Letter to Mark Yaccovone
The week of January 19, I composed and sent out two similar letters, describing my situation and how I got there. I don't know if this was the best idea for garnering financial support, but I feel desperate at times - the victim of cruel fate. This is the longer of the two. I've put them here under my psychology section, because it's a window into my mind. - gfs 2015-01-27
Greetings George,
Word reached me that you were attempting to make contact. I've been retired and therefore
somewhat under the radar.
Anyway, you now have an address - look forward to hearing from you.
Mark Y.
<><><><><><>
Hi Mark, it is truly great to hear from you.
I don't remember the last time we talked.
I knew you had left WDUQ, and had attempted to find you several times previous.
I wasn't even sure you were still in the Pittsburgh area.
Then yesterday, an article came up mentioning you as a Pittsburgh connection to a vintage bluegrass compilation.
That lead me to the Western Pennsylvania Bluegrass Committee, where I asked if anyone knew you, and voila'.
<><><><><>
What follows is somewhat lengthy, actually an epic, but then again a lot has gone on.
So let me do the bad news first, and get that out of the way. Be sure to get a hankie.
Wrongful Arrest
I believe I told you that after a lengthy illness, Jane had a fatal heart attack in August 2005. About 6 months later, I started to get on with my life.
I had a girlfriend, and was working on getting my music career back on track. In late summer, I volunteered with the Maryland State Arts Council when the National Performing Arts Convention came to Baltimore, where I received Kudos for my work.
Then in October, I was arrested at my house by detectives from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police for supposedly sending email bomb threats to BWI Airport.
I found out later from the FBI that this was supposed to be a behind-the-scene investigation. In fact, they had already determined that the source of these threats came from Italy.
However, the MDTA sent out press releases. This story, as told by the MDTA, was in all the local media, and over 400 Internet sites. I was devastated, to say the least. - http://georgespicka.weebly.com/wrongful-arrest-incident.html
It took nearly 3 years and a lawsuit, but eventually I was vindicated. I was also emotionally exhausted.
Adventures with PSTD
It was bad enough that I’ve had a lifelong struggle with depression, and was still getting over Jane's passing, but now I had PTSD too.
My mind was so fried that I couldn't visually remember familiar destinations when driving. I'd just drive and somehow get there.
I also lost the ability to read. It must have been a concentration thing. I couldn't focus on the words.
I was awarded enough in the settlement to allow me to take about a year off, which did help. I bought a classic car and took it to shows in the area: a way of being distracted from the recent experience.
The final bad news installment was the physical consequences. I don't know if it was the stress or just through normal aging, but I developed arthritis in one hip. It got to the point that I scheduled a total replacement operation for early July, 2013. Trouble was during the pre-exam, it was discovered that I had a "widow makers" heart. They told me I could die at any time. So instead of hip, I had open-heart surgery. Interestingly enough, I was quite calm about the whole thing.
Recovery went well. In November I had the hip replacement. That went well too. In December, it was a defibrillator.
<><><><>
Now for the Good News
Though still not as good as it once was, my memory is improving. I’m reading again too.
The depression has even gotten better. It was originally brought on by a combination of being a battered child and an addiction to marijuana. At 25 I suffered a mental breakdown, and despite therapy, I suffered until I began taking anti-depressants in the late 1990’s. Even with the meds, it’s still there, but at least I’m not totally engulfed, and for the most part, it’s lightened this past year.
In a way, it has to do with the heart surgery. I was determined to ride the wave, and turn it into a positive experience. After all, I figure I’d been given a gift of at least 10 extra years of life.
It was clear that in regard to my time on Earth, I was somewhere in the home stretch, and though being wonderfully prolific, I had little to show for it. So I began to build a website to showcase my work, which is one of the reasons I’ve contacted you.
After several months, it became apparent that there was so much, that I needed a second site. So what I have now is one that showcases my work as a composer and pianist, and a second that’s devoted to my work as a visual artist and photographer, plus a hefty amount of comments and opinions, mine and others.
I also have a site dedicated to the remembrance of Dawn Culbertson, founder of the Baltimore Composers Forum. These are listed below.
One of the emotional issues I’ve had to deal with, bestowed upon me while growing up, was that I was a hopeless loser. With these websites, I can now see at a glance all I’ve accomplished, which has resulted in a lessening of distress.
Jane
One of the big frustrations was that after Jane’s sciatic nerve injury in 1996, all that we had worked on building for some 25 years came to a sudden end.
In 1994, Jazz Street Station, our 501(c)3 performing-arts-ensemble, put out a CD that landed on the Grammy Nominations Ballot (one step below a Grammy nomination). It also received extensive airplay in East Europe via Austria’s “Radio Carinza. Plus it received a very positive review by Washington Post’s Mike Joyce. We had been planning a second CD, but now that was all gone.
Her now being a semi-invalid meant that it was up to me alone to be the breadwinner. I did this through a combination of courier work, playing gigs, and teaching piano, as many as 20 students a week. I never once blamed Jane for this incident of fate, but I was very despondent.
As my workload lightened, I was somewhat able to get back into self-promotion. Then in 2003, Jane hit her head and suffered a hematoma, essentially a stroke. It was 1996 all over again, only worse because she was dependence on me was even greater. As before, there was no blame, but I did suffer inside.
The tragic thing about her passing in 2005, was that after two years of rehab, she was deemed ready to transition back into a regular lifestyle. Just two weeks before she died, she was approved for getting a restricted driver’s license, which would allow her to drive locally. They also had discovered and were treating a cognitive defect that apparently had been a lifelong affliction.
Though I’ll never know the degree of her personal suffering, I know her outlook had been affected by these two events.
In the early 1990’s, she had become the monthly jazz columnist for Music Monthly Magazine, making her a local celeb. As a performer, the Baltimore Sun called her “Fells Point’s undisputed jazz queen.”
That sciatic nerve injury ended all of that. She couldn’t walk for about 6 weeks, and the recovery was slow. She also was unsteady on her feet, which eventually lead to the head injury.
Even more then the affect on her music career, was her being deserted by many of her “friends” after she had to give up the jazz column. She even wrote a song about it, “Fifteen Minutes of Fame.”
The thing is, her mood had begun to improve, then tragedy struck.
From Despair, Determination
The reason why I’m mentioning this difficult time in the “good news” section, is that while working on my website, I discovered my situation wasn’t as bleak at this time as I had imagined it to be.
Though I didn’t give it all much significance at the time, via the Baltimore Composers Forum, which I joined in 1993, I had composed and even performed many different works. In fact, except for a period in which a vicious political coup nearly destroyed the group, this was a stabilizing influence in a otherwise chaotic period of my life.
Another plus was that I was the recording archivist for over ten years. Not only did I hear the music at concerts, I got to listen to it again in detail as I edited the performances, which was a tremendous opportunity to learn. I found my perception of details in the compositions increasing, and elements showing up in my own pieces. This year, one of the ensembles that performed even asked me to write more music for them, a first!
2015
And I’m probably not even ½ the way through putting up what I’ve done.
Still, I’ve decided for 2015, to do more at “reaching out,” and making people who would be interested in such things aware of my work. Considering your past support, I figured you’d be a natural for this. And though you’re retired, I’m hoping, if appropriate, you’d pass this along to others. Besides getting my jazz and chamber compositions performed, performance opportunities are another interest, things like solo house concerts, for example.
<><><><><><>
One Last Thing (almost)
One last thing for me to talk about, is my plans to put together an ensemble to perform original music by myself and others, along the lines of what I did in 1996.
I actually did something like this in 2009, via an Ensemble I called “Baltimore Jazz Works.” The previous year, the Baltimore Jazz Alliance (I am a life member) published the Baltimore Jazz Real Book, which featured the work of 18 jazz composers. What I did was to perform compositions from all the composers, split between two concerts.
Perhaps if events were different, I could have continued this, but 2009 was the year my lawsuit came to its climax, and I was thoroughly burned out.
There was a time I was quite good at promoting this type of venture, but as opposed to promoting my compositions, I’m very hesitant about this.
While part of this is malingering effects from past incidents, there’s also the attitude the city has about promoting new music.
The Arts Betrayed
While not being a snob, I complained a number of times about Baltimore’s Artscape Festival, and the fact that our composers of jazz, whose creations are built on the concepts of masters like Ellington, Monk, and Miles Davis, are virtually ignored in the programming done by the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA).
While I don’t know if this true about the other art forms, the negative attitude towards jazz in Baltimore was something I encountered in the early 1990s. What’s troubling is that it’s come from the very people whom one would assume to be the most interested in innovation.
Baltimore Jazz Advisory Committee
Back in the early 1990's I was on mayor Kurt Schmoke's Jazz Advisory Committee, in regard to making Howard Street an "Avenue for the Arts." The first meeting was going well, until one of our city's jazz "experts" commented that because Baltimore was located between D.C and New York, Baltimore, in spite of it's illustrious jazz past, had little chance of becoming known as a jazz city.
I immediately stood up and said that we needed to forget New York and D.C, and carve our own niche: that my wife, Jane Lamar-Spicka, had been writing the jazz column for Music Monthly magazine for several years: that we knew of the rich jazz talent that was here: that all we had to do was promote it.
Well, you could see the effect that had when the next speaker, another local jazz "expert," commented on a certain CD that had been just released, (by a vocalist who just so happened to be the wife of that previous "expert"), that was said to, "mark the return of jazz to Baltimore after a 10-year hiatus."
I might as well have spoken to the wall behind me.
As a result, Schmoke's ambitious idea was betrayed, stabbed in the back by the very people one would think would be most interested in promoting Baltimore's jazz scene. In about a month, the committee was dead.
Thankfully, in 2002, Barry Glassman founded the Baltimore Jazz Alliance, which has survived and grown stronger. The thing is, this could have happened 10-years sooner.
<><><><><><>
The Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Arts & Culture (MACAC)
I talked earlier about Jazz Street Station, and the success of our first CD. In working on garnering interest in the second CD, I sent a letter to Mayor Schmoke, known as a lover of jazz, asking if he’d write some liner notes.
I got a letter back, with him bragging about Artscape’s attendance figures, no word about the liner notes. My response back was while that was well and good, it did nothing to help Baltimore jazz composers.
Then I got a letter from Clair List, the executive director for MACAC, saying that because we were located in the county, we were ineligible for funding from the city. Well, I didn’t ask for funds, only support. After all, Jane and I had spent about $7,000 of our own money to make this project happen. There were no suggestions, not even a hint of interest. It was futile to go on, so I focused on other things.
The trouble was that after Jane’s injury, I took a part-time delivery job with a print shop in Columbia MD, which is located in Howard County. Three of our clients were arts facilities. Whenever I stopped one, I’d grab some flyers to see what was going on. It was in this way I discovered not one, but two arts events in Howard County, that were funded in part by MACAC.
Either Clair lied to me, and there was a way for a non-city organization to get funding, or else MACAC was awarding grants under the table.
I raised a stink about this on Baltimore’s Artmobile forum. The immediate response was me being labeled a muckraker, and similar stuff. Heaven forbid that integrity be considered a motive.
What was interesting though, was that about 6 months later, MACAC disappeared. The official explanation being that it had been merged into the Baltimore Office of promotion and the arts. Clair List disappeared too. Coincidence? Perhaps, but the city had already demonstrated its deceit and maybe this was a cover up.
Then a few years later, I happened to attended a workshop hosted at BOPA’s headquarters, and guess who I was introduced to? Yep, Clair List. She was still there, though behind the scenes. Being that she was the primary fund raiser, I imagine she still wielded a lot of clout.
Begging Bowls
One of the more interesting events I experienced, was a one-on-one meeting with the late Nancy Harrigan, director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. She confessed that she knew nothing about the arts: that she was hired for her administrative skills. That explains a lot.
She actually did a lot for the city, but there were things that I found questionable.
For example, it was as if Richard Florida’s book had become a bible of sorts.
One of her meetings I attended was about how gay’s could enhance a city’s image as being friendly to the arts. I’m fine with that, but her perception was something along the line that being gay meant that you were automatically creative, which is not true. It’s creative people who are creative. However, with that mindset, innovators who don’t fit a certain “image” get passed over.
The issue of innovators standing at the end of the arts funding/support line, with begging bowls in hand, is another thing I’ve complained about publicly.
At another meeting she conveyed the opinion that the days of the independent artist were over. Everyone was expected to be one happy family. In this world, people like Van Gogh and Beethoven would be outcasts, as would anyone else who challenged the prevailing orthodoxy.
I feel these days that “The Arts” have little to do with art as I originally conceived it to be.
The Arts vs. Excellence
The last arts meeting I attended, about three months before the open-heart surgery, was a seminar sponsored by the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). They have these every five years to get opinions about previous efforts, and how to improve on them.
I raised the issue about the difficulty Baltimore jazz composers were having in getting their efforts heard by a wider audience, and specifically cited the “Citywide Arts Festival,” Artscape, as a way to help remedy this.
I was then told by a representative of BOPA, in front of about 60 people, that the reason this wouldn’t happen, was because the jazz music I was talking about wasn’t “popular,” and therefore, only smooth jazz would be considered.
Before I sat down, I said I thought the arts were about excellence.
Ironically enough, next thing on the agenda was to review the priorities of the Maryland State Arts Council, that were listed in a brochure we were all given.
Number one was Excellence! I actually was applauded by some of the audience members.
Once Upon A Time
One of MSAC’s goals was to turn the state into a “Mecca” for the arts. I sent them a letter about two weeks later, stating that it would be hard to sustain an arts Mecca if innovation were excluded for the sake of popular appeal. I was thanked, but I don’t think my opinion made any difference.
While I can’t comment about other disciplines, I find this attitude disturbing. I can understand if this was a commercial enterprise, but we’re speaking about a taxpayer funded arts organization.
Perhaps for years I’ve misunderstood the purpose of the NEA. Once upon a time, I thought it was formed, in part, to give real artists and innovators opportunities to have their insights appreciated in a way that popular forms won’t allow.
I know from personal experience, that the city of Baltimore has been less-then-honest in terms of its arts dealings. I can’t help but wonder if this thing about jazz is nationwide in scope.
I say this based on a meeting I attended when that Performing Arts Convention was in Baltimore. The speaker was from what was said to be one of the best arts booking agencies in the nation. When it was my turn, I explained what I did, and asked what opportunities were out there. The answer was “none.” Apparently, what I represent, is the least wanted thing in the arts world, or so it seems.
To me, it seems like there’s this vicious cycle, where this negative opinion keeps getting recycled around and around. It’s like when the Mayor’s Jazz Advisory Committee was shot down. The attitude from the “experts” was that there was no jazz in the city, which as I said, was so very erroneous.
I suspect others, with different experiences, will have a different outlook. To me though, it seems I have an uphill battle. Not that I’m not used to it, it’s just that I’d thought I’d be further along at this time in my life. It’s one thing to be rejected in a competition with hundreds of submissions and few prizes. But to find out all that talk about valuing excellence, innovation, dedication, and mastery to be a lie, that’s something else.
I’m not going to stop creating. I can’t. But even though I’m working on the repertoire, I do have serious reservations about even bothering to seek performance opportunities. I hope to get beyond that. I’m even considering the possibility of finding patrons.
So that’s where I am right now.
If you know of anyone who might be interested in my work, I’d appreciate you letting them know.
Thank you for your time and interest.
(How many times did you have to wring out that hankie?)
Composer – Pianist www.georgefspicka.com
Artwork – Commentary – Photos http://georgespicka.weebly.com/
<><><><><><>
What About You?
When I found the article about the vintage bluegrass release, it mentioned you played mandolin. I never knew that. Do you still gig?
At AllMusic, it said you also played accordion, organ, and piano. When I began my career in the mid 60s, organ became the rage. I used to lug this Hammond around everywhere.
My mother played the accordion when she was a little girl, and still kept it in a closet. I never heard her play, but on occasion, I’d get it out, strap it on, and wheeze through a few tunes. What an ordeal!
Sincerely,
George F. Spicka
Word reached me that you were attempting to make contact. I've been retired and therefore
somewhat under the radar.
Anyway, you now have an address - look forward to hearing from you.
Mark Y.
<><><><><><>
Hi Mark, it is truly great to hear from you.
I don't remember the last time we talked.
I knew you had left WDUQ, and had attempted to find you several times previous.
I wasn't even sure you were still in the Pittsburgh area.
Then yesterday, an article came up mentioning you as a Pittsburgh connection to a vintage bluegrass compilation.
That lead me to the Western Pennsylvania Bluegrass Committee, where I asked if anyone knew you, and voila'.
<><><><><>
What follows is somewhat lengthy, actually an epic, but then again a lot has gone on.
So let me do the bad news first, and get that out of the way. Be sure to get a hankie.
Wrongful Arrest
I believe I told you that after a lengthy illness, Jane had a fatal heart attack in August 2005. About 6 months later, I started to get on with my life.
I had a girlfriend, and was working on getting my music career back on track. In late summer, I volunteered with the Maryland State Arts Council when the National Performing Arts Convention came to Baltimore, where I received Kudos for my work.
Then in October, I was arrested at my house by detectives from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police for supposedly sending email bomb threats to BWI Airport.
I found out later from the FBI that this was supposed to be a behind-the-scene investigation. In fact, they had already determined that the source of these threats came from Italy.
However, the MDTA sent out press releases. This story, as told by the MDTA, was in all the local media, and over 400 Internet sites. I was devastated, to say the least. - http://georgespicka.weebly.com/wrongful-arrest-incident.html
It took nearly 3 years and a lawsuit, but eventually I was vindicated. I was also emotionally exhausted.
Adventures with PSTD
It was bad enough that I’ve had a lifelong struggle with depression, and was still getting over Jane's passing, but now I had PTSD too.
My mind was so fried that I couldn't visually remember familiar destinations when driving. I'd just drive and somehow get there.
I also lost the ability to read. It must have been a concentration thing. I couldn't focus on the words.
I was awarded enough in the settlement to allow me to take about a year off, which did help. I bought a classic car and took it to shows in the area: a way of being distracted from the recent experience.
The final bad news installment was the physical consequences. I don't know if it was the stress or just through normal aging, but I developed arthritis in one hip. It got to the point that I scheduled a total replacement operation for early July, 2013. Trouble was during the pre-exam, it was discovered that I had a "widow makers" heart. They told me I could die at any time. So instead of hip, I had open-heart surgery. Interestingly enough, I was quite calm about the whole thing.
Recovery went well. In November I had the hip replacement. That went well too. In December, it was a defibrillator.
<><><><>
Now for the Good News
Though still not as good as it once was, my memory is improving. I’m reading again too.
The depression has even gotten better. It was originally brought on by a combination of being a battered child and an addiction to marijuana. At 25 I suffered a mental breakdown, and despite therapy, I suffered until I began taking anti-depressants in the late 1990’s. Even with the meds, it’s still there, but at least I’m not totally engulfed, and for the most part, it’s lightened this past year.
In a way, it has to do with the heart surgery. I was determined to ride the wave, and turn it into a positive experience. After all, I figure I’d been given a gift of at least 10 extra years of life.
It was clear that in regard to my time on Earth, I was somewhere in the home stretch, and though being wonderfully prolific, I had little to show for it. So I began to build a website to showcase my work, which is one of the reasons I’ve contacted you.
After several months, it became apparent that there was so much, that I needed a second site. So what I have now is one that showcases my work as a composer and pianist, and a second that’s devoted to my work as a visual artist and photographer, plus a hefty amount of comments and opinions, mine and others.
I also have a site dedicated to the remembrance of Dawn Culbertson, founder of the Baltimore Composers Forum. These are listed below.
One of the emotional issues I’ve had to deal with, bestowed upon me while growing up, was that I was a hopeless loser. With these websites, I can now see at a glance all I’ve accomplished, which has resulted in a lessening of distress.
Jane
One of the big frustrations was that after Jane’s sciatic nerve injury in 1996, all that we had worked on building for some 25 years came to a sudden end.
In 1994, Jazz Street Station, our 501(c)3 performing-arts-ensemble, put out a CD that landed on the Grammy Nominations Ballot (one step below a Grammy nomination). It also received extensive airplay in East Europe via Austria’s “Radio Carinza. Plus it received a very positive review by Washington Post’s Mike Joyce. We had been planning a second CD, but now that was all gone.
Her now being a semi-invalid meant that it was up to me alone to be the breadwinner. I did this through a combination of courier work, playing gigs, and teaching piano, as many as 20 students a week. I never once blamed Jane for this incident of fate, but I was very despondent.
As my workload lightened, I was somewhat able to get back into self-promotion. Then in 2003, Jane hit her head and suffered a hematoma, essentially a stroke. It was 1996 all over again, only worse because she was dependence on me was even greater. As before, there was no blame, but I did suffer inside.
The tragic thing about her passing in 2005, was that after two years of rehab, she was deemed ready to transition back into a regular lifestyle. Just two weeks before she died, she was approved for getting a restricted driver’s license, which would allow her to drive locally. They also had discovered and were treating a cognitive defect that apparently had been a lifelong affliction.
Though I’ll never know the degree of her personal suffering, I know her outlook had been affected by these two events.
In the early 1990’s, she had become the monthly jazz columnist for Music Monthly Magazine, making her a local celeb. As a performer, the Baltimore Sun called her “Fells Point’s undisputed jazz queen.”
That sciatic nerve injury ended all of that. She couldn’t walk for about 6 weeks, and the recovery was slow. She also was unsteady on her feet, which eventually lead to the head injury.
Even more then the affect on her music career, was her being deserted by many of her “friends” after she had to give up the jazz column. She even wrote a song about it, “Fifteen Minutes of Fame.”
The thing is, her mood had begun to improve, then tragedy struck.
From Despair, Determination
The reason why I’m mentioning this difficult time in the “good news” section, is that while working on my website, I discovered my situation wasn’t as bleak at this time as I had imagined it to be.
Though I didn’t give it all much significance at the time, via the Baltimore Composers Forum, which I joined in 1993, I had composed and even performed many different works. In fact, except for a period in which a vicious political coup nearly destroyed the group, this was a stabilizing influence in a otherwise chaotic period of my life.
Another plus was that I was the recording archivist for over ten years. Not only did I hear the music at concerts, I got to listen to it again in detail as I edited the performances, which was a tremendous opportunity to learn. I found my perception of details in the compositions increasing, and elements showing up in my own pieces. This year, one of the ensembles that performed even asked me to write more music for them, a first!
2015
And I’m probably not even ½ the way through putting up what I’ve done.
Still, I’ve decided for 2015, to do more at “reaching out,” and making people who would be interested in such things aware of my work. Considering your past support, I figured you’d be a natural for this. And though you’re retired, I’m hoping, if appropriate, you’d pass this along to others. Besides getting my jazz and chamber compositions performed, performance opportunities are another interest, things like solo house concerts, for example.
<><><><><><>
One Last Thing (almost)
One last thing for me to talk about, is my plans to put together an ensemble to perform original music by myself and others, along the lines of what I did in 1996.
I actually did something like this in 2009, via an Ensemble I called “Baltimore Jazz Works.” The previous year, the Baltimore Jazz Alliance (I am a life member) published the Baltimore Jazz Real Book, which featured the work of 18 jazz composers. What I did was to perform compositions from all the composers, split between two concerts.
Perhaps if events were different, I could have continued this, but 2009 was the year my lawsuit came to its climax, and I was thoroughly burned out.
There was a time I was quite good at promoting this type of venture, but as opposed to promoting my compositions, I’m very hesitant about this.
While part of this is malingering effects from past incidents, there’s also the attitude the city has about promoting new music.
The Arts Betrayed
While not being a snob, I complained a number of times about Baltimore’s Artscape Festival, and the fact that our composers of jazz, whose creations are built on the concepts of masters like Ellington, Monk, and Miles Davis, are virtually ignored in the programming done by the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA).
While I don’t know if this true about the other art forms, the negative attitude towards jazz in Baltimore was something I encountered in the early 1990s. What’s troubling is that it’s come from the very people whom one would assume to be the most interested in innovation.
Baltimore Jazz Advisory Committee
Back in the early 1990's I was on mayor Kurt Schmoke's Jazz Advisory Committee, in regard to making Howard Street an "Avenue for the Arts." The first meeting was going well, until one of our city's jazz "experts" commented that because Baltimore was located between D.C and New York, Baltimore, in spite of it's illustrious jazz past, had little chance of becoming known as a jazz city.
I immediately stood up and said that we needed to forget New York and D.C, and carve our own niche: that my wife, Jane Lamar-Spicka, had been writing the jazz column for Music Monthly magazine for several years: that we knew of the rich jazz talent that was here: that all we had to do was promote it.
Well, you could see the effect that had when the next speaker, another local jazz "expert," commented on a certain CD that had been just released, (by a vocalist who just so happened to be the wife of that previous "expert"), that was said to, "mark the return of jazz to Baltimore after a 10-year hiatus."
I might as well have spoken to the wall behind me.
As a result, Schmoke's ambitious idea was betrayed, stabbed in the back by the very people one would think would be most interested in promoting Baltimore's jazz scene. In about a month, the committee was dead.
Thankfully, in 2002, Barry Glassman founded the Baltimore Jazz Alliance, which has survived and grown stronger. The thing is, this could have happened 10-years sooner.
<><><><><><>
The Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Arts & Culture (MACAC)
I talked earlier about Jazz Street Station, and the success of our first CD. In working on garnering interest in the second CD, I sent a letter to Mayor Schmoke, known as a lover of jazz, asking if he’d write some liner notes.
I got a letter back, with him bragging about Artscape’s attendance figures, no word about the liner notes. My response back was while that was well and good, it did nothing to help Baltimore jazz composers.
Then I got a letter from Clair List, the executive director for MACAC, saying that because we were located in the county, we were ineligible for funding from the city. Well, I didn’t ask for funds, only support. After all, Jane and I had spent about $7,000 of our own money to make this project happen. There were no suggestions, not even a hint of interest. It was futile to go on, so I focused on other things.
The trouble was that after Jane’s injury, I took a part-time delivery job with a print shop in Columbia MD, which is located in Howard County. Three of our clients were arts facilities. Whenever I stopped one, I’d grab some flyers to see what was going on. It was in this way I discovered not one, but two arts events in Howard County, that were funded in part by MACAC.
Either Clair lied to me, and there was a way for a non-city organization to get funding, or else MACAC was awarding grants under the table.
I raised a stink about this on Baltimore’s Artmobile forum. The immediate response was me being labeled a muckraker, and similar stuff. Heaven forbid that integrity be considered a motive.
What was interesting though, was that about 6 months later, MACAC disappeared. The official explanation being that it had been merged into the Baltimore Office of promotion and the arts. Clair List disappeared too. Coincidence? Perhaps, but the city had already demonstrated its deceit and maybe this was a cover up.
Then a few years later, I happened to attended a workshop hosted at BOPA’s headquarters, and guess who I was introduced to? Yep, Clair List. She was still there, though behind the scenes. Being that she was the primary fund raiser, I imagine she still wielded a lot of clout.
Begging Bowls
One of the more interesting events I experienced, was a one-on-one meeting with the late Nancy Harrigan, director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. She confessed that she knew nothing about the arts: that she was hired for her administrative skills. That explains a lot.
She actually did a lot for the city, but there were things that I found questionable.
For example, it was as if Richard Florida’s book had become a bible of sorts.
One of her meetings I attended was about how gay’s could enhance a city’s image as being friendly to the arts. I’m fine with that, but her perception was something along the line that being gay meant that you were automatically creative, which is not true. It’s creative people who are creative. However, with that mindset, innovators who don’t fit a certain “image” get passed over.
The issue of innovators standing at the end of the arts funding/support line, with begging bowls in hand, is another thing I’ve complained about publicly.
At another meeting she conveyed the opinion that the days of the independent artist were over. Everyone was expected to be one happy family. In this world, people like Van Gogh and Beethoven would be outcasts, as would anyone else who challenged the prevailing orthodoxy.
I feel these days that “The Arts” have little to do with art as I originally conceived it to be.
The Arts vs. Excellence
The last arts meeting I attended, about three months before the open-heart surgery, was a seminar sponsored by the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). They have these every five years to get opinions about previous efforts, and how to improve on them.
I raised the issue about the difficulty Baltimore jazz composers were having in getting their efforts heard by a wider audience, and specifically cited the “Citywide Arts Festival,” Artscape, as a way to help remedy this.
I was then told by a representative of BOPA, in front of about 60 people, that the reason this wouldn’t happen, was because the jazz music I was talking about wasn’t “popular,” and therefore, only smooth jazz would be considered.
Before I sat down, I said I thought the arts were about excellence.
Ironically enough, next thing on the agenda was to review the priorities of the Maryland State Arts Council, that were listed in a brochure we were all given.
Number one was Excellence! I actually was applauded by some of the audience members.
Once Upon A Time
One of MSAC’s goals was to turn the state into a “Mecca” for the arts. I sent them a letter about two weeks later, stating that it would be hard to sustain an arts Mecca if innovation were excluded for the sake of popular appeal. I was thanked, but I don’t think my opinion made any difference.
While I can’t comment about other disciplines, I find this attitude disturbing. I can understand if this was a commercial enterprise, but we’re speaking about a taxpayer funded arts organization.
Perhaps for years I’ve misunderstood the purpose of the NEA. Once upon a time, I thought it was formed, in part, to give real artists and innovators opportunities to have their insights appreciated in a way that popular forms won’t allow.
I know from personal experience, that the city of Baltimore has been less-then-honest in terms of its arts dealings. I can’t help but wonder if this thing about jazz is nationwide in scope.
I say this based on a meeting I attended when that Performing Arts Convention was in Baltimore. The speaker was from what was said to be one of the best arts booking agencies in the nation. When it was my turn, I explained what I did, and asked what opportunities were out there. The answer was “none.” Apparently, what I represent, is the least wanted thing in the arts world, or so it seems.
To me, it seems like there’s this vicious cycle, where this negative opinion keeps getting recycled around and around. It’s like when the Mayor’s Jazz Advisory Committee was shot down. The attitude from the “experts” was that there was no jazz in the city, which as I said, was so very erroneous.
I suspect others, with different experiences, will have a different outlook. To me though, it seems I have an uphill battle. Not that I’m not used to it, it’s just that I’d thought I’d be further along at this time in my life. It’s one thing to be rejected in a competition with hundreds of submissions and few prizes. But to find out all that talk about valuing excellence, innovation, dedication, and mastery to be a lie, that’s something else.
I’m not going to stop creating. I can’t. But even though I’m working on the repertoire, I do have serious reservations about even bothering to seek performance opportunities. I hope to get beyond that. I’m even considering the possibility of finding patrons.
So that’s where I am right now.
If you know of anyone who might be interested in my work, I’d appreciate you letting them know.
Thank you for your time and interest.
(How many times did you have to wring out that hankie?)
Composer – Pianist www.georgefspicka.com
Artwork – Commentary – Photos http://georgespicka.weebly.com/
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What About You?
When I found the article about the vintage bluegrass release, it mentioned you played mandolin. I never knew that. Do you still gig?
At AllMusic, it said you also played accordion, organ, and piano. When I began my career in the mid 60s, organ became the rage. I used to lug this Hammond around everywhere.
My mother played the accordion when she was a little girl, and still kept it in a closet. I never heard her play, but on occasion, I’d get it out, strap it on, and wheeze through a few tunes. What an ordeal!
Sincerely,
George F. Spicka