Kamikaze Ground Crew began life circa 1983 as the pit band for the juggling troupe The Flying Karamazov Brothers.
The band originally included Karamazovs Paul Magid on woodwinds and Howard Patterson on mid-range brass, along with non-juggling multi-instrumentalists Gina Leishman, Doug Weiselman, Steven Bernstein and Danny Frankel. This proved to be such a successful collaboration that within a few years the FKB became inundated with offers to perform various acts without the band - some in the nude - including a cameo appearance in the Disney film "Family Jewels On The Nile" ...thus abandoning the hapless KGC to fend for themselves in the confusing and violently competitive contemporary music scene without any juggling at all anymore to distract them or their audiences. However, trombonist Jeff Cressman and yours truly were hastily recruited to fill the empty chairs, and with the unflappability of a flightless bird, the KGC continued to add many accomplishments to their resume, including clearing unwanted cannonballs from the stage, marching to their own drummer, and (figuratively) rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. After a while this became a bit too much for yours truly, and I was replaced for a time by Ralph Carney, who introduced sounds to the group which were previously thought unimaginable.
In the years which have passed, the KGC have ridden on camels, motorcycles, jitneys, trojan horses and donkey carts in order to get out of town quickly following objections to their controversial outreach program
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some of the members have even spawned children of their own. In spite of all this, we have reconvened once again for your listening and dancing pleasure. And while once upon a time our music was designed to enlighten the minds of our friends and darken the minds of our enemies, we now enter our 21st year with straight love for music lovers and music haters alike, along with forgiveness for all of our attempted assasins... some of whom shall remain anonymous forever.
Peter Apfelbaum, October 2006
