Suddenly One Summer

The Suddenly One Summer album of dreamy soft psychedelia is something of an undiscovered gem for pop-psych enthusiasts. Recorded in Vancouver, Canada, until recently, nothing was known about the identity or true location of the band.

Housed in a delightful pop-art cover, this concept album was meant to "depict musically a man's life from birth to death" - it was written by Jay Kaye who was just 15 years old at the time. Heavily orchestrated with lush arrangements, silky vocals, backward effects and found sounds, it is dreamy soft-rock that caresses psychedelia and flirts with the 'baroque'. It occupies a hazy territory somewhere between Sgt. Pepper and The Magical Mystery Tour, the Left Banke's second album and The Zombies' Odessey And Oracle. Highlights include the delightful Eastern-influenced Magical Fingers Of Minerva, some superb, melodic slices of pop-psych like Fly and Little Children, the guitar-driven instrumental Speed and the prog-psych finale Dead which gives way to the opening bars of the album at the end. The yearning vocal style is appealing and evident throughout but particularly evident on Crystal Ball and Nobody.

Until recently nothing was known to collectors about the history behind the record or the artist - now thanks to Sundazed, Efram Turchick and the parties involved it can be told: - Las Vegan Jay Kaye was born into a musical family. His mother was pioneering guitarist Mary Kaye, of the Mary Kaye Trio and who had a Fender Stratocaster named after her. His uncle was famed ukelele player Johnny Ukelele.

Both Jay and his cousin John Kaye were bitten by the Beatle bug. Jay led a band called the Loved Ones and started to write his own material. In 1968 he accompanied his mother to Vancouver where she was making some appearances. On a visit to a studio, who wanted to record some tracks with his mother (she turned them down), a 15 year-old Jay proffered his material and played a couple of his songs to producer Robin Spurgin.

Spurgin had a great track record, from our retrospective perspective(?!) anyway, having produced the likes of the Collectors, Painted Ship, United Empire Loyalists and One Way Streets. He was impressed enough with Jay to start work on an LP and agreed also to look after him (his mother was returning to Vegas). First off he brought in Robert Buckley from local band Spring, whom he'd also produced. Buckley was another prodigiously talented teenager who played numerous instruments; he took on the role of arranger. With the help of various session musicians, including members of Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck, the project was realized over the next few months.

The completed tape was touted around L.A. labels in the Summer of '68. It was jumped on by White Whale, whose president Ted Feigin christened it Suddenly One Summer. With the release imminent, Jay quickly assembled a trio to play live and promote it - his cousin John and drummmer Rick Dean (son of jazz drummer Jack Dean).

A period of heavy local promotion followed and it started to gather playtime on underground radio stations. At this point White Whale decided to release a 45. Strangely they didn't choose the stand-out Fly; instead they opted for the album's opener Break Of Dawn, a sound collage of barely half a minute. The 45 may only have made it to the promo stage... at that point the momentum sank without a trace, as did the 45 and the label's interest. The band carried on performing on the local teen circuit but were too young to go on tour or do nightclubs. Their brief moment in the limelight was gone.

Some tracks from the LP were creatively recycled by White Whale, appearing on an album credited to Zager and Evans - The Early Writings Of Zager & Evans & Others (White Whale WWS-7123) - in 1969.

The young trio went on to various other bands. Latterly Jay Kaye moved to Majorca, Spain in 1987 where he plays blues guitar, sings and writes. John Kaye is back in Las Vegas with a band called The Overlords."