Richard Battaglia ‘74 has traveled the world and had the opportunity to work with some incredible musicians, including Bruce Hornsby, Chick Corea, Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews, John Denver and Branford Marsalis. He’s met Sting and Todd Rundgren, as well.
Listen to "Scratch & Sniff," performed by Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
Listen to "Hall of Mirrors," performed by Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
“It’s been an exciting and rewarding career so far, with more to come,” he said.
Richard’s vocation may not come as a complete surprise to alumni who enjoyed listening to his rock band, which performed in and around Maryville in the 1970s and 1980s, but it may widen the eyes of contemporaries who remember Richard in the College’s science labs and photography darkrooms.
“I came to Maryville College as a pre-med student,” Richard recently explained. “My heart wasn’t in it, so I moved to bio-chem – still not really with the program. During my junior year, I realized I was more interested in the arts, and I was able to combine the science courses I already had with art courses I could take to achieve this individual major (science and photography). I didn’t start out in the music program, and it was too late to begin in midstream. So I figured out a way to graduate in four years and still get into the arts – in my case, photography.”
Following graduation, he began mixing sound for local bands, working with the swing band Lonesome Coyotes and later, New Grass Revival. When the group broke up, he stayed with the band’s acclaimed banjo player, Béla Fleck.
“What I do now involves the logistics of a traveling group of musicians and crew, as well as the actual performance. Travel is extensive, mostly on a tour bus, sometimes on an airplane. We also spend a lot of time in the recording studio, specializing in computer recording. These recordings have given Béla numerous Grammy® nominations (in more categories than any other artist) with numerous Grammy® Awards.”
As a recording and mixing engineer on Béla Fleck and the Flecktones’ jazz album “Outbound,” Richard received a Grammy® in 2000. (The album was named Best Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year.) “Little Worlds,” a 2003 offering by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, features some of Richard’s photography.
Part-time diplomat
“There are so many stories to tell; one good one had to do with a USIA (United States Information Agency) tour I did with New Grass Revival,” Richard wrote. “We were on a six-week tour, performing for the natives of Greece, Malta, Turkey, India and several other countries. We were part time U.S. diplomats, spreading stories and ideas about the USA to the natives we met along the way.
“We had a performance in an outdoor venue in Istanbul, Turkey. This was in 1986, and our trip to Turkey was an eye opener. Military police were everywhere, machine guns in hand. We would ask the people we met if this bothered them since we were not used to this at all. The locals would reply that this was much better than it used to be, because it used to be everyone had machine guns, now it was just the military – much safer!
“The conditions at the concert were very primitive – a small wooden stage and small, inadequate sound system – but a huge crowd attended the show. There were maybe 4,000 Turks, mostly young boys. After the show, our interpreter came to us with tears in her eyes, telling us that we ‘washed the blood away.’ We were shocked. No one had ever mentioned to us that the last gathering in Taxim Square resulted in a massacre that left hundreds dead. Our performance was the first event since that time! We survived and continued our travels. It was quite an experience!”
