Quill was a popular Northeast USA band that played extensively throughout New England and New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in the late 1960s and that gained national attention by performing at the original Woodstock Festival

Woodstock Festival

Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...

 in 1969. The band was originally founded by two singer/songwriters and brothers from the Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 area, Jon and Dan Cole.

The Coles were managed by Ray Paret and David Jenks of Amphion Management, a Boston artist management group that helped to lay the groundwork for a fertile music scene in the Cambridge-Boston area. Many musicians who became international stars were a part of their coterie of bands, like the J. Geils Band, Peter Wolf & the Hallucinations (with Wolf later joining Geils to form a hit combination), Skunk Baxter (later of Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan

Steely Dan

Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...

 fame), Jim Hodder

Jim Hodder (musician)

Jim Hodder was an American drummer, best known as the original drummer for Steely Dan.He was born in Boston in 1947. As drummer/vocalist, he was a member of the band Bead Game, which released one album titled "Welcome" in 1970 on Avco/Embassy...

 of The Bead Game (who went on to become a drummer and vocalist for Steely Dan

Steely Dan

Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...

), Andy Pratt, Jimmy Thompson, drummer Russ Levine and Country Funk whose bass player Jim Lanham was later a founding member of The Pure Prairie League. Many very successful Boston groups and musicians such as Aerosmith

Aerosmith

Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...

, The Cars

The Cars

The Cars are an American rock band that emerged from the early New Wave music scene in the late 1970s. The band consisted of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Ric Ocasek, lead singer and bassist Benjamin Orr, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson...

, Jonathan Edwards, and Boston

Boston (band)

Boston is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that achieved its most notable successes during the 1970s and 1980s. Centered on guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer Tom Scholz, the band is a staple of classic rock radio playlists...

 rose up out of the creative atmosphere in which Amphion was a key player.

With the assistance of the Ray and David, the Coles attracted some of the best musicians in the community. The basic line up included Roger North

North Drums

North drums are horn shaped drums that were designed to project their sound outward, so the audience can hear the most direct qualities of the drum.-History:...

 on drums

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

, Norm Rogers on guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and Phil Thayer on keyboard

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

, sax

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 and flute

Western concert flute

The Western concert flute is a transverse woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, or flute player....

, with Jon on bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 and Dan doing the bulk of the lead vocals. (However, as explained in detail below, instrumental flexibility was one of the band's most unusual features.) Out of this combination, and with the Cole brothers' focus on original songwriting came 'Quill', which was then signed as a group to Amphion Management. The band spent 1967, 1968 and 1969 regularly playing rock

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 venues in Boston, Providence

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

, and New York, as well many other smaller markets around the Northeast. Though Quill rarely played outside of their region, the show made it as far west as Aspen, Colorado

Aspen, Colorado

The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...

.

Though most often headlining in smaller clubs, where Quill gained a very loyal following, the group also played in a number of much larger venues, opening for such international acts as The Jeff Beck Group

The Jeff Beck Group

The Jeff Beck Group were an English rock band formed in London in January 1967 by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. Their innovative approach to heavy sounding blues and R&B was a major influence on popular music.- The first Jeff Beck Group :...

, The Who

The Who

The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

, The Kinks

The Kinks

The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...

, Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...

, Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...

, Blue Cheer

Blue Cheer

Blue Cheer was an American psychedelic blues-rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009...

, Sly and the Family Stone, the Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin

Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

. It even opened for comedian Steve Martin

Steve Martin

Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....

 in one of the interesting pairings in Quill lore. In addition. Quill was featured on several local TV shows in Boston and the Midwest, and was highlighted by the music press on numerous occasions for its originality and creativity. An early summer '69 appearance at Steve Paul's Scene in New York City resulted in Quill being invited to play at The Woodstock Festival

Woodstock Festival

Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...

. Interestingly, that night at the club also featured the first introduction of Johnny Winter

Johnny Winter

John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...

 to the NYC record industry crowd. The night ended finding Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

 and Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills

Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...

 joining Johnny and members of Quill for a late jam.

Aside from the basic roles of each member of the band as mentioned above, one of the interesting aspects of the band was its ability to mount a variety of instrumental and vocal configurations to play specific songs. Considered by many to be among the best technical and most creative rock drummers of that era, Roger North

Roger North

Roger North may refer to:*Roger North, 2nd Baron North , English peer*Roger North , captain who sailed with Walter Raleigh in 1617 and only governor of the Oyapoc*Roger North , English lawyer and biographer...

 anchored the band on the drums and percussion. The other members of the band would often switch instruments to create different sounds and effects. Jon and Norm both sang some lead vocals while Dan might be playing guitar, or even trombone

Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

, forming a small horn section with Phil on sax; Jon would sometimes switch to guitar with Norm playing bass; Norm was known to trot out his cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 on occasion; Phil even played bass while Norm and Dan played guitar and Jon sang; everyone participated in group vocals as needed. Though Dan was the primary front man for the band on stage, its ability to effectively and frequently change focal points and configurations was well-suited to the broad song writing ambitions of the Coles, who were responsible for almost all of the band's material.

Quill's music was eclectic, social commentary, sometimes poetic, sometimes ironic, merged with very unusual, at times nearly atonal scales. Although for some in the drug-induced haze of the '60's, Quill music could be quite stimulating, it was never intended to be psychedelic music

Psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

, and actually had a somewhat anti-hedonist slant. The Cole brothers were hoping to make their audiences think, even while the music was being enjoyed. The band's music was compared to a modern day "Three Penny Opera" by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

 by a local reviewer.

In addition to its unique original material, Quill made its reputation on performance art by drawing the audience into the music. The band handed out rhythm instruments and exhorted the crowds to a near riotous dance frenzy. A number of famous bands that played on the same bill with Quill received lukewarm receptions after finding themselves no match for the excitement generated by this five piece band from Boston. After Quill disbanded, many other groups took up audience participation with incitement to rhythm.

At Woodstock, in addition to playing the main festival stage on Saturday, Quill spent the week preceding the festival living at the setup crew's camp at a nearby motel, providing entertainment for the collection of stage crew, hog farmers, and festival workers. Quill was also hired by festival promoters to play a series of goodwill concerts at nearby state prisons, mental institutions, and halfway houses as a gesture aimed at countering community concerns about the upcoming festival. (Note: In the history of Quill, this rated as one of the strangest tours. Though enjoyed by the band, there were moments of unpredictability as many members of the very animated audiences were either certifiably insane or 'doin' time', depending on the venue.)

In the run up to Woodstock, seeing the market potential of the buzz that the band had already created with press, pundits and fans, and it's coming appearance at the Festival with the potential for film exposure, Ahmet Ertegün

Ahmet Ertegun

Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...

 President of Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 agreed to sign Quill in the summer of 1969 to their Cotillion label.
At the festival, after relentless, and torrential rain all Friday and through the night, the skies miraculously cleared just before the band was to play. On a still soaking stage, under a now beaming sun, the band played a 40 minute set of 4 songs ("That's How I Eat", "They Live the Life", "Waiting For You", and "Driftin'"), and was received enthusiastically by the mud-caked, but drying 500,000 person throng. As a result of its position as first on stage that day and the remaining disarray due to all of the rain, Quill missed a key opportunity to appear in the Woodstock film, although that was the original intent of Paret and the band. The band was filmed, but a glitch in the film/audio system made it such that the audio and film were not synchronized properly. This rendered the footage unusable for the now famous film that made so many acts household names. The problem was fixed in time for Santana

Carlos Santana

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...

 the next band up and their appearance in the film sealed the band's later success.

Shortly after the festival, Quill self-produced and then released its first Cotillion album, which made some impact, but did not gain national attention. The fact that the Quill footage could not be used for the Woodstock movie seriously disappointed Ertegün and the band's record was never actively promoted, even though over the years it has attained some cult status.

Jon, who was, in many ways, the driving creative force in the band, left several months after that release to pursue other production projects in which he had an interest. With the assistance of New York producer, Tony Bongiovi, the other four members, in a collaborative effort composed enough material to produce and record a second album for Cotillion, but which the label chose not to release. The remaining four disbanded Quill late in the Spring of 1970, going their separate ways.

Roger North ended up joining the post "Easy Rider" version of Holy Modal Rounders

Holy Modal Rounders

The Holy Modal Rounders were an American folk music duo from the Lower East Side of New York City which started in the early 1960s, consisting of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber. Their unique blend of folk music revival and psychedelia gave them a cult-like following from the late 1960s into the 1970s...

 after Quill disbanded, moving to Oregon with Steve Weber and the rest of the band (save Peter Stampfel, who remained in New York). He continued to perform with the HMR well into the 1980s, although missed the opportunity to record with the band on what may be one of their best remembered efforts, "Have Moicy," a 1975 collaboration with Michael Hurley and Jeffrey Fredrick and the Clamtones

Clamtones

Clamtones was an American folk rock group, and Jeffrey Frederick's most notable band. Most of the band's lineup also performed with The Holy Modal Rounders at one point.- Biography :...

. Roger went on to design the unique North Drums, still favored by some drummers lucky enough to have purchased a kit. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon and plays in the Freak Mountain Ramblers. His son, Tye North was a member of Leftover Salmon

Leftover Salmon

Leftover Salmon is a jam band from Boulder, Colorado, formed in 1989. Their unique blend of bluegrass, rock, country, and Cajun/Zydeco, which the band calls "Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass", has found favor with the jam band scene...

 and continues to perform with the Piano Throwers, Strings for Industry (featuring Tony Furtado

Tony Furtado

Tony Furtado is an American banjo player and slide guitar, and singer/songwriter.player of Portuguese and Italian heritage who was born in Oakland, California...

 and Darol Anger

Darol Anger

-Career:Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed,...

) and the ever-changing Everyone Orchestra.