With 2022's
Fifty, Grammy-winning vocal quartet
the Manhattan Transfer celebrate their 50th birthday in illustrious fashion, collaborating with Germany's
WDR Funkhausorchester. Founded in the 1960s by the late
Tim Hauser,
the Manhattan Transfer helped repopularize '40s-style vocal harmony jazz, swing, and traditional pop, all while incorporating contemporary pop and dance elements. Here, original members
Janis Siegel and
Alan Paul, along with longtime member
Cheryl Bentyne and
Trist Curless (who joined after
Hauser's passing in 2014), look back on the group's albums and revisit some of their favorite songs. Helping them achieve this time-traveling journey is producer and
Take 6-member David Thomas as well as musical arrangers Jorge Callandrelli and
Vince Mendoza and vocal arranger Amanda Taylor. While there's certainly a sense of warm familiarity about many of the songs included here, the group smartly eschews many of their obvious hits, like "Birdland" or "Tuxedo Junction," that became staples of their live shows. Instead, they favor equally memorable songs that represent the many genres and styles they've incorporated into their sound over the decades. There's a widescreen, Technicolor vibe to the album that feels like a classic Hollywood film where the main characters travel the globe to far-off exotic locales. Emblematic of this is the opening "Agua," a cinematic and moody MPB ballad by
Djavan and
Brock Walsh off 1987's
Brasil that evokes the expansive harmonies of '60 groups like
Free Design. Similarly, "Paradise Within" is a dreamy tropical number off 2018's
The Junction that conjures the romantic big band vibe of the 1940's that remains so redolent of
the Manhattan Transfer sound. Also bringing to mind the group's swinging, big band-inspired style is their lush rendition of the
Artie Shaw standard "The Man I Love" -- a never-before-recorded arrangement. In classic decade-mashing fashion, they also they also dive into some of their more adventurous choices, including their surprising update of
XTC's '80s classic "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" from
The Junction and the hip-hop-infused "What Goes Around, Comes Around" off 1991's
The Offbeat Avenues. They even revisit their campy reworking of
Bernard Herrmann's Twilight Zone theme off 1979's
Extensions. These are lush, orchestral productions that add even more textural colors to the quartet's already vibrant vocal harmonies. ~ Matt Collar