Gayle and Lisa’s Musical Lives

My musical life with Gayle was deeply intertwined for so many years that it doesn’t seem like just one lifetime. There were so many creative chapters and so much musical exploration!

I’ll try to trace the history, although the distant dates could possibly be a little out of chronological order at times.

Gayle and I actually first met in 9^th grade in the Parma City School District and were friends through high school. Gayle was an oboist, and she told me that she’d switched from clarinet so that she wouldn’t have to play in the marching band.

I thought at the time that she was possibly the smartest person I’d ever met (not that I’d met all that many) and she was so creative! I also remember thinking that she was just too smart and too good for any of the high school boys. I was absolutely correct.

I left Cleveland when I was 18 and returned 5 years later. Gayle and I musically reunited with the formation of the Windsong Ensemble women’s chorus. Gayle was the director, I was the accompanist, and we both wrote and arranged for the group. With Gayle’s Music Education degree, she knew how to conduct a chorus. In addition to choral pieces, a subset of us performed in the Womyn’s Variety Shows as the Moral Chorale. I don’t need to say any more – just look for the photos and recordings on the website.

How wonderful, too, that after all these decades, Windsong still exists today!

https://windsongcleveland.org/

When Gayle decided she was no longer going to pursue playing oboe in the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, the ballet (too many performances of the Nutcracker!) and the opera orchestra (I believe I have this right) she decided she was going to play electric bass. What a change!

As you can hear from the recordings Laura has posted, Gayle became a VERY good bass player! She channeled all her musical training, experience, and talent into a completely different instrument and repertoire, and it seemed she did so almost effortlessly.

At first, Gayle and I played in the womyn’s coffeehouses in Cleveland and other nearby locations. (Note the “correct” spelling of womyn” for that time period – one that I always appreciated. Two of Gayle’s most popular songs – coffeehouse hits every time – were “Don’t Call Me Girl” and “Cycle Dyke.”

Gayle and I always played as a duo, but there were various other collaborations as well. We formed Sister Rhapsody with Kate Thomas (drums) and Michelle Vanderlip (backup vocals and sax). Laura is currently (as of early 2023) finding recordings of that group – recordings that I didn’t remember even existed.

We performed with Peggi Cella – a powerful, splendid singer and songwriter. We also performed with Leslie Fortlage and Maureen…alas, I don’t remember her last name – who introduced us to Brazilian jazz. Of course, anything we learned about was promptly incorporated into our writing and performing.

Gayle and I studied jazz theory and improvisation together with a very helpful teacher (I believe his name was Ron Smith – a vibraphonist) and learned lots of jazz standards, additional harmonic ideas, and guidance in improvising. I think Gayle only had to hear something once before she could begin to incorporate those musical ideas and techniques into her playing.

I wasn’t always completely aware of how sophisticated and interesting Gayle’s bass lines were becoming, as I was quite busy managing multiple keyboards and singing. When I listen now to the recordings Laura has found, I am SO impressed. I could easily say in every single paragraph I write, “Gayle was SO good!”

I don’t remember exactly how we connected with Swamp (singer Marcia Sindelar, who is still belting out the blues with the Swamp Boogie Band even now in 2023) and Flash (drummer Karen Fort). The 40s-era band we formed was called “Flashback,” – a name I promptly thought of when one of us said something about needing to call Flash back, perhaps about rehearsals.

Flashback was all about music from the 30s and 40s – especially 3-part vocals like the Andrews Sisters and even their predecessors, the Boswell Sisters. Swamp carried the melody line, and I wrote the additional vocal arrangements for Gayle and me. We played in clubs all over the greater Cleveland area. What an education in a very different musical environment!

After the Flashback days, Gayle and I continued to play in clubs and lounges as a duo. We played the necessary top-40 tunes (with our essential drum machine) and slipped in jazz standards and original tunes whenever it was musically appropriate to do so. Some of our gigs were 5 and even 6 nights a week. This had to have been so very hard on Gayle, as she was still working at Social Security.

Our most enjoyable venue was the Holiday Inn Lounge next the Cleveland State University. At times, there were very few people present and we could play whatever we wanted. But other times – probably on weekends – lots of women from the womyn’s community would fill the lounge and we’d play for all of them!

I don’t remember how we met saxophonist Laura Rickard, but I’m so glad we did. Because of Laura’s years of studying saxophone, Gayle and I were able to collaborate on a higher musical level with her. Laura even performed a two-movement alto saxophone work I wrote for her on my undergraduate composition recital at Cleveland State University in 1991.

This brings me to the point that my musical path and Gayle’s began to diverge. I had not known that a blue-collar former factory worker and janitor like me could go to Cleveland State University and earn an undergraduate degree in music composition until the late 1980s. After doing so, I continued on for my master’s degree as well and began to do classroom ear training teaching as a graduate assistant.

My teaching led me to adjunct teaching positions first at Cleveland State, then Baldwin-Wallace University. Seeing all too well that I couldn’t even begin to hope for a full-time position, I realized I would have to continue on for a doctorate (the degree is a DMA – Doctor of Music Arts). I applied to and was accepted at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and was hired as a music theory instructor after completing that degree. I’ve been teaching at CIM for the past 22 years and will “retire” (so to speak) in May, 2023.

https://www.cim.edu/faculty/lisa-rainsong

My musical life in recent decades has taken me into a wide range of musical styles and time periods as well as many professional choral ensembles. However, none of these subsequent experiences in any way minimize the incredible amount of music Gayle and I learned, created, and performed. Even as a music theory professor at a well-known conservatory, I’m still deeply impressed when I look back over everything we did and how brave we were about doing it.

Listening to the recordings on the website vividly reminded me of just how talented we – and especially Gayle – were and how very creative as well. I am deeply thankful that Laura has made so many recordings available to listen to again.

Gayle’s multifaceted musical talents and creativity are just part of the overall picture this website creates of Gayle’s irrepressible creative energy. I’m glad to have the chance to tell you a little more about this chapter – or maybe it’s an entire volume – of her extensive and wonderful musical life.

From Lisa Rainsong