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Community Corner

The Manhattan Transfer

Spectacle Management presents The Manhattan Transfer at Cary Memorial Hall on Thursday, April 10 at 8pm. Tickets are $69-$55 and are on sale now at http://www.caryhallshows.com/ or by calling 617-531-1257.

It’s been more than forty years since Tim Hauser, a former Madison Avenue marketing executive, paid his bills by driving a New York City cab while aspiring to form a harmony vocal quartet.  In the Fall of 1972, Hauser’s taxi fare was an aspiring young singer named Laurel Massé, who was familiar with the sole album by Hauser’s earlier Manhattan Transfer combo, and was looking to form a group. A few weeks later, another of Hauser’s fares invited him to a party where he met Brooklyn native Janis Siegel. As Hauser, Massé and Siegel began rehearsing, Massé’s then-boyfriend introduced Hauser and Siegel to Alan Paul, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Signed to Atlantic Records in 1975, their music quickly took the airwaves by storm. Numerous number one singles throughout the late 70s and early 80s, including the mega-hit “Birdland,” placed the group in a category all their own. They became the first group ever to win Grammy Awards in both Pop and Jazz categories in the same year. In 1982 and 1983 the group won consecutive Grammy Awards in the Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group category for, respectively, “Route 66″ and “Why Not!” 

The critical praise and commercial success of the group’s first seven studio albums could hardly have prepared them for the monumental 12 Grammy nominations they received in 1985 for the album Vocalese.

Those 12 nominations made Vocalese the single greatest Grammy nominated album in one year, and cemented the group’s status as one of the most important and innovative vocal groups in the history of popular music. 

Today, Manhattan Transfer continues to wow audiences at sold out performances around the globe. Their unique style, amazing talent and forty years of hits make an evening with Manhattan Transfer an night that is not to be missed!

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