The Meridians (1)

The Meridians : Roger Bruno, Felix DeMasi, Bill Adair & Tommy Brown 

The Meridians (1) (Tarrytown, Westchester,NY)
aka The Ideals

Personnel :

Roger Bruno (Lead)

Felix DeMasi

Bill Adair

Tommy Brown

Discography :

The Ideals
Unreleased :
1962 - New Love

The Meridians (1)
1965 - Blue Victory / Have You Forgotten (Parnaso 102)

Biography :

In Tarrytown, in the early nineteen sixties, there lived a young Brazilian musician named Tim Maia, who was destined for greatness, although few who knew him at the time would have guessed it.  Tim sang in a vocal-harmony group called the Ideals with Roger Bruno, Felix DeMasi, Paul Mitranga and Bill Adair, and wrote the words to the group's only recorded song, "New Love," whose rhythm reflected Maia's world-music aspirations; somehow, he had persuaded the great Brazilian drummer Milton Banana to play on the demo.

The Ideals : Roger Bruno, Bill Adair, Felix DeMasi, Paul Mitranga & Tim Maia

The song was never released commercially. The Ideals were planning on shopping it around to different labels, but the group's career was derailed when Maia was busted in Daytona Beach, Florida, for smoking pot in a stolen car, and after six months in jail he was deported to Brazil.

The Ideals : Roger Bruno, Felix DeMasi, Tim Maia, Paul Mitranga & Bill Adair

Not long after, Roger Bruno, Felix De Masi & Bill Adair replaced him with Tommy Brown, and the Ideals became the Meridians. The group was mixed - 2 African-Americans (Tommy Brown and Bill Adair) and 2 whites (Roger Bruno and Felix DeMasi) . They recorded a couple of sides, "Blue Victory" b/w "Have You Forgotten", which got them some radio play and a small tour, opening for the Duprees. But by then vocal-harmony groups were giving way to rock bands. Bruno went out to Hollywood, where he and Ellen had some success as songwriters.

  

Tim Maia  contributed to Brazilian music within a wide variety of musical genres, including soul, funk, bossa nova, disco, romantic ballads, pop, rock, jazz, baião and MPB. He introduced the soul style on the Brazilian musical scene. Tim Maia is internationally recognised as one of the biggest icons of the Brazilian music. He recorded numerous albums and toured extensively in a long career.


Songs :

The Meridians (1)

  
Have You Forgotten                              Blue Victory      


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