Bill Loughborough
You might never have heard of Bill Loughborough before but that's him playing the bass marimba and lujon on Alan Watts' This Is It record. Often considered the first psychedelic record, 1962's This Is It may actually have been beaten to the punch by Vortex, a 1959 collection of experimental music by Loughborough, his friend Henry Jacobs, and others. The recordings were released in association with Jacobs' and artist Jordan Belson's Vortex: Experiments in Sound and Light—a series of concerts featuring music and lights at the Morrison Planetarium in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco in 1957.
It was Loughborough who founded the MEA record label in Sausalito in the early 1950s with money he inherited from a relative. MEA (which stood for either "Musical Engineering Association" or "Mastering Enlightenment Arts") is best known for releasing Alan Watts records. Loughborough has his own website full of his insights on such varied topics as Irish wolfounds, peafowl, and Harry Partch. There are also excerpts from an autobiography he's working on, documenting his days as a cockfighter, professional gambler, and member of the political satire group The Committee.
Comments
Back in 1967-68, I was a burgeoning guitarist and a member of Del Close's Harrold Workshops. Bill was called "Love" and he cast a jaundiced eye on us callow workshoppers, especially me because I bounced a couple of checks at the Committee and, as the company business manager, he had to come after me to make them good. In the summer of 68, I stopped performing with the Committee because I had become the fulltime guitarist and arranger for jazz singer Al Jarreau. Al and I recorded "Better Than Anything" in August of that year. Neither of us knew that Bill was one of its composers until years later when Allan Meyerson told me "Love" was short for Loughborough and that he was living in Washington. I am now persuing his writing and would love to show him mine. Good health to us all. - Julio Martinez
Posted by: Julio Martinez | March 1, 2010 12:38 AM