If you don’t know Tom Lehrer, you should! He was an amazing musical parodist/comic — perhaps the finest who ever lived, although (IMHO) some of the modern crop (Bo Burnham, Bill Bailey, Tim Minchin) give him a run for the money. A good starting point is his famous 1967 concert in Copenhagen, available in full on YouTube.
Anyway, he released all his music — recordings, sheet music, everything — into the public domain in 2022, at tomlehrersongs.com. “Mike Z.” made it easy to mirror this site on their github page, so I did just that. My mirror is at https://tomlehrer.tgeller.com. Enjoy!
(My family has some connection to Mr. Lehrer, by the way: My parents were students in the Boston area when he was first making a splash. I believe they got to see him perform during this time, and I grew up with his albums playing during dinner.)
I was honoured to be part of the second Purple Clouds, a furry music festival at a swinger campground in Hude, Germany. In a very real way this was my debut; I want to talk about what it meant to me.
First, the details. My main gig there was accompanying DJ WORLDWIDEWOLF on trombone and voice as he spun liquid drum ‘n’ bass. We’d done this fairly spontaneously at Aural Alliance in 2024; this time, I was on the bill. He even came all the way from Braunschweig (DE) to my place in Rotterdam (NL) to rehearse!
I’ve always been something of a musical loner. Honestly, I hoped I’d become one of those solo artists known for forging their own path. But in truth all those maverick types collaborated. Those I admire most — Björk and Bobby McFerrin, for example — are actually the most collaborative. I also realised that I love spontaneously playing along with recordings — or, better, live musicians. (My theory background really helps here: Once I pick up the chord changes it’s just a matter of listening and playing idiomatically.)
Photo by MiaTortiaa
But to find those collaborators, you first need to pique their interest by showing what you can do. I’d quietly tried a few streams on my Twitch channel but didn’t feel any of those performances held together; I didn’t want to be judged by them, so I hid them all. But playing live… that’s the stuff.
At Purple Clouds I played three times. First, an unannounced, off-the-cuff solo ambient set at the end of Friday’s program, at 3am. This was on trombone and my little Akai MPK Mini Play MK3, with lots of reverb throughout. This really caught everybody’s attention. Although nobody was in the stage/dance area, it could be heard throughout the 400-person camp, and some even came from their tents to see what was happening. I got lots of positive comments. (My favourite was from someone who said it sounded like they were in VRChat.) As far as I know there’s no recording of the whole thing, but here’s a snippet.
Video by DeJay
The second gig was at 1400 on Saturday, with WORLDWIDEWOLF. We make a good team! I have criticisms of my own performance but you know what? You can come to your own conclusions. Here’s the set. I’d love to hear what you thought of it in my Telegram chat.
WORLDWIDEWOLF x Jack Newhorse at Purple Clouds, 18 July 2026.
Finally was an impromptu party at Howlheim, a group of Germans with their own little tent community in the corner of the campground. I’d had my ear open for music I could play along with and when I heard traditional German “oom-pah” music (as it’s called in America), I knew I had to be a part of it. So I asked them if it would be O.K., got my trombone, and came back to play for an hour with their DJ. It was fun!
I could write quite a lot more about it and maybe I will later. (In short: well run, leaky tent, pretty sober crowd, lots of nudity and sex.) It was the right place for me, and I’m glad I went. Thanks to Keenora and ALL the Purple Clouds staff & volunteers for making it happen!
Hey, gang. It’s strange that I don’t know who you are, reading this. But you’re here, so you seem to know who I am. Anyway…
I’ve been making music for as long as I can remember. I took the classical path. We had a piano near the TV, so I’d play during commercials. My school district had a pretty good music program; I went to music camp in the summer and eventually to music college (“conservatory”) in Ohio.
Lately I’ve realised how much I benefitted from the musical platforms this upbringing gave me. There was always an orchestra, jazz band, choir to perform in. Then there weren’t; I swam into adulthood and did other things. I played for myself in spurts a few times a year. I gigged a little with bands — New Orleans, Balkan, jazz standards, etc.. Played in the orchestra for musicals, that kind of thing. It’s been fine.
But I never put together an “act”. I don’t know why. Maybe growing up with all those great platforms left me without the skills to build my own. Around 2024 I decided to start developing those skills. I bought a looper; I studied DAWs and such. The process made me recognise which parts I liked doing and was good at, and which I didn’t and wasn’t. As I learned more about modern styles and techniques, the more I wanted to get back on stage.
I got to play with DJ WORLDWIDEWOLF at the Aural Alliance Festival and thought it would be great to play with more DJs. Then I bought a DJ controller at an auction for €35, Arkifel suggested I learn Mixxx… and here we are.
I’d like to shout out to some of the other DJs and musicians who have gotten me to this point. First, all the DJs who showed how it’s done at Otterdance:
