Strung Out

How many of your favorite musicians started off as acrobats? How many of them ended up in acrobatics? I can't think of any in the latter group, but the first track today comes from Don and Dick Addrisi, a.k.a. The Addrisi Brothers, who got a leg up as kids in their family's traveling acrobatics act The Flying Addrisis. Following a pair of rejection letters from the Mickey Mouse Club and a brief stint as a two piece band, the two turned their focus to songwriting. Sometimes when they sat down and tried they got interesting results:



The Addrisi Brothers - Ghostdancer (1979) (buy)

The second couple of tracks today bear some relation to Mr. Noel Pointer:


Noel Pointer could play violin. He played it well enough to book the Chicago and Detroit symphony orchestras as his backing bands at the age of 13. He played it well enough to score a free US citizenship, and caught the attention of such esteemed organizations as the United States Congress and US Congressional Black Caucus.

He also recorded seven solo albums in four years (1977 - 1981) wherein he applied those band camp chops to the realm of disco funk et al. There, friends, is where we find the second of today's offerings - a track called 'Captain Jarvis', from his 1979 album Feel It:



Noel Pointer - Captain Jarvis (1979) (buy)

While we're at it, the violin prodigy + dance music = something to talk about formula brought one Mr. Kelly Polar to mind. If that name doesn't ring a bell check out these bells:



Metro Area - Miura (2002) (buy)