Born
in Birmingham, Alabama, Carl Atkins found
himself
in Boston in the late 60s by default. After starting on the clarinet
at age 8, moving to the saxophone at age 10, and completing
undergraduate studies in music in the Midwest, he moved to New York to
audition for the role of clarinetist in a touring opera company. He
ended up in Boston in January of 1968, and he stayed with the company
for five months before accepting a job at the New England Conservatory
of Music. He was 24 years old.
"I don't recall how I met Monty, I may have known Phil Morrison first,"
Atkins states. "When Monty first started, he wanted to have a big
band." Atkins was part of the group that recorded Say Brother for WGBH.
"Say Brother was one of those shows that was designed to deal
with the issues of the black community. 'Cause up to that point the
black
community had been left out of all the TV stations," Atkins recalls.
"GBH was making a big effort to do something." Atkins felt akin to
Stark
and when Stark scaled the band down, Atkins was asked to join on
saxophone.
In this early incarnation, the Stark Reality primarily played Stark's
all-inclusive compositions, which ran musical genres back,
forth and center. Atkins couldn't have been happier, "...Rock,
country-western, there was a whole lot of stuff going on in that band.
I think we all got off on the fact that it was such an eclectic thing,"
he offers.
"My thing about music - then, as it is now - is that I like to play
a whole lot of different kinds. A lot of it was right there."
And Stark's lyrical codings? "You know, a lot of it was
Monty's view of the world. They didn't really tell a story per se,
or necessarily need to mean anything," Atkins states. "When I listen
to those songs again, the thing that still struck me about it was that
the words - I won't say they made sense - but they brought a kind of
imagery
that represented a happy time for me. The times I spent with those guys
were some of the happiest times, because they were just good people and
we enjoyed playing that music."
Six
representations of "that music"
were
recorded due to the location
of the Stark Reality's weekend rehearsal space - in a recording studio.
Ahmad Jamal, upon hearing the mix downs of their album-demo, was so
impressed with the material that he bank-rolled the recording of their
Hoagy Carmichael covers - recorded after Atkins left the band to lead
his own group, the New Music Ensemble. Atkins, although conceding that
"some of it was a bit, uh, smokey," wisely maintained copies of the
group's unissued master reels.
from Stark Reality NOW CD
notes by
Eothen "Egon"
Alapatt
Roller
Coaster Ride - Stark Reality 1969 Rollercombat
-
Koushik
Born
in Birmingham, Alabama, Carl Atkins found
himself
in Boston in the late 60s by default. After starting on the clarinet
at age 8, moving to the saxophone at age 10, and completing
undergraduate studies in music in the Midwest, he moved to New York to
audition for the role of clarinetist in a touring opera company. He
ended up in Boston in January of 1968, and he stayed with the company
for five months before accepting a job at the New England Conservatory
of Music. He was 24 years old.
Six
representations of "that music"
were
recorded due to the location
of the Stark Reality's weekend rehearsal space - in a recording studio.
Ahmad Jamal, upon hearing the mix downs of their album-demo, was so
impressed with the material that he bank-rolled the recording of their
Hoagy Carmichael covers - recorded after Atkins left the band to lead
his own group, the New Music Ensemble. Atkins, although conceding that
"some of it was a bit, uh, smokey," wisely maintained copies of the
group's unissued master reels. 