🎷 AotW: Jazz AOTW: Seawind - SEAWIND (SP-4824)

[Captain Bacardi]

Seawind​

SEAWIND​

A&M SP-4824​

Released 1980​

Peaked at #13 on the Jazz Albums Chart (1980)​

Format: Vinyl/8-Track/Cassette​

Produced by George Duke for George Duke Enterprises​

Songs:​

• 1. What Cha Doin' (Bob Wilson/Mark Vieha) - 4:35
  2. The Two Of Us (Bob Wilson/Mark Vieha) - 3:49
  3. Love Him, Love Her (Bob Wilson) - 3:26
  4. Everything Needs Love (Bob Wilson) - 5:46
  5. Shout (Bob Wilson/Larry Williams) - 4:26
  6. Still In Love (Ken Wild/Bunny Hull) - 3:53
  7. Pra Vose (Bud Nuanez) - 4:16
  8. I Need Your Love (Bob Wilson) - 3:54
  9. Long, Long Time (Bob Wilson) - 3:58
  
  Horn Arrangements by Seawind
  String Arrangements by Bill Reichenbach and Jerry Hey
  Concertmaster - Sid Sharp

Musicians:​

Pauline Wilson - Vocals​

Bob Wilson - Drums, Percussion​

Bud Nuanez - Guitars​

Kim Hutchcroft - Woodwinds​

Larry Williams - Keyboards, Woodwinds​

Ken Wild - Bass​

Gary Herbig - Woodwinds​

Jerry Hey - Trumpet, Flugelhorn​

Bill Reichenbach - Trombones​

Paulinho Da Costa - Percussion​

Airto - Percussion​

Roalnd Bautista - Guitar​

George Duke - Keyboards​

Background Vocals: Pauline Wilson, Josie James, Lynn Davis, Carl Carlwell (Co-lead vocal on #2), George Duke, Greg Walker​

Recorded at Westlake Studios, Le Gonks West, Sound Labs, Sunset Sound and United Western Studios​

Engineered by Tommy Vicari​

Assistant Engineer - Erik Zobler​

Intro to "Everything Needs Love" Engineered by Kevin Clark​

Mixed at Fantasy Studios, Studio "D", Berkley, California by Tommy Vicari​

Assisted by Wally Buck​

Mastered at Allen Zentz by Brian Gardner​

Art Direction: Chuck Beeson​

Illustration: Chris Hopkins, Willardson and White​

Capt. Bacardi​

 

[LPJim]

-- I'll skip forward to '4825' for the next regular AOTW,
JB

 

[dostros]

Never seen it, never heard of it, but with George Duke at the helm, the musicianship is going to be incredible.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Well, you'd be disappointed with that theory. Aside from a fairly nice instrumental on "Pra Vose" this album is pretty terrible. Not much horn work, tepid arrangements and nauseating vocals. A perfect example of an over-produced album with little substance to it.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[dostros]

Oh gawd, I hadn't noticed they were going to sing...

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

I don't blame you for feeling that way based on this album - it's bland and boring....but the amazing thing is, this was one of the most legendary and influential bands in the LA music scene through the late 70s. There's a club here called the Baked Potato (still around but a shadow of its former self) - back in the day it was the big hangout for studio players and musicians in general. Seawind had a steady gig one night a week and their music was a mix of pop, funk, heavy fusion jazz (in the Chick Corea mode) and gospel. Jerry Hey was one of the horn players and he went on to play and arrange on just about every other record recorded in LA for the next decade - and that horn section (it even credits the 'Seawind Horns' on a lot of records) came from this band. Pauline, the lead singer, was a gorgeous pint-size Hawaiian girl who belted out a wonderful R&B style - with a 3 1/2 or 4 octave range. Bob Wilson was the drummer and writer of most of the songs, and he managed to bring all the influences together. They did two albums for CTI, Seawind (a different album than this one - it's got a blue cover) and Window Of A Child, that are wonderful and were HUGE influences on me and my music. But I agree with you, the A&M albums stink, with the exception of a couple of songs on the second one, esp. "Follow Your Road". It's sad and I don't know what happened, but they're not the first band that lost it when they tried to "go pop".....

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

It's funny that you called the vocals 'nauseating'- cause Pauline Wilson, imho, is one of the most underrated vocalists in music.....but you wouldn't hear that on this record. Nothing here shows how good the band was when they did what they did best. It's basically a betrayal of the promise of the CTI records......

OK, I'm done ranting now.

 

[dostros]

She must be pretty good:

"Pauline Wilson is the first vocalist from Hawaii to win a Grammy award (singing a duet with George Benson on the album In Harmony" (from Wikipedia entry "Seawind")

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I also heard the CTi albums and enjoyed them, so when I saw they were going to be on the A&M/Horizon labels I was looking forward to those releases. Obviously I was disapponted. I know the Seawind horn section played on other artists' albums as well. They clearly had the chops to do great things but that never translated to good records for A&M. It happens.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

Seawind was probably reaching for the pop charts on this one. Yet with the jazz connections from the past, A&M may not have known how to market it properly. At least Urban radio gave it some legs beyond the contemporary jazz stations that played it. The first two tracks got the most airplay--they were in heavy rotation for at least a few months here in Detroit.

If anything the album just sounds dated today...

 

[LPJim]

"SP 4879" is a duplicate catalog # assignment for this one. Will move on to 4880 for the next AOTW,
JB