Category Archives: Utica

Utica record labels: Kama, Aegis, Lewis, Buddha, Krishna, Hurd & Stentor

Andy And The Classics Kama PS Taba-Da-Ba-Do and Prehistoric Time
Andy And The Classics Kama PS

Utica, New York had a number of independent labels in the 1960s. At first I believed labels such as Kama, Krishna, Lewis and Aegis were related, but after a comment and more investigation, I’ve decided to cover a number of Utica labels that shared artists, distribution by Kama, or use of the Chadwicks Recording Studio.

Kenneth Hurd, a New Hartford shoe executive, owned the Hurd and Revere Records labels, as well as the Longmark Studio in Utica and the Chadwicks Recording Studio and pressing plant on Oneida St. in Chadwicks.

Any help with information about any of these labels would be appreciated!

Aegis Records

Aegis 1001 – The Bel Airs – “You Left Me (For Somebody New)” / “You’re the Greatest” (Aegis Records ARS 1001). Gates Initino, vocal. Other members were Guy Vivenzo, Dick Laurey, Jim Hanna and Jon Hynes). Distributed by Bason Agency, Utica.

Aegis 1003 – The Royals – “Shake It” / “Mix Up” (both written by Fran Migliaccio), W-194

Aegis 100? – The Royals feat Ralph Migliaccio “I Only Have Eyes For You/ Land Of A Thousand Dances”

Buddha Records

Buddha CO 1753 – The Roosters – “I Wanna Do It” / “You Don’t Need Any Reason”

See my post on the Roosters for more information about that band.

Andy And The Classics Hurd 45 WilmaHurd Records

Hurd 77 – Patti Miller & the Friends Trio – “Caveman Blues” / “Stone Age” (with PS)
Hurd 78 – Andy and the Classics – “Walk Walk Walk” / “Wilma” – band led by Andy Cittadino
Hurd 79 – Dee Dee Warwick – “I Can’t Go Back” / “I (Who Have Nothing At All)” (1966, prod. by H. Rudd and Bob Gallo)

Hurd 82 – Lloyd Price ’66 – “Misty” / Lloyd Price Orchestra – “Saturday Night”

Kama Records

Kama 33 – Gary Angel And The Halos – ?

Kama K-43 – The Ultimates “Lost Romance” (Foti-O’Donnell) / “Foreign Girl” (Dick Broderick – both songs Harbor Music ASCAP), unrelated label?).

Kama 501 – Gary Angel And The Halos – “Oh, Judy” / “Memories Of A Summer Day” (circa 1962)
Kama 502 – Maureen Fitzgerald – “Twinkle In His Eye” / “His Own Kind of Rhythm” (division of Kama Productions)

Kama L-106 – Ted Alexander and The Cordels – “Baby You Can Drive My Car” / “Please Go” (with picture sleeve)

Kama L-164 – Heaven’s Devils – “Lonely Girl” (Paul Sparaco) / “Out Of Your Life” (Frederick J. Catella), prod. by Gary J. Sparaco, Kama Music

Kama L-212 – Jerry Carr and the Travelers – “I Laugh When I Should Have Been Listenin’” / “Wondering If I Could Go On”

Kama L-269 – Susie Southworth – “My Heart Could Never Stand (to Be Broken by You)” (Dorothy Southworth) / “Once a Day”

Kama K-712 – JC and the Tears – “Then You’d Better Go Away” (J. Camilli, copyrighted as Jimmy Camilli in 1953) / “What’d I Say” (OV-102)

Kama 775 – Heavenly Flyers – “Mighty Long Time” / “Hallelujah to His Name” (W-167/W168)
Kama 776 – Lou Barile (John Mazzae At The Organ) – “He’ll Look Down” / “Prayer”
Kama 777 – Eric and the Chessmen – “You Don’t Want My Loving” / “Blue Skies”, L-99-1/2. The labels note “Recorded at Chadwicks Recording Studio”, in Chadwicks, NY, a small hamlet along Route 8 south of Utica, and a few miles east of Clinton, NY and Hamilton College.

Kama 780 – The Ally Kahns – “Gonkletwerp” (instrumental by Gary Brody, Dick Kenney and Charlie Caryl) / “Blue Moon” (W-321)

Kama K-780 – The Avengers – “Reflection” (C. Wheeler) / “Irresistable You” from April of 1967, also recorded at Chadwicks and produced by A. Polacelli.

Kama 786 – Andy & the Classics – “Yaba-da-ba-do” / “Prehistoric Time” (with PS, prod. by Bob Gallo)

Kama 1070 – Audrey De Lia and the Western Aces cut “Kansas City” b/w a version of Loretta Lynn’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough”

Kama 814 – Target – “Give Me One More Chance” / “Cleveland” (modern soul, early 1970s)
Kama 815 – Target – “Look at Me” / “You’re So Beautiful”

Kama OV-567 – Tiny Tim – “Howard Cosell (We Think You’re Swell)” / “The Bi-Centennial Song (I Believe in America)” – 1976

Kama 71310 – Sonja Bonness “I’m the Only Woman” / “Black Satin” (1977)

Krishna Records

Krishna TR 2690 – The Roosters – “The Rooster Song” / “Lost And Found”

The Starfires Lewis 45 VampireLewis Records

Lewis Records 525 – The Starfires “Vampire” (by James Palladino for Kajobe Music, BMI) / “Honky Tonk Twist”, mastering #s W-189 & W-190. The labels read “distributed by Kama Productions, Utica, NY.” “Vampire” also recorded by the Plaids on Stentor – see below.

Lewis 1000 – The Ponzi Bros. Lou & Zack – “Guitar Boogie Twist” / “Channel 98” (Lou Ponzi, Kama Music BMI) (K-71/72)
Lewis 107 – The Belairs – “All The Time” (Chuck Weiss, Eddie Mikenas) / “As You Go” (Eddie Mikenas), Kev-Tess Music BMI

Mark Records – extensive discography, see entry on Discogs for more info

Tino & the Revlons – “Black Burma-Mudas and Knee Socks” (R. Demart, B. Rezey; Kama Music Publ.) / “Story Of Our Love” (Mark M-154)
The Plaids – “Out To Lunch” (Carl Swanson aka: Mr. Sunshine) / ?, circa 1961 – need label scans for this one.

Stentor Records

Stentor RR 101 – The Plaids (aka the Bel Airs) – “Vampire” / “Creepin'” (Vivenzo) from Stentor Recording Co., Utica.
Stentor RB-165 – Brian Wilson & the Del Vues “Blue Skies” / “Blueberry Hill”
Stentor RM 101 – Bebo Singleton with Jeff & the Notes “The Shrine of the Echoes” / “Feeny Jones”

Eric & the Chessmen

Eric & the Chessmen Kama picture sleeve
Eric & the Chessmen Kama picture sleeve
L-R; Freddie Faccioli, Eric Thorngren, Dale Rider and Slivers Matrassi

Eric & the Chessmen Kama 45 You Don't Want My LovingEric and the Chessmen were a well-known group from Utica, New York. They toured throughout upstate New York and into Vermont, and even had a stand at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City. They released only one single: the original song “You Don’t Want My Loving” by the band’s leader, Eric Thorngren, backed with a rocked-up version of “Blue Skies”, on Kama Records 777.

The band’s membership changed many times, so I’ll list some of the lineups below to the best of what I can gather:

Eric and the Chessmen at the Evening Inn, Colliersville, June, 1965
Eric and the Chessmen at the Evening Inn, Colliersville, June, 1965

As simply the Chessmen, the original lineup consisted of:

Eric Thorngren – guitar
Tony Frontera – saxophone
Jon Hynes – bass
Butch DeAngelo – drums

By March 1965 the band consisted of:

Eric Thorngren – guitar & vocals
Norm Knapp – guitar
Dale Rider – bass
Wayne Bohling – drums

Eric and the Chessmen Five Flys Club, Bennington, October 1966
Eric and the Chessmen Five Flys Club, Bennington, October 1966

When Norm Knapp took a leave of absence in 1965, Chuck Schoenley became the band’s first keyboardist:

Eric Thorngren – guitar & vocals
Chuck Schoenley – organ
Dale Rider – bass
Wayne Bohling – drums

After Chuck Schoenley left the group to join the Rogues, Frankie Convertino became the keyboard player, then Fred Faccioli.

Slivers Matrassi replaced Wayne Bowling on drums by early or mid-1966.

Eric & the Chessmen Kama 45 Blue SkiesThe band featured on the picture sleeve to their 45 and probably on the recording is:

Freddie Faccioli – organ
Eric Thorngren – guitar & vocals
Dale Rider – bass
Slivers Matrassi – drums

The sleeve at the top of this post seems to be very rare. The labels note “Recorded at Chadwicks Recording Studio, Chadwicks, NY”. For more on the Kama and related labels like Krishna and Sutra, see the final section of my post on the Roosters.

Eric and the Chessmen Audiodisc Acetate Heat WaveThe band had other recordings that weren’t released at the time. An atmospheric instrumental featuring organ and a reserved guitar solo called “Too Much” appeared on The Best of Twist-a-Rama: Crude 1965 Garage Sounds from the Mohawk Valley. There are also demos of “Wooly Bully”, “New Orleans” and “Heat Wave”.

The Chessmen continued in different forms into the late 1960s, eventually without any original members. Sometime in 1967 or 1968 Ted Alexander replaced Freddie Faccioli. Dale Rider left to join the Rochester group the Oxford Watchband – a group by that name had a 45 in 1969 on the Hand label, “Diagnosis (One Way Empty and Down)” / “Welcome to the World”.

Eric Thorngren joined the Brass Buttons and went on to a long career as a recording and mixing engineer.

I found this info on the band at the forum After Bebop a Lula: Utica Bands 50s 60s. There are many photos of the band in that thread, see these pages for some of them:

http://clipper220.proboards.com/thread/779?page=108
http://clipper220.proboards.com/thread/779?page=110
http://clipper220.proboards.com/thread/779?page=111

Thank you to Fred D’Huve for the scan of the Audiodisc demo of “Heat Wave”.

Eric and the Chessmen at the Halfway House, Norwich, March 1966
Eric and the Chessmen at the Halfway House, Norwich, March 1966

The Roosters

The Roosters Photo 1966
Trey Lotz, Peter Brohl, Ralph Guastaferro and John Lotz

Roosters Krishna 45 The Rooster SongI picked up this great 45 by the Roosters on the Krishna label, not the Los Angeles group, but one from upstate New York. “The Rooster Song” has a fantastic crunching guitar sound, and shows they must have been a fun, tight live band. The flip is a ballad, “Lost and Found”, an original by Lotz-Barbour for Fat John Music Inc. BMI.

The Roosters were one of a number of bands from the area near Utica, Oneida and Syracuse. They shared a record company, if it can be called such, with Eric and the Chessmen. The person heading this operation was some way assocated with Hamilton College in Clinton, NY and released singles on labels such as “Buddha”, “Krishna” and “Kama”.

The Roosters were:

John Lotz – lead vocals
Trey Lotz – lead guitar
Peter Brohl – bass
Ralph Guastaferro – drums

There’s also a piano player on “The Rooster Song”, but I don’t know his identity.

Trey Lotz produced the Krishna 45. “The Rooster Song” label reads “In album ‘The Roosters Live At The Appollo'” but I don’t believe this LP was ever released. If it was recorded, I’d love to hear it.

The Roosters have another 45 which I suspect came earlier, “I Wanna Do It” on Buddha Records. with a Hamilton College address.

The Roosters Photo 2
The Roosters, from left: Ralph Guastaferro, Trey Lotz, John Lotz with Peter Brohl lying on the ground

Roosters Buddha 45 I Wanna Do ItPeter Brohl sent in the photos seen here and wrote to me:

The band was formed in 1965 (I think) by Jim Solan of the JS agency. I was playing with a true garage band that had just disbanded and Trey, a student at Hamilton College, was looking for a group to play with. When we got together, his brother, John, came to town and registered with Utica college. They then brought their friend and drummer, Ralph, who went to MVCC. We all jelled and the band was formed!

We used to play “The Ale House” once a week for a year or two in the ’65-’67 time frame. Of course we played locally but we were mainly a college concert band. Our agent would book us into a college for the weekend where we would usually play a couple of fraternity parties and a Saturday afternoon concert. We were very popular at St. Lawrence University, Union College, Cornell, Colgate, Vassar and a bunch of others who’s names escape me. We really only played the local bars and school dances if we didn’t have a college gig. During the summer months we would do Old Forge and the Adirondack circuit.

There never was an album called “Live at the Apollo”. That was a pipe dream of Trey’s. We did do an album for Decca records but it was never released; it didn’t have a title at that time.

The flip side of “I Wanna Do It” was “You Don’t Need Any Reason”, originally recorded by the Zombies.

Another question was who played the piano on the record [“the Rooster Song”. If my memory serves me correctly, it was John. Even in the mid-60’s records were multi-tracked. So, the piano was added as an enhancement. “The Rooster Song” was not recorded live as we always told our audiences but was done in a multi-track studio. It sounded live but, we were our own “live” audience. After the music tracks were layed down, we became the background ‘audience’. Also, on “Midnight Green” you will hear a celeste. That was a last minute addition by Trey because we found the celeste in the recording studio and it fit the song perfectly. Yep, it had it’s own track.

The Roosters also released a third single entitled “Midnight Green”. It was written by Barbour and recorded at 15 W. 45th Street in NYC; the same studio as the Lovin’ Spoonful, using the same technician. It was understandably the best production of the lot. The flip side was “Hurry Sundown”.

We continued as a quartet through mid-1967 when I decided to leave to pursue another career. The last time we all got together as a group was at Ralph’s wedding in 1971. The only one of us still playing music is Ralph. Last I heard he was playing with a dance band in Buffalo, NY. John and Trey both live in the LA area but neither are playing music these days.

After a 30+ year hiatus, I finally picked up the bass again and have been playing in my home for my own enjoyment. In addition, I have started to refurbish/restore guitars and basses on a very limited basis. I have rebuilt a Fender ‘P’ bass and built a Fender telecaster from the ground up. Needless to say I can’t call them “Fenders” so I call them “Roosters”.

The Roosters Publicity Photo

Thank you to Peter Brohl for sending in the photos and providing some history of the Roosters.

Other bands from this scene who may not have made recordings include the Vandels, Andy & the Classics, Jack & the Naturals, the Mercy Side 5, Willie & the New Yorkers, and the Brass Buttons.

Does anyone know of other recordings by bands in Oneida, Clinton or Utica in the years ’64-’67?

Roosters Krishna 45 Lost and Found