PROFILE: Sal Cataldi
iToo many members of my inner circle have developed incredibly inventive excuses for vegging out during these Days of Covid. If they spent as much time pursuing their passion as Real New Yorker Sal Cataldi, they’d be far better off.
Cataldi is a master musician and writer. Currently, he is creating on multiple fronts. His music ventures include Spaghetti Eastern Music and the Vapor Vespers. He recently scored a performance piece. He writes reviews of music and pop-culture books. He’s a beloved father to his adult kids. He’s a supportive and trusted friend. And he’s an indelible part of the cultural scenes of New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley.
Sal’s love of music goes back to his days as a kid in Queens, New York. There, he feasted with friends such as Mark Muro on a steady diet of Mad Magazine, Sun Ra, Henry Miller, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and the original spoken word recordings of the 50s and 60s from Caedmon Records. Today, his compositions and musicianship are hailed by underground and mainstream media alike.
Guitarist/keyboardist Cataldi’s solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, fuses Eastern beats, Spaghetti Western film soundtrack ambience, Krautrock spaciness and psychedelic and funkadelic instrumentals with gentle acoustic tunes straight out of the John Martyn/Nick Drake songbook. Time Out New York writes: “Cataldi’s largely instrumental, Eastern-influenced jams are infused with some delicate guitar work and hauntingly moody atmosphere,” while The New York Times proclaims he has “a beat unmistakably his own.” Called “truly excellent” by The Village Voice, “beautiful and unique” by WFUV’s Mixed Bag, “wonderfully melodic and off-center” by WFMU and “part Sergio Leone fever dream, part Ravi Shankar raga, a whirling dervish of musical creation” by Hudson Valley One, Cataldi keeps up a steady schedule of performances at leading venues in the Big Apple and the Hudson Valley.
But here’s the thing: he does not procrastinate. As my dad would pointedly remind me, with his finger poking my chest back when I was a kid, “there’ll be plenty a’ time for sleepin’ when you’re dead.”
Do yourself a favor: listen to Cataldi’s trio of critically-acclaimed atmospheric singles that have been heard around the globe, “Her Lemon Peel Raincoat – Because It’s Raining,” “Peace Within” and “And This is Their New Hoax.” The latter is a perfect COVID-19 musical editorial featuring samples of the former president’s most noted pandemic denials, set to Cataldi’s soundpainting guitars and synths. This is some powerful stuff.
His recent release, this year’s “Blues for A Lost Cosmonaut,” is a nine-minute plus maxi single, again in the ambient mode.
And what of the Vapor Vespers? Here is Cataldi’s globally hailed venture with another Real New Yorker, his Bronx-born childhood buddy Muro. It’s most definitely an edge- and button-pushing transcontinental collaboration. Muro, a playwright, actor and slam poet, now resides in Alaska. Just weeks ago, on a rare east coast jaunt, Muro and Cataldi staged their first-ever ever public performances in New York City and Kingston, NY.
Drawing inspiration from music-powered spoken word icons like John Cooper Clarke, The Last Poets and Lord Buckley, Vapor Vespers unwrapped their saucy One Act Sonix, their critically buzzed debut album on Bad Egg Records and two singles, “Sex” and “You Changed.” Vapor Vespers music can be found on Spotify and Bandcamp at http://vaporvespers.bandcamp.com including new studio tracks and pieces recorded live upstate at Green Kill. The singles are slated to drop in December, and the album in early 2022.
Notices for the Vapor Vespers debut album demonstrate how critics, radio djs and general music-lovers now venture beyond the vanilla mainstream to embrace this godly fusion of furious sound, words and humor. Underground radio institution WFMU called the Vapor Vespers “a supremely cool fusion of spoken word and progressive sound,” while NYSMusic.com praised its “blend of spacey synths, spicy guitar, ethereal drones and deep lyrics that redefine what music can be.” Astute listeners can revel in the mix of outrageous lyrics and storytelling with expert musicianship that recalls everyone from Steely Dan to Was (Not Was) to Frank Zappa.
But wait. There’s more: Cataldi’s Guitars A Go Go, his ambient/experimental duo guitar project with Rick Warren from Hudson. Says Cataldi: “We’ve been performing and recording for over two years, released our debut album Travel Advisory during Covid in June 2020. We have played at art galleries and clubs in the area, with our ongoing monthly residency of live and livestreams from Green Kill gallery in Kingston.” Cataldi’s armed with a palette of effects pedals in his quest for meditative and melodic adventure. You’ll find a galaxy of musical influences and attitudes that evoke Fripp and Eno and Tangerine Dream.
That’s it? Nah! Cataldi is reviewing a book on uber-guitarist Marc Ribot and another with the owner of Big Pink, the storied Ulster County, New York home to The Band. And then there’s his recent take on Frank Mastropolo’s fine book on the Fillmore East. I can recall those halcyon days (well, mostly early mornings) of Fillmore East music, Gem Spa egg creams, beef barley soup and dense black bread next door, after a night of magic from Janis, Carlos, Jimi, Dwayne and Gregg, Elton, and so many more.
Recently, Cataldi’s Spaghetti Eastern Music released a new EP containing the solo electric guitar score for “2 x 2 x 4.” The EP was recorded during a live performance of this piece last summer by performance artist Charles Dennis at the Avant-Garde Arama Festival in Woodstock, N.Y. The three-track, 20-minute collection is available as a digital download exclusively on Spaghetti Eastern Music’s Bandcamp site (Bad Egg Records 3100).
Premiering in 1989 to raves in media like The Village Voice, Charles Dennis’ “2 x 2 x 4” is an offbeat dance duet performed with fourteen wooden 2 x 4s, one whose mood is now heightened by Cataldi’s atmospheric, looped and layered guitar extrapolations captured on this live EP. Praise for his guitar innovations included coverage in The New York Times and Jazz Times.
Cataldi’s three movement score was informed by his love of the pioneering ambient stylings of guitarist Robert Fripp and experience performing with avant-garde guitar orchestra composer Rhys Chatham. Cataldi utilized multiple loop pedals, delays, fuzz tone, a string simulator, harmonizer, arpeggiator, an Ebow note sustainer and other effects to create the 20-minute score.
The music moves from gentle chording and symphonic loops to a rhythmic pulse with dueling, echoed melodic fragments to a minimalist four-chord organ pattern underpinning frenetic soloing and wailing wall of infinite sustained, harmonized note clusters at the culmination.
In-between practice, scoring, and gigging, Cataldi took a breather to reflect on this ethereal piece.
“The collaboration with Charles was a pure joy,” says Cataldi. “It was a chance to extend on what I have been working on with my recent Spaghetti Eastern Music releases – to be ambient and minimalist and wildly maximalist, at the same time. It was also a way to challenge myself to create a multi-layered soundpainting completely solo, in a live setting, without a net, re-dos, etc.”
Working without a net. Non-stop. In this Time of Covid. Imagine that.
So listen, people. Get your booster shots, stay safe, but cut the crap about “I have no time or energy for any projects.”
Like my grumpy dad said, there’ll be plenty a’ time for sleepin’ when your dead. So keep pushing. Keep plugging. Keep the ball rolling.
Tick-tock. We’re not here forever. No excuses.