July 18, 1980 Gusto record review: Rounding up local releases

Rounding up some more of 1980's bumper crop of local record releases.

July 18, 1980 Gusto record review

Too bad the city fathers already have chosen an official song for Buffalo. Once they'd heard Mike Mazur's musical tributes, they'd proclaim him some kind of poet laureate. Mazur, a 34-year-old rock drummer, has concocted a four-song suite that sums up all the agonies and joys of living around here. He calls it "Blue Collar City" (MMM Productions). MMM, but the way, stands for Mike Mazur's Mother. She loaned him the money to make this 7-inch EP and the classy cardboard sleeve it comes in.

Recorded on the basement eight-tracker of Paul Rizzo, keyboardist for the rock band Sky, the set is good-time, hard-hitting rhythm and blues from start to finish. That's venerable Ron Davis boogieing and woogieing on piano. Guitarist Tadj Szymczak and saxophonist John Hill, both from the successful local commercial band New York Transfer, get to show the feisty side of their talent. Mazur wraps it up with cool-cat vocalizing, full of sassy asides.

The lyrics are the clincher. Mazur covers it all, from chicken wings to the weather to "Hide in Plain Sight." The lyric sheet reproduces the losing off-track bet stubs to illustrate "OTB Blues." Best of all, though, is "Second Shift Shuffled," which zeroes in perfectly on "that 4 to 12, work like hell, high-falutin', drinkin' man's way of life."

The record is available directly from Mazur himself, 49 Clemo St., Buffalo, 14206, at $3 a copy. He's only printed up 500 of these little jewels, but judging by the way it's flipped out everybody I've played it for, he ought to go back and press another 20,000. "Blue Collar City" is the best record yet about Buffalo.

The Vores were the first band to make a record about the Love Canal disaster, but they've turned to more mundane concerns on their second single, "Forget That Guy/Stress" (Family Only Records BOP-3D). For New Wavers, they emerge amazingly pop in the quick come-with-me cadences of "Forget That Guy." It sounds like a good radio tune. "Stress" is more like the dissonance one expects from this band. It's much more representative of the group than the live-at-Max's Kansas City take of a New Wave blues called "Amazing Offer," which appears on a compilation of Rochester bands in "From the City That Brought You ... Absolutely Nothing" (Out of Print Records OOPS-1).

Like the Vores, the Third Floor Strangers recorded in Maxwell Music Studios. The Strangers have the further advantage of being the house band. Their single, "Lorraine/ You Are the One" (Trelaine Records MMX-1006), is clean, peppy and pop-oriented. The go-away plea of "Lorraine" and its harmony choruses make it the general favorite, the band's Bob James says, but I prefer the higher energy of the flip side.

Magenta, one of the area's longer-lived commercial groups, shows its strengths on its debut single, "Heart Breaker Man/ Running Back to You" (Select Sound Records SS-1007), with powerful female vocals and a lot of polish.

Club singer Janet Gane, best known for her work on WJYE-FM, makes her recording debut on "For You/ Merry Go Round" (Rainbow Records RR-007), but it may be too peppy for the station's beautiful music format. The monologue sections and the slow pace of "For You" put me off, but the regretful "Merry Go Round" has a certain easy-rolling country charm.

It takes longer to appreciate the lyrics and the lithe soprano of East Amherst singer-songwriter Bari Bennett on her debut single, "Illegal Man/ Here We Go Again" (Baclub Productions BP-022080). Poor recording quality is to blame. Next time she should junk that electric piano.

The most unlikely local record of late is a Dunkirk-and-Buffalo-based Puerto Rican group called Los Sublimes '77, which claims to be the best merengue band in Western New York. Their "Ritmo Caliente/ Falso Amor" (Camel Records C-414) transmits a sunny Latin flavor and excellent guitar by Rafy Santiago behind veteran vocalist Yago Rodriguez, despite shortcomings in recording quality. I prefer the upbeat "Ritmo Caliente." The ballad on the flip side is best appreciated by true aficionados.

Something of a disappointment is the first single from Buffalo Jazz Ltd., "December 26/ And This Afternoon" (no label), which was recorded in Canada. Missing are the sophistication and distinctiveness one usually seeks in pop jazz.

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IN THE PHOTO: Back cover of "Blue Collar City."

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FOOTNOTE: I wound up writing about Mike Mazur again after he died in November 2023. As I noted in his obit, he organized an 11-piece Blue Collar Band and toured with Italian-born singer Gene Ferrari. He later was featured with Phil and the Spectors and his old friend Tadj in the New York Rockets. And after that, he would show up to sing in the Sportsmen's Tavern with the Twang Gang.

The Vores still get together and perform from time to time. They describe themselves as an "avant-garage" band. The lineup these days includes Biff Henrich, Gary Nickard, Patrick Heyden, Cathy Carfagna and David Meinzer.

The Third Floor Strangers may have been Buffalo's best power pop band. Their single provided two highlight tracks for their "Last Chance" album in 1981. Bob James, who owned Maxwell Studios, also played with the Restless, the Rain, Big Happy Family and the Blue Reimondos. He's still playing and supports a lot of worthy causes. He was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

Magenta played all the major showrooms locally and people still have fond memories of them. Their singer, Mary Nero, was inducted into the Niagara Falls Music Hall of Fame in 2019, where it is noted that she has been entertaining audiences for six decades.

Janet Gane has made a variety of stops in her career. She had a stint on Channel 7's "AM Buffalo," acted in soap operas, and has been assistant executive director at Melody Fair, a marketing consultant and a professor at Niagara University, Medaille College and Niagara County Community College.

Bari Bennett has pretty much disappeared, as far as Google is concerned. So have the guys in Los Sublimes. Bari last appeared in the Buffalo News archives in 1980. Los Sublimes stopped showing up in the Gusto calendar in the early 1990s.