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<\/p>\nOmnivore Recordings presents a live reunion of Cleveland late-\u201960s proto-progressive band<\/i><\/p>\n
Ask a casual rock fan if he or she has heard of The Choir, and you\u2019re likely to get a quizzical look followed by a \u201cno.\u201d Pose the same question to a hardcore music fiend \u2013 especially one with a familiarity with the Cleveland music scene \u2013 and the answer is more likely to be \u201cyes.\u201d But even in that latter case, any subsequent conversation is likely to center around \u201cIt\u2019s Cold Outside,\u201d a regional hit for The Choir in an early configuration. That track was included on Rhino\u2019s expanded 4CD version of the Lenny Kaye-curated Nuggets<\/i> compilation. Originally released in 1966, \u201cIt\u2019s Cold Outside\u201d is today considered a classic of the garage rock subgenre, and the lineup that recorded the song is also notable: three of its four members would go on to The Raspberries, heroes of the early \u201870s power pop movement.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another chapter to the saga of The Choir, and it\u2019s one that \u2013 while less known \u2013 yielded substantive creative output. In 1969 that later, more musically ambitious lineup recorded a cache of material, but that music wouldn\u2019t see official release for nearly half a century. And in large part thanks to the enthusiastic reception for Artifact: The Unreleased Album<\/i>, the later-period Choir lineup reunited to play a handful of live dates. Now in 2020, Omnivore Recordings has released an audio document of one of those shows, Last Call: Live at the Music Box<\/i>.<\/p>\n
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While that 1969 lineup of The Choir was responsible for a stack of quality original songs \u2013 collected on Artifact<\/i> \u2013 the band\u2019s choice of cover material reveals a great deal abut where the musicians\u2019 heads were at during that period. That fascinating selection of songs would constitute a great deal of The Choir\u2019s set when they got back together in 2019. \u201cI think it\u2019s kind of fun that we got to do some of what we did, as far as our roots,\u201d says Jim Bonfanti, drummer and leader of that late-period lineup. (Bonfanti \u2013 the sole member to be with The Choir from its first single to the end \u2013 went on to greater fame with The Raspberries.) \u201cThese were songs that were always my favorites,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m so happy to have them now on a real recording.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those songs made the most of one of The Choir\u2019s most interesting characteristics: not one but two keyboard players. Phil Giallombardo played organ and Kenny Morgan played piano. That combination allowed The Choir to tackle the subtle, nuanced and sometimes complicated arrangement of tracks like \u201cA Whiter Shade of Pale\u201d and \u201cConquistador,\u201d both hits by British progressive band Procol Harum.<\/p>\n
The Choir also covered lesser-known works by that group, including \u201cKaleidoscope\u201d and the title tracks from Procol Harum\u2019s Shine On Brightly<\/i> and A Salty Dog<\/i>. The band displayed its gospel and soul influences by including Billy Preston\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019s the Way God Planned It\u201d in their set, their love of hard rock with Bob Seger\u2019s \u201cRambin\u2019 Gamblin\u2019 Man,\u201d and an appreciation of sophisticated baroque pop by way of Richard Harris\u2019 reading of Jimmy Webb\u2019s \u201cMacArthur Park.\u201d The reunited group played all of those and more in its 2019 set at Cleveland\u2019s Music Box Supper Club. \u201cI actually played keyboards on MacArthur Park,\u201d says The Choir\u2019s guitarist Randy Klawon. So we had three<\/i> keyboards going on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of those songs \u2013 most notably the covers of Procol Harum album tracks \u2013 weren\u2019t exactly AM radio fare in 1969. But Klawon says that the band\u2019s following knew them. \u201cThe Cleveland audience was pretty hip [to those songs] that time. We played teen clubs; the crowds were teens. But, yeah, they were exposed to that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klawon says that the keyboard-centric setup helped make The Choir different from the other bands playing around town. \u201cBut we covered Beatles songs, too, for instance,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWe covered a Zombies song. And we played Beach Boys songs that had instrumentation that was a little bit more than the two guitars, bass, and drums.\u201d<\/p>\n
Very little of this material would have fit well into a set by the earlier lineups of The Choir. Good a band as they were, their style was decidedly more garage-rock in nature, built around that conventional guitar-bass-drums setup. \u201cThe original Choir and this<\/i> Choir are so far apart from each other, it\u2019s astounding,\u201d say Bonfanti. \u201cThe first Choir, we were together in \u201965, so we did \u201965 [songs]. We did all of that British invasion stuff.\u201d And he notes that the band\u2019s original songs \u2013 like the single \u201cIt\u2019s Cold Outside\u201d and its flip, \u201cI\u2019m Going Home\u201d were written and played in that style as well.<\/p>\n
But by the late sixties, the musical scene had changed drastically. \u201cFrom 1965 to \u201870, music evolved,\u201d Bonfanti says. \u201cIt came a long way. And The Choir just rolled along with that.\u201d Still, having keyboards in a band presented logistical challenges. Giallombardo played a big, heavy Hammond organ. \u201cThe big struggle back then was the Leslie [rotating speaker],\u201d Bonfanti says. \u201cIf I recall, they\u2019re like 40 watts or something: Not real loud.\u201d To compensate, The Choir simply ran the organ\u2019s output through two Leslie speakers instead of one.<\/p>\n
Ken Margolis\u2019s setup would prove even more challenging, but again, the band came up with a working solution. Electric pianos of the day \u2013 Wurlitzers and Fender Rhodes, for example \u2013 were fine instruments, but no one would mistake their sounds for a real piano. And that was what The Choir needed to play those Procol Harum tunes. \u201cWe needed a good piano,\u201d Bonfanti says. \u201cSo we bought a small spinet piano, a real<\/i> piano. And we put three pickups across the strings. We drilled then in ourselves.\u201d Each of the three pickups had a line out, into a three-channel mixer, \u201cand then a line out from there to the PA,\u201d Bonfanti recalls. \u201cOur crew hated that spinet, because it weighed a ton!\u201d The resulting setup was quite advanced for its time, and even more so for a local band that didn\u2019t have the financial support of a record company.<\/p>\n