Genre: pop
Rating: 3 stars ***
Title: Zazu
Company: A&M
Catalog: SP
5016
Year: 1986
Country/State: Galveston, Texas
Grade (cover/record): VG+ / VG+
Comments: promo stamp on back cover
Available: 3
GEMM catalog ID: 5551
Price: $40.00
also available: 2 sealed copies $50.00 each
C'mon, how is it that the powers that be decide to gift some people with all sorts of talents while the bulk of us get short changed ... Rosie Vela was clearly in the former category - fashion model, actress, songwriter, singer/recording artist ... friend of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Doesn't seem fair does it ...
Drawn largely from her website (found at http://zazu.zzzimbob.com/index.htm), here's an executive summary of Vela's life.
- Born in Galveston, Texas December 18 1954.
- 1970 her family divorces and she moves to Little Rock, Arkansas with her father and brother.
- Attended University of Arkansas where she majored in art and music.
- Started her modeling career when a college friend took some photos of Vela that caught the attention of the Kim Dawson modeling agency.
- Married local musician Jimmy Roberts who sadly died of cancer within a couple of months.
- 1974 quit school, relocated to New York and began working for the Wilhelmina and then Ford modeling agencies which landed her on the cover of Vogue multiple times, as well as the Neiman Marcus catalog, Michelob, Maybelline, and Virginia Slims marketing campaign.
With her modeling career in high gear, in the mid-1980s Vela built a studio in the New York apartment she shared with artist Peter Max and started focusing on music. She sent a demo to A&M President Jerry Moss and was quickly signed to a contract (being a model probably didn't hurt). 1986's "Zazu" teamed her with producer Gary Katz and attracted most of it's notoriety from the fact Becker and Fagen reunited for the first time since "Gaucho" to play on the album. To some extent the Steely Dan connection must have been both a blessing and a curse. Overlooking Vela's obvious attractions, to my ears it's easy to see why Becker and Fagen wanted to work with Vela (supposedly the two separately asked producer Katz to allow them to play on the track 'Interlude' which then led to a major involvement in the project). Responsible for penning all nine album tracks, like Becker and Fagen Vela had a penchant for oddball, jazz-influenced melodies, coupled with dark, frequently idiosyncratic and deeply personal lyrics. That also led to comparisons with Joni Mitchell (I'd argue that Kate Bush was a better baseline), though Vela's work was fare more commercial than either Mitchell or Bush's catalogs. I'm using the term 'commercial' loosely since with the possible exception of 'Sunday' none of these songs had what you'd consider to be a top-40 hook. That certainly didn't stop them from clawing their way into your head. I'll readily admit that Vela didn't have the most dynamic voice you've ever come across. That said, she managed to make the most of her vocal gifts; on tracks like 'Magic Smile' and 'Interlude' the results were best described as a highly seductive smoky growl. A minor complaint, but looking back at the set, some of the songs sported a dated synthesizer and syndrum dominated mid-1980s sound (check out 'Tonto'). Whereas that makes lots of album virtually unlistenable, the quality of Vela's songwriter was such that you could overlook that particular shortcoming. All told this is a fantastic album that should have found a major audience when releases. Still, there was a clear Steely Dan feel to the material, which meant your opinions on the Steely Dan catalog were likely to have a major impact on what you thought of this album.
Elsewhere A&M tapped the album for a series of three singles:
- 1986's 'Magic Smile' b/w 'Second Emotion' (A&M catalog number AM-2856)
- 1986's 'Interlude' b/w 'Taxi' (A&M catalog number AM-2886)
- 1986's 'Fools Paradise' b/w 'Tonto' (A&M catalog number AM-396) (UK issue)
Coupled with a video that saw some action on MTV, the singles generate a little bit of airplay, but in spite of Vela also hit the road in support of the album tour opening for The Fixx and a solo Andy Summers, the album did little on the US market. In contrast, in the UK 'Magic Smile' went top-30, while the LP hit # 18.
"Zazu" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Fool's
Paradise (Rosie Vela) - 4:00
2.) Magic Smile (Rosie Vela)
- 4:24
3.) Interlude (Rosie Vela) - 3:55
4.) Tonto (Rosie Vela) - 5:38
(side
2)
1.) Sunday (Rosie Vela)
- 4:31
2.) Taxi (Rosie Vela ) - 3:25
3.) 2nd Emotion (Rosie Vela - F. Doddy, and J. Guthrie) - 4:46
4.) Boxs (Rosie Vela) - 3:52
5.) Zazu (Rosie Vela ) - 4:46
The picture quality isn't great, but here's a YouTube link to her one and only video in support of the LP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwaiZL51H6I&feature=related
'Magic Smile'
Following
the album's release Vela returned to modeling and sessions as a backup
singer She appeared in the film "Inside Edge" (with ), and
began writing music for soundtracks, including co-writing a track from the
British flick "Still Crazy".
There are actually two more Vela albums. Four years after releasing "Zazu" she returned to the studio recording a collection that was tentatively titled "Sun Across the Alter". Unfortunately, just as the album was being finished, A&M was bought out by Polydor Records. Polydor executives were unhappy with the results and pushed her to rerecord the album with a metal-orientation. She refused and subsequently split with the company. Almost two decades later the project remains shelved.
In 1994 Vela started recording a third album with help from longtime friend Jeff Lynne. A car accident saw the project go into hiatus. Sessions started again, but were then put on hold when Vela started working with Lynne on various Electric Light Orchestra projects, including helping to compile and remaster the 3 CD retrospective "Flashback". She also worked with Lynne on the 2001 ELO reunion set "Zoom".