ONOFFON

[onoffon]

A high school buddy of mine, Michael O'Neill, has played rhythm guitar for George Benson for more than twenty years now. A truly gifted guitarist...George Benson is headlining a concert tonight at the Hollywood Bowl and Michael has graciously invited my wife and I to the concert with backstage passes. It's very kind of him.Also on the bill will be SMV - a group featuring Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten, three of the most talented, contemporary jazz bassists in the world.Interestingly enough, back in 1952, my father was in a group with bassists Oscar Pettiford and Joe Comfort and recorded a four song EP released on Imperial Records. Of course, my dad and Oscar were playing cellos while Mr. Comfort backed them on bass. The cellos, though, were both tuned in fourths so today they would be referred to as 'piccolo' basses.56 years after my father formed a group with three bassists, I'll be seeing another following in their footsteps...Amazing...

[onoffon]

Wow...I can't tell you how wonderful the concert was. And to go backstage and meet these great musicians was overwhelming.Here's a pick of Stanley Clarke and I -I don't look too happy, do I? We talked at length about my father's documentary and he seemed to be truly respectful of my mission to honor this great bassist from jazz history...BTW - we met 20 years ago when I opened the first Long Beach Jazz Festival in 1988. He was the first day headliner and I got this pic backstage -I think I was pretty happy back then too...

[onoffon]

Oh yeah...I also had the distinct honor of meeting Victor Wooten...He, too, seemed genuinely fascinated by the story of three bassists in a group 56 years ago...Dad was way ahead of his time...

[orest]

I haven't followed this thread from the beginning, and there is too much to read now. Could you please write a resume about all this? I think I know it's a bit about your father..?

[onoffon]

Sept 2, 2008, 1:27pm, orest wrote:Could you please write a resume about all this? I think I know it's a bit about your father..? Hi Orest... you're right, there's too much to read. This thread started out years ago to shamelessly self promote my jazz rock group, ONOFFON. However, I've also made it my life's mission to bring recognition to my father's musical contributions and the entire west coast jazz community of the 40's through the 80's, of which my father was quite an important figure. I've tried, over the last fifteen years, to raise money to build a west coast jazz museum centered around an archive of jazz recordings my father made with an amazing array of the greatest jazz musicians in history - west coast and elsewhere - more than 500 hours of master tapes spanning four decades.As recently as April, 2006, I submitted a proposal to the New York Foundation for the Arts to produce a documentary film about my father's career and west coast jazz called, Harry Babasin's Jazz In Hollywood. After less than two weeks from receiving my proposal, I had a signed contract for a fiscal sponsorship from NYFA to make this culturally important film.Ever since then, I have written to more than 500 foundations to raise the production budget and contacted more than 1,000 individuals to bring this project to fruition. However daunting it may be, I have diligently pursued every avenue to gain support and raise the money needed to accomplish this, my life's work.I feel that the documentary is the door - it will open the world to an artistic movement that has been largely ignored and eventually allow me to remaster the recorded archives we own and provide an important resource of west coast jazz to educational institutions around the world. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Here's a few links that help to define what I'm doing -NYFA Artist Von Babasin -http://www.nyfa.org/nyfa_artists_detail ... d=5613More info on my website -http://www.onoffon.com/nyfa.htmlJazz In Hollywood Homepage -http://www.jazzinhollywood.com/ONOFFON Homepage -http://www.onoffon.com/Thanks for asking...Von

[orest]

You are working hard for this and I understand what your father meant and still do! Your music is really great! Not always you find musicians to play with at this level! Especially liked "Mardi Gras". Keep up the good work and I'd love to see you perform here in Sweden! Maybe you could come and play at this place:http://www.nefertiti.se/about/?PHPSESSI ... okmmt8euc1

[onoffon]

Sept 5, 2008, 2:03am, orest wrote:You are working hard for this and I understand what your father meant and still do! Your music is really great! Not always you find musicians to play with at this level! Especially liked "Mardi Gras". Keep up the good work and I'd love to see you perform here in Sweden! Maybe you could come and play at this place:http://www.nefertiti.se/about/?PHPSESSI ... okmmt8euc1 Thank you very much, orest!For actually taking the time to listen and for your extremely kind words..."Mardi Gras" has been our most popular song. I wrote it almost 20 years ago though, with ONOFFON, it came to life. Mr. Glen Garrett plays the lead on soprano sax and he really did a wonderful job...I would love to tour in Sweden someday - we received some great reviews from your country...As for my father, I've always felt that, with all of his accomplishments and contributions to music history, he deserves the kinds of recognition his colleagues have received. Robert Wilonsky said it best in an article he wrote about Harry for the Dallas Observer, "Harry Babasin played with the famous and the beloved. He was their peer, their bandmate, their friend."He was, indeed, and he deserves this film as much as the music world deserves to know of his passion and creativity.Cheers!

[orest]

Well, I'm a bit curious about the name "onoffon", how did you made that up? I'm very into jazz rock/fusion these days, do you have any records out in my country? Do you earn your living from this? I'd love to see that film when it's done! Take care!

[onoffon]

Sept 7, 2008, 10:09am, orest wrote:Well, I'm a bit curious about the name "onoffon", how did you made that up? I'm very into jazz rock/fusion these days, do you have any records out in my country? Do you earn your living from this? I'd love to see that film when it's done! Take care!The name "ONOFFON" came from the three position toggle switch on the front of Fender amplifiers. Up was ON, middle was OFF, and down was ON - hence ON-OFF-ON. We've released three full length albums in our almost twelve years together. We were one of the first 100 members of CD Baby so the best way to purchase them is online. Since we don't have a record label, we don't have traditional distribution. Now, because of CD Baby's digital distribution service, all of our songs are available for download at iTunes, Emusic, Rhapsody, and 40+ more digi-distribution sites.Our first CD, Surrender Now (1997), is more progressive rock with some jazz overtones. The second, Your Mind (1999), was considerably more jazzy and is the album with "Mardi Gras" on it. That CD was largely responsible for us earning the 2005 "Artist of the Year" title from the International Online Music Awards. Our most recent CD, Bridge to Presage (2005), was named the 2006 Best Album at the following year's IOMAs. It's our first all instrumental album and received some of our best reviews.We don't really earn what could be considered a living from this. We don't have any real means of promoting. With no promotional budget to speak of, it's hard to bring a public consciousness to our existence. Although, in my time of promoting ONOFFON on the internet, we can be easily found if someone knows to look for us. As for the movie, once it's done I intend to show it internationally at every film festival that will have it. There have been re-releases of my father's albums in Spain, Japan, and the U.S. - I've had articles written about him in magazines from Armenia, Russia, Belgium, the U.K., the U.S., and the latest in Egypt - there is definitely an international interest in my father's story and music and I hope great things for this film.My father's legacy is one of artistic integrity at the highest levels - it's a good story for all the right reasons...Cheers!

[onoffon]

It's been a while so I thought I'd write a quick update. Nothing of any real consequence but I'm still moving forward.While I have three different private investors considering the film, I have been continuing to send proposals to more foundations. I have been informed that I am being reviewed by the boards of directors of both the Ford Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation. These foundations have a long history of support in the arts and I'm hoping for the best from either or both.I'm trying to be even more concise about who I send to and I know that the project itself and the support I've received make this film more and more compelling...Onward...