TIM WEISBERG : NIGHT RIDER [MCA - USA 1979] LP

Tim Weisberg  "Night Rider"  LP

(MCA)  1979  made in USA

cat. num. MCA 3084

#smooth jazz  #fusion

Tim Weisberg is a pop/jazz flautist whose career has carried him across a brace of solo albums and session work with the Monkees, the Carpenters, Dave Mason, Kim Carnes, and David Benoit, and to collaborations with Herbie Hancock. His greatest success, and most familiar role before the public, however, has come from his work with the late Dan Fogelberg, in particular their first joint album, Twin Sons of Different Mothers (1978). 

Weisberg was born in Hollywood, California in 1943. His musical fate was decreed by a series of life's little accidents. While attending the 7th grade, he wanted to join the junior high school band, figuring on being the drummer, but as the positions were parceled out to students in alphabetical order, the drummer spot (and everything else that was obvious) were spoken for by the time Weisberg got to make his pick, and all that was left were the bassoon and the flute. The latter seemed the easier instrument to learn and to transport, so that became his choice. A combination of a good teacher and some early success in getting a sound out of the instrument that he appreciated sealed the deal, and the fact that Weisberg was more into soul and R&B than the surf music that surrounded him didn't hurt, as soul music was expanding into range out of sounds to rainbow-like dimensions in the mid-'60s, which included the use of the flute; the instrument also became a preferred substitute for his own singing voice, which he has always conceded has great limitations. Initially to master the instrument, however, he concentrated on classical music, and then moved into the more improvisation-friendly fields of jazz and soul, while playing pop music to make money.