AOTW: Seawind - Light The Light (SP-734)

[Captain Bacardi]

Seawind
LIGHT THE LIGHT
A&M/Horizon SP-734

Released 1979

Format: Vinyl/Cassette/8-Track

Produced by Tommy LiPuma

Songs:

• 1. Hold On To Love 4:23
  2. Free 4:21
  3. Sound Rainbow 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 and published by Seawind Music and Sojourn Music (BMI) except "Sound Rainbow", written by Larry Williams and published by Seawind Music ans Source Music (BMI).

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
SPECIAL GUESTS:
Gary Grant - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Bill Reichenbach - Trombones
Paulinho da Costa - Percussion
Bernard Ighner - Background Vocals
Bill Champlin - Background Vocals and Inspiration

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

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

One of the all-time great, trailblazing, extra-musical, jazz-gospel groups, IMHO. This CD had several classic tracks, including "Hold On To Love" (which used to get a lot of airplay on the So. Cal. Christian station I listened to in college) and "Follow Your Road". I think overall that their first CTI albums were stronger than this, but all their projects had something special going on. All the zillions of Jerry Hey horn sessions and 'LA sophisticated-pop' records that followed owe a bit of a debt to what Seawind and their contemporaries were doing at the time......

 

[jazzdre]

i bought this album in '85,and i didn't know anything about seawind,just that bob and pauline had done a duet project together called SOMEBODY LOVES YOU. it was played a lot on the contemporary christian station that i used to listen to here in ny.the dj would say 'formerly of seawind';so when i saw the album in a used record shop,i bought it.my favorite cut was follow your road,also hold on to love,and also light the light.i remember that the group did indeed have a breezy,tropical sound,with a dash of spyro gyra,and gino vannelli thrown in in for good measure.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Well, I gotta say this was one lame album. The musicianship was okay - even good on the instrumentals "Morning Star" and "Enchanted Dance" (nice flugelhorn solo by Jerry Hey). But the lyrics are just so sappy to me. All this talk about rainbows and loving everybody. Puh-leeze! Just not my cup of tea. And Pauline Wilson's vocals were grating to my ears. It'll be a long time before I play this again.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Dave]

I normally associate "The Seawind Horns" with their back-up work, either with their fellow-Horizon labelmates, Mark Almond (John Mark and Johnny Almond, not Marc Almond, of Soft Cell) or by session-work with the likes of Debby Boone... (gotta love the flighty horn charts behind her "Jamie", flanked by the guitar work of Jay Graydon and the Doobie Brothers' Jeff Baxter, from her second album--Self-Titled, and what was the REAL breakaway from the Christian Pop/Rock she did with her sisters as well as her family, including mother and father, Pat and pretty much Pat, her pop, altogether, that Midstream, her "innocent" debut couldn't do...)

The real attraction is the horn section, consisting of Larry Williams (not to be confused with the R&B singer--That "Larry Williams"), Kim Hutchcroft & Jerry Hey... On your "standard brass": saxophone, trombone and trumpet, and even playing a few synthesizers, with the "usual tricks up their sleeves..."

Good playing, but a bit uneven; maybe a few "more" listens to some TjB Records may have shown them a wee-bit more what a "Brass Band" is about, but salvation from the sometimes Noodling you hear from Blood, Sweat & Tears, especially long-after the 'Al Kooper project' of the debut and the "novelty" of the Second LP, which was the first with David Clayton-Thomas, wore-off... (And Clayton-Thomas being "on and off" in the group's mid-period-never-ending search for "direction" didn't really help)

However, the 'bright brilliance' of "Light The Light" the 'awakening' of "Morning Star" and the assurance of "Follow Your Road" do show a band that's together after the 'initial stumbling' and avoid 'bumping into one-another', especially on "Free", as you're on a journey to an breezy, mystic, and enchanted Pure-Jazz Utopian-Oddyssey... 'Cept for the "preachy" lyrics (which sound TOO 'purposeful') of "Sound Rainbow"--Sorry, VOCALS in this kind of Jazz are annoying, and this genre, altogether, is best left as INSTRUMENTAL!!!

The next album, sporting the 'Rainbow-Fish' on the cover should find the goup with their 'consistency thing' more ...down!!! But, whether you enjoy Seawind on this or more of their own records, or ones they have played on for others, this whets your appetite to hear more of what they can do...


Dave