Everyone that met musician Greg Kudlaty, from all phases of his life in the Cleveland area, have stories of their adventures with “Ace” Dixon, as he was known, or tales passed on from earlier escapades. “The Most Dangerous Man From Parma, Ohio” has friends going back decades in the music business. He passed away on 7/24/12 after a series of heart attacks.
Maybe you knew Greg as he was growing up as a “model” student at St. Bridget of Kildare Parish school on Hauserman Road in Parma, near the Chevy plant. He gained an education in Catholic school, and apparently also honed his sharp wit and outspokenness when he asked the priest why he was driving a Cadillac when he had taken a vow of poverty!
He worked on and off at Parma Lumber at Brookpark Road & W. 130th, but it wasn’t until he picked up a guitar in the 1970’s that he found his life’s passion. Ace eventually hooked up with Mike Miller, owner of Wilbert’s Food & Music, and helped organize Ohio Blues Too at the old Richfield Holiday Inn, which was the crash pad for many a weary rock star performing at the Richfield Coliseum and Blossom Music Center a few miles away.
Miller tells the story of guitar legend Roy Buchannon, who, after a long night with Ace, started removing the callouses from his fingers with a knife from the hotel. Next thing anyone knew, blood was everywhere. Miller recalls,
Greg had an amazing life. I really wish he would have written a book…
One of Greg’s jobs was to pick up the stars at the airport, squire them around town and show them some good times and the finer points of Cleveland, Ohio in the seventies. Many of those good times took place in the Holiday Inn’s lounge, where guitarists like Rick Derringer, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Gatemouth Brown and Mick Taylor of The Rolling Stones would stay up late hanging out with Ace, and a guitar over their lap. Ace learned his chops from the best. One of his early bands was named Nude Women, probably because the name Free Beer had already been taken.
Denis Devito met Greg back in the 1970’s, when Denis played with the seminal and influential band Lucky Pierre (led by Kevin McMahon, who later went went on to form the band Prick), and Greg helped the band with logistics and after-party arrangements:
“Ask anyone that knew Ace through out his life and I am sure they can tell you a story that is too bizarre to be made up.”
This is true. I got to know Greg when he and I played together in Devito’s band Cats On Holiday for a number of years. Ace’s searing, soaring guitar lines can be heard on virtually every track of the 2004 eponymous release Cats On Holiday, recorded mostly live, incidentally, at Miller’s latest incarnation of Wilbert’s, on Huron Avenue, in the shadow of the ball park. His unmistakable sound can also be heard on the track, It’s Christmas Day, on the recently released Holiday In A Box. Devito recalls,
“He recorded that song on an old guitar he found in a second-hand shop that had this wild Hawaiian scene art work on the body. I’m sure it was more of a toy than an instrument, but Greg make it sound like a million bucks.”
Greg was not a front man, he preferred to contribute through is instrument or in helping to organize the after-events. But occasionally, he was known to leap up in a sudden burst of inspiration, transform into “Ace” Dixon, and take over the microphone. It was everything we could do to try and keep up with him.
When an earlier incarnation of Cats On Holiday played a live gig at the old Cleveland Browns Stadium, Ace rose to the occassion, no doubt inspired by the venue, and improvised lyrics that included Browns legends such as Lou Groza, Ernie Kellerman and Dick Modjaleski, along with Cleveland/Akron rock and roll euphemisms. That live version made it onto the Cats’ Swamp Pop release, and a precious fragment is here.
If you want to hear some of Greg’s best work, stop in to a Cats On Holiday gig for a CD.
Greg put together a tough, hard-edged blues ensemble with Chas Smith called The Fulbrights, and I got the tremendous pleasure of playing with Greg once again. He was working on his own compositions and his bluesy voice, always a delight, only got better with age. His nephew Jeff Zbaeren shared the same experience, and offered,
“There’s not a lot of genuine musicians out there, but Greg was one of them. His life was stranger than fiction.”
Greg would always show up at the gig with a new (used) guitar, one he had improved like a true primitive luthier, rebuilding the pickups or putting two so-so guitars together to make one incredible instrument. He even found an old lap steel guitar and taught himself how to play it with a bottleneck or slide. He dug that horizontal style of playing so much, he started lying his guitars on their side and playing them with a bottleneck. These long, aching notes that sear into the brain are all over the Cats album we both played on. Ace was really saying something with his playing, and it was beautiful, but it wasn’t pretty.
A passion of Greg’s was building guitars from used cigar boxes, a tradition going back at least to the Civil War. With an empty cigar box as the resonator, Ace would augment with plumbing parts and hardware, creating an incredibly authentic and faithful blues guitar sound. We were fortunate, when visiting Greg a couple years ago, when he pulled out one of his creations and started wailing away, to have the presence of mind to pull out our iPhone and capture him in action. The video of Greg playing and singing one of his creations can be seen here.
Greg enjoyed fatherhood at a later age, and is survived by his twin children, Nick & Ava, age 7. Just a day or so before he passed, he spent time with them watching reruns of the old Batman TV series.
A memorial service will be held from 6-7PM on Mon 7/30 at Malloy Memorial & Crematory, 1575 W. 117th Street, Cleveland, OH 44107. Everyone will have at least one incredible story about Greg and his remarkable life.
Remembrance by Thomas Mulready
3 Responses to “REMEMBRANCE: Greg Kudlaty: The Last Ride of “Ace” Dixon”
dave zima
Rest in peace, my brother from another sister.
Love always,
Roland
Mitch
This is a perfect tribute to Greg. I got to know him pretty well in the last few years and we loved talking music. We spoke probably once a week and conversations always went in that direction. As a fellow musician, he and I spoke about playing together once he was well, but it never came to pass. I do, however, have a copy of some Fulbright’s music that I’ll listen to in his memory. Greg may be gone, but he’ll never be forgotten. Thanks for all of your kind words to me, Greg. You’ve helped me in more ways than you’ll ever know.
Dane hladky
I found of Greg’s d ath all to late…Greg was the most charismatic guy you’d ever meet
I took him out to California to build a house for a friend of mine….Actually… Greg sucked as a Laborer… But the entertainment was priceless..Greg begged me to make the 2 hour drive to San Francisco from peeble beach for the Blues Hall of fame awards… It was sold out…Greg tells me, pull up front and I’ll see if I can find a scalper. He no sooner got out the car when a young man ran up to him, said. Mr. Belushi, this way to backstage…that night was a night that I couldn’t even explain…thought of writing a scene play about it… Greg was special.