I do some posting to a Best of the 60s Facebook page. Some
time back, I thought to post Manfred Mann’s Pretty Flamingo, a song I always liked a lot more than Do Wah Diddy. To me, MM was one of many
British invasion wannabe Beatles pop groups that stuck around for a few years,
had another hit with Bob Dylan’s The
Mighty Quinn, and then transmogrified into Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and
hit again with Blinded by the Light.
It never would have occurred to me to buy one of their albums or otherwise
follow their careers. Still, I did have a sneaking affection for the catchy,
slightly quirky My Little Red Book,
mainly because it was on the What’s New
Pussycat soundtrack (a topic for another day).
In the course of locating Pretty Flamingo on YouTube, I checked out some other MM. I was
astonished to hear an instrumental featuring flute and vibes that wouldn’t have
been out of place on a late night jazz station in the 60s, but a real outlier
on Shindig or Ready Steady Go (for which MM wrote and performed the theme
song). It piqued my interest enough to do some research, which revealed that MM
had started out as a beat/R&B/jazz band a la Georgie Fame and the Blue
Flames and then hit the pop jackpot. Unfortunately, when I tried to re-listen
to the jazz track I’d discovered, I couldn’t remember the name of the tune, and
my YouTube search skills proved unavailing. I gave up and forgot about it.
More recently, I was checking out the Cannonball Adderley
Quintet’s version of Cannonball’s Sack o’ Woe. The YouTube “recommendations”
column suggested a version by none other than MM. It turned out to be a kickin’
up-tempo excursion with brief, crisp solos on alto, harmonica (!), piano, and vibes. I flashed
back to my previous search and soon found the cool jazz track I’d heard in my
first MM search. More exploration yielded more instrumental jazz, from organ combo funky (The Abominable Snowmann) to cool (a
great flute and vibes version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, which to my ears is as good as (and I suspect based on) the Modern Jazz
Quartet’s England’s Carol), to small-group
arrangements of the pop tunes of the day (Satisfaction,
I Got You Babe, Still I’m Sad, and a “where’s the melody” romp through My Generation) featuring Jack Bruce (bass),
Henry Lowther (tpt), and Lyn
Dobson (ts). MM’s regular cast of characters also demonstrate their jazz chops
on these recordings, including Mike Hugg (vibes), vocalist Paul Jones
(harmonica), Mike Vickers (as) and Mann himself on keyboards.
I don’t want to
oversell these things—don’t throw out your old Blues Note and Prestige albums—but
they are quite enjoyable, and I’m impressed that MM put them on their
albums. I wonder what influence they had on the fans who came to them via Do Wah Diddy? If you’re interested, all of these performances, including a
couple not on YouTube (Milt Jackson's Spirit Feel, for one), can be found on The
Soul of Mann, a mostly instrumental compilation. The exception is the oddly
titled LSD, which is really a blues, another genre of which MM was fond. The
album is available as a relatively reasonably priced Japanese import.
The cool flute
and vibes tune I couldn’t find? It’s called Bare Hugg. Enjoy!
