Before there was Saturday Night Fever there was underground disco. DJs across America went out and found the music to play; dancers went out and found the clubs. At this point, in the early seventies, the disco was the venue and not a genre of music.
How could a combo named the Insect Trust be anything other than eclectic? Hoboken Saturday Night (1970) was the second of two platters from an interesting aggregate whose core consisted of multi-instrumentalists Luke Faust (harmonica, banjo, electric piano, fiddle), Trevor Koehler (baritone sax, soprano sax, piccolo, sewer drum, flute), Robert Palmer (alto sax, clarinet, recorder), Nancy Jeffries (vocals), and Bill Barth (lead guitar, steel guitar). The rhythm section was fleshed out by a sizable and equally diverse coterie of session musicians such as jazz legend Elvin Jones (drums), Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums), Charles "Buddy" Nealy (drums), Donald MacDonald (drums), William Folwell (bass, trumpet), Bob Bushnell (bass), Ralph Casale (rhythm guitar), and Hugh McCracken (rhythm guitar). Collectively, they touched upon facets of the singer/songwriter, psychedelic, and folk-rock subgenres, while somehow eluding them all…
How could a combo named the Insect Trust be anything other than eclectic? Hoboken Saturday Night (1970) was the second of two platters from an interesting aggregate whose core consisted of multi-instrumentalists Luke Faust (harmonica, banjo, electric piano, fiddle), Trevor Koehler (baritone sax, soprano sax, piccolo, sewer drum, flute), Robert Palmer (alto sax, clarinet, recorder), Nancy Jeffries (vocals), and Bill Barth (lead guitar, steel guitar). The rhythm section was fleshed out by a sizable and equally diverse coterie of session musicians such as jazz legend Elvin Jones (drums), Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums), Charles "Buddy" Nealy (drums), Donald MacDonald (drums), William Folwell (bass, trumpet), Bob Bushnell (bass), Ralph Casale (rhythm guitar), and Hugh McCracken (rhythm guitar). Collectively, they touched upon facets of the singer/songwriter, psychedelic, and folk-rock subgenres, while somehow eluding them all…
More textured and funkier than their debut album, Zhane's second record Saturday Night is an infectious set of percolating funk, club beats, and new jack harmonies. The songs aren't always as strong as the performances, but Zhane's vocal charisma makes such shortcomings forgivable.