It is with deep sadness and reverence that I learned that my dear friend Dick Metcalf had made his transition from this Earthly plane into the next dimension of Source. He was one of a handful musicians that I have known for most of my musical life. A peer, a collaborator, an honest friend, the best of humans.
Where does one start to describe the powerful presence that Dick Metcalf was? I first met Dick at The Gnu Deli in Olympia, WA in October of 1978. He arrived in his green fatigues as he was working for the US Army in various capacities (logistics, software…) at the time. He was stationed at Ft. Lewis but had just returned from Germany. There he had had a sobering reconciliation and through his own volition and sheer fortitude (and a little Scream Therapy) managed to quit cold turkey, two heavy addictions at once. Looking for more healthy environments, his love of music (and espresso) brought him into The Gnu Deli. He was drinking coffee until the sweat was rolling down his face. We struck up a conversation and before you know it, our commonalities bonded us for life.
A couple weeks later, we asked him to join our band, Trillium and performed in our debut concert reciting spontaneous poetry while we freely improvised as an exploratory jazz trio (John Alkins – Keys, Bob Cerelli – Guitar, Harlan Mark Vale – Percussion).
“You got to get yo’ head, out of it.” – Dick Metcalf
In the 1980s, Dick immersed himself into a vast musical counter culture space known as The Do-It-Yourself (D.I.Y.) movement. In the early days, musicians of every level and demographic would openly exchange music of every definition, with each other via recording cassettes and sending them through the postal service. It helped to form a new branch of the underground network outside of major label interests and bias. This part of music history was expertly covered in the book by Robin B. James called “Cassette Mythos.”
Not only did he participate musically by playing keyboards and adding vocal poetry with us. He started recording his own music and then collaborating with these other artists, too. Soon he had amassed a group of people that it became apparent the necessity of a central communication hub for these fringe artists to listen, learn and collaborate with each other. I think that was where the “Improvijazzation Nation” online magazine was born. It was a type of review of experimental recordings platform on a US national scale. It gave an equal voice to every musician alive. From a new born with a rattle to the most accomplished virtuoso, everyone is welcome at the table. For you see, Dick was big hearted man. And within that, his broad definition of an artist included your ability to effectively convey the passion and emotion that music carries within it, much more than any academic achievements, technical music prowess or monetary success did.
To point to an example of this, Dick would often make up little axioms and social haikus from time to time. He made a comment during a session once stating, “You got to get yo’ head, out of it.” Meaning, thought can only take you so far, then you have to rely on something else more direct and intuitive to express yourself and even in the act of deep listening as itself.
In the mid 1990s, Metcalf, Arrington de Dionyso, members of The Dead Aire Fresheners and myself established The Olympia Experimental Music Festival, an annual festival of independent audio performances that brought national improvisational acts to the Pacific Northwest.
There is no doubt that Dick Metcalf was a real character, as some would say. Which I am delighted to say, is true on both counts because he was authentically and unabashedly himself. His solid friendship, kindness, generosity and open heartedness shall live along side his many funny colloquial sayings for the rest of my days.
There are few people in this world that did more for the appreciation, promotion and networking of original music composers and sound artists than Dick Metcalf. He helped thousands to feature their creative expressions and expose the most fundamental strata in the entire global music space. For it is in collaboration that builds community, not competition.
Dick was a self made man, by some standards. He learned from his own challenges how to look honestly at himself and consequently at the world he lived in. He could sense the underlying passion within each of us. And he could encourage you to bring that love out. As I said to him when I saw him couple months ago and sincerely told him:
“Thank you, Dick, for all of the music that you brought into this world to help make it a better place.”
– HMV
Explore Harlan Mark Vale’s music on Soundbetter
Listen to Dick and Harlan’s creative collabs on Bandcamp.
*If you’d like to share a memory about Dick, you can email contemporaryfusionreviews@gmail.com, or post it on our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/400530170149735