In 1967 I returned to the United States after a year and a half stay in Spain. Jon Pierson had been there with me, but returned some six months before. Jon was and still is my best friend, and so when I got back to the United States, Jon was the first person outside of my family that I contacted. I don’t remember exactly who suggested the idea of a band, if it was just understood, or whether it was something we might have discussed when we were in Spain, but within months of being back we had assembled the basis of what would become Ars Nova. The core of the group, Jon, myself, and Maury Baker (drummer) were all old Mannes College of Music buddies. The balance of the group, Jonathan Raskin and Johnny Papalia were friends. Jonathan had gone to school with Maury and Johnny Papalia was an old friend of mine from my teens.
The group at first though was made up of Jon, Maury, Jonathan, and myself. Jon, as I recall played bass—though his prime instrument is bass trombone, Jonathan played lead guitar, Maury drums, and I rhythm guitar. Our first gig was at the Electric Circus on St Marks Place in NYC. It was truly weird. Lots of homemade psychedelic props. I recall being nearly driven to a seizure by the strobe lights—and I’m not an epileptic. We were literally weeks old, didn’t have any songs written, and frankly we weren’t very good at all. But the magic and attitude of all present made that immaterial.
We decided to move up to Jonathan’s cabin in the wilds of Vermont to “woodshed,†write, and generally get our act together. We played our second gig at a ski lodge somewhere up there. I don’t remember much more about that period except our deciding we had endured enough of the “simple†life, macrobiotic rice, and living in a small space together, and returned to NYC. Soon after that, Jonathan left the group and Johnny Papalia came on as lead guitar player. Bill Folwell, friend of Johnny’s joined us as bass player, doubling on trumpet. That was the makeup of the band when we decided to start auditioning for a record contract. By this time we had a number of songs under our collective belt, and through a friend I knew in the music business, we got to audition for Arthur H. Gorson, who at this time had a number of “class acts†under his management: Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, Tom Rush and others. Basically these were folk artists who were, like Dylan, crossing over to a new sort of pop music. Because of his connections to Elektra’s Jac Holzman, Gorson was able to get us a very good contract and we were shipped off to Los Angeles to record with Paul Rothchild at Sunset Sound.
Elektra was supportive in the extreme. We were really not ready to record but Elektra wanted an album. I was the main writer and had a bunch of new ideas for songs, but we had in fact only about a half an album of truly “finished†music. Instead of staying for a week or so, we wound up staying in LA for a month. Elektra hooked me up with a good lyricist by the name of Gregory Copeland, and within a couple of weeks we had co-written a few tunes, among them General Clover and March of the Mad Duke’s Circus.
In the midst of all this our bass player, however, was found to be wanting when put under the scrutiny of the recording console. Rough tracks were provided and we returned to NY with basically skeletal tracks. Jonathan Raskin was brought back and he overdubbed bass lines to most of the pieces. Two tracks had no lyrics at all. We had left Greg Copeland in L.A. with rough demos and were waiting for him to mail the songs. When they arrived, we went back into the studio and actually used his letters as lyric sheets; those songs were I Wrapped Her in Ribbons and Song to the City. These and other dubs were added in Elektra’s studios in New York. Bill Folwell remained with the group as a trumpet player.
Ars Nova was kept a secret and the plan was to have a media blitz and introduce the band with a huge splash. Our very first gig was at the Filmore East, opening for The Doors around March of ‘68—only no one told us. We were walking down Second Avenue about a week before the date and saw our name on the marquee; that’s how we found out we were playing.
The concert was a disaster. A band called Chrome Circus opened the evening and played for 45 minutes; they were only supposed to play for 15 or 20. Ars Nova was next and we walked out to jeers of “Where’s Morrison?†and “We want Morrison!†Even if we knew how to work a crowd and had our act totally together, we never would have been able to work this one. The band broke up that night. Jonathan and Maury announced that they couldn’t play with Papalia and Folwell ever again. They went to L.A.
We (Wyatt and Jon) joined them there, hoping to reassemble the band with an L.A. country singer/songwriter whose name I don’t recall—nor does Jon. We probably blocked it out. Anyway it didn’t work at all and we decided to call it a day. Jon phoned his mother in New York to tell her the band had broken up and that he was returning home, when she said, “Didn’t you read the review in The Voice?†There was a stellar review of the album in the Village Voice. Jon got on the phone and called guitar player Sam Brown and asked if he would like to join the band. When he said yes this was enough encouragement to try to regroup in New York.
Jonathan was pirated by Paul Rothchild for a “supergroup†he was assembling called Rhinoceros and Maury Baker wound up with Janis Joplin. Both stayed in L.A. I recall confronting the L.A. Elektra people about Paul’s making these side deals with Maury and Jonathan. I think that was how we got money out of them to fly back to New York. Jon and I decided to drive instead and save the dough as a “nest egg†to start the new band.
Just before the Filmore concert, LIFE Magazine had begun an article on Ars Nova to be included in a special issue on “The New Rock.†Alfred Eisenstadt was assigned as the photographer on the piece and was following us around the city and taking pictures of all our rehearsals. The disintegration and regrouping became part of the story and they flew another photographer to meet us in the Midwest as we were driving back to New York. The issue came out in June of 1968 with a seven-page spread on Ars Nova. Somehow with all of the interviews and dialogue, we failed to mention the name of our label, Elektra.
The first gig with the new band was at The Bitter End and Jac Holzman, president of Elektra, came into the dressing room on a break and said, “I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye.†And that was it. We no longer had a label.
Once back in New York with Sam Brown as lead guitar player, we added Art Koenig on bass, Jimmy Owens on trumpet, and Joe Hunt on drums. Thus re-formed, we were able to get a new record deal, this time with Atlantic. After recording Sunshine and Shadows, we began to tour for the first time, performing tunes from the first album as well as new material. Ars Nova was finally on the verge of having it all together. Unfortunately, the album wasn’t released for a year during which time there was serious mismanagement and when the record was finally released, there was little distribution and no promotion. Ars Nova fizzled out.
Wyatt Day
Jon Pierson
