Denise Kaufmann by Denise Kaufmann

When I wrote my first post on Denise Kaufmann and the Ace of Cups, it was based on my own patchwork research, which in some instances may not have been absolutely accurate. Now as might have been seen, Denise read the post and whilst commending it, I believe she graciously ignored the inaccuracies where they existed, which is no less than I would expect from such a big personality and one of the musical heroines of all times (brown-nosing shamelessly- and in fact proudly- resumed).

Fact-

a. She was the driving force behind the Ace of Cups;

b. The Ace of Cups was the original all-female band, who were the forebears to the strong hard-rocking female artistes/groups who have emerged over the years- Suzi Quatro, The Bangles, Klymaxx and rather sadly- The Spice Girls and their Ilk.

c. This band was not the creation of a fancy Record company , but a blood and guts creation of individual and collective effort and hardwork, based on an innate love of art.

d. There was no other all-female band in existence at the time, they were pioneers- sinple.

I have thus copied Denise's story from the band's website http://www.theaceofcups.com/denise-bio.html and reproduce it here entirely in her own words, tracing the history of the band and indeed her goodself. Please read, this is a piece of musical history.

My dad, Hank Kaufman, married my mom, the lovely Golda Kaufman, in Boston in the year 1944 while he was in the Army. Golda, a young widow from England,had come to the U.S. with her son Julian after her husband died. She fellfor handsome Hank and followed him to San Francisco where he was stationedin the Presidio when he wasn't somewhere in the Pacific. When the war ended Mom, Dad and Julian found a little home in the Richmond district. Knowingthat my karma was to be a 60's girl, I showed up right above the HaightAshbury at UC Hospital on Oct. 5, 1946.I've been enthralled by words and music for as long as I can remember. Mymother had a beautiful, classically trained soprano voice and my father, whocould not carry a tune to save his life, had a great memory for lyrics.

Some of my earliest memories are of long family car trips where we all sang for hours. Some weekends we'd visit our friends Glady and Max at theircozy home way up on Mt. Tamalpais (Marin County.) As the sun set we'd sitoutside around a fire pit and sing folk songs while Max played his accordion. Magical musical experiences of my early years for which I'm deeply grateful:Studying piano at the S.F. Conservatory of Music, spending five years in anamazing theater company called The San Francisco Children's Opera andspending summers living outdoors in the Santa Cruz Mountains at Deep WoodsCamp for Girls where I learned to sing harmonies under the redwoods and thestars.I wrote poetry as a child, studied piano for 7 years, then started playingguitar at 14. I was into folk music of all kinds: from Ewan McColl's Welshmining ballads to local performers like Barbara Dane, Skip James, GeorgeCromarty, Judy Henske and Terry Wadsworth.

When I was in high school I hungout (and sometimes played) at the folk clubs in San Francisco - The Shiloh,Coffee and Confusion - and then in Palo Alto at The Tangent. I used to jamwith Pete Kaukonen, Jorma's brother, when he was at Stanford and I was stillin high school. I always felt pretty out of sync with my high school friends- I just wanted to be around music all the time. I was obsessed. I loved itwhen people sang together. Still do.

When I was 15 I went to Kauai, Hawaii, for summer school where I learned tosurf. Since then, both surfing and Hawaiian music have been major loves ofmy life. Sitting around with friends playing slack-key guitar and singingHawaiian songs with lots of harmonies is about as good as it gets for me.I met Lonnie Hewitt in 1965 when I was a student at UC Berkeley. I was skateboarding home on Durant in front of the dorms when we met - he was such a cool guy. He had been Cal Tjader's drummer and had started a record label- Wee Records. He liked some of my songs and wanted us to make a recordtogether. We recorded Boy, What'll You Do Then at Coast Recording with the guys from The Answer, a hot Berkeley band, and Lonnie on drums. As far as I know it never got airplay. Lonnie took it to Bill Gavin (of the GavinReport) who said it didn't have a pop sound - it was too raw. A few weekslater, most of the records were stolen from the trunk of Lonnie's car. Idon't even have one. For more scoop on that single you can check http://www.finerecordingstudio.com/G100.html

I met first met Ken Kesey and the Pranksters at a conference of UnitarianMinisters at Asilomar. Chip (the lead player in The Answer) Wright's fatherhad organized the conference and we all drove down to hang and jam. I endedup spending the night on the beach with Kesey dancing with words to p-p-pointtoward the realms opened up through LSD. Finding someone I could actuallytalk with about those travels was like coming home for me. The next morningwe played some music and Kesey was fascinated with the reverb on Chip's amp- it was the first time he'd actually played with reverb. I think some aspect of the Acid Test began right there. Within weeks I quit school,moved to La Honda, became Mary Microgram and got on the Bus. If I start onthose adventures now I'll never get to the Ace of Cups so we'll leave that for another time.

A year-and-a-half later I left La Honda to move in with a band I'd been invited to join - The Frantics. We changed our name to Luminous Marshgas (a Kesey line) and played for about five months. Charlie Schoening (the organ player,) my best friend Martha Wenner and I left the band to move to the Haight Ashbury and the others, Jerry Miller and Don Stevenson, went on to form Moby Grape.

I met Mary Ellen at Blue Cheer's house and had a great time jamming with her. She had already been playing with Marla, Mary and Diane and invited meto come meet them. The idea of playing in a band of females was completelybizarre to me. I had never even thought of it. That's how pervasive the blindness of those times was - I had never even once considered the notion of an all-girl band.During the early phase of the Ace of Cups we all lived in the Haight andoften practiced at Fantasy Records where I worked. My boss Max Weiss hadhelped us rent an organ, a couple of amps and some drums which we'd load in and out of the studio every time we practiced. We wrote songs as a groupfrom the very first night we played together. In a couple of months we had about ten songs. I remember the first time Nick the Greek Gravenites cameto hear us at Fantasy. He was an old friend of our manager, Ambrose Hollingsworth, and he agreed to come check us out. He had written Born in Chicago (Butterfield Blues Band - one of this harmonica player's idols)and I was absolutely in awe of him. He was big, soft-spoken and had thiscute gap between his front teeth. He was really kind and encouraging to us.Through the years his support for us never wavered - we later sang on his wonderful album My Labors. Nick has always been one of my favorite musicians. I consider him a National Treasure.

Thanks to the love and financial support of Leslie Scardigli and Ambrose, we quit our jobs in San Francisco, rented a house in Tamalpais Valley, bought our own equipment and put all our energies into the Ace of Cups. Those werewonderful times. We were wood shedding, writing, working up arrangements,learning from some of the great players we were fortunate enough to hang with and we were starting to jell as a unit. Those were theBloomfield/Electric Flag days - with Barry Goldberg's B-3 and Buddy Miles'drums in our living room - and music going on 16 hours a day at our house.We started gigging regularly - first out of town and then locally.The Heliport was our next phase.

Ron Polte, our new manager, rented the bighanger at the Sausalito heliport as our practice room. It was awesome. We hung a silver female mannequin from the ceiling, set up all our gear and our Shure PA system and the heliport was happening. When we took breaks sometimes I'd go hang out with Barclay (and his son Arab) who lived in his wooden house-on-a-truck in our parking lot. I ate my first soba noodles with veges in Barclay's truck. Barclay was the first person I heard say the word vulva. Barclay loved women.

Lyrics are really important to me. Finding ways to express what this livingis about - to approach the mystery with words in an authentic way without clichés or contrivance - that possibility has always called me. Mostly Ifail miserably. I'm really critical of my own work. Only a few lines have ever come through that feel as though they actually flow.

There is something about language when it it resonates deeply - makes my soul melt.Constants in life for me :This journey of the Spirit - the dance of me-ness/ Oneness, individualbeing/The Mush of Allness and what moves our human spirit closer to thecore...Energy work through the body - aikido, yoga, meditation, healing,breathing...The ocean as Source - surfing, paddling outside and hearing new melodies andlyrics between sets, sorting through my life while bobbing in thePacific....Music - I've never been a virtuoso player even though I went to school at BIT and really worked on my bass playing after the Ace of Cups. I'm what I call a garden variety bass player - I can hold down a strong groove and keep connected with the earth. I'm not good at fast funk licks but I lock in with a drummer and love to play bass. I also love playing harmonica - this little instrument powered by the breath that wails, cries and moans. Butwhat I really love most of all is voices in harmony and countermelody with lyrics that touch my soul. That was the part of Ace of Cups that I adored -being able to create lyrics and background lyrics that worked harmonically,percussively, intelligently and soulfully.

To this day, that's what I miss most about the Ace of Cups.These days I live, work and play in two places: Venice, California andKilauea, Kauai. I teach yoga (check out http://www.sacredmovement.com/),surf, and am working on a cd of my own songs. I live near my wonderful daughter, Tora, her musician husband, Kirk, and my 4 year-old grandson Eli. Please check out Tora's cool ponchos at http://www.ponchotora.com/.Music still powers our lives. My ex (Tora's father) Noel Jewkes is a jazz legend in the Bay Area. You can check him out at http://www.noeljewkes.com/ I love to jam and write with other musicians. Life is such a gift and I'mgrateful for every day. Thanks for taking the time to read this story. Blessyou in your journey, my friend.