Les DeMerle & Sound 67 - Once in a Lifetime (2023)

By the time of Spectrum, Les DeMerle's dynamic 1969 United Artists debut album, Les was a known, prodigious young drumming talent who had been wowing audiences through club and TV performances since he was a teen. Unheard at the time was a 1967 recording of his band, Sound 67, which was lost in the shuffle at Atlantic Records, never to see the light of day. The acetates that followed DeMerle around for the last 56 years reveal a 20-year old dynamo who knew talent, showmanship, and the sounds of his times. With a collection of crack arrangements by Frank Foster & Bob Hammer, channeling the latest grooves of Ramsey Lewis and Cannonball Adderley, balanced with sublime pop hits and burning swingers, Les sculpted his 5-piece band into a musical juggernaut. Featuring Randy Brecker on trumpet - in what would have been his first featured recording - and the voice of rock diva, Genya Ravan, Once in a Lifetime is an amazing time capsule find, containing great hints of the career DeMerle would unfurl over the coming decades.