One-off concerts or recording sessions by musicians who have never played together are nothing new in the music world, what is rare is when the outcome is a truly remarkable performance.
Such is the case of Greg Anton & Friends and their new double live album, Starfire, which got its on-air debut during the June 25 edition of Greasy Tracks.
Check out the archive by clicking here, while a playlist is here.
In 2020, San Francisco Bay-area drummer Greg Anton collaborated with a group of crack Hartford-area musicians to do a one-off concert at the TELEFUNKEN Soundstage in South Windsor, Conn., only weeks before the Covid pandemic shut music venues around the world.
The concert was Anton’s way of bidding a musical “good-bye” to Marty Levine, a lifelong friend who had passed away less than two months before.
Coincidently, Toni Fishman — TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik founder and visionary — was also very close to Levine and considered him a key mentor when he began his career in all sound-related things. Fishman was also very familiar with Anton’s primary band, Zero, a group he had followed and recorded in concert dozens of times over the years.
The two discussed presenting a special concert at TELEFUNKEN and agreed on a date. Anton, a Hartford native, enlisted Fishman with gathering “the best musicians” he could find as a backing band. Fishman deferred to Scott Medeiros, TELEFUNKEN’s sound stage and studio manager who had done time as road manager for the band Kung Fu
The task was easy for Medeiros who brought in such Kung Fu-related players as guitarist Tim Palmieri, keyboardist Beau Sasser, tenor saxophonist Robert Somerville and bassist David Livolsi. Based on their varied backgrounds — not just as live players, but their studio chops — Medeiros had complete confidence in the line-up.
In the run-up to the show, the musicians agreed on several dozen tracks to draw their live sets from, a combination of Anton-penned selections that had been played by Zero as well as an impressive list of covers.
Minus a brief rehearsal before the concert, Anton had never played with the musicians before. The show was recorded to archive the performance, but upon listening the tapes following the concert, Anton was blown away and felt there was enough good material to do a proper release.
Fishman embraced the idea and proposed putting it out on TELEFUNKEN Elektro Records, the recently introduced part of the company portfolio.
What followed was nearly two years of work to mix and master what would become TER-003, the third release by the label.
The project would take on an additional bittersweet tone as only months after the band’s performance, Levine’s son, Jordan — who was a close friend to Fishman — also passed away.
The album is dedicated Marty and Jordan Levine.
In comparison to such famed one-off 1968 performances such as the Dirty Mac in the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus or the Plastic Ono Band’s appearance in Toronto, Greg Anton & Friends at TELEFUNKEN paled in magnitude.
Starfire, however, towers over the aforementioned when it comes to the level of musicianship, concert recording and the all-important production and mixing.
In addition to playing the entire release, including tracks not part of the two-album collection, the feature had interviews with musicians and those part of the final production of the project who help tell the story about how Starfire became a reality.
