LISA GALT BOND: An East Village Corner

Tompkins Sq. Park
Photograph © Lisa Galt Bond/ All rights reserved

Tompkins Sq. Park
Photograph © Lisa Galt Bond/ All rights reserved

2nd Avenue Mosaic
Jim Power, known as the Mosaic Man, with Jesse Jane
Photograph © Lisa Galt Bond/ All rights reserved

2nd Avenue Mosaic Lamppost
Jim Power, known as the Mosaic Man, with Jesse Jane
Photograph © Lisa Galt Bond/ All rights reserved

Love Slave
Photograph © Lisa Galt Bond/ All rights reserved

Dress Shoppe, Second Ave at 5th St
Photograph © Lisa Galt Bond/ All rights reserved

Dress Shoppe, Second Ave at 5th St
Photograph © Lisa Galt Bond/ All rights reserved

Street Doll, 2010
Photograph © Lisa Galt Bond/ All rights reserved

"Chet was like the sirens," said Lisa Galt Bond, referring to the mythic temptresses whose singing lured sailors to a dire fate. "He had a seductive, mystical sound that people responded to. But to follow the voice of the sirens was to be held captive, or end up dead."

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Poet Lisa Galt Bond collaborated with her friend, jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker, on an unfinished memoir. She later contributed her unpublished Chet Baker autobiographical notes and interviews to author James Gavins' major Baker biography, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker.

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Bond has been documenting the changing face of her East Village neighborhood for years. She has a rich history on the Lower East Side, going back to the days when the Bowery was not the trendy scene it is today. There were only two havens in the midst of skid-row before CBGB's, Phoebe's and the 70's Jazz Scene of the Tin Palace cafe. "Bond co-founded and performed with the Tin Palace All Stars, a group of poets and jazz musicians featuring Richie Cole, Paul Pines, Eddie Jefferson, Margot da Silva and Frank Murphy, with whom she co-founded Fox Press and Fox Magazine, and which later published Geography of the Erotic Body by Margot da Silva. Bond founded Express Press. She was co-founder (with Rick Borgia of Mink DeVille) of Hypnotech Productions, a studio that did sound tracks for movies.

Poet Paul Blackburn, dazzled by Bond's work, sent a tape of one of her readings to John Sinclair who then published In Sight, her first book, through his Artist's Workshop Press in Detroit. D.R. Wagner published her second book, Radar (Niagara Press). Her poems have also been published in IS, The Harris Review, Gaviota (Amsterdam).

Lyricist and Musical Producer, Lisa co-produced The Great Jazz Series at St. Mark's Church which featured concerts by Eddie Jefferson and Richie Cole, Leon Thomas, and Joe Lee Wilson in the late seventies. With Gerry de Burca she produced Biting the Apple, a cassette collection of poetry by New York and European poets."

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Chet Baker biographer, James Gavin, also author of Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne (one of Oprah's 2009 Top 25 Summer Reads), writes of Bond, "My dear Bohemian friend, you ARE New York to me: hip, smart, curious, vibrant, passionate, multi-talented, and resilient. For all that goes on in your fascinating self-created world, you are never too busy to extend a generous and caring hand. Thank you for always reminding me of why this town is the only home for me. Love, Jim G."

Happy Birthday LGB+R: Jim said it best for all of us!
Chet Baker on YouTube - MosaicMan on YouTube