Natural Life

Natural Life was an American jazz-rock band from Minnesota that released the 1976/77 albums All Music, Unnamed Land, and Natural Life.

Members: Mike Elliott (guitar), Bob Rockwell (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute), Bobby Peterson (piano), Billy Peterson (bass), Steve Kimmel (congas, tabla, percussion, timbales), Bill Berg (drums), Eric Gravatt (drums)

Background

Natural Life formed in Minneapolis in 1973 as guitarist Mike Elliott, saxophonist Bob Rockwell, pianist Bobby Peterson, bassist Billy Peterson, drummer Bill Berg, and percussionist Steve Kimmel developed a jam-session band at the Poodle on Hennepin Avenue.

Elliott was born in Chicago and raised in Colorado Springs, where he studied guitar with Johnny Smith. Elliott moved to Minneapolis in 1966 after touring with a Colorado jazz group.

Rockwell was born in Miami, Oklahoma, and grew up in Minneapolis, where he started clarinet at age 10 and embraced saxophone in high school. He returned to Minneapolis in 1973 after nearly five years in Las Vegas hotel orchestras, big bands, and after-hours groups.

Bobby Peterson joined the Buddy Rich band at age 21 and returned to the Twin Cities after two seasons with the orchestra. Billy Peterson studied drums with Minnesota Symphony percussionist Elliott Fine and keyboards with Ernie Garvin. Peterson toured with the Righteous Brothers as a teenager and played bass with pianist Billy Wallace until Natural Life took shape in Minneapolis.

Berg came from Hibbing and played in northern Minnesota rock bands prior to his partnership with Billy Peterson in the Twin Cities. Kimmel led the Whole Earth Rainbow Band, an experimental Minneapolis ensemble that also played the Poodle.

Natural Life opened for McCoy Tyner on Oct. 2, 1973, at the St. Paul Civic Center. The group lost the Poodle to an Anthony Hotel fire early the next year and moved to the Downtowner Motel, where the musicians organized the jam format around original compositions.

In January 1974, Natural Life completed a direct-to-disc album at Sound 80 in Minneapolis. Tom Jung engineered the session and sent the performance straight to the mastering chain without magnetic tape. Berg left Minneapolis for California at the end of the year, and Rockwell invited former Weather Report drummer Eric Gravatt into Natural Life. Gravatt spent about a year with the group, followed by former Kaleidoscope and Pure Food & Drug Act drummer Paul Lagos.

Natural Life struggled to secure a recording contract and established Celebration Records in Bloomington. Celebration Records opened with Natural Life as the first act, while the group arranged national distribution through ASI Records. Natural Life issued the early Sound 80 recording through Celebration and ASI as the self-titled Natural Life.

Discography:

• All Music (1976)
• Unnamed Land (1976)
• Natural Life (1977)