#tim hauser

[mikyapixie]

𝟹𝟶 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚐𝚘 𝚝𝚘𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙼𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚢 𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚁𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝙱𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜!!!

Classic Mickey Mouse Short!!

[thesobsister]

The Manhattan Transfer had big ears for tunes across decades and genres. The group's third album, Coming Out—its second in the classic configuration of Tim Hauser, Laurel Massé, Alan Paul, and Janis Siegel—features another heaping helping of deep cuts from the American jukebox, all of them covers.

Here's side 1: "Don't Let Go" "Zindy Lou" "Chanson d'Amour" "Helpless" "Scotch and Soda" "Speak Up Mambo (Cuéntame)"

A wide sweep of smoky ballad, early R'n'R, Motown banger, '50s R'n'B, even a little mambo. And here are the original recordings:

Roy Hamilton, "Don't Let Go"

The Chimes, "Zindy Lou"

Art and Dotty Todd, "Chanson d'Amour"

Four Tops, "Helpless"

The Kingston Trio, "Scotch and Soda"

Al Castellanos and Orch., "The Speak Up Mambo (Cuéntame)"

Despite the quality of the originals, I tend to consider ManTran's covers as definitive because their individual voices and harmony singing are so good.

Coming Out was an interesting shift for the group. Their debut album had seen them attired in '30s evening wear, very déco, all black and white. Although the songs weren't particularly stiff or formal, their image was a bit icy. On Coming Out's cover, the group looks plenty warmed up, particularly Ms. Siegel.

Their image through their first four albums was created by their art designer and director Fayette Hauser, sister of Tim, who had logged her time earlier in the decade with San Francisco's Cockettes, a legendary wildly extravagant and outré drag ensemble that had featured such future luminaries as Sylvester and Divine. She published a book in 2020 about those years:

So, Coming Out—the title was resonant in 1976 as Gay Liberation, only seven years from Stonewall, was a definite Thing in the disco era—marked a major change for the band, which retired in 2023 after a half-century of music-making, as it sought to show them in a warmer, funkier light.

Bonus ManTran goodness from your sobsister, "Don't Let Go" from the band's excellent The Old Grey Whistle Test show in '77. Janis Siegel puts this over like gangbusters. Watch this, then jump to the start of the show for 40 minutes of the classic group at its peak.

[julio-viernes]

El primer LP de Manhattan Transfer (feat. Gene Pistilli) fue otra cosa, más natural y menos devoto del pasado que los posteriores álbumes de la banda neoyorquina retro, aquí eran otra banda. Del glamuroso cuarteto mixto posterior sólo estaba el fundador del grupo, Tim Hauser. Transfer en sus comienzos era un combo más o menos jipi, y su debut "Jukin´" (Capitol 1971), un bonito disco súper "old school" entre el amor y el distanciamiento irónico. Un ecléctico y rico potaje que llevaba dentro boogie ("Roll Daddy Roll"), cajún ("Rosianna"), big band ("Vipers Drag"), country ("Fair And Tender Ladies"), doo wop ("Guided Missiles"), rhythm and blues ("One More Time Around, Rosie"), pop vocal en la onda de las Andrew Sisters, y pop-soul más contemporáneo. Puedo imaginar fácilmente "Chicken Bone Bone" en la voz de Tom Jones. Hauser explicó más tarde que esa primera formación duró poco porque Pistilli tendía más al r&b y el country y él al swing y el jazz. Un buen disco completamente marginado por Manhattan Transfer que ni lo consideran en su sitio web oficial, ni incluyen jamás ninguno de sus temas en recopilaciones del grupo.

[popsixsquishcicerolipschitz]

     Alan Paul                                                                    Janis Siegel

      Tim Hauser                                                               Cheryl Bentyne

The Manhattan Transfer

Mecca for Moderns

[zemerluani]

Soul Food To Go (Sina)

Manhattan Transfer

[phasesphrasesphotos]

The Manhattan Transfer

Operator

[thesobsister]

The Manhattan Transfer, "Boy from New York City"

A live performance from the Fridays TV show.

Tim Hauser of the group died today, age 72.  He's far right in the screen shot above.  He was the only member who'd sung with the original Manhattan Transfer, which only issued one album (Jukin') before dissolving and transforming into the great vocal group most closely associated with the name.

Always one of my favorite vocal bands.  I had the pleasure of seeing them at Carnegie Hall in January 1977 and at the Birchmere some 20 years later.  As quite a young sobsister, I even watched their 1975 summer replacement series, during the Great Nostalgia Boom that swept this fair nation. 

Many hours of listening pleasure, thanks to Mr. Hauser.

aav.