Alter-ego of artist Michael Tolson (aka Tim Ore, aka BalTimOre) whose avant-garde and abstract ensembles in the ‘80s and ‘90s included Ron Cummings, Mark Harp (snare drum), Leroy Keltner (trombone), and Craig Considine (trombone).
Tolson began studying piano as early as the late ‘50s, and as a teenager he admired many of the groups that performed at the Bluesette. Around 1971 he began performing solo coffee house gigs in Brooklyn as a vocalist with 12-string acoustic guitar, and upright piano. During the ‘70s he formed and led various musical assemblages such as Laquerland, Crab Feast, and the nameless wandering wind ensemble.
Courtesy of Michael Tolson
Beginning in the ‘80s Tolson did a stint as alto saxophonist for the Tinklers. He was the creative force behind the recording and performing concept of the group called t he booed usicians (“the space between ‘t’ and ‘he’ is deliberate”). The group existed from roughly 1984 through 1989 and featured tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE or tENT (tapes, records, vocals, etc), Herr Brain aka Brian Wolle (percussion, cornet), Mark Harp (tapes, etc), Beef Jerky aka Steve Doudikan (small instruments, guitar, etc), Norman Yeh (violin, piano, etc), Leroy Keltner (trombone), Craig Considine (trombone), Ron Cummings, Brian Feather, John Sheehan…
The group booed usic performed at the Marble Bar, and the 31st Street Festival. Antics included playing unfamiliar instruments, throwing firecrackers on stage, and Wolle recalled “he once stopped playing in the middle of a song to observe cracks in the sidewalk while the rest of the group continued on.”
While booed usic was generally an abstract musical performance, the individual members were quite accomplished. Harp was a member of many local bands including Null Set, Beatoes, Cabal… Considine was a member of OHO, Off the Wall, All Mighty Senators, while also doing studio work for artists such as the Kelly Bell Band, and Mambo Combo… Wolle was a member of Sterling, the Fort McHenry wind band, and later became a published author.
Tolson’s subsequent groups included Something That Dissolved In The Shadow Of Something That Was next To Something That Burned (1987-89 with Neil Feather, John Berndt, John Sheehan, and Karen Eliot), then he was with Peter Zahorecz & John Berndt’s Volunteers Collective (a group that existed from 1989-98+ who in its big band form released an album in 1992), and The “Official” Band that “we changed our name in accordance with a formula every time we played. For our first gig we were ‘The Official, May 1990ev, 31st St. Between Greenmount & Barclay Block Party Combo.'” The group included many musicians, but the core members were Neil Feather (guitar), and Courtney McCullough (sax). Tolson played percussion, guitar, electronics, and vocals with them.
Tolson established his WideMouth Tapes label in the ‘80s making many of his recordings available for purchase. He moved away from Baltimore in 1994 and subsequently worked with many different artists including an exotica group in Berlin with Klauhutte Bangzeit, CCMC in Toronto, Phycus (a neoist industrial group in Hungary), Michael Pestel, Daniel Higgs, and others… He returned on occasion to perform engagements at the Ottobar and other clubs with John Dierker, Scott Larson, and others.
Michael Tolson aka BalTimOre is still alive and well and residing in the Pittsburgh area.
His experimental usic collections include retro as well as contemporary tracks:
1992(12”) Wafer 8 usic – V1
1995(LP) Wafer Face usic – a plethora of no longer neglected audio
2013(CD) mm bad 001 mm 26
2015(CD) mm bad 002 1975-2015 TWELVE Selections From 40 Years
2016(CD) mm bad 003 Significantly Different from the Other One
2017(CD) mm bad 004 mm 76 Amusical Music Atheatrical Theater
