Waqidi Falicoff

Waqidi Falicoff is an American who had a short career as a composer, folksinger and guitarist. He was the co-composer of the incidental music for the Broadway show Paul Sills' Story Theatre.

Music and entertainment career

In 1962 Falicoff attended SUNY at Stony Brook University where he met a fellow student, Jay Rosenberg. The two published nine songs with Pera Music (now Peermusic) in 1964.^[1] At 18 Falicoff (under the name Ken Faliks) composed and played the music for one of the first short films made by the famous filmmaker Ed Emshwiller, George Dumpson’s Place.^[2]

Shortly after going back to Stony Brook University in 1965, Falicoff hooked up with a fellow student, Bill Laletin, to form a duo, at times called "Bill & Willie" (by the music reviewer for the university paper, The Statesman, Jim Frankel)^[3] and finally Abelard & Dr. Jones^[4]

In 1969 Falicoff became the lead guitarist for Hamilton Camp. As a duo, Hamilton and Waqidi did a TV program (The Murray Roman Special^[5]) which included such diverse acts as Nancy Sinatra, Frank Zappa, Linda Ronstadt and Donovan. Shortly thereafter Hamilton Camp and Falicoff formed a group called "The True Brethren" with the addition of Raphael Grinage (cello and dilruba) and Loren Pickford (flute and saxophone). The four composed the incidental music for the Broadway Show Paul Sills' Story Theatre, which was nominated for best show of the year in 1971 and won 2 Tony awards in other categories.^[6][7] The original showing of Paul Sill's Story Theatre was at the Mark Taper Forum in 1970 where Falicoff sang and played guitar in the show.

The group performed mostly in the Southern California region, including venues such at The Golden Bear (nightclub) (a lesser known at the time Jackson Browne opened).^[8] The group also played at the The Troubadour (Los Angeles) (billed as Hamilton Camp) in March 1970. Opening for the group was Dillard & Clark (respectively ex members of The Dillards and The Byrds.^[9]

Falicoff left the group before it went to Broadway (guitarist and vocalist Lewis Ross took his place) to travel with his then wife ("Snow" of the 60s folk duo Blackburn & Snow). The two eventually settled in London.

In 1973 he met Top Topham at a mutual friend's house in London, and with other singers and musicians in city, played at a variety of venues. In 1975 Waqidi signed a songwriting and recording contract with EMI Music (EMI Robbins Group). He, together with Hamilton Bailie and Helen Tarantino, formed the group, Patchwork Triangle. The EMI-signed group recorded a number of demo songs which were not released until 2012. The recording sessions in the studio included several other singers and musician including: Top Topham (guitar), vocals "Snow" (no longer married to Falicoff) and Laura Bailie, on violin, Maurice Isaacs, on piano (on the song, "Hey World"), Ellis Rich, OBE (then with EMI) and the founder of the Independent Music Group.^[10]

In 1975 Falicoff retired from the music business to enter other fields.

In 2012 Falicoff decided to re-publish the earlier songs he composed and release the related recordings. He also released for the first time a compilation of four songs written by Hamilton Camp and recorded live by the True Brethren.

Personal life

He married Lesley Grace Powell in 1975, and they have one child, Melanie. Waqidi met Lesley at EMI Music Publishing, where she was the secretary to the then President, Terry Slater.

References