Tasha Thomas -

Tasha Thomas (1945 — Nov. 8, 1984) was an American soul singer who released the 1979 album Midnight Rendezvous.

Background

Thomas was born circa 1945 into a family with a chemist father and a Pentecostal-minister mother. She sang and played organ in her mother’s church, then moved to New York City during the late sixties through a church-choir contact.

The choir link placed Thomas on backing vocals for Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World sessions. Roulette issued her first two singles in 1969: “The Unexpected Experience of Michael D. Tippet in an Unspecified Part of San Francisco Last July,” a baroque number about police brutality backed with “Sittin’ and Waitin’ (For Something to Happen),” followed by “When Joey Comes Around” backed with “I Saw the Sky.”

Thomas joined the original Broadway production of The Wiz as Aunt Em in 1975 and sang “The Feeling We Once Had” in the opening section. After seven years off-record, Thomas linked with Buddah for her 1976 third single “Stay With Me,” a song from the political thriller The Next Man. The promo-only 7-inch paired the mono soundtrack cut with a stereo disco version.

Producers James R. Glaser and Peter Rugile signed Thomas to Orbit Record Productions, which issued her September 1978 single “Shoot Me (With Your Love).” Atlantic picked up the project after New York club play at Paradise Garage and Studio 54, then green-lit a full-length album.

Midnight Rendezvous

Tasha Thomas released her singular solo album, Midnight Rendezvous, in March 1979 on Atlantic.

Midnight Rendezvous presents a mix of extended disco-soul, brass-lined dance tracks, and mid-tempo vocal pieces, performed with more than forty instrumentalists, including drummer Steve Jordan, bassist Bob Babbitt, and guitarists Cornell Dupree and Hiram Bullock. The horn players include trumpeter Jon Faddis, trombonist Tom Malone, and saxophonists Howard Johnson and David Sanborn.

“Midnight Rendezvous” locks into a repeating backbeat with brassy punctuation and an extended refrain. “Street Fever” snaps through the uptempo side with a direct club pulse. “Shoot Me (With Your Love)” surges on a rougher erotic lead, with Thomas pushed hard against the refrain.

“Hot Buttered Boogie” struts as the other heavy floor track, with a thicker vocal charge. “You Put the Music in Me” glides through a lighter, airier setting. “You’re the One I Love (From Day to Day)” lingers on a mellow romantic cadence. “Drinking Again” darkens into a low-lit standard reading with the album’s most restrained vocal placement.

A1. “Midnight Rendezvous” (7:49) – Glaser
A2. “Street Fever” (4:13) – Glaser
A3. “Shoot Me (With Your Love)” (7:02) – Glaser

B1. “Hot Buttered Boogie” (5:13) – Glaser
B2. “You Put the Music in Me” (4:50) – Ted Daryll
B3. “Wake Up Morning Glory” (4:25) – Thomas
B4. “You’re the One I Love (From Day to Day)” (3:50) – Misha Segal, Thomas
B5. “Drinking Again” (3:36) – Johnny Mercer, Doris Tauber

Sessions occurred in 1978/79 at Minot Sound in White Plains and Soundmixers in New York City with producers James R. Glaser and Peter Rugile and engineers Ron Carran, Neal Ceppos, Eddie Trabanco, and Bill Wittman. Neal Ceppos mixed the album at Soundmixers, with Ron Carran credited on “Shoot Me (With Your Love).”

Midnight Rendezvous features photography by Jim Houghton, whose front-sleeve image shows Thomas in a red dress against a red ground. The back cover uses a full-length studio portrait beside credits and sleeve notes.

Orbit issued “Shoot Me (With Your Love)” in September 1978 (b/w “Shoot Me (instrumental)”); the single reached No. 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 25 on the Billboard R&B chart. Atlantic lifted “Street Fever” in May 1979 (b/w “Drinking Again”), followed in July by “Hot Buttered Boogie” (b/w “Midnight Rendezvous”).

Thomas also promoted the album through television appearances tied to the “Shoot Me (With Your Love)” release, including Soul Train, The Midnight Special, and Dance Fever.

Postlude

In 1983, Tasha Thomas appeared in a 45-minute video adaptation of The Wiz as Aunt Em, the aunt and Kansas guardian of Dorothy, played by Stephanie Mills.

Thomas died of cancer on November 8, 1984, in New York City.

Discography: