The Manhattan Transfer has been making memorable music for decades. The jazz vocal group, launched by Tim Hauser in 1969 (Hauser died in 2014), now features Alan Paul, Janis Siegel, Cheryl Bentyne, and newest member Trist Curless, who joined the band following the passing of Hauser. The group, currently in the middle of their tour, believes that Curless adds another facet to their legendary music, one that celebrates the past and embraces future possibilities.
March 30 marks the release of the group’s first studio album in ten years, The Junction, dedicated to the memory of Hauser. Says Paul about the project, “The concept of The Junction is that this is a special meeting place, a junction of merging our four-and-a-half-decade musical legacy with something new. It wasn’t exactly a seamless transition because Tim is irreplaceable, and he and Trist are very different singers. We weren’t looking to replace Tim’s unique personality, but found in Trist someone who could add a new element to the group, and take care of the bottom of the quartet with his true bass.”
For Curless, the mission was the same. Notes the bass vocalist and co-writer of The Junction, “My personal desire was that the album would sound like The Manhattan Transfer, keeping what they’ve done, but bringing a new energy that would come naturally with my strengths as an artist becoming a part of theirs.”
1 Cantaloop (Flip Out!) 4:43
2 Swing Balboa (Down on Riverside)
3 The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul
4 Blues For Harry Bosch
5 Shake Ya Boogie (Galactic Vocal Version)
6 Sometimes I Do
7 Ugly Man
8 The Junction
9 Tequila / The Way Of The Booze
10 Paradise Within (Paradise Found)
