Photography by Whitney Curtis
“The rule of thumb in bebop,” says percussionist Rich O’Donnell, “is never do the same thing twice—that’s the edict.”
O’Donnell’s recalling his musical education as a young guy during the 1950s, when he spent “at least three nights a week” at Peacock Alley, a jazz club over in East St. Louis. It was on the same circuit as the Blue Note and the Five Spot. John Coltrane and Miles Davis’ quintet passed through about every month or so; one of O’Donnell’s musical mentors was Philly Joe Jones, Davis’ drummer, who advised him to go to music school in Texas. Before graduation, O’Donnell was snapped up by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and stayed there for 43 years, mostly as principal percussionist. Somewhere around this time (well, we can tell you exactly when: 1959), he helped found New Music Circle, which is the longest continuously running avant-garde music series in the U.S. NMC commissioned Dedication Fanfare for Concert Band from Modernist classical composer William Schuman for the Arch’s dedication; it brought in John Cage and Kronos Quartet before they were famous. And it continues to book artists like Phil Ochs, whose weird take on jazz nearly got him thrown in the pokey in Italy.
But late last year, despite a $100,000 endowment, O’Donnell and his partner, tai chi stylist and minimalist poet Anna Lum (who raised the majority of those funds), broke away from NMC to found the HEARding Cats Collective. Following behind them were concert producer Ryan Harris and avant-garde musician/electronic instrument-maker Michael Murphy (also known as Dr. Mabuse, a moniker that stuck, he says, “because my basement looks like Dr. Frankenstein’s lab”).
“When we had our first meeting,” Lum says, “Murphy was trying to find a website for us, and someone already took the regular spelling of herding cats. And then Maureen, Mike’s wife, said, ‘Why don’t we add an A?’ Even better!”
Murphy became president (after stepping down as NMC’s president last year), O’Donnell veep (his focus is artistic direction—there are a lot of artists, Harris says, who come to town specifically at his invitation), and Lum secretary/treasurer (she has a degree in math, and managed to procure a new certificate of nonprofit status within 30 days after the split, which—trust us—is no small feat). Harris (who is paid and not on the board) juggles production, PR, grant writing, and liaisoning with artists.
Though all four subscribe to the bebop philosophy of always making things new, they organized HEARding Cats in response to internal politics on NMC’s music committee. For 2½ years, NMC had produced two sets of programming: its main season and CAMA (Collaborating Artists Manifest Adventure), curated by O’Donnell. Harris says CAMA’s goal was to financially support artists—especially local ones—thus enabling them to do something new. “We were saying to the artists, ‘Here’s your $3,000; you’re resourceful enough to put on a show; do something collaborative,’” Harris says. “‘Figure out what the equipment is that you need, figure out the spaces, and get it done.’” That wasn’t the approach the NMC board wanted to take. “So Rich and Anna decided, ‘We can replace our money, but we can’t replace our integrity,’” Harris says. They left.
“My feeling was, if they feel strongly enough about the way to curate an avant-garde music series in the city that they are willing to basically walk away from their own 100 grand, then I guess I’d better go with them,” Murphy laughs. “It spoke very clearly of where their priorities were, and what level of commitment they have. I told my standard joke that if there were justice in America, St. Louis would be carrying those two people around in sedan chairs.”
Harris adds that CAMA’s mission carries over to HEARding Cats: supporting artists, especially local artists. Lum pulls out a recent New York Times article about United States Artists, a new nonprofit that’s giving $50,000 grants to creative people—no strings attached. “That’s what we’re doing on a smaller scale,” O’Donnell explains. “You can’t herd cats. You can’t tell them what to do.” Hence the name of the group, which references something O’Donnell overheard when he was touring military bases with the symphony during the first Gulf War. As the musicians went through a sound check, one of the generals got to chatting with maestro Slatkin. “The general said, ‘Boy, I wish I could control my troops they way you control your musicians,’” O’Donnell says. “And Leonard laughed and said, ‘You can’t control these people! It’s just like trying to herd cats!’ In other words, you try to provide them the opportunity to do what they do.”
This past November, HCC inaugurated its first season with a show at the University City library by the Tory Z Starbuck band and dancer Sandy Busken; in January, it hosted “a concert of unique sculptural percussion,” HaZMaT + HaZBeeN, at Christ Church Cathedral, with performances by Matt Henry, director of percussion studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis; Thomas Zirkle, director of music at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park; and O’Donnell, who played a collection of his own handmade instruments, including the “Sprahng II, ODO and Hyper/ODO drums, tubalums, hummers, ‘clowns,’ X-R drums, and ‘unidentifiable bowing objects.’” This month, HCC brings jazz percussionist Ravish Momin and Trio Tarana to the Kranzberg Arts Center, and produces an ambitious, interdisciplinary extravaganza (or as Murphy describes it, “a real gumbo”) at the Touhill called “Emails from Bangkok.” The narrative is based on video artist R D Zurick’s travels in Thailand (where he shoots footage for what Murphy calls his “sumptuous, really ornate, almost rococo video images”), but also includes performances by Thai musician Ricky Heenan, dancer Ashley Tate, and Anna Lum, who will have film projected onto her as she does tai chi.
Of course, not everyone can metabolize such gumbo; just as there are those with stomach linings that won’t suffer spicy food, there are mental dyspeptics as well.
“Where in the hell were all the music lovers then?” O’Donnell asks, speaking about the sometimes-empty rooms that even John Coltrane faced. “We’re doing the same thing. It doesn’t bother us if our audience is small. ’Cause I’ve seen Miles Davis’ quintet, and there were maybe 30 people there. And that’s just the way it is. It takes people a long time to catch up—but we don’t confuse popularity with success.”
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Upcoming Shows:
March 21
Ravish Momin’s Trio Tarana
7:30 p.m.
Kranzberg Arts Center
510 N. Grand
Admission: $15
March 28
R D Zurick
“Emails from Bangkok”
Featuring Ashley Tate, Anna Lum, and Robert Fishbone
7:30 p.m.
Winifred Moore Auditorium
470 E. Lockwood
Co-sponsored by the Webster Film Series
Admission: $8, $5 seniors/students
April 9
Konk Pack
7:30 p.m.
Kerr Family Foundation Building
21 O’Fallon
Admission: $15, $7 students/artists
June 3
Kyle Bruckmann & Rich O’Donnell
7:30 p.m.
Joe’s Café, 6014 Kingsbury
Admission: $5
For more information on HEARding Cats Collective, including specifics on these upcoming shows, go to heardingcatscollective.org. Look for an interview with Ravish Momin at Look/Listen, St. Louis Magazine’s arts blog, in March.
