Vortex (Folkway FX 6301)

1. Trilogy David Talcott

2. Chan Henry Jacobs

3. For the Big Horn Wm. Loughborough

4. Logos Henry Jacobs

5. Rhythm Study #8 Henry Jacobs

6. Notes on the History of the World Gordon Longfellow

7. Loop #3 David Talcott

8. Electronic Kabuki Mambo Henry Jacobs

9. 350-2 Gordon Longfellow

HENRY JACOBS

Henry Jacobs' role in Vortex is two-fold: as a composer-engineer whose works have been included in the programs, and as the organizer of the Vortex project at its inception.

His background is varied: An M.A. in Sociology and Mass Communications; a publicist successful enough to draw some 10,000 people to the Morrison Planetarium to witness the Vortex experiments; a purveyor of Culture and Esoterica via his five years of Ethnic Music broadcasts on Berkeley's long-hair non-commercial KPFA; as a humorist whose records have sold in the millions (but the royalties of which seem to defy the facts), as a television director in Mexico City whose programs reached the listener in Spanish; as an unsuccessful college instructor whose students mostly failed in life; as a psychiatric medical advisor with no degree; and of course, as an unpublished poet.

About Vortex, Jacobs comments: "Unfortunately, the most significant and valid aspects about this project cannot be revealed in print. It is a kind of new sensory communication which allows the receiver to create even more excitingly than the communicator--a rare, but stimulating opportunity in these days of the million dollar cliche on television, films and videotaec t is(?JH) admittedly non-intellectual, non-educational and non-reformational, Vortex occasionally takes its audiences to areas hitherto unimagined and there is a purely accidental aesthetic experience which is so overpowering that even memory is obliterated by the dominance of that moment. Because of this, people cannot disregard Vortex, it does provoke irrespective of all else, this provocation in a cultural context of pre-fabricated dreams, pre-fabricated houses, and indeed pre-fabricated lives, is self-justifying and necessary.

GORDON LONGFELLOW

For the past four and one-half years Mr Longfellow has been employed by the Ampex Corporation of Redwood City, whose high quality magnetic tape recorders make possible much of the work that has been done in electronic music. While at Ampex where he has gathered considerable experience with magnetic techniques, Mr. Longfellow first became interested in electronic music through exposure to the work of Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening during a performance of one of their selections with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

When the Vortex Sound Experiments were undertaken at San Francisco's Morrison Planetarium, Mr Longfellow became even more attracted to the possibilities of electronically-achieved modern composition expressed in a free-moving entity in space through the unique Vortex system.

Mr. Longfellow's musical background extends to his childhood when he toured with USO troops during World War II as a musical performer and singer. He studied piano, organ, accordion, and voice with private instructors and and undertook a study of speech arts at the San Diego State college. He operated his own music school for several years at Newport Beach, California and later went extensively into the nightclub entertainment field. He has made many television appearances having formerly produced a half hour weekly half hour (?JH)program for a Los Angeles television station. Following dramatic interests, Mr. Longfellow has acted with a number of little theatre groups, and in the San Francisco Bay Area has sung a variety of roles with a local light opera company.

DAVID L. TALCOTT

In addition to attending elementary, junior and high school, Mr. Talcott's education includes almost two years as an electronic draftsman, three years of experience as theater electrician and extensive work in the audio field at Berkeley High School and six years at radio station KPFA in Berkeley.

His primary interests are music, radio producing, and the design and construction of broadcast facilities.

Mr. Talcott is most active in piano playing but his musical skills include the organ, harpsichord, the recorder and flamenco guitar. His musical interests cover all periods but he expresses a preference for contemporary, baroque, and pre-baroque. He has worked with Harry Partch and his system of Monophony and has constructed a Theremin for experimental use.

His interest in the field of Musique Concrete stems from experiments at station KPFA and association with Henry Jacobs, a fellow experimenter and producer of the program "Ethnic Music". Mr. Jacobs, Jordan Belson (of San Francisco) and Mr. Talcott were the devisers of and contributors to the first 'Vortex' program. His future works are planned to include material for Mill Valley dancer Ann Halprin.

Mr. Talcott says that, "The most fascinating thing to me about Musique Concrete is that it is completely emotional in its importance. That is, in fact, almost its sole value. I am not in sympathy with over-scholarly enthusiasts of any field of art, neither am I sympathetic with anyone who is more interested in the methods, schools, or philosophy behind a piece of Musique Critique(?JH) than in its emotional content or importance.

WILLIAM LOUGHBOROUGH

Loughborough began as a student of Electrical Engineering at M.I.T., then after several years as an advanced radar specialist with the navy in World War II, he returned to school for musical study with Dr. Collins in Chicago at the Conservatory. Upon moving with his wife Pamela to the Bay Area, Loughborough worked with Harry Partch in the design and construction of Partchian microtonal instruments. In 1954 Loughborough designed and invented his popular commercial drum, the Boo Bam, and subsequently has created an impressive number of highly complex percussion instruments.

Loughborough performed with Chet Baker throughout the country as a featured polyrhythmic soloist, on his own drums and timpani. Upon returning to the Bay Area, he organized the Musical Engineering Associates, whose functions are the construction of musical and electronic instruments, the publishing of musical documents and the organization of an Electronic Composers' Guild. He has recently completed the construction of an audio center equipped throughout with stereo facilities, test equipment, and probably the world's largest horn loudspeaker. (Mr. Loughborough has recently recorded a Bongo Drum Instruction(?JH) for Folkways F08320).

Typed by Barb. Golden April 95