Peter Eggers

fred headlined at The Bitter End for an entire summer, played at Maxs Kansas City, The Bottom Line, My Fathers Place, Kennys Castaways, Dr. Generositys, and opened for The Guess Who in front of 50,000 people at an outdoor rock festival in Buffalo. The live shows at The Bitter End were mixed and recorded by freds sound technician, Roger Brown, and were finally released 30 years later on CD. Rehearsed with the legendary jazz tenor saxophonist Stan Getz for an entire album of my original compositions on Columbia Records. The first time was with fred, when we met Teo Macero, who was interested in producing our collaboration with Getz. It was certainly a thrill to meet the man who produced my Top 3 Miles Davis albums: In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and Jack Johnson. The following year, Getz wanted to try again, this time without fred, but intending to feature David Rose (from fred) on electric violin, along with some top NYC jazz/fusion musicians. Neither album ever materialized for various business reasons, but playing with someone of Getzs melodic improvisatory genius was an amazing musical experience. Played at Merce Cunninghams studio in Greenwich Village at Westbeth Artists Housing, accompanying dancers from The Max Company (their rehearsal space was above the punk-era version of Maxs Kansas City.) Composed the piece Ulterior Motives for the event. Performance by myself on acoustic piano, David Rose on electric violin, and prepared tape multi-tracked with bass violin plus echo effects. Played acoustic piano for singer/songwriter duo Margaret Dorn/Linda Lawley in their NYC group Lady. They were both backup singers for Petula Clark at the time. One night while playing at The Other End on Bleecker Street, Joni Mitchell came to hear the group and sat in the front row. Intimidating, to say the least. Composed/arranged/performed a 2-hour concert of original classical/latin/jazz called Contradictions with a 9-piece ensemble in a downtown Soho loft. Instrumentation was flute, clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, violin, cello, acoustic piano, electric & acoustic guitars, electric bass, and two percussionists. Tom Johnson, minimalist composer and New Music critic for The Village Voice, attended the concert. He wrote a review for The Voice and included that review in his book The Voice of New Music: The classical element is provided by...the arrangements, which involve little improvisation, some intricate harmonies and rhythms, many textural inventions, and some subtle doublings. The second ingredient comes mostly from the two percussionists, who concentrate on Latin instruments and Latin rhythms. The jazz can often be heard...in the piano work of Peter Eggers, and in the chord changesthe group was so tight, and its conviction so clear, that I found most of the evening irresistible, even in some of its most shamelessly romantic moments. And perhaps particularly at those times. - Tom Johnson in The Village Voice Played drums in downtown NYC art star Richard Princes post-punk band Boystown with Jeffrey Glenn on bass. Jeffrey went on to record epic guitar symphonies with experimental/minimalist/noise rock composer Glenn Branca. Richard Prince went on to form the no-wave band Menthol Wars with fellow Pictures Generation artist Robert Longo.