Sandy Bull
b. 25 February 1941, New York, USA. Having learned to play guitar while in his teens, Bull gravitated to banjo which he studied under Erik Darling, one of the instrument's leading practitioners. The young musician became immersed in folk circles while studying at Boston, and later began adapting such forms to accommodate elements drawn from different traditions, including jazz, Arabic and Indian. He returned to New York in 1961 where he worked with the Washington Square Singers and performed solo in Greenwich Village cafes. His debut, SANDY BULL (FANTASIAS FOR GUITAR AND BANJO), featured accompaniment from Billy Higgins, drummer with avant garde saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Its highlight, arguably, was Blend, a lengthy composition based on modal scale improvisation and hinged to a revelatory pattern of drone-like figures. This inventive, freewheeling style was maintained on ensuing releases, notably, E PLURIBUS UNUM which contained two pieces, No Deposit, No Return and Electric Blend, a self-explanatory adaptation of the earlier opus. Bull's career was badly undermined by drug abuse; he re-emerged in 1972 with the typically enthralling DEMOLITION DERBY, wryly denying his death in attendant interviews and in 1988 he was featured in an acting role in the film '68, which also starred Neil Young. Despite the brevity of Bull's musical output, the innovatory nature of his work should not be under emphasized.