Solstice -

Solstice was an American Midwest jazz-funk band that released a 1977 self-titled album through Encore Productions.

Background

Solstice formed in Iowa City by July 1974 around guitarist John Penny and drummer Tim Pleasant, University of Iowa musicians active in the local jazz circuit.

Penny was born in 1950 in Alton, Illinois, and grew up in an eight-child household led by an African Methodist Episcopal minister. He received a cornet at age nine and took up guitar at sixteen. Penny earned a music-performance degree as a brass player from the University of Iowa, where he co-instructed the first credited jazz-history course as an undergraduate.

By 1972, Penny played Iowa City clubs in Engine Ballet with Bob Napolitano, both billed as former members of the Combinations. Pleasant earned a music degree from the University of Iowa and studied drums with Count Basie Orchestra alumnus Harold Jones.

Solstice played the Boulevard Room in July 1974 and returned there for a Gay Liberation Front and Lesbian Alliance dance the following January. The band returned for a February engagement and a five-night September stand.

In 1975, Penny, Pleasant, and trumpeter Jim Gauthier maintained a parallel outlet in the Jazz Collective. Pleasant and bassist Paul Berner held Sunday jams at the Sanctuary; Tom Kern and Penny joined the sessions, followed by saxophonist Don Edelbrock and Gauthier under the Jazz Collective name. Keyboardist Lynn Willard also passed through Solstice in the Iowa City period.

Solstice settled on Penny, Pleasant, Gauthier, singer Bruce Henry, bassist Jay Young, and saxophonist David Wright for the self-titled independent album.

Discography: