April 11, 1970: Raven

 

Raven was the first band I wrote up in April 1970 for the Pause section of TV Topics in what was then The Buffalo Evening News. For me, it was the obvious choice. Me and my Lavender Hill bandmates didn’t necessarily worship Raven, but we certainly wanted to follow in their footsteps. They seemed to have achieved everything we were aspiring to.

As players, they were towering talents. They were writing their own songs. And on top of it all, they had a contract with a major record company. They were signed to Columbia. Couldn’t get much better than that.

It wasn’t, however, as good as it appeared. Columbia didn’t promote their two albums – the label still holds the rights to them and won’t re-release them. And then there were internal tensions. Not long after this article appeared, they broke up and wended their separate ways to California. All except the bass player, Tommy Calandra. But that’s another story.

 

Saturday, April 11, 1970

 

The Raven

Has a Foot

In the Door

 

The Raven’s hanging around town and everything is, well, kinda loose. Everything but money, they say.

Just to show you, the group was supposed to start practice about 1 or 1:30, but it’s later than that and they only guy here is Jim Calire.

Jimmy’s perched on a piano bench between his electric piano and electric organ, which, along with the Leslie unit, fill almost half the basement room in a theater on Buffalo’s West Side. The rest is jammed with mikes, drums, amplifiers and chairs.

* * *

THE GROUP is just back from Philadelphia, where they recorded three songs for Columbia records, two of which will be chosen to put on a single.

“This producer we’ve got, he’s really relaxed,” Jim says, grinning through a two-week beard. “He likes this studio, Sigma Sound, it’s called. It took us three days. We’d start about 7 at night, go till 3 or 4 in the morning.”

Guitarist John Weitz drifts in with singer Tony Galla, who’s carrying a flute. Then Gary Mallaber, the drummer, and bass player Tom Calandra. With photos they took in Philadelphia.

“I was up until 7 this morning doing these prints,” Gary announces. Everybody goofs on the pictures.

* * *

“WE’RE GOING to New York City tomorrow to mix the tapes from Philadelphia,” John says. “There’s ‘Jenny Diver,’ which Jimmy and Tony sing, there’s ‘Here Comes the Truck’ …”

“Isn’t it ‘Here Comes a Truck?’” asks Gary.

“Whattaya say, John? It’s your song,” says Tony.

John thinks. “Here Comes a Truck. Yeah. It’s a satire on air pollution. Not that air pollution is funny. It’s just more salable that way. And there’s a song Tommy wrote called ‘Children at Our Feet.’”

“It’s about shoes,” Tom says.

The three songs also will go onto their second album for Columbia sometime this year, along with something from the tape of their concert in Kleinhans Music Hall March 6.

* * *

“WE’RE IN that period between being really small and making it really big,” John says. “It’s called starving. The money is in hitting the whole commercial market across the whole country.”

What the Raven is doing back in Buffalo is a good question.

“It was either that or stay in Brooklyn,” Tom says.

It also has something to do with their manager, Marty Angelo, and his theories. One, that it’s easier to get your music together in your hometown. And two, that Buffalo has possibilities.

“Everybody’s putting me down for it,” Marty said earlier, “but we did something no Buffalo group has done before. We put ourselves into Kleinhans and we had top billing.”

* * *

ALSO, IN New York City, there’s more competition and less room at the top. Marty says that after Fillmore East and Ungano’s, there are no really big rock places and no really good money.

The Scene – where the Raven landed when they left Buffalo in Fall 1968, where “relaxed” producer John Hill saw them, dug them and signed them to a five-year contract with Columbia, where they started for $50 a night – The Scene is gone, closed up.

So the Raven has been back more or less since September. They’ve watched their first Columbia album sell about 7,000 in Buffalo and 75,000 nationwide (Marty’s figures), seen Marty’s release of a session they taped at the old Inferno in 1968 (“That little room, best room we ever worked in,” says John.).

They’ve relaxed, taken time off. Gary even sat in on recording sessions for Van Morrison’s new album.

* * *

 NOW THEY’RE getting in shape for a tour in mid-May. Boston, Cincinnati, Fillmore West, Los Angeles, ending up at the Toronto Peace Festival July 3 to 5.

For warm-ups, they’ve started doing local gigs. Hitting some of the old places. The Mug. Aliotta’s.

Next Wednesday they’re billed with Canned Heat and the MC5 at Williamsville North High School. They’re at the Gallery in Niagara Falls next Friday and at Gillligan’s next Saturday.

“The boys want to get a couple months ahead on rent and things,” Marty explains.

The Raven left Buffalo so they could play the music they wanted to play. They’re doing it, but nobody can explain just what kind of music it is.

“We’ve been called folk-rock, jazz-rock, everything,” John says.

“The worst is country-rock,” Gary says.

* * *

THROUGH all this, Jimmy’s been noodling around the organ. Tony’s riffing on the flute. It all comes down to Let’s Play Something. Jimmy launches into ¾ time.

It feels loose. Kinda gutty and good. Jim swings the mike around.

“We’re sitting by the wayside

Baskin’ in the sunshine

Bidin’ our time.

Waiting for a cue

For a different point of view

Even though it all looks fine …”

Jim scat sings. Tom joins him. Everybody jams for maybe 20 minutes.

“The kids in Buffalo like us,” Tom says. “A lot of people here have helped us out. We’ve got a foot in the door, but that’s just the start.”

“Yeah,” John says. “Just a start. You get a record contract and it just shows you how much work you have to do.”

* * *

THE ROOM starts to get small on everybody. Gary goes out for a bottle of soda. The others wander into the hall. John and Jim start to figure out how they’re going to arrange sets for the Mug. There’s work to do.

You can’t stay loose too long.

 

Box/sidebar

They Grew Up on Music

 

Some pertinent and impertinent information about the Raven:

John, 20, a Taurus, graduate of Kenmore West High School, married, two daughters.

Jim, 22, a Gemini, graduate of Canisius High School, married, one son.

Tony, 22, a Sagittarius, graduate of Bennett High School, married, two daughters.

Gary, 23, a Libra, and Tom, 27, (He never mentions his birthday,” John says.), both Lafayette High School graduates, both single, “innumerable amounts of girl friends.”

* * *

ALL HAVE attended the State University of Buffalo, Jimmy the longest.

John and Jim, then on sax, played with a drummer in a three-piece group eight years ago, then split up. A year later, Tony, then playing bass, asked John to join a group called the Flares which became the Rising Sons. Jimmy learned piano and five years ago joined John and Tony.

Meanwhile, Gary was drumming with the Vibratos when they were big here and Tom was playing bass for various groups. They both wound up with Stan & the Ravens and joined the Rising Sons in a “shuffle” in 1967.

* * *

“I WAS still underage then,” John recalls. “We played the Inferno and somebody turned me in. I would up playing in the parking lot with a 250-foot guitar cord. I had a couple of monitor speakers so I could hear what was happening. There used to be a crowd around the car. It was wild.”