Mazarati By Patrick Mondout
The Minneapolis-based funk/rock band Mazarati signed with Prince's
vanity Paisley Park label in 1985 on a recommendation from
Brownmark (Mark Brown), the bassist for Prince's band. Brownmark attended
high school with vocalist Terry Casey (credited as Sir Casey Terry - the
alternated name being an idiosyncrasy of Paisley Park releases from that
era) and helped put the band together and get the record deal.
When looking back on this album, it is important to remember just how
big Prince was at the time. Anything he touched seemed to turn to gold (if
not platinum). An unwatchable black and white movie was about to change
all that, but at the time Mazarati released their debut album, anything
that came out of Prince's world would garner plenty of attention. Critics
- especially all the ones who loved him in New York - predicted this band
would hit it big. Mazarati would be multiracial, funky, and would rock too
- all the ingredients that had helped make Purple Rain such a crossover
success. The all-male band would also glam it up with plenty of mascara
and lipstick and the kinds of Salvation Army-rejects Prince had gotten
away with wearing during the Purple Rain era. (I felt sorry for them when
I first the pictures on the flipside of the album.) But not all that
glitters earns a gold record.
Player's Ball was released as a single but only made it to #79
R&B and the album would only make it to #52 R&B and #133 Pop
before disappearing completely. Unlike the Sheila
E. and early The Time albums, this
album was not produced by Prince and while Brownmark may have been any
number of good things, he was no Prince.
Prince did contribute the song 100 MPH to the album, which was
released as the second (and final) single (#19 R&B).* Actually, Prince
originally provided Mazarati with two additional tracks: The first, Jerk
Out, was pulled back by Prince and later given to the reunited The
Time for their 1990 comeback album Pandemonium.
The Time took the song to the top ten on the pop charts (their highest
position on that chart) and all the way to number 1 on the R&B charts.
The second song, would you believe, did even better! That song was
pulled back by Prince for use on his own 1986 release - the soundtrack
to that black and white movie (Under the Cherry Moon). It was Kiss,
of course, and Prince's version made it to #1 on both charts. Oh, and
that's Mazarati on background vocals! Even if they never made it big,
Mazarati was immortalized in one of the great pop songs of the 20th
century.
Having heard the fairly uninspired demo of Kiss by Mazarati, I'm
not sure the inclusion of it and Jerk Out would have improved
Mazarati's fortunes. That said, this is not the worst of the Paisley Park
releases by a longshot (see especially T.C. Ellis), and if you enjoy the
rock/funk produced by say Jesse
Johnson, you will probably enjoy this album - that is, if you can find
the long out-of-print album (it was only released on CD in Japan and I
sold mine on eBay for over $100 back in 2000).
The end of 1986 was also the end of Prince and the Revolution. Wendy
and Lisa left first and then Brownmark decided to go solo. Unimpressed
with the lack of sales, Warner Brothers did not invite Mazarati back for a
second try and they followed Brownmark to Motown for a final disc produced
by the now former member of Prince's band. It fared even worse.
Brownmark's own pair of discs did only slightly better with the second
aided by the presence of Prince's voice on one song and his songwriting
skills on another.
*I have a promo for Stroke on a 7" Paisley
Park 45RPM, but I do not know whether it was officially the third single
as I have never seen this as a non-promo.writing a review (see below)!
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