La Monte Young/Theatre Of Eternal Music - Sunday Morning Blues (12 I 64 first twelve) (1964)
Personnel:
La Monte Young: Sopranino Saxophone
Marian Zazeela: Voice Drone
Angus MacLise: Hand Drums
Tony Conrad: Bowed Guitar 1, 2, Plucked Mandola 3
John Cale: Viola
Recorded early 1964.
Sunday Morning Blues:
“I was first taught to play the alto saxophone by my father when I was 6 or 7 years old, and throughout my early school years I played it in the school orchestras. I went to high school in Los Angeles, California where I started to play jazz, inspired by records of Charlie Parker and later Lee Konitz. After high school I had a jazz group with the drummer Billy Higgins and guitarists Dennis Budimar and Tiger Echols. In those early Los Angeles days I also used to play with trumpeter Don Cherry and the pianist Don Friedman. In 1962, however, I started to play the sopranino saxophone and organized a group with the hand drummer Angus MacLise, and Marian Zazeela who sang voice drone. Then Tony Conrad (violin and bowed guitar) and John Cale (viola) were added to the group which became known as The Theatre of Eternal Music. It was during this period that I invented and developed the completely new way of playing the saxophone that is demonstrated on these tapes. A few months after 12 I 64 my studies in tuning led me to take up singing seriously. I have never played the saxophone since that time as I feel that it is impossible to devote oneself properly to more than one instrument at a time.. Therefore, examples of this music can only be heard on tape.”
-La Monte Young, 1970
