Thursday, June 30, 2016

Throw-Back Thursday, 1992, Solstice Canyon

May, 1992, Solstice Canyon, Malibu. L-R: Ellen Bloom, Jessica Baron, Patti Thornton, Reeva Hunter, Lucinda Williams. Photo by Larry Underhill

In May, 1992 we attended the wedding of Jessica Baron and Rick Turner in a meadow at Solstice Canyon, Malibu. This is part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. It's just off Corral Canyon Road from Pacific Coast Highway and about a mile east of Point Dume. It's a beautiful setting for a gathering.
This was quite a gathering. Rick Turner is THAT Rick Turner, from Rick Turner Guitar Company. Rick has made guitars for many musicians, including Jackson Browne, David Crosby, David Lindley, Ry Cooder, Lindsay Buckingham and more. Rick is a legend among musicians. Jessica Baron is an acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter. She's an educator and psychotherapist.
I met Jessica YEARS ago through mutual friends. She asked my name and then wanted to know if I was related to musician, Ken Bloom. Why yes, I am! Turns out that Jessica took guitar lessons as a youth from my brother at the Amazing Grace Coffee House in Evanston, Illinois. We became fast friends.
Jessica invited us to her wedding to Rick Turner. I'm not sure if she hired Larry to photograph the wedding. My memory fails me. HOWEVER, the back of the photo has one of Larry's identifying numbers on the back, indicating that he took professional photos that day.
Back of photo, above. That's my handwriting and Larry's "73" in the corner

In addition to hanging with my besties at the time, Jessica, Patti, Reeva and Lu, I remember Ry Cooder and Jackson Browne in attendance. The band that day included my brother's old friend, Stu Brotman, along with his acoustic Klezmer band! It was a joyous day.
I lost touch with Jessica over the years, but looked her up on Facebook. I see that she and Rick had a son. They are no longer together. Rick lives in Santa Cruz, Jessica in San Diego. Rick is still building instruments and Jessica is the founder and director of Guitars in the Classroom, which is an organization that teaches the joys of music in the classroom. I'm happy to see that Jess is still playing, performing and using her gifts to inspire children!

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3 Comments:

At 1:30 AM PDT, Blogger janeray1940 said...

The minute I read the first sentence I thought "THAT Rick Turner??" Yep, that one! He got into ukuleles, played in a band called Uke Ellington (!), and used to be really active on Ukulele Underground but I haven't seen his name in a while.

 
At 9:08 AM PDT, Blogger Unknown said...

What a trip! As was said way back when... Only one slight error...it was Stu Brotman, not David Bromberg who put the band together. Yes, quite a day with great folks, fantastic food, and really fine music. And while we are no longer together, we are still friends and parents to a wonderful son, Elias, who will turn 21 in just over a month.

 
At 9:44 AM PDT, Blogger Ellen Bloom said...

Hi Rick! So nice to hear from you! No wonder I couldn't find a Klezmer reference online for Bromberg! Of course! Stu Brotman! I have corrected my mistake. Thanks for updating my faulty memory. Glad to hear that you and your extended family are doing well!

 

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