Psychedelic Saxophone Of Charlie Nothing

Description

The Takoma label of John Fahey is best known for pushing the boundaries of acoustic guitar playing, but in 1967, it released a record that became one of the true cult classics of the 60s free jazz movement. Charles Martin Simon was an aspiring writer whose artist wife passed away in 1965. When he tried to take up the mantle and become an artist using her art supplies, he was, in his own words, "reduced to nothing" and thus created an alter ego or "psychic fragmentation," Charlie Nothing. Under this nickname, he became famous for creating "dingulators," functional guitar sculptures made from American car parts; however, in 1967, he recorded The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing/In Eternity with Brother Frederic, an album consisting of two distinct saxophone improvisations accompanied only by gong, tabla, and ukulele. With its cover adorned with Nothing's hand-drawn art, this record has since become not only a kind of "secret handshake" among free jazz fans but also a classic of outsider art, fitting right alongside your Moondog records, if not in sound then in spirit. For its very first reissue in any format, we returned to the original tapes to present a fully analog version of The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing/In Eternity with Brother Frederic on black vinyl with the original art intact, offering an unfiltered experience of this man's fractured genius. A memorable look and listen, to say the least.