🎵 AotW Tim Weisberg - LISTEN TO THE CITY (SP-4545)

Captain Bacardi

Well-Known Member
Tim Weisberg
LISTEN TO THE CITY

A&M SP-4545

sp4545.jpg

Released 1975
Peaked at #27 on the Jazz Charts (1975)

Format: Vinyl/Cassette/8-Track

Produced by Tim Weisberg and Lynn Blessing

Songs:
  • 1. Rainbow City - 3:54
    2. Discovery - :52
    3. Listen To The City - 3:50
    4. High Rise - :37
    5. The Chase (T. Weisberg/L. Blessing/D. Anderson/T. Robinson/T. Grimes) - 2:41
    6. Love Maker - 3:21
    7. The Good Life - 3:17
    8. Street Party - 3:47
    9. The Passing - 2:16
    10. The Dealer - 2:48
    11. Conception - 1:06
    12. Lunchbreak (T. Weisberg/L. Blessing/D. Anderson/T. Robinson/T. Grimes) - 2:37
    13. Nikki's Waltz (L. Forkner) - 2:24
    14. Rush Hour (Friday, P.M.) - 2:05
    15. Weekend - 2:26

    All selections written by T. Weisberg, L. Blessing, D. Anderson and T. Robinson except where indicated.

Musicians:
Tim Weisberg - Flute, Alto Flute, Eb Flute, Bass Flute, Piccolo and ARP 2600
Lynn Blessing - Organ, Acoustic PIano, Synthesizers and Vibes
Ty Grimes - Drums and Percussion
Doug Anderson - Bass
Todd Robinson - Guitar
Bobby Torres - Congas and Percussion
Billy Osborne - Electric Piano (15)
Carl Johnson - Guitar (13)
Don Hakala - ARP Programming
Mike Melvoin - Synthesizer Arrangements (3, 8, 10)

Recorded at A&M Studios, Hollywood, California
Recording Engineer: Larry Forkner
Assistant Engineer: Ellis Sorkin
Mastering Engineer: Bernie Grundman
Production Assistance: Larry Forkner
Road Management and Technical Coordinator: Jim Haggart, Aspen Trails Limited

Art Direction: Roland Young
Design & Photography: Jeffrey Weisel



Capt. Bacardi
 
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Spurred on by a chance listen to a Foreplay track of "Street Party", fondly remembering its airings on my old radio station that was in its "progressive" phase, and totally obsessing over it, I decided to do more investigation into the album from which the song came, LISTEN TO THE CITY.

I've used an old unused thread here that our friend the Captain had started a decade ago so as not to have to re-enter details.

First, a further examination of what I had around here revealed one other track from this album, "Rainbow City", as it was placed on the NADIA'S THEME album that A&M released to capitalize on that song's phenomenon around the 1976 Olympics. There are other nifty instumentals on that NADIA'S THEME album, including the Pablo Cruise track, and a couple of Chuck Mangione tracks.

But it was LISTEN TO THE CITY that I wanted to explore further, so off to Discogs I went and I located a "Near Mint" copy for not too much money, and it arrived yesterday late afternoon. Immediately, I set about doing a needledrop of the two sides, and then approached the task of cleaning up and separating out the tracks into their own index positions.

It turns out that this album was one of those where many tracks segue into the next, making for a seamless listening experience. With the album's thematic device of being about "the city", this is a concept album - something to listen to in its entirety. So carving up the sides into tracks was actually not too difficult, as there was no cleaning up of intros and fade-outs most of the way.

For the purposes of portable listening, I turned the cleaned-up WAV files into a nice CD with gapless playback, and then worked on making artwork for the jewel case. Of late, for this purpose, I've been using my digital camera for getting satisfactory images of covers. Since the album was "near mint", the cover and internal innersleeve were in good shape and made for nice image captures.

Weisberg Listen1.JPG Weisberg Listen2.JPG
Weisberg Listen3.JPG Wesiberg Listen4.JPG
Weisberg ListenCDRear.jpg

And as fate would have it, I had to go on a longish errand today, so I got to listen to the whole thing, uninterrupted in the car. I like this album - a lot. I've seen online reviews that go both ways, ranging from it's the best album ever made, rather mediocre, or the worst piece of dreck ever to come along. And I think that's almost understandable.

Jazz purists seem to want more flute, more improvisation, and less orchestration. A good chunk of the audience probably didn't care for the fact that it's all instrumental, and then there's people like me who like instrumental works with a good deal of orchestrations. Does it paint a picture of a city? I think it does. The titles certainly indicate that, and to some extent, those titles fit the track and the "story".

Favorites here are of course, "Street Party" (why that wasn't pushed as a hit single, I'll never know), the title track, "Rainbow City", "Nikki's Waltz", "Rush Hour (Friday, PM)", and "Weekend".

A&M never got around to putting this one out on CD or even digital files, though some of the tracks are available on the BEST OF TIM WEISBERG - SMILE CD.
 
In my opinion This is one of Weisberg's Very Best Albums I was fortunate to have this Lp and saved most of these songs to tape and later transferred to disc and eventually ripped to computer the challenges as Harry mentioned was the way the songs segued into each other but regardless it's a Great listening experience it's sad this like many of Tim Weisberg's albums was never reissued and I too became aware of the song Rainbow City via The Nadia's theme Compilation which also is A Great Album in it's own right
 
One can never own enough flutes. 👍👍
My Daughter played Flute in her School band ( and I and her mother happily helped pay for her Flute ) it's too bad she didnt continue playing she could have played as well as Tim Weisberg
 
I also decided to pick up SMILE - THE BEST OF TIM WEISBERG on pressed CD. It contains a few tracks from each of the later A&M albums, including my new favorite, "Street Party". It's a nice, late 80's mastering, and a decent sampling of some of his other albums. I wish A&M had done more with his other albums.

1591188177864.png
 
My Daughter played Flute in her School band ( and I and her mother happily helped pay for her Flute ) it's too bad she didnt continue playing she could have played as well as Tim Weisberg
I've wanted an alto or bass flute but talk about expensive...I don't get why there is such a huge price gap between them!
 
I also decided to pick up SMILE - THE BEST OF TIM WEISBERG on pressed CD. It contains a few tracks from each of the later A&M albums, including my new favorite, "Street Party". It's a nice, late 80's mastering, and a decent sampling of some of his other albums. I wish A&M had done more with his other albums.

1591188177864.png
I couldn't agree with you more I had to pay a hefty price just getting his first self titled Lp from 1971 but it was well worth it along with a very nice Needledrop CD I suspect most of his A&M Releases ( and his MCA Albums as well) were lost in that Dadblame Fire years back and that's so sad
 
I guess it is because I'm not much of a jazz fan, but I was never able to get into Tim Weisberg much. There was one album of his I kind of enjoyed (I forget which one), but beyond that, my favorite work of his is the duet album he did with Dan Fogelberg, Twin Sons of Different Mothers.

I do like the notion of the song segueing into each other the way they do on this album, though. So many albums are just a "collection of songs" and not necessarily thought out as a complete listening experience. When the songs blend together like that, it drives home the notion that it's supposed to be experienced all at once, in the proper order. Stevie Wonder's albums are often programmed this way.

One thing that's cool is, A&M definitely went out of their way to promote Tim's albums with print ads in Billboard and even one or two in Rolling Stone, Stereo Review and places like that. They would always promote their artists even if their music wasn't necessarily the most commercial thing going.
 
I guess it is because I'm not much of a jazz fan, but I was never able to get into Tim Weisberg much. There was one album of his I kind of enjoyed (I forget which one), but beyond that, my favorite work of his is the duet album he did with Dan Fogelberg, Twin Sons of Different Mothers.

I do like the notion of the song segueing into each other the way they do on this album, though. So many albums are just a "collection of songs" and not necessarily thought out as a complete listening experience. When the songs blend together like that, it drives home the notion that it's supposed to be experienced all at once, in the proper order. Stevie Wonder's albums are often programmed this way.

One thing that's cool is, A&M definitely went out of their way to promote Tim's albums with print ads in Billboard and even one or two in Rolling Stone, Stereo Review and places like that. They would always promote their artists even if their music wasn't necessarily the most commercial thing going.

I don’t know if that argument holds up. There’s very little jazz on Tim’s albums and it is quite commercial.
 
A little update to my newfound Tim Weisberg obsession. With the aid of the Discogs marketplace and eBay, I managed to assemble the entire collection of Tim Weisberg albums for A&M, just to look for any other gems that might have eluded me. Easy to obtain was TIM WEISBERG 4 on CD. That and the SMILE - BEST OF are the only two A&M albums issued on CD. so the rest would have to come from LPs.

HURTWOOD EDGE and DREAMSPEAKER were both easily findable on good quality vinyl that didn't require a lot of cleanup. The first album, self-titled TIM WEISBERG proved among the most difficult, but still, I came up with a pretty clean-sounding slab o'wax. All made nice needledrops.

So I've been plowing through the albums as I get a chance, listening in the car, etc., but so far nothing has tickled my fancy the way LISTEN TO THE CITY does and did.

One thing that struck me was the similarity on HURTWOOD EDGE of one track to a piece of music from DARK SHADOWS. That DARK SHADOWS piece was called "Joanna's Theme" and it was used as the opening theme to the second movie called NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS. Listen to that piece here:




Now listen to Tim Weisberg's track called "Another Time". This is the only YouTube I could find. It's the whole side of the album, so start it at 12:14




Those two sound a lot alike to me in terms of mood, melody, and chord structure..
 
A little update to my newfound Tim Weisberg obsession. With the aid of the Discogs marketplace and eBay, I managed to assemble the entire collection of Tim Weisberg albums for A&M, just to look for any other gems that might have eluded me. Easy to obtain was TIM WEISBERG 4 on CD. That and the SMILE - BEST OF are the only two A&M albums issued on CD. so the rest would have to come from LPs.

HURTWOOD EDGE and DREAMSPEAKER were both easily findable on good quality vinyl that didn't require a lot of cleanup. The first album, self-titled TIM WEISBERG proved among the most difficult, but still, I came up with a pretty clean-sounding slab o'wax. All made nice needledrops.

So I've been plowing through the albums as I get a chance, listening in the car, etc., but so far nothing has tickled my fancy the way LISTEN TO THE CITY does and did.

One thing that struck me was the similarity on HURTWOOD EDGE of one track to a piece of music from DARK SHADOWS. That DARK SHADOWS piece was called "Joanna's Theme" and it was used as the opening theme to the second movie called NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS. Listen to that piece here:




Now listen to Tim Weisberg's track called "Another Time". This is the only YouTube I could find. It's the whole side of the album, so start it at 12:14




Those two sound a lot alike to me in terms of mood, melody, and chord structure..

I'm very Happy for you Harry I agree the first one is the Hardest one to find on that one I love the song "Sunshine her hair" which reminds me of my dear Daughter and another standout on Hurtwood edge is the similar sounding but Not so Ballady but more upbeat "Maat" I congratulate you on your Weisberg collection you are not much farther away from completing the discography his United artists Lps MCA albums and several others going into the 90s are pretty good I recommend his 1989 Classic "Outrageous Temptations" a great smooth jazz Album with an all star cast of musicians such as David Benoit and Russ Freeman of my Rippingtons
 
Here in Atlanta throughout the 1970s, his song "Rush Hour" was the music bed for ubiquitous Hi-Fi Buys radio ads voiced by my friend Jeff Winter.
 
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