Henry Flynt

Henry Flynt is a musician, composer and philosopher that until the 90s was merely a footnote in the careers of John Cage, La Monte Young, Yoko Ono, Lou Reed and others from both the New York art and "serious music" scenes. Flynt born in North Carolina took up violin and a young age and immediately was drawn to classical music, but on moving to New York to study at Harvard in the late 1950s was soon to make contact with the shapers and movers in modern music. After hearing the wealth of traditional American folk music Flynt's music world was about to shift again "I just underwent a total conversion as a result of hearing that. And I immediately decided that the best musicians in the United States were at the bottom of the social ladder". (Interview with Flynt in the Wire Magazine October 2004).For some 30 years the violinist/guitarist/wild man vocalist feverishly produced and documented a perplexingly large body of work in relative obscurity that until the 90's was to be largely unheard. His music varied from avant hillbilly blues, garage protest rock bands, improvised vocal music and Indian raga infused improvisations.