Kaiser, Henry
Entry updated 13 October 2025. Tagged: Music, People.
(1952- ) US guitarist, a prolific and important figure in improvised music, with a longstanding interest in sf and fantasy. Daniel M Pinkwater provided the text of the title track of The Devil in the Drain (1987), read by Kaiser. Crazy Backwards Alphabet (1987) is a collaboration with cartoonist and Simpsons creator Matt Groening. The Wolf at the Door (2025) is an instrumental tribute to Gene Wolfe. The beautiful, intricate solo baritone guitar improvisations were each inspired by the enigmatic narratives of individual Wolfe stories, as attested by titles such as "The Death of Doctor Island", "The Island of Doctor Death", "Death of the Island Doctor", "Return to the Whorl" and "Seven American Nights", as well as a brief reading of an extract from Interlibrary Loan (2020). Kaiser is also a research diver, and his underwater footage of the Antarctic stood in for an alien planet in The Wild Blue Yonder (2005), directed by Werner Herzog. [CWa]
born Oakland, California: 19 September 1952
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