Music Emporium was an American

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1967. Fronted by experimental multi-instrumentalist Bill "Casey" Cosby, the group was created at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, and developed a sound centered around Cosby's keyboards and vocal harmonies. Music Emporium released one ultra-rare self-titled album in 1969, which is praised among psychedelic enthusiasts and has been re-released multiple times.

History

Group leader Bill "Casey" Cosby (multi-instrumentalist, vocals) possessed a classical music and

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 ...

background, winning multiple national musical competitions and recording an album called ''

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Masters'', under the name William Cosby, in 1967. Hoping to embrace the

popular in Los Angeles, Cosby became well-rehearsed with the keyboards and began jamming with

colleague Dora Wahl (drums). Cosby formed the band Gentle Thursday with Wahl and two other fellow UCLA students Thom Wade (lead guitar, vocals) and Steve Rustad (bass guitar). Around the same time, Wade introduced Cosby to the material released by

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, particularly the album '' Forever Changes'', which became a primary influence on the compositions developed in the Music Emporium. In 1968, Gentle Thursday morphed into Cage, and recruited Carol Lee (bass guitar, piano, vocals), another classically trained musician. Rustad and Wade departed the group, though the latter continued to write songs with Cosby. The finalized line-up of the band was complete when they added guitarist Dave Padwin, who was first encountered at a guitar shop on Santa Monica Boulevard. Through his connections in the music industry, Cosby convinced record producer Bill Lazerus to record demos with Cage at Sunset Recorders Studios. Initially, Lazerus could not find any record label to sign the group to complete an album, until Jack Ames, a producer who was fired from

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revival ...

, hoped to recruit the band to his own independent label. Per Ames's suggestion, Cage changed their name to Music Emporium under the assumption the "softer" moniker would translate to a wider audience. With financial limitations burdening the band, Ames only re-recorded the vocals over the pre-existing instrumentals from the demo sessions. ''Music Emporium'' was released in 1969 on Sentinel Records, with a limited run of 300 copies. Included in the album's package was an elaborate die-cut cover through whose "windows" the portrait of the Music Emporium on the inner sleeve photo could be seen. Marked by Cosby's intricate keyboard instrumentals and dreamy female vocal harmonies, music historian

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...

compares ''Music Emporium'' to the

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ac ...

and the United States of America. Unterberger also described it as "nice gothic/classical touch, and the lyrics are excessively cosmic". The album, which produced the single "Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo", went unadvertised, granted a few appearances on local radio stations. Music Emporium was not well received in venues anticipating Top 40 radio cover versions; however, the band achieved a sizable following as a regular at the club, the Odyssey, which promoted original material. Cosby revealed in an interview the band had the basic concept prepared for a follow-up album, with a working-title ''Multiple Choice, Everyone's Almost There''. However, the Music Emporium disbanded in late 1969 when Cosby was drafted to enter service in the Vietnam War. Since the break-up of the group, ''Music Emporium'' has become one of the most prized albums of the psychedelic era. It has been reissued several times: first by Psycho Records in 1983, and later Sundazed Records released a deluxe version with five bonus tracks (albeit five instrumental versions of songs from the original). In addition, "Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo", arguably the group's best-known composition, is featured on

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

s such as ''Gathering of the Tribe'', ''Acid Trip from the Psychedelic Sixties'', and ''Sixties Archive, Volume 8''.

Members

* Bill "Casey" Cosby – multi-instrumentalist, vocals * Dora Wahl – drums * Thom Wade – lead guitar, vocals (1967–1968) * Steve Rustad – bass guitar (1967–1968) * Dave Padwin – lead guitar (1968–1970) * Carol Lee – bass guitar, piano, vocals (1968–1970)

Discography

Single

* "Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo" b/w "Times Like This" – Sentinel (4–501), 1969

Album

* ''Music Emporium'' – Sentinel (PC-690001), 1969

References

{{Authority control Psychedelic rock music groups from California