🎷 AotW: Horizon Seawind - LIGHT THE LIGHT (SP-734)

Horizon label releases.

How Would You Rate This Album?

  • ***** (Best)

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • ****

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • ***

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • **

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • * (Worst)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Never Heard This Album

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4

Captain Bacardi

Well-Known Member
Seawind
LIGHT THE LIGHT

A&M/Horizon SP-734

sp734.jpg

Released 1979
Peaked at #8 on the Jazz Albums chart and #143 on the Pop Albums chart (1979)

Format: Vinyl/8-Track/Cassette/CD (Japan)

Produced by Tommy Li Puma

Songs:
  • 1. Hold On To Love - 4:23
    2. Free - 4:21
    3. Sound Rainbow (Larry Williams) - 3:47
    4. Follow Your Road - 5:43
    5. Light The Light - 3:33
    6. Morning Star - 5:23
    7. Imagine - 4:10
    8. Enchanted Dance - 5:06

    All selections written by Bob Wilson except where noted.

Musicians:
Jerry Hey - Trumpet, Flugelhorn, French Horn
Kim Hutchcroft - Alto, Soprano, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones, Flute and Alto Flute, Wind Synthesizer (Computone Wind Synthesizer Driver thru an Oberheim o.b.1.)
Bud Nuanez - Guitars
Ken Wild - Electric Basses
Larry Williams - Keyboards (Oberheim polyphonic, Prophet 5, Mini-Moog), Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Piccolo
Bob Wilson - Pearl Drums
Pauline Wilson - Vocals
Gary Grant - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Bill Reichenbach - Trombones
Paulinho da Costa - Percussion
Benard Ighner - Background Vocals
Bill Champlin - Background Vocals and Inspiration

Strings on "Follow Your Road" arranged by Larry Williams
Contractor: Frank DeCaro
Concertmaster: Israel Baker

Recorded by Al Schmitt and Armin Steiner at Sound Labs, Hollywood, California
Mixed by Al Schmitt at Capitol Recording Studios, Hollywood, California
Assistant Engineers: Linda Tyler and Don Henderson
Mastered at The Mastering Lab by Mike Reese

Art Direction: Roland Young
Design: Junie Osaki
Illustration: Brian Davis
Photography: Mark Hanauer



Capt. Bacardi
 
Why be an "ordinary Brass Band" when you can be an EXTRAORDINARY Brass Band--the most Extraordinary this side of Herb Alpert/TjB...!!!

Larry Williams, Kin Hutchcroft and Jerry Hey, known as Seawind put in yet another powerful set and an all-around good look at the Modern Fusion Sounds of the late-'70's/early-'80's, which once you get beyond Pauline Wilson's MOR-like vocals (like on "Sound Rainbow") avoids the EZ List'nin' territory that Jazz was rapidly and sadly succumbing to...

A first-rate set with first-rate songs, in particular: "Hold On To Yor Love", "Follow Your Road", "Light The Light" and "Morning Star"... "Imagine" and "Enchanted Dance" end the set real well... And "Free" seems like it could qualify, at least in this instance as The Seawind Theme Song...!



Dave
 
There was a review of this album already a few years back, and I contributed my thoughts on it. Well, here's my thoughts on it again, so here goes!

I bought this album in the mid eighties when I was 19 years old, and I really fell in love with it! Emotionally, it got me thru a tough time in my life(I was dealing with a lot of things, and plus when you're that age, everything is overwhelming in your life!) Songs like "Follow Your Road","Light The Light","Hold Onto Love", and "Enchanted Dance" really did kick my blues.I was also just getting into jazz at that time, but a few years back, I was into Contemporary Christian Music, and that's where I heard of Seawind, because in 80/81, Bob and Pauline Wilson had just released an album of their own that was played on the Christian radio station I was listening to at the time.

Pauline made something of a comeback in the mid 90s with a CD called INTUITION, and on it, she did a beautiful remake of FOLLOW YOUR ROAD. She also reunited with some of her SEAWIND buddies on this CD, but not Bob, because she and he are now divorced. However, there are rumors that ALL of Seawind will be getting back together soon, so we'll see what happens...

Oh yeah, back to my "review" of LTL: A very warm, relaxing album to put on after a hard day at the office, school, or just the tumultous day in general! I used to put it on when I was getting ready to go to work at my part time job in the afternoon, and it is also great for rainy days and days when you are going thru your moments of introspection.(If you listen to "FOLLOW YOUR ROAD", you'll see what I mean) All in all, a great album!Also, not only is Pauline easy on the eyes, but great for the ears as well.I was always surprised that she never got the acclaim she deserves like so many other female singers of her day. Well, that's how things go!

Like I said, great album!
 
This is one of those albums that I really wanted to like, but I just can't seem to do it. Seawind started as a quasi-Christian group and eventually migrated towards a more r&b sound. This album has a lot of cheese factor to it, with lyrics of happy feelings and happy people - and I hate stuff like this! This seems to me to be more for the Osmonds-loving groupies, or for Carpenters fans who like a more funky background. This isn't for me at all. The only songs that have me somewhat interested are the instrumentals "Morning Star" and the more uptempo "Enchanted Dance". The rest is forgettable drivel for me. 1 & 1/2 stars.



Capt. Bacardi
 
Follow Your Road is a great song, and there's other nice music here....but if you haven't heard the first two CTI albums you won't be able to appreciate all the elements that made this band a sort of mini-phenomenon in LA jazz/studio circles in the mid to late 70s....
 
The self-titled Seawind album had a lot of airplay on local station WJZZ back when it was released. But beyond that, I never heard them play the earlier CTi albums or this one. Maybe A&M had a larger promotional push behind Seawind?
 
I thought this album was pretty lame. Outside of the instrumental "Morning Star" this was pretty much a yawner. Kind of a funky Carpenters, if there could be such a thing....
 
I can't believe this! This is about the third or fourth time this album has been brought up in the AOTW forum!! Seawind DID do another album before they broke up and left A&M! Anyway, let me put in my two cents(again)a bout this record: I absolutely love it! It's one of those records that you put on after a hard day at the office,on a cloudy day, well you get the idea. I bought this when I was 19 years old, and it got me thru some tough times when I was that age(well, what I thought were tough times;when you are a teenager, you tend to over-dramatize a lot of things). "Hold On To Love", "Light The Light","Follow Your Road", and "Enchanted Dance" were my favorite tracks, and I'm really surprised that "Follow Your Road" didn't become more of a standard, because it has that inspirational,"You'll Never Walk Alone"-type feel.

This album had great musicianship,tight arrangements, great sound engineering, great singing by the beautiful Pauline Wilson, and inspirational, thoughtful lyrics. What more could you ask for? by the way, they did a reunion album last year, and did some concerts that have been well received. Over all, I would give this album four and a half stars.

Early in my post, I mentioned that Seawind did another album(their last one, by the way) then broke up and left A&M. What I wanted to say some more is that let's review THAT album, before we post this album again in the AOTW forum for the FIFTH time!(another 'by the way':they did a video for "Light The Light" that you can see on youtube! Worth checking out!)
 
I can't believe this! This is about the third or fourth time this album has been brought up in the AOTW forum!!

We've been rotating through all the various jazz-related albums for several years actually...so they're all bound to crop up again. Keeps the rest of the internet from thinking we're totally dead here. :agree:
 
So, SP-4824 was released after this Horizon album, then? Funny they would break up after what would have been their most popular album to date, as it was quite popular on local radio at the time (especially WJZZ).

Elsewhere I've heard Seawind described as a "spiritual" oriented band. I guess maybe they could be, based on what I've heard... :shrug:
 
Most of the songs on their first two albums are more specifically spiritual, lyrically.....also, Bob & Pauline Wilson released an album on Word Records in 1981 called "Somebody Loves You" that truly could be called a Seawind album - all the same musicians, vocalists, horn arrangements, musical stylings, but again, with Christian-oriented lyrics. For me, this band was seminal at the time, because it brought together a lot of music I was into - "West Coast"-style jazz/pop, fusion and gospel - in one package...
 
"West Coast"-style jazz/pop, fusion and gospel - in one package...

That sums it up nicely, and I think (outside the gospel part...although I'm sure some listeners picked up on it) that is why they had such an appeal to listeners in 1980 for the A&M Seawind album in our area. A lot of the funk/fusion albums played large up here: Stanley Clarke and George Duke were very popular, as were bands like The Crusaders (the full-length "Street Life" is my favorite of theirs), artists like Ronnie Laws, and anything else similar. Good times. Can't hear anything like this on radio today.

Wasn't Word an A&M-distributed label? I know they distributed one of the Christian labels back in the day, but can't recall if it was Word or another one.
 
But not at that point, right? I think A&M distributed certain Word albums in the secular marketplace just in the late 80s, if I'm not mistaken.
 
I'm not sure myself. It will be a good topic for a future section in our forthcoming "encyclopedia" project--listing all of the labels A&M was affiliated with.
 
I remember it starting when I was at USC going to film school -- 1984/5. The Horizon imprint was even resurrected as part of the Word family of imprints!
 
Mr.Bill and Rudy are correct: based on the success of Amy Grant's AGE TO AGE lp, Gil Friesen, I believe who was the vice president of A&M saw her sales figures, and reached out to Word Records to not only to sign and distribute Amy's albums, but the rest of the Word Records roster as well.Gil had to work hard to convince the other A&M staff as well, but ultimately they agreed that it could work. The deal, however was to get Word product into the secular record stores. I ought to know: I was going to Brooklyn Tabernacle at the time that this happened, and when I would see one of their albums, it would have the Word logo, as well as the A&M logo on back of the record sleeve. Except for my personal experience, the story i just told was in the fall issue of BILLBOARD magazine 1984.Oh yeah, thanx Captain, for the reminder! Memory, dontchaknow, gettin' older.....
 
Back
Top Bottom