THE MANHATTANS – part 5 (1988 – 2012)

Gerald Alston: “First of all, Motown was the company I really wanted to be with, and sometimes it’s time to make a change. It had nothing to do with the group situation. At one point it became work instead of performing and enjoying it. Once it became a job, I stepped away for awhile. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to try a solo career, and I did it. I have no regrets about it. It wasn’t a major success, but it was a success for me. I had a chance to be out on my own and to be in control of what I wanted to do.”

Gerald had been contemplating embarking on a solo career for quite a long time, until finally in 1988 he signed with TAJ Records, which Motown then acquired and distributed. TAJ was Bill Dern’s label, and Gerald knew Bill since 1984. Gerald: “I met Bill through our management. Bill was working in our manager’s office. Mervyn Dash became my manager later. Basically we all worked together. It was sort of a management collaboration that we had, when I went solo.”

Born in 1945, William Dern became president of Bill Dern Management in 1976 for six years, when he was dealing mainly with jazz artists. Later he worked as vice president of TWM Management in the first half of the 80s and managed the Manhattans along with Kool & the Gang and Dr. John. Later in the 80s he managed, among others, New Edition and Sister Sledge, and in the 90s, besides working as a manager for numerous artists, he became the consultant and executive producer for the Temptations and the Four Tops. Today he’s the general manager of Hyena Records and Big Deal Records.

GERALD ALSTON

Bill is also credited as the executive producer on Gerald’s self-titled debut solo album on TAJ/Motown, recorded in Nevada and California and released in the latter part of 1988. Those days Bill managed also a hit making trio out of Los Angeles called By All Means (an interview with one of the members, Mikelyn Roderick, at http://www.soulexpress.net/mikelynroderick_interview.htm), so it’s no wonder he invited their producer, Stan Sheppard, and lead vocalist, James Varner, to produce Gerald’s set.

On the album, Gerald Alston (MOT-6265), you can spot familiar names among the musicians, such as Paul Jackson, Jr. on guitar, Paulinho Da Costa on percussion, Fred Washington on bass and Gerald Albright on sax on two tracks.

Horns and strings were arranged by Gene Page. Gerald: “It was a wonderful experience. He was a great arranger and producer... just a beautiful sound.” James Varner played keyboards and took care of the drum programming. On background vocals you can enjoy By All Means, Alfie Silas and the Waters sisters. Those days Gerald mentioned that they deliberately chose female backing singers to prevent any comparison with the Manhattans.

TAKE ME WHERE YOU WANT TO

Most of the songs were composed by the producers, Stan and James, with some help from Gerald himself. The opener, a steady down-tempo song called Take Me where you want to (by Sheppard-Varner-Alan Stokes), was chosen for the first single. There seems to be now more edge to Gerald’s singing, and at the end of the song he lets loose and practically takes us to church. “That was the first song that I recorded for that album, and I did it one take. It was just one of those songs that touched me inside.”

A gentle ballad, which grows into an intense delivery, titled Still in Love with Loving You (by Gerald - Johnny Burton - John “Skip” Anderson) was placed on the flip side of the single and it appeared also on the European vinyl pressing of the album, as well as on the CD. The single landed at # 6 on Billboard’s “Hot Black Singles” charts.

As the second single the company released a scorcher named You Laid Your Love on Me – penned by Gerald, Stan and James - which in early 1989 stalled at # 41 on the aforementioned charts. For the European album and the CD they added also an extended version of the song. “They were trying to do something up-tempo, but I think a mistake was made. They should have chosen Stay a Little While.” Here I wholeheartedly agree with Gerald, because this emotive, pleading soul ballad would have been a perfect follow-up to Take Me where you want to. When the song was finally released as the fourth single off the album, it was already too late for it to make any waves.

The third single was a cover of the Eagles’ # 8 pop hit in 1980, I Can’t Tell You Why, and Gerald really puts his heart and soul into this slow song. “I think that was a great song. We did a video on it, and I think it just didn’t get the support to make it bigger.” The single crept into # 52-black.

MIDNIGHT ANGEL

Besides You Laid Your Love on Me, there are two more movers on the album, the groovy I Come Alive When I’m with You and the driving Activated, which was released as a single in the U.K. in 1988. The rest four tracks are all delightful down-tempo numbers. Let’s Try Love Again grows from tender opening notes into Gerald’s powerful vocalizing, whereas Midnight Angel is the most melodic song on the set and close to the traditional Manhattans style. Gerald composed it together with Gloria Sklerov. “I met Gloria 25-30 years ago, and we were writing some songs together and that was one of the songs we wrote.” Gerald wrote this beautiful love serenade especially for his wife, Edna. Gloria is an Emmy Award-winning songwriter (www.weddingmusiccentral.com/about-us).

Another tuneful song is called I’ve Waited All Night, and this floater is peppered with Gerald Albright’s sax. This time Gerald’s writing partner was Royal Bayyan aka Royal Jackson (www.myspace.com/4royalbayyan). The closing song is the cover of the Carpenters’ gold hit in 1970, We’ve Only Just Begun. It’s a richly improvised, slowed-down and almost unrecognizable version. “That was my idea. I’ve always loved it. We had been singing it on our shows, so we thought it’d be good to put it on the record.”

The LP peaked at # 18 on Billboard’s “Top Black Albums” charts, and at that time Gerald was disappointed at the record not hitting gold, “but the groundwork is done.” It took almost two years for TAJ/Motown to come up with the follow-up album, Open Invitation (MOTD 6298), in late 1990.

SLOW MOTION

For this set Stan Sheppard and James Varner produced only three opening songs, because they were busy with other productions. A romantic and sensual ballad called Slow Motion (Stan Sheppard – Aaron Smith) had hit the streets already prior to the release of the album. “I thought it was a great song. That was my second big single after Take Me where you want to.” The song became Gerald’s biggest solo hit soaring to # 3 on Billboard’s charts, which were now renamed “Hot R&B Singles.” Instead of Jimmy Varner, on this track Aaron Smith handles the keyboards and drum programming, and on background vocals we can hear By All Means, Alfie Silas, Crystal Wilson and Penny Wilson.

Getting Back into Love was another Sheppard & Varner collaboration, and this moody, almost like a late-night ballad turned into a success, too, peaking at # 6-r&b in early 1991. Here Gerald once again lets loose towards the end of the song, and Gerald Albright’s sax accompanies with finesse. “It was a different song for me at first. Stan Sheppard and Jimmy Varner wrote and produced it. It was a great song. It wasn’t like taking me in another direction, but it was like just doing something a little different for taking me out of the group sound and finally doing songs that identified me without changing my style.” The third power ballad from Stan and Jimmy was Don’t You Know How I Feel.

James Anthony Carmichael of the Commodores and Lionel Richie fame was assigned by Motown Records to produce four tracks on Gerald’s album. On his tracks he used Jeff Porcaro, a founding member of Toto, as the drummer. Soon after this, in 1992 at the age of 38, Jeff died from a heart attack. On background vocals James mostly used Deborah Thomas and Marva King.

TELL ME THIS NIGHT WON’T END

A light and tender song titled I’ll Go Crazy was co-written by Vesta Williams. “Vesta and I worked together. We had the same management for awhile. We went to Rio together and we did a little tour here in the States, and it was very good.” A catchy beat-ballad called Never Give Up had been cut by Kool & the Gang a year earlier.

Tell Me This Night Won’t End (by Lorrin Smokey Bates – Ray Fuller – Percy Bady) was chosen for the third single off the album (# 69-r&b). This sweet and melodic ballad, which only shocks with a rock guitar solo in the middle, is actually a duet with a singer-songwriter by the name of Brenda Russell, who had scored with Piano in the Dark and Get Here on A&M in 1988. “That came through my manager. He knew Brenda and he thought we would be a great team together. Mervyn Dash reached out for her, and she agreed to do it, and I really enjoyed working with Brenda.”

The fourth and final song James produced for the album was a slow-to-mid-tempo ditty called Still In Love, which was co-written by Mark Holden, a 58-year old Australian singer, actor and songwriter, who in soul circles is probably best remembered by Lady Soul for the Temptations in 1986.

Levi Seacer, Jr., who has worked with such artists as Prince, Sheila E, Pointer Sisters and Sounds of Blackness, produced the rest two tracks for the set. He also handles all the instruments. The title track, Open Invitation, is the only uptempo song on the album and it was co-written by Norma Jean Wright, and one of the background singers on it is Alex Brown.

The concluding song is a cover of Chuck Jackson’s 1962 hit, Any Day Now. Recorded in Minnesota, the song is arranged to a faster tempo, and - although it lacks the wistfulness and drama of the original recording – it succeeds in conveying the feeling of despair and desolation, so essential to the song. “I think that was Debbie Sandridge’s idea. She was the A&R of the TAJ Records at the time.” Debbie, who is credited as the executive producer on Gerald’s album, is still active in music. After six years with Motown, she worked seven years with Diana Ross, before becoming a director at McNally Smith College of Music in Minneapolis.

Open Invitation fared a bit better than its predecessor, as it reached # 14 on Billboard’s “Top R&B Albums” charts. In terms of soulfulness it really is an impressive set. There’s not a dud on display. Again the European release had two extra tracks (Nothing Can Change and Almost There), which later will appear on Gerald’s third American album. “I think it was a pretty good album. I think it wasn’t as good as the first album, even though we got a big single out of it, Slow Motion, but overall I think the first one was a better album. On that album we really took our time.”

HELL OF A SITUATION

Again two years passed before the next album, Always in the Mood (on Motown 6353, no TAJ anymore), was released in late 1992. Again Debbie Sandridge is credited as the executive producer and again Stan Sheppard and Jimmy Varner produced the first three tracks, and Jimmy plays all the instruments.

The opener is an oft-covered Al Green’s toe-tapper from 1972 titled Love and Happiness, and here again By All Means is backing up Gerald. The first single, however, was track number two, a powerful soul ballad called Hell of a Situation (Backroom Conversation), written by Stan and Jimmy. “It was a story-tell like Kiss and Say Goodbye. People could identify with it.” Unfortunately this passionate song struggled only to # 28-r&b. The third track was Jimmy’s hooky beat-ballad named Good to Go.

Nick Martinelli produced half of the tracks on the set. “He was a pleasure to work with. He took his time. He really worked with you, and he had a great way of working. You couldn’t come in and not know the song, or you would not sing that day. You would come in after you knew it. That’s the way he recorded, and I really appreciated that.”

Those days Nick was an in-demand producer, who in the 1980s and ‘90s worked with Loose Ends, Five Star, Stephanie Mills, Teddy Pendergrass, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Miki Howard, Regina Belle, Phyllis Hyman and Diana Ross, to name a few.

Recorded in Miami, Florida, Send for Me, a classy slowie written by Sam Dees and Ron Kersey, was tested as the second single, but only to a moderate success - # 40-r&b in 1993. The song had been a bigger hit (# 16-soul) for Atlantic Starr in 1981. “We talked about it, and we thought it was a good song, and Nick Martinelli had produced it on Atlantic Starr. When we were talking about it, he said ‘I’m glad I had the opportunity to do it on you’, because he knew my voice and he knew, where he wanted to go. We just put it together, and it was a great song to do. I’ve always liked it. I’ve sung it a couple of times on our show.”

PEACE OF MIND

Nick produced a powerful, gospel-infused gem of a ballad called Peace of Mind, with a real live rhythm section and an 8-piece strong choir. “Barbara Morr and I and Mark Chapman (on the pic right) wrote that. We were just trying to do something with a gospel feel. Betty Wright and her daughter sang on it.” Besides Betty there are also Cynthia Biggs and Donna Allen contributing. In part 4 of our story we already introduced Barbara Morr. Barbara: “The song is filled with many more metaphors than the other songs due to the collaboration with Mark Chapman.”

Mark Chapman: “I co-wrote a song with Gerald Alston and Barbara for the Manhattans called You’re Gonna Love Being Loved by Me (on the Too Hot to Stop It album in 1985, and the b-side of the Columbia 04754 single) and Peace of Mind, a ballad on Gerald’s solo album, Always in the Mood. I considered meeting and working with Gerald to be a high point in my career, actually the fulfilment of a dream. I had been an ardent fan of his and the Manhattans. I consider him to be as fine a singer as I have ever heard. I wore out those Manhattans albums while living in Nashville.”

“In Nashville Tommy Cogbill was the most memorable player I knew down there. We were friends. I even lent him my bass on occasion for recording. He died much too soon. The last guy I played gigs with out of Nashville, before I moved to NYC, was Eddie Hinton. He has been overlooked, I think, considering what great playing he did.”

“I was lucky to connect with Gerald and Barbara after moving to NYC in 1983. Previous to meeting them, I had songs recorded by the Sweet Inspirations on the RSO LP Hot Butterfly in 1979 and by the Newcomers, a Memphis group on Mercury, produced by Allen Jones. In 1986 I had a song cut by Third World, World of Uncertainty on Columbia’s Sense of Purpose LP that did well enough internationally to be included in a greatest hits compilation. More obscurely, Barbara and I wrote a song that was recorded by Billy Scott and the Party Prophets in 1999 and was released in a compilation Bad Boys of Beach, volume 2, distributed by WalMart, Amazon etc. We only learned of this recently, since no-one bothered to alert us, or pay any royalties. This is a classic r&b record business situation.”

The title song, Always in the Mood, is an easy dancer, written by Thomas Snow and Gerry Goffin. Gerald: “The song was submitted to Motown and Nick Martinelli. Gigi Worth, the young lady came in and did it with us.” Ed Calle does a fine sax solo on this poppy ditty.

The guitarist in these Nick’s session, Randy Bowland, wrote a lilting ballad called Someone like You, while Gerald and Jeff Franzel, a New York based pianist and songwriter (e.g. Don’t Rush Me by Taylor Dayne in 1988), wrote a heartfelt, big ballad named I Appreciate Your Love, which had Dee Dee Wilde and Eugene Wilde on background vocals.

NOTHING CAN CHANGE (THE LOVE WE SHARED BEFORE)

Another song Gerald and Barbara Morr wrote together was a melodic mid-pacer called Nothing Can Change (the Love We Shared Before). Gerald: “Douglas Grisby III produced that one. We did the arrangement on that with Nick Martinelli. Doug was a big guy. I haven’t seen him for awhile.” Barbara: “It was pulled from the international version of Gerald’s previous album. It became a big hit in England and then in the rest of Europe, so it was put on the domestic version of Gerald’s third album.”

Barbara: “My collaboration with Gerald Alston has been extremely rewarding, first and foremost, because Gerald is one of the world’s greatest singers and it is an honour to have his performance involved with my writing. With Gerald’s singing style in mind, I have wanted to contribute that which compliments and enhances his voice and gives him room to give his own soulful, personal performance. Our songs are generally considered to be very melodic, hooky and tight in construction.”

“I have had twenty songs recorded by major artists, with Am I Losing You being the most successful. It was also a hit in Europe, Japan and South Africa. Gerald and I wrote We’ve Come All the Way to Love, which we produced for Ray, Goodman & Brown” (on Panoramic Records in 1984). Do You Love Him, one of Barbara’s songs, was released on Phyllis Hyman’s posthumous CD, In Between the Heartaches. In recent years Barbara has been engaged in writing music for commercials, too, both for American and Hispanic markets. “As a singer-songwriter and with my band, I have performed all over the New York metropolitan area, LA, and several European venues including Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, and Basel. I continue to write songs and work in music for advertising. I also teach voice, do vocal coaching, and teach piano and song-writing.”

The concluding song on Always in the Mood is a poignant and melodic ballad titled Almost There, written by Gerald, Eric Mercury and Ira Antelis. Gerald: “The three of us wrote that together. I did it live, when I toured with Natalie Cole back in 1992, and the audience loved it.” Cut in Chicago and produced by Eric and Ira, string arrangements were created by Gene Page.

For the European release of the album they took Nothing Can Change and Almost There off, because those two songs were included already on the European pressing of Open Invitation. As compensation they added five new tracks. First there was a remix of Any Day Now, then a European team of Rutti & Gilbert produced two mid-tempo songs, One Touch (Full of Love) and I’m Still in Love with You. Finally Camelle Hinds and Simon Trounce produced in London two jazzy tracks, the mid-tempo What’s the Color of Love and the faster World of Ours.

STAY THE NIGHT

Like clockwork, after a lapse of two years Gerald’s next album hit the streets in late 1994. It was entitled 1st Class only and released on Street Life Records out of California. Street Life was formed in December 1993 as a sub-label to Scotti Bros, and some of the other artists on this imprint included Nikki Kixx, China, Yella, the Comrads and Craig Mack. Executive producers on Gerald’s album were Emerson “EJ” Jackson, a bassist/singer/producer, and Kevin Evans, president of the urban music division of Scotti Bros./Street Life Records. Chuck Gullo was the head of the entire company those days.

There were as many as five production units working on this set. Gi aka Robert Grissett, Jr. together with Gerald were honoured with the first single release, a beat-ballad titled Stay the Night (# 69-r&b), written by Gi, Gerald, Erica McFarland and Richard Redd. Gerald: “Gi was a young man out of L.A. That was my first time meeting him, but he did a great job.” Besides producing and writing, Gi also plays all the instruments and he did the programming on the track. Gi’s and Gerald’s second production collaboration is a mid-tempo number with a heavy beat called Just Say Yes Tonight.

The second unit – Gregory Charley and John Winston – is better known as Kiara, a Detroit duo, which was formed in the early 80s and had such top-ten r&b hits as The Best of Me, This Time, Every Little Time and You’re Right about That on Arista in the late 80s/early 90s. Recorded in Detroit, the twosome produced four self-written songs on Gerald, and three of those tunes had appeared already on their own recent set, Conditions of the Heart. A dreamy ballad called Devote All My Time – with Dave McMurray on sax – was released as the second single in 1995, and it scraped to # 81-r&b. The other three Kiara songs were a light mid-tempo ballad named Tell Me, a laid-back floater titled I Believe and a mellow and melodic slowie called Willin to be Thrillin.

Sam Sims (www.officialsamsims.com) is best known as a smooth jazz bass player, who has worked with numerous luminaries, and he co-wrote and produced two songs for Gerald. “I think Sam played with Janet Jackson at the time. He was a very good producer. These guys knew what they wanted, we came in and that was it.” Recorded in Atlanta with a live rhythm section, Nothin Better is a mid-tempo, soft floater, which Sam had produced on Rodney Mannsfield a year earlier (actually you can find the original instrumental version of this song on smooth jazz sax player Boney James's Trust album - by the name of Kyoto; ed. note.). The second mid-pacer, Mirror Mirror, was cut in New York.

The two songs that the ever-reliable Michael J. Powell produced on Gerald were again cut in Detroit. “I was hooked up with Michael through my manager at the time. He was a great producer and he allowed me to be myself.” Both songs – I’m Going Crazy and The Best Is Yet to Come (by Gerald and Jeff Franzel) – are gently flowing ballads.

There’s still one more song on 1st Class only, produced by Magic, and it may ring a bell. Gerald decided to remake the Manhattans’ platinum single from 18 years back, Kiss and Say Goodbye. The writer, Winfred “Blue” Lovett, again opens the song with his inimitable monologue, but this time the track is arranged to a much heavier beat and it takes off some of the smoothness and beauty of this gem of a song “Magic was in the camp with the Whispers, and he produced his arrangement of it. We thought it was nice, but I still like the original better.” The musician/singer/producer Magic Mendez http://magicmendez.com became later the lead of Unified Tribe.

Gerald’s fourth solo album wasn’t exactly a big seller. It spent only one week on the r&b charts and hit # 93. It was a soothing and entertaining album, but, on the other hand, there were no real sparks on it. “The industry was changing – to hip-hop and such – and we just never were able to get off the ground, and I didn’t do anything for awhile.”

HARD TO SAY

In addition to his solo records, Gerald also made visits on other artists’ albums and cut duets. Lori Perry was a member of a quartet of sisters called Perri, and alongside working with the group Lori later also launched her solo career. Lori and Gerald sang together on Raymond Jones’ nice mid-tempo dancer called Hard to Say. “That was for the movie, Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee. I enjoyed that, and the movie was good, although in the picture they took my part off (laughing)... but I liked the song.” The song was released not only on the soundtrack on Motown 6272 in 1989, but also as a single (Motown 2034).

In 1989 Motown released a compilation entitled Christmas Cheers from Motown (6292), and - along with such artists as Smokey Robinson, Johnny Gill and the Temptations – Gerald is featured on two songs. Christmas Presence is a duet with Shanice Wilson (www.shaniceonline.com) - remember I Love Your Smile in 1991? “That was an experience! She was a young lady, but she has a voice that’s unbelievable. I remember we were singing the song in the studio in L.A., when my part came to sing after she did her part, and I was so taken away with her voice that I forgot where to come in. I was totally amazed at her voice. Her mother, Crystal, is on background vocals.” Indeed, the song starts as a gently ballad, but towards the end Shanice and Gerald take us to church.

Gerald’s second Christmas song is his gospel-infused rendition of O Holy Night, which later appeared also on another compilation, Christmas Time with Motown (520254), in 1995. “O Holy Night has always been a favourite of mine, and we wanted to try and make it a little different. Bill Dern did the producing on that. We got the choir together from my church, and it worked out great. I get a lot of airplay around Christmas time with O Holy Night.”

As an example of versatility, Gerald sings on a mid-tempo, melodic and laid-back reggae song called Sugar, which also features Soprano. “That was done for a French movie. I liked it. It was a different experience for me, but I enjoyed it.” Bronu Coulais was the score composer and producer on the soundtrack Comme un Aimant (“like a magnet”) on No Sellout 48779 in 2000.

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