Blue Rondo à la Turk was an early 1980s

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

musical ensemble, whose music featured elements of salsa, pop and cool jazz. The group placed two songs on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

(1981's "Me and Mr. Sanchez", and 1982's "Klactoveesedstein"), but is perhaps better known in retrospect for launching the careers of several players who went on to form the sophisticated jazz/Latin/samba/pop group

Matt Bianco Matt Bianco are a British band that were formed in 1983. They are mainly known for their success in the mid-1980s and their jazz, Latin-flavoured music. The group's name suggests that Matt Bianco is a person, often assumed to be an alias for th ...

History

Origin and early success (1981–1982)

Blue Rondo à la Turk was a floating collective of jazz and salsa oriented musicians, created by singer/lyricist Chris Sullivan, whose stated goal for the band was "to bring back show biz". In the band’s first interview, Sullivan said of their sound: “Call it Latin American jazz with funk and African leanings – plus a few others because all of us have adventurous musical tastes.” Sullivan co-wrote most of the band's original material; he also painted the distinctive cubist art that adorned most of the band's releases. For the earliest singles (1981's "Me and Mr. Sanchez", and 1982's "Klactoveesedstein"), the group was a six-piece: Sullivan, Christos Tolera (vocals), Mark Reilly (guitars), Mike Lloyd Bynoe a.k.a. "Choco Mick" (drums and timbales), Kito Poncioni ( bass) and Geraldo D'Arbilly (

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

). All had assorted co-writing credits on the band's material, with Sullivan, Poncioni and Reilly being the most frequent contributors.

Pete Wingfield William Peter Wingfield (born 7 May 1948) is an English record producer, keyboard player, songwriter, singer and music journalist. Career Whilst at Sussex University Wingfield and three other students formed the group Jellybread. In 1969, he ...

produced "Me and Mr. Sanchez", which entered the UK Singles Chart on 14 November 1981, peaking at number 40. "Me and Mr. Sanchez" was also number one in Brazil for three months and was the theme tune for the

1982 World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 i ...

. The band's follow-up single "Klactoveesedstein" was produced by Kevin Godley & Lol Creme, and entered the chart on 13 March 1982, reaching number 50. The group added Moses Mount Bassie (

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

) as a member for their third single, "The Heavens Are Crying", written by the band with

Clive Langer Clive Langer (born 19 June 1954 in Hampstead, London, England) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Alan Winstanley. He composed the music for the films '' Still Crazy'' and '' ...

. This track was produced by Langer and

Alan Winstanley Alan Kenneth Winstanley (born 2 November 1952) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer. His early career during the mid-1970s was as an audio engineer, working on albu ...

, and failed to chart. The fourth single, recorded with the same line-up, was called "Carioca", and featured a co-writing credit for soon-to-be-official member Daniel White. Produced by

Mike Chapman Michael Donald Chapman (born 13 April 1947) is an Australian-American record producer and songwriter who was a major force in the British pop music industry in the 1970s. He created a string of hit singles for artists including The Sweet, Suz ...

, this single also failed to chart. Blue Rondo à la Turk's debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

, ''Chewing the Fat'', was released in 1982 and included all four of their singles released to that time. Added to the line up for the album, officially swelling the group to a ten-piece, were Art Collins (saxophone), Tholo Peter Tsegona (

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

), and Daniel White (

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

). ''Chewing the Fat'' appeared on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, entering on 6 November 1982 and remaining on the chart for two weeks peaking at 80 on the second week.

Line-up changes, second album, and dissolution (1983–1984)

Following the release of the debut album and its minimal chart success, Blue Rondo à la Turk fractured, with Reilly, Poncioni and White exiting to found the soon-to-be-chartbound group

. Collins, Tsegona, Mount Bassie and Bynoe also dropped out around this time, leaving the group a trio: vocalists Sullivan and Tolera, and percussionist D'Arbilly. The slimmed down group also slimmed down their name to simply Blue Rondo, and issued two non-charting singles: "Slipping Into Daylight" (1983), and "Masked Moods" (1984). Both were written by Sullivan with outside collaborators, and produced by Steve Brown. Both singles were included on the Blue Rondo album ''Bees Knees and Chicken Elbows'', which was released in 1984 — by which time the band had already broken up.

Reissues

After the success of

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

issued the 1986 compilation ''Too Soon To Come'', credited to "Blue Rondo à la Turk Featuring Mark Reilly & Danny White". The compilation featured all 6 Blue Rondo UK singles (even the ones that Reilly and/or White didn't play on), as well as assorted album tracks. The release was only made available on LP. On 16 June 2014 a double-CD entitled ''Chewing the Fat'' was issued by Cherry Red Records, under number: CDBRED621 (ASIN: B00JVSIGJY). The two cds include 29 tracks, comprising all of the group's recordings on the original album plus various bonus tracks, 7" and 12" specials and some remixes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Rondo a la Turk (band) British jazz ensembles British pop music groups English new wave musical groups Musical groups established in 1981 Musical groups disestablished in 1984