Herbie Mann • Herbie Mann and Fire Island

Whenever a jazz artist embraces more commercial music, he/she is bound to be lambasted by purists in the jazz press. Herbie Mann was no exception -- when he tried to sell more records by embracing commercial funk, soul and disco in the mid- to late 1970s, the flutist was denounced as a sellout by many jazz critics and received one scathing review after another from them. One of the albums that was attacked the most was Herbie Mann and Fire Island, an overtly commercial, club-minded disco/soul LP. Because this release has nothing to do with jazz, it's silly to judge it by jazz standards -- although many jazz critics of the late 1970s did exactly that. Instead, one must judge Herbie Mann and Fire Island by disco/soul standards, and when those standards are applied, it's clear that the album is generally likable, if unspectacular and uneven. Although Mann produced the LP, most of the writing was done by the vocal trio Fire Island (which consists of Carmine Calabro, Jr. Googie Coppola, and Arnold McCuller). The best track is the dreamy yet funky "Welcome Sunrise," which brings to mind the R&B that Roy Ayers was providing at the time. Lush disco numbers like "Summer Strut" and "Rhythmatism" are fairly catchy, although not breathtaking. Herbie Mann and Fire Island isn't the atrocity that many jazz critics described it as being -- however, it isn't one of Mann's more memorable commercial projects either.

 

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Cada vez que un artista de jazz adopta una música más comercial, está destinado a ser atacado por los puristas de la prensa de jazz. Herbie Mann no fue una excepción: cuando trató de vender más discos adoptando el funk, el soul y la música disco comerciales a mediados y finales de la década de 1970, el flautista fue denunciado como un vendido por muchos críticos de jazz y recibió una crítica mordaz tras otra. Uno de los álbumes más atacados fue Herbie Mann and Fire Island, un LP de disco/soul abiertamente comercial y orientado a los clubes. Dado que este disco no tiene nada que ver con el jazz, es una tontería juzgarlo según los estándares del jazz, aunque muchos críticos de jazz de finales de los años 70 hicieron exactamente eso. En cambio, hay que juzgar a Herbie Mann y Fire Island según los estándares del disco/soul, y cuando se aplican esos estándares, está claro que el álbum es en general agradable, aunque poco espectacular y desigual. Aunque Mann produjo el LP, la mayor parte de la composición corrió a cargo del trío vocal Fire Island (formado por Carmine Calabro, Jr. Googie Coppola y Arnold McCuller). El mejor tema es el ensoñador pero funky "Welcome Sunrise", que recuerda al R&B que Roy Ayers proporcionaba en aquella época. Números discotequeros exuberantes como "Summer Strut" y "Rhythmatism" son bastante pegadizos, aunque no impresionantes. Herbie Mann and Fire Island no es la atrocidad que muchos críticos de jazz describen como tal, pero tampoco es uno de los proyectos comerciales más memorables de Mann. 

 

 

Tracks:
01. Rhythmatism 
02. Once I Had a Love 
03. Summer Strut 
04. Welcome Sunrise 
05. In the Summertime 
06. You Are the Song 
07. Flute Love

33 minutes 51 seconds

Credits:

Herbie Mann  -  Flute, Producer
Lew Soloff  -  Trumpet
Sam Burtis  -  Trombone
Carmine L. Calabro, Jr.  -  Synthesizers, Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Clavinet, Vocal Arrangements
Googie Coppola  -  Vocals
Tom Coppola  -  Keyboards, Arp Strings 
Sammy Figueroa  -  Percussion, Conga
Jerry Friedman  -  Guitar
Armen Halburian  -  Percussion
Kenny Mazur  -  Guitar
Alan Rubin  -  Trumpet
Allan Schwartzberg  -  Drums
Bobby Warner  -  Engineer, Remixing
Jimmy Young  -  Drums
Arnold McCuller  -  Vocals
Alfred G. Vanderbilt, Jr.  -  Engineer
Paula Bisacca  -  Art Direction
Stanley Martucci  -  Cover Illustration
Wilbur Bascomb, Jr.  -  Bass
Jaroslav Jakabovic  -  Sax (Baritone)
Cheryl Greisbach  -  Cover Illustration

Genre: Jazz
Styles: Soul-Jazz, Jazz-Pop, Crossover Jazz

 

 

 

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