Air | |
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Genres | Jazz rock |
Years active | 1968 | –1983
Labels | Embryo |
Members |
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Air was an American jazz rock band mainly active in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The band's self-titled debut album was released in 1971 by Embryo Records, which had been founded by Herbie Mann in 1969. [1] The four core band members were Tom Coppola (Hammond organ, Allen organ, piano), John Siegler (bass), Mark Rosengarden (drums), and Googie Coppola (piano, vocals). The album also featured Randy Brecker on trumpet, Michael Brecker on saxophone, Barry Rogers on trombone, David Earle Johnson on congas and timbales, Robert Kogel on guitar, Bob Rosengarden on vibes, plus Jan Hammer and Herbie Mann on percussion. [2] [3] Herbie Mann was also the producer. [4]
Tom and Googie Coppola were both influenced by jazz and fusion, including time signature changes. They answered an advert in The Village Voice placed by Moogy Klingman, who introduced them to Siegler and Rosengarden. The group rehearsed in Great Neck, Long Island, working on songs written by Googie. The group was spotted by Mann at a gig in the Village Gate, who wanted them to be his backing band. By the time their debut album was released in 1971, family commitments led to the group splitting up. Thereafter Tom and Googie Coppola played a few times at the Montreux Jazz Festival with the Atlantic All-Stars. [5]
According to its writer, Moogy Klingman, the song "Sister Bessie" is about "...a nun, who took LSD after falling in love with a hippie, and then made love to him, deciding she would leave the church and the convent. Apparently, the hippie had different ideas and left town quickly. This song is about what he might say to her about his hasty exit, if he said anything at all.” [6]
A limited edition album was released by the Be With label in 2016. [7] [8]
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles, using a wide array of synthesizers and electronics. It was during this period that he released perhaps his best-known and most influential album, Head Hunters.
Green Bullfrog is a blues album recorded by an ad hoc band and produced by Derek Lawrence. The bulk of the album was recorded over two sessions at De Lane Lea Studios, London in 1970, with later string and brass overdubs. It was originally released in 1971, with reissues in 1980 and 1991.
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2004, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007.
Something/Anything? is the third album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1972. It was Rundgren's first album released under his own name, following two records credited to the quasi-group project Runt, and was also his first double album. It was recorded in late 1971 in Los Angeles, New York City and Bearsville Studios, Woodstock. The album is divided into four sections focused on different stylistic themes; the first three parts were recorded in the studio with Rundgren playing all instruments and singing all vocals in addition to producing. The final quarter contained a number of tracks recorded live in the studio without any overdubs, save for a short snippet of archive recordings from the 1960s.
Todd is the fifth album and second double album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1974 on Bearsville Records. It is the follow-up to the previous year's A Wizard, a True Star and features a comparatively heavier reliance on guitar playing and synthesizers. About half of the tracks were performed by Rundgren alone, with the other half recorded with varying configurations of musicians. In the US, the album peaked at number 54, while lead single "A Dream Goes On Forever" reached number 69.
Initiation is the sixth album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released May 23, 1975 on Bearsville Records. With this album, Rundgren fully embraced the synthesized prog sound he had begun exploring in more depth in his work with his band Utopia. However, unlike Utopia, in which Rundgren had limited himself to playing guitar, much of the synthesizers on Initiation were played and programmed by Rundgren himself.
Utopia was an American rock band formed in 1973 by Todd Rundgren. During its first three years, the group was a progressive rock band with a somewhat fluid membership known as Todd Rundgren's Utopia. Most of the members in this early incarnation also played on Rundgren's solo albums of the period up to 1975. By 1976, the group was known simply as Utopia and featured a stable quartet of Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell and John "Willie" Wilcox. This version of the group gradually abandoned progressive rock for more straightforward rock and pop.
Songs for the New Depression is the third studio album by the American singer Bette Midler, released in early 1976 on the Atlantic Records label. The album was released on CD for the first time in 1990. A remastered version of the album was released by Atlantic Records/Warner Music in 1995. A limited edition remastered version of the album was released by Friday Music in 2014.
The New Standard is the fortieth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in 1996 on Verve. It consists of jazz renditions of classic and contemporaneous rock and R&B songs. It features an all-star sextet with saxophonist Michael Brecker, guitarist John Scofield, bassist Dave Holland, percussionist Don Alias and drummer Jack DeJohnette.
Back to the Bars is a live album by rock musician Todd Rundgren, which was released as a double LP in 1978.
Vince Mendoza is an American composer, music arranger and conductor. He debuted as a solo artist in 1989, and is known for his work conducting the Metropole Orkest and WDR Big Band Köln, as well as arranging music for musicians such as John Scofield, Joni Mitchell, Michael Brecker and Björk. Over the course of his career, he has won seven Grammy Awards and one Latin Grammy Award and has been nominated for a total of 38 between the two awards.
Another Live is a live album by the progressive rock band Utopia. It was recorded in August 1975 and released in 1975 on Bearsville.
Memphis Underground is a 1969 album by jazz flutist Herbie Mann, that fuses the genres of jazz and rhythm and blues (R&B). While Mann and the other principal soloists were leading jazz musicians, the album was recorded in Chips Moman's American Sound Studio in Memphis, a studio used by many well-known R&B and pop artists. The rhythm section was the house band at American Studios. The recording was engineered and produced by Tom Dowd.
William Charles "Buzzy" Linhart was an American rock performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist musician and actor.
Todd Rundgren's Utopia is the debut album by the American rock band Utopia, released in October 1974 on Bearsville Records. The band was formed in 1973 by musician, songwriter, and producer Todd Rundgren who decided to expand his musical style by moving from pop-oriented rock towards progressive rock. He assembled a six-piece group that featured three keyboardists and toured as a live act. Most of the album was recorded in the studio except "Utopia", the opening track, which was recorded live in concert November 3rd,1973.
Mark "Moogy" Klingman was an American musician and songwriter. He was a founding member of Todd Rundgren's band, Todd Rundgren's Utopia, and later became a solo recording artist, bandleader and songwriter. He released two solo recordings, and his songs have been covered by artists as wide-ranging as Johnny Winter, Carly Simon, James Cotton, Thelma Houston, Eric Clapton, Barry Manilow and Guns N' Roses. He played on stage with Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Luther Vandross, Lou Reed, Jeff Beck and Allan Woody & Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule. Other than Rundgren, his longest musical association may have been with Bette Midler, for whom he served as band leader and who adopted for her signature song "(You Gotta Have) Friends", composed by Klingman and William "Buzzy" Linhart.
Music from Free Creek is an album from a series of 1969 "super session" recordings by Free Creek, a group composed of a number of internationally renowned musical artists of the time, including Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Keith Emerson, Buzz Feiten, Mitch Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt. Joe Viglione from www.allmusic.com has stated that "Music from Free Creek is a super session album, where the musicians are playing for the fun of it, and that comes across. The material doesn't get bogged down in 'names'; it just flows."
Thomas Wilkinson Coppola was a pianist and arranger, known for being a principal member of the group Air. He also formed Evans and Coppola with vocalist Lucianne Evans and performed with the Tom Coppola Trio.
Barrabás is the sixth album by the Spanish group Barrabás, released in 1977. It was the last album before the group's four-year hiatus, and the last to feature several band members including Ricky Morales, Juan Vidal and Daniel Louis. American jazz musician Herbie Mann featured in the recording of the album, after his hit cover of Barrabás' song "Hi Jack", which was released earlier that year. Also appearing was American saxophonist Michael Brecker.
Carolyn Coppola, known as Googie, was an American jazz and pop singer-songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the jazz rock band Air, her collaborations with Flora Purim, Hermeto Pascoal, Dave Matthews, Jeremy Steig, Lenny White, and her partner Tom Coppola, together with whom she released the album "Shine The Light Of Love".