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(Thumbnails above are of Ron with Steve Heimer, left; a painting
of Ron by Steve, center; and Steve, Ron, and Glenn, right).
Karlheinz returned
to Germany in May of l964; Glenn and I returned to Montclair,
Steve returned to his parent’s home in Coudersport, Pennsylvania.
The three of us decided to live and work together. In the fall
of 1964 Glenn and I located and moved into an apartment with
(almost) suitable space in East Orange, New Jersey. Steve joined
us that winter and took a job as a bank teller. I resumed accompanying
for dance classes (a part- time occupation I had discovered
while in college) and Glenn was a short-order cook and waiter.
I spent my time studying, reading and composing. Steve had introduced
me to Alfred Korzybski’s Science and Sanity
(a favorite of William Burroughs) which we studied together
in search of a fresh approach to problems of modern art. I took
up every reading suggestion Karlheinz gave me, Paul Klee’s
The Thinking Eye, Corbusier’s Modular,
assorted studies in Acoustics, and the writings of Teilhard
de Chardin. Karlheinz was the dominant presence in our studio
life in East Orange as we tried to define and personalize our
own viewpoints and procedures. He cast a long shadow. I grew
restless and  began
to long for the company of musicians. A classmate from Karlheinz’
course, composer Maryanne Amacher (thumbnail, right), had gone
to Champaigne-Urbana, Illinois, and was writing to me enthusiastically
about the phenomenal musicians there, the electronic music studio,
and the big festival of contemporary music going on. She urged
me to come out and I did.
(Thumbnails above left is of Ron Dewar;
above center is of Will Parsons and Ron Thomas;
and above right is of John English.)
I joined a carfull
of rollicking Physical Education majors headed back to the University
of Illinois from New York City in February of 1965. Composers,
performers, and conductors from all over the world came to the
1965 Contemporary Arts Festival and I was treated to a spectacular
display of luminaries, concerts and lectures. Almost immediately,
I met Ron Dewar (Tenor and Soprano Saxophonist), Will Parsons
(percussionist and composer), and Jon English (trombonist, bassist,
and composer).
(Thumbnail above left is of Salvatore Martirano;
right is of Jerry [Lejaren] Hiller.)
Composer
Salvatore Martirano
invited me to join his composition class and Jerry (Lejaren)
Hiller let me attend his lectures on Electronic music and work
in the Studio. John Garvey recruited me to perform with the
University Jazz Band.
 Ron,
Will and Jon introduced me to the great Modern Jazz of the period
and my life was (again) forever changed. These three extraordinary
musicians were my first and most important jazz mentors. The
progressive musical scene in the midwest was more drastic than
any I have encountered since, and not a phony in the lot. All
first class musicians. Jon English was my closest and longest
lasting friend and was the strongest influence on me. I began
listening to the music of Gil Evans, Miles Davis (thumbnail,
right),  and
Bill Evans. I immediately got hired for jazz gigs and these
jobs introduced me directly to the problems and principles of
jazz improvisation. I met Elliot Carter at one of Sal Martirano’s
famous “Roundhouse” partys. Later I attended his festival
lecture and saw him for a private lesson. My piece Occasion
for Four Winds was performed on a concert Sal had arranged
-- the first public performance of a work of mine.
 Jon
offered to drive me back to NJ at the end of my stay in Illinois.
We dropped in at John Cage’s Stony Point, New York, home
on the way back to East Orange. (Thumbnail is of John Cage.)
This came to be the first of many visits I had with Cage until
his death. During my stay in Illinois I experimented with many
different kinds of morphologies and notation schemes, building
upon what I had learned from Karlheinz and also what I was learning
in Illinois. I brought back to East Orange new interests, not
all of which were compatible with the philosophy of our studio
which was, after all, primarily a painter’s atelier, and
so in September of 1965 I left East Orange. One evening before
I left, however, I went to a jazz club in Newark, New Jersey,
called the Front Room to see Miles’ band. To my great surprise,
pianist Herbie Hancock, whose amazing recordings with Miles
I had first heard in Illinois, recognized me! Herbie had studied
with the composition faculty at the Manhattan School while I
was there and heard performances of my student compositions
at the school! My acquaintance with Stockhausen and my connection
to the new-music scene intrigued him. I had many tapes of unavailable
performances of notorious contemporary works such as Penderecki’s
Threnodies, Stockhausen’s Momente, etc.  which
he and Tony Williams were interested in hearing and copying.
Until he moved to Los Angeles, we had many great visits on Riverside
Drive. (In 1968 Herbie suggested that I study with Sir
Roland Hanna (thumbnail, right), which I did until 1970).
 I
moved to Mahopac, New York in the fall of 1965 and lived
there for two years, a story too vast for this writing. (Thumbnail
left is of Ron Thomas during this time.) Except to note that
Steve Heimel joined me there briefly, and it was Steve with
whom I roomed when I moved into New York City in the summer
of 1967. We lived on East 3rd Street next door to “Slugs”
jazz club. These years were difficult. The fierce clash of the
“Classical” and the “Jazz” sides of my life
was difficult to the point of horrible. I wanted to make both
things work but couldn’t figure out how. Desperate to escape
the hippie underworld, I applied to Rutgers University in New
Brunswick, New Jersey and was miraculously accepted to their
Graduate Program in Composition. After the Montclair house was
sold, Buddy and Helen bought 28 Richmond Road in Edison (near
New Brunswick) and I moved there to begin my studies in the
fall of 1967. I played and studied jazz while studying Composition
with Robert Moevs and Robert Lincoln at the University.
 
(Thumbnails above are of Stefan Wolpe, left; Raoul Pleskow,
center; and Ron Thomas, Howard Rovics and others, right.)
Robert Lincoln,
a student of Nadia Boulanger, became an exceptionally good friend
and remained my teacher after I left Rutgers. With him I
studied Chopin and Ravel from the perspective of their harmonic
and formal principles, and it was Lincoln's opinion I sought in 1973
when my composing intensified. I went to New York City frequently
to study jazz with Art Murphy, a jazz pianist, who later toured
and recorded with Philip Glass. I disliked my library-oriented
Graduate Program at Rutgers. The moment I was accepted at C.W.
Post College, Long Island University, I withdrew from Rutgers
and completed my Masters degree at Post with Stefan Wolpe, Raoul
Pleskow, and Howard Rovics. (I met Howard in 1960 when he was
a student at the Manhattan School, a student of Stefan Wolpe
and a friend of Bill Karlins).
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