Lowell Harris
Colleague from West Side Story 4/8/2023
When I first met Alfred he was a Shark – therefore, an enemy – and I was a Jet. This was, of course, on stage, at the Winter Garden Theater in Manhattan, where we were rehearsing for a show called “West Side Story.” On stage we snarled, snapped our fingers and sang at each other. This was in August, 1957, and we were preparing for our opening on Broadway, in September. Al and I were enemies only on stage. Off stage we became great pals. The show opened and was a huge hit – as it still is – and Al and I became close friends. I am an actor/singer, not a dancer, and could only admire Al and his brilliant dancing. There was no tap dancing in “West Side Story” but after the show closed Al and I remained close friends and I had the pleasure of attending several musical evenings in which Al with his Zapped Taps was the featured performer.
Al and I remained friends in New York City and we enjoyed numerous nights out at the movies. I also spent time at his apartment on Riverside Drive. My wife, Inga, and I lived in Tenafly, New Jersey, during that time, and when Al moved to Los Angeles he kept one of his automobiles on our driveway. We also moved to Los Angeles in 1975 and Al and I renewed our friendship out here. I was impressed, but not surprised that he had become so admired and well-known for his tap-dancing and for his reputation as a teacher of dance.
One further memory of Alfred: I met his dad. This was before Al moved to LA. As I recall his papa had a shop on the West Side of Manhattan, not far from Lincoln Center. He smiled a lot and was obviously proud of his son’s talents and accomplishments. Alfred Desio was a marvelous fellow and his dancing skills will be long remembered!
Lowell Harris
Jane Goldberg
4/2/2023
About your work on your late husband. I was a big fan of his, you know. We met both wearing turquoise tap shoes. I bought his rejects from G (aka Gus) Banks. Al had the most amazingly loose ankles I’d ever seen. Good ol Jerry LeRoy’s. I am sure he wasn’t as impressed with me as I was with him.
about both of us showing up to meet each other with G Banks’ bright turquoise shoes? I didn’t realize at the time, they didn’t fit Al properly and so I bought the ones he rejected. They didn’t fit me “that” properly either, but I couldn’t resist the discount on custom made shoes. I didn’t know at the time Al had Gus Banks make him a pair that really fit. When we met, I was so impressed with his tap dancing, especially how his shuffles started at his hips, thus possibly giving him the amazing loose ankles he had that could go in any direction.
Sincerely,
Jane Goldberg
Artistic Director, Changing Times Tap Dance Company Inc.
Lucas Richman
Lucas Richman Conductor/Composer 4/8/2023
Dear Louise,
Thank you for reaching out to me about this project. I’m attaching a photo from 1990 which documents one of our working sessions in the development of “Variations for Zapped Taps and Orchestra.” The second scan is the note Alfred wrote to me (it’s taped to the back of the photo). The score I have is still in manuscript form so I think I’ll finish inputting it into the computer and then I’ll create a video of the piece with audio from the work’s premiere (also attached).
Best,
Lucas
Listen to “Variations for Zapped Taps and Orchestra” (1990).
Lo
“Variations for Zapped Taps and Orchestra” began as a symphonic collaboration with dancer, choreographer, composer Alfred Desio and composer Lucas Richman. In 1990, during his tenure as Assistant Conductor for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra (CA), Richman invited Desio to be a soloist on the orchestra’s family concert series. Desio was the inventor of the Tap-Tronics electronic tap-dancing system, a technology featuring microphones inside tap shoes which transmit sounds to receivers, synthesizers, and other electronic equipment. Utilizing a musical motive derived from pitches assigned to the five letters in Desio’s last name (D-E-E-B-A), the music for created for this unique work bridges the rhythms of traditional tap-dancing techniques to the more experimental sounds and rhythms resulting from Desio’s Zapped Taps.
Sam Weber
Tap Dancer
4/15/2023
I met Alfred Desio in the early 90’s when I was working with the Jazz Tap Ensemble in L.A. Alfred was working on electronic technology for tap dance, amplifying and changing the sound of the taps through a synthesizer. He had already used the technology in Gregory Hines’ film “Tap.”
After seeing me perform with JTE, Alfred asked me to be in one of his electronic tap pieces. I was intrigued and was very interested. But what turned out to be the best part of the experience for me was working with Alfred, who was a marvelous tap dancer apart from any external technology. Alfred was working technically in very much the same way that I was, but he had developed the technique in ways that I was only beginning to experiment with. His approach to technique had a huge impact on me and still influences me to this day in my dancing and my teaching.
A couple of years later I was dancing and teaching at the Berlin tap festival and was introduced to Christian Stahl, a film director who wanted to make a short film featuring two tap dancers. Christian thought I was exactly right for the part of one of two brothers and asked if I knew anyone who could play the other brother. I immediately thought of Alfred. Being in the film “Zwei Im Frack” (“Two In Tails) with him was another highlight of my career.
I feel very fortunate to have known Alfred and to have performed with him and learned from him.
(see clips and photos of Sam and Alfred in the videos & photos sections)
Juri Wiesner
(Director of “Zwei Im Frack” (“Two In Tails) – see letter in obituary section
5/12/2001
Dear Louise and Alfred, How are you? Yesterday we screened “Two in Tails” in a small festival in Kiel, it went amazing!!! The audienece applaused in between the movie after your tap dance scene at the wedding. CAN YOU BELIVE THAT!!! That was very touching. And everybody ask me where we got these two actors. The secretary of the state Schleswig-Holstein came to me and congratulated for the very good film. Christians parents were there too and they really like the film especially your outstanding preformance. The investors are totally proud of that film and happy that they supported it and there are looking for new projects.
But I can’t wait for a screening on a big film festival in the US and be on stage and saying: Please welcome our actors Alfred Desio and Sam Weber! That would be awesome. I hope so much that we are doing it very soon.
I have to tell that I was very happy to see our film again on a big screen after four weeks. Every time I see “Two in Tails” a get big smile in my face and I’m feeling very great just to see you preforming and every time I see some differents in that preforming. And I can’t get rid of that smile in my face and I have to tell you that film is very special because of you!
That was just the little festival. I’m looking forward for the other festivals and of course I keep you informed.
I hope you are doing good, talk to you soon,
Juri.
TWO IN TAILS won the 5th Annual Sonoma Valley Film Festival, 4/17/2002
TWO IN TAILS (Zwei im Frack)
by Chris Gore
2002, Un-rated, 20min (4/15/2002)
Two classy gentlemen in tuxes complete with tails and top hats are given their walking papers. Seems the vaudeville dance act is just not what it used to be. The two well-dressed unemployed gentlemen are sent on their merry way. Their depressed but dressed very dapper. It is in their despair that the two find themselves in the right place at the right time. They walk into a funeral parlor and suddenly end up as pall bearers. They walk into a wedding and end up eating, drinking and dancing with the wedding party. Hysterical situational comedy played totally straight by the two brilliant lead actors.
“Two in Tails”’s German title is “Zwei im Frack,” though there is very little dialog in the entire film. It plays more like a silent short or a classic cartoon from the forties. I could have watched another 90 minutes of the misadventures of these two dour German kooks. Humor served dry with a twist — hysterical stuff!