Capital Records Press Release
LeRoux takes its name from the Cajun French term
for the thick and hearty gravy base that's used to make gumbo, a
vitamin-laden soup that's actually of Bantu origin. It's an appropriate
moniker for this six-man aggregation of writers and musicians who
call Baton Rouge, Louisiana their home.
The band's music, transferred to vinyl with the
release of their debut LP on Capitol, Louisiana's LeRoux
(April 1978) is chock full of thick and hearty instrumental textures
that pull from blues, R&B, funk, jazz, rock, and Cajun roots. Their
sound is laced with multi-layered four- and five-part harmonies
served up in a wide range of imaginatively arranged songs, and seasoned
with years of collective experience on the road and in the studio.
Most members of LeRoux—vocalist/keyboardist Rod
Roddy, vocalist/reed & horn player/percussionist Bobby Campo, drummer/percussionist
David Peters, and leader/bassist/producer Leon Medica—have for
some time been the main in-house rhythm section at Studio In The
Country (SCI) in Bogalusa, Louisiana (Kansas and Stevie Wonder have
worked on projects there). They've backed scores of artists at the
tucked-away facility, including Clifton Chenier and Clarence "Gatemouth"
Brown, and they've done extensive session work at studios such as
Deep South in Baton Rouge and Applewood in Golden, Colorado.
Jeff Pollard, LeRoux's chief songwriter, lead guitarist,
and lead vocalist, has put in five years of session work at SIC
and Deep South and before joining up with Medica and crew, he fronted
the Levee Band, an acoustic unit that built a constituency around
the Southern club circuit. The newest member of LeRoux, vocalist/guitarist
Tony Haselden, has contributed to recent albums by Donna Hold and
Benny Spellman and has done a lot of road work during his 14 years
as a professional player.
The genesis of LeRoux goes back to Gatemouth Brown's
summer 1977 State Department-sponsored musical goodwill tour of
Africa. Gatemouth had approached Medica before the tour, asking
him to put together a backing band for the excursion. At the same
time, Medica, using studio time he'd accumulated in payment for
his production work at SIC, was producing some demos of original
tunes by Pollard, using his players for the backing tracks. The
combination of musicians clicked, so they dubbed themselves The
Jeff Pollard Band and hit the road to Africa, opening each Gatemouth
show with songs of their own before backing the headliner on his
set.
Back in the States, Medica, who'd previously done
some demo work for Screen Gems-EMI Music (song publishers), took
the Pollard demos to Nashville, where Paul Tannen of Screen Gems-EMI
heard them and signed Pollard to a staff writer's contract. With
support from Screen Gems-EMI, the band returned to the studio to
re-record the demos. Because they had more time to develop the vocal
and instrumental arrangements, the new tapes had much more cohesion,
more of a "band" feel than the original tapes. The decision to team
full-time as a recording and touring unit was quickly made.
As The Jeff Pollard Band, the five musicians gigged
all over the South, packing clubs either with Gatemouth or on their
own during the early part of Fall 1977. Between dates, Medica flew
to Colorado to contribute some bass parts to the new Dirt Band LP
at Bill McEuen's Aspen Recording Society Studio. Medica just happened
to have copies of the newest Pollard tapes, and after McEuen and
Bill Roberts of Aspen Artists' Management (the same firm which manages
the Dirt Band and Steve Martin) gave them a listen, Roberts assumed
the band's management from Medica.
Tannen, back at Screen Gems-EMI in Nashville, was
likewise impressed with the new tapes and passed them on to Screen
Gems-EMI execs in Hollywood, who flew the band to Los Angeles for
showcases at the Improvisation club and at Studio Instrument Rentals'
Hollywood soundstages. After a final showcase appearance, opening
for Muddy Waters at Hollywood's famous Roxy, the band signed a long-term
recording deal with Capitol Records, which outbid several major
labels.
LeRoux went back to Studio In The Country last winter,
where, following the addition of guitarist Tony Haselden to share
lead and rhythm interplay with Pollard, the group cut its debut
Capitol LP. Pollard wrote 9 of the album's 10 songs (the tenth was
penned by Medica and Hoyt Garrick). The LP showcases tight harmonies,
extremely proficient musicianship, and vast arrangement abilities.
"Take a Ride On a Riverboat" opens with bright a cappella vocals
that slide smoothly into the track's funky rhythm. "Love Abductor"
is a great piece of burning funk sparked by low guitar lines, and
"New Orleans Ladies" is a respectful ballad with a beautiful multi-tracked
flute solo. "Slow Burn," which is kicked off with Medica's bass
lines popping off-beat accents to set up the backbeat rhythm, showcases
the band's instrumental versatility with fierce drums-bass-guitar-piano-trumpet-dual-guitar
soloing. The band's vocals on "Heavenly Days" are slightly gospel-flavored,
and "I Can't Do One More Two-Step" is a jumping tune based on early
Mardi Gras rhythms.
Complementing the sound of Louisiana's Roux
is Medica's creative yet economic production and engineer Warren
Dewey's precision at the recording console. Along with vocal and
instrumental multi-tracking, there's some use of phasing, echo and
other effects, and the various percussive accents are well-blended
in the final mix. Louisiana's LeRoux sounds vital and alive,
a blend of toughness and tenderness that's purely Southern yet several
stages beyond basic 12-bar boogie. So get ready for your ride on
a riverboat—your ticket's inside the cover (for which photos were
taken by Norman Seeff). You may not be able to out-hustle the dandy
Mississippi gamblers on board, but the musical gumbo served up is
(as they say down in the Quarter) "Magnifique!"
(April 1978)
