Bruce Haack 1931-1988

My very first experience of actually enjoying electronic music was when I went to the library and stumbled upon Listen Compute Rock Home, The Best of Dimension 5, by Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson in the children’s pop CD section. What caught my eye was the Xeroxed cover of a Lafayette tape machine robot. When I actually played the CD, it was as though for the first time I heard what I had always been looking for. It featured off-tempo drum loops, cheap-sounding synthesizers, simple hooks, strange sound effects, and a combination of singing, often annoying action call-out songs and educational stories. I immediately became a devoted follower.

Bruce Haack was born in the coal-mining ghost town of Nordegg, Alberta. He grew up nearby in Rocky Mountain House. Bruce’s application to study music at the University of Edmonton was rejected, so he studied psychology there instead. He was later granted a Canadian scholarship to study musical composition at Julliard in New York and dropped out after eight months. His first published music included musique concrète, pop music, Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and even a Composition for Orchestra titled Windsong which was performed by the Calgary Symphony sometime in the 1960s. He also composed piano pieces and music for commercials. 

Although he knew very little about electronics, Bruce would often build musical instruments out of  surplus parts and cannibalized circuits from other electronics. One of his creations, the Dermatron or People-odeon, was played by the operator touching another person, to create different notes.  He demonstrated  the Dermatron on several television shows, including I’ve Got a Secret, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, and Merv Griffin’s Play Your Hunch. On one of these television appearances, Bruce played twelve young women in a chromatic scale with the device. Bruce also demonstrated how synthesizers work on the Mr. Rogers show.

 

Bruce would provide accompaniment for his friend Esther Nelson as she taught children to dance. The parents wanted the children to have something to dance along with at home and so Dimension 5 records was formed, which published 12 records from 1963 to 1988. Esther and Bruce would sing, call out actions or tell stories, and Bruce, sometimes using the pseudonym Jackpine Savage, would provide the psychedelic, electronic children’s music. Many of these albums, and later cassettes and CDs, were available in public libraries around North America, and one release was featured in Nick DiFonzo’s book, The WORST album covers in the world…EVER!

In 1982, Bruce Haack worked with Russell Simmons of Def Jam notoriety to produce a song called Party Machine which sounds much more like proto-rap music than like Bruce’s other songs. Bruce has one major label release on Columbia records. It was called the Electric Lucifer. This led Bruce to come to know Raymond Scott, also an electronic music pioneer and inventor. Together they worked on music using Scott’s invention the Electronium and Raymond even gave Bruce another of his creations, the Clavivox.

Bruce Haack has inspired and influenced many musicians. In the recent past, a tribute compilation was assembled benefiting children with autism that features several well known artists. He’d be glad to know his music is still reaching adults and especially children in new ways.

Craig