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The Manhattan Transfer looks back, shows off its ‘new chapter’
By Megan Bennett / Journal North Reporter
SANTA FE, N.M. — When you refer to her group’s recent string of shows as a 45th-anniversary tour, Cheryl Bentyne is quick to add “45 and counting.”
Bentyne, a member of Grammy-winning jazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer, says that as long as their voices sing harmonies, the foursome will continue to take the stage and discover new songs. At least they’ll keep going until the music “dries up,” she adds with a laugh, though she doesn’t see that happening anytime soon.
“They say if there’s still music in you, you don’t stop,” Bentyne said.
The Manhattan Transfer was founded in 1972 by Tim Hauser in New York City when he brought together Alan Paul, Janis Siegel and Laurel Massé, and they’ve been making music ever since. Bentyne joined in 1979 after original member Massé stepped out.
The anniversary tour includes tunes and medleys of songs from the group’s first album onward and a taste of the group’s latest turn, with a new member and recently recorded songs. The tour stops in Santa Fe on Thursday.
“It’s really hard to cram everything into an hour-and-a-half,” said Bentyne, given the quantity of TMT’s repertoire. “We’ll do our best.”
The group has recorded nearly 30 albums and famous singles such as 1975’s “Operator,” 1981’s “The Boy from New York City” and its cover of the classic “Route 66” from 1984. TMT mostly does jazz but has also crossed over into other styles like R&B, country and pop.
It won eight Grammys from 1981 to 1992, including the categories for Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Pop Performance for duos or groups.
In recent years, TMT has been forced to rediscover its sound following the loss of founder Hauser, who died of cancer in 2014.
“It was hard to overcome that and try and figure out how we would keep the group going (and) the sound going,” said Bentyne. “And we knew it wouldn’t be the same, but we knew we had Tim’s blessing.”
The remaining members tapped Trist Curless, a Los Angeles a cappella singer who had occasionally filled in for Hauser, to join the group. Bentyne describes him as a “big bass voice” who brings a new sound and attitude to the repertoire.
But she said Hauser is still ”on stage with us every night.”
The quartet will honor him before they sing early songs of his like 1975’s “Candy.” But out of respect, they also have retired certain tunes he frequently sang, like “Java Jive.”
With Curless, TMT has started a “new chapter,” as Bentyne calls it. An upcoming album of originals and covers, titled “The Junction,” is meant to make the music the group has always sung accessible to a new generation.
It includes everything from early swing and pop to a vocalese rendition of the 1990s rap song “Flip Fantasia” by Us3. Curless samples from TMT’s 1970s single “The Tuxedo Junction,” which the album title is loosely based on.
Part of what keeps TMT going, Bentyne said, is that there’s nothing like taking the stage as part of a group. With 40 to 45 years together for most of the group, the singers’ special relationships have developed complexity as they’ve endured. She likened them to a family. Even their children have become best friends, she said.
“So if this group went away tomorrow,” she said, “we would still be together, in a way.”
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