Let me say first of all that I'm only doing this because Abel Domingues, who built this web site, said "you should say something about your collaborators". I'm not a writer so trying to say intelligent things about people you love is not easy. Most of these people are my closest friends and are the people who have inspired me my whole artistic life in their own unique way. All of these people have their own thing and I am very lucky to be working with them.

LISE VACHON is the person I am spending my life with... I don't want to bore you with... We work together on various projects. You should hear her sing.

JON MANN has been a musical adviser for 20 years and has produced many of my recordings.

I started working with BOB HOLMAN at the Poetry Project about 1976. In 1978 Bob was directing Poets' Theater. One of the poets, Danny Krauckuwer, had a play called Star Ship Vasco. As you can tell this play was screaming for a synthesizer score. It so happens that I had just acquired one. You could get a cheap ($500) Cat with two oscillators and 30 knobs and just go wild... That was my first official score although I didn't realize it at the time. More on that later... Bob and I worked on an act called Panic *DJ. There was no DJ. Bob read (or should I say performed) the poems and I played guitar and synth. And in the 80's a sequencer. You should read Bob's book Collect Call Of The Wild. Poetry from the soul of a left handed angel. Bob has been a visionary poet for a long time. This is the man who wrote "I'm never alone, I'm never at home, I'm on the cellular phone... with you" in 1984. Visit his web site.

ANN ROWER and I started working together in 1974 when we moved to Greene St. We had a poetry group called Free Reign. It consisted of me and Anne, Steve Fried, Gary Lenhart, Ingred Rose, and David Cole. By the end of the Seventies we were writing songs and by the end of the Eighties we were writing little performance pieces. Anne is the first person I've ever collaborated with. Her lyrics are surreal, funny and right - on. She has two books out If Your a Girl and Armed Response.

TONY NUNZIATA I've known since we were freshman in high school. I don't think we've actually written a song together but we have worked on each other's music and other people's music for a long time. We have done many shows together. Tony's performances are a combination of downtown- avant -guard and gay theater, cabaret, jazz, folk and stories. All done in the sprit of total generosity.

STEVE DALACHINSKY is a poet I started working with in the late Eighties. Steve is a proliphic poet who writes beautifully funny poems. His poems inspired me to write in more of a free form song style, while still remaining "songs". I also do a lot of improvisation around town with Steve.

YUKO OTOMO is a poet and painter I've been working with since the late Eighties. I've written a few songs with Yuko but our Haiku a Day project is the biggest ...by that I mean the longest, six hours and that it took the most time to compose. Counting the year it took Yuko to write the Haiku it took about five years.......she writes with the eye of a painter. And the beauty of someone writing in his or her second language. Yuko's poetry is easy to get..... In an everlasting kind of way. Just doing the Haiku a Day was the experience of a lifetime.

MATTHEW MAGUIRE... You remember the little space ship story Star Ship Vasco from before? Well, Matthew happens to be in that production. He liked my little space score and asked me if I was interested in doing a score for one of his collage Theater pieces. As artistic director of Creation production Co. Matthew has written and directed and produced some amazing plays. Matthew even got me involved in acting. And I use the term loosely.

SUSAN MOSAKOWSKI is the other Artistic Director of Creation Co. She also writes, directs and produces plays. From Dance oriented beautiful works to standard works with dialogue. In the beginning Susan would be in them... they had something special. Matthew and Susan have inspired me to become a composer.

MICHELLE ELLIMAN is a choreographer that worked with Creation Co. and went on to start her own dance theater company called Neo Labos. Her pieces are Dances that place more emphasis on costumes, sets and lighting than most dance companies. Michele has a stunning stage presence. Her works are energetic without loosing their inner beauty.

RASHID ALI lived a few doors up from me when I lived in Soho. After a couple years of seeing each other on the street we became friendly. Of course I knew who he is. We did couple of gigs together. The thing is I only knew Rashid as a trap drummer. When I would go to his loft there would be all these percussion instruments. I was a percussionist when I first got into music so we would play a lot of conga and bongo just as a warm-up. I've only played one "professional" gig with Rashid with him on traps. That was my free form jazz / heavy metal piece I did for Fun City by Matthew Maguire. That was with Kenny Aaronson on bass and I was playing guitar / wrench guitar. The other scores had him playing percussion. Rashid is an excellent percussionist. And of course it is always an honor to play one of your heroes.

JACOB BURKHARDT is a filmmaker I've known since the mid 70's. We both were hanging out at the Poetry Project at the time. Although neither of us are poets we found ourselves there. Jacob is one of those truly avant-garde people. Went to see some movies of his in 2001 in a little theater on Norfolk St. It just had the aura of....... now this is something you don't see every day...... It just brought me back to Soho 1973. Finally in 2001 we were able to work together on Hebron Holiday.

YOUSEFF YANCY was the first electronic / jazz / space man I've ever met. I was lucky enough to do one score with him.

ERIC ROSS is a theramin player / electronic musician. Sort of a mad scientist of space music. I've known Eric for 20 years and although we don't live near each other we have kept in touch. We finally did our first recording Mars 2 Earth in 2000.

BYARD LANCASTER and I have been improvising for about twenty years. When I lived on Green St. Byard would come over and we play. We would say about ten words to each other and get right into it. It's still the same today.

TOSHI MAKAHARA is a percussionist I became acquainted with doing the Mars 2 Earth project. Always a pleasure working with Toshi. Visit his web site.

JACKIE SHEELER wrote an amazing poem called Gun. I made a folk song out of it.

MAGGIE BALISTRERI wrote this very funny poem called I Can't Write You Something. I made a tango out of it.