A mystery.

Highway-Chile

Does anyone here remember or even know of Steve Eliovson?

He is an amazing South African guitar player and if anyone saw the mind numbing concerts he did with Johnny Fourie you will know of which I speak. Unbelievable!!!

Here is a bit of a mystery for me though. I met him before I left SA but when I came to the USA I sort of focused on life here and did not think of him much until a while ago I wondered what he was up to. I was surprised at what I found.

Steve, an absolutely brilliant guitar player, got a deal with ECM Records, recording an album in 1981 called Dawn Dance.

He subsequently went to New York as far as I can tell, to start work on a 2nd release for ECM, but then he just dropped off the face of the planet, walking away from music as far as I can tell.

The Dawn Dance album is insanely good. I would have expected his next release would be amazing also. I am so curious as to what happened.

I cannot fathom walking away from a deal like that....signed to ECM with a 2 album contract (at least), something most guitarists would kill for....... unless for some intense reason? The other sole musician on the album, percussionist Collin Walcott, was killed in 1984 in a car crash while on tour with Oregon; in Germany.

If you have not heard this CD, bop on over to iTunes. You will not be disappointed.

I heard Steve left NY and went to the Cape but does not play any more. Does anyone know what happened to him or any more about this story?

Personally I think Steve Eliovson is perhaps the finest guitar player to ever come out of South Africa, someone who could have single handedly put us on the map.....personally this would have pleased me more than Hugh Masakela's name always coming up......not that I have anything against him except I personally am not that interested in his music.

But a chance to shine internationally as a South African guitarist? We would all kill for that. Something bad must have happened surely?

Manfred-Klose

This is very good.

the video was playing, i was busy with something else, didn't notice for one second there was music playing, the 8mins felt like 10 seconds, wow!!!!!

aja

http://astronationoftheunitedworlds.blogspot.com/2007/08/steve-eliovson-collin-walcott-dawn.html

http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/speakeasy/showthread.php?t=19266

"I just got back from Cape Town, S Africa...
I spent a week and a 1/2 making a nuisance of myself at various gigs/jams. I got to sit in with Bensonphile, Richard Caesar, Wes-o-phile, Alvin Dyers and other sundry bands/guys.

So on saturday I was invited to a party at great pianist Robert Payne's pad. There were a few people there, and one guy was introduced as "Steve". About 1/2 way thru the nite I heard "Steve" mention recording in Germany. I tentatively asked him for his last name, and his response FLOORED me: Eliovson. This was the legendary Steve Eliovson who recorded on ECM in '80 and promptly vanished. HE is a legend amongst SA
gtr players, and here he was in front of me alive and well !!!!! He told me lots of stories of hanging with Towner and Abercrombie et al, and how the exigencies of survival forced him to abandon his gtrs in NY storage NEVER to return to music- sad freaking story....Anyway I pulled out my gtr and he played a bit. Rusty, but with glimpses of a Mclaughlin style...then I took over and showed him how to do it properly ?

He told me he was in Europe to record his 2nd ECM date and the weekend before recording commenced he broke a leg ski-ing in the Alps. It all began to fall apart for him after that. They postponed the rec. date, and Steve went back to NYC where he was living at the time. He said he couldn't really play gigs or get around with a cast up to his hip in NY and he was living on someone's couch. He decided to store his belongings and head back to SA to regroup. He never got back....and it seems he lost momentum...I could sense the sad regret/loss behind his eyes...He mentioned hanging with Richie Bierach in those days, and that Richie was living in a literal "shoebox": one room with barely space to move.He also recalled jams with Towner and Abercrombie where they all got so stoned that guys were literally falling over while playing..."

- Tom Marcello

Highway-Chile

Yes Aja I have seen those posts a while ago but they hold no insight as to what really happened.

For example, if you or anyone else here broke your leg .......after releasing a BRILLIANT album on the premier label for alternative, progressive jazz and right before a possible 2nd release...................... wouldn't you be champing at the bit to get back to it after you healed up? Wouldn't the focus be on writing and practicing? Something that can be done with a leg in a cast.

And even if things went horribly wrong in the USA and you had to return home.......... home is where he got the deal from initially. So you recover and write, staying in touch with Manfred Eicher all the while and when time comes to go record, you negotiate an advance in lieu of transportation and accommodation expenses. Done deal!

No, I am sensing some other issue. At the end of the day, Steve might just be wanting total privacy on the whole deal and I would respect that. What crosses my mind, as I am sure anyone reading about his mysterious disappearance in the midst of possible huge success.........is the possibility of drugs or some sort of mental illness being at play-and please forgive me if I am wrong. It is not unheard of though. The man is obviously incredibly brilliant as a musician and often that kind of genius is accompanied by a darker side. I worry that he never got help....same with any addiction. Maybe if there is some was somebody could help him get back into it, a comeback........maybe the guy would be a serious force to be reckoned with.

My hope is that it was not any of that. Perhaps he found religion and walked away from the trappings to dedicate his life to a higher power or belief. Maybe he met a fine lady and dedicated the rest of his life to a secure career and making a family.

I just cannot fathom why nothing at all has come out though......like NADA!!

I have had his album for a while. It is really brilliant......listening to it, you cannot help but want to go directly to a CD website to find more offerings from him. I could see how he would become millions of people's go to artist after the first play. The music is intense, technically challenging etc etc......

Bob-Dubery

Well that name certainly rings a bell. I recall the name and I think I saw him play. I certainly recall the fact that he did some well regarded shows with Johnny Fourie.

Sadly I think it's no mystery at all. I suspect that there are many tales like this. You've just happened to have noticed this one. A deal with ECM might not have been that grand. Maybe some dollars to make records and so many records due in so many years - and, of course, cost of making the records deducted from the artist's share up front. Nobody to deal with the record company on your behalf and shake the tree until any money that is due to you falls out. Same old same old.

There may well be nothing more to this story than is recounted in that bulletin board post. Musicians have to live in the real world (as do we all) and if your career stalls before you've made big money you've got to find other ways of making ends meet.

I think this kind of story happens all the time. Not just in music but in other fields - especially sport. Somebody's got the talent, the vision but a couple of rolls of the dice don't go the right way and that's it.

Highway-Chile

Yeah sure....but again, we are talking an above average ability here. Someone who can write and play with that much depth is not your average dude trying to make it, who is likely to just give up because of a bump in the road. I agree that a deal with ECM may not have been that lucrative in terms of advances etc and yes, nowhere near the kinds of sales numbers as the typical rock or pop offering of the day......no internet to promote your product with either back then.

But the guy was hanging in heavy circles, jamming with Towner and Abercrombie, hanging with other tough players, had a great sounding first release......in many ways he had almost arrived.

I can easily buy your take on it....... one almost has to, to explain something like this. The US venture was a disaster, he comes home in debt, left all his guitars behind etc, maybe he was even deported.....dunno, but he is despondent, beat down etc, depressed maybe that his dumb broken leg is what screwed him........? I get that.....at the time it must have been devastating.

But the fire inside? How does that get put out?

Dunno XrB.

AlanRatcliffe

Highway Chile wrote But the fire inside? How does that get put out?

Short of major incident causing major mental illness I don't think it ever does get put out if it is there in the first place. If there is no fire there now, there probably never was.

Sure the guy can play, but some of the best players I've seen are the "naturals" - the guys for whom the technical stuff is instinctive and natural. These folk very rarely make music their life (I suspect partly because it is too easy for them - offering no real challenges). Often these guys get quite far on their raw talent, because for them it is easy to do so and they get pushed down the predictable paths by others who recognise the skill and are in awe of it. But then one day they wake up and realise that its not what they want to be doing with their lives - and drop out, leaving everyone else (particularly those of us who have to work hard for it) scratching their heads.

I think the above scenario is quite possible in the case of Eliovsen. Being laid up with a broken leg gives a man time to think...

aja

Alan Ratcliffe wrotegives a man time to think...

That can often be a good or bad thing. Some people change drastically when they have sat on a rock and thought about their life.

Sometimes people suppress their inner most problems, especially psychological/psychiatric ones that may come to the surface when triggered by a dramatic event

Manfred-Klose

man i was looking for this thread all morning, and found it now !!!

still as good as i remembered

aja

Manfred Klose wrote

man i was looking for this thread all morning, and found it now !!!

still as good as i remembered

Haha! And here I got all excited thinking you had solved the mystery! :?

Manfred-Klose

i am hoping one of the new members could have some info?