Symphonic Metamorphosis — Symphonic Metamorphosis 1970 (USA, Psychedelic-Jazz Rock)
The debut album by a band formed from members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The group later shortened its name to "Metamorphosis" and released its second album, "Dynamic Arena."In 1970 Thomas Bacon, Robert Cowart, Donald Haas, Arthur Krehbiel, Ervin Monroe, Robert Pangborn, Dennis Smith and Sam Tundo were all members of The Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The eight were apparently all bitten by the rock and roll bug, deciding to form their own band. The result was Symphonic Metamorphosis. Signed by London Records, the band was teamed producer Don Griffith, resulting in the release of 1970's "Symphonic Metamorphosis". Blowing their own horns, the album liner notes crowed "The Symphonic Metamorphosis have heron given birth to a new musical idiom Fusion Rock."
Having listened to this album dozens of times, I'm not sure the fusion rock definition is apt. The seven original compositions certainly offered up a variety of musical genres including classical, pop moves, jazz-rock horns, conventional rock arrangements and Latin percussion (frequently in one performance). In fact, if I were forced to bin the album into a musical genre I'd tagged it as horn-rock. The performances were all pretty energetic though it was interesting to note that with the exception of the opening of 'Good Things' and their adaptation of Bach's 'Sarabande' the classical influences were rare. Instead, their biggest influences appeared to be horn-rock bands like BS&T and Chicago. Ervin Monroe was responsible for most of the material and also served as lead guitarist and prime vocalist. Monroe wasn't a great singer, but his raw performances were energetic (check out the opener 'Reach Out!' and 'I've Decided To Get You'). His solo performances were certainly better than the tunes like 'Good Things' and 'Creation' that featured "group" vocals. I won't try to convince anyone this was a great album, but I can tell you that song-for-song it was better than some of the album's better known horn bands have released.
Craig Braun's cover art was kind of cool.RDTEN1 Feb 19 2023
Tracks:
01. Reach Out - 0:00
02. Good Things - 4:01
03. I Can See Your Face - 9:26
04. Little Lisa - 14:27
05. I've Decided To Get You - 18:04
06. Creation - 22:09
07. Sarabande - 25:15
08. More Power To Ya - 28:45
Personnel:
Ervin Monroe – lead vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar, flute
Robert Cowart – bass guitar, English horn, oboe, flute, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Arthur David Krehbiel – French horn, bass trumpet, bass guitar
Thomas Bacon - organ, trumpet, French horn, bass trumpet
Dennis Smith - trombone
Donald Haas - trumpet, bass trumpet
Robert Pangborn, Sam Tundo – percussion
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