what Frank is listening to #68 – LANI HALL – Double or Nothing – (A&M) – 1979
"Double or Nothing"? … I'll take nothing.
I didn't know who Lani Hall was but the look of the album didn't hold out much hope for a rare jewel.
You could have knocked me over with a feather though when I found out that Lani was the lead vocalist in Sergio Mendes Brazil 66 (I thought everyone in the band was from Brazil – she wasn't and had to learn Portuguese phonetically) and is also the wife of Herb Alpert (who co-produced half this album). Now I am partial to 60s Latin stuff, even the faux Latin of Alpert, but Latin in 1979 I have reservations with, as most of it is tainted with bad New York disco. This however is not a Latin album … it's worse.
It is straight pop … late 70s style. Granted there are some Latin touches and some jazz touches, as well as some disco, but otherwise it is strictly MOR with a technically perfect and superior (though totally bloodless) band of sessionmen*… I see the dull Neil Larsen cropping up on keyboards (see "what Frank is listening to #25"). The problem is that this is no different to any number of female pop albums from the late 70s and early 80s. It is however the music you would get (much like I said about Larsen's LP ) in one of those would be erotic thriller films of the 80s.
* Thanks to wikipedia for this …. a list of some of the session men ( feel free to skip the Italics section) :
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Manolo Badrena (born March 1952 in Puerto Rico) is a percussionist most noted for his work with Weather Report from 1976-1977. He has made contributions to over 100 recordings that span jazz, world music, pop, and Latin music.
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Buzz Feiten is a North American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and session musician. He is best known as a lead and rhythm electric guitarist, and has been in hot demand for sessions, concert tours, albums and CDs since the late 1960s. He has played with the Butterfield Blues Band, The Rascals, and the project album 'Full Moon', featuring Neil Larsen (keyboards), Freddie Beckmeier (bass), Phillip Wilson (drums). Feiten's session work includes recordings and/or performances with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Rascals, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, The Brecker Brothers, Bruce Willis, Gregg Allman, James Taylor, Wilson Pickett, Chaka Khan, Olivia Newton-John, Neil Larsen, Rickie Lee Jones, Stevie Wonder, Bette Midler, David Sanborn, Dave Weckl, Kenny Loggins, Art Porter Jr., Michael Franks, Dave Koz, Felix Cavaliere, Jeff Lorber, Stuart Hamm, Jason Miles, Claus Ogerman, Boz Scaggs, Mr. Mister, Richard Pelkoff, Bill Quateman, and many other great jazz, pop, rock and blues musicians. Feiten also invented a new tuning system for guitars, called the 'Buzz Feiten tuning system'.
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Paulinho da Costa (born Paulo Roberto da Costa on May 31, 1948) is a Brazilian percussionist born in Rio de Janeiro, considered one of the most recorded musicians of modern times. He has done crossover work in a variety of music genres including: Brazilian, blues, Christian, country, disco, gospel, hip hop, jazz, Latin, pop, rhythm and blues, rock, soul, and world music…. look who he has played with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulinho_da_Costa
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Charles Louis Domanico (January 20, 1944–October 17, 2002), better known as Chuck Domanico, was an American jazz bassist, playing both acoustic and electric bass on the West Coast jazz scene. Singers backed by Domanico included Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Carmen McRae, Joni Mitchell, Taj Mahal, Diane Schuur, Natalie Cole, and the group Manhattan Transfer. Along the way he participated in instrumental jazz performances by Chet Baker, Shelly Manne, Oliver Nelson, John Klemmer, Roger Kellaway, Barney Kessel, Art Pepper, and many more. His bass could be heard in themes for television shows like M*A*S*H and Cheers, and he is said to have contributed to the soundtracks of more than two thousand films.
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Jerry Knight (born April 14, 1952 in Los Angeles) was an R&B vocalist and bass player in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Along with Ray Parker Jr., he was a founding member of the group Raydio, singing vocals on their early hit, "Jack and Jill". He then left to pursue a solo career, releasing three solo albums and achieving moderate success with minor hits such as "Overnight Sensation," "Perfect Fit" and "Turn It Out".
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Manolo Badrena born March 1952 in Puerto Rico) is a first-call percussionist most noted for his work with Weather Report from 1976-1977. He has made contributions to over 100 recordings that span jazz, world music, pop, and Latin music. Badrena has played with Zawinul Syndicate, the Rolling Stones, Mezzoforte, Spyro Gyra, Art Blakey, Bill Evans, Steve Khan, Carla Bley, the Talking Heads, Blondie, Michael Franks, Ahmad Jamal, and others.
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Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January, 19, 1953 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.[citation needed]) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He graduated from Coe College in 1975 and received an honorary doctorate degree from Coe in 2004. As a session musician he played synthesizer on, among others, Michael Jackson's albums Thriller, Bad and Dangerous.
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Ernie Watts (born Ernest James Watts on October 23, 1945 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician. He plays saxophone (tenor, alto and soprano) and flute. He might be best known for his work with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and his Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist. He has also toured with the Rolling Stones, joining them on their 1981 tour. He is noted for playing the "The Mystery Horn" (actually a Conn straight necked C Melody Saxophone) solo on Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo in 1972.
This begs the question … if you have this much talent backing you how can an album be so dull? Bad songs – yes, partially but inspiration and imagination also go a long way to saving the day. It doesn't matter if your voice is good (Lani's is) and you have perfect musicians because without inspiration and imagination you will sink.
This was Lani's 4th album (she has put out about 14 thus far) and it didn't chart (she has never made an impact on the charts with her solo stuff). She did win a Grammy in 1985 for best Latin pop performance … ooohhh a Grammy (sarcasm).
Best Tracks:
Sunshine after the Rain – stands out like a sore thumb …. written by ( the great 60s songwriter) Ellie Greenwich – it had been a hit in the UK for Elke Brooks in 1975 (#10UK).
Sounds:
"Sunshine" – attached
Tape the "Sunshine" track and sell
Oh Lani sang the title track to the Bond film " Never Say Never Again"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwP0K6Aw3pg
Bio:
http://www.nndb.com/people/835/000047694/
(originally posted: 29/07/2009)
