Paul Pena
Star of 1999
documentary 'Genghis Blues'
David Rubien, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
[Editor's note: This obituary ran in the San Francisco
Chronicle
and they retain the copyright. We have cached a copy of it here
because these things have a way of disappearing from the WWW.]
Paul Pena, a San Francisco blues artist who mastered the arcane art of Tuvan
throat singing, died Saturday from complications of diabetes and pancreatitis.
He was 55.
Many people are familiar with Mr. Pena because of the 1999 Academy
Award-nominated documentary "Genghis Blues," which tells the story of how he
took up throat singing, culminating with an eventful trip to the Central Asian
country Tuva, where he won awards in a throat singing competition.
But millions more are acquainted with his work without even knowing it because
he wrote the song "Jet Airliner," which was a Top 10 hit for the Steve Miller
Band in 1977.
Mr. Pena, almost completely blind since birth and plagued by illnesses most of
his life, lived off the royalties from that hit.
Mr. Pena was born to a family of Cape Verdean background in Hyannis, Mass. He
proved to be a natural musician, singing and teaching himself several
instruments. In the late '60s, he was in a band that opened for big-time acts
including the Grateful Dead and Frank Zappa. Blues artists ranging from T-Bone
Walker to B.B. King to Bonnie Raitt recognized his talents, hiring him to play
guitar in their bands.
"He's like having my very own Jimi Hendrix," Raitt once said. "There's simply
nothing he can't play well."
In 1971, Mr. Pena moved to San Francisco, where he played many gigs, frequently
opening for Jerry Garcia's and Merle Saunders' bands.
His career was on a positive arc when he released an album, "Paul Pena," in
1972. But things took a bad turn when he recorded a follow-up, "New Train," the
next year. Mr. Pena got caught up in a dispute with volatile label owner Albert
Grossman, best known for managing Bob Dylan, the Band, Janis Joplin and others.
Grossman refused to release "New Train."
"That just broke Paul's heart," said Seth Augustus, a musician who studied
throat singing with Mr. Pena and helped care for him over the past several
years.
The album did finally come out in 2000 -- by which time Mr. Pena was reeling
from the shocks of experiencing the release of "Genghis Blues" and getting
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Told he had only a few months to live, Mr.
Pena began a course of chemotherapy. Shortly after, however, his doctors said
they made a mistake: It was pancreatitis, not cancer after all.
Mr. Pena became interested in throat singing when he heard a Tuvan broadcast on
his shortwave radio in 1984. Later he got ahold of a Tuvan record, playing it
countless times until he learned how to throat sing, which involves producing
several distinct vocal-cord sounds simultaneously. In 1993, attending a throat
singing performance at the Asian Art Museum, he demonstrated his own technique
to Kongar-ol Ondar, one of the foremost throat singers in the world. Ondar was
mightily impressed with Mr. Pena, nicknaming him "Earthquake" and inviting him
to come to Tuva to participate in the annual competition.
His 1995 journey to Tuva -- where he won the contest in two categories and
charmed locals who were delighted with this foreigner who mastered their art
form -- is recounted in "Genghis Blues."
"The influence he had on other people was very bright," Augustus said of Mr.
Pena. "He taught me more about music than anyone ever did."
Mr. Pena is survived by his parents, Jack and Virginia Pena of Cape Cod, Mass.,
and two brothers, Jim of Lynnfield, Mass., and Peter.
A public memorial concert and celebration of Mr. Pena's life will be announced
at a later date on www.paulpena.com.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/04/BAGVPF28KH1.DTL
©2005 San Francisco Chronicle
