Brahman

Brahman was a Canadian hard-rock band from Vancouver that released a 1971 self-titled album on Mercury.

Members: Robbie King (keyboards), David Lanz (piano), Duris Maxwell (vocals, drums), Edward Patterson (guitar), Victor Stewart (vocals), Paul Blaney (bass)

Background

Brahman formed in Vancouver in mid-1970 when drummer Duris Maxwell and guitarist Ed Patterson teamed with bassist Paul Blaney and organist Robbie King under booking agent Wes Dakus. Maxwell, Patterson, and King played together earlier in the Good Shepherds and Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers.

Maxwell was born Ted Lewis in East York, Ontario, and grew up in Vancouver. He toured with country musician Evan Kemp as a teenager, then played with Little Daddy and the Bachelors and the Chessmen. King was born in Malartic, Quebec, to big-band musicians and left home at seventeen to play Toronto clubs. He moved west with the Good Shepherds and later joined the Vancouvers. Patterson followed the same Shepherds-to-Vancouvers route and later joined the BC trio Trilogy.

Brahman expanded with singer Victor Stewart and pianist David Lanz, a pair from the Seattle-area Towne Cryers. Lanz, born in Seattle, started piano in childhood and joined the Towne Cryers as a teenager. The group placed third among roughly 300 entrants at the 1965 Seattle Teen Fair. Mime artist Ian McKay joined Brahman several months later for the stage act.

The expanded group played Vancouver clubs, including Gassy Jack’s Place in Gastown, under Dakus management. Mercury acquired Brahman in 1971 through a live audition at a Vancouver home studio. Brahman traveled to New York for sessions at Mercury Studios and recorded the self-titled debut.

Discography:

• Brahman (1971)

Sources

• RPM, October 9, 1971 — strongest contemporary source for the formation sequence: Maxwell and Patterson met Blaney and King in mid-1970, Stewart and Lanz joined later, and McKay followed several months later. (World Radio History)
• Billboard, July 10, 1971 — reports that Mercury acquired Brahman through a live audition at the group’s Vancouver home studio and identifies Wes Dakus as the agent who assembled the act. (World Radio History)
• Motown Museum: Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers — confirms Patterson, King, and Ted Lewis/Duris Maxwell in the Motown-era Vancouvers lineup. (Motown Museum)
• BC Entertainment Hall of Fame: Robbie King — King birth place, musical family, Toronto club activity, Good Shepherds, and Bobby Taylor history. (BC ENTERTAINMENT HALL OF FAME)
• Royal City Music Project: Duris Maxwell — Maxwell early Vancouver activity, Chessmen, Good Shepherds, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, and the Brahman rehearsal/audition account. (Royal City Music Project)
• David Lanz biography / Pacific Northwest material — Lanz teenage Towne Cryers activity and the 1965 Seattle Teen Fair; a recollection from Towne Cryers drummer Robin Gudgel’s brother identifies Victor Stewart in the same lineup. (Cue Records)
• Museum of Canadian Music — Brahman lineup, Gassy Jack’s Place appearances, Lanz and Maxwell background, and LP production documentation. (Museum of Canadian Music)
• Original-LP credit transcription — confirms recording at Mercury Studios in New York and production for Park Lane Music. (Shuga Records)