Suburban Baroque

A group organized by Allen Green.

https://ultravillage.com/allen-green

Accessed June 20, 2024, his Bio readsː

Allen Green was a composer for experimental theater and dance who was based in Nashville during the '80s and Atlanta after that. He was also a prolific writer and regular contributor to the Nashville Intelligence Report, Sound Choice and Option. While most of his music could only be heard in live performances, Green occasionally released albums of his work such as Gnosis in 1987 and Dancing About Architecture in 1989. There is also a scarce demo called Selected Dance Scores.

Allen Green was born in Washington D.C. in 1958 and mostly grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. His father was a journalist who worked as a United Press International correspondent and then went on to be the radio news director for WSM in Nashville.

In high school, Green was transfixed by Rick Wakeman's The Six Wives of Henry VIII album and started teaching himself the keyboards on an Acetone combo organ. By 1977. he had upgraded to a Yamaha electric piano, string synth, and a Micromooog, and formed a progressive art rock band called Paradox with friends from school. That band sputtered out a few years later when Green started to get more into the nascent punk and new wave movements.

Green channeled his excitement for independent new music into a 'zine called Grab but only published three issues before moving on to the better established Nashville Intelligence Report. That publication would last until 1985 and go through many issues, with Green frequently reviewing local live shows. When Trouser Press decided to do a scene report on Nashville, they tapped Green to write it.

During this time, Green formed a new band called Suburban Baroque influenced by Ultravox and Talking Heads, among others. They put out two cassettes in the early '80s, and were interviewed by Tony Gerber who was an early fan and fellow Nashville synth enthusiast.

In the mid-'80s, Green had an epiphany when he saw Twyla Tharp’s Catherine Wheel dance performance on PBS, featuring a score by David Byrne. "I felt like that was my calling," Green said. "I wanted to create music for dance and theater. I tried to get Suburban Baroque interested but the band disintegrated as I was moving in a different direction." Green looked for collaborators around town, but ultimately decided to put on his first show himself. "I saw that a local theater was open for independent producers," Green said. "I told them my crazy ideas and they gave me a date nine months out. I had to find performers, create a concept." The event was called Fringe Dances, and included the dance/performance piece called "In the Country of the Blind, a One Eyed Man is King".

After successfully directing his debut show, Green and Jason Litchford, one of the show's performers, created a performance art company called Minds Eye. They began producing other shows and performing at colleges in southeast, making decent money and giving Green plenty of composing experience. Looking back, Green characterized their work as "a garage band version of Cirque de Soleil." During this same time, Green was still actively writing music reviews too, though by then he’d moved on from Nashville Intelligence Report to Option, one of the premiere independent magazines.

Over several years, Green built up a robust body of work. He cataloged the highlights on albums like Dancing About Architecture as well as a demo tape called *Selected Dance Scores.” The tapes showcased Green's lively style, relying heavily on MIDI and the Ensoniq Mirage sampler.

By the early ‘90s, Litchford had a personal crisis and wanted to call things off, so Green decided to try a change of scenery and moved to Atlanta. There, Green pivoted to a career as a graphic designer while also creating a new performance art company called Gnosis. His partner in Gnosis was the dancer/performance artist L.E. Udaykee Trapkin. However, he didn't release much recorded music during this time, in part due to the demands of his new career and his marriage in 1997 to an art therapist. (After getting married he changed his surname to Welty-Green.)

Welty-Green has more recently re-invented himself again as a therapist, though he has always stayed connected to new and independent music. He has continued to write, record, and perform original material with the band, Z Axis. In 2008, after catching a live show by Medeski, Martin and Wood, he formed his own improvised music ensemble called Zentropy. And for six years starting in 2006 he booked music and helped manage an alternative art space called Eyedrum, booking shows by Robert Rich, Faun Fables, Tony Conrad, Rhys Chatham, and many others. And lately, Welty-Green has been playing with a David Bowie tribute band called Jerome Newton and the Band Who Fell to Earth, as well as sitting in with a handful of other classic rock tribute projects.

Still based in Atlanta, Welty-Green is currently working on a new Zentropy release and is in the pre-production stages of a new dance/film project.