Waqidi Falicoff

Education

In 1962 Falicoff attended State University of New York at Stony Brook University where he met a fellow student, Jay Rosenberg.

Career

He was the co-composer of the incidental music for the Broadway show Paul Sills" Story Theatre. The two published nine songs with Pera Music (now Peermusic) in 1964. At 18 Falicoff (under the name Ken Faliks) composed and played the music for one of the first short films made by the famous filmmaker Editor Emshwiller, George Dumpson’s Place.

Shortly after going back to Stony Brook University in 1965, Falicoff hooked up with a fellow student, Bill Laletin, to form a duo, at times called "Bill & Willie" (by the music reviewer for the university paper, The Statesman, Jim Frankel) and finally Abelard & Doctor Jones

In 1969 Falicoff became the lead guitarist for Hamilton Camp.

As a duo, Hamilton and Waqidi did a television program (The Murray Roman Special) which included such diverse acts as Nancy Sinatra, Frank Zappa, Linda Ronstadt and Donovan. The original showing of Paul Sill"s Story Theatre was at the Mark Taper Forum in 1970 where Falicoff sang and played guitar in the show.

The group also played at the The Troubadour (Los Angeles) (billed as Hamilton Camp) in March 1970. The two eventually settled in London.

In 1975 Waqidi signed a songwriting and recording contract with Electric and Music Industries Music (Electric and Music Industries Robbins Group).

He, together with Hamilton Bailie and Helen Tarantino, formed the group, Patchwork Triangle. The Electric and Music Industries-signed group recorded a number of demo songs which were not released until 2012. In 1975 Falicoff retired from the music business to enter other fields.

In 2012 Falicoff decided to re-publish the earlier songs he composed and release the related recordings.

Achievements

• The four composed the incidental music for the Broadway Show Paul Sills" Story Theatre, which was nominated for best show of the year in 1971 and won 2 Tony awards in other categories. The group performed mostly in the Southern California region, including venues such at The Golden Bear (nightclub) (a lesser known at the time Jackson Browne opened). The recording sessions in the studio included several other singers and musician including: Top Topham (guitar), vocals "Snow" (no longer married to Falicoff) and Laura Bailie, on violin, Maurice Isaacs, on piano (on the song, "Hey World"), Ellis Rich, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (then with Electric and Music Industries) and the founder of the Independent Music Group.

Membership

Opening for the group was Dillard & Clark (respectively ex members of The Dillards and The Byrds.