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"Pittsburgh Music Legends"
It's been many moons since the Marcels, Skyliners and Jaggerz shined on the pop charts, but while they did, they helped put Pittsburgh on the music map.
A few decades later -- who's counting? -- they play on, supported by a loyal fan base who will be pleased to see them trying to sound vital again on this collection made for the benefit of the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania and the Youth Enterprise Zone. Over 14 tracks, the three groups are joined by Kenny Blake, Etta Cox and Sputzy -- Pittsburgh club favorites who never shared that chart success -- and the Marcels' Walt Maddox doing a solo turn.
Maddox obviously wasn't aiming for the breezy start, going with 7:27 of the Commodores' "Still"/"Three Times a Lady." He does a fine job with the Lionel Ritchie vocal, but by the time he's done bringing those verses around, she's about 33 times a lady.
Cox sounds a little uneven on the glossy ballad, "Love from the Heart," but then comes through with a sultry vocal on "Captive Heart," a song that rides on a Latin groove with Dale Cinski doing his best Santana on the stinging guitar solo.
Likewise, the Skyliners' Jimmy Beaumont sounds uncomfortable with the slower, more contemporary "You and I," but gets to soar in more suitable doo-wop fashion on "You'll Always Be My Love."
If you've never caught Sputzy with his cover bands Modern Man or the Soul Providers, you're missing a talented soul stylist who puts the fire in this record with "Follow the Love" and "All in My Mind," sounding like a cross between Luther Vandross and Tom Jones.
At the halfway point, they break for jazz with saxophonist Blake blowing through a pair of very lite but still pleasing pieces by composer Henning Stumm.
The Marcels bring their 1961 classic "Blue Moon" into the disco era with a hyped-up dance track, some more aggressive "bom-ba-ba-bom-ba-boms" and a break in the middle for somebody to "screeeaam." So much for progress. Far better are the Marcels getting to show their stuff on a soulful, driving version of Holland-Dozier-Holland's "No Love Left."
Surprisingly, the smoothest harmonies come from the Jaggerz, who are a long way from their claim to fame, "The Rapper," but sound just about perfect on the Motown-style "Never Found a Girl" and "Whole Town's Laughing," a great Teddy Pendergrass slow jam.
First Published January 28, 2005 12:00 am
