Catalyst was a

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 ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

quartet from

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, whose material presaged the work of later

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

artists.

Catalyst Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

at Allmusic.com The group encountered regional success in the 1970s and have become more widely known since the re-release of their material on CD. The group was discovered by producer

Skip Drinkwater Skip Drinkwater is an American record producer. He is best known for working with jazz artists, Norman Connors, Alphonse Mouzon and Eddie Henderson, as well as discovering the Catalyst and working with the all black heavy metal band Sound Barrie ...

, who signed them to

Muse Records Muse Records was a jazz record company and label founded in New York City by Joe Fields in 1972. Fields worked as an executive for Prestige Records in the 1960s. Several of the albums were previously released on Cobblestone Records. Muse also ha ...

after hearing them play at a club in West Philadelphia. Drinkwater and Dennis Wilen produced their debut self-titled LP, released in 1972 with the following personnel: Eddie Green (keyboards, vocals),

Sherman Ferguson Sherman Eugene Ferguson (October 31, 1944 – January 22, 2006) was an American jazz drummer. For a time he was a member of the jazz trio Heard Ranier Ferguson. Background Ferguson once said that when people asked him what he did, he wouldn't ...

(percussion),

Odean Pope Odean Pope (born October 24, 1938) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Biography Pope was raised in Philadelphia, where he learned from Ray Bryant while young. Early in his career, at Philadelphia's Uptown Theater, Pope played behind a numbe ...

(saxophone, flute, oboe),

Alphonso Johnson Alphonso Johnson (born February 2, 1951) is an American jazz bassist active since the early 1970s. Johnson was a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1973 to 1975, and has performed and recorded with numerous high-profile rock and ...

(bass). The group received little label support for major tours and so spent most of their playing time in the Philadelphia and New York areas. The group recorded and released a second album in 1973 on

, entitled ''Perception''; by this time, bassist Johnson had left the group to join

Weather Report Weather Report was an American jazz fusion band active from 1970 to 1986. The band was founded in 1970 by Austrian virtuoso keyboardist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš, American drummer and vocali ...

, and was replaced by Tyrone Brown. Drinkwater and Wilen also produced this album. Garnering comparisons to

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...

, and

Return to Forever Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhun ...

,The Funkiest Band You Never Heard
Douglas Payne, April 1, 1999. Accessed September 7, 2007. a cult following had grown up around the band by this time, who returned in 1974 with ''Unity'', again on Muse. The album featured

Billy Hart Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest, among others. Bi ...

in addition to its core members. 1975's ''A Tear and a Smile'' would be the group's final release; poor album sales and disenchantment with the industry led the group to disband in 1976. Following their time with Catalyst, Green, Brown and Ferguson played with

Pat Martino Pat Martino (born Patrick Carmen Azzara; August 25, 1944 – November 1, 2021) was an American jazz guitarist and composer. Biography Martino was born Patrick Carmen Azzara in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, to father Carmen "Mickey" ...

on the 1974 album ''

Consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

'', Brown and Ferguson also played on the album '' Pat Martino/Live!'' recorded in 1972 on which the guitarist's epic version of " Sunny" appears. And

MFSB MFSB, officially standing for "Mother Father Sister Brother", was a pool of more than 30 studio musicians based at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios. They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom Bel ...

, and both Pope and Brown began playing gigs with

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz Jazz drumming, drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in h ...

; Pope also played with the Saxophone Choir. Ferguson later played with

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

Bud Shank Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank Jr. (May 27, 1926 – April 2, 2009) was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and thro ...

, and

Kenny Burrell Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist known for his work on numerous top jazz labels: Prestige, Blue Note, Verve, CTI, Muse, and Concord. His collaborations with Jimmy Smith were notable, and produced the 1965 ...

. In the 1990s, the Muse catalog was acquired by

Joel Dorn Joel Dorn (April 7, 1942 – December 17, 2007) was an American jazz and R&B music producer and record label entrepreneur. He worked at Atlantic Records, and later founded the 32 Jazz, Label M, and Hyena Records labels. He called himself "T ...

's 32 Jazz label, which released some of Catalyst's work on a 1998 compilation album. Fan interest led to their entire four-album discography being released as a 2-CD set, entitled ''The Funkiest Band You Never Heard''. "Ain't it the Truth" and "Ile Ife" were covered by

Uri Caine Uri Caine (born June 8, 1956, Philadelphia, United States) is an American classical and jazz pianist and composer. Biography Early years The son of Burton Caine, a professor at Temple Law School, and poet Shulamith Wechter Caine, Caine began p ...

(keyboards),

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thou ...

(Drums, from

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

), and

Christian McBride Christian McBride (born May 31, 1972) is an American jazz bassist, composer and arranger. He has appeared on more than 300 recordings as a sideman, and is an eight-time Grammy Award winner. McBride has performed and recorded with a number of j ...

(bass), on their album '' The Philadelphia Experiment''.

Discography

* ''Catalyst'' (

Cobblestone Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...

, 1972 * ''Perception'' (

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

, 1973) * ''Unity'' (Muse, 1974) * ''A Tear and a Smile'' (Muse, 1975) * ''The Funkiest Band You Never Heard'' ( 32, 1999)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Catalyst Musical groups from Philadelphia American jazz ensembles from Pennsylvania Jazz fusion ensembles Muse Records artists Cobblestone Records artists Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania