Sylvester – Private Recordings | August 1970

Jan. 29th, 2024- Howdy Sylvester Fans! Well, what we have here are 9 recordings by Sylvester and pianist Peter Mintun. These are actually the rehearsals for a show Sylvester was planning. There is some short conversations between Sylvester and Peter on some songs. For those of us who are die-hard fans of Sylvester, this is just part one of the jackpot. Part two is the discovery of a promo film made about Sylvester's then show at The Palace Theatre- that short film can be found on You Tube now. Part three of the jackpot is a very rare and insightful radio interview with Sylvester in 1971, a year after rehearsals and having performed the show at The Palace Theatre in San Francisco with pianist Peter Mintun on February 26/27, 1971. In the radio interview, 8 live recordings are played from the concert in their entirety, which needs to be put on cd immediately! The interview runs about 46min. and Sylvester discusses how Fillmore Records recorded the concert (but for some odd reason they never released it on vinyl). Then he mentions because of the popularity of his concerts, he was offered and is about to sign a recording contract with Blue Thumb records- however, he can't mention the name "Blue Thumb" because he hasn't signed the papers yet, so he mentions the name in a round about way. He states the contract is for him and him alone. So that interview can be found on You Tube. We now know that after Blue Thumb signed him, he recorded 3 songs- 2 are on a San Francisco 2-LP compilation called "Voco Presents- Lights Out San Francisco"- a collection of Bay Area artists on Blue Thumb Records. They are- "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye" (a Leonard Cohen cover and has Neil Schon on guitar- later the lead guitarist for Journey) and "Why Was I Born?" (a song Sylvester wrote and his back up singers are a trio of girls who had been working around town for a few years doing background vocals for several bands- The Pointer Sisters- Bonnie, June and Anita. They were then offered their own record deal with Blue Thumb records after that and a fourth sister, Ruth, ed them). The third song Sylvester recorded around this time was, "Southern Man" (Neil Young cover) and it was recorded with the Tower Of Power Band who is another artist on the 2-LP compilation. "Southern Man" was produced by artist/producer Bob Segarini around 1971. This 3rd and rare recording has been found and is available on You Tube as well. As for the 2-LP compilation- Sylvester is credited as "Sylvester & The Hot Band"- so at some point after the 3 recordings, Sylvester formed his rock band and by the time the 2-LP set was released in 1972 he was performing as Sylvester & The Hot Band and went on to release 2 albums under that name in 1973 for Blue Thumb- 1. 1973 - Sylvester & The Hot Band S/T LP (AKA "Scratch My Flower" because the cover had a scratch n' sniff sticker on it that smelled of gardenias. His pianist Peter Mintun appears on this album). 2. 1973 - Sylvester & The Hot Band - Bazaar. Both albums along with the 2 songs from the compilation became available on 1 cd in 2009 and titled "Sylvester- The Blue Thumb Collection". "Southern Man" was re-recorded for the Blue Thumb debut album with The Hot Band and released as the single off the LP. So there you go, just a bunch of info that someone, somewhere out there, will find just as interesting as I did.

Get this record by Sylvester at Bandcamp for $18 + shipping!