Brand new definitive reissues remastered by Ray Staff at Air London.
In the mid-1970s, a band emerged which set the bar against which nearly all American progressive rock would be measured in the decades that followed. The Washington, D.C.-based quintet called themselves Happy the Man—a name drawn from Goethe’s Faust (and echoed in the Bible’s Ecclesiastes 3:12). The name was apt: philosophically rich yet deceptively simple. Their music was both cerebral and joyous, technically demanding yet full of human warmth. Happy the Man did not see complexity as an end in itself—it was simply the language they spoke. Their compositions flowed with an organic elegance, fusing the sophistication of European prog with the elasticity of jazz fusion and the cinematic sweep of impressionist composers.
The classic Happy the Man lineup featured Frank Wyatt on woodwinds and keyboards; Kit Watkins on keyboards; guitarist and vocalist Stanley Whitaker; Rick Kennell on bass; and drummer/percussionist Mike Beck, the latter succeeded by Ron Riddle. Signing with Clive Davis’ Arista Records, whose roster then included fellow travelers David Sancious and Tone, Pierre Moerlen’s Gong, and Stomu Yamashta’s Go, Happy the Man recorded two studio albums overseen by Ken Scott, the producer behind David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, Supertramp’s Crime of the Century, and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire. Happy the Man’s self-titled debut, released in 1977, and its 1978 sophomore album, Crafty Hands, are two of the most fully realized progressive rock albums ever recorded on American soil. Happy the Man’s music was neither a direct response to its British forebears nor an attempt to fit within the evolving commercial American landscape. Instead, it was something rarer: a singular style of progressive music that existed entirely on its own terms.
Yet despite the compositional and instrumental brilliance of Happy the Man and Crafty Hands, Ken Scott’s original productions, and the enduring influence of both albums, the band was never entirely satisfied with the sound of the original vinyl and subsequent CDs of their work. Due in part to the length of the album sides, a significant amount of low end was reduced on the LP production masters to meet vinyl pressing requirements. Crafty Hands was also pitched down, making the entire album slightly out of tune. Subsequent CD and digital reissues drawn from these masters proved unable to fully address the flaws.
Recent technological advances, however, have enabled a complete restoration and resurrection that finally presents the listening experience the band and producer always intended. Happy the Man and Crafty Hands have been remastered by Ray Staff, Senior Mastering Engineer at Air London, the world-class studio that Beatles producer George Martin established back in 1969.
Bassist Rick Kennell, who spearheaded the projects on behalf of his bandmates, describes Staff’s work as “masters the band can finally be proud of; this is the way that these two albums were always intended to sound.” Drummer Ron Riddle enthuses, “I haven’t heard it sound this good since we were in the studio!! Seriously AWESOME. I can hear the space and separation, it’s not all mushed together. The delicacies and the power really come out. Total déjà vu hearing it just like it was the studio. I can even hear the reverb chambers like I remember. Beautiful stuff.”
The latest releases of Happy the Man and Crafty Hands also represent an exciting new chapter for the band which recently recaptured the rights to their Arista Records albums from Sony Music Entertainment and now own the rights in their original recordings. Iconoclassic Records head Jeremy Holiday is thrilled to partner with the band. “I’ve been a major Happy the Man since my late friend Mike Panico introduced me to the band’s music around 25 years ago. Happy the Man has always been a ‘word of mouth’ band, and Iconoclassic looks forward to amplifying the conversation.”
