Plain and Fancy: Michael Wendroff - Michael Wendroff (1973 us, magnificent folk soft rock)

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Michael Wendroff - Michael Wendroff (1973 us, magnificent folk soft rock)

Michael Wendroff began his musical career performing on the streets, alleys, and subway stations of New York. He also endured the long, cold nights in New York by working in an a cappella group that created amazing music using only the sound of his voice and two fingers hitting together.Τhe group he was a member of, "The Holidays", caught the eye of a record company and signed a recording contract. This happened when Michael was 16 years old.

Around that time, Michael began learning the guitar and became involved in the explosively growing folk scene centered in Greenwich Village, where he met Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Eric Anderson, and Phil Ochs. In addition to listening to Ochs' music, he also performs his own songs. While attending Queen's College, Michael formed a rock group called "Sly Boots" with his friend David Greenberg and performed mainly his own songs. Οne day, Michael visited the Record Plant studio in New York to record (Notes On A Journey), which was scheduled to be released by Records, and while looking around the building, he discovered Jimi Hendrix recording a guitar solo. Jimmy asks Michael, who unexpectedly attends the session recording, which is the best, after playing three different solos, and they both agree that the second one was the best. Michael was mesmerized. Jimmy's solo, -which he enjoyed-, is included in "All Along the Watchtower."

After graduating from college with a bachelor's degree in sociology, another fateful encounter approaches Michael. He produces Van Morrison's legendary album (Astral Weeks), Lewis Merenstein showed interest in his music and introduced Michael to Buddha Records president Neil Bogart. Neil immediately signed Michael to a long-term contract and released three albums, "Michael Wendroff" 1973, "Southpaw" 1974, and "Recorded Live" 1976, all produced by Merenstein. In addition, French/Moroccan hard rock band Les Variations Co-produced Sion's album (Caf é de Paris) with Merenstein, was in charge of lyrics for Ray Charles' "Just Because " , and was the backing vocalist for Lou Reed's "Sally Can't Dance" We are expanding our activities in many ways, including participating in and co-mixing “Coney Island Baby.”

After leaving Buddah Records, Michael worked with various musicians in Woodstock, New York, while composing many songs on the piano . It is contained in the beautiful 1978 album "Kiss The World Goodbye" (Ariola America Records), created in a small villa in Woodstock and Michael's apartment in Brooklyn Heights.