Punzie
July 17th, 2007, 01:46 AM
http://www.dixhills.com/assets/images/ColtraneHomeFrontClose.jpg
John Coltrane home in 2002, before restoration began.
Source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=1994
Jazzing up John Coltrane's Dix Hills home
Thanks to Steve Fulgoni, an ardent fan, the music legend's Dix Hills home
is closer to becoming a place of note
BY GENE SEYMOUR
gene.seymour@newsday.com (%20gene.seymour@newsday.com)
July 15, 2007
Even now, with its walls stripped bare, its chipped basement walls showing the effects of water damage, and its frayed and stained carpeting, it's still possible to see John Coltrane's house in Dix Hills as what it was -- and what it could become.
Steve Fulgoni, who has nearly single-handedly led the charge to turn the home of the legendary saxophonist-composer into a historic showplace, can see it. As he and a cadre of local volunteers push for the home's inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the effort to preserve the Coltrane house has entered a hopeful new phase.
For one thing, it's possible now to walk (with Fulgoni) into the formerly boarded-up house -- where just beyond the living room, complete with fireplace, there's another, smaller room that Coltrane used for practice. Insulated from outside noise, the room still looks and feels like the ideal space for contemplation and invention. One could easily imagine Coltrane here working out the themes for his 1965 masterwork, "A Love Supreme," as well as his late-career experiments with sound and form.
Finding love, and peace
This is where Coltrane wanted to settle down and find peace with his wife, Alice, a formidable composer and musician in her own right; her daughter, Michelle, from a previous marriage; their three children -- John Jr., Ravi and Oran -- and their two dogs, whose little house you can still see on the three-acre property through the clutter of vegetation.
Alice Coltrane, who died at 69 in January, told Newsday in 2004 that the house provided her husband with "the time and the space to be able to simply give himself totally to composing his music."
Years from now, Fulgoni, director of the Friends of the Coltrane Home -- a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that, Fulgoni says, funnels 100 percent of its donations into the preservation of the house -- can imagine it being used for teaching classes in both playing and listening to the onetime owner's boundary-breaching music.
"That's just an idea right now," Fulgoni says as he guides a visitor through the four-bedroom, raised ranch house. Coltrane and his family called the place home from 1964 until his death at 40 from liver cancer, 40 years ago tomorrow, at Huntington Hospital. Fulgoni's group would like to one day see the house restored exactly to its appearance, inside and out, as when Coltrane lived there. "There are so many basic structural things we need to do right now before we can even think about what it'll be in the future," says Fulgoni, who has made fundraising for the house's restoration the principal mission of his life.
"I've already invested 31/2 years of my existence into this without making a penny," says Fulgoni, who sells musical instruments at a store in Deer Park and is a member of the Half Hollow Historical Association. "And I don't want to make any, either. I'm into this because this family and its ideals are really important to me. Why? Because John Coltrane did with his music what Martin Luther King Jr. did with his words, sending out a message of equality and universal peace, and those are the things I believe in."
A Huntington landmark
Much has happened in the three years since the Town of Huntington's Historic Preservation Commission voted to declare the vacant house on Candlewood Path a town landmark, thus saving it from demolition. The town purchased the building in 2005, and it has since been placed on the New York Reg.ister of Historic Places.
The next step is for the house to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. "We're hoping to get that nailed down in the next few months," Fulgoni says.
Such a designation would open the door for new funding sources: "There are some grants that are only available to buildings that are in it [the registry]. So that'll be a huge help," Fulgoni says.
"The house was vacant for 31/2 years before we acquired it," he says. "The basic structure is still very sound, but the condition internally was very poor. We've cleaned away a lot of debris, most of it left over from the people who owned the house since the Coltranes moved." (Alice Coltrane sold the house in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles with their family.)
Pitching in
So far, some $40,000 in donations have come in, moving the group closer to its goal of $100,000 to stabilize the house by the end of the year. Intermittent publicity has helped: A few years ago, dancer Savion Glover did a benefit performance to help raise money. Still, a big opening is likely years away.
"We need a new roof and heating system," Fulgoni says.
Local companies have responded. "Bill Haile of American Ecotech Corp. in Deer Park donated a commercial air purifier and sanitizing machine," Fulgoni says. "Michael Carter of Retrac Electrical lives in the neighborhood and offered his help," he adds, installing a new electric panel to run the air-purifying machine. Another Deer Park company, L. Bennett Residential Development and Design, is providing help with architectural design for restoration, which, Fulgoni says, "will help us provide a vision of the future to potential benefactors and sponsors."
"This is not only a local or a national, but an international effort," says Huntington town historian Robert Hughes. "We even got a $250 contribution from someone in Japan."
Ultimately, what many in Huntington envision for the house is a permanent John Coltrane museum much in the manner of Louis Armstrong's Corona home. (In comparison, it took 13 years to restore and open the Louis Armstrong House & Archives.)
"Rather than use the word 'museum,' I prefer to think of it as a resource center," Fulgoni says. "We want to restore the house to the way it was and also provide educational programs for students. Some of these can take place at the house, but we also want to reach out to local schools and artists from all over to come to Dix Hills to learn about and be inspired by John Coltrane."
The house, even in its uninhabitable state, is already attracting visitors from all over the world. "They just want to be near the place where John Coltrane lived," Fulgoni says. "I had someone come by who said he was from Copenhagen. I kept telling him it wasn't in any shape for a visit. He kept saying, 'I don't care. I want to come.' So," Fulgoni says with a shrug, "he did."
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/ny-etcoltrane0716,0,6141139.story?coll=ny-entertainment-headlines
John Coltrane home in 2002, before restoration began.
Source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=1994
Jazzing up John Coltrane's Dix Hills home
Thanks to Steve Fulgoni, an ardent fan, the music legend's Dix Hills home
is closer to becoming a place of note
BY GENE SEYMOUR
gene.seymour@newsday.com (%20gene.seymour@newsday.com)
July 15, 2007
Even now, with its walls stripped bare, its chipped basement walls showing the effects of water damage, and its frayed and stained carpeting, it's still possible to see John Coltrane's house in Dix Hills as what it was -- and what it could become.
Steve Fulgoni, who has nearly single-handedly led the charge to turn the home of the legendary saxophonist-composer into a historic showplace, can see it. As he and a cadre of local volunteers push for the home's inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the effort to preserve the Coltrane house has entered a hopeful new phase.
For one thing, it's possible now to walk (with Fulgoni) into the formerly boarded-up house -- where just beyond the living room, complete with fireplace, there's another, smaller room that Coltrane used for practice. Insulated from outside noise, the room still looks and feels like the ideal space for contemplation and invention. One could easily imagine Coltrane here working out the themes for his 1965 masterwork, "A Love Supreme," as well as his late-career experiments with sound and form.
Finding love, and peace
This is where Coltrane wanted to settle down and find peace with his wife, Alice, a formidable composer and musician in her own right; her daughter, Michelle, from a previous marriage; their three children -- John Jr., Ravi and Oran -- and their two dogs, whose little house you can still see on the three-acre property through the clutter of vegetation.
Alice Coltrane, who died at 69 in January, told Newsday in 2004 that the house provided her husband with "the time and the space to be able to simply give himself totally to composing his music."
Years from now, Fulgoni, director of the Friends of the Coltrane Home -- a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that, Fulgoni says, funnels 100 percent of its donations into the preservation of the house -- can imagine it being used for teaching classes in both playing and listening to the onetime owner's boundary-breaching music.
"That's just an idea right now," Fulgoni says as he guides a visitor through the four-bedroom, raised ranch house. Coltrane and his family called the place home from 1964 until his death at 40 from liver cancer, 40 years ago tomorrow, at Huntington Hospital. Fulgoni's group would like to one day see the house restored exactly to its appearance, inside and out, as when Coltrane lived there. "There are so many basic structural things we need to do right now before we can even think about what it'll be in the future," says Fulgoni, who has made fundraising for the house's restoration the principal mission of his life.
"I've already invested 31/2 years of my existence into this without making a penny," says Fulgoni, who sells musical instruments at a store in Deer Park and is a member of the Half Hollow Historical Association. "And I don't want to make any, either. I'm into this because this family and its ideals are really important to me. Why? Because John Coltrane did with his music what Martin Luther King Jr. did with his words, sending out a message of equality and universal peace, and those are the things I believe in."
A Huntington landmark
Much has happened in the three years since the Town of Huntington's Historic Preservation Commission voted to declare the vacant house on Candlewood Path a town landmark, thus saving it from demolition. The town purchased the building in 2005, and it has since been placed on the New York Reg.ister of Historic Places.
The next step is for the house to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. "We're hoping to get that nailed down in the next few months," Fulgoni says.
Such a designation would open the door for new funding sources: "There are some grants that are only available to buildings that are in it [the registry]. So that'll be a huge help," Fulgoni says.
"The house was vacant for 31/2 years before we acquired it," he says. "The basic structure is still very sound, but the condition internally was very poor. We've cleaned away a lot of debris, most of it left over from the people who owned the house since the Coltranes moved." (Alice Coltrane sold the house in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles with their family.)
Pitching in
So far, some $40,000 in donations have come in, moving the group closer to its goal of $100,000 to stabilize the house by the end of the year. Intermittent publicity has helped: A few years ago, dancer Savion Glover did a benefit performance to help raise money. Still, a big opening is likely years away.
"We need a new roof and heating system," Fulgoni says.
Local companies have responded. "Bill Haile of American Ecotech Corp. in Deer Park donated a commercial air purifier and sanitizing machine," Fulgoni says. "Michael Carter of Retrac Electrical lives in the neighborhood and offered his help," he adds, installing a new electric panel to run the air-purifying machine. Another Deer Park company, L. Bennett Residential Development and Design, is providing help with architectural design for restoration, which, Fulgoni says, "will help us provide a vision of the future to potential benefactors and sponsors."
"This is not only a local or a national, but an international effort," says Huntington town historian Robert Hughes. "We even got a $250 contribution from someone in Japan."
Ultimately, what many in Huntington envision for the house is a permanent John Coltrane museum much in the manner of Louis Armstrong's Corona home. (In comparison, it took 13 years to restore and open the Louis Armstrong House & Archives.)
"Rather than use the word 'museum,' I prefer to think of it as a resource center," Fulgoni says. "We want to restore the house to the way it was and also provide educational programs for students. Some of these can take place at the house, but we also want to reach out to local schools and artists from all over to come to Dix Hills to learn about and be inspired by John Coltrane."
The house, even in its uninhabitable state, is already attracting visitors from all over the world. "They just want to be near the place where John Coltrane lived," Fulgoni says. "I had someone come by who said he was from Copenhagen. I kept telling him it wasn't in any shape for a visit. He kept saying, 'I don't care. I want to come.' So," Fulgoni says with a shrug, "he did."
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/ny-etcoltrane0716,0,6141139.story?coll=ny-entertainment-headlines