16.10.14

The CBGB Band Movement Still Lives On

By Estelle Larsen


There are many types of music out there. CBGB band was originally named for its musical styles but became more popular for the American Punk and other new wave bands. These were Misfits, the Dead Boys, The Dictators and Blondie to name just a few. It later became known as hardcore punk.

When he was born his family decided to move to New Jersey where he studied music and then attended a music school in Philadelphia. He also spent quite a bit of time in the marines. He sang with a group of men in a choir and appeared on the stage at Radio City Music Hall. He later became the manager of a jazz club in a residential neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.

He married Karen Kristal and had a girl, Lisa and a boy Mark. When he died in August 2007of lung cancer at an age of 75, his family got the impression that he was broke but when the Will was read found out that he was a millionaire. His wife even signed away her rights to Sareb Restaurant Corp when she thought her husband had no money left. The found out that he had a house in Asbury Park and he had paid about $600 000 for it.

When the Will was read out he had left nothing to his wife, not even mentioning her at all. He had left his son $100 000 in trust and his daughter was left all of the property he owned. Although they were not married when the club opened Karen had spent every day working next to him and with him. It is said that because there were so many different woman throwing themselves at him day by day that he eventually gave in.

In 1973 he decided to book a concert and booked a local band to play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was normally country and bluegrass music that was played but then changed to rock. Bluegrass music was brought to America in the 1600s by immigrants. This included ballads and dance music which originated from England, African American gospel music as well as Scotland and Ireland. The banjo instruments where brought from slaves who came from Africa.

These settlers then spread into Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky singing songs of day to day life as they saw it in the new country. These mainly were about life on the farms and were called "country music", or "mountain music". When the phonograph was invented this helped to let the rest of the United States hear this kind of music as well.

She married Fred Smith and later they had a son who was born in 1982. Patti was in semi-retirement in the 1980s but then a few years later release an album which was quite popular. A few years later her husband died of a heart attack and then her brother died as well. She moved back to New York where an old friend convinced her to go back to touring.

The band has an annual festival that is for free in Time Square and Central Park where thousands of people are able to enjoy this music. There is now a movie about the founder and how the club first came about. Unfortunately this was received with some rather cruel reviews.




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