Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Birth of Psychedelic Music?


In the October 24, 1965 issue of the Oakland Tribune, I found a theater listing with one of the earliest references to the term "psychedelic music" in print. According to the schedule listing, the Open Theatre in Berkeley was planning to host an evening of "psychedelic music" by Malachi and the Jazz Mice, featuring Jeanne Lee. The "Malachi" is probably the same Malachi who released the album Holy Music on Verve Records. Information on the Jazz Mice is rather sketchy, but they appear to be the same group as the Jazz Mice Septet mentioned on this vintage poster. Some more digging on Google reveals that the leader of the Jazz Mice was Ian Underwood, who would later have a long career as a sideman for Frank Zappa. Given Zappa's antipathy to drug use, I wonder what Zappa thought of Underwood's psychedelic musical experimentation before joining the Mothers Invention.

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