Joshua Stevens: A Musical Saw Player and Fine Artist from Boulder, Colorado

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When Joshua Stevens was eleven years old he walked up to musical saw player named Jim Turner, who was playing for tips on “The Hill”, the nickname for Colorado University’s college neighborhood, in Boulder.  Joshua asked Jim if he would teach him how to play.  He said he would for three or four dollars an hour.  Joshua then went out and got babysitting jobs and mowed lawns to pay for his lessons.

Lucky for Joshua, he learned from the best.  Jim Turner was a renowned saw player and known for the album “The Well-Tempered Saw” in 1971.

Nicknames like the “psawchologist”, “musical sawyer”,  the “saw-ist” were given to Jim Turner during his heyday.  He played with the Boulder Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra on his album playing masterpieces like J.S. Bach’s “Bourree”.

Jim Turner was able to draw a plethora of musical sounds from the saw’s two-octave range.  He fashioned his own techniques, which people still learn from today. 

In 1969 he was a musical guest on both The Steve Allen and The Tonight Show.  Joshua believes his name was mentioned when Johnny Carson asked Jim if had any students.  He replied Joshua Stevens was his only one.

Showtime

Joshua may have never have been on The Tonight Show, but he has been on “The Gong Show”.

Joshua lived in Hollywood from 1977 to 1980 taking classes at the Beverly Hills Actor’s Workshop.  He wanted to be on the show so he called them up and got on to play his musical saw.

He played “Miss You” on The Gong Show in 1978.

“I did it with a live orchestra behind me,” he said. 

Joshua even has a copy of the Gong Show contract from 1978 to prove he was there.

An Artist to Boot!

In 1979 he had an acrylic of the state bird, the lark bunting, hung in the Denver Capitol building.  Then, the same year, an aide to Jimmy Carter saw the painting and requested one of the purple martin bird.  The painting hung in the oval office.

Some Saw History

The musical saw or “singing saw” may have originated 300 years ago due to it becoming widely available through the manufacturing of commercial steel saws.  Early priests and monks used musical saws for their churches because they didn’t have access to musical instruments.

In 1928 a German musician named Kleiber played a saw solo in the Berlin Star Opera.  In 1938 Louis Gruenberg played a melody on a song called “Rima the Bird Girl”, the radio version of “Green Mountains.”

In America it originated in the Appalachian Mountains in the 19th century and became popular in Vaudeville. 

Clarence Mussehl perfected the manufacture of the instrument in 1919.  He developed a special steel which gave more sustain and vibrato and it could produce sixteen to twenty notes.  He started selling them commercially in 1921.  During the instruments peak in popularity it averaged 25,000 sold a year.

Saw 2

Joshua owns two musical saws, a Mussehl and a Stratavarious, which plays lower notes.

Joshua Stevens learned to play the saw in his lap between his knees and often he endured ripped pants and scratches on his nose from the teeth of his saw.  His brother in-law worked at a cutlery and shaved all the blades off the saw for him for a birthday present one year.  

Recordings

He played both of them at the same time in 1988 on “Won’t Somebody Fill the Void”, a song from the album “Beneath the Uber-Putz”, by Little Fyodor (http://www.littlefyodor.com) from Denver.  Little Fyodor does spoken word in the song, his voice resembling Primus or even The Dead Milkmen, while the musical saws make sci-fi, spacey sounds. 

The best way to describe the sound is like that of a Theremin.  Punk musician Little Fyodor (http://www.littlefyodor.com) from Denver recounts his first encounter with Joshua Stevens.

“I first met Joshua when he was improvising on the saw in an avant-garde duo that I featured on my experimental radio show, Under The Floorboards, which airs on KGNU.  I thought, wow, he gets some crazy sounds on that thing!  Only later did I realize that he was also completely adept at playing melodies on it.  As with a Theremin, a good player can hit all the notes he or she intends to, and that only helps you get wild and wacky when you choose to, too.  And Joshua’s sure has command of his saw.  Since my own music often straddles those two sides of music, I asked him to overdub on a piece of mine called “I Can’t Relax” on my album “Beneath the Uber-Putz”, and he did a fabulous job alternating between doubling the underlying guitar riff and then getting way out there to express the out of control angst of the piece.  Last time I saw him play his saw, he was playing in a Gypsy jazz combo in a north Boulder eatery….”

Bob Story (http://www.martianacres.com), a guitar singer, songwriter, and teacher of songwriting remembers when he first met Joshua in 2013.  “Everyone was singing along to a Beatles song and Joshua pulled his saw out of his back pocket and just joined in.  Everybody loved it.  Anytime he plays he turns it into something cool….  It’s an unusual instrument to hear.”

Playtime

Joshua has played alongside lots of musicians.  Bands like Elephant Revival, the Samples, Left over Salmon, Big Mann, and Architects Office.  He’s also played with Jean-Marie and Mark Klagstad, Holly and the Husbands, Lela Roy, Freebo, Martin Acres, Christina Ingham, Chuck Pyle, Bob O’Conner, Michael John, and saxophone player Fred Hess.

In the past he played with Nicky Hopkins, a famous pianist and organist who is most known for the album “Let it Bleed” by the Rolling Stones.

Another notable name he has played with is Beth Quist, who is known for working with Bobby McFerrin, singing on his album “Circlesongs” and touring with McFerrin as part of his “Voicestra”.

Joshua has also played his saw at a slew of recognizable venues over the years.  He’s been no stranger to Red Rocks, the Boulder Theater, the Fox Theater, and he’s played live on KGNU, Boulder’s community radio station.

Joshua also graced the stage at the Chataqua Theater and main house, the NCAR at NOAA Flagstaff  Amphi Theater Concert Series, Colorado University’s Mary Rippon Amphi Theater, Macky Auditorium and Old Main. 

Other venues include places like the Front Range brewery in Lafayette, the Louisville Downtown Street Fair, the Pioneer Inn in Nederland, the Lyons Blues festival, the Gold Hill Inn, and the Colorado Festival of Taste in Denver.

One of Joshua’s most interesting musical saw stories goes like this  

This one took place in Philadelphia during the bicentennial in 1976.  He was going to see his brother get married and family and friends told him he should meet a street musician in Philadelphia and maybe make some cash for his trip while he was there. 

He walked downtown and met the musician, who played his piano on a truck bed, at Written House Square in Philadelphia.  As Joshua was auditioning for him a news team recorded his performance and it ended up being on the five and ten o’clock news.  Joshua became a local celebrity overnight and was recognized all during the week of the festivities. 

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“I would be walking down the street with my saw in my bag and people would walk out of bars and invite me to come inside and have a drink with them… women were giving me their phone numbers… everywhere I went people recognized me and the funny thing was I had no idea I had been on the five and ten o’clock news and didn’t know what was going on. “

He was invited to a big party on July 4th and only then, while the fireworks were exploding , was he told about the news airing.

“We were making like forty to fifty dollars a day in tips and people would walk by as we played together saying I saw you on the news  I thought they were talking about the pianist on the truck, but they were talking about me!”

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To learn more about Joshua Stevens visit his website http://www.fineartcreations.com or https://www.facebook.com/joshua.stevens.5283.

References:

Jim Turner & His Musical Saw “Careless Love” :   http://youtu.be/l_lOCa-Evkg

http://www.SawLady.com – Natalia ‘Saw Lady’ Paruz lectures about the history of the musical saw (starts at 2:32) after she plays J.S.Bach on a musical saw :

http://youtu.be/PW_aZCOJE_8

http://www.sawlady.com/DifferentSaws.htm

https://www.musicalsaws.com/html/mwhistry.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_saw

http://grapewrath.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/jim-turner-the-well-tempered-saw/

http://www.musicalsaws.com/html/mwhistry.html

http://www.factualworld.com/article/Musical_saw

http://www.littlefyodor.com

http://www.martianacres.com

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