Female rock pioneers rise again after 50 years
’60s psychedelic patriarchy wasn’t ready, but has Ace of Cups’ time come?
For decades, Ace of Cups was just a curious name that appeared on vintage psychedelic rock posters alongside more familiar names. They played a free concert with Jimi Hendrix in Golden Gate Park in 1967. They supported the Band on its historic three-night stand at the Winterland in 1969. They shared bills with psychedelic rock icons like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service through the Summer of Love at venues like the Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore. But the quintet never released an album. They never saw their faces on posters in dorm room walls. Few rock history books even take note of the first known all-female rock band from San Francisco, which called it quits in 1972 when the members sensed their commercial prospects fading and decided to start families. That’s about to change as the members of the recently reunited group, now in their 70s, prepare to release the Ace of Cups’ self-titled debut album on Friday, Nov. 9 — the same day the band makes its live comeback at a Marin Commonwealth Club event called “Course Correcting Rock History: An Eve-
ning Celebrating the Ace of Cups.” So what went wrong? “In San Francisco, we were part of everything that was going on,” said Denise Kaufman, Ace of Cups’ singer-songwriter and guitarist/harmonica player, taking a break from band rehearsals last week. “But the record label guys that were coming up from L.A. didn’t know what to do with us. I don’t think we fit in with what they wanted.”
While Grace Slick and Janis Joplin caught national attention fronting male-dominated bands, the Ace of Cups thrived locally. Having formed in the HaightAshbury neighborhood in 1967, they were at the center of the action.
Kaufman, a traveler on Ken Kesey’s bus, was immortalized as Mary Microgram in Tom Wolfe’s “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”
Ace of Cups — Kaufman, bassist Mary Gannon Alfiler, lead guitarist Mary Ellen Simpson, drummer Diane Vitalich and keyboardist Marla Hunt (who is not taking part in the reunion) — performed barefoot on Mount Tam as part of the Festival of Growing Things, alongside Big Brother and the Holding Company, Steve Miller Band, and Country Joe and the Fish.
They impressed Hendrix so deeply at the Golden Gate Park concert, which took place a week before he made headlines for igniting his guitar at 1967’s Monterey Pop, that he raved about them in the English music paper Melody Maker.
“I heard some groovy sounds last time in the States, like this girl group, Ace of Cups, who write their own songs and the lead guitarist is hell, really great,” Hendrix said.
The band’s forthcoming album is made up of new recordings of the songs the band performed in the 1960s as well as a batch of newer material, produced by Dan Shea — who has worked with Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson — at San Rafael’s Laughing Tiger Studio.
Highlighting Ace of Cups’ eclectic sound, it pairs their wild harmonies with folk, blues, gospel and garage-rock influences. There are even guest appearances by old friends like the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, bluesman Taj Mahal, singersongwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie, actor Peter Coyote, and musicians Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady.
The project was put into motion by George Wallace, the founder of New York label High Moon Records, who discovered the band through a compilation of Ace of Cups bootleg recordings called “It’s Bad For You But Buy It,” which was released in 2003.
“Maybe we were ahead of our time,” Vitalich said. “Now, after 50 years, there’s this interest in us. It should have happened then, but it’s happening now, and I don’t have a problem with that.”
While the band moved out of the spotlight after its split, the women stayed in contact with each other, occasionally getting together to perform the songs just for kicks.
“We were getting together because we were the only people who knew the music that we shared,” said Kaufman, who moved to Los Angeles and taught Bikram yoga to clients like Madonna, Quincy Jones, Jane Fonda and Kareem AbdulJabbar. “The songs were like our children, and no one had ever met them.”
They will fill in the blanks on their story at the Commonwealth Club event, which is being moderated by former Grateful Dead publicist and historian Dennis McNally. The evening is also to feature appearances by Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Garcia, hippie icon Wavy Gravy, Love on Haight owner Sunshine Powers and others.
The Ace of Cups has already recorded enough material to release a second album next year.
“We have an opportunity to bring some love into the world to share music and lyrics and who we are,” said Vitalich. “I think it gives hope to younger musicians who can see that you can do this in your 70s.”
Which brings the Ace of Cups full circle. Where once the group battled sexism, Ace of Cups now finds itself facing ageism.
“In the old days we were just doing what we did, and by the virtue of that we probably exploded a lot of stereotypes,” Kaufman said. “Now we’re throwing some mud in the face of ageism. Just our presence is an expression. It speaks to the longevity of relationships and the power of something that friends can do creatively together.”
She added, “Just us playing reminds people of our generation to keep the faith and keep going and move those things you’ve given up onto the front burner and ignite the fire. We need to see women in their 70s playing electric guitars and drums. Don’t discount people because their hair is gray.”