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What happened between the time the original lineup of Orleans (John Hall, Larry and Lance Hoppen, Wells Kelly … plus Jerry Marotta) broke up in 1977 and the reformed Orleans “next generation” (Larry, Lance, Wells, Bob Leinbach and R A Martin) appeared in 1979?
Well, a LOT of things, actually … but this post focuses on the Garland Jeffreys story.
Now, I don’t know how many reading this are familiar with Garland’s work. I certainly wasn’t at the time. Still, when Jerry Marotta called me early on in ’78 about a gig, I was all ears.
Jerry had become band leader for Garland and responsible for assembling a band for his upcoming tour. He invited me to play bass, Tim Cappela for keys and sax, David Brown on guitar, and Joachim Young also on keys. Just for reference …
Jerry, the younger brother of world-famous drummer Rick Marrotta, had his first “big gig” with us! His first hit recording session was Still the One. When Orleans broke up, he wound up in the Hall & Oates band for awhile, playing on Kiss on My List, etc. After that, he was with Peter Gabriel for a decade, helping to develop that Gabriel sound (Shock the Monkey, Salisbury Hill, and so on). His credits are too numerous to mention, but you can visit him at http://jerrymarotta.com
Tim Cappella went on to bulk up as a bodybuilder. You can see him in the original Lost Boys vampire movie. More importantly, he went on to play in Tina Turner‘s band and with Ringo’s All Stars.
David Brown got the Billy Joel gig and stayed with Billy for I don’t know how long … maybe 20 years? (incidentally, David is a good Boston-based bud of Orleans’ own Fly Amero)
Now, Jerry had met Joachim Young (who played all those cool keys for Steve Miller on Fly Like an Eagle and other Miller tunes of that era) when he was playing with Valerie Carter. She was opening the tour we (Orleans) did with Jackson Browne, throughout 1976. He was great in those roles but, for whatever reasons, did not get (or take) the Garland gig. So, who would be the replacement?
“Why not Larry?”, I suggested. And, lo and behold, it came to pass that Larry joined us to complete the band. In the trade-off, Garland got the benefit of not only keys, but a 2nd guitarist and another singer.
As best as I can recall, that tour lasted only a few months, but we played some cool places … I think. Actually, to be honest, I don’t remember much about it at all. But, hey … it was the 70s, right?
Fortunately, someone had the presence of mind to capture this Garland Jeffreys Band on tour … and I’m getting to that, which is the point of this story. Fast-forward to last month …
When Orleans played Sanford, FL on 4th of July, we were visited by a dear old bass-playing friend, fan and Woodstock contemporary, Greg Jackson. While emailing back and forth in the aftermath of that reconnection, Greg informed me that there were now two Garland Jeffreys shows posted at Wolfgang’s Vault. He was sure it was OUR version of Garland’s band because it was not HIM playing bass (and I never knew before that that Greg had ever done the Garland gig. Hmm …)
So, I checked out these shows, recorded live at the BottomLine in New York on May 15th and 16th of 1978. And you know what? We were pretty darn good!
Anyway, for those of you who like to dig down deep into the history, can’t get enough of Orleans spin-offs, or just like finding some good but obscure “new” music, this is something VERY different than anything you’d expect to find from us!
The really GOOD NEWS is that listening to the shows is FREE! The not-so-good news (for some) is that the shows are NOT available to purchase for downloads. Don’t know why.
While you’re at Wolfgang’s Vault, you might want to type “Orleans” into the search box, because there are FOUR shows from 1977 that ARE available for listening and downloading.
Enjoy!
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Hi Lance,
I loved reading about your work with Garland Jeffreys – thanks for posting!
I’ve heard the 1978 Bottom Line recordings on the Wolfgangs Vault website – the band and Garland are in fine form. Have you seen the YouTube video of Garland performing 96 Tears in concert? It rocks! (it’s at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxXzTR2-3ng).
It’s curious why Wolfgangs Vault doesn’t sell the concert recordings – I guess in this day and age, some people think music should be free. I’m not sure how any musicians can make a living that way though! The times they are a changin’…
On his Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Garland-Jeffreys/10650433053), Garland writes that he’s releasing a new album and starting a world tour in 2009. Some 30 years after the Bottom Line concerts… I can’t wait!
All the Best,
Doug
P.S. This blog entry might end up on more Google searches if Garlands’ last name (Jeffreys) was spelled correctly.
Hi Doug
Interesting you should see this post BEFORE I announce it to the email list. I guess that’s what subscribing to the blog itself will do, huh?
Thanks for catching my spelling error. And ME, who prides himself on writing flawless copy without the use of Spellchecker … PLUS how many times is “Jeffreys” spelled CORRECTLY at Wolfgang’s Vault? Hello!
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