Geronimo Black
| Geronimo Black | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Hard rock |
| founding | 1970 |
| resolution | 1972 |
| Founding members | |
| Jimmy Carl Black | |
Electric guitar , vocals |
Denny Walley |
| Bunk Gardner | |
saxophone |
Tjay Contrelli |
| Andy Cahan | |
Electric bass , vocals |
Tom Leavy |
| Guest musicians (selection) | |
| Buzz Gardner | |
Synthesizers , keyboards |
Don Preston |
singing |
Ray Collins |
Geronimo Black was an American hard rock band . It was founded in 1970 by former Mothers of Invention member Jimmy Carl Black after Frank Zappa dissolved the Mothers. Black named the band, which lasted just under three years, after his eldest son. This picked up the band name again in 2003 when he founded the group "Geronimo Black II".
Band history
The head of the six-piece band was Jimmy Carl Black. Known as a drummer by the Mothers, he was the group's lead singer in the first Geronimo Black line-up. Ex-Mothers member Bunk Gardner played the saxophone, flute and keyboards. The group also included Andy Cahan (drums, piano), Denny Walley (electric guitar, vocals), Tom Leavy (electric bass, vocals) and ex- Love member Tjay Contrelli (tenor and baritone saxophone). In a later line-up, Jimmy Carl Black sat on drums, while Andy Cahan played percussion and keyboards. The group initially performed a number of gigs in the Los Angeles area for almost two years. The repertoire was made up of own compositions; all members of the group contributed.
In 1972 Geronimo Black signed a record deal with the record label MCA Records . For the recordings, Black brought another ex-Mothers member into the studio, Buzz Gardner (cornet). Arno Nuefeld (violin), Samuel Cytron (violin), Phil Goldberg (viola), Nat Gershman (cello) and Scott Page (oboe) also took part in the sessions. Keith Olson, the producer of the album, worked as a background singer. In this role he later became world famous. Productions for Fleetwood Mac , Santana or Whitesnake - to name just a few - earned him many gold and platinum awards.
The album was released that same year under the title Geronimo Black . It contains nine songs of the hard rock genre, which - from the point of view of the time - “surprise” with their diverse, occasionally experimental sound. A single with the songs Let us live and '59 chevy was also released. But the mostly positive reviews faded, possibly "because the promotion was not what it should have been", as Jimmy Carl Black speculates on his homepage. Shortly after the album was released, Geronimo Black broke up.
Aftertaste
Posthumous album
Nevertheless, a second album was released in 1980 under the title Welcome Back . However, it does not contain any "new" recordings, only material that has been slumbering in the archive since the recording sessions in 1971 and 1972. This album also contains nine rock songs. It was recorded again with several guest musicians, of which James Harmon (harmonica), Jerry McGee (guitar), Meatball (drums) and Joe Lala (percussion) are the less well known. What made the album noteworthy, however, was the involvement of three other guests: Ray Collins (vocals), Buzz Gardner (trumpet), and Don Preston (synthesizer). These were also ex-Mothers members such as Jimmy Carl Black and Bunk Gardner from the Geronimo regular cast. And: Denny Walley also played for and with Frank Zappa in the 1970s and 1980s.
Initial spark
The fact that six musicians from the Zappa / Mothers environment were united on the album of this band gave Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black and Bunk Gardner the idea for a musical project. They put it into practice in the same year and founded the group The Grandmothers - a band that, in addition to their own compositions, also played songs by the early Mothers of Invention.
Geronimo Black II
In 2003 Jimmy Carl Black's record label "Inkanish Records" released another album entitled Geronimo Black . The namesake of the original band - Jimmy's electric guitar playing son Geronimo - had meanwhile founded his own group "Geronimo Black II", in which his two brothers James D. Black (drums) and Gary Black (percussion) as well as Bob Braxton (electric Bass) and James Chaffee (vocals) played along. The debut album offers tough Texas rock.
Discography
- Geronimo Black - 1972
- Let Us Live / '59 Chevy - 1972 (Single)
- Welcome Back - 1980
swell
- ↑ a b c d e band data on Allmusic (as of October 29, 2006)
- ↑ Keith Olsen (as of October 29, 2006)
- ↑ a b discography (as of October 29, 2006)
- ↑ Homepage of Jimmy Carl Black ( Memento of the original of November 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of October 29, 2006)
- ↑ The Grande Mothers Re: Invented (as of October 29, 2006)
- ↑ Geronimo Black II - Review (as of October 29, 2006)
- ↑ Geronimo Black II - another review ( memento of the original from September 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of October 29, 2006)
Web links
- Geronimo Black - cast and discography