Sandy Bull - Biography
Sandy Bull played world music before the category was invented. His first two Vanguard albums — Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo (1963 Vanguard) and Inventions for Guitar and Banjo (1964 Vanguard) — still shock with an open ended blend of folk, jazz, Arab, blues, rock, Gospel and other styles played in odd tunings, extended suites with an improvisational feel that still inspire. Folk, trance, world and ambient textures come together, but every note comes as a surprise guaranteed to open your ears and mind. Bull recorded infrequently, but every note he played shimmers with a timeless, spiritual energy.
Bull was born in New York City, the only son of Daphne van Beuren Bayne a banking heiress who played jazz harp (not harmonica) under the name Daphne Hellman and Harry Bull, an editor at Town and Country magazine. His parents divorced when he was a child and he lived with his dad in Florida where he started playing guitar to Hank Williams records. Bull went to Woodstock Country School in Vermont, where he met Mike Seeger and started playing 5-string banjo and taking lessons from Erik Darling (Rooftop Singers) during school breaks. When his father died, he lived with his mother who introduced him to jazz and folk music. In the 50s he played his way across Europe with his banjo, coming back to attend and drop out of Boston University where he was studying composition and string bass. By 1961 Bull was playing folk clubs in the Village and played in The Washington Square Singers with Bruce Langhorn, who played later on with Dylan’s electric band. Getting tired of the limitations imposed by the folk boom, he invented his own open tunings for guitar to play along with raga albums by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. He also fell in love with the tremolo heavy style of Pops Staples, which influenced his electric guitar playing. In a 1971 interview he said his goal was to never play anything the same way twice. He was also dabbling in psychedelics, which may have contributed to his free flowing approach to composition.
After a village gig vanguard Records signed him and his first album. Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo (1963 Vanguard), became an instant underground hit. Accompanied only by jazz drummer Billy Higgins, Bull ranged freely over his own unique musical universe. “Blend” was a side long guitar raga, hinting at Indian, Arab, rock, folk, blues and classical modes, Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” was played on banjo and “Gospel Tune” was a tremolo-drenched tribute to Pops Staples. For Inventions for Guitar and Banjo (1964 Vanguard) Bull started experimenting with overdubbing. He made the album in his own apartment with equipment supplied by Vanguard. It includes “Blend II,” another free flowing masterpiece with Higgins laying down his multi-textured rhythms, Bach’s “Gavotte #2” played on electric guitar, a jazzy take on “Manha de Carnival” and Chuck Berry’s “Memphis” which closed the album with a blast of outer space rock energy driven along by Higgins’ drumming.
Bull was experimenting with drugs while he was making the record and for the next few years they overtook his life. E Pluribus Unum (1968 Vanguard) consisted of two side long improvisations, but the pieces are unfocused and pale in comparison to his first albums. After E Pluribus, Bull continued his struggle with drugs and produced the aptly named Demolition Derby (1971 Vanguard) which experimented with Latin music and includes a low key rendition of Bull singing “The Tennessee Waltz.”
Bull finally kicked drugs and was back in form for Jukebox School of Music (1987 ROM) a one man music festival featuring guitar, bass, piano, synthesizers, drums and percussion that shifts from bluegrass and country to samba, salsa and R&B. On the extended jam “Truth” Billy Higgins returns while on “Continuum for Guitar” Bull gets deeply into an Arabic groove. “Don’t Be Angry” an old George Jones classic shows off Bull’s pedal steel technique and “A Fifth of Brandy” is a section of Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto #5” played on electric guitar. In 1997 Bull relocated to Nashville and started his own label, Timeless Recording Society. He released two albums on the label before he died of lung cancer in 2001. Steel Tears (1996) a vocal album with Bull singing the country tunes that influenced him as a boy, with his usual eclectic arranging style in full effect as he showcases his considerable pedal steel chops and Vehicles (1991).
