Dan Siegel (1982)

Japanese import.

A few weeks back on a social media site, I posted the following Radio & Records chart from 1982:

p. 38

I was familiar with most of these albums - I had 3 or 4 back in '82 and count at least three that have previously appeared on this blog (plus I have an inexplicable obsession with the Elektra/Musician label) - but I hadn't heard the Dan Siegel album and I was completely unfamiliar with Nightwind. A few clicks later, I had copies of both en route: the Nightwind was on vinyl and I ripped/posted a copy of it for ya, and this CD was on my front porch the next day. I've been listening to it quite a bit over the past month when I haven't been in the mood for Christmas tunes. Siegel is a composer/keyboardist and he gets some help here from top-notch session musicians such as Abe Laboriel, Larry Carlton, Tom Browne, and Tom Scott, among others.

Billboard, March 20, 1982, p. 69

Which is far more complimentary than this Amazon user review:

I have been a Dan Siegel fan since the late 90s. Unfortunately, this CD is my least favorite of his works. Every single song in this collection sounds like a cheesy theme song from a mid 80s TV show that was mercifully cancelled after the first season. It's nothing like his other work, and I hate it. After listening to the entire thing, I ejected it from the drive and threw it into the trash.

Ouch. The Grusin and Post comparisons are apt but that's not necessarily a bad/cheesy thing; there are a few good tunes among the 9 tracks here.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #30
• CashBox Jazz: #21
• Radio & Records Jazz Radio National Airplay: #4

Tracks, ranked in order of preference:

1. Soaring - a smooth, mid-tempo joint featuring Mark Hatch on flugelhorn simple melody, this one has an early Catching The Sun-era Spyro Gyra feel to it.
2. Enchanted Forest - laid back smoothness featuring Larry Carlton. In no way resembles "a cheesy theme song from a mid 80s TV show." Siegel solos on piano.
3. Deserted Beach - if this ballad had ended up on a Chuck Mangione album, I don't think anyone would have known the difference.
4. Uptown - featuring Tom Scott, this upbeat track admittedly has a slight TV-show-theme vibe to it when he's playing the melody, but it's one of the better compositions on the album. Bonus points for the ending tenor solo.
5. Great Expectations - with a Westcoast groove, this yacht-lite album opener gets some help from Scott, but it's a little synth heavy. More Grusin than Post.
6. The Lone Ranger - a straight-up Grusin knock-off, complete with orchestration. Again, Carlton gets the spotlight.
7. The Conqueror - the tune starts with synth riff over a pedal tone that sounds like something Jonathan Cain might have written for Journey. But instead of Steve Perry's vocals, we get an instrumental melody from Carlton.
8. Passing Time - Showcasing Tom Scott, this tune might have been later stolen by NBC as the basis for Jack Elliott's theme to Night Court.
9. Touch And Go - theme from the short-lived TV medical sitcom "Touch And Go" which, in the same vein as The Love Boat, starred a rotating cast of guest stars as surgeons who all use a magical, talking scalpel to perform miraculous life-saving procedures. Wise-cracking, political incorrectness, and hilarity ensue.
   
   
   At the end of every gut-busting episode, the surgeon greets the family with good news, starting with the show's catch-phrase, "It was touch and go there for awhile, but then..." The show was quickly cancelled, probably because I just made it up.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. If I had come across this album in 1982, I no doubt would have listened to it often, but not on par with the Spyro Gyra or David Sanborn albums of the time. But now I've heard all ten albums on the above R&R list and own the vast majority on one format or another.

On the date of this re-release, September 24, 2015,
¥1,000 was the equivalent of $9.16.
I paid a few dollars more than that in 2019.