New Beginnings - Morgana King

 

Like A Seed

New Beginnings 

Morgana King

Arrangements: Bob James (Courtesy of C.T.I. Records and Torrie Zito

A Nickelodeon Inc. Production

Produced by Vince Mauro

Recorded and Mixed at Media Sound, N.Y.C.

Engineer: Jorgen Jorgensen

Photography: Alan Pappé

Art Direction: Bill Levy

Design: Ron Canagata

Special Thanks to Chuck Gregory

Paramount Records PAS-6067

1973

From the Disc Sleeve: For the past several years Morgana King has been in a self imposed semi-retirement. The emotional drain of performing in situations "too uptight establishment" for her free and off the wall nature, and a near-fatal automobile accident demanded this time out (another automobile accident four years earlier had taken the life of her husband, musician Willie Dennis). As Morgana puts it, she simply had to "replenish".

A move from Los Angeles to the incredibly beautiful desert near Palm Springs, where she lives with her daughter, three german shepherds, a cat, and a myriad of plants and flowers that thrive to her touch, soothed and nurtured her spirit. By the end of 1972 Morgana was eager to begin again by she wanted someone whom she could respect and admire to guide her career. She signed with music producer/manager Vince Mauro. Vince's prime objective was to make Morgana accessible to the larger and younger record buying audiences that were not about to go to supper clubs to hear her. A beginning in this new career approach was a smashing success as this younger audience came in droves to the Continental Baths in N.Y.C. on a rainy Tuesday night in January of this year. The Morgana King cultists had spread the word.

A record company affiliation that would guarantee creative control and a major promotional input was searched out, and Paramount Records made such a "Labor Of Love" commitment.

In another "off the wall" move Morgana King went into Kenny's Castaways a NYC rock club and in a workshop situation woodshedded the tunes for her Paramount album. It was of this appearance that John L, Wasserman of the San Francisco Chronicle doing a series of articles on music in New York wrote: "Freed from the stultifying conventions of supper clubs, backed only by a guitar-bass-drums trio, Morgana King simply gave one of the dozen best vocal concerts I have ever heard... she transformed a... nitery into a musical cathedral. She opened with Stevie Wonder's great new song, "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life," and set the tone of the evening: jazz improvisations of phrasing and melody, a real and highly dramatic involvement with the lyrics, a range that seems to go from basso profound to notes more ordinarily associated with Lily Pons or Yam Sumac, and the high, unearthly, chilling glissandos which are hers alone in pop music. When I say chilling, I am not speaking metaphorically, I am talking about a hair-straightener more effective than anything ever known in the Fillmore; about shudders that come from a blast of cold air on a hot day. Morgana does not have the intensity of Aretha Franklin but the effect, while more restrained, is the same; a sensual experience that goes way beyond the ear."

John S. Wilson of the New York Times reviewing this engagement wrote of... "her remarkable four octave voice;" "She has a distinctive and compelling vocal style – high soaring lines projected with an almost whispered intensity that are anchored on a foundation of warm, dark mellow tones... The vocal effects she produces, which is like a moth dancing through shimmering light, could be limiting, but Miss King manages to use it with such variety and validity that it is a creatively applicable to the current "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" as it is to the rhythmic nuances of a bossa nova."

The proof of such glowing words is in Morgana's music. Listen, if you will, to her new beginnings.

You Are The Sunshine Of My Life

Jennifer Had

As Long As He Will Stay

The Sands Of Time And Change

We Could  Be Flying

Like A Seed

A Song For You

Medley: Desert Hush / I Am A Leaf

All In All