UNTRENCHANT CONTRIBUTORS
There are some who say that Kevin Clair was born with a trumpet in his hand.
No one quite knows where he came from, but most observers agree that he arrived in New York in the spring of ‘46, a couple of dollars in his pockets and a couple of songs in his head. He wasted little time relieving himself of both, and while the money was never quick to return, the music was always there. It tortured him, it kept him awake at night, and it consumed him completely. Bebop wasn’t just a way of life; it was a matter of life and death.
He played with all the greats, but it was never enough; the music haunted him, trailed him relentlessly. Unappreciated in his own time, in his own country, he travelled, never staying in one place long, always leaving a trail of unpaid debts and jilted lovers in his wake. He played in New Orleans, in Havana, in Panama City. Nowadays it’s hard to find someone who saw him play in those days. The folks who do remember recall a man possessed, and the fire that danced in his eyes when he played.
They found him in a Sophiatown shanty in ‘49; it was only a matter of time before the devil caught up with him. In death, as in life, the music tells the story; like its creator, it is tireless, relentlessly in search of a destination it knows it will never reach, but for which it cannot hope to keep from looking.
He also writes at http://www.jackflaps.net.
Kenton deAngeli lives in Chapel Hill, NC. More than anything he is interested in comics, the future, robotic exoskeletons, pretty girls with long fingers, the state of modern fiction, video games, thunderstorms, and food. If you like, you can purchase his book here. It is also possible to watch videos of people learning to vomit at his youtube account. He is married, and his wife is super smart.
Neal Schuster was not born, but instead sprang fully formed from a barrel of ethanol that had been left out in a storm overnight after being used as a drinking trough for both man and beast. Some say this explains his otherwise incredible affinity for an entire class of beverages and for low-emission transportation; others claim it to be pure coincidence. As a boy, his first word was “furrows,” and he has wanted to write for Untrenchant since before he learned how to make the last few letters of the alphabet. He still has trouble sometimes with cursive q’s, and as a result tends to avoid using the letter altogether. His hobbies include stealing cars and leaving them illegally parked, sending tapioca through the mail, and mountain climbing, but only within the Midwest. His favourite food is starch.
Daniel Wright would like to die by the firing squad.