Manhattan Transfer
FORMED: 1969, New York, NY
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 have found the group
at their performance peak, but were much more easily understandable for what
they are. Spirit of St. Louis was issued three years later. ~ John Bush, All
Music Guide