Johnny D

Wow! I took his Black Music course at Nassau Community College in 1971. It was a strange experience, but at least he didn't punch me! I think he thought I was some jive-a** hippie who didn't know anything about Black music. Then one day another student--who was a major jerk and bully, but I felt was getting a free pass because he was Black--started condemning classical music. I said, "What about when Ornette Coleman writes for string quartets and orchestras?" and his reply was "I don't give a d### about no Ornette Coleman!" I didn't find out until later that Chambers/Hakim had extensively studied classical composers, composed for orchestras, and was friends with Ornette. So after that, he started grudgingly cutting me some slack. The next year, I switched to Adelphi University and was surprised to see him teaching there. I'm surprised they hired him after hearing how he left Nassau Community.

The first time I heard Jeremy Steig was on two tracks from Sandy's Album Is Here At Last by Sandy Hurvitz, a Frank Zappa discovery who went on to record several albums under the name of Essra Mohawk.