The Ars Esoterica story really begins on September 13, 1958 in Indianapolis, Indiana the day I was born.  Coming from a musical Italian-American family, love of music was second nature.  I had a Sicilian aunt who was a piano teacher and an uncle that played trumpet in the Bunny Berrigan big band, so my interest in music was only natural.

When I was in elementary school in the 1960s, I noticed that I did not really care for the music that my classmates listened to, mainly The Beatles, The Kinks, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones.  Musically I found these too simplistic and lyrically rather silly even then.  Nor did I care for my father's music, mainly Frank Sinatra.  Instead, I preferred composers like Henry Mancini, Leroy Anderson and Spike Jones since their compostions and arrangements were a bit different than most others at the time. (Especially Spike Jones for obvious reasons!).  These I will cite as my very early influences.

As early as 1969, I became aware of the use of a simple tape recorder as an instrument of sorts.  Around that time, cassette players were hitting the market and I had to be the first kid on the block to have one!  My first little adventure with this was a series of recordings made with neighborhood kids called "Hot Head Heaton" which was a satire of the meanest old battleaxe 4th grade teacher that some of us had the misfortune of having.  She broke more yardsticks on students than there were in the storeroom (it is comforting to know that today types like this would be in jail!).  The recordings featured classroom anarchy with explosions, machine guns and various sound effects.  The introductory music was Spike Jones' "The Black And Blue Danube Waltz."  Nobody was too sad when she eventually retired and croaked; even before I heard of Zappa and the Fugs I was heading in a similar direction!  Unfortunately (or fortunately to be more politically correct) none of these tapes survived.  This character resurfaced in 1996 as "Cynthia Ann Smith" who is a 80-year-old lady who drives a tank and goes to a church that worships tyrants (an obvious satire on fundamentalist Christianity!)

Later in 1969, I started taking piano lessons.  At first, it was only classical music but I found that my teacher was very open minded to many types of music.  I would continue piano lessons until 1974.  At first (like all 11 year olds) I objected but I found this to be one of the most valuable experiences of my life.  Also, at this point some classmates intoduced me to rock on AM and FM radio.  After listening to dozens of bands, I finally singled out The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple as my favorites.  I really did not think that their level of musicianship was that great due to my classical training, but I saw a willingness in those bands to rise above the pop format and do something more creative and original with rock.  These were my earliest rock influences.

In 1971 I had access to two cassette players and I started taking seriously the possibilities afforded by this, so I produced a tape for Halloween 1971 called "Monsters" in which the speakers were hidden behind a pumpkin.  It featured some very primitive overdubbing techniques, scary music and sounds intended to scare the crap out of neighborhood kids.  It did!

In 1972 I continued with my piano lessons but I was becoming increasingly bored with classical music and I was looking for something different.  In August 1972 I began High School at the Elgin Academy in Elgin, Illinois.  In October I saw an announcement about a school-sponsored trip to a Jethro Tull concert.  At that point I never heard of him (found out it was more correctly them) but it aroused my curiousity.  I almost didn't get to go thanks to some prankster who crossed my name off of the sign-up sheet, but our librarian found one more ticket for me (thanks, Mrs. Turner!).  Little did I know that this would be a life-changing event.  I was amazed at the musicianship, since they had a classical discipline to their music; not just rock hacks.  Also, Ian Anderson was fascinating to watch on stage; almost shaman-like.  Also, I enjoyed the good dose of British humor.  I thought that this was a more complete, satisfying music experience.  ENTER THE WORLD OF PROGRESSIVE ROCK!  About this time I began learning guitar in addition to piano.

Most of 1973 I continued practising piano and during the summer I was able to obtain a Farfisa organ.  That made quite a few wild and wonderful sounds!

(to be continued ...)

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