Buddy out of Petty cash?
QUESTION ‘Colonel’ Tom Parker eventually got his comeuppance for ripping off Elvis, but did Norman Petty ever pay back the fortune he tricked from Buddy Holly? Though Jimmy gilmer And The Fireballs, Roy orbison, Waylon Jennings and Charlie Phillips were among the many successful artists who cut tracks at Norman Petty’s studio, he is best known for producing and recording Buddy holly And The Crickets.
Petty was born in Clovis, New Mexico, near the Texas border, in 1927. Before establishing himself as a manager and producer, he recorded his own records as part of the Norman Petty Trio, with wife Vi and guitarist Jack Vaughn.
his music was a far cry from the Tex-Mex rock sound that made him famous, rather he produced light, mainstream pop vocal and instrumental tunes.
In the Mid-Fifties, he established his 1313 West 7th Street sound studio in Clovis and emerged as one of the most innovative producers of his generation.
Perhaps uniquely, he charged by the song, not by the hour, giving his acts time to perfect each number.
Petty, however, remained aloof from his young acts. Deeply religious, he was a member of the Central Baptist Church in Clovis and advised all his acts to carry a Bible on tour. he also forbade alcohol, cigarettes and swearing in the studio.
It is rumoured he withheld royalty monies from his acts, explaining it was for their own good as they were too young and would only squander it.
For years it was assumed that Buddy holly had agreed to participate in the illplanned 1959 Winter Dance Party tour — where he, Ritchie Valens and J. P. ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson were killed when their plane crashed shortly after taking off from Mason City Municipal Airport in Iowa — because he was strapped for cash. It was also alleged this was because Petty had withheld royalty payments. This view has been recently contested by Frank Blanas, Petty’s biographer.
he says Petty was strapped for cash because many of the middle-men in the Fifties record business were mobsters and money launderers who were holding on to his money.
While Petty never again reached the heights of his early career, he continued to operate his Clovis studios into the late Sixties.
In 1963, he launched the FM radio station KTQM and started KWKA 680 AM in 1971. he ran the stations until 1979, when he sold them to Curry County Broadcasting. Today, they are run by Zia Broadcasting.
Petty died in Lubbock, Texas, in August 1984 of leukaemia and was posthumously named Clovis Citizen of the Year.
Ashley Kent, Leicester. QUESTION According to UNESCO, mugham is ‘a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’. What is it exactly? The word ‘mugham’ is used to describe a specialised style of folk music attributed to the Azerbaijani people of the Caucasus mountain range and nearby territories.
It is generally recognised as a derivative of another musical style attributed to the Persians, known there as dastgah. It has developed into a refined musical form over 1,000 years.
Mugham is an art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in a specific modal structure. unlike Western modes, mugham is associated not only with scales, but with an orally transmitted collection of melodies.
The major modes are Rast, Segah, Shushtar, Shur, humayun, Bayati-Shiraz and Chahargah; and there are countless sub-modes. These are the rigid structure within which the performer improvises using their voice and/or a variety of traditional instruments, such as the tar (a long-neck lute), the kamancha (a four-string, spiked fiddle) and the daf (a large tambourine).
each mode is designed to elicit different feelings from the audience. Rast imbues the listener with courage and cheerfulness, Segah should elicit love and harmony and Shushtar melancholy.
Mugham is the modern development of an ancient practice, which is the use of sound to induce a transformation of consciousness.
It has been described as trance music — but this is not hypnotic trance, because mugham offers an enhancement of consciousness, rather than a loss.
official competitions and informal contests serve to establish the reputation of accomplished musicians.
Mugham cannot be transcribed in a fixed form because multiple versions are transmitted by masters of the form, who train their students in the fine art of interpretation to ensure the variety of this artistic expression. Dr J. Bowdler, Cheltenham, Glos. QUESTION Are there thermal energy extraction, processing or distribution installations at any active volcanoes? FuRTheR to the earlier answer, in South Luzon in the Philippines, the Tiwi geothermal Power Plant (220 MW) is close to the Mayon volcano and a geothermal field of boiling lakes and mud.
In the eighties, I worked on this power station, trying to improve the power flow to Manila.
The power transfer difficulty was really a transmission problem owing to the voltage being only 220kV on a single power line.
There was a local feeling that the geothermal energy was failing and I was asked if the power station was cooling the volcano. I said: ‘No, the power station is like a fly on the cow’s back!’
Since then, the Mayon volcano has erupted vigorously. Dr Ron Barnes, electrical power engineer, King’s Lynn, Norfolk.