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Rick Berlin LIVE AT JACQUES
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
"The monster arrives in the dark," Rick Berlin sings in "Miracle," one of 15 songs recorded live at the notorious drag queen bar in Boston's Bay Village, Jacques. Located across the street from where the Cocoanut Grove nightclub burned to the ground forcing changes in laws, it is probably the only bar in New England with a midnight license. Captured here is the ambiance with veteran singer/songwriter Rick Berlin, whose Monday night performances at this venue rivals Little Joe Cook's work at the Cantab for longevity. It is amazing what one man can do with a voice, piano, and audience. "(I Like) Straight Guys" is humorous in the pitter patter piano and the effective vocal, ending with a climactic "honk if you love Jesus..." -- the "f" word (three letters, not four) trailing off in the distance. Berlin, formerly known as Rick Kinscherf when signed to Epic Records in the '70s with his group Orchestra Luna, is in total control with piano runs and a vocal sound moving closer to John Cale than Berlin's work with his fusion and hard rock bands ever displayed. Jane Friedman, who worked with Cale, also represented Rick Berlin at one point in time, and she's thanked on the disc, but the comparison between the two artists was never evident until Live at Jacques. The recording is excellent, with keyboards and voice spaced nicely, violin, harmonica, and backing vocals coming in on different titles. "Police Boy in Prague" is simply a title that may have been a bit much even for the CBS release when the band was known as Berlin Airlift. Then things were subtle, innuendo, and double entendre. Berlin compares a boy in Prague lying in his arms to a violin, as the violin plays behind him. This is Rick, as he sings in "Be Yourself," totally immersed in his art in an appreciative arena, dangerous music being generated in a dangerous nightclub. It's a far cry from the days when Berlin opened for Roxy Music or drew thousands of patrons into the Channel club, where his band was among the top draws. "I would rather have a fag for a son than a drunk for a husband," he sings in "Be Yourself." Berlin hasn't gone after the gay market as other artists position themselves. He is just performing because he has to, and producer Dan Cantor has captured the moment in all its glory.
SHELLEY WINTERS PROJECT
Hear Shelley Winters HERE: https://rickberlin.bandcamp.com/album/shelley-winters-project-ep
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
A simply enormous affair by Rick Berlin and the Shelley Winters Project, I Hate Everything But You is their 2002 release named after the final track on Berlin's 1982 CBS-distributed album, Berlin Airlift.This sparkling hour's-worth of music produced by the band, along with Neighborhoods guitarist David Minehan, is a very special reinvention for the Boston-based singer: it's a combination of what the previous six-song EP by Shelley Winters Project was exploring, blended with the undressed escapades initiated on Berlin's solo LP, Live at Jacques, his singer/songwriter disc. At close to 59 minutes, it is not only the most band music ever released at once by the singer who fronted Orchestra Luna in the '70s, it is also the most powerful. "Hate" is the new title for "I Hate Everything But You," and the song rocks harder than Bill Pfordresher's thin production recorded in 1982 ever allowed it to. The new version borrows that riveting intro from the Atlantics' 1980 classic "Lonely Hearts," and gives Berlin the opportunity to take one of his big titles from the past and give it a splendid update. Berlin Airlift was a great band that evolved out of the original Orchestra Luna, but that was a different place and time, and the musicians had to contend with all sorts of production and legal issues. Here, now, the seasoned studio and stage veteran composes a collection of definitive statements without major label distractions: "Somebody" has charging electric blasts from horn and string arranger Dave Berndt, while Meredith Cooper's violin glides alongside the lead vocal. It's also interesting how Rick Berlin's keyboards are the core of which the thick vocals and deep instrumentation surround and embrace, while remaining an integral part of the web, but not its dominant sound. "Taxi, Take Me Home" works a lament into the mix, as does "Tired," with its heavy percussion playing nicely off the string sounds Cooper provides, but it's "Xmas Face" that immediately jumps out at the listener with all the mood of the Beatles' driving pop allure, and one of the CD's highlights. Fans of John Cale will totally understand "Only One of You," both lyrically and vocally, while "Bad Day" has the band sweeping through the speakers and providing the icing for the singer's descriptive poetry. "Monk"'s originality is precious -- riffs from yesteryear swell up to be part of something very new. This Shelley Winters Project material is striking in its solidity. These musicians respect Berlin and put their talents in all the right places: they're all over the map, but only when the time is right, and the music is nice and dense, and worth playing loud. Berlin controls his powerful voice here, and unlike some of Orchestra Luna and Berlin Airlift music, where the ideas were overplayed and too studied, this stuff boasts a focus. The album is 14-songs deep, but they work so well, and Berlin's vision is delivered with such an intensity. It is his, and Shelley Winters Project, most impressive effort to date.
Hear Orchestra Luna HERE: https://rickberlin.bandcamp.com/album/orchestra-luna
AllMusic Review
by Joe Viglione
[-] https://www.allmusic.com/album/orchestra-luna-mw0000758864
The Orchestra Luna album began the musical legacy of Rick Berlin, the composer/singer who goes by his birth name, Richard Kinscherf, on this Epic Records debut in 1974. The seven-piece ensemble was truly groundbreaking in a world that doesn't take kindly to innovation. Where the Who were content to write rock operas, Kinscherf and his band put opera to rock. This adventurous mix of songs, written as if they were Broadway show tunes backed by a rock band with jazz and classical influences, might sound like a bit much, and 11 minutes and 53 seconds of "Doris Dreams" never had a chance of Top 40 success, or an edit that could get it there, but that idiosyncrasy is part of what makes this album so daring, and special. Co-produced by Rupert Holmes, the man who gave us "Escape (The Pina Colada Song," a monster smash in 1979, and the cannibal anthem "Timothy" in 1971, the choice might not seem appropriate on the surface. But Holmes' unheralded work for Barbara Streisand and the Broadway musical Drood actually makes him a perfect choice to oversee this project. "Miss Pamela" has wonderful Randy Roos guitars blending with Rick Kinscherf's pretty keyboards, keyboards that could have inspired Billy Joel, sounding very much like his 1978 hit "Just The Way You Are." It's when Kinscherf's expressive vocal kicks in that all comparisons to traditional pop go out the window. The cover of the Adler/Ross classic (you gotta have) "Heart" is a standout here, as it was in their live show. Seven of the nine tracks are penned by Rick Kinscherf, and themes that resound in "Fay Wray" (the heroine from the epic King Kong) travel throughout the artist's career. This album may be tough for some to take, but the Tom Werman liner notes put things in a nice perspective. They opened for Roxy Music in Boston when this album was released, and were even more avant-garde than the legendary headliner. The band dropped the "Orchestra" from their name and became the original Luna, releasing a 45, "Hollywood," while the rest of their album was held up in litigation. They re-emerged as Berlin Airlift, then Rick Berlin: The Movie. In 2001, the former Rick Kinscherf, known as Rick Berlin, fronted the Shelley Winters Project. That sound has little in common with the early pictures painted by the exquisite "Love Is Not Enough" or musically bizarre "Boy Scouts" off this album ("Back in the boy scout camp/the moon was very full"). These themes, like the references and inspiration from films, continued to flavor Berlin's music through the years, although the Peter Barrett narrations would fall away. Moody and impressive in its gamble, this is also noteworthy in that guitarist extraordinaire Randy Roos can be heard in his formative years.
Randy Roos
https://www.allmusic.com/album/mistral-mw0001185891
AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]
Hear full Mistral album here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVzh9ADWTys
Orchestra Luna's guitarist Randy Roos released his first solo album on Boston legend Bruce Patch's Spoonfed records, a label which would issue discs by Third Rail produced by Ric Ocasek, Reddy Teddy, the Remains, J.T.S. Flying, and others. "Stew" is a song that has some great wailing guitar behind percussion and rhythms, the early playing of this virtuoso falling somewhere between Pat Metheny and Steve Vai. The plethora of instruments utilized by the guitarist expose the talents he brought to Rick Berlin's quirky early work on Epic, the bold and highly experimental Orchestra Luna disc. All those avant-garde notions are stripped away for a smooth and precise coloring of original tunes and collaborations which range from three and a half minutes to nearly eight minutes in length. The instrumentalist notes the different tools he uses to get the sounds on each song, "Platypus" containing more jazz improvisation, while "Inward Stroke" is just a lovely, subdued combination of mellow guitar sounds. "The Hunt" is a bit more driving, allowing Randy Roos the liberty to stretch. "Horizon Game" opens side two and has more exquisite playing, inspired ideas which are the furthest thing from redundant, sounds expanding on "Innisfree" and concluding with the seven-minute-plus "Marcel Marceau (Three Little Things)," the epic track on the Mistral album as "Doris Dreams" was to the Orchestra Luna disc. Released on translucent vinyl (as was a 45 on MCA by local pianist Willie Alexander, it was a bit of the rage at the time), Michael Gibbs' liner notes could be more enlightening, though they add some insight -- that he first encountered Roos when Orchestra Luna opened for Weather Report at Symphony Hall, and that this is Randy Roos' first solo album. There would be many more, and it is definitely a gem.
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