ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD
The Manhattan Transfer makes its fourth stop at Berks Jazz Fest on Saturday as part of its final world tour.
For 50 years, The Manhattan Transfer has brought its distinctive, eclectic four-part vocals to the world, marching on through 30-plus albums, countless live appearances, many Grammy nominations (including a record-breaking 12 for their 1985 album, “Vocalese”), two personnel changes and the COVID pandemic.
Now, still at the top of their game, they’re on a yearlong “50th Anniversary and Final World Tour,” and the 32nd annual Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest, which opens its 10-day run on Friday, is fortunate enough to be one of the stops, on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the Scottish Rite Cathedral, West Reading. Performing as special guests will be the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, who happen to be celebrating their 30th anniversary.
The Manhattan Transfer officially began in 1972 (although there was a brief previous incarnation prior to that), with original members Tim Hauser (bass), Janis Siegel (alto), Alan Paul (tenor) and Laurel Masse (soprano). When Masse left the group after a car accident in 1979, Cheryl Bentyne replaced her, and when Hauser died in 2014, Trist Curless took over his part. Since then, the group has remained intact, with music director/band leader Yaron Gershovsky serving since 1979.
Named for the groundbreaking 1925 novel by John Dos Passos, which tells the stories of four New Yorkers during the Gilded and Jazz Ages, the quartet has spent their career breaking ground of their own. They have refused to be categorized, preferring to mix genres, resulting in their winning Grammys in 1981 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for “Boy From New York City,” and for Best Jazz Performance by a Duo or Group for “Until I Met You.”
Their newest album, “FIFTY” (2022), was nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and they have been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
The Transfer has performed three times previously at Berks Jazz Fest — in 2005, 2012 and in 2016; the latter was part of a concert tour with the a cappella gospel sextet Take 6 called “The Summit.”
Paul, in a chat from his home in Los Angeles just before leaving for Hawaii and Japan, recalled the 2016 performance at the festival fondly.
“I remember that the reaction was wonderful, and the audience really enjoyed the combination,” he said. “We had performed with Take 6 before, but it was always in separate sets. It was so much fun to put ‘The Summit’ together as a collaboration. Mark Kibbel (a member and arranger for Take 6) wrote out 10 parts for us; we were singing 10part harmony. We’re like a family, all of us.”
Paul said Saturday’s concert will be a retrospective of the Transfer’s career, including songs from “FIFTY,” which they call “The COVID Album.” When the group performed in Germany in 2019 with the Cologne-based WDR Funkhausorchester, they had “such a connection together” that they decided to reconnect for a joint project. As COVID was spreading in early 2020, they began collaborating on “FIFTY,” choosing 10 songs to rearrange for vocal quartet and symphony orchestra. Because they could not record together in person, they recorded separately: first their rhythm section in New York, led by Gershovsky; then the orchestra in Germany; and finally the vocalists in Los Angeles. The album was mixed and produced in Germany.
“During COVID, we couldn’t perform for 18 months, and we couldn’t get together as a group,” he said. “We each did different things.”
Throughout the down time, Paul’s vocal cords began to atrophy from not singing. Luckily, he was able to build back his vocal range with the help of a teacher.
Paul filled his down time by working on his memoir, which is now about threequarters done. Much of what he has written so far has been about his life prior to joining the Manhattan Transfer, which was eventful, to say the least.
He began his professional life early as a child actor in New York, including playing one of the orphans in the original Broadway and touring cast of the British musical “Oliver” in 1963 at the age of 12. (Trivia: The cast also included the late Davy Jones of The Monkees as the Artful Dodger.)
And Paul also was cast in the off-Broadway, then Broadway premiere and run of “Grease,” playing Teen Angel and Johnny Casino and introducing the songs “Born To Hand Jive” and “Beauty School Dropout,” which he sings on the original cast album.
It was during that time in 1972, he met Hauser, Siegel and Masse. Masse happened to be dating the drummer from “Grease,” and the four became friendly, and they hit it off musically as well. Soon The Manhattan Transfer officially began performing, and never looked back.
Paul said that their current tour will end on Dec. 22, and that afterwards they will continue to exist as a performing/recording group, but there will be no more tours, because of high costs of transportation, the growing number of airline cancellations and other challenges.