Nomadic Maestro Solomon Feldthouse — Psychedelic World Music and Family Threads

At a Glance

Early Life and Identity

Born in a sheepherder’s wagon on January 20, 1940, David E. Scaff later became Solomon Feldthouse — a name he took from his stepfather, Navy Captain Harry Feldthouse. The boy who would be called “El Coyote” grew up in motion: military postings, Mediterranean light, the smells and sounds of İzmir and Andalusia seeding his musical imagination. Family lore — a tragic tale of a Hungarian Romani musician father lost in an explosion — became part of the mythology he carried, half-memory and half-poem.

He found rhythm in odd places. As a teenager in Florida he dove for sunken artifacts; later, in the U.S. Navy as a photographer’s mate, he practiced flamenco guitar in darkrooms. These early chapters stitched together a restless curiosity that fed a lifetime of musical experiments.

Family and Kin

The family is a living mosaic: belly dancers, actors, musicians, and a rotating cast of close friends described as “adopted” family within the Feldthouse Family Circus. Relationships were often private; the public record concentrates on a few vivid names and many quieter presences.

Kaleidoscope and the Sound of Fusion

In 1966, Feldthouse co-founded Kaleidoscope in Los Angeles — a band that resembled an aural caravan, pulling blues, country, psychedelic rock, and Middle Eastern modes into a single tent. Between 1967 and 1970, the band released four albums: Side Trips (1967), A Beacon from Mars (1968), Incredible Kaleidoscope (1969), and Bernice (1970). Live, they played Fillmore West and folk festivals. Their sound was not a compromise; it was a collision — collisions that glittered.

Kaleidoscope’s influence spread quietly but deeply. It was the kind of band other musicians admired aloud; a few called them favorites. Their songs — “Please,” “Lie To Me,” and instrumentals like “Egyptian Garden” — showcased Feldthouse’s taste for modal improvisation and exotic timbres. The band split in 1970, but the routes it opened continued to be walked by Feldthouse and others.

Later Projects and Devotional Work

After Kaleidoscope, Feldthouse explored narrower wheels of sound. He formed Sirocco with Armando Fojaco, concentrating on belly-dance-oriented music and international touring. In later decades he led Sufi devotional gatherings in California, recording The Name of the Beloved with ensembles of like-minded musicians. Reunions — notably in 1976 and 1990 — recalled the original spark, but Feldthouse’s path remained steady: wandering, learning, adapting.

His public visibility after 2021 remained archival — YouTube clips, fan tributes, and family-led memorial efforts. A fundraiser organized by his son covered memorial expenses, reflecting a practical family response to life’s end and hinting at a modest financial reality: a professional musician’s earnings tied to gigs and small recordings rather than mainstream commercial fortune.

Instruments, Technique, and Stage Persona

Numbers matter here: Feldthouse reportedly mastered more than ten exotic instruments. The vowels of the oud, the metallic ring of the saz, the percussive skin of the doumbek — these were his colors. Flamenco training added a percussive right-hand technique; Sufi practice informed his use of drones and modal repetition. On stage he became “El Coyote”: half storyteller, half caravan leader, always with the air of someone who’d lived many lives and could lend you one phrase of a melody from each.

Selected Discography and Milestones

Timeline Snapshot (Dates & Numbers)

• 1940 — Birth (January 20).
• 1964 — Son Solomon Benjamin born (July 10).
• 1966–1970 — Kaleidoscope’s principal recording years (4 studio albums).
• 1974 — Daughter Fairuza born (May 21).
• 2015 — Death of son Solomon Benjamin (July 24).
• 2021 — Death of Solomon Feldthouse (December 13).
• 2021 — Memorial fundraiser organized by son Reuben.

These neat numbers map an uneven, human life: a caravan measured in albums, births, reunions, and funerals.

Financial and Public Notes

Feldthouse’s life-style and career implied modest means: a working musician whose income flowed from performances, occasional recordings, teaching, and touring. After his death the family’s memorial fundraiser signaled practical needs; it also became a public marker of how artists who broaden musical vocabulary often do so without accumulating wealth commensurate with their influence.

Presence in Media and Memory

Archived videos — recordings from live sets, studio tracks, and later uploads — form the primary trace of Feldthouse’s public voice. Family connections, especially his daughter Fairuza Balk’s profile, occasionally refocus attention back to him. Tributes across social media and music circles keep the sound circulating: not as headlines, but as small, sharp lights in the night sky of 20th-century American musical cross-pollination.

A life like his reads like a map drawn with a loose hand: distances marked, campsites named, melodies left as trail markers.