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Julius Vasylenko: Seeing Stars
Gordon Marshall
Poet, procrastinator unissued until now, in this deluxe edition on Blue Note.
It did. A week after meeting the icon, he met a young woman in a used-clothing store, who was wearing a zebra-print top that matched his zebra jeans. She introduced herself as "Ra," short for Raziel; and invited him over and shared her collection of reed instruments. This was not ownership, but it heralded a long future of picking up many and various instruments of his own, the first of which was given to him by some skateboard kids. "It looked as if it had been run over by a lorrie," he says; but he straightened it out as best he could and it played. Years on, he has found and refurbished many left for trash. His bamboo sax he bought, though: they are made by a German expatriate located in Thailand and Vasylenko found a trove of them for sale in a shop in Rockport, Massachusetts.
The early years of a major force...the hammer banging out a dream on the anvil of Thatcher's England, brought over to America, in a miraculous deconstruction of negative and positive ions. Vasylenko is shy about recording and distribution, to be sure; but he has a trove of archives going back to his years in the Sheffield scene, through to his many projects executed now in Boston. Recent excursions include a stint with a band at The Stone in NYC, and his drive and inertia ensure he will be on the scene for many years to come, reinventing himself and others.
Selected discography
Romulus and Remus, Four Pieces (2009)
Various artists, Ass Jazz, Vol. 1 (Pet Goat Records, 2009)
With Orgy of Noise, Bandwidth TV on CCTV (OrgyofNoise.com, 2008)
Photo credits
Page 1: www.myspace.com/julesvasylenko
Page 2: emptyhousecooperative.blogspot.com
Page 3: Top: farm4.static.flickr.com; Bottom: orgyofnoise.com
Page 4: Top: Lillian Schrank; Bottom: ww.myspace.com/breakfastatpenderecki39s
Page 5: emptyhousecooperative.blogspot.com
