Ned Lagin (born March 17, 1948) is an American artist, photographer, scientist, composer, and keyboardist.
/ref>[Ned Lagin interview with David Gans, August 2001 in: Gans, David. Conversations with the Dead, The Grateful Dead Interview Book, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2002. pp. 343–389. ]
Lagin is considered a pioneer in the development and use of minicomputers and personal computers in real-time stage and studio music composition and performance.
He is known for his electronic music composition '' Seastones'', for performing with the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
, and for his photography and art.
Early years
Ned Lagin was born in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and raised on Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
in Roslyn Heights, New York
Roslyn Heights is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. It is considered part of the Greater Roslyn area, which is anchored by the Incorporated Vil ...
. Growing up, Lagin was influenced by classical and jazz music, and the modern music and art cultures of New York City in the 1960s. He started photography with a Kodak Baby Brownie Special at the age of five, and piano lessons and science, natural history, and electronic projects at the age of six.
He attended the Wheatley School in Old Westbury, New York
Old Westbury is a village (New York), village in the Towns of North Hempstead, New York, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay (town), New York, Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long ...
, was awarded two National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
Scholarships, and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
with the intention of becoming an astronaut. Lagin received a degree in molecular biology and humanities from MIT in 1971, where he studied with John Harbison
John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
Life
John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harb ...
, Gregory Tucker, David Epstein, Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
, Gian-Carlo Rota
Gian-Carlo Rota (April 27, 1932 – April 18, 1999) was an Italian-American mathematician and philosopher. He spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked in combinatorics, functional analysis, pro ...
, Salvador Luria
Salvador Edward Luria (August 13, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an Italian microbiologist, later a Naturalized citizen of the United States#Naturalization, naturalized U.S. citizen. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969, with ...
, and Jerome Lettvin
Jerome Ysroael Lettvin (February 23, 1920 – April 23, 2011), often known as Jerry Lettvin, was an American cognitive scientist, and Professor of Electrical and Bioengineering and Communications Physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Tec ...
. Chomsky's generative grammar concepts inspired Lagin's thinking about creating generative music forms (1968), and Lettvin connected him to the writings of Norbert Wiener
Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...
and Warren McCulloch
Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician, known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.Ken Aizawa ( ...
, and more generally to cybernetics
Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...
.
While at MIT, Lagin also completed jazz coursework at the Berklee School of Music
Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...
. He was deeply influenced by the jazz world in New York City, particularly pianist Bill Evans
William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block ch ...
, whom he met in Boston and saw perform many times in New York and Boston in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During this period, Evans wrote out some of his tunes for Lagin. His piano teachers included Dean Earl, a Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
sideman, and he studied jazz improvisation with Lee Konitz. He played piano in the MIT Concert Jazz Band and MIT Jazz Quintet led by Herb Pomeroy
Irving Herbert Pomeroy III (April 15, 1930 – August 11, 2007) was an American jazz trumpeter, teacher, and the founder of the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble.
Early life
Pomeroy was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States. He began playing ...
, a sideman with Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
and Stan Getz
Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of ...
.
In the autumn of 1971, Lagin began graduate study in composition as an Irving Fine Fellow at Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, pro ...
, where he studied with Josh Rifkin
Joshua Rifkin (born April 22, 1944 in New York) is an American conductor, pianist, and musicologist; he is currently a professor of music at Boston University. As a performer he has recorded music by composers from Antoine Busnois to Silvestre ...
and Seymour Shifrin
Seymour Shifrin (28 February 1926 – 26 September 1979) was an American composer. He was described by ''Time Magazine'' as "one of the most significant composers of his generation."
Shifrin's ''Satires of Circumstance'' (1964, text by Thomas Ha ...
. He completed a symphony, a string quartet, jazz big band pieces, and electronic pieces before dropping out and permanently relocating to the Bay Area.[Douglas Kahn, "Between a Bach and a Bard Place: Productive Constraint in Early Computer Arts" in MediaArtHistories, edited by Oliver Grau, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2010. pg. 441. ]
Performing with the Grateful Dead
In early 1970, Lagin initiated a correspondence with Jerry Garcia
Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...
after seeing the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
at the Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell t ...
in 1969. In May 1970, he helped facilitate a concert and free live outdoor performance featuring the band at MIT that coincided with the Kent State shootings. That summer, Lagin, at Garcia's invitation, visited San Francisco and contributed piano to "Candyman" during the '' American Beauty'' album sessions, played in several jams, and started what would become close friendships with Garcia, bassist Phil Lesh, and David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
.
From 1970 to 1975, Lagin sat in on Hammond B3 organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...
, electric piano
An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...
, and clavichord
The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras.
Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...
during long instrumental passages at several Grateful Dead concerts. His first performances with the Grateful Dead were on November 5 and November 8, 1970 at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York
Port Chester is a village in the U.S. state of New York and the largest part of the town of Rye in Westchester County by population. At the 2010 U.S. census, the village of Port Chester had a population of 28,967 and was the fifth-most popu ...
; his first complete concert was at Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
's Sargent Gym on November 21, 1970.[The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, Volume I: An In-Depth Guide to the Music of the Grateful Dead on Tape, 1959–1974 – by Michael M. Getz, John R. Dwork, Henry Holt and Company, New York; 1st edition (May 15, 1998). ][The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, Volume II: An In-Depth Guide to the Music of the Grateful Dead on Tape, 1975–1985 – by Michael M. Getz, John R. Dwork, Henry Holt and Company, New York; 1st edition (August 2, 1999). ][John W. Scott, Mike Dolgushkin, Stu Nixon, Deadbase, Jr. Deadbase, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1995. ]
During many 1974 Grateful Dead concerts over several tours, including Europe, he performed a middle set of electronic music, including parts of his composition ''Seastones'', on computer-controlled analog synthesizers with Phil Lesh on electronically processed bass. Some sets included Jerry Garcia playing guitar filtered through effects processors and Bill Kreutzmann on drums; these sets occasionally segued into the final Grateful Dead set, with Lagin performing with the Dead, including an appearance in ''The Grateful Dead Movie
''The Grateful Dead Movie'', released in 1977 and directed by Jerry Garcia, is a film that captures live performances from rock band the Grateful Dead during an October 1974 five-night run at Winterland Ballroom, Winterland in San Francisco, Cali ...
''.
During the 1974 tours, he played through the vocal system of the Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session m ...
PA, in quad, with 9600 watts going through over two hundred speakers.
The March 17, 1975 cancelled Grateful Dead studio session became a ''Seastones'' session with Crosby and included "Ned's Birthday Jam."
"Seastones" is included in these live Grateful Dead albums:
* '' Dick's Picks Volume 12''
* '' Dave's Picks Volume 17''
* '' Dave's Picks Volume 34''
''Seastones''
In 1975 Lagin released '' Seastones'', a quadraphonic
Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...
album of electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
(composed between 1970–1974 and constituting a small part of the complete ''Seastones'' composition) on Round Records
In 1973, the Grateful Dead established their own record label, Grateful Dead Records. The band released four vinyl record, vinyl LPs on the label in the mid-1970s: ''Wake of the Flood'' in 1973, ''From the Mars Hotel'' in 1974, ''Blues for Allah ...
and then United Artists Records
United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B.
History Genres
In 1959, ...
.
A new, two CD album of ''Seastones'' was released on March 8, 2018. This album, not a re-issue, presents most but not all of the composition as originally composed but never released or heard before. For this release, ''Seastones'' was re-mixed and re-mastered in stereo. It includes most of the original 1970–1974 studio forms, those parts of Lagin's concurrent but unfinished composition ''L'' that are shared with ''Seastones'', as well as some of the moment forms generated and incorporated into the composition from live performances that took place from 1973 to 1975. This two CD album contains 83 tracks (54 tracks on CD One and 29 tracks on CD Two) and altogether is 111 minutes long.
Science career
During his professional career in science and engineering R&D (1976–2011) he worked on the earliest home computing technology with an Altair 8800; was a pre-release Apple Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
software seed developer; developed real time digital video and image processing systems; biotechnology and immunology instrumentation; DNA, RNA, and peptide synthesis and sequencing hardware and artificial intelligence software; early wireless network routing systems; and consulted in ecological planning, design and habitat restoration, including aerial and ecological photography for environmental studies.
Photography and art
Lagin began photography at the age of five, first with a Baby Brownie camera, and subsequently with other small format cameras. From childhood and continuing through to the beginning of college, photography was for him part of being an amateur naturalist and scientist. Beginning in 1978, and continuing for the next 40 years, Lagin's primary media for creativity has been photography and art. First in small, medium (6x6cm, 6x7cm), and large (4x5) format film photography (using 1928 and 1950's Speed Graphic cameras), and subsequently using film scanners and Photoshop (1992), and digital cameras (2003). His photography and art influences include Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...
, Elliot Porter, Walker Evans
Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...
, Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...
, ''Life'' magazine and ''The World We Live In'', and ''National Geographic''.
Lagin's images, as single photographs and paintings, and in compositions of multiple images, include nature, landscapes, sand drawings, nudes, erotica, and self-portraits. His creation of sand drawings and multi-image forms to create "fields of meaning(s)" was influenced by the rock art and imagery (petroglyphs, pictographs) of Native Americans, Australian Aboriginals, and prehistoric Europeans. Lagin's photographic, sand drawing, and painting collections and artist's books, spanning 1981–2017, include: ''Our Love'', ''Metaphysics'', ''Light in the Silence'', ''Artifacts of Desire'', ''Reflections of Solitude'', and ''Light Time Geographies''. Additionally, Lagin has written a collection of writings titled ''Notes'' about art, metaphysics, natural history, photography, pictures and "the natural history of picture world". From his ''Notes'':
"when you look at a picture
the picture looks at you"
''Cat Dreams''
Completed in 2016, ''Cat Dreams'' is Ned Lagin's first music CD, and first public music, since 1975. ''Cat Dreams'' is formally a suite of composed pieces, and composed melodic, tonal, and rhythmic frameworks for improvisation. These are presented as solo, duo, small group, and band; acoustic, electric, electronic music. Originally composed and planned for a two CD release, ''Cat Dreams'' is the first of the two CDs that comprise the full suite of compositions.
On ''Cat Dreams'', Lagin plays electric piano, keyboard synths (including vocals, cello, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, banjo, and others), Native American flutes, and softsynths: Ableton Live and Max for Live, Reason, Reaktor
The other musicians performing on ''Cat Dreams'':
*Barry Finnerty
Michael Barry Finnerty (born December 3, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and arranger, known for his work as a touring and recording session musician for Miles Davis, The Crusaders, the Brecker Brothers, H ...
– electric guitar
*Dewayne Pate – electric bass
*Barry Sless
Barry Sless (born December 22, 1955) is an American musician from Baltimore, Maryland. He is plays both traditional six-string guitar and the pedal steel guitar.
Performances with
*Section 8
* David Nelson Band
*Phil and Friends
*Moonalice
* Ki ...
– pedal steel guitar
*Alex Maldonado – Native American flute
*Celso Alberti – drums, percussion
*Kevin Hayes – drums
*Gary Vogensen – electric guitar
*Dick Bright – violin
Community and environment
Lagin has served in Novato, California
Novato (Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225.
History
What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok ...
and Marin County
Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...
government: Planning Commission, Downtown Plan Committee Chairperson, Economic Development Commission, Tree Task Force, Marin Conservation League Board of Directors, Marin County Flood Control Advisory Board, and chairperson for the Warner Creek Committee.[1994 River Conservation Directory (U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance, 1994]
/ref>
Footnotes
External links
*
Annotated Nedbase
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lagin, Ned
American rock keyboardists
Avant-garde keyboardists
Living people
1948 births
People from Old Westbury, New York
Musicians from New York City
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Berklee College of Music alumni
People from Roslyn Heights, New York
The Wheatley School alumni