Another album cover painting that piqued my curiosity is featured on Archie Shepp’s Fire Music (1965). After inconclusive polling of the “experts” and unanswered industry inquiries, I gave up and bought the damned thing. I discovered that it is a painting by Mel Cheren. The “who?” lead me further, and as I discovered that Cheren continues to paint, but in the 1960s worked for ABC-Paramount and Dunhill Records before starting his own disco label in the 1970s. He now manages a small hotel in Chelsea and continues to work as a gay rights advocate and activist. Cheren is not encoded in the canonical history of art, not even that of a regional, New York history, but like the [Ornette] Coleman's painting [The Art of the Improvisers], created a still-useful sign that is kept alive — owes its freedom of expression — as long as the Shepp record is in production.
Mel Cheren, who died Friday at 74, was a founder of West End Records, a spearhead of disco from the mid-1970s.
As a producer for another label, Scepter Records, Cheren was credited by Billboard magazine with inventing the 12-inch single and the purely instrumental b-side, which allowed a DJ to extend a dance song infinitely.
At West End Records, which he co-founded in 1976, Cheren released some of the formative singles of the disco era, including "Hot Shot" by Karen Young and Raw Silk's "Do It To the Music." He also backed a memorable nightclub, the Paradise Garage, where disco dreams played out in the fabulous late 1970s and early 1980s. A 2006 documentary about Cheren's role in the music's early days was titled, "The Godfather of Disco."
All too notoriously, the predominantly gay social scene of early disco burned out in the face of the AIDS epidemic. Cheren became a leader in that cause as well, holding the first fund-raisers and donating the first office space to the Gay Men's Health Crisis in his Chelsea brownstone, a renovated SRO. After GMHC outgrew those quarters, Cheren converted the brownstone into a gay-oriented bed-and-breakfast, the Colonial House Inn.
Born January 21, 1933, in Everett, Mass., and raised in nearby Revere, Cheren got his first job in the record industry at ABC-Paramount Records, where he rose to head of production. Hot acts on the label included Paul Anka and B.B. King, but Cheren left when ABC-Paramount moved to Los Angeles, in 1970. At Scepter, he pioneered long-playing "danceable R&B" formats, and shepherded early disco hits including "Do It 'Til You're Satisfied" by B.T. Express. Scepter folded in 1976, and Cheren and another Scepter executive, Ed Kushins, founded West End Records. The label's first release was a long-playing disco version of an Italian film score title track, "Sessamato," famously used as the first record scratched by GrandMaster Flash. There were other connections to the later hip hop styles, including Taana Gardner's "Heartbeat," a West End hit that has become one of the most sampled tracks.
In 1977, Cheren and his companion, Michael Brody, opened the Paradise Garage, a seminal nightclub on King Street in the West Village in a former parking garage — a ramp led up to the dance floor. Smoke machines and music videos lurked in the corners and one of the most sophisticated sound systems in the city pumped out DJ Larry Levan's selections. As it was a private club and sold no alcohol, the dancing could continue far into the night, sometimes even until noon the next day. The endless throbbing at Paradise Garage is often cited as a precursor to house music and similar modern styles. Despite the onset of AIDS and the "death to disco" or "disco sucks" movement of the early 1980s, the Paradise Garage managed to stay open until 1987. Today it is again a garage.
Cheren first opened his home for GMHC's offices from the organization's founding in 1982, and sponsored its first fund-raiser, at the Paradise Garage. He remained involved, and last January celebrated his 74th birthday as a GMHC benefit. He was also an important benefactor to music industry AIDS charities, including 24 Hours for Life and Lifebeat.
An accomplished painter, Cheren's art was featured on the covers of ten albums, including John Lee Hooker's Urban Blues and Sonny Rollins's East Broadway Run Down. Other paintings, many lit by black lights to bring out the fluorescent paint, lined the halls of his B&B, which remains open.
In 2000, Cheren published a memoir, "My Life and the Paradise Garage:Keep on Dancin': " In the book's prologue, he wrote, "This is a story of my gay generation, the world we built, and the world we lost."
He died of complications of AIDS.
On Friday, I saw Anthony Huberman, chief curator of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis give a lecture at Webster University. I was so entertained and inspired by the lecture that decided that I would give Huberman a copy of a CD I made (as Poison Rat R.) in collaboration with the Japanese cyber-punk writer Kenji Siratori. You can hear our work by clicking here.
Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887, the second of seven children, and grew up on a farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. As a child she received art lessons at home, and her abilities were quickly recognized and encouraged by teachers throughout her school years. By the time she graduated from high school in 1905, O'Keeffe had determined to make her way as an artist.
Outrageous and chaotic, this competitive art auction event benefits FM 88.1 KDHX! Admission is $15, and all proceeds benefit KDHX. 6:00 to 11:00 p.m.
Art Attack 4 is a single elimination tournament pitting 32 local artists head-to-head. Audience response to each painting will be judged, with the piece receiving the most applause progressing to the next round and the losing piece being auctioned to the highest bidder. But there's one catch...
If bids aren’t high enough, the art will face a perilous future in front of the Wheel of Misfortune! This large wheel includes six diabolical and imaginative ways of destroying the losing piece: Perhaps by chainsaw, an evil Lunch Lady or a relentless Arch Rival Roller Girl.
Buy some art, or punch it in the face: you can't lose!
From 7-10 p.m. Friday, November 9, Poetry Scores will host its 8th art invitational where some 50 visual artists make new work based on the same long poem at Mad Art Gallery, 2727 So. 12th St. in Soulard. This invitational responds to "Phantom of the Dreams’ Origin," an excerpt of the first masterpiece of Greek Surrealism, Blast Furnace (1935) by Andreas Embirikos, translated into English by Nikos Stabakis.
The event is free and open to the public; Mad Art will run a cash bar and there will be some free food. The art work will be for sale, with proceeds split evenly between artist, gallery and Poetry Scores, a St. Louis-based non-profit arts organization that translates poetry into other media. Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate in Literature from Nigeria, describes Poetry Scores as “a very special celebration of creative collaboration.”
Webster University Film Series presents Ornette: Made in America, Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Moore Auditorium.
Ornette: Made in America (Shirley Clarke, 1983, USA, 77 min.) This documentary captures the inner life of artist-innovator Ornette Coleman and his evolution over three decades.
Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1983 as a famed performer and composer, documentary footage, dramatic scenes and some of the first music video-style segments ever made, chronicle his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon.
Contributors include: William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Buckminster Fuller, Don Cherry, Yoko Ono, Charlie Haden, Robert Palmer, Jayne Cortez and John Rockwell. Viewing Ornette: Made in America is essential for anyone who wants to understand the history of jazz and the fertile creative exchange that highlighted the 1960′s and 70′s in America.
Webster University Film Series presents Ornette: Made in America, Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Moore Auditorium.
Ornette: Made in America (Shirley Clarke, 1983, USA, 77 min.) This documentary captures the inner life of artist-innovator Ornette Coleman and his evolution over three decades.
Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1983 as a famed performer and composer, documentary footage, dramatic scenes and some of the first music video-style segments ever made, chronicle his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon.
Contributors include: William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Buckminster Fuller, Don Cherry, Yoko Ono, Charlie Haden, Robert Palmer, Jayne Cortez and John Rockwell. Viewing Ornette: Made in America is essential for anyone who wants to understand the history of jazz and the fertile creative exchange that highlighted the 1960′s and 70′s in America.
Webster University Film Series presents Ornette: Made in America, Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Moore Auditorium.
Ornette: Made in America (Shirley Clarke, 1983, USA, 77 min.) This documentary captures the inner life of artist-innovator Ornette Coleman and his evolution over three decades.
Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1983 as a famed performer and composer, documentary footage, dramatic scenes and some of the first music video-style segments ever made, chronicle his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon.
Contributors include: William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Buckminster Fuller, Don Cherry, Yoko Ono, Charlie Haden, Robert Palmer, Jayne Cortez and John Rockwell. Viewing Ornette: Made in America is essential for anyone who wants to understand the history of jazz and the fertile creative exchange that highlighted the 1960′s and 70′s in America.
Webster University Film Series presents Ornette: Made in America, Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Moore Auditorium.
Ornette: Made in America (Shirley Clarke, 1983, USA, 77 min.) This documentary captures the inner life of artist-innovator Ornette Coleman and his evolution over three decades.
Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1983 as a famed performer and composer, documentary footage, dramatic scenes and some of the first music video-style segments ever made, chronicle his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon.
Contributors include: William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Buckminster Fuller, Don Cherry, Yoko Ono, Charlie Haden, Robert Palmer, Jayne Cortez and John Rockwell. Viewing Ornette: Made in America is essential for anyone who wants to understand the history of jazz and the fertile creative exchange that highlighted the 1960′s and 70′s in America.
Born in St. Louis on October 18, 1926 Berry had many influences on his life that shaped his musical style. He emulated the smooth vocal clarity of his idol, Nat King Cole, while playing blues songs from bands like Muddy Waters.
Chuck Berry's music has transcended generations. He earns respect to this day because he is truly an entertainer. Berry, also known as "The Father of Rock & Roll", gained success by watching the audience's reaction and playing accordingly, putting his listeners' amusement above all else. For this reason, tunes like "Johnny B. Goode," "Maybellene" and "Memphis" have become anthems to an integrated American youth and popular culture. Berry is a musical icon who established rock and roll as a musical form and brought the worlds of black and white together in song.
