Mysterious artists who made a handful of impressive recordings, then completely disappeared from the radar

Space Opera

Willis Alan Ramsey

trying to remember the name of this other drummer who was doing tony williams-ish stuff at the same time or before, never became well-known. so mysterious i don't even know who he is.

Willis Alan Ramsey remained semi-active, just never bothered to make a second record.

like Lee Mavers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB7cztiRTdw

where did the Belgian singer Carol disappear to? she and Snowy Red should've/could've recorded a brilliant Young Marble Giants-esque album together in the early '80s, judging by the quality of their one-off single. her singing on the Rive Gauche single is great too, but I want more.

The Legendary Hassan - only appears on one recording (w/ Max Roach) and it seems like no one knows who the fuck he is.

great call on Carol!

wonder what happened to "Dorothy" from the self-titled Industrial Records single, "I Confess" is one of Alex Ferguson's hidden gems.

I guess Dorothy was the drummer from Rema Rema and Psychic TV (but she only ever sang on that one single)?

nikki mcclure. still active as an illustrator but as far as i know she quit music completely after a couple fine singles on k.

mark aaron. dude who played the killer guitar leads on cale's sabotage live. gone for good after that sole record i think.

Don, obviously.

although, more than a handfull obv.

van Vliet? stayed completely radar-accessible, just not making music

John Davis, formerly of Folk Implosion

John's doing fine. I'm not sure if he makes music any more; I rated his solo records very high and would love to hear more. But he may have just sort of stopped making music.

Well, you'd need an actual radar to locate him, I guess. (xposT)

super-lol at first google result for van vliet painting

I got a shot of a corridor of a gallery with a DVV painting.

google, not gis

I mentioned John Davis as he very abruptly upped and left the music business on the day his last album was released and has never been heard of publicly since.

Henry Grimes... then he came back

This record is pretty dope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WzaUnO1S4E&feature=related

I mentioned John Davis as he very abruptly upped and left the music business on the day his last album was released and has never been heard of publicly since

well, he did do this, also, after Blue Mountains.

http://www.discogs.com/John-Davis-2-Dennis-Callaci-Room-For-Space-EP/release/430932

super-lol at first google result for van vliet painting

― ٩(̾●̮̮̃̾•̃̾)۶ (sic), Wednesday, 9 November 2011 11:58 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I get a link to the "Radar Station" pages of his paintings...

Ah, this time I get a link to "AllPosters" who are selling a poster of one of his, for £39.

I mentioned John Davis as he very abruptly upped and left the music business on the day his last album was released and has never been heard of publicly since

well, he did do this, also, after Blue Mountains.

http://www.discogs.com/John-Davis-2-Dennis-Callaci-Room-For-Space-EP/release/430932

That's from 1996 though - he had quite a few solo releases before exiting from music, apparently on One Part Lullabye's release date.

Maybe Cornelius? What the hell has he been doing lately?

Henry Grimes... then he came back

True, but he was on more than a handful of records (around 15-20, maybe more) before he left the scene.

LOL @ someone named "The Legendary Hassan" being known (???) for being on a single recording and never heard from again.

Is DJ Yella still active?

The way jazz dudes work, 15-20 is a handful, isn't it?

Also...Shuggie Otis

Normally, yes, but this is 15-20 records in only 10 years.

LOL @ someone named "The Legendary Hassan" being known (???) for being on a single recording and never heard from again.

The Amazing Randy to thread.

Erik Voeks - one great power pop lp - sandbox - in 1993. a single or two thereafter. then ran a record store in the midwest. has been playing live as of recent but still no recorded ouput since!

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/42/64/4264054051-1.jpg
Connie Converse disappeared in 1974, leaving behind a haunting body of recorded music that would remain virtually unheard for the next 35 years... Written through the 1950's, Connie's cache of original material instantly reveals itself to be uniquely inspired and years ahead of its time.

ilher so much

whatever happened to bill withers? i think i heard he became a carpenter, maybe?

I dunno if having a major documentary made about you in the last few years counts as "completely disappeared"

but yes he ran a construction company for awhile

Had not heard of Connie Converse until this moment, and this is fantastic -- thanks!

I get a link to the "Radar Station" pages of his paintings...

PROVING INCONTROVERTIBLY that he stayed ACCESSIBLE BY RADAR when he moved into painting do you see

Is DJ Yella still active?

famously became a porn director after NWA, the adjective excluding him from this no matter what he's doing now

(also how many NWA records is he actually on?)

(I think he was on some of Eazy's solo stuff too though btw etc)

Kid 'N Play

If by "completely disappeared" you mean "released more records, had FOUR feature films, a Saturday morning cartoon, a Marvel comic, and still do the occasional reunion show or TV nostalgia appearance," then absolutely! but I'm not sure everyone else is quite operating under those criteria

tugboat

Q Lazzarus

david baker

for almost forty years max ochs entire recorded output consisted of two tracks on a compilation record. they are pretty fn good though.

there are probably a bunch of these on the Nurse With Wound list, like the amazing Sand.

Jim Sullivan

(also how many NWA records is he actually on?)

good enough for me:

Jerry Heller witnessed Dre and Yella's work together and wrote in 2006 of an almost eerie understanding between the pair, as they crafted high quality beats and productions with almost no words or full sentences needing to be spoken.[citation needed]

Pianist Lowell Davidson. Made one (insanely brilliant and flawless) record in 1965 for ESP-Disk with Gary Peacock and Milford Graves, never made any other recordings, not even as a sideman. Died in the late 80s. Graves has said that the record only hints at what Davidson was capable of live, and that Richard Davis, replacing Peacock for live dates, was an unbelievably perfect foil for Davidson.

Maybe Cornelius? What the hell has he been doing lately?

Saw him last year playing in Yoko Ono's band

marissa marchant

lock thread

bizzy bone went from upstaging 2Pac and Biggie on 2 songs in the same year to dropping off the map into a weird alcoholic mediocrity (granted he had a lot of work before these songs but they sort of signalled the end)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSHTFiiYLHA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfxvgi0i1nc

John Wilson, the guitarist and bass player on early Heaven 17/BEF records, in particular the Pavement side of Penthouse and Pavement.

john jacob jinglesmith
This is the thread where you sign up for your Official ILX Jingle.

Bizzy Bone has released something like 20 solo albums (the latest in 2012), plus obviously he was on the best-known Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony albums, so I wouldn't really say he was a mysterious artist or that disappeared after a handful of recordings.

A long time ago, I found a cut-out of No Dirty Names, Dave Van Ronk's '66 LP. It was mostly good-to-great, pulling in a cohesive variety of songs from several sources, incl. DVR himself. But the one that got most deeply under my skin and never left, was and is "Mean World Blues," with a note floating by: "Well I'm goin', goin' away baby, and don't you look for me. I'll be hidin', hidin' in the deep blue sea." Credited to one Neila Horn, whom Van Ronk mentioned briefly, respectfully, on the battered back cover---was she dead? I started to remember people who sang one seemingly awesome song in a crowded, old smokey apartment, and were never seen or heard of again, at least by me.
Many years later, Numero put out Songs of Leaving from an ancient acetate of songs by Niela Miller. She was bummed by the music biz before ever becoming truly professional: for inst., one of the songs on the former acetate was the or a very probable source of "Hey Joe," copyrighted by her ex, Billy Roberts, so that's the or a major reason she split. You can read all about both of 'em on the WWW, of course, but man, that song.

I should have said that her song was *a* probable source, since he did change some of it, and as was pointed out to her online, "You can't copyright a chord progression." (Or a Q & A format re the lyrical pattern.) Anyway, nobody ever lifted nothin' from "Mean World Blues," far as I know: it's too all-to-itself for that, passing though.

How about Ronnie Singer- legendary jazz guitarist who committed suicide along with his wife at the age of 25 in 1953, leaving behind no official recordings, but only one heavily bootlegged live excerpt?

http://ronniesinger.blogspot.com/

Bizzy Bone has released something like 20 solo albums (the latest in 2012), plus obviously he was on the best-known Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony albums, so I wouldn't really say he was a mysterious artist or that disappeared after a handful of recordings.

Of course, like I said, but he dropped off pretty hard, pretty quick granted the substances etc caught up though. All those solos after The Gift are all just cheap throwaways essentially, by a rapper sounding nothing like who he was in the 90s.

"got shitty" is kind of fundamentally different from "completely disappeared from the radar"

Robert Plant in the 80s thread got me wondering about what happened to guitarist Robbie Blunt. Aside from a tiny number of YouTubes he's dropped out of sight.

I am the recording artist John Scoggins from the album Pressed For Time> I did not disappear plus you gossiping old ladies don't seem to know where to search for the actual John Scoggins, jes. you go on google and there's like hundreds of john scoggins's that are NOT ME. Go to UTUBE, and ITUNES, You'l find the Actual artist John Scoggins is alive and well and still making and releasing Music. There,s currently an original album vinyl on EBAY right now JAN> 2016 BUT probably not for long, music on Warner music on ITUNES, Amazon and every other digital site AND NEW Music on UTUBE> god search for a musician on music sites Google will just give you all sorts of people with the same name that ain't me.

lol

I am the recording artist John Scoggins from the album Pressed For Time> I did not disappear plus you gossiping old ladies don't seem to know where to search for the actual John Scoggins, jes. you go on google and there's like hundreds of john scoggins's that are NOT ME. Go to UTUBE, and ITUNES, You'l find the Actual artist John Scoggins is alive and well and still making and releasing Music. There,s currently an original album vinyl on EBAY right now JAN> 2016 BUT probably not for long, music on Warner music on ITUNES, Amazon and every other digital site AND NEW Music on UTUBE> god search for a musician on music sites Google will just give you all sorts of people with the same name that ain't me.

― John Scoggins, Monday, January 18, 2016 4:58 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whoa

welcome back!

checkin out scogg on UTUBE, sounds good!

you gossiping old ladies

lol, fair assessment

so do you, like, hoard sealed copies of Pressed for Time and put one up on ebay about every 6 months and then just sit back and watch the bids roll in? that's what I'd do if I were rare private press psych folk powerpop recording artist John Scoggins.

I, too, listened to one of your songs on UTUBE, and it sounds great! any chance of a reissue?

"i did not disappear you gossiping old ladies" would be a good board description

one-time King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir probably belongs here

George Murray, Bowie's brilliant bassist in the last half of the 70s. Last seen on a Jerry Harrison solo album and then apparently got out of the music business entirely.

i wish someone would reissue those Shelagh McDonald records mentioned above. or re-reissue them in an easy/affordable way.

yes! was just trying to track down some of her stuff recently and it seemed like even the early 00s comp was pretty pricey.

George Murray, Bowie's brilliant bassist in the last half of the 70s. Last seen on a Jerry Harrison solo album and then apparently got out of the music business entirely.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, January 18, 2016 9:45 PM (24 minutes ago)

i suppose there are a billion of those old blues guys out there, but bayless rose.