In the early 80's, Frederick came to our house for a party. As everyone was gathered around the table socializing, someone starting passing a guitar around. It led to some wonderful impromptu performances. Someone's boombox was nearby, so I popped in a cassette and started recording.
Here's Frederick playing his original composition entitled "Edna Rain."
Here's Frederick playing "Black Magic" which was written in 1942 by Harold Arlen, with the lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
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Edna Rain
Black Magic
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Thank you so very much for putting up the sound clips. Made me cry a little I so remember those parties. I think I was there at that night. Mary
ReplyDeleteAlso thank you for taking the time to post.
ReplyDeleteHello Mary,
DeleteI was a Belgian friend of Frederick. Actually seeking for as much information as possible on him. To help making a biography.
Thank you very much for posting the recordings. I knew Frederick in the 70's and thought him one of the most creative people I had ever known. I still feel that way. At the time, his art was more abstract and he was creating wearable art. He was always composing and we played and sang together, improvising. I have two pieces of art, one where he had had a dream of all his friends and painted them from memory. He was a fantastic loving human being.
ReplyDeleteIn the year 1995, I was volunteering at the YMCA as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Also at the same YMCA, there were rooms available for homeless people. There was an African-American man who said he was a painter named "Frederick Holley" staying there, and somehow, I got to know him. At first I was rather suspicious of his wild claims that he had owned a lion and several sportscars. But the part about him being a painter was certainly true, because he invited me up to his room where I could see that he had some paintings in progress.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, Frederick said that he had landed in Halifax because he had developed a severe case of food poisoning while travelling on an international flight. He struck me as the obsessive type. He used to walk around with a Sony Walkman recording the sounds of what was happening to him every day. He had a gym bag full of cassettes with recordings of many of his own experiences over the years. There were so many cassettes that he had to throw away the cassette boxes in order to reduce the weight. He played some of them: recordings of parties with him playing Brazilian guitar, or of him test-driving a sportscar in Europe. Later, he produced a photo of himself with a lion in his arms, walking down a street in some European city!
He was working on a series of paintings at the time called "The Seven Sisters".
One of his obsessions at that time was the ongoing O.J. Simpson trial. Another was a place in Nova Scotia that he had been told of, called Wolfville. At the time, I lived near Wolfville and often hung out there. So he convinced me to take him up there for a day. I warned him that since it was April and nothing green had begun to sprout yet that the whole place would be cold and colorless. Nevertheless, I took him up there. It was a very uneventful trip, but Frederick was happy that he could now say that he had been to Wolfville.
I believe that a few days later he was able to catch a flight out of Halifax, and I never saw or heard from him again.
Frederick was indeed true to his art. Never would do anything...anything else to support himself. Would not even mow the grass at Gallery 340 when he stayed there. Would prefer painting on paper and cardboard as to a nice stretched canvas. I have over 20 pieces he completed @ 2001 to 03. He must have continued his Seven Sisters Series for a long time span. I put together a show for him with that title at the Mitchell Place Gallery in MUNCIE, Indiana around 2002 or 3
ReplyDeleteHello Unknown,
DeleteI was a friend of Frederick. I knew him when he stayed and worked in Belgium. Have about some 130 of his works. Actually looking for some data for his biography. Can You help ?
Peter De Bruyn - Belgium
When I was young in the late 70’s we lived in Edna down the road to Frederick. My mom was a muse. One day while Frederick was painting my mom, my brother was found hiding in the closet watching them.
ReplyDelete