THE MAESTRO and SWORN TO THE DRUM

Les Blank, respectful recorder of the eccentric and obsessed, profiles two fascinating men foremost in their fields. THE MAESTRO: KING OF THE COWBOY ARTISTS is Berkeley's Gerald Gaxiola, painter/sculptor/architect/designer/composer who has adopted the homey persona of a singing cowboy, Tom Mix-ing rope tricks with public “quick draw” displays and (paintball) gunfights against Christo and Warhol. Before bushwhacking the Maestro as a self-promoting dude, note that he refuses to get rich off his vast output, and reined in his own popular Wild West show when he felt it not art, was getting all the attention. THE MAESTRO will be preceded by SWORN OT THE DRUM: A TRIBUTE TO FRANCISCO AGUABELLA, which lauds Cuban-born Aguabella, a real-life mambo king, conga czar, rumba prince, whose traditional West African rhythms have backed Santeria rituals, Hollywood movies, and Dizzy Gillespie. – Charles Cassady