by Jay Graboski, Mark O’Connor & Trent Zeigen

"Once upon a time there was a band known as Little Hans. They composed and played a lot of beautiful music that awed." Our story begins with journalist Jim Hayman’s words from his March 1975 City Dweller article headlined "Creative Popular Music in Town." Formed in Towson, MD in the Spring of ‘71, Little Hans were Trent Zeigen and Mark O’Connor on keyboards with vocalist/guitarist Jay Graboski and his brother "Gentleman" Jeff Graboski on drums. The "gentleman" tag was bestowed upon him by his peers in percussion in deference to his tasteful, crisp playing and overall "style" (e.g. at that time he was the only local drummer who routinely included timpani in his kit). Like the Doors and contemporaries, Rare Bird, bass figures were played by the keyboardists.

The band was assembled following the demise of Quinn, a band whose knack for having a good time masked a deep desire for exploring new avenues through composition. As important a step as Quinn was for members Mark O’Connor, Joseph O’Sullivan, Jeff and Jay Graboski (since it was their first vehicle for original music), Little Hans represented a quantum leap for all involved.

Trent Zeigen, known as a moody, somewhat suspicious teenager, was an incredibly precocious musician, an accomplished pianist who had a deep and abiding interest in Freudian psychology. Hence the moniker for the band, drawn from the Austrian master’s case files, reflected his extra-musical preoccupation. Moreover, his lyrics were usually meditations on themes of bad faith and disillusionment. Nonetheless, the fruits of his work were astonishing for someone just turning eighteen. Mark O’Connor remembers, "For my part, working with another keyboard player, especially one with such staggering gifts, was an exciting, if sometimes humbling, experience. Collaborating with Trent challenged me to hone my keyboard skills and to start developing as a songwriter." "(Little Hans) was the tightest band I ever played in," adds Trent, "we subliminally connected. Playing together was a definite communication in real time...a current of creativity like a ‘riff orgy’, indulgent, full of silliness and confusion. Our song writing styles were different but blended respectfully."

By the Summer of 1971 Trent had earned a confinement at the Cub Hill correctional facility, allegedly due to the aftermath of a particularly bizarre episode of experimentation with hallucinogens. The band reunited upon his release and was offered a church auditorium in Towson, Md for rehearsal. They began a regimen of intense practice. The results were a plethora of extraordinary songs and a lengthy musical "phantasia" based upon their impressions of J. M. Barrie’s "Peter Pan." It was a time marked by enthusiasm, camaraderie and disciplined execution.

"My memory of those years is filled with snapshots and half-recalled narratives in a time that was critical for me emotionally." recalls O’Connor, "I was nineteen when my father died in the summer of 1971 and I was ill-equipped to deal with it. However, playing in a band such as Little Hans, with its emphasis on complex and unique arrangements, helped to focus my energy and sublimate my grief. The belief that Jay (Graboski) and I developed our ‘prog’ sensibilities in OHO is belied by a single audition of any Little Hans tune. The structure of Trent’s songs betrayed his background and training inasmuch as they elongated traditional three-part ‘lieder’ (art songs). These structures, while complex, always remained logical and balanced."

"By the time OHO was formed, on the other hand," O’Connor continues, "we were experimenting with radical juxtapositions, which would have seemed outrageous in Little Hans. In classical terms, Little Hans’ music was built on progressions common to nineteenth century music, while OHO focused on sequential structures (a la Debussy) making the latter both more modern and often more jolting. But none of the chance-taking in OHO would have been possible without the solid foundation erected in Little Hans."

The midtown "zone" for original music in the early seventies was Art and Sharon Peyton’s Bluesette on North Charles Street in Baltimore, Md. The Bluesette, a non-alcoholic rock and blues club, hosted performances by bands such as Nils Lofgren’s Grin, the Velvet Underground and David Peel’s Lower East Side (of "Have-A-Marijuana" infamy), while providing a venue for struggling local artists. Little Hans first appeared there on Friday 09/17/71, blowing the attentive audience away, inspiring the Peyton’s to offer their management services.

Gigs ranged from indoor concerts and coffee houses (e.g. the defunct "Toad", on the campus of Loyola University)to teen center appearances, which were usually miserably inappropriate for both band and audience. An example of the occasional highlight would be opening for the late Townes Van Zandt at Finnegan’s Wake in downtown Baltimore during the first week of May 1972.

Mark O’Connor "was reviewing a live tape of the band, recorded at a local high school in 1972. Toward the end of the set, when the initial enthusiasm for the band had long waned, Trent broke into a mocking giggle over the microphone and informed the audience ‘that wasn’t worth clapping for.’ Apparently, he was affronted that this roomful of teenagers didn’t respond with adoration to a band that started their set with the lyrics: ‘a soldier’s face is shattered by a bomb.’ That the song ends with ‘Pluto’s hand stretches farther than the underworld’ did little to serve as a point of clarity for the average fifteen-year old in Reisterstown, Md in those years."

Trent remembers, "magically disappearing after the band jobs so Jay (or Micky, our grip) would move my Leslie tone cabinet, (sorry Jay, but we all know I was the coolest and such genius was exempt from this kind of physical labor. After all, I was frail and couldn’t be expected to move my own equipment)."

The Bluesette also opened "after hours" and every weekend from 10/22/71 through 11/27/71 the band aroused their nodding audience, becoming extremely tight and pooling their hard-earned dollars to purchase studio time. Their moonlighting earned enough currency to admit them into Flite III studios in Baltimore, Md where they met Dick Kunc.

Richard Kunc had been Director of Recording and Engineering for Frank Zappa’s Bizarre/Straight records where he engineered albums by the Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart, Wild Man Fischer, Jean-Luc Ponty and Alice Cooper. He was a pleasant and patient man, with a unique sense of humor and a great set of ears. With Kunc at the console, Little Hans recorded "Bedlam" on Thursday 11/18/71 at Flite III studios. Composed by Mark O’Connor with lyrics supplied by future OHO bassist, Steven Heck, "Bedlam" was based on the Boris Karloff horror flick of the same title. Here is where we learned, no matter the circumstances, to get the music ON TAPE! (Talk about delaying gratification.)

Ten days later the band recorded Zeigen’s "Cornucopia" featuring his lead vocals and a slightly out-of-tune Moog synthesizer, reflecting the state-of-the-art keyboard technology of the time. These eight track recordings were pre-noise reduction using a one inch tape format. Trent still sees "Mark’s hand stuck in the tape machine and the endless canned spaghetti, night after night."

Dick Kunc left Flite III for George Massenburg’s ITI studio in Hunt Valley, Md which boasted a sixteen track recorder (eight more tracks on which to cram their excesses). On the evening of 12/29/71 the band recorded "Laotian Craters", an anti-war song written by Graboski, inspired by a lecture he attended on covert operations in Vietnam War-era Laos. The band was afforded the luxury and combined expertise of the Kunc/Massenburg team which the final mix reveals. Massenburg moved on to become a famous engineer and producer in California and the band never heard from Richard Kunc again.

Next, Mark O’Connor continues, "The band traveled to New York City, in search of fame and fortune, in January 1972. While there we met notorious musician, David Peel, who I remembered playing at our haunt in Baltimore, the Bluesette. While his group was performing there one weekend he announced they would play a song by the band ‘Stepinshit.’ Here, I thought, was a true clown. I was to be disappointed, however, when we sat in his Greenwich Village apartment listening to him defend the Rolling Stones as a ‘people’s band’ because, after all, everyone knew the names of all the members. Why wouldn’t he concede the same point to me when I rattled off the names of the Moody Blues?"

Trent Zeigen adds, "I remember our insane trip to NYC to meet David Peel with our sensational demo tape so he could pass the tape on to John Lennon who would discover us and propel us into international coolness." Lennon was co-producing Peel’s "The Pope Smokes Dope" at this time. Of note was David’s Lennonesque appearance, mimicking John’s style, glassed with sporting wire rims. While there the phone rang and Peel picked up...it was Lennon. The band eavesdropped on half of the conversation, their closest proximity to any post-Beatle. They did hang with members of Elephant’s Memory that afternoon but failed to merit an invitation to rehearse for the next day’s David Frost Show "War Is Over" hootenanny.

Micky (the roadie who after this trip was never heard from again) secured free lodging at a roach-infested efficiency on the lower east side. O’Connor zipped his sleeping bag around his head leaving a small opening for a straw through which he intended to breathe, the diameter of which he believed to be too small for even the tiniest roach to negotiate. The choice spot was by the windows, farthest away from the kitchenette, where it seemed thousands of cockroaches were running amok. Anyone brave enough to abandon this spot would, upon his return, find a new body there, leaving only the space adjacent to the infestation.

Mark writes, "I swear I heard someone being murdered outside the building. It seemed to be occurring near my car which, by the way, I didn’t bother to move out of the no-parking zone considering the circumstances. I believe I still have the twenty seven dollar ticket, which was my reward for choosing to live long enough to leave New York." Trent remembers "spraying Raid around our sleeping bags and Micky stopping by with bread he found in a dumpster behind a bakery. Yum, yum! And how we finally pulled together for a real hotel room the next night."

The trip was a disappointment. Epic’s Tom Werman, who later passed on "Vitamin OHO" and signed Cheap Trick, listened to the demo in the band’s presence offering encouragement but suggested no one quit his day job. (Coincidentally, in September 1988 a version of OHO opened for Cheap Trick at the Universal Amphitheater in Hollywood.) This cruel yet necessary introduction to the music industry sent the broke and broken band (sans Micky) back to Baltimore where, from then on, they would have to haul their own equipment.

Meanwhile, the band garnered the interest of engineer and woodwind player, Gene Meros. Meros, whose brother tours with the Beach Boys as of this writing, agreed to record the band’s epic fantasy, "Peter Pan." The band was "on call" as the sessions were often conducted nocturnally, when the studio was vacant. Throughout 1972 the team worked on what turned out to be their penultimate project as the disintegration process proportionately and inevitably picked up momentum.

"Peter Pan" was intended to spin or "split" the listener’s mind via a succession of musical images. These images were meant to fall simultaneously on the logical mind (dealing with distinct entities) and the intuitive mind (having to do with connection). Fortunately conceived images might bring about a "flash", a moment of vision in which there is movement toward the particular and movement toward the universal.

The final mix on Wednesday 08/02/72 was punctuated by O’Connor’s announcement that he was leaving the band. Mark writes, "I don’t recall precisely why I left Little Hans that summer. One of the last things I do remember was doing a radio interview. Jay told the DJ that the band broke up because we didn’t get our hair done at the Hair Garage. I must admit being amused watching the man’s face fall knowing we’d openly insulted a local icon of phony hipness on live airwaves."

This interview by WKTK-FM DJ, Joe Buccherie, aired the evening of Wednesday 08/23/72. He played "Peter Pan" in its forty two minute entirety with only one station identification. His switchboard lit up with congratulatory calls and the band was even invited to the house of an affluent couple, newly converted Little Hans aficionados. They were dismayed at the face-to-face meeting, however, discovering how disparate the band members were in contrast to the couple’s ideation of them, conjured from listening to this broadcast.

For Mark O’Connor "the ride was over and I was engaged in another musical project before being eventually reunited with Jeff and Jay Graboski in OHO. The next few years were the wildest of our lives, one in which five difficult individuals would struggle to give birth to something great. I was never to collaborate with Trent again, something I view as a great loss. But the experience of that very short year in the early seventies, an era fraught with tumult, one which at age nineteen felt like a lifetime to me, is something I will always remember and treasure for its joys as well as its terrors."

Reforming on 09/08/72, the band abandoned the twin keyboard approach in favor of adding bassist, Joe O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan helped found OHO eighteen months later, switching from bass to guitar. Engineer Gene Meros introduced the band to vocalist extra ordinaire, Aleta Greene, and on 09/25/72 recorded Hans’ swan song, Zeigen’s "Recession." And that was that! Trent sums it up as follows: "We were stars, we were tight, and it was FUN!"

In late 1973, after a stint with Grok, Jay was asked to sing with O’Connor’s bizarre trio, OHO, who at the time were preparing to record a bunch of songs that eventually materialized as "Okinawa." So, the symphonic sounds of Little Hans, inspired by Spirit, Procol Harum and the Moody Blues, were the prequel to the progressive, proto-punk sounds of OHO, formed in the fertile yet twisted imaginations of its three founding members.

Mark O’Connor currently plays in his band, BLAMMO (Beleaguered League of Artists Meeting Mass Opposition). Jeff Graboski, husband and father of two, died on September 18, 1987, having played with Mark and brother Jay in OHO throughout the seventies and in Dark Side and Trixy & The Testones in the late seventies and early eighties. Jay Graboski and OHO drummer David Reeve continue a cross-country collaboration with Trent Zeigen, whose arrangements of their songs are being recorded by OHO bassist/engineer-producer Steve Carr at his Hit & Run Recording Studio in Rockville, Md. The tentative title of the album is "Up" in response to Peter Buck’s and Peter Gabriel’s joint invitation of solidarity (in which everyone is encouraged to call "Up" his or her project).