John Bassette
Encyclopedia
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, area. He was born in Hampton, Virginia
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Musical career
Bassette first attracted national notice at the 1967 Newport Folk FestivalNewport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
, where critic Bradford F. Swan singled out his performance of his composition "Brown Boy" as "an immensely moving song, beautifully sung" and "the high point of the evening". Later that same year, he performed at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
at a "Sing Out" hootenanny sponsored by the magazine of the same name. He also performed that August at the legendary Bitter End
The Bitter End
The Bitter End is a nightclub in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened its doors in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to The Other End during the 1970s...
on Bleecker Street, of which the New York Times music critic Dan Sullivan wrote, "Mr. Bassette, who knows what he is doing at all times, obviously enjoys it and ought to be able to make a good living at it in years to come."
Returning to Cleveland, Bassette produced three full-length albums, two mini-albums, and a self-illustrated book of stories, songs, essays and poetry entitled Losing Face in America. Bassette was a pioneer in the area of producing his own recordings and releasing them on his own label, something few musicians in the Cleveland area had done before. His first mini-album, Weed and Wine, produced by TinkerToo Music & Records, featured a cover by underground comic artist Dave Sheridan
Dave Sheridan (artist)
Dave Sheridan was an American cartoonist and underground comix artist. He was the creator of Dealer McDope and Tales from the Leather Nun and collaborated with Gilbert Shelton and Paul Mavrides on The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.- Biography :Born in 1943 and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio area,...
, and both the cover song and the song Hello, Cleveland were local hits. He appeared at many street fairs and events in the Northeast Ohio area, and favored benefits for charitable causes including the Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
Free Clinic
Free clinic
A free clinic is a medical facility offering community healthcare on a free or very low-cost basis in countries with marginal or no universal health care. Care is generally provided in these clinics to persons who have lower or limited income and no health insurance, including persons who are not...
. He also appeared as a regular guest on the seminal folk-music segment, Coffeebreak Concerts, on the major Cleveland Rock radio station WMMS
WMMS
WMMS — branded 100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, widely recognized as one of the most influential rock stations in America throughout much of the history of FM broadcasting...
. Bassette also appeared alongside Sammy Davis Jr. in the London company of Golden Boy
Golden Boy (musical)
Golden Boy is a musical with a book by Clifford Odets and William Gibson, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse.Based on the 1937 play of the same name by Odets, it focuses on Joe Wellington, a young man from Harlem who, despite his family's objections, turns to prizefighting as a means...
. He hosted a cable TV show through Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
in the mid-eighties under the name Jon Bon, and produced two music videos and a documentary on how to create videos on a tight budget.
Writings
An article by John Bassette entitled “How to Copyright Your Songs” was published in Mother Earth NewsMother Earth News
Mother Earth News is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 475,000. It is based in Topeka, Kansas.Approaching environmental problems from a down-to-earth, practical, how-to standpoint, Mother Earth News has, since the magazine’s founding in 1970, been a pioneer in the promotion...
in 1970, and he published a collection of poetry and stories entitled Losing Face in America in 1978, including the poem "Golden Doves & Dolphins", reprinted in the Changeling Times in 1983 (along with a feature on him and his album Another Alternative called It's So Nice on Hessler Street).
Death and Tributes
Bassette suffered a series of strokes during the 90s, and stayed first at St. Herman’s House of HospitalityHouse of hospitality
A house of hospitality is an organization to provide shelter, and often food and clothing, to those who need it. Originally part of the Catholic Worker Movement, houses of hospitality have been run by other organizations, including organizations that are not Catholic or Christian...
, then at St. Augustine Manor. A benefit concert for Bassette was organized by singer/songwriter Alex Bevan
Alex Bevan
Alex Bevan is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, poet, radio personality and musical producer living in North Madison, Ohio. He is married to Deirdre Bevan, and has a son named William Cody Bevan.-Early life:...
on May 19, 2002 at the Beachland Ballroom & Tavern in Cleveland, OH, featuring Jim Ballard, Charlie Wiener, Michael Stanley
Michael Stanley
Michael Stanley is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and disc jockey. Both as a solo artist and with the Michael Stanley Band, his brand of heartland rock was popular in Cleveland and around the American Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s.-Biography:Michael Stanley Gee graduated from Rocky...
, Jim Schafer, and many others. Bevan compiled and released an album for the benefit entitled Rainbow Colored Clouds. This contained some Bassette favorites, as well as the previously-unreleased title track. Bassette died in November 2006. In 2007 a tribute CD entitled Been Through So Much Together was released by Skyline Productions. It featured many well-known Cleveland-area and other folk musicians and friends of Bassette, including Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
, Michael Stanley
Michael Stanley
Michael Stanley is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and disc jockey. Both as a solo artist and with the Michael Stanley Band, his brand of heartland rock was popular in Cleveland and around the American Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s.-Biography:Michael Stanley Gee graduated from Rocky...
, Jim Ballard, and Alex Bevan.
Discography
- 1972 Weed and Wine (Mini-Album) Tinkertoo Music & Records
- 1972 This Time Around Tinkertoo Record B727 (A full-length LP with eleven songs including Next Time Around and John's Happy Song. At this time, Tinkertoo was still on Hessler Street in Cleveland.)
- 1976 Another Alternative Tinkertoo Music & Records (Tinkertoo had moved to Akron, Ohio.)
- 1977 The Sleeping Poet (EP) Tinkertoo Music & Records
- 1978 John Who? (aka John Richard Bassette) Tinkertoo Music & Records
- 1979 The Concert Album Tinkertoo Music & Records
- 1980 John Bassette Live at Hessler Street
- 1980 The Country Album - The Saga of the Emerald City Cowboy Busted Penny Limited
- 1986 Starwood Memories (live compilation) ACEAssociation for Consciousness ExplorationThe Association for Consciousness Exploration LLC is an American organization based in Northeastern Ohio which produces events, books, and recorded media in the fields of "magic, mind-sciences, alternative lifestyles, comparative religion/spirituality, entertainment, holistic healing, and related...
- 2002 Rainbow Colored Clouds released by Alex Bevan as part of benefit concert
Written Works
- 1970: “How to Copyright, Publish and Record a Song” Mother Earth NewsMother Earth NewsMother Earth News is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 475,000. It is based in Topeka, Kansas.Approaching environmental problems from a down-to-earth, practical, how-to standpoint, Mother Earth News has, since the magazine’s founding in 1970, been a pioneer in the promotion...
September 1970, available online here. - 1978: Losing Face in America - Laughing Willow Productions
- 1983: "Golden Doves & Dolphins" - Changeling Times #9 (excerpt from Losing Face in America)
Performance Venues
- The 1967 Newport Folk Festival
- The Bitter End, New York NY, August 1967
- Hessler Street Fair - Cleveland, OH
- Coventry Street Fair - Cleveland, OH
- 115th St. Fair - Cleveland, OH
- Case Western Reserve UniversityCase Western Reserve UniversityCase Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
Hillel House (Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus LifeHillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus LifeHillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, working with thousands of college students globally...
) (Cleveland Free Clinic Benefit and Cellar Door Concert Series) Cleveland, OH - AmazingGrace Coffeehouse – Northwestern UniversityNorthwestern UniversityNorthwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, Evanston IL. 1973 & 1974 http://www.library.northwestern.edu/archives/findingaids/Amazingrace.pdf - Benefit concert for the Cleveland Urban Learning Community, WHK auditorium, 1977
- May 4 Kent State UniversityKent State UniversityKent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
Commemoration (1979) Kent, OH - Summertunes Series Concert (w Tom Rush and Johnathan Edwards) July 7, 1979 - Antrim New Hampshire
- Starwood FestivalStarwood FestivalThe Starwood Festival is a seven-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival presented in mid- to late July. Approximately 1,500 people attend including staff, speakers and entertainers. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects...
(1982, 1984, 1985) New Philadelphia, OH - Arabica Cafe - Cleveland Hts., OH
- Peabody's - Cleveland Hts., OH
- Boulder Junction - Uniontown, Ohio
- Room One Coffeehouse, John Carroll UniversityJohn Carroll UniversityJohn Carroll University is a private, co-educational Jesuit Catholic university in University Heights, Ohio, United States, a suburb of Cleveland. The university was founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus as Saint Ignatius College.The university was founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus, as...
, University Hts., Ohio - Turkey Ridge Tavern - Cleveland Hts., OH
Articles about Bassette
- "It’s So Nice on Hessler Street" – Jeff Rosenbaum Changeling Times #6
- "Beloved Singer John Bassette is Dead at 64" – Michael Heaton – The Plain Dealer (Tuesday, November 14, 2006) http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1163507440204950.xm
- "John Bassette 1941-2006" - Larry Bruner, et al. (November 2006) Folknet.org http://www.folknet.org/bassette.html
- "John Bassette: Big Baritone, Big Heart" - Bill Gruber Akron Life & Leisure (February 2007) http://www.akronlifeandleisure.com