The Manhattan Transfer - Old Grey Whistle Test, BBC Televison Theatre, London, Britain, 2-22-1977

I mentioned recently that I found a bunch of episodes of the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show. Here's another one of those. It's a short concert by the Manhattan Transfer from 1977.

This group was pretty different compared to most music in the era. It's hard to describe what they were doing, but I think the best word is "retro." They played a variety of styles from earlier decades, such as vocal jazz, vocalese, swing, acappella, and rhythm and blues. Pretty much everything they did were cover versions.

Here's their Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

The Manhattan Transfer - Wikipedia 

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. I converted a video file to audio, then broke it into mp3s.

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 talk by Bob Harris (Manhattan Transfer)
02 That Cat Is High (Manhattan Transfer)
03 Four Brothers (Manhattan Transfer)
04 talk (Manhattan Transfer)
05 Heart's Desire (Manhattan Transfer)
06 Scotch and Soda (Manhattan Transfer)
07 Don't Let Go (Manhattan Transfer)
08 Java Jive (Manhattan Transfer)
09 Chanson D'Amour (Manhattan Transfer)
10 talk (Manhattan Transfer)
11 Candy (Manhattan Transfer)
12 Eldorado Rap (Manhattan Transfer)
13 talk (Manhattan Transfer)
14 Gloria (Manhattan Transfer)
15 Operator (Manhattan Transfer)
16 Tuxedo Junction (Manhattan Transfer)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/z7fif8A8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ReIw28R9W9LY1xO/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert.

Manhattan Transfer & Take 6 - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 5-31-2017

Here's another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. The one I posted earlier today had two acts (Tom Waits and Mose Allison) but no overlap on stage. This is just the opposite, with the two acts performing together most of the time.

The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 are a couple of the biggest names when it comes to vocal jazz groups. By the time of this concert in 2017, the Manhattan Transfer had a long history. They were formed in 1969 and had some hits in the 1970s and 80s. They kept going with a largely unchanged line-up until the 2010s, when deaths started to take a toll. They held their final concert in 2023. By contrast, Take 6 is younger, with their debut album being released in 1988. They're also an all-black group, and have more of a focus on gospel and acappella. But there was a lot of overlap with musical styles, leading the two groups to start touring and performing together since about 2011.

This concert is longer than usual because it was released as a DVD called "The Summit." That also means the sound quality is excellent. However, I suspect the banter between songs was removed, because there's almost none of that on this recording. I didn't attempt to figure out who exactly was singing on which song (since I often couldn't tell), so instead I credited both groups for all the songs.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

01 Mean Joe [Killer Joe] (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
02 Straighten Up and Fly Right (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
03 Tuxedo Junction (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
04 Candy (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
05 It's Good Enough to Keep [Airmail Special] (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
06 Just in Time (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
07 I've Got Life (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
08 Spread Love (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
09 Happy (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
10 Like Someone in Love (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
11 Twilight Zone - Twilight Tone (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
12 Gold Mine (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
13 [Get Your Kicks On] Route 66 (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
14 Mary (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
15 Operator (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
16 A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
17 Overjoyed (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
18 Stand by Me (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
19 Trickle Trickle (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
20 Boy from New York City (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
21 Birdland (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
22 What'd I Say (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YRCFKqAV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/q9wfOjQ8EjFFgvD/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I cropped the image some, so not all the performers on stage are showing. But most of them are.

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 4: The Manhattan Transfer, Genesis, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Bee Gees, & The Rascals

Here's the fourth part of a six-hour long version of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert. 

Atlantic Records put out a lot of records by jazz artists. But since jazz music isn't a big seller, most of those artists didn't get invited to this concert. Two who did, Herbie Mann and Bobby Short, got cut out of the TV broadcast versions, so I don't have their performances. That just leaves the Manhattan Transfer to represent jazz, since they had some hits and wider commercial success in the 1970s and 80s.

Genesis is a band was only intermittently together in the 1980s. Phil Collins split his time between being in Genesis and having a hugely popular solo career. Mike Rutherford also carved out a successful solo career as the leader of Mike + the Mechanics. Genesis had last put out an album in 1986, "Invisible Touch," then toured to support it into 1987. However, this was the only concert they reunited for in 1988. Their twenty-minute long set was essentially one gigantic medley, although I've broken it into four tracks so I could get all the song names in.

As I mentioned previously, Crosby Stills and Nash sang the song "Southern Cross" to start this concert, but I don't have that recording. Then they returned for their own twenty-minute-long set. Most bootlegs of this concert have "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" earlier in the show, because the song order was scrambled up a bit on some TV broadcasts. But you can tell they did it here with the songs "Wooden Ships" and "Teach Your Children" because actor Michael Douglas referred to all three songs when he introduced them.

The Bee Gees played a relatively short set. In addition to "Lonely Days" and "Jive Talkin'" presented here, they also performed "To Love Somebody." However, I couldn't find a recording on that one. I found mention of it being posted on YouTube and then taken down, so it must be out there. If anyone has it, please let me know. Personally, I think the Bee Gees deserved another song or two, since they've one of the best selling acts of all time, but probably in the late 1980s they were still suffering from the backlash of their disco era overexposure.

The final musical act in this part is the Rascals. They broke up in 1972. This concert was their first reunion since then, going back to the original line-up that ended in 1970. After this concert, they would go on a short tour for a few months. After that, there were further one-off reunions in 1997 and 2010, and another tour in 2012 and 2013.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

069 talk (Manhattan Transfer)
070 Mack the Knife (Manhattan Transfer)
071 Birdland (Manhattan Transfer)
072 Turn It On Again - Land of Confusion - Misunderstanding (Genesis)
073 Throwing It All Away (Genesis)
074 That's All - Tonight Tonight Tonight - Invisible Touch - Turn It On Again [Reprise] (Genesis)
075 You Can't Hurry Love - Shortcut to Somewhere - All I Need Is a Miracle (Genesis)
076 talk (Michael Douglas)
077 Wooden Ships (Crosby Stills & Nash)
078 talk (Crosby Stills & Nash)
079 Our House (Crosby Stills & Nash)
080 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
081 talk (Bee Gees)
082 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
083 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
084 talk (Dan Aykroyd & Bill Murray)
085 Good Lovin' (Rascals)
086 Groovin' (Rascals)
087 People Got to Be Free (Rascals)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t2DmMTS8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3pBToJ89aaas4tj/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Mike Rutherford on guitar and Phil Collins singing.