Hi Bernie,
Yep, that's them. Ed and Miriam. I also (though vaguely), remember your band Charisma
from that time as well.
I'm not sure of the name of the college in New Britian, it could have been Central
Connecticut State Teachers College, I really dont't remember. Whisper played LOTS of
college gigs. Many of them were Univ. of CT campuses.
I am originally from the Boston area, and was touring all over the east coast with that
"dynamite show band---Dazzle" , when we were at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn where i
first met Ed Cohen.
The next gig I had with Dazzle was the Sheraton Pocono Inn, Stroudsburg, PA. Much to
the dismay of Dazzle, Ed Cohen brought Ken Nessing (Vocals), Nick Lundbech (Guitars,
Primary Songwriter, singer and Frank Grande (Bass) to meet me at that gig and watched
play a set or two. The Dazzle Singers/band leaders, smugly said to me (after Ed and the
"Whisper Guys" had headed back to CT) "did you pass the audition"?. Kinda pissed me off,
but in retrospect, how else could they have felt? I did want to play originals and more prog
rock than "show tunes".
They really built a good portion of the show around the instruments I had, which let's face
it, was way more than any "club musician" owned back in those days, let alone would drag
all over the place.
Since I had Two Analog Sequencers in the Polyfusion modular and the Trumpet player in
the band also would play the Fender Rhodes or ARP String Ensemble in certain songs, we
could really cover many pop/top 40 tunes to a very exacting degree. Plus, having both the
ARP (Eminent Solina) String Ensemble and my M400 at the time, I learned about layering
"Synth Strings" with "Sampled Strings" which ironically is very useful now with the plethora
of string samples and synthesizers that can be MIDIed together.
They other good thing about that gig was that I was playing everynight with a guy that was
a trumpet and flute player.
Even though I had the Mellotron Brass in my M400,(which I used very little except for a few
of our original songs and Genesis songs like "Watcher of the Skies", "Willow Farm", Yes'
songs from "Close to the Edge", like "And You and I" , "Siberian Khartu", etc.
When Frank Levi at DMI in Mah Wah, NJ installed my first "new" custom tape frame in my
M400, the first time I heard the sounds I was in heaven. Playing the string section versus
the original 3 Violins was so "meaty" I instantly understood why Wakeman and Banks used
them as their strings.
Of course then playing the 8 choir, I was so happy with the sound, it was better than I
even thought it would be in person compared to the recordings I'd heard them on.
Then I played the Brass....WHHHATTT......the hell is that sound?????
I was looking at Frank and he says. "that's the Mellotron Brass" My jaw dropped to the
floor. I HATED the sound. Oh how I wanted my flute or Cello track back. LOL
Frank then proceeded to remind me of some of albums where the brass sounds were used,
and it was one of the "mystery sounds: I HAD heard on so many Genesis, Yes, Strawbs, etc.
recordings.
Still didn't make me like it anymore at that moment, but at least I started to get an idea of
what to do with it.
I was expecting, the kind of "Brass" I created on my Moogs and Polyfusion. Big, FAT,
punchy, analog "brass" sounds. (don't know why I assumed that..but I did).
Not this nasal, "couple a drunk guys playing saxophones on a street corner" kinda sound.
That was my first impression of the Brass tapes.
I was fortunate to have a Moog Modular 952 Duophonic keyboard (later replaced by by a
Polyfusion Modular Duophonic keyboard controller) that I had to play all the Polyfusion
and Moog Modular modules with. In addition, by using my Minimoog with my other hand,
I could play 3 notes "polyphonically" since this was before the Prophet 5/Oberheim 4 voice
was produced.
By listening to our "real" trumpet player on stage every night, I really got my synth brass
chops going pretty well. By having him play the trumpet leads, I would make up the
"backing horns" playing two notes on the modular and the third on the Minimoog.
This gave us a sort of "4 piece" section. Having just that one real trumpet on top made
everything I did trick the ear into hearing the whole section since you saw a guy blowing
into at trumpet. We always had other horn players coming up to him asking him, "How'd
he get his trumpet to sound like it was playing four parts at once. That's when I knew I
was doing good, none of them even thought the "keyboard player" had anything to do with
the brass coming off the stage.
I did from time to time use the Mellotron Brass combined witha two note chord on the
modular synths as well once I got my head around the brass tapes and started liking them.
I still think of that everytime I see Paul Shaeffer on David Letterman beef up his brass
section guys with the brass patch/program on his JD-800. (Another synth I own and love
for the same reason, great brass and strings programs)
One of my favorite memories from playing with Dazzle was when we would do a "Neil
Diamond Medley" There was one gig in particular where there were several elderly women
at a table in the front, well when I hit the Mellotron using the 8 Choir full blast during
"Brother Love's Travelling Show" the look on their faces was priceless! LOL I could hear
them saying later "that sounded like a whole choir, How'd they do that????" Ah yes, the
days of audience "innocence" when no one knew what a mellotron was, let alone how
everyone today knows about or owns a sampler/computer with samples, etc.
Anyhow..back to things more totally Mellotronic...
I LOVE YOUR M400 #500!!!
As usual "Dr." Jerry Korb did an incredible job on your machine.
just beautiful. So lucky that it was real wood and not the usual chipboard.
That's so great that you got the Mellotron that was in your band. At least you knew where
it came from!
I had the pleasure of meeting Jerry and Mali when they were in the neighborhood last year
with Ken Leonard. Of course I've seen all the great pics and stories Ken has put on the
"MONEYPIT" site.
I'd like to have my Mark V get the Jerry Korb treatment, but I just can't part with it for any
extended period of time, letting it go to Vermont is something I just can't do in the short
term. It not just the fact that it will be gone for awhile, but moving the Mark V is a lot
more of a pain than the M400's are. Maybe not as bad as a MK I or MK II, but, believe me
the Cripple Creek (Anvil Type) road case this thing came with could be used as a house for
a small family. LOL Getting the thing down the stairs to my new studio was pretty hard
with several pro movers here over the summer, so i know I won't be taking it anywhere
soon if I can help it. (Hope I didn't just jinx myself and it stops working now....)
I will say it's a real comfort know that Jerry IS just a semi short drive from where I live,
versus all the years I lived in Malibu, California..3000 miles further away form Jerry. :-)
BTW my Moneypit story is also on Ken's website if any of you would like to see some pics
of my Mark V #117. There's also a few pics of Jerry and Mali looking at it before he got Pat
Moraz' old Mark V up to Vermont.
Here's the link:
http://www.kleonard.com/mellotron/mpb050604/index.htmIf you follow Ken's various links in "my story" you'll also see some of the other gear in my
studio (these are from my last place, I moved to a new house/studio this past August. I'll
put some photos of the new digs up on this site if that's ok..of course the Mellotron Mark
V wil be in the pics!)
John
--- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, "Bernie" <kornowicz@...> wrote:
>
> Hi John,
>
> Wow! Ed and Miriam Cohen. Now I remember (though vaguely)! They used
> to book the band I was playing with at the time, Charisma, although
> they didn't manage us. I also recognize the name Ken Nessing. This
> is a shrinking world! I didn't play keyboards; I played bass guitar
> (ask Fritz about those things). Our keyboardist was Mike Reynolds.
> His keyboard setup was a little smaller than yours; merely a
> B3/Leslie 122, a Univox Mini-Korg (I recently picked one up on
> eBay), an RMI electric piano and an M400S Mellotron, #500, which is
> now sitting about 3 feet away from me. It was one of those white
> jobs but now looks like this, thanks to Jerry Korb, who did an
> incredible restoration of it last year:
>
> http://www.kleonard.com/mellotron/mpsum05/500-4.htm
>
> I look forward to seeing the photo of you and your keyboard setup
> from Central Connecticut State Teachers College. That is the
> college, isn't it?
>
> Bernie
>
>
> --- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, "jaybe52000" <jaybe52000@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hey Bernie,
> >
> > Whipser did have many incarnations before I joined the band in
> 1976.
> > And you are correct in that Ed and his now ex wife Miriam Cohen
> were managing several
> > bands in that area.
> >
> > Surprise was one of the bands they managed in addition to Whisper.
> >
> > However, what you may be thinking of is that the "version"of
> Whisper I was in, Ken
> > Nessing, our frontman/Lead Singer was in the band Surprise, before
> joining us in whipser.
> >
> > I've got a great overhead shot of me and my keyboard set up at a
> college in New Britian,
> > CT I beleive it was. I need to get that scanned so I can put it
> up on the photos section of
> > this and a few other sites that have asked to see what the set up
> back then looked like.
> >
> > I still can't believe we moved all that stuff ourselves back then
> without a road crew!
> > Arrgghh.
> >
> > Did we know each other back then Bernie? We you also playing
> Mellotron back then in
> > your bands from that area? What was the name of the band you were
> in?
> >
> > John
> >
> > --- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, "Bernie" <kornowicz@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Very interesting story! Ed Cohen...I remember that name from my
> > > distant past. I think he used to book jobs for one of the bands
> I
> > > played in. Was "Whisper" also "Surprise" from Meriden in another
> > > incarnation?
> > >
> > > Bernie