Music That Shaped Our Life Experience At Ithaca High School

DRAFT - RAW - UNEDITED

When I moved from Iran to the USA I entered Ithaca High School (IHS, Upstate New York) at the second half of junior year. Here is one set of recollections about music that moved us. If more stories, memories come to your mind, please send them to me.

I arrived to the USA on 13 December and started at IHS right away as a Junior. I had the fortune of quickly meeting two amazing musicians,whom to this day are some of the best musicians I've ever known: Phil Maynes and Tim Reppert. We played in some kind of an event with Spanish flavor for the International Club. Phil helped me a lot with the guitar. Phil and Tim both played with the school's jazz band, which is very demanding - so both were very educated and competent musically.

Music shaped our life experience. Sad to see the junk kids are exposed to as mainstream music... there's still good music being produced but "music" took a wrong turn with proliferation of rap and techno were melodic lines were thrown out the window, and in the case of rap, vulgarity replaced subtlety.

In June I made a trip to NYC where my dad's childhood friend who's like my uncle, wanted to buy me a gift - price didn't matter as he was (and is) a very wealthy man, and a man of top integrity. We found our way to the famous Manny's Music on 48th Street on 30 June, where we got a Gibson Les Paul Pro and a Fender Twin Reverb amp - top of the line, professional equipment which were shipped to Ithaca. Phil also had a Les Paul and mail-ordered a beautiful Ovation guitar, with the money he saved from his morning newspaper delivery job.

Phil, Tim and I played in various formations, including a very cool memorable gig with the wiz drummer younger than us, Marc Hurlbut - at the Holiday Inn at an event (I think it was a fashion show) where we played things like George Benson's Breezin' and Stanley Clark's School Days, Santana Oye Komova and Samba PaTi. Phil and I played on the local TV once. We jammed with various people including Ted Rogers on sax, and eventually formed "Captain Courageous and Explorers" a name our leader, Phil came up with. We rocked the year-end Talent Show with Twist & Shout. The audio and photos of that are available - I'll put them on YouTube eventually.

I remember playing Frisbee with my Kiss records with Tom Gibson as Kiss was not cool any more.

The first months after coming from Iran I was into disco and funk with hits like I Will Survive, Freak Out, and bands like Earth Wind & Fire, Commodores, Donna Summer and the kings of disco: Bee Gees who ruled the dance floors with their extremely groovy masterpieces like Night Fever, Staying Alive, and sweet How Deep Is Your Love. I was mainly hanging out with various groups of Iranians including a group of fun Cornell students. There was a disco at Ramada Inn and North-40 which I couldn't get in because of being underage, so had to sit in the car one cold night trying to keep warm to the blasting sound of "Can't Buy Me Love" which was still being played at mainstream clubs. Beatles Forever!

Music was one of the strong means of integrating in the American culture which was not so unfamiliar - I had visited relatives in California the preceding two summers and were turned on to The Beatles and the magic and promise of America.

Tom and Chris who were and are two of my best friends were into intellectual stuff like classically influenced music and deep poetry of Genesis - alternative artsy stuff that was not mainstream (Tony Banks had a solid classical background). Genesis went mainstream in 1980 with the release of "Duke", and downhill from there, in my view. I believe Tom and Chris were turned on to Genesis by now Professor Jeff Ruoff, whom I visited at his university, and Mike Ashford. Tom, Chris, Mike, Jeff, please feel free to correct these memories.

I had exposure to Genesis since my beloved guardian at the time, Kamiar Karimi used to play some Genesis on his high-end Hi-fi system in his dorm at Cornell. Kamiar had sent me an I-20 from IHS which transformed my life - a favor I never forget - and facilitated my transition. He received a PhD from Cornell. His brother and my dear friend Shahriar was our classmate and graduated with us.

Tom Gibson is very musical and that was one of the key binding factors of our strong friendship and synergy. Our birthdays are one day apart (and one year) so we share the strong musical tendencies of Sun in Pisces (I believe in astrology 30%).

Hanging out with Tom Gibson, Chris Hood, John and Terri Van Soest, et al., we listened to The Who, Genesis, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and other music most people listened to like Eagles, Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, Bad Company, Jethro Tull, The Kinks, Van Halen, REO Speedwagon, Supertramp, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Cars, and mellower material like Billy Joel, Rickie Lee Jones, Steve Forbert, etc.

Tom, John, Chris and I really liked The Who - as well as many other things. But I think who was not so main stream - I guess you had to somehow identify with the character of the music.

Perhaps the most widely listened album was Pink Floyd's The Wall with songs like Hey You, Mother, etc. which as Chris Hood said, was "the soundtrack of our senior year."

Also The Who's Who's Next was one of our favorites and must have played it a million times. Baba'O'Riley was a theme song.
Also The Beatles' Abby Road -- what a masterpiece.

Chris White "Kiki" who's been missing in action, gifted me James Taylor's Gorilla album which he loved.

The Cars also stand out for me since they had several energetic big hits that we often listened too - sweet new-wave sound and great arrangement (despite lack of melodic strength) that well-portrayed the positive energetic group of teenagers who were set to conquer the world 🙂 . I recall a scene playing pool in someone's flat or frat in College Town (maybe "Jay Bird" Wilcox's place) with Cars' tracks blasting: Best Friend's Girlfriend, Let The Good Times Roll etc.

Zeppelin's masterpiece "In Through the Out Door" (In The Evening; Fool In The Rain; All My Love; South Bound Saurez; etc.), was well loved and again reflected that power of the youth artistically and beautifully expressed.

Various instances of memories: In a party Freebird and then Aqualung blasting, chatting with Chrystal Makie (I visited her and her husband in California some years ago, and recently received an email from them which looked like their account was compromised and I alerted them). Classmate Christa Grout was our neighbor (I've lost touch with - last I heard from her she was in Florida). I used to jam with her singing Rickie Lee Jones' Danny's All Star Joint - and Company. I recall Liisa Ambegaokar singing in the glass corridor overlooking the quad. Sound of Toto's super hit Hold The Line playing by A&P supermarket where I worked briefly as a cashier -- waiting for the bus outside with Tom Gibson and Mary Jane Graham, who was at IHS from out of state with cute curly hair. I played A Day In The Life at the quad sitting around with friends - the complements was helpful. There were various jam sessions and parties which I don't have a clear memory of the composition of the musicians. And one fond memory of Ted Rogers walking around playing sax solo which ruled the night with sheer beauty.

I recall Phil used to play along with the radio, at the lower level of his parents' house on Sunset drive immersed in the moist forest. He could play any song that came on the radio! His parents were very supportive of his music. His father, the sweetest gentleman, was a Cornell professor and colleague of Ralph Nader, and his lovely mom, was very energetic, and loved to talk 🙂❤️. [Phil: "It's a lot truer now after a lot more years of playing... Didn't trust my ears enough and looked for the answers from the outside too much..."]

Unfortunately my diaries from that era were destroyed by a relative, otherwise I had a detail diary of everything (have always been an avid writer). Here's the story of the "lost treasures": https://www.rezamusic.com/writings/essays-and-short-pieces/Tale-of-Betrayal-of-Trust

One music scene is Blake Smith singing full power "Oh Darling" the night we arrived to Waterville Valley ski trip - at the resort's cafeteria or sitting area. Also I recall Another One Bites The Dust playing on loudspeakers. That was a memorable night emotionally for a youngster in love with a lovely female classmate who was with us -- a perfect depiction of The Beatles "The Night Before".

Grateful Dead was big and had some ultra fans (fanatics) who only listened to Dead weeks prior to their concert. Our history teacher Mr. Pickens (who passed away - I visited his wife a few years ago) used to say "I don't know what's so grateful about being dead" - while I appreciated some aspects of the Dead, and Jerry Garcia's unquestionable guitar and songwriting talent and great voice.

We went to various concerts including The Who, The Kinks, and Police in a small hall at the onset of their global fame, and Kinks concert was memorable. And also Ithaca offered excellent bands. One scene, Tom Gibson and I walked into Dugout and a band was blasting "Substitute".

For a while Thursday nights, The place to go was the Haunt in downtown Ithaca where the amazing band Bahama Mamma played Reggae/SKA music including horns. It was my first exposure to Reggae - and the dancing was jumping up and down the entire night. I think kids these days don't have the energy for that - they're too affected by pulsed microwave radiation from cell phones, cell towers, wifi routers, etc.

After graduation, with John, Tom and a few others we took John's Magic Bus (Volkswagen) to NYC to see Genesis at the Madison Square Garden on 29 June. The next day they dropped me off at the airport, and off to California I went.

Ithaca has always had a buzzing music scene, and is a hub of great musicians today.

~~~

FEEDBACK

John wrote: "Reza - What you’ve written is true, lovely and not overdone. It evokes great memories for me. Chris is right about the Wall, we listened to it when we were getting in trouble in Lake Placid... What about Bahama Mama at the Haunt? Great Reggae music and dancing. Terri and I had some great times there, it was a go to thing when they were playing."

Of course. Thursday nights at the Haunt. Bahama Mama ruled!

Chris: "Don’t forget The Wall. It was the soundtrack of our senior year."

Indeed - how could I forget! Added to the article.

Tim: "Good memories Reza. Thanks for sharing."

Debbie: Great article on the diversity of music, the fond memories and as always your time to write about your fond memories at IHS and friends. Thanks for that! I really enjoyed reading it!

Tim: "Reza, besides playing with you and Phil, I was in a band called Kold Steel with Steve Hubble, Tony Matosich, and Frankie Ferrara, where we played big gigs at the Reconstruction home. Then playing jams at Elliot Lopez's house where the next band Streamline was conceived with Doug Wyatt, Ted Rogers, Mike Waldrop, and Chaz Hamilton, later adding Cling Swank. We played at the old Haunt, the Rongo, Night Court, and even tucked into the Dugout for Dimies Night. I played bass duos with Joie Sams, and then was invited by Gary Gibbons of Crossroads fame to play with a band in Binghamton called Taku. Then, end of senior year formed a band with Jamo, David Torn, Neal Mazza, Crit Harmon and JD Mills called Buddy Ruff, later Larry Post replaced David and had different drummers like the great Charlie Shew, Danny Diaz, and Ron Hurd. We practiced in my living room and my dad had to shoo away the cops when there was a noise complaint. And one more band during that time called Insta-Band (just add beer), with Annie Burns, Neal Mazza, Al Harland, and Clint Swank. I was so lucky to have known and played with all those great players, and many more in the IHS Bands and Orchestras." Tim Reppert, Audio Mixer, www.treppert.com

Phil: "Great History Reza. Clarified a lot of things that were fuzzy. Lucky you came to us!!! Hope peace will come for all yours in the old country! Music really enriched and tied us together. Such a gift! The GLUE. We'll see if the glue still works in July... So sorry you lost your journals, what a drag! Love Ya, Phil"

Tim Reppert

Top contributor

"Thanks Reza. I didn't mean to toot my own horn, I just wanted to thank all the great artists that I was lucky enough to perform with. Ithaca was, and it seems always will be, a place willed with great music."

Réza Ganjavi

Author

Top contributor

"Thanks Tim. It was so good that you wrote this. Tom Gibson said he remembers those bands. Then again, we joke that he has the memory of an elephant 😂. Humility is one of your many positive traits so it's no tooting. Unfortunately, in today's world, humility is losing its importance as a value and virtue, thanks to the Trumpian fast track moral decadence."

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