Altona was a German jazz-rock/funk band from Hamburg that released two albums on RCA Victor in 1975. Guitarist Werner von Gosen hailed from the classical/jazz-rock band Thrice Mice. Members: Fritz Kahl (bass, guitar), Karl-Heinz Blumenberg (vocals, bass saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass), Klaus Gerlach (guitar), Wolfgang Wulff (tenor saxophone, percussion), Hans-Heinz Gossler (drums, percussion), Werner von […]
Auracle was an American jazz-rock band that released two albums on Chrysalis in 1978 and 1979. The members released an earlier album as Inner Vision. Along with The Muffins and Pierre Moerlen’s Gong, Auracle were one of the few instrumental acts of this period to make extensive use of mallets. Members: Richard C. Braun (trumpet, […]
Henry Franklin (born Oct. 1, 1940) is an American jazz double-bassist from Los Angeles who released two albums on Black Jazz Records between 1972 and 1974, followed by a third on Catalyst in 1977. As a backing player, he apprenticed with Hugh Masekela and the Three Sounds during the late 1960s and played on albums […]
The Tavares were an American soul group from New Bedford, Mass., that released 10 albums on Capitol between 1974 and 1981, followed by a pair of titles on RCA in 1982/83. The group scored crossover hits with covers of songs by Hall & Oates (“She’s Gone”) and the Edgar Winter Group (“Free Ride”). In 1976, […]
The Cortinas were an English punk-rock band from Bristol that released two singles on Miles Copeland’s Step Forward label in 1977. The band initially formed as a Stones-influenced pub-rock act and reverted back to that style for their 1978 singular album True Romances. Guitarist Nick Sheppard joined the final lineup of The Clash. Members: Jeremy […]
Deaf School are an English art-rock band that released three albums on Warner Brothers between 1976 and 1978. On its first two albums — 2nd Honeymoon (1976) and Don’t Stop the World (1977) — the band pairs ’30s/’40s ambience (cabaret, music hall) with the lavish arrangements of contemporary theatrical pop (Sparks, Sailor, Cockney Rebel, Brian […]
Barbara Dickson (born Sept. 27, 1947) is a Scottish folk/pop vocalist and actress who first entered showbiz in the late 1960s. Partnered with Glaswegian guitarist/vocalist Archie Fisher, they issued back-to-back albums together circa 1969/70. Her debut solo album, Do Right Woman, appeared in 1970 on Decca. In 1974, she contributed to the cast recording of […]
Trevor Rabin (born Jan. 13, 1984) is a South African-born/U.S.-naturalized guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer with a musical career that dates to the early 1970s. He first emerged in the Johannesburg art-rock/pop band Rabbitt, which he joined at age 18 in 1972. Rabbitt scored locally with the chart-topping symphonic-ballad “Charlie” and the album Boys Will […]
Dr. Feelgood were an English blues-rock band from Canvey Island, Essex, that released seven studio albums and two live discs on United Artists between 1975 and 1980, followed by six further albums on assorted labels during the ensuing decade. The band gained notoriety for the kinetic stage antics of guitarist Wilko Johnson and vocalist Lee […]
Sailor was an English music-hall pop band from London that released five albums on Epic between 1974 and 1978. Rupert Holmes produced their 1975 second album Trouble, which spawned the UK hits “Glass of Champagne” and “Girls, Girls, Girls.” After the departure of singer–guitarist Georg Kajanus, a revamped Sailor linked with onetime Chicago producer James […]
Richard Thompson (born April 3, 1949) is an English singer/songwriter from Notting Hill with a professional recording career that has spanned half a century. He first performed circa 1965/66 in a school band, Emil and the Detectives, with classmate and future-Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell. In 1967 at age 18, Thompson became a founding member of […]
Shanghai were an English hard-rock/blues band that released a self-titled album on Warner Bros. in 1974, followed by Fallen Heroes on Thunderbird in 1976. The second album features veteran rock vocalist Cliff Bennett (The Rebel Rousers, Toe Fat) and ex-Trifle bassist Patrick King, who next appeared in the 1978–80 lineup of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. […]
Charlie and the Pep Boys were an American R&B/rock band from Washington D.C. that released the album Daddy’s Girl on A&M in 1976. Charles Woods Pearson and rhythm guitarist Alan Adkins carried on in the act Tears with ex-King Crimson drummer Ian Wallace and future-Foghat guitarist Erik Cartwright, issuing an eponymous album on Backstreet in […]
Les DeMerle (Nov. 4, 1946) is an American jazz drummer from Brooklyn who released the album Spectrum on United Artists in 1968. After doing time behind bandleader Harry James, DeMerle released the jazz-rock album Transfusion on Dobre Records in 1978. The title inspired the name of his backing act for the ensuing Transcendental Watusi, issued […]
Zorch were an English electronic duo that formed as a four-piece in 1973, eventually pairing down to keyboardists Basil Brooks and Gwyo Ze Pix. In 1975, the pair recorded an album’s worth of material that was ultimately released a quarter-century later as Ouroboros on Zorch Records. Members: Basil Brooks (synthesizer), Gwyo Ze Pix (synthesizer) Ouroboros […]
Sunrise was an American art-rock/pop band that released a self-titled album on Buddah in 1977. The album was produced by Beach Boy Bruce Johnston and engineered by Ralph Moss, whose other credits from the era include albums by Gladys Knight & The Pips, Glass Harp, Lou Reed, Mother Goose, Norman Connors, Ruth Copeland (Take Me […]
Ruby Starr — aka Constance Henrietta Mierzwiak (Nov. 30, 1949 — Jan. 14, 1995) — was an American soul-rock singer from Toledo, Ohio, who released one album with the band Ruby Jones on Curtom in 1971. As a solo singer, she released three albums on Capitol between 1975 and 1977. Her stage name dates from […]
Carolyn Crawford (born July 19, 1949) is an American soul singer from Detroit who cut three singles for Motown as a teenager during the mid-1960s and another three for PIR during the mid-1970s before finally releasing two albums on Mercury in 1978/79. She was briefly a fourth member of Hodges James & Smith for two […]
Melvin “Wah Wah” Watson — aka Melvin Ragin (1950 — Oct. 24, 2018) — was an American guitarist noted for his session work on numerous jazz-funk and soul albums from the 1970s and 1980s. Deriving his stagename from the wah-wah pedal, he released the album Elementary on Columbia in 1976. Early Career A Detroit local, […]
The Soul of the City was a South African jazz-funk/soul studio project that accounted for three mid-1970s albums with variants of the title City Soul. The first release in the series is a 1974 all-star compilation on Satbel-imprint Soweto with tracks by Care Free, Margaret Singana, and the Superlove Band. The following two albums are […]
