By this point in composer, arranger and vibraphonist Gary McFarland’s (1933-71) all-too brief ten-year musical career, he had perfected the art of the pure pop instrumental. He was just one year away from waxing his magnum opus, “America the Beautiful,” an orchestral hybrid that seamlessly melded classical, jazz and rock, a new addition to his genre-defying gifts and abilities.
Here, he keeps things simple, offering what Billboard magazine called “a pleasant jazz treat” – at a time when the music was wrestling with the emergence of the “New Thing” and the controversial influence of the considerably more lucrative rock, pop and R&B genres.
“Scorpio and Other Signs” was recorded and released at about the same time (early 1968) as McFarland’s Skye debut “Does the Sun Really Shine on the Moon.” The musicianship on both records sounds about the same, so the unidentified musicians here likely include “Moon”’s Jerome Richardson, Marvin Stamm, Sam Brown, Richard Davis or Chuck Rainey and Donald MacDonald or Grady Tate.
This collection offers up a largely inconsequential astrological concept, where the music is intended to portray the personality of each of the 12 signs of the zodiac. All tracks are McFarland originals, and each and every one is a sheer delight. I’ve always claimed that this record is so light and witty, it sometimes feels like a jazz album made for children.
McFarland’s vibes take several nice turns here and his vocalese has never sounded more natural or part of the program.
The album came and went with pretty much no notice at all. Surprisingly, the album yielded no single releases – although Discogs lists a Mexican 45 release of “Libra [Can’t Stop Dancing],” one of my favorite tracks here. When I first discovered “Scorpio” in the mid-eighties, it quickly became one of my very favorites of McFarland’s records. It still is. I think it deserves to be much more well known.
The only CD release of “Scorpio and Other Signs” thus far is the 2006 Japanese issue, part of the “Dig Up the Pieces” series that included the similarly-styled as Lalo Schifrin’s “There’s a Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin’ On” and “Don Sebesky & The Jazz Rock Syndrome.”