Phil Candya

Phil Candya, on the right, was a drummer in the early days of the bizarre ensemble. When Phil played with us we had two drummers and Phil brought lots of life and heart and wonder to the band. I miss Phil. He passed on, leaving a void.

RIP Joe Frank

I didn't know Joe Frank. I didn't even, strangely enough, know OF him. Until he died.

How could that be? How could I have missed his bizarre, twisted sense of humor and deep, detailed narrative? How could his sense of improv and experimentation have avoided me?

Then I heard that he'd died. Just like that. Barely around we are and then we are gone. All that work. All that sense of the bizarre. Twisted. Gone.

I heard a show discussing him. On NPR. Here it is.

There is so much yet to discover. If you have a sense for the experimental, for the bizarre (music or otherwise) and especially for improvisational narrative, maybe you'd like Joe Frank. Or maybe he'd insult you. There is something disturbing about his work. It's at once funny. And not funny. Serious, and yet absurd. Some of the traits we seek in the band The Bizarre Ensemble.

We're not Joe Frank. And Joe Frank was never in the Bizarre Ensemble. But what if he had been?