Customer Reviews

Manhattan Transfer

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

True (short) story: Waay back in '75 I had the good fortune to catch "Sweet Talking Guy" on the radio. So did a friend of mine, a kid who I had a competition "thing" with. Neither of us had seen the album, but he swore to me that of course, he would have it first. I was pretty sure he was right, because my allowance was about 50 cents a week. Strangely, I saved my money any way, and after a couple of months or so, I rode my bike ten miles up the road to the closest (rural) department store. By the time I got there I was afraid they wouldn't have a copy of the album, but there it was, with that nifty caricature cover. Though it had been weeks since I'd last heard "my song," I cycled home with my little triumph on my mind.

Someone was on our party line, so I decided to listen to the album first. And the most amazing thing happened: it was like being transported back to a time before anything I had known. As an average 11 year old, I didn't have the words to describe the silky jazz opener, "Tuxedo Junction," or many of the songs that followed. I just knew I was in love.

"Sweet Talking Guy" sounded better than I remembered, all those interwoven vocal lines swirling over the stacatto keyboard. I should say that some of the tracks didn't "click" with me at first, but I remember being impressed by the sincerity, the naturalness of the vocalists. "Java Jive" was my favorite singalong and "Blue Champagne" made me fantasize about cocktail romance, whatever that was.

Now when I play this album, and I do it often, I'm struck by the sheer talent that went into creating it, and pleasant sense of melancholy it registers in me. I wouldn't call it nostalgia or camp, because there is nothing bad or particularly funny about the attraction. "You Can Depend On Me" still offers a thrilling vocal exchange between Janis and Tim, "Heart's Desire" still bowls me over with the intensity of the group's heart-felt harmonies. And "Clap Your Hands" still makes me sing along with Janis, who never sounded more soulful or full of joy.

The next time I saw my friend, he informed me that Manhattan Transfer were "old news," and that he wasn't interested in them any more. To this day I've never told him how much he missed.

First, yes there actually WAS a railroad station known as Manhattan Transfer, and as it's name implied it was a station where people could transfer for trains direct in NYC.

That said, the current groups first studio album is awesome, and while it borrowers heavily from the "swing" era, it also contains great salutes to Do-Wop (Gloria, Hearts Desire), Beat (Java Jive), Gospel (Operator), and Pop (Sweet Talking Guy).

The songs from the swing era are all excellent with my favorites being; Tuxedo Junction, That Cat Is High, and the song that started it all off, Blue Champange.

The Man-Tran would go onto many differnt styles in the long and continuing career, but this landmark album started it all!

Classic. Utterly classic. If you like sweet harmonies, a digging back beat, and vocals that can growl and soar at the same time, you need to own this. One of my all-time favorites. (I'm buying it in CD [finally] after wearing out four vinyls and all of the attendant bootleg cassettes I made from them)!

I haven't had a copy of this album since the early 80s, when I had it on a cassette I practically wore out over the years. I never bought this on CD, so I decided it was time to replace that long-lost tape with the MP3 version of the album. I was disappointed to find that several of the tracks are NOT the original album tracks (as advertised on the track listing here). They have been replaced with live versions of the songs. Now, I have no objection to hearing Manhattan Transfer live -- I've been to many of their live shows over the years -- but to me, it's a rude and unwelcome experience to expect to hear one rendition of a song and hear another version instead!

I don't know if there were licensing issues or what reasons there may have been for not making the original tracks available as MP3, but I am disappointed. I can't give this less than 4 stars, because it IS Manhattan Transfer, but I can't give it 5 either because it's not what I expected to hear.

Specifics:

Tuxedo Junction - Live, not LP
Sweet Talking Guy - LP, as advertised
Operator - Live, not LP
Candy - LP version
Gloria - Live, as advertised
Clap Your Hands - LP version
That Cat Is High - LP version
You Can Depend On Me - LP version
Blue Champaign - Live, not LP as advertised
Java Jive - LP version
Occapella - LP version
Hearts Desire - LP version

Blue Champagne and Heart's Desire demonstrate the uncommon versatility of this talented group. The closing notes of Heart's Desire show that Janis Siegel can compare favorably to an opera contralto when she uses that timbre of her golden voice.

Their first album is one of their best. Every cut is a winner, from "Tuxedo Junction" to "Hearts Desire". If only we had more vocal groups like this doing this kind of great, timeless music!

I listen to different genres of music,Classical, Rock, Americana and Blue Grass this album is one of my all time favorites of any genre.

Let yourself be taken back to the Coconut Grove where Cats' were Cool and Dames had beautiful Gams!

This album was the first time I heard this group in the 70's, I fell in love with the sound and harmonies this group projects, worthy classics in the acappella style, a very different but evocative repertoire as with all their albums, worth listening and dancing to .

This was their first album, and if you ask me, it was Manhattan Transfer's best, especially if you like the smooth sounds of Big Band-era quartets. In later albums, you'll hear more vocalese, be-bop and more. But this is the album you should go to for Swing-era standards like "Blue Champaign," "Tuxedo Junction," "Java Jive" and "Candy." The MT also take on some gospel-flavor with "Operator." There is some bop-flavor with "That Cat is High" and some doo-wop with "Boy From New York City," and ballads like "Gloria." My wife is often amazed that I know lyrics to songs that pre-date me. Part of the credit goes to Manhattan Transfer who introduced me to these gems.

Manhattan Transfer took the jazz vocalise of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross and extended it to pop and doo wop, with a little swing thrown in (no swing here; they seem to have discovered that later, although This Cat Is High comes close). MT's playlist has nearly always been a mix of jazz, swing, doo wop and pop; but as a listener, though I'm wholeheartedly into the jazz and swing, I'm not so much for the doo wop and can do completely without the pop. Yet from the very beginning with their smooth take of Tuxedo Junction, the album draws you in. One thing Man Tran has always had is energy and verve, a certain brightness to the tight harmonies, and it shows on songs like Tuxedo Junction and Operator. This album demonstrates exactly why the group has held such a following for so many years. It's a good investment for your listening pleasure -- and an object lesson to the kiddies that yes indeed, there was harmony before and after The Beach Boys and Take Six.