THE DENNIS MURPHY GANG MEETS AGAIN, FOR A 1965 MOVIE
  • 10 years ago
Dennis Murphy was the leader of a group of art and music majors who
met regularly at our house at 5710 Bittersweet Place in Madison’s
Crestwood, a few blocks north of Frank Lloyd Wright’s prefab house of
1956. We improvised on oriental, renaissance, medieval and
American folk music. The regulars of the group were Dennis Murphy, Raleigh Williams, a math
teacher, musician, singer and instrument maker, Monona Rossol, who was
a pottery student like Clayton Bailey and myself, and she was also a
classical singer. My wife Gail, a piano major, and I were also
regulars. Thomas J. Banta, then an assistant professor of psychology
at Wisconsin, became a regular also though he did not participate in
the music making. Others who came to our sessions a few times were Dick Wands, Jim Quigley, Gloria Welniak and Carlon Welton. Clayton Bailey, Monona Rossol, Gloria Welniak, Carlon Welton and myself were all potters and had been pottery students of Harvey Littleton.