Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.

Subject: Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 12:09 PM

On her recent visit to Toronto, Pam Swan mentioned a friend of hers....and it brought back a powerful memory.

As a teenager I'd seen the Weavers with Eric Darling in Pete's slot and been very impressed with a solo turn he'd done on "True Religion". I never saw them with Mudcatter Frank Hamilton, but during their last visit to Montreal they had Bernie Krause with them. I got a sense (by the way the other three almost formed a semi-circle at times) that Bernie was still too new to be completely accepted as part of "Weaver Tradition" by Lee,Fred and Ronnie, but he played a song on his own that absolutely blew me away.

On a classical guitar he played "Manha de Carnival" (theme from the film "Black Orpheus") so beautifully and simply, that I remember practically racing home to get the guitar out. All night I tried to remember how he did it, and by morning I'd come up with a version that I still play today.

It was the first time I'd heard a piece in a "classical" style, not using the classical repertoire. Hardly earth-shattering, but to me at that time...monumental.

What a fine musician. Clean, tasteful, and probably more influential than he knows. I started playing a LOT of nice tunes (Beatles, and other pop songs) in that style, and still felt I was a "folkie"!!

Rick

Subject: RE: Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.
From: Jim Krause
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 01:43 PM

Interesting, Rick. I wish I could have been there. I might have been a bit too young, and was definitely way too far to the west at that time. (I suppose this was ca. 1959 or '60?) Was the version of Manha de Carnival ever recorded? I'd like to hear it.
And no, Bernie is not related to me, if anyone was curious :-)

Subject: RE: Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.
From: Groucho Marxist (inactive)
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 02:09 PM

Years after his short time with the Weavers, Bernie Krause was a pioneer in the use of synthesizers in pop music. I haven't heard of him in recent years.

Groucho

Subject: RE: Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.
From: p.j.
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 08:50 PM

Bernie's an amazing guy. After his career in folk music, he became a pioneer in sound engineering (he had the second Moog synthesizer ever built)... wrote the musical score for many t.v. and movie projects (including Rosemary's Baby and Apocalypse Now)... then left music to get his doctorate in bio-acoustics, and became a leader in the acoustic study of marine mammals. That interest expanded to include the acoustic study of thousands of individual species (this man has a recording of ants, no kidding.) More importantly, he studies the acoustic fabric of entire ecosystems, and currently has the largest number of field recordings of natural sounds in existence. Much of what he has recorded has become extinct in the 20 years he has been capturing these sounds.

We met about 15 years ago when I was working on a communication and cognition project with bottlenosed dolphins near San Francisco. Bernie had been named the Scientific Director of a collaboration I was involed with. (We were attempting to coax a wayward humpback whale back thru the delta to the Golden Gate. It was Bernie's recordings of humpback feeding sounds that the whale ultimately responded to and followed out.)

We stayed in touch sporadically, and years later I invited Bernie to do a series of guest lectures at a Wildlife Museum where I worked. He and his beautiful wife Kat were so interested in the wildlife research projects my team was doing that they generously offered to donate support from the lecture series back to our work. This included a portion of sales from his amazing CD recordings of natural sounds.

When I moved the research projects to a private non-profit organization, Bernie became one of the founding Board of Directors. He now specialized in installing natural sound systems in wildlife parks, zoos and museums, for the benefit of the captive animals as well as the public.

Through the years I have been lucky to have his advice, friendship and support both professionally and personally. We don't talk music much when Bernie's over, that's a part of his life that's more a memory than a passion these days. But I have to say that, like you Rick (and probably many others) I'm involved with folk music today in large part because of Bernie.

A few years ago Bernie was sitting in my kitchen while I was cooking dinner, and he kept asking me questions about what inspired me-- what I really wished I could have more time to do. He knew I was working 60 hrs. a week in research and education and feeling burned out. The things he said that night about being happy and feeling fulfilled even if it means making radical changes had a big effect on me. I knew he was a master at re-inventing himself.

That conversation helped shape my decision to reorganize my life and make more room for music-- which led me to Toronto to Rick Fielding's dinner table, where I asked.... "Rick, do you know a fellow named Bernie Krause?"

World's round, ain't it?

pj

P.S. I highly recommend Bernie's autobiography "Into a Wild Sanctuary"... and his fascinating first book "Notes from the Wild" which comes with a CD. You can also visit Bernie's website at www.wildsanctuary.com

Subject: RE: Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 10:09 PM

Type in "Bernie Krause" at ebay. There are usually two or three of his works up for auction.

Subject: RE: Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 02 Nov 00 - 01:28 AM

Holy Cow. When I was a kid, I thought he'd invented the diminished chord! Guess he was too damned smart to STAY a folksinger. Hey, I think I want to be 20 again, and get into something more challenging......although making a LIVING with folksongs can be pretty challenging. Thanks for the background pj.

Rick

Subject: RE: Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Nov 00 - 10:26 AM

The Weavers with Bernie Kraus was the only incarnation of that fine group that I never got to see. This thread is the only place I've ever seen any information about him. Rick and pj, thanks for filling in some of the void.

I'm reminded of an LP on Folkways Records called Sounds Of North American Frogs. An old friend of mine used this LP taped onto a 2400 foot reel tape at one and seven eights speed tom teach his Mina Bird to speak/talk. He left it running in his house every day when he went to work. It was pretty amazing.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Bernie Krause. Major Influence,One Song.
From: GUEST,RiGGy
Date: 02 Nov 00 - 04:22 PM

When Bernie gave a lecture in Berkeley last year I asked him at the break if he still played english concertina. I had been REALLY misinformed that he was the player on Judy Collins' "Farewell to Tarwathie". He did work on that cut, providing the whale sounds NOT the concertina... RiGGy