In Portland Maine in December 2022, 60 years after the first show he ever booked, I sat down with my dad Paul Lichter to talk about what he’s learned from six tenths of a century of booking jazz and experimental music. Specifically, I wanted to hear about the difficulties of trying to bring forward-thinking music to towns not known for their dedication to the avant garde and how that’s changed his relationship to the music. Throughout my early childhood I remember being brought to a handful of borderline-unattended shows, often of a level of improvisation and experimentation not associated with listenability. As I grew up and began playing and booking experimental music myself, I started reconsidering those under-attended nights of my youth in the early 2000s, having experienced them now as both a musician and promoter. My dad’s words are accompanied by recordings from the musicians and bands in the stories, released chronologically as close as possible to the performances he describes. 

photo: very rare photo of cafe no in the portland public library archives of my dad and his bff dave who co-ran the Cafe No. Portland Maine 1990!