Privilege - Privilege (1969 us, fascinating groovy hard classic rock, 2011 edition)

With Leonetti and Venturini responsible for all of the material, "Privilege" rocked way harder than anything in their earlier Soul Survivors catalog.  In fact anyone looking for another slice of 'Expressway To Your Heart' styled blue-eyed soul will be severely disappointed.  Neither Leonetti or Venturini handled vocals while in The Soul Survivors and it showed on tracks like 'Traitor' and the proto-punkish 'The Quiz', though that actually wasn't a major distraction given the set's raw hard-rock orientation. These guys were also smart enough to vary the sound with 'Circling' and the closer 'Sojourn' slowing the tempo down with a couple of power ballads. Leonetti acquitted himself particularly well, turning in some blazing guitar work throughout.  Highlights included the fuzz-guitar propelled rocker 'People' and the Hendrix-influenced 'Purple Dog', though George Thorogood should've covered 'It's Yesterday'.  Certainly not the year's most original album, but well worth hearing and one of the more pleasant surprises I've come across.  T-Neck also tapped the album for a single in the form of ''Taking Care of You' b/w 'People'

Bad-Cat

An acid rock LP on the Isley Brothers’ T-Neck label? Yes, the unlikely collaboration resulted from a Jimi Hendrix concert at New York’s Syracuse University, supported by the Isleys and mixed soul-rock group, Soul Survivors, who had worked with Tom Bell and Gamble and Huff. When Soul Survivors morphed into Privilege, they convinced the Isleys to sign them to T-Neck, the result being this rare self-titled album, a fine set of hard-rocking originals, expertly produced by the Isleys with plenty of stereo panning, blistering guitar from frontman Edward Leonetti, atmospheric organ from Paul Venturini and melodic bass lines from Jack Douglas, later an engineer for Aerosmith, Lou Reed and Cheap Trick. A true classic.

Tracks

1. Traitor (Edward Leonetti) - 4:42

2. It's Yesterday - 3:59

3. The Quiz - 2:52

4. Circling - 4:26

5. People - 3:52

6. Going Down - 2:44

7. Purple Dog - 2:32

8. Easter - 3:04

9. Taking Care Of You (Edward Leonetti) - 3:18

10.Sojourn (Edward Leonetti) - 4:15

All songs  by Edward Leonetti, Paul Venturini except where stated.

Personnel

*Edward Leonetti - Guitar, Vocals

*Paul Venturini - Organ, Vocals

*Jack Douglas - Bass

*Tommy Brannick - Drums

Related Act
1967  The Soul Survivors - Expressway To Your Heart 

1969  Soul Survivors - Take Another Look (2013 japan remaster)

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Horn - On The People's Side (1972 canada, extraordinary prog jazz rock, 2015 remaster)

Largely forgotten, even among the crate-diggers, Horn was a Toronto jazz/rock outfit that seems to have fallen off the musical map even though the band contained drummer Bill Bryans (M.G. and the Escorts, the Government, the Parachute Club) and trumpeter Wayne Jackson (Downchild Blues Band). What's more, it appears that TV mogul Moses Znaimer had his fingers in this pie, right about the same time that he was launching Citytv, and starting up the late-night Toronto airwaves with those soft-core Baby Blue Movies.

The band's only release, On the People's Side melds socially conscious lyrics with the then cutting-edge sounds of jazz fusion - that means plenty of Rhodes pianos, vibraphones and trumpet. And though lyrically the record has aged poorly, with its hoary "brothers and sisters" references, the galloping Zappa-esque signatures and Bitches Brew-era riffs raise the stakes somewhat. The lead-off 'Things in Themselves' and the spry 'Vibrations (vee-bra-syohn)' are cases in point, straddling both prog and jazz, and thus infinitely more interesting than the pedestrian fare of the title track or the seventies rock cliches of 'Free All My Brothers'.

by Michael Panontin

Tracks

1. Things In Themselves (Bruce Burron, David deLaunay) - 3:49

2. Free All My Brothers And Sisters (Bruce Burron, Gary Hynes) - 2:34

3. Roach (Bruce Baron) - 3:46

4. Vibrations (Gary Hynes, Les Clackett, Pierre Martin) - 3:10

5. Pony Buns (David deLaunay, Bruce Burron, Gary Hynes, Les Clackett,  Alan Duffy, Bill Bryans, Wayne Jackson) - 9:37

6. Working Together (David deLaunay) - 5:53

7. On The People's Side (David deLaunay) - 5:36

Horn

*Les Clackett - Lead Vocals

*Bruce Burron - Guitar

*Gary Hynes - Guitar

*David deLaunay - Keyboards

*Wayne Jackson - Trumpet

*Bill Bryans - Drums

*Alan Duffy - Bass

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Dr. Music - Dr. Music (1973 canada, remarkable jazz fusion rock, 2005 remaster)

Douglas Riley began playing music with the R&B group the Silhouettes in Toronto. Throughout the late '60s and '70s he worked in Canadian television as a musical director and arranger for various music and variety shows, including Music Machine and The Wolfman Jack Show. The jazz group Dr. Music, that included saxist Steve Kennedy who played in a pre-Hawkins group with Robbie Robertson, began on The Ray Stevens Show, touring and recording after the show was cancelled in 1970.

Dr. Music released two eponymously-titled albums, in 1972 and 1973, both on the same label. The 1973 album included a cover version of The Band's "Where Do We Go From Here" from Cahoots, described by Canadian musicologist Bill Munson as "more effective" than The Band's version.

For the first 1972 LP, the group had about 16 members - half of them singers - doing what might be called gospel-rock, not so much in content, but in feel. All of the singers, aside from those who also played instruments, were gone by the time the second LP came out in 1973. By then the gospel was gone, replaced by more jazz-tinged rock, and the next album, Bedtime Stories (1975?) is all jazz, with just one vocal. When Dr. Music Circa 1984 came in 1985, Dr. Music was no longer a group, just whoever Doug Riley chose to use. Riley released the solo album Freedom in 1990 for PM, he passed away on August 28, 2007 of heart failure.

by John Bush

Tracks

1. Long Time Comin' Home (Doug Riley) - 3:58

2. On The Road (Keith Jollimore, Larry Smith) - 5:55

3. In My Life (Doug Riley) - 5.46

4. 6-5 (Steve Kennedy) - 6:35

5. Tryin' Times (Doug Riley) - 3:38

6. Doctor Doctor (Doug Riley) - 5:35

7. Rollin' Releases (Doug Riley, Steve Kennedy) - 7:00

8. Where Do We Go From Here (Robbie Robertson) - 6:40

Dr. Music

*Doug Riley - Organ, Piano

*Doug Mallory - Acoustic, Electric Guitars, Lead Vocals

*Wayne Stone - Drums

*Steve Kennedy - Tenor, Alto Sax, Flute, Vocals

*Barrie Tallman - Trombone

*Keith Jollimore - Baritone, Tenor, Alto Sax, Flute,  Vocals

*Michael Kennedy - Percussion, Vocals

1972  Dr Music - Sun Goes By   

1974  Dr. Music - Bedtime Story

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Woody Kern - The Awful Disclosures Of Maria Monk (1969 uk, fascinating blues prog psych rock, 2013 remaster and expanded)

Woody Kern had its beginning with trio Rik Kenton (who was the focal point during live performances), Mick Wheat and Steve Harris forming the band in 1967 in their hometown of Nottingham. As the pivotal figure, Kenton was often mistakenly identified as the mythical 'Woody' by individuals in the audience at gigs as well as promoters. Later that year, John Sanderson was invited to join the group and the foursome played the Working Men's Club circuit in the Nottingham area.

Their music was a mix of blues, jazz, soul and psychedelia. At the beginning of 1968, after the previous year's psychedelic 'summer of love', recording labels were looking for blues bands to sign. The British Blues Boom was considered the next big thing about to happen in the music world. Woody Kern would travel down the M1 to play at the Marquee. Spotted there at a gig one night, Birmingham agency, Inter City Artists, offered to represent them.

The agency, with other artists such as the Velvet Fogg in its fold, presented Pye records with a package lot of groups that the agency represented, including Woody Kern for recording purposes. In the summer of 1968, Pye requested an album from the group. The album title "The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk" was inspired by a book of the same name published in 1836 and written by a nun (or, as has been attested, her ghostwriters) describing forced sexual encounters by the priests who lived in the seminary next door.

The original album cover concept, as conceived by Pye, involved a 'nun' (actually a stripper named Lucy) whose habit was falling away from her body in a lurid fashion. (Pye had produced a similarly trashy album cover for the Velvet Fogg.) The finished photos for the projected Woody Kern release looked ridiculous and farcical and as a result Pye used a close-up photo of Steve Harris instead.

The band were teamed with Jack Dorsey, formerly a big band leader, as producer and the album was created in an almost live fashion. The group wanted to overdub additional instrumentation but as John Sanderson relates, all Jack Dorsey "was really interested in was whether we could introduce him to any of the type of girls that he thought must follow a rock band". The group were dissatisfied with the final mix since Dorsey had added effects, without the group's knowledge, that interfered with the blues atmosphere. The album and a single were released but failed to achieve any sales success and the band went their separate ways. 

Tracks

1. Biography - 4:25

2. Blues Keep Falling (Traditional) - 6:05

3. That's Wrong Little Mama (B.B. King) - 3:00

4. Tell You When I'm Gone - 4:11

5. Xoanan Bay - 4:34

6. Uncle John - 6:20

7. Gramophone Man (Mark Andes, Randy California, Ed Cassidy, Jay Ferguson, John Locke) - 4:01

8. Fair Maiden - 4:48

9. Vile Lynn - 5:47

10.Mean Old World (Walter Jacobs) - 2:41

11.Vegtable - 9:54

12.Biography - 4:21

13.Tell You When I'm Gone - 4:08

All songs by John Sanderson, Mick Wheat, Rik Kenton, Steve Harris except where stated

Woody Kern

*Rik Kenton - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals

*John Sanderson - Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Violin

*Mick Wheat - Bass

*Steve Harris - Drums

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