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Charles Compo is a contemporary American fine artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist.

Charles Compo, Bi Coastal Music, 2009
Charles Compo, Bi Coastal Music, 2009

Family And Early Life


Charles Compo was born in 1958 in Jamaica, Queens to jazz violinist Peter Compo and Broadway actress Faith Daltry Compo. He grew up surrounded by music in Ossining NY.

His father recorded and performed with jazz artists like Zoot Sims, Duke Jordon and Lionel Hampton and his mother was part of the original cast of Plain and Fancy on Broadway. His grandfather, Joseph Daltry, founded the music department at Wesleyan University and his grandmother, Faith Merriman, was a soprano with the San Francisco Opera under the direction of Gaetano Merola.

He studied music at his father's school, Compo Conservatory. At the age of 16 Compo began playing in and around New York City with funk bands, club bands, and touring oldies acts including The Ink Spots and The Platters.


Music career


In 1976 he moved to New York City, where he met Harry Smith. Compo composed music for Smith's Film Number 21, as well as for live presentations of Smith’s animations at the Film Makers Collective and Anthology Film Archives. In 1983 Smith introduced Compo to Moses Asch, who signed him to Folkways Records. The Smithsonian/Folkways released Compo's ''Seven Flute Solos in 1987. From 1986-1990, he worked as assistant to songwriter Ritchie Cordell.

In 1991, he appeared in a number of shows in and around New York City under the stage name Chuck Tempo, including Axel Rhodes in the Off Broadway production of Return to the Forbidden Planet. He also played Fast Eddie in the NBC daytime drama Another World. In 1992, Twyla Tharp commissioned Compo to compose Touch Dance. During this time, Compo also recorded, wrote, and performed on commercial projects for companies such as Hitachi, New York Lotto, ESPN, and Johnson and Johnson.

Compo studied composition and arranging with Don Sebesky and has performed and recorded with jazz artists Curtis Fowlkes, Sahib Shihab, and Roy Campbell Jr., William Hooker, and Ted Daniel. Compo also collaborated with notable hardcore producer Don Fury on the album Doctor Phibe's Portable Darkness. In addition to his consistent work with respected jazz artists, Compo has also supported and performed with pop artists such as Christina Aguilera, Martha Reeves, Bo Diddley, and Julee Cruise.


Discography



Fine Art career


Originally a collector of Lower East Side artists in the 1980’s, notable artists in his collection of Rivington School artists include work by Shalom Neuman, Phil Rostek, Fa-Q (Kevin Wendell), and Miss Understood. He began a painting practice of his own as he naturally became immersed in the New York art scene, and worked briefly as an assistant to Andy Warhol in 1985 before Warhol's death. Compo’s painting style is considered an intuitive process, expression of narratives inspired by everyday life. His artwork has now been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, including a painting selected to debut at the 2021 London Biennale. In December 2021 A selection of his work was acquired by The Yuko Nii Foundation’s Permanent Collection. The selected work “Down At The Rally” had also been awarded a special prize by MOMA curator Paulina Pabocha, at the WAH Center’s juried exhibition “America The Beautiful: The Real and Imagined”. The show was promoted in conjunction with Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum day, and ran from September–November 2021.

I've Got The World On A String , Oil on Canvas by Charles Compo, exhibited at the 2021 London Biennale
"I've Got The World On A String" , Oil on Canvas by Charles Compo, exhibited at the 2021 London Biennale

Select Exhibition History



References


    1. Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways (Published by Collins/Harper Collins Publishers)
    2. Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
    3. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, Oxford University Press, Lenord Feather and Ira Gitler
    4. All About Jazz[permanent dead link]
    5. Broadway World
    6. Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith, Selected Interviews. Selattle: Elbow/Cityfull Press.
    7. Special Collections and Archives, Olin Library, Wesleyan University
    8. AMM Spotlight: Charles Compo (Published by Arts Management Magazine)


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