Casey Young
Casey is the musician who first put Alfred’s system together at West LA Music. When he left to join Yes, Peter Bruner, also at West LA Music continued to work with Alfred.
4/30/2023
I met Al way back in 1983 when i was workin at West LA music. He wanted a synthesizer system that he could tap with. I laid out a system that would do what he was asking and put it together for him. I know he had a hard time getting it running and i had just got the gig with Yes and left on tour. He did call me when i was home on a break from the tour. He was happy with the system and using it starting to do performances.
These types of systems can be very hard to master and what he was doing with it was ground breaking. I hope he got to use it and would love to see some video’s of him.
If you need any more information about the system i will be back home in a week and i will find some time to help out.
Be well
Casey Young
Peter Brunner
Peter met Alfred when working at West LA Music, and relates here his experience when he worked doing tech with Alfred with Pacific Symphony.
4/29/23
Hi Louise
I’ve been looking in old computers and HDs looking for anything about Al I could find but I haven’t had much luck. I did most of my work with Al in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000s. I do remember that Casey Young first worked with at when we both worked at West LA Music. He designed Al’s original setup.
Here’s something for you:
“I first met Al in the 80’s while I was working at West LA Music. He came into to the store looking for help and Casey Young, another salesman in the store started helping develop his set up. His idea was to control synthesizers and effects with his feet using taps.
Al wanted to his dancing to be the music, As he danced he wanted the notes, sounds, efx at his command. As a dancer he had to be dance to the music. A fixed melody and rhythm limited a dancer’s expression. Al wanted to break free of that and become the composer of the music as he danced. It wasn’t a simple case of using a sequencer, a device that could be preprogrammed to trigger notes, sounds, etc in an sequence that would respond to Al’s tapping. While that could be part of it, the possibility of a non planned tap would throw the sequence out of time with the planned dance routine and ruin the performance. AL wanted more than that. A system like that could be as confining as dancing to music in the traditional way. While to the audience such a system would appear as Al was composing and controlling the music with his taps, it wasn’t. Al’s dancing would be stepping thru the events in the sequencer with each tap he made. He wanted more than that. Casey worked hard to bring the system together. Casey asked for my help with a some MIDI questions while he came up with the system. It was quite impressive since it required using wireless contacts in the shoes. Al wanted it to be as expressive as possible which was the biggest challenge since the technology at the time didn’t know how to only listen to one tap. The finished system was amazing for the time.
When Casey left West LA Music to go on tour with Yes, I took over helping Al when he needed some. Over the course of the 80s and 90s, Al added and changed components of the system as the technology improved. It never though was able to all that Al wanted. He had acquired an amazing amount of equipment trying to realize his dream. Trying to figure out exactly what each piece of equipment could do and how it could work to fulfill the task he wanted to have it do was a challenge I faced. Sometimes, I could figure it out and sometimes it just wasn’t possible or was only in a limited way. We keep trying when he got some new equipment which might expand the capabilities of the system. He always was positive it could be done.
I once performed with Al at a performance with the Pacific Symphony. Al wanted to have me be the master computer/sequencer for the system. I was to activate the components, sequencers, synths, efxs following the score he was performing with the orchestra. He didn’t want to have malfunctions of the equipment such a musical note stuck on or a component of the system not turn on when it suppose to. We rehearsed the performance several times to make sure it worked and fixed whatever problems showed up. I was nervous and didn’t want to make a human mistake to screw up the performance. The performance went well and the audience was amazed by it.
I kept helping Al with his system when he asked me to up until he passed away. He was always wanting to improve what the system could do until the end. That’s what I remember about Al, he always believed there is a way to make it work better. His positive attitude about his passion – dancing. I miss him. “
I thought I had the program from performance and maybe a photo but I haven’t been able to find them. If I do I’ll let you know. If you have any questions, etc let me know
Peter Brunner