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 On some tunes I also played flute, carefully arranging it so my parts could be played with my left hand holding the flute only. It was showy, and nobody could tell that I had a very limited playing range that way. I also played VERY little trumpet, but we did a couple of tunes with Kurt playing drums and flute while I played organ and trumpet (with a cup mute so you couldn't tell how bad my tone was!) Again, a good visual for our live audience, and a nice cool hip sound as well.
In our area, many of the musical groups were very innovative, and all the musicians, even competitors, were friends with each other and hung out together. There was plenty of work for everybody then.
For the Trilogy recording, we had access to a studio and other instruments such as marimba, piano and the synthesizer. Also because it was a 12-track (an oddity) studio, we could overdub vocals and flute for instance, something unattainable live. Kurt was the recording engineer for all our sessions.
Later on as the years progressed, I obtained first a Univox (Crumar) Stringman (a string synthesizer similar to the ARP String Ensemble), and the MiniMoog for french horn parts and other instrument emulations, as well as purely 'synth' sounds. Remember, the MiniMoog had to have its sound changed by moving a lot of knobs manually--no presets. But of course the sound was far superior to the ARP Soloist.
We never did ELP's Trilogy live, it was strictly a piece for the album. Our audiences were not into the Prog Rock scene--we were a very commercial group.
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