Mystic Merlin -

Mystic Merlin was an American soul-funk band from N.Y.C., noted for their mix of music and magical acts. They made the 1980–82 Capitol albums Mystic Merlin, Sixty Thrills a Minute, and Full Moon.

Members: Clyde Bullard (bass), Barry Roark Strutt (saxophone, keyboards), Leslie Dorsey (keyboards, vocals), Jerry Anderson (guitar, vocals), Keith Gonzales (vocals, harmonica), Sly Randolph (drums, percussion, vocals), Betty Brown (vocals), Freddie Jackson (vocals)

Background

Mystic Merlin formed in 1977 in New York when guitarist Jerry Anderson and saxophonist-keyboardist Barry Strutt expanded a session partnership with bassist-magician Clyde Bullard.

Bullard entered the music business through his father, Atlantic Records executive Clarence “CB” Bullard; and his uncle, singer-songwriter Bill Withers. Bullard began his professional bass career with the Joseph Papp Shakespeare Festival touring production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. He continued with Hair and pit orchestras for Pippin, A Chorus Line, The Wiz, and Bubbling Brown Sugar.

Strutt grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he studied clarinet, piano, and classical music from childhood. He added alto saxophone in adolescence and reached tenor saxophone by his 1966 enrollment at Indiana University, where he met Michael Brecker. Strutt moved from Portland to New York in 1976 following engagements with jazz groups including the quartet After the Rain.

Drummer Sly Randolph grew up in Harlem and learned percussive rudiments in drum corps. Randolph studied with Apollo Theater house drummer Billy English and later played the Rainbow Room with Sy Oliver. He joined the 1977 touring company of Raisin. An early Mystic Merlin lineup also included singer David Barnes, who sang and played percussion with Gil Scott-Heron.

The core group (Anderson, Strutt, Bullard, Randolph) grew with singer Betty Brown, keyboardist-singer Leslie Dorsey, singer-harmonica player Keith Gonzales. They built live sets around original songs and stage illusions, with Gonzales as lead singer and onstage magician. The members called the combined music-and-magic format “Mujik” and used props that included a piano illusion built around Gonzales.

Mystic Merlin spent the late 1970s on rehearsals, live engagements, and demo sessions. They secured a long-term Capitol agreement and entered Penny Lane Studios in New York with producer Charles Kipps and engineer Alan Varner under executive producer Dr. Cecil Hale for the sessions that became Mystic Merlin.

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