Alta Moda was a Canadian funk rock band formed in 1979 in Toronto. It originally consisted of singer Molly Johnson and guitarist

Norman Orenstein Norman Orenstein is a Canadians, Canadian composer, record producer, and musician. Career Orenstein is the co-founder of the rock/soul band Infidels (band), Infidels, and Alta Moda, and was previously associated with the bands Michaele Jord ...

.Jennifer Higgs
"Molly Johnson"
'' The Canadian Encyclopedia'', November 4, 2012. Drummer Steven Gelineau and bassist Etric Lyons were added in 1982 and 1983 respectively. After performing for several years in Toronto and releasing the promotional single "Train" in 1986, the band signed to CBS Records and released their debut album, ''Alta Moda'', in 1987. The album received mixed reviews, with some critics saying it sounded too much like

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

; the band even faced some assertions that they were " too black" for the Canadian market. The album spawned the single "Julian", but the song was only a modest hit, peaking at #53 in the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Hot 100 chart the week of January 30, 1988. The album's other singles, "Notown (In Particular)" and "Cool Love", did not chart. Alta Moda contributed a non-album track, "American Chaser", to the soundtrack of the 1986 television film ''

Popeye Doyle Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

nomination in the R&B category for "Julian", because they felt it was a miscategorization of the song.Greg Barr, "Pair of musical renegades driving force with Infidels". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'', October 3, 1991. Although Alta Moda had originally signed a six-album deal with CBS, they were dropped from the label after the album's poor sales.Greg Barr, "Good golly!; Toronto's Molly Johnson and Alta Moda band sign big U.S. record deal". ''

'', July 27, 1990. The band continued to perform live, on the lookout for another deal. Orenstein wrote and produced material for other artists, and Johnson performed jazz and blues with a backing band which later became

Big Sugar The sugar industry subsumes the production, processing and marketing of sugars (mostly sucrose and fructose). Globally, most sugar is extracted from sugar cane (~80% predominantly in the tropics) and sugar beet (~ 20%, mostly in temperate climate ...

."Johnson plays the infidel". ''

'', August 15, 1991. Johnson and Orenstein signed a new deal with IRS Records in 1990, but changed the band's name to Infidels by the time of their 1991 album.

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1979 Musical groups disestablished in 1988 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian funk musical groups Funk rock musical groups 1979 establishments in Ontario 1988 disestablishments in Ontario