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Gualala Arts
Promoting public interest and participation in the arts since 1961.
Archive of past events: 2004 through 2014
Gualala Arts will present Bob Bralove, Henry Kaiser, and Hank Putek in concert on October 6 in conjunction with the on-going display of Bralove's art in the Jacob Foyer. There will be an artist's reception from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. followed by a concert at 8:00 p.m.
Bob Bralove has displayed talent in several artistic areas. After a childhood of classical piano with an emphasis on the avant-garde, he studied with jazz pianist Art Lande and classical composition with Wayne Peterson, the Pulitzer-Prize winning composer at San Francisco State. Having worked his way through school as a software programmer, he combined fields and came to notice as the synthesizer programmer for Stevie Wonder, then moved on to join the stage crew of the Grateful Dead. By the time the band ceased touring after Jerry Garcia's death, Bob had not only programmed sounds and written songs with the band, but also "sat in" by electronically adding musical elements to sections of their shows. In the succeeding years he's toured and performed throughout the U.S. and Japan both with "Dose Hermanos," his duo with Tom Constanten, and with the noted avant-garde guitarist Henry Kaiser. At the same time, Bob began to develop his facility with visual arts, which has resulted in the art show currently on display at the Gualala Arts Center. In collaboration with the Dead's lighting designer Candace Brightman, he worked out a link that connected the lights directly with the music. In a joint effort with Hank Putek, Bralove began to map still pictures and video to specific keys on the keyboard, so that a given note triggered a given visual. Using this technology, he went on to create a musical video installation for the Gualala show.
Once he saw the ceilings and beams of the Gualala Arts Center, his imagination went 3-D, and he and his curator, Sherri Morris, began to create sculptures. The live performance will feature music, Bralove says, that is "improvisational, adventurous, intimate, surprising, spacey and jam-oriented. We'll do some songs in their entirety and some spontaneous improvisations. We will also wander in and out of some Grateful Dead themes, including 'Dark Star,' and also Dr. John's 'Gilded Splinters,' some originals, and perhaps some Miles Davis."
This will be the first time that they will be performing in this context. There will be a great deal of history and shared experience on the stage in which they will explore psychedelic jams landing into songs and flowing out of them throughout the evening. Grammy winner Henry Kaiser is widely recognized as one of the most creative and innovative guitarists, improvisers, and producers in the fields of rock, jazz, world, and contemporary experimental musics. The California-based musician is one of the most extensively recorded as well, having appeared on more than 250 different albums and contributed to countless television and film soundtracks. A restless collaborator who constantly seeks the most diverse and personally challenging contexts for his music, Henry not only produces and contributes to a staggering number of recorded projects, he performs frequently throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and Japan, with several regular groupings as well as solo guitar concerts and concerts of freely improvised music with a host of diverse instrumentalists.
He is a scientific diver in the US Antarctic Program.
2010 marked his seventh deployment beneath the twenty foot thick ice of the Ross Sea. Previously he taught underwater research at UC Berkeley for 17 years, where he was a an early pioneer in the use of underwater video for scientific research and diver training. Mr. Kaiser has more Antarctic under-the-ice footage in films and tv shows than any other underwater cameraman. With nine scientific diving deployments to Antarctica, he probably has more dives under fast ice than any other professional videographer.
Advanced Visual Stimulation by Hank Putek
Visual artist Hank Putek adds that: "I will be creating improvisational visual elements and effects 'live on the fly' during Bob and Henry's musical performance. Having played with both musicians for many years now, it will be a mind blowing, unique, and fun feast for the senses - a truly exciting and stimulating experience. I use keyboards to translate musical notes into visual images and effects. I can also switch to either Bob's or Henry's instrument(s) as the device which control the timing of the visual displayed. I have specially created all of the visual elements of this show, such as still images, video clips, and the 'effects' of the live video stream. In 2007, Putek won an improvisational visual artist contest in London. An Evening of Improvisational Music
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Concert tickets are $18 in advance, $5 more on the day of the performance. For advance purchase, go to
He then began to create the visuals - at first inside the computer, but then drawing and painting. As he put it, "The paintings in the Gualala show explore characters in relationship to each other (acrylic), as well as the multitude of characters, both human and non-human, from our past and present who help make up who we are (ink). The acrylic defines the composition while the inks show the Keith Haring inside us all."
Kaiser, Putek and Bralove have a long history together. The three have worked together since the mid '90s. Henry and Bralove have worked on many recording projects together and released the CD "Ultraviolet Licorice" in 2009, this being their psychedelic jamming CD. Hank was the technical consultant and facilitator of the digital finger-painting system that Bralove used and who is also a constant inspiration for him.
Kaiser has had a parallel career in the film and television industry for over 35 years, working as a producer, director and soundtrack composer. He directed and produced many hours of science television programming. He received an Academy Award nomination for his work as the producer for Werner Herzog's
Encounters at the End of the World,
he was also the underwater camera and soundtrack composer for that film. Kaiser worked on 3 other Herzog films: The Wild Blue Yonder, Grizzly Man and Little Dieter Needs to Fly.
