Fireballet -

Fireballet was an American symphonic/art-rock band from New Jersey that made the 1975/76 albums Night on Bald Mountain and Two, Too on Passport Records. Multi-instrumentalist and composer Jim Cuomo hailed from Spoils of War and Mormos and later played in the multi-national jazz-funk group Pacific Eardrum. Cuomo and guitarist Ryche Chlanda partook in the 1977 Passport all-star project Intergalactic Touring Band.

Members: Jim Cuomo (vocals, drums, percussion), Brian Hough (Hammond organ, keyboards, backing vocals), Ryche Chlanda (guitar, vocals), Frank Petto (piano, synthesizer, Mellotron, keyboards, vocals), Martyn Biglin (bass, guitar)

Background

They started as the Fireball Kids in Northern New Jersey in the early 1970s. By 1974, Fireballet featured guitarist Ryche Chlanda, bassist Martyn “Spike” Biglin, keyboardists Brian Hough and Frank Petto, and drummer/percussionist Jim Cuomo, who sang lead and wrote most of the band’s material. Hough played briefly with Bay Area acid-rockers Frumious Bandersnatch, which feature future Journey members George Tickner and Ross Valory.

Cuomo (b. 1945, Chicago – d. 2018, Portland, Ore.) was a veteran of numerous projects dating back to the late 1960s, when he played saxophone in the University of Illinois Jazz Band while earning his Masters. He performed with the band in Moscow and worked as a computer card programmer for composer John Cage. In 1969, he cut an EP with avant-psych rockers Spoils of War. The following year, he issued six cuts of musique concrète on the EP Cuomo’s Record, released on self-press Depot Records.

He then served as the touring director for New York’s La MaMa Experimental Theatre, which brought him to Europe. Along with two other MaMa players, Cuomo settled in France and formed the folk-psych band Mormus, which backed François Béranger and issued the 1971/72 CBS albums Great Wall of China and The Magic Spell of Mother’s Wrath. During his time in France, Cuomo also played on 1971–74 albums by David McNeil, Jacques Higelin, Jacques Yvart, Jean-Max Brua, Michel Buhler, Pierre Barouh, and Mahjun.

Back in New Jersey, Cuomo established Fireballet, which regularly played the Ryder College Arts Center near Princeton. Taking advantage of the center’s state-of-the-art lighting setup, they floored audiences with their pyrotechnic showcases. Petto’s keyboard arsenal included the Mellotron, the ARP 2600 Synthesizer (serial #7), and an electronic strings device called the “Pettotron.”

The centerpiece of Fireballet’s early shows, which typically ran several hours, was their 45-minute epic “Night On Bald Mountain,” a multi-movement suite with themes appropriated from Debussy and the namesake Mussorgsky series. During intermissions, Chlanda performed solo guitar improvs with an assortment of gadgetry (pedals, echoplex, tape loops).

Along with band-friend and fellow Jerseyite Larry Fast (Synergy), Fireballet were one of the first stateside acts signed to Passport Records, an American label steeped in the UK/German underground (Nektar, Camel, Capability Brown, Lucifer’s Friend). They entered Broadway Recording Studios in New York City with producer Ian McDonald, the one-time keyboardist/reedist of King Crimson and McDonald and Giles. Fireballet were among the first bands to record in Sansui Quad.

Night on Bald Mountain

Fireballet released their debut album, Night on Bald Mountain, in June 1975 on Passport.

Side A contains three Jim Cuomo originals: the epic “Les Cathèdrales” and two self-referential numbers, “Centurion (Tales of Fireball Kids)” and “The Fireballet.”

Side B places the Ryche Chlanda ballad “Atmospheres” before “Night on Bald Mountain,” Fireballet’s eighteen-minute neo-classical suite in five parts, including the group-written “Night-Tale” passages. Producer Ian McDonald plays reeds on the Mussorgsky sequences.

Cuomo plays assorted mallets (xylophone, vibraphone, glockenspiel) and metals (gong, tubular bells, triangle, Chinese bell tree) in addition to drums and timpani. Bassist Martyn Biglin uses Moog Taurus pedals and doubles on 12-string guitar. Bryan Howe plays celesta, Hammond, and pipe organ while Frank Petto cuts between mellotron, piano (grand, electric), and the ARP 2600 synthesizer and Oberheim DS-2 digital sequencer.

A1. “Les Cathèdrales” (10:16)
A2. “Centurion (Tales of Fireball Kids)” (4:46)
A3. “The Fireballet” (5:15)

B1. “Atmospheres” (3:40)
B2. “Night on Bald Mountain (Suite)”
— a. “Night on Bald Mountain” (2:20)
— b. “Night-Tale” (6:28)
— c. “The Engulfed Cathedral” (4:38)
— d. “Night-Tale (Reprise)” (2:34)
— e. “Night on Bald Mountain (Finale)” (2:50)

Sessions occurred in Manhattan at Broadway Recording Studios, a midtown facility above the Ed Sullivan Theater. McDonald produced Night on Bald Mountain ahead of Modern Masquerades, the fourth and final album by Irish art-rockers Fruupp. These were his only production credits between his first outside client (Darryl Way’s Wolf) and his reemergence in Foreigner.

Night on Bald Mountain was engineered Bill Radice, who also worked on 1975/76 albums by Carol Douglas, Cory Braverman, Diamond Reo, Enchantment, and Melissa Manchester. Radice had baroque-psych origins in late-Sixties credits with the Left Banke, Lemon Pipers, and Timothy Clover. His earliest credit, The Left Bank Too, contains the original “Desiree,” a seminal chamber-pop melodrama.

Night on Bald Mountain features cover art by NY illustrator Ron Levine, a prior artist for Smoke Rise and Sleepy Hollow with credits on recent covers for Betty Davis, LTG Exchange, The Voices of East Harlem, and a 1975 Passport compilation of Hungarian rockers Omega. Bald Mountain shows a fire-dancing couple posed on a reptilian podium above red-haired pagans, who lounge in the arms of red-hooded grim reapers while torch-carrying monks walk single file on nearby mountain trails.

Two, Too

Fireballet released their second album, Two, Too, in August 1976 on Passport.

Jim Cuomo wrote the bookends of Side A (“Great Expectations,” “‘It’s About Time’) and the last two tracks (“Carrollon,” “Montage en Filigrée”). He co-wrote “Chinatown Boulevards” with Ryche Chlanda, who contributed “Flash” and plays Chinese zither and three-string mandolin. Side B opens with their cover of the Left Banke classic “Desiree.”

Cuomo makes use of metals (gong, tubular bells, sleigh bells) and branches into keyboards (Polymoog, clavinet). He places newfound emphasis on tympani and mallets (xylophone, marimba, vibes, glockenspiel), especially on “Chinatown Boulevards” and “It’s About Time,” which both feature his brother Brian Cuomo on harpsichord.

Frank Petto plays accordion, autoharp, electric piano, and assorted synthesizer (Polymoog, Pettotron). Brian Hough (reclaimed from the ‘Howe’ pseudonym) multi-tasks on saxophone, recorder, the RMI Rock-Si-Chord electric piano, and the West Orange Continental Cathedral pipe organ.

Musically, Two, Too re-imagines Tin Pan Alley in a whirlwind of lavish orchestration, pointillist pitch percussion, geometric rhythms, and carnival hi-jinks — a kaleidoscopic blend of Gentle Giant, Kayak, Klaatu, and select US contemporaries (Ambrosia, Flight), replete with Beach Boys harmonies, Parsons-like grandeur, and Pepper-esque scope.

A1. “Great Expectations” (4:30)
A2. “Chinatown Boulevards” (6:42)
A3. “It’s About Time” (6:12)

B1. “Desirée” (2:45) originated as a June 1967 Left Banke single; written by keyboardist Michael Brown and pianist/guitarist Tom Feher and included on their November 1968 second album The Left Banke Too.
B2. “Flash” (5:11)
B3. “Carrollon” (6:00)
B4. “Montage en Filigrée” (4:49)

Sesssions occurred in West Orange, New Jersey, at the House of Music, where staffer Stephan Galfas produced and co-engineered Two, Too in sequence with studio projects by Good Rats and John Tropea. The album’s assistant engineer, Cliff Hodson, did likewise on the late-1975 sessions for Bat Out of Hell, the Todd Rundgren-produced solo debut by Meat Loaf (released in late 1977).

Brian Cuomo (an auxiliary on the Good Rats’ 1974 release Tasty) also appears on 1976 albums by First Class, Jack McDuff, and (with Synergy) the red Vibration album by Sylvia Robinson. HoM presence John Zangrando (an auxiliary on the Good Rats’ 1976 release Ratcity in Blue) plays additional woodwinds on “Chinatown Boulevards.”

Brazilian arranger Eumir Deodato arranged the “Montage en Filigrée” strings after completion of his 1975 MCS release First Cuckoo, recorded at the House of Music in sequence with Synergy’s debut, Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra.

Two, Too features a third titular play on words with the cover, which shows Fireballet posed as ballerinas in tutus; photographed by Lee Marshall, who also photographed 1976 sleeves for Benitez & Nebula (Night Life), Joe Thomas, and the second Synergy album Sequencer.

Passport lifted “Desiree” as a single (b/w “Carrollon”).

Post-Fireballet

In 1977, Brian Cuomo served as the chief keyboardist on Intergalactic Touring Band, a sci-fi concept album arranged by Passport Records and recorded at the House of Music with an all-star studio band that included Synergy, Meat Loaf, John Tropea, John Zangrando, Rod Argent, Anthony Phillips, Arthur Brown, Ben E King, and the singers of Flame (Marge Raymond), Renaissance (Annie Haslam), and Strawbs (Dave Cousins). One track (“Robert Salesman”) features Jim Cuomo on vocals and Ryche Chlanda on guitar.

Jim Cuomo played on 1977 albums by Alfalpha (a Dream Academy precursor) and Sonny Worthing. He joined the multi-national jazz-funk group Pacific Eardrum for their 1977 Charisma debut and played on 1978–80 albums by Eastbound Expressway, Graham Bonnett, Marianne Faithfull, Roy Harper, and French folksters Malicorne.

Ryche Chlanda and Martyn ‘Spike’ Biglin joined Private Lines, an ITB-spinoff that cut the 1980 Passport title Trouble In School.

Discography: