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Manhattan Transfer: The Best of ...

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Atlantic Recordings
Released: 1981
Time:
 43:34
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): Tim Hauser, Ahmet Ertegun, Jay Graydon
Rating: ******.... (6/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.manhattantransfer.org
Appears with:
Purchase date: 1997.07.14
Price in €: 9,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Tuxedo Junction (Dash/Feyne/Hawkins/Johnson) - 2:44
[2] Boy from New York City (Davis/Taylor) - 3:40
[3] Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone (Graydon/Hermann/Paul) - 3:55
[4] Body and Soul (Eyton/Green/Heyman/Sour) - 4:25
[5] Candy (David/Kramer/Whitney) - 3:26
[6] Four Brothers (Giuffre/Hendricks) - 3:47
[7] Birdland (Hendricks/Zawinul) - 6:00
[8] Gloria (Navarro) - 2:57
[9] Trickle Trickle (Bassett) - 2:18
[10] Operator (Spivery) - 3:09
[11] Java Jive (Drake/Oakland) - 2:44
[12] Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (Maschwitz/Sherwin) - 3:46

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Janis Siegel - Vocals, Associate Producer, Vocal Arrangement
Cheryl Bentyne - Vocals
Tim Hauser - Vocals
Alan Paul - Vocals

Yaron Gershovsky - Conductor, Keyboards
Wayne Johnson - Guitar
Tom Kellock - Synthesizer
Art Rodriguez - Drums
Alex Blake - Bass, Drums
Don Roberts - Wind, Woodwind

Sandi Young - Design
Leslie Cabarga - Illustrations

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Now, in their 25th Anniversary Year, contemporary music's premier vocal ensemble - Tim Hauser, Cheryl Bentyne, Alan Paul, and Janis Siegel - are pushing the envelope once again. Having conquered the vocal intricacies of jazz, R&B, doo-wop, Brazilian, and rock n roll, for 1997, The Manhattan Transfer have put their unique spin on the classic sounds of swing. Their new Atlantic album - titled, simply, SWING - takes on this diverse and danceable genre in all its forms, from urban hot jazz to rural barnburning stompers. The album incorporates songs made famous by some of the giants of Big Band jazz and swing: Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Django Reinhardt, Artie Shaw, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Barnet, and Fletcher Henderson, a true "King of Swing" whose arrangements are a foundation for much of the record.



Riding a wave of nostalgia in the '70s, the Manhattan Transfer resurrected jazz trends from boogie-woogie to bop to vocalese in a slick, slightly commercial setting that sometimes failed to gel with the group's close harmonies. Originally formed in 1969, the quartet recorded several albums of jazz standards as well as much material closer to R&B/pop. Still, they were easily the most popular jazz vocal group of their era, and the most talented of any since the heyday of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross during the early '60s.

When the group was formed in the late '60s however, Manhattan Transfer was a hippie cornball act similar to Lovin' Spoonful or Spanky & Our Gang. The lone LP that appeared from the original lineup -- leader Gene Pistilli plus Tim Hauser, Erin Dickins, Marty Nelson and Pat Rosalia -- was Jukin', assembled by Capitol. An odd and hardly successful satire record, it was the last appearance on a Manhattan Transfer album for all of the above except Hauser.

After Hauser met vocalists Laurel Masse and Janis Siegel in 1972, the trio re-formed Manhattan Transfer later that year with the addition of Alan Paul. The group became popular after appearances at a few New York hotspots, and recorded their own debut, an eponymous LP recorded with help from the jazz world (including Zoot Sims, Randy Brecker, Jon Faddis and Mel Davis). Featuring vocalese covers of "Java Jive" and "Tuxedo Junction" as well as a Top 40 hit in the aggressive gospel tune "Operator," the album rejuvenated the field of vocalese (dormant since the mid-'60s) and made the quartet stars in the jazz community across Europe as well as America.

The Manhattan Transfer's next two albums, Coming Out and Pastiche, minimized the jazz content in favor of covers from around the music community, from Nashville to Los Angeles to Motown. A single from Coming Out, the ballad "Chanson d'Amour," hit number one in Britain. Though Masse left in 1979 for a solo career, Cheryl Bentyne proved a capable replacement and that same year, Extensions introduced their best-known song "Birdland," the ode to bop written by Weather Report several years earlier.

Throughout the 1980s, the group balanced retreads from all aspects of American song. The 1981 LP Mecca for Moderns gained Manhattan Transfer their first American Top Ten hit with a cover of the Ad Libs' 1965 girl-group classic "The Boy from New York City," but also included a version of Charlie Parker's "Confirmation" and a surreal, wordless tribute (?) named "Kafka." (The album also earned Manhattan Transfer honors as the first artist to receive Grammys in both the pop and jazz categories in the same year.) The production on virtually all was susceptible to '80s slickness, and though the group harmonies were wonderful, all but the most open of listeners had trouble digesting the sheer variety of material.

The group's 1985 tribute to vocal pioneer Jon Hendricks, titled Vocalese, marked a shift in Manhattan Transfer's focus. Subsequent works managed to keep the concepts down to one per album, and the results greatly improved. Such records as 1987's Brasil, 1994's Tubby the Tuba (a children's record), 1995's Tonin' ('60s R&B), and 1997's Swing may not all find the group at their peak, but were much more easily understandable for what they are.

John Bush, All-Music Guide
 

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