Tuxedo Junction
There is the orgasmic disco wing, where the ooh-aah, moan-groan performers hang it out. Then there is what might be called moldy fig disco—after the old jazzman's term for people who liked outdated, thus moldy, material. Tuxedo Junction is easily the tops in the latter flank. The group, based around three young women singers—Midge Barnett, Caryn Richman and the Egyptian-born Leisha—is even named after a Glenn Miller hit and had a hot single last year with his Chattanooga Choo-Choo. This album contains all big-band-era tunes—from the title song, which Billy Strayhorn wrote for Duke Ellington, to You Gotta Be a Football Hero and Dizzy Gillespie's bop classic, Night in Tunisia. They have been turned into relatively tame but still vigorous disco. Bright brass-reed arrangements recall the swing bands without parodying them, and the trio compromises among the Andrews Sisters, the Four Freshmen and the Sledges. It all sounds unlikely—and delightful.
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