The Stark Reality was an American jazz-rock band which recorded the two-disc 1970 album ''The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop'', a heavily improvised reinvention of a 1958 children's album by songwriter

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor, author and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s, a ...

to be used for the show ''Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop'' which aired on PBS.

Background

In 1970,

's son, Hoagy Bix, worked at the public television station WGBH in Boston. He wanted to produce a television show with children's songs written by his father. He hired vibraphonist Monty Stark to compose theme music because he had experience in arranging and he wanted Stark to update the music for the rock and roll generation. Stark wrote arrangements with bassist Phil Morrison, and they hired saxophonist Carl Atkins, guitarist John Abercrombie, and drummer Vinnie Johnson. The music was an odd combination of psychedelic rock and bebop jazz. They played as a quartet (without Atkins) in Cambridge, but the audiences were either tiny or nonexistent. A tour in California failed to meet their expectations, so the band broke up. The 1970 album was released by AJP Records, a label owned by jazz pianist

Ahmad Jamal Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones; July 2, 1930 – April 16, 2023) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator. For six decades, he was one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz. He was a NEA Jazz Ma ...

. (Carl Atkins did not appear on the album.) It was reissued in 2003 by Now-Again, a subsidiary of

Stones Throw Records Stones Throw Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. Under the direction of founder Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw has released music ranging from hip hop to experimental psychedelic rock. ''LA Weekly'' ...

. The band's 1970 album, ''Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmicheal's Music Shop'' is highly coveted and treasured by

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

producers such as Pete Rock and Q-Tip.

Members

* Monty Stark – vibraphone * Carl Atkins – saxophone * John Abercrombie – guitar * Phil Morrison – bass * Vinnie Johnson – drums

Discography

* ''Roller Coaster Ride'' (AJP, 1969; reissued Now-Again, 2015) * ''Discovers Hoagy Carmicheal's Music Shop'' (AJP, 1970; reissued Now-Again, 2003/2015)

References

{{Authority control American jazz ensembles Now-Again Records artists