The great reedman Mark Whitecage is a player who never fully got his due – a really unique talent in terms of phrasing and rhythm, finally given one last chance at the spotlight here on this final recording with The Nu Band, a group in which he played for many years! All four players here are great – Thomas Heberer on quarter tone trumpet, Joe Fonda on bass, and Lou Grassi on drums and percussion – but it also feels as if there's a special sort of focus on the very personal, very expressive sounds that Whitecage can create – as he plays here on alto, flute, and clarinet. There's a mixture of modern structure and free improvisation here – that great legacy of the group, which is there way of bringing forward some of the new thing ideas of the 60s with more personal contemporary improv modes. Titles include "Christophe & Ornette", "Five O'Clock Blues", "The Closer You Are The Further It Gets", "Prayer For The Water Protectors", and "Minor Madness". CD

Four albums from this wonderful group – all brought together in a single set! First up is the self-titled Spanky & Our Gang – the first, and perhaps the most conventional album by the group, but still pretty darn insane! Spanky & Our Gang are a strange mix of 60s styles – with bits of We Five, bits of Harpers Bizarre, bits of The Association – but a totally strange and totally fun approach to pop that's very much their own. Cuts on the album are a mix of originals and covers – and highlights include the incredible "5 Definitions Of Love" by Bob Dorough, "Distance" by Joe Renzetti, "Commercial" by the band, and the track "It Ain't Necessarily Bird Avenue". Great groovy stuff – and with arrangements by Renzetti, Dorough, and Stuart Scharf. Like To Get To Know You is a tiny little pop masterpiece was produced and arranged by Stuart Scharf and the great Bob Dorough, and is filled with one of the grooviest approaches to pop we've heard in ages. The album includes the sublime hit "Like To Get To Know You", set in a very different LP setting – plus great versions of "Suzanne" and "Everybody's Talkin", and the cuts "Stardust", "The Swingin Gate", and "My Bill". Anything You Choose is the third movement in the fantastic pop symphony that is Spanky & Our Gang! The record's perhaps their oddest to date – and mixes groovy vocal stylings with some fairly advanced production approaches that work perfectly with the incredible songs written by Stuart Scharf and Bob Dorough. The voices swirl about in a mad rush – interweaving lines of melody and poetry, punctuated by strange sounds, spacey airy instrumentation, and wonderful little rhythms. Titles include "Anything You Choose", "1-3-5-8", "Without Rhyme Or Reason", "Give A Damn", and "Nowhere To Go". Live is an unusual album from this groovy group – especially given that most of their famous work was in the studio – and done with really inventive arrangements and production! Yet those qualities still come through here, even in a live setting – as the record's got this stripped-down approach that shows just how much of the group's own inventive vocal interplay and harmonies were part of their fantastically groovy style! Titles include "Wasn't It You", "Dirty Old Man", "The Klan", "Nagasaki", "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight", and "That's What You Get For Lovin Me". CD