, "Dancing with the Devil," which would be most sexy for the devil and his minions to hear. Her companion Phil played a calming piano vocal setting of one of her poems about a rainy day. The audience was impressed. Dizozza declaimed, "I now believe that talent is a genetic strain in the Emery family."
Also at the piano, Dave Wechlser sang and played a fun new song with a ragtime feel entitled, "Talk of the Town."
Steve Espinola followed with the unforgettable "Famous, Famous" and , later, "Sweet Dream" a beautiful meditative love song worthy of its great companions, "Love Song While Running Away" and the "Bullet from the backwards gun/Googleplex" song.
Dan Kilian played "Danny Dollars" and, at Steve's request, his great "Peg-Legged Pirate" love song. It's rare to see Kilian solo at this point, as he devotes so much time to his band, National Anthem. Tom Warnick joined Kilian on guitar and Matt sang along.
Dan's friend, Matt, has a high rock belt which soared over his nylon string guitar accompaniment. He had a great song title in "A Night of Glorious Fisting." His band is called Seamless. They are working on a recording deal.
Tom Warnick played "The Big Room." His wife and collaborator, Anne Kadet, played an amazing Warnick-styled piano song. She is very cool. Who influences whom in that duo?
Biff Rose -- known most for his late sixties masterpiece LP, The Thorn in Mrs. Rose's Side, said the Songwriter's Salon was his first stop in New York. He played a vaudeville number about how "He had his fling." He followed up with the beautiful "When we're together I don't want to get caught," a great meditative song reminiscent of "Ave Maria" that seems to poingnantly refer to a former wife and child. "It was miraculous to see his fingers create that beautiful piano accompaniment," Dizozza described.
Elizabeth, Carla and Biff played Elizabeth's "Mother" and "Fuck Buddie" songs. Biff joined his voice with theirs for the doo-wop "I'm a woman who's found her way," the woman's permission song by Reverend Basil McDavid.
"The Songwriter's Salon was their first stop in New York and constituted Elizabeth and Carla's first impression of New York City." Mr. Dizozza described, "Apparently, Biff met them at a folk fair in the middle of Texas. They have some connection to the Lilith movement which includes painting with menstrual blood."
Peter Dizozza finished the evening, playing soon after his childhood idol, performing first "Quiet Moment" and then the anti-pickup song, "Never Too Sure."
"Biff particularly liked the opening and ending of 'Quiet Moment,'" said Dizozza, "and said 'Never Too Sure' was pure musical theatre. For him, yes, but for me it's a state of being. I was overwhelmed by the cumulative excitement of meeting a man who had inspired me in my youth. It was great, after I settled down, to discover he's a great conversationalist."
The next similar gathering will be Friday, November 13th from 7:30 to 9:30. It will be a songwriter's sight-reading salon: tunesmithes are invited to arrive with a lead sheet, chords and melody, or charts or whatever, and someone else gets to play the song. Call 212-674-2987 for information and location. (Gustav Plympton)
Report from the Fort in AntiMatters is a TradeMarked Component of AntiMatters Incorporated. Reproduction by permission.
November, Friday, the 13th, Songwriter's Saloon
Songwriters In Attendance:
The impish Rebecca Emery (new song including a product reference to the Chinese Rifle, the SKB???),
Steve Espinola ("Dawn" -- he reattached the sustain pedal on the piano to play it.),
Denise O'Brien and Andy (entrancing harmonies),
Dave Wechsler (playing his great "Salt of the Earth" Bossa Nova),
Jeffrey Lewis ("Gods A-Z"),
Jonathan Berger (poems about Booberries and grandmother returning the wheelchair -- and thanks, Jon, for bringing over the cereal box of Booberries for munchies.),
playwright Elizabeth West Versalie with Dizozza (Strange Way, from Cardboard Windows).
Since everyone at his office was writing testementary documents, Dizozza played a song from 1970 entitled "The Will," followed by the profoundly sad, "We Will Understand," a new march.
Interested Listeners in attendance included artist/roommate Faith Palmer-Persen,
Maria Isak Nevelson (Nevelson Interiors)
and Constance Baxter-Marlow (Chairperson, Friends of Earth People Foundation).
Zane Campbell phoned in toward evening's end and spoke briefly with Jeffrey Lewis, touching off realization of the parallel interests they share in folk guitar and graphic art.