THE ZOMBIES STILL GOT THAT HUNGER FOR NEW YORK CITY

October 28, 2015 by Thomas Semioli

This feature appeared in Huffington Post, October 2015

"The Pope is a fan of ours! He's obviously come to see us. We share the same audience!" -- Colin Blunstone

The Zombies have come to conquer America. Again.

I met up with founding Zombies Colin Blunstone, who was obviously joking in the above-referenced quote, and Rod Argent, at the conclusion of an exhaustive press day in lower Manhattan wherein the two rock icons spent hours upon hours fielding queries regarding their first ever live performances of their brilliantly misspelled magnum opus Odessey & Oracle album in its entirety in the United States, and the release of their new collection, aptly tagged Still Got That Hunger.

Thanks to the presence of his Holiness, who, to my knowledge did not have a new album to promote; travel within the confines of the borough were ground to a halt. As such, journalists arrived late and interviews ran overtime, yet that nagging situation did nothing to dampen the spirits nor energy of Messrs. Blunstone and Argent -- who still revel in the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple over a half-century since they first landed here.

To my ears, the new Zombies collection captures the band near the top of their creative powers akin to their elder statesman brethren and most active peers such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Robin Trower, David Gilmour, Eric Burdon, Keith Richards, and Ian Hunter to cite a select few -- all of whom have been on the bandstand and in the recording studio since the 1960s and are still vital forces on the wonderfully fractured landscape that is rock 'n' roll music.

Unlike the baroque trappings of their Odessey & Oracle masterpiece, which inspired generations of indie rockers long after its release and initial commercial failure in 1968, Still Got That Hunger harkens back to the early days of a young, hungry St. Albans, Hertfordshire ensemble who submerged themselves in American music. In particular, New York City.

Much like they did on their first records when budgets were low and expectations were high, the band rehearsed extensively and cut tracks in the studio at a rapid pace with producer Chris Potter (The Verve, Rolling Stones) at the helm. It wasn't planned that way. Notes Colin, who is in extraordinary voice regardless of any age in his remarkable career as a Zombie and solo artist, "he took the whole weight of the sound of the recording off our shoulders so that all we had to concentrate on was the performances. My lead vocals were all done live -- it was fantastic for me! For one thing, it's much easier because I was affected by the excitement of this great band playing around me. I wasn't evening thinking 'I'm doing a lead vocal..."

When Rod recollected for me the Zombies' first foray to the United States in 1964 which is documented in the track "New York" -- Colin sat on the edge of his chair as if he was hearing the story for the first time.

"Ah, America! It was a mythical magical world!" beams Mr. Argent "It was the home of everything we loved about every form of popular music... Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Little Richard."

New York emerged quite effortlessly according to Rod.

As such the Zombies' love affair with this city was forged at the venue which was considered the centerpiece of downtown Brooklyn, and which met its doom in 1971.

We had such long conversations with Patti there," emphasizes Rod. "The black acts that we were so worried about -- people like the Drifters, Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, The Shirelles -- they accepted us. We were taking our version of black American music and putting through the English filter, and we turned it into something slightly different.

Along with Blunstone and Argent, the band's current Still Got That Hunger line-up boasts legendary bassist Jim Rodford who is a pivotal figure in Zombies lore. As the elder cousin of Rod Argent, Jim helped the keyboardist and composer create the band in 1961, and then later served in the highly-acclaimed progressive rock powerhouse Argent with Rod, Russ Ballard, and Bob Henrit as they commenced waxing classic sides in 1970. That's Jim's timeless motif on Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" -- a bass part he modified from the Zombies' signature "Time of the Season." Mr. Rodford was also a member of the Kinks during their arena rock heyday from 1978 until their retirement in 1996. Rodford, Argent, and the Zombies are all long overdue for Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame honors, though that is another heated debate for another time of the season. (Note: The Zombies were nominated in 2014. Both men revere the Hall and though Rod opines "we don't lose any sleep over it," Colin hopes the band will be formally recognized. Bassists Jim Rodford and John Dalton were not enshrined with the Kinks in 1990 despite their 27-year tenure with Muswell Hill's favorite sons which included such hits as "Lola," "Celluloid Heroes," and "Come Dancing" among many, many others.)

Still Got That Hunger is no exercise in nostalgia, though there are a few noticeable nods to the history, including the song "Chasing the Past" wherein Colin croons "yesterday, it's gone, it's just as well, now we'll take tomorrow and give it hell." Deep in-the-pocket grooves, classical counterpoint, jazz harmonies, and pop melodies aplenty prevail with Argent, Blunstone, guitarist Tom Toomey, Jim Rodford, and his son Steve in the drum chair on all 10 tracks.

As for the legend of Odessey & Oracle looming large, look no further than the cover art of Still Got That Hunger wherein illustrator Terry Quirk updates his original design for the 21st century sans any spelling errors. The album format remains sacred to Colin. "What was important to you in your formative years stays with you through your whole life. I think of things in terms of albums!"

Rod agrees. "We went back to trying to capture the moment," he exclaims, "the magic of the sum being greater than the parts. I put the song sequence together because the structure of how one thing leads to another and how you feel when the whole thing is finished is so important to me... I can't help it, I still love albums! I still have to think in that collective way!"

The Zombies' Still Got That Hunger is out on October 9, 2015 on The End Records, which is a Brooklyn, New York-based imprint.

The Zombies will perform Odessey & Oracle in its entirety with founding bassist Chris White and founding drummer Hugh Grundy, and songs from Still Got That Hungerwith bassist Jim Rodford and drummer Steve Rodford at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on October 9, 2015.

The Zombies are on tour in the United States through October 27, 2015.

The Zombies photo by Andrew Eccles

I can still detect the tension in Mr. Argent's voice in 2015. And Colin is quaking!

How are they going to react to us? These callow English youths who come here to try and play their music? The second verse goes, "I walked into the Brooklyn Fox that snowy Christmas day and Patti LaBelle and her Bluebelles stole my heart away"... which they did! They took us to see Aretha Franklin.
As such the Zombies' love affair with this city was forged at the venue which was considered the centerpiece of downtown Brooklyn, and which met its doom in 1971.
We had such long conversations with Patti there," emphasizes Rod. "The black acts that we were so worried about -- people like the Drifters, Ben E. King, Chuck Jackson, The Shirelles -- they accepted us. We were taking our version of black American music and putting through the English filter, and we turned it into something slightly different.

The Zombies' Still Got That Hunger is out on October 9, 2015 on The End Records, which is a Brooklyn, New York-based imprint.

The Zombies are on tour in the United States through October 27, 2015.

The Zombies photo by Andrew Eccles

TWO VAGABOND HEARTS BEAT AS ONE IN NEW YORK CITY

August 21, 2015 by Kerry Alaric Cheeseboro in Uncategorized

This feature appeared in Huffington Post, August 2015.

Edward Rogers: "We've known each other for a long, long time...twenty years."

J-F Vergel: "What! That long? Really?"

Edward Rogers: "Absolutely. I met J-F when he was in the band Rogue's March. He was a friendly cat, we immediately hit it off. J-F and I shared a musical bond, a little bit more so than the other members. So, it all started when we'd run into each other. And I remember at one point he asked me to put some words to music that he had written..."

J-F Vergel: "No, no, no, here's what happened - I was the Apollo Theater to see what's his name?"

Edward Rogers: "Paul Weller."

J-F Vergel: "Right. So, out of the corner of my eye I spot Ed and his wife about two rows down from where I was sitting. And it was really weird because I had been thinking about him, even though I hadn't been playing for a long time. We chatted and I said to Ed, "I got a bunch of songs, do you want to put words to them?" And he agreed. I sent him a couple of tunes...I can't remember how many."

Edward Rogers: "You sent me three tracks..."

J-F Vergel: "No. Was it that many?"

Edward Rogers: "Yes. Now, I take writing assignments very seriously, especially from musicians I respect...

J-F Vergel: "Oh and Ed says 'I'll have them to you in a week!' And he sends me something two days later. Two days! So now it becomes a race! I didn't want Ed to get ahead of me."

Edward Rogers: "Hey man, I got three hundred and sixty pages of lyrics that I've written in the last ten years!"

J-F Vergel: "Ah, so that's how you did it so fast! Damn!"

John and Paul. Mick and Keith. Pete and Roger. Tyler, Perry. Axl, Slash. Page, Plant. Noel, Liam. Ray and Dave. To my ears, the best rock 'n' roll, regardless of its generational bent, is oft borne of odd couples. The Vagabond Hearts are no exception. A fresh, underground New York City super-group of sorts, the Vagabond Hearts are helmed by two veritable veterans of the local music scene: guitarist, songwriter J-F Vergel and singer, songwriter, recording artist Edward Rogers. Rogers, the well-tempered, well-organized British ex-patriot emerges as a stark contrast to Vergel, the street-wise, shoot-from-the-lip New Yorker. Naturally, they're a perfect fit.

To extract a linear history of the Vagabond Hearts is nearly impossible, as evidenced in the above documented conversation. Not that it matters. As far as they recall, their first performance occurred at the home of May Pang - the jam sessions held at her soirees are legendary. "I had no idea what I was doing, and I was the one calling out the chord changes to the bass player" laughs Vergel. "Oh it was great, everyone loved it," counters Ed. "We knew we had to take it further."

The Vagabonds' modus operandi is to work fast and grab the best players whenever possible and wherever available. I caught one of their early gigs with JD Foster in the bass chair at the Bowery Electric. With lead sheets and cheat sheets flying off the bandstand, Rogers and Vergel ripped through their repertoire with a reckless abandon that required years and years of experience in the rock 'n' roll trenches to perfect. Foster even regaled me with tales of his time working with Ronnie Lane while he and the Hearts' performance was in progress - now you get the picture?

Recorded in two days, the Vagabond Hearts official bow is a five track EP aptly dubbed Two Jokers In a Pack - a title which arrived at the suggestion of Vergel's significant other. "It's a line from the song 'Reckless' -my wife loves that track, and she says that lyric perfectly describes Ed and I."

With the only stipulation being that sessions take place during the daytime as J-F prefers to sleep at night, the Vagabond Hearts roster on Two Jokers includes guitarist/producer Don Piper, bassist Sal Maida, drummer/percussionist Boris Kinberg, keyboardist Matt Trowbridge, backing vocalists Tish & Snooky, and horn player Wayne Cobham.

Rather than reference each player's laudable credits, their collective body of work includes albums, sessions, and concert performances with Willy DeVille, The Brandos, Roxy Music, The Sparks, Cracker, Ray Charles, Billy Cobham, Ben E. King, Michael Jackson, Wilson Pickett, and Blondie, to cite a very select few. Track selection for the EP was a no brainer.

Edward Rogers: "We whittled it down from twenty songs...."

J-F Vergel: "We whittled it down from seven or eight songs..."

Edward Rogers: "We recorded the first five songs we wrote together..."

J-F Vergel: "We worked with songs that sound similar..."

Edward Rogers: "The whole idea is that with these five songs there is a varying degree in styles..."

Exactly.

Waxed in a single vocal take, Rogers likens his croon on the jangle-pop opening track "Autumn Sun" to Monkee Davey Jones' rendition of the Harry Nilsson penned gem "Cuddly Toy." Vergel assumes the mighty guitar mantle of Mick Ronson for the defining motif of "Angel Share" - a title which the singer pinched from a Scottish film which he and J-F were familiar with and which refers to a potent whiskey distillation residue. "It gives a very surreal meaning to the song...it's a clever wham, bam, thank-you-ma'am track" explains Ed. Maida and Kinberg set a slammin' swing groove to "Bridge of Sighs" wherein Vergel's melodies punctuate the vocal triumvirate of Ed, Tish & Snooky. And Mr. Cobham's trumpet lines on the ballad "Age of Reason" abet J-F's acoustic finger-picking and Rogers' sentimental delivery rather poignantly.

The Vagabond Hearts' current game plan is to put out music when the time is right - whenever that may be. Additional gigs in New York City will certainly transpire. As the record industry tries to sort itself out, the Vagabond Hearts will no doubt persevere regardless of how the masses consume music.

J-F Vergel: "We have a great relationship, it's like being on Tin Pan Alley - we have a lot of songs, I don't think we can use all of them, but they may be good for other artists. I like doing new things that I have not heard - it's too easy to repeat yourself. My influences push Ed to places he's never been..."

Edward Rogers: "The whole interesting thing about us writing together is that we'll try different styles of music. I try to adapt as much as I can and J-F leads me in as much as he can...and that's what a true collaboration is."

Two Jokers In a Pack by the Vagabond Hearts is available now at Bandcamp .Com - www.vagabondhearts . bandcamp . com. You can also follow the Vagabond Hearts on Facebook. Com.

FROM AFFINITY TO THE FETCH: MY CONVERSATION WITH LINDA HOYLE & MO FOSTER

August 07, 2015 by Kerry Alaric Cheeseboro in Uncategorized

This feature appeared in Huffington Post August 2015

"I never expected it to be a 'future.' It was just something I was doing then. I thought it to be a contained and time limited event. But it has sort of developed a life of its own. It's as if the event has become its own thing - and it evolved without me having to be around! I think it's like writing any history; when you're actually in the battle, you don't see the structure of the maneuvers going on. You can only look back later and see how this was fitting together. And it's only in retrospect that I've become to get a grip on where we might have fitted. The whole band was out of a jazz background, and we just did what we knew. We formed a rock band, but what we knew was jazz. Affinity threw everything into the pot. The musicians that we met at Ronnie Scott's were extremely sympathetic and very helpful and we learned an enormous amount from them. Gosh, we were lucky!" Linda Hoyle

"At the end of the 60s an exciting new hybrid music form, 'Jazz/Rock', was evolving. Musicians such as Miles Davis, Brian Auger, Jimi Hendrix, and bands such as Blood, Sweat, and Tears, Cream, Chicago, Lifetime, and Colosseum were all experimenting with the blending of jazz improvisation and the power of rock rhythms. This liberating and exciting approach suited Affinity perfectly since it would separate the band from other contemporary outfits such as Yes, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Family, and Humble Pie." Mo Foster from his book British Rock Guitar (2013)

When I mention the name Affinity and Linda Hoyle's debut solo album Pieces of Me(1971) to record collectors, jazz-rock aficionados, and knowledgeable musicians young, old, and in-between - a nod of reverence usually follows. Managed by Ronnie Scott, owner of the iconic Soho, London jazz venue which carries his name, Affinity was a fixture on the swinging London discotheque club scene and European festival circuit in the late 1960s.

The jazz stars whom they supported and witnessed at Ronnie Scott's -including Stan Getz, Gary Burton, Elvin Jones, Roland Kirk, Miles Davis, and Larry Coryell among others - were impressed by Affinity's fusion of influences ranging from jazz, soul, rhythm & blues, classical, bluegrass, and rock. If you don't know Affinity, Ms. Hoyle highly advises that you seek out her friend Annie Nightingale's BBC documentary on the band in all its groovy glory.

And though the canon of many niche artists fades over time, folks with an affinity for the collective work of singer/songwriter Linda Hoyle, bassist/composer Mo Foster and the extraordinary cast of Affinity players including Lynton Naff, Mike Jobb, and Grant Serpell continues to grow. Oft times when I traverse the creative neighborhoods in American cities such as Cincinnati, Denver, Pittsburgh, and my hometown hipster enclaves in the East Village and Brooklyn, I hear Affinity tracks from their 1970 self-titled release (which Angel Air Records has re-issued with a generous helping of bonus cuts) in the cafes and shops. It's as if the band were still around.

Linda departed Affinity in 1971 and waxed her aforementioned album - which fetched quite a bit in collectors' circles over time until the Angel Air reissue years later. In 1972 or thereabouts, Linda migrated to Canada and performed in jazz clubs before embarking on a highly successful career as an art therapist, helping to found the Ontario Art Therapy Association. An acclaimed author, composer, producer, educator, and lecturer; Mo Foster's body of work as a bassist on stage and in the studio is legend.

Now, a mere forty-four years later, Linda Hoyle follows Pieces of Me with a new studio album entitled The Fetch. With lyrics described as "autobiographical, witty, and dark" - Affinity fans spanning generations will surely be overjoyed. It's as if Linda never left...

The story of The Fetch sort of commenced back in 2006. At a birthday party for an old friend of Linda and Affinity, the band re-united for an informal performance. "It was like falling off a log" laughs Linda. "We hadn't played together in all those years...God we had a good time!" Inspired by the occasion and another Affinity reunion at Sussex University in 2011, Linda and Mo decided to work together once again. Linda's initial inclination was to render an album of standards. As she notes in her liner libretto "at first the Great American Songbook beckoned with a bony finger and came close to setting me in a deadly safe place." However it was decided that composing and recording fresh material was the way to go. "Choosing invention over interpretation...I landed myself with two years of hard labor...Scott Walker is a role model here - 'make it tough, make it count!"

Linda's two main collaborators for The Fetch were Mo Foster, based in the UK, and guitarist, composer, recording artist Oliver Whitehead in Canada, the latter of whom Ms. Hoyle has been working with since 1984. Among other stimuli, Linda drew inspiration from her first solo record and the Alan Lomax Collection of archival recordings.

She recalls, "I started in a place where I left off for Pieces of Me, which was an appreciation of what came before. There are a couple of old things on that album, and I struggled, because I hadn't thought about writing material at that point. Most of the time I've worked over here in Canada with Oliver. He is a classical composer, and he has been putting music to existing words for years. Then I got into and did a lot of work on an Alan Lomax prison song recording with my nephew in England. We tried to break apart 'Early in the Morning' which was recorded in the mid-1940s. It's absolutely incredible, I want to praise where all this stuff came from. So much of our modern and popular music is based on this - you can hear everything in it, I don't know how much young musicians listen to these Lomax recordings. The point is the material itself - if you just focus on it - it is stunning! So I wanted to do a very modern version of this stuff and I tried, but it didn't work. I thought 'what is it I am trying to do here?

Then I did a version of 'Come On in My Kitchen' which is an old Robert Johnson number - and I got Oliver to bring this incredible little old valve amp and use a metal string guitar and I said 'I want you to play it like I've come around the corner and you're sitting on a stoop!' And we did that in the studio, and I was going to put it on the album. I did not use it - but that's when Oliver and I took off - I had an idea and I could kind of feel it in my gut - and Oliver said 'why don't I just write you something?' Well with Mo, he sends me music and then I have to put words to it - so I said why don't I send you the words, and you put music to it!"

By way trans-Atlantic file sharing and sessions in Canada and the UK, The Fetch was recorded start to finish between February 2013 and August 2014. Hoyle, Foster, and Whitehead were complimented by a stellar cast of players including Corrina Silvester, Ray Russell, Gary Husband, Nick Nicholas, Dougie Boyle, BJ Cole, Peter Van Hooke, Chris Haigh, Jim Watson, Julian Littman, Chris Biscoe, and Bill Worrall.

Linda compares the structure of The Fetch to a "book of reminiscence" with the title track serving as a table of contents. References to each song are included in the verse. "Embedded is a memory, an event, a desire from my past, sometimes expressed with cynicism or innocence..."

Progressive rock fans will revel in the album art as rendered by another old friend of Linda and Mo - Roger Dean, renowned for the cosmic images which adorn many Yes albums, among other artists from the golden age of vinyl. Hoyle regrets not using Roger for the Affinity album - which, as she reveals, depicts a model, and not her on the cover. "Oh no that's not me! We were touring somewhere and they had to use somebody that looked like me. That's why her hair is hanging in her face."

After a nostalgic reunion at an exhibition, Dean asked Linda to describe the record to him - which is his usual modus operandi as opposed to actually listening to the music. "So I explained The Fetch to him over a cup of tea...and he said "send me the record!" Continuing her laughter, Linda emphasizes "what he is trying to evoke is the sense of this ghostlike effect which is this strange creature that you project yourself into...the color is intense!"

Mo, who proudly displays Affinity posters in London home ("he's never thrown anything away!" chortles Linda) knows best. "It's one of those albums that had to be made -- simply because it's a little piece of art. Forty-three years is a long gap between albums, but this project has surprised both of us by its beauty and originality."

Ruminating on her journey from Affinity to The Fetch, Linda relates: It still amazes me that I might have anything like that to give to people. I just don't know how this is going to work. I think it's going to float off into the world. In the last song on the album 'Acknowledgments' I sing 'a music footnote I shall remain..." And I do have that feeling about myself - and I don't mind at all. The fact that I can do this at all again is amazing..."

Linda Hoyle, The Fetch is available 7 August 2015 on Angel Air Records.