Swollen Monkeys

The Swollen Monkeys were an American New Wave/avant-jazz band from Akron, Ohio, that released the 1981 album After Birth of the Cool, followed by the 1982 EP On Vacation, both on NYC small-press Cachalot Records. The band was led by ex-Tin Huey saxophonist Ralph Carney, who concurrently played with local pop act The Waitresses and transatlantic electro combo Labatomy.

Background

Swollen Monkeys formed in 1979 at Creative Music Studio (CMS) in Woodstock, New York, from a student ensemble of roughly a dozen musicians called the Mind-Control-Salsa Orchestra.

Ralph Carney came from Akron, Ohio, and joined Tin Huey on horns in 1974 after graduation from Firestone High School. He first attended CMS in 1977 and moved to the Woodstock area in November 1979 after Contents Dislodged During Shipment.

Mars Williams took up clarinet at age ten and switched to saxophone in high school. He left DePaul University for CMS, where he studied with Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell. Williams returned to Woodstock on a National Endowment for the Arts grant after periods in Colorado and Chicago. Kramer answered a DownBeat advertisement in 1978 and enrolled in a ten-week CMS course.

Swollen Monkeys developed the Mind-Control-Salsa material into a working repertoire at CMS. They prepared an album as a nine-member group with Swollen Monkeys entered the first album sessions with singer-trumpeter David Buck, drummer Chris Morgan, keyboardist Dan Klayman, guitarist Ted Orr, and reed players Don Davis and Bill Ylitalo, alongside Carney, Williams, and Kramer. Hal Willner, then a music producer for Saturday Night Live, took the group into Blue Rock Recording Studio in New York in October 1981, where Vince McGarrie engineered sessions for After Birth of the Cool.

Discography:

• After Birth of the Cool (1981)
• On Vacation (EP, 1982)