[Dixielandjazz] How to succeed as a musician/artist

[Steve barbone]

Below are excerpts from a fascinating NY Times article. This guy is one
creative musical artist. Improvisation at its best. :-) VBG.

"Cheyenne Schatz", great name for a band. :-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


October 19, 2004 - ART REVIEW L-15 - NY Times

>From the Outside, a World of Celestial Beings - KEN JOHNSON

American Primitive Gallery in SoHo specializes in the works of so-called
outsider artists - self-taught eccentrics driven by unusually intense
creative and imaginative energies. Its current show features an artist
called L-15, a name given to him, he has written, by "Intergalactic Guru
Angels" who cured him of a mysterious case of internal bleeding in a
hospital in Roswell, N.M., in the mid-1980's. . . .

Meanwhile, Mr. Schatz started a career in musical and comedic performance
that eventually led to seven appearances on "The Steve Allen Show" as
"Cheyenne Schatz, World's Greatest One-Man Band." Fascinating tapes of these
performances, broadcast in syndication in the early 60's, are being shown at
American Primitive. In each episode, a rumpled and distracted Mr. Schatz
brings on stage a motley collection of musical instruments, trunks,
signboards and found objects.

While Mr. Allen peppers him with questions and quips, Mr. Schatz aimlessly
busies himself setting up materials, changing clothes, showing interesting
objects and in general putting off the moment of actually producing music.
As Mr. Allen's consternation grows, the audience laughs hilariously. Not
until the third episode does Mr. Schatz actually play a song. . . .

He refuses to elaborate on the alien visitation in Roswell for fear, he
said, of tampering with his flow of creative ideas. It is worth noting,
however, that in the description of the visitation that he wrote for an
exhibition catalog in 1987, he puts a registered trademark sign next to the
terms "Intergalactic Guru Angels" and "Intergalactic Guru Artist." A
skeptical reader might suspect a spoof if not a hoax. . . .

Mr. Schatz is at a loss to explain his career. "If I had to account for
everything I've done in my life," he says, "I'd have to say I'm crazy."

Maybe. Or crazy like a fox.

The show runs through Nov. 6 at American Primitive, 594 Broadway, near
Houston Street.