the little known history of light sound dimension....

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Welcome to my very first blog and what is really an extension of my youtube channel but in greater depth.Here i want to say i've chosen a group that  has fasinated me for some time after viewing their name on several posters over the years.Later finding out they were in fact linked to light show artist/painter bill ham made me suddenly want to know more.A beginning is needed so let's venture back to 1964 and a young female singer who along with mike stewart (brother of john later in the kingston trio...) and jerry burgan formed a folk group named 'the ridge runners' as a quartet but quickly expand to a quintet of 'beverly bivens/mike stewart/jerry burgan/pete fullerton & rounded off by guitarist bob jones'.... little known to many was that bevins & stewart had earlier released a single on decca records in 1964 as 'beverly & mike' - shame/i wouldn't know(what to do) a pleasant enough pop-styled two sider that failed to ignite the charts. 

 

How this single came about is unknown to me but a nice sidebar to bivens upcoming career in the burgeoning san francisco music scene.When the newly formed group were booked into local san francisco folk haunt 'the hungry i' frank werber of trident productions and owner of the trident bar over in sausalito caught their act and put them in contact with 'A&M records' then looking for new talent around the city.At once werber had them change name to 'the we five' a much more appealing name.In the studio the band after hearing the ian & sylvia tune 'you were on my mind' realised it would make the perfect single. Quickly mike stewart rearranged the song (written under sylvia's real name of fricker) with a more upbeat folk-rock styling and once recorded (it includes take 13 and a tagged on ending from an earlier take) was released in '65 to huge success 'you were on my mind/small world' A&M records with werber producing for trident productions .Large amounts of t.v.work followed in it's wake with bivens voice soaring to fabulous height's.Their debut album duely followed in '65 and titled after the single was full of folky-pop tunes and some which i'd call show tunes.Now here things do start to get more interesting as involved with the recording was session/jazz drummer jerry granelli & john chambers ....chambers was in fact asked to join the band on the road and for t.v.work.February '65 saw a 19year old bivens marry jazz bassist fred marshall who also had quite a history behind him.By '66 things were beginning to sour in the group with the follow up album being released 'make someone happy' again on 'A&M' a much more mature sounding record containing tracks like 'high flying bird' written by billy ed wheeler and covered beautifully by jefferson airplane plus 'lets get together' later a huge hit for the youngbloods and the airplane sound a like 'you let a love burn out' a great favourite of mine.

 

By late '66 with things in the band band coming to a head bivens gave in her notice and quit.At once the group reformed bringing in burgan's wife debbie with a new drummer in the shape of  mick gillespie.They released two further album's but by '69 it was all over for the band....burgans went straight into vocal group 'tricycle' and stewart to 'the crystal set & the justice league' then later forming 'west' who put out two very fine albums in '68/'69  with guitarist ron cornelius and worth your while checking out.

 

The early beginnings of 'light sound dimension (or sometimes plain lsd..) lay in light show artist bill ham who's early experiments with light boxes (light's pulsing to the music played) and first really featured at the shows of the charlatans when they played the infamous 'red dog saloon' in virginia city summer of '65 & his work carried out in various houses he managed in the city borought him to the attention of many 'hip' people involved in the early music scene.At 2115 pine street ham carried out light shows or painting as he liked to call them and would often have musicans play along inprovising such as christopher tree a percussionist who earlier had infact been part of a light show happening on capp street at a church put on by elias romero where it was called 'spontaneous sound' a name tree would use for many years to come.Romero had been a big influence on ham  with his own adventures with light & sound.The very first light show to be used in a san francisco club was at 'mothers' a psychedelic venture by tom donahue and partner bob mitchell with light's by del close that ran for s short time at the former 'sugarhill club' run by folky barbara dane in north beach.With ham's experiemnts attracting attention another pine st. resident bob fine began to help at rehearsals and live shows.In '65 bob cohen an aquaintance of ham's befriended chandler laughlin who worked for a mark unobsky currently in virginia city setting  up a bar/saloon 'the red dog saloon' and wanting some type of entertainment.Unobsky had earlier been to new york where he witnessed alight show at a museum and was very impressed by what he saw & it made sense to maybe have one at the red dog.Another pine st resident phil hammond was managing a local band called 'the charlatans' (and the ph factor jug band..) and on a recommendation from laughlin made the trip up to virgina city with ham.Here i will stop at ham's history as it needs full reseach and something i wouldn't like to undertake but i'm sure someone will one day but he was the catalyst for 'light sound dimension'...

 

 

I should really start talking about the musicians who would later be involved with ham in performances so first off let's mention jazz bassist fred marshall.He relocated to san francisco in the early sixties and quickly became the house bassist at local jazz joint 'bop city' playing with jazz giants such as pharoah sanders / ben webster /joe henderson / and dexter gordon etc...he would join drummer jerry granelli in vince guaraldi's trio and with popular guitarist bola sete circa '62 and enjoy much success.By february '65 he had married a 19yr old beverley bivens who was on the cusp of stardom with the 'we five' ..

 

Jazz drummer jerry granelli at a young age showed considerable skill and was on the road with the 'johnny hamlin quartet' still in his teens...he would also join fred marshall in the vince guaraldi trio plus playing dates with danny zeitlin and session work...When playing some dates with pianist flip nunez an idea struck him that he could play in a more free style jazz style.So shortly he would meet up with a daring new group comprised of pianist tom harrell & rafael garrett  bass and whistles for a short spell.By '64 he was doing session work at 'autumn records' under producer sly stone and that's how he came to be playing on the we five's hit 'you were on my mind'.Leaving the danny zeitling trio he took up with that superb pianist bill evans but free jazz with still on his mind.With this in mind he along with fred marshall formed a quartet  calling it's self 'the ensemble' sometime in '66... marshall had by then made a daring & unique instrument he called 'a megatar' an eight string cross between a sitar & guitar...

marshall-granelli-bill ham 1968.

                                             

Shows at clubs like 'both/i and sugar hill' had the audiences bewilded and divided & as granelli later said it was 'empty the room' music!...They did play 'the matrix' with the airplane and big brother but i haven't been able to track down a poster for the show...They also played the fillmore the night grace slick made her debut with the airplane in october '66..Later still they lated started to play with bill ham and practiced at a garage on pacific heights with the group now expanded with sax player noel jewkes who had been in the jerry hahn quintet and is on that bands only album 'ara-be-in' '67 also along was flip nunez and bev bivens on improvised vocal sounds...This line up made its bebut  at all places 'the san francsico museum of art 

 

ham was promised by the artist the groups name wouldn't be abriviated.

Even though everything was improvised they did countless rehearsals playing along with & too the light show feeling their way and working alongside ham and his stalwarts.The museum show came about when frank werber visited ham's studio on pine st. where he brought along granelli / marshall & guitarist malachi himself already playing an exotic mix of music's..they did some performances at the studio and from those sessions came a newly named 'lsd or light sound dimension' group...the director of the museum came by the studio one day and enjoying what he saw and heard invited them to play the museum.By now gigs had started to roll in with a six week summer series of shows at the oak park theatre over in berkeley....

 

                                            

                                   

     One amazing find for me was finding the above poster with oscar daniels featured from '66.Daniels infact had been a member of a later line-up of the great society and a friend of darby slick and peter van gelder from classes with sarod master ali akbar kahn over in berkeley.He had rehearsed with the society and played the avalon with them.Here though he played as a solo artist with ham improvising raga-ish sounds on guitar...                                     
                                          

                                    

 

 

                                                         

 By january '68 ham had idea's to open his own theatre and found a suitable venue in an empty store front on california st near the corner of polk.After fixing the place up (it seated around 200) they opened for business and began to charge a small entrance fee with no one allowed in once a performance started..flip nunez had left the band which was now down to a four piece...with the group on stage improvising i've often wondered what they sounded and looked like and lucky for us a photo or two have come to light to give an indication of what a performance was like in the small theatre.It was two shows on thursday/friday/saturday and maybe one show sunday.Within a year ham closed the venue and opened another on shotwell st and continued at various other venues around the city..unfortunately no recordings have surfaced but they did record (more on this if you have further info please...) and i hope ham or a group member still has copies?

 inside the theatre on california st with marshall/bivens/jewkes & granelli.

 

                                                              on the floor ham and fine.  

 

 I also wonder if performances were filmed? and again i have seen no evidence...Ham and the group continued  working the ballrooms and other venues for a couple of years but in 1970 ham got the opportunity to work over in europe.On arrival he settled in the french alps near lake geneva.its here hams life took a turn when he met sophie houdet who became his assistant and lover with a daughter born a short time later.For a show in paris '71 he arranged for tapes of the band to be flown over for the show and a week later the whole group was flown in to play a weeks run in montreux.Where are those tapes now? and were the shows filmed?

                                                  bill ham and assistanr sophie houdet at work...

Through a filmmaker friend ham was put in touch with a french rock promotor 'jean bouquin' who was hoping to lay on a huge festiva with the stones/airplane/the dead/country joe etc but ham realised he was a shyster when he asked for contacts of the artists and none were forth coming! so ham made a phone call to the states and got the dead to fly over along with light sound dimension...the festival was to be outside paris but after many fans had turned up and the site drenched in rain it was finally called off...

                                            sound-light-dimension setting up at chateau d'herouville '71

  With the festival called off lsd and the dead were housed at a local large house 'chateau d'herouville' by bouquin and next day the dead set up their equipment around the swimming pool to play an afternoons show with the towns mayor and other dignatries invited plus friends of bouquin.The dead started in playing late afternoon and by all accounts it was a stunning set of songs...with dark approaching the dead stopped and ligh sound dimension took over till the early hours....by now the band were basically broke but agreed to play a couple of free shows in montreaux where claude nobs the promotor of the world famous jazz festival caught them and got them some paying shows.after the group flew back to san francisco ham continued the shows with other jazz musicians before he too made his way back to the states in'73...                                      

                                              

What happened to the light sound dimension after returning to san francisco? bivens settled down to a domestic life with granelli and marshall continuing to work in jazz music with granelli inparticular still involved with a more free style...bivens did make a come back of sorts in 2009 appearing at the museum of performance & design to an adoring audience...

 

 

Any corrections or further info please get in touch all will be warmly recieved with ammendments made to the blog....

All the band are named including bivens.

rare geary temple show.

                                                            

                                                            

small newspaper item mentioning band...