About an hour and 45 minutes north of Manhattan sits the village of Millbrook, N.Y. In the 1960s, a sprawling American Queen Anne mansion just outside the village became something of a counterculture landmark. Built in 1912, the house and the 2,500-acre estate was acquired at the start of the 1960s by the twin sons of the wealthy Mellon-Hitchcock family.
The sons' grandfather was William Larimer Mellon, a co-founder of Gulf Oil. Their mother, Margaret, had married Thomas Hitchcock Jr., a World War I fighter pilot, polo star and stockbroker. He died during World War II during training exercise in England. His daughter, Peggy—11 at the time—was crushed by the news of her father's death.
By the start of the 1960s, “Pretty Peggy Hitchcock," as she became known, was in her late 20s. Through her wealth, generosity, jet-setting and passion for art and adventure, she found herself in the company of leading jazz musicians and early pioneers in LSD experimentation, when the psychedelic drug was still legal to make.
One weekend in 1960, Peggy met Timothy Leary at the Riverdale apartment of trumpeter Maynard Ferguson in the Bronx. Leary was still employed by Harvard and hadn’t been tossed out of the university yet for failing to keep classroom appointments. Leary, with Harvard colleague Richard Alpert, was looking for someone to fund a trip to Mexico, where he and Richard wanted to further explore their psychedelic experiments. Peggy pulled out her checkbook and tagged along.
After the summer, when they returned to the U.S., Leary and Peggy were already involved in a free-love relationship. At the time, she was dating tenor saxophonist Alan Eager, who was a heroin addict.
After Leary and Alpert were booted out of Harvard in 1963, Peggy offered up the Millbrook manse that her younger twin brothers, Billy and Tommy, had purchased. They rented it to Leary for $1 a year to satisfy a formal contract required for tax purposes. Leary turned the house into a psychedelic campus. [Photo above of the Hitchcock's Millbrook, N.Y., mansion, courtesy of Getty Images]
Enter Charles Mingus, who had been invited to Millbrook to drop acid along with other well-known musicians and poets. As quoted in Charles Mingus: More Than a Fake Book (Jazz Workshop/Hal Leonard):
“I wrote [Peggy's Blue Skylight] on the piano at Peggy Hitchcock's house. We were friends. She wanted to take the blue plastic shield from the cockpit of a fighter plane and replace her skylight with it so the sky would always be blue. The [local] government wouldn't let her do it [due to zoning conflicts]."
Peggy’s Blue Skylight was first recorded during the November 1961 studio session for Mingus' Oh Yeah album, but its nearly 10-minute duration made it an impossible fit. The song didn't appear on the album until 1999, when Oh Yeah was released on an expanded CD.
The song next was performed live and recorded at Birdland in May 1962 by Mingus with Richard Williams (tp), Charles McPherson (as), Booker Ervin (ts), Toshiko Akiyoshi (p) and Mingus (b). The song was then used in the British film All Night Long. On tour in London, Mingus and Dave Brubeck were recruited to perform in the film.
Next came the song's performance and recording at Mingus' Town Hall concert in October 1962. From then on, Peggy's Blue Skylight was regularly performed and recorded live during Mingus' tours abroad.
The reason I'm telling you all of this is that Peggy Mellon Hitchcock died of a stroke on April 9 at her brothers' famed estate in Milllbrook. She was 90. You can read all about her life in Penelope Green's marvelous obituary last week in The New York Times here.
JazzWax clips: Here's the first studio recording of Peggy's Blue Skylight, with Jimmy Knepper (tb), Booker Ervin (ts), Rahsaan Roland Kirk (ts,manzello,stritch), Mingus (p) and Dannie Richmond (d)...
Here's the Birdland performance of the song, featuring Richard Williams (tp), Charles McPherson (as), Booker Ervin (ts), Toshiko Akiyoshi (p) and Mingus (b)...
Here's Mingus in the film All Night Long...
Here's the Town Hall Concert performance of the song, arranged by Melba Liston...
And here's a live performance of the song in Belgium in 1964, featuring Johnny Coles (tp), Eric Dolphy (as), Clifford Jordan (ts), Jaki Byard (p), Mingus (b) and Dannie Richmond (d)...
Bonus: Here's Peggy Hitchcock in 2010 (move the space bar to 22:50 and turn on the Closed Captions by clicking on the CC icon at the base of the embedded screen)...
The sons' grandfather was William Larimer Mellon, a co-founder of Gulf Oil. Their mother, Margaret, had married Thomas Hitchcock Jr., a World War I fighter pilot, polo star and stockbroker. He died during World War II during training exercise in England. His daughter, Peggy—11 at the time—was crushed by the news of her father's death.
By the start of the 1960s, “Pretty Peggy Hitchcock," as she became known, was in her late 20s. Through her wealth, generosity, jet-setting and passion for art and adventure, she found herself in the company of leading jazz musicians and early pioneers in LSD experimentation, when the psychedelic drug was still legal to make.
One weekend in 1960, Peggy met Timothy Leary at the Riverdale apartment of trumpeter Maynard Ferguson in the Bronx. Leary was still employed by Harvard and hadn’t been tossed out of the university yet for failing to keep classroom appointments. Leary, with Harvard colleague Richard Alpert, was looking for someone to fund a trip to Mexico, where he and Richard wanted to further explore their psychedelic experiments. Peggy pulled out her checkbook and tagged along.
After the summer, when they returned to the U.S., Leary and Peggy were already involved in a free-love relationship. At the time, she was dating tenor saxophonist Alan Eager, who was a heroin addict.
After Leary and Alpert were booted out of Harvard in 1963, Peggy offered up the Millbrook manse that her younger twin brothers, Billy and Tommy, had purchased. They rented it to Leary for $1 a year to satisfy a formal contract required for tax purposes. Leary turned the house into a psychedelic campus. [Photo above of the Hitchcock's Millbrook, N.Y., mansion, courtesy of Getty Images]
Enter Charles Mingus, who had been invited to Millbrook to drop acid along with other well-known musicians and poets. As quoted in Charles Mingus: More Than a Fake Book (Jazz Workshop/Hal Leonard):
“I wrote [Peggy's Blue Skylight] on the piano at Peggy Hitchcock's house. We were friends. She wanted to take the blue plastic shield from the cockpit of a fighter plane and replace her skylight with it so the sky would always be blue. The [local] government wouldn't let her do it [due to zoning conflicts]."
Peggy’s Blue Skylight was first recorded during the November 1961 studio session for Mingus' Oh Yeah album, but its nearly 10-minute duration made it an impossible fit. The song didn't appear on the album until 1999, when Oh Yeah was released on an expanded CD.
The song next was performed live and recorded at Birdland in May 1962 by Mingus with Richard Williams (tp), Charles McPherson (as), Booker Ervin (ts), Toshiko Akiyoshi (p) and Mingus (b). The song was then used in the British film All Night Long. On tour in London, Mingus and Dave Brubeck were recruited to perform in the film.
Next came the song's performance and recording at Mingus' Town Hall concert in October 1962. From then on, Peggy's Blue Skylight was regularly performed and recorded live during Mingus' tours abroad.
The reason I'm telling you all of this is that Peggy Mellon Hitchcock died of a stroke on April 9 at her brothers' famed estate in Milllbrook. She was 90. You can read all about her life in Penelope Green's marvelous obituary last week in The New York Times here.
JazzWax clips: Here's the first studio recording of Peggy's Blue Skylight, with Jimmy Knepper (tb), Booker Ervin (ts), Rahsaan Roland Kirk (ts,manzello,stritch), Mingus (p) and Dannie Richmond (d)...
Here's the Birdland performance of the song, featuring Richard Williams (tp), Charles McPherson (as), Booker Ervin (ts), Toshiko Akiyoshi (p) and Mingus (b)...
Here's Mingus in the film All Night Long...
Here's the Town Hall Concert performance of the song, arranged by Melba Liston...
And here's a live performance of the song in Belgium in 1964, featuring Johnny Coles (tp), Eric Dolphy (as), Clifford Jordan (ts), Jaki Byard (p), Mingus (b) and Dannie Richmond (d)...
Bonus: Here's Peggy Hitchcock in 2010 (move the space bar to 22:50 and turn on the Closed Captions by clicking on the CC icon at the base of the embedded screen)...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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