Information/Write-up
Originally featured here back in 2014, this is the updated story as of March 6, 2023:
This album, the holy grail of Canadian Jesus Funk, was first released to the public here at citizenfreak.com. Now, the story has come full-circle.
Trevor Dandy was originally from Jamaica, but like so many other Jamaicans, he emigrated to Toronto in the 1960's. Shortly thereafter, In 1970, he recorded this album, which includes "Is There Any Love", in of itself, a jazz soul monster and one of the finest funk gospel tunes ever recorded by a Canadian. The album was produced by Paul Zaza and was recorded at Paul's own Zaza Sound Productions, located at 16 Edenvale Crescent, Etobicoke. Apparently the album was pressed in a quantity of 2,000, but due to a dispute with his church a good number of the original lp's were destroyed.
"Is There Any Love" was re-issued as a single-sided single by Chicago record label Numero Group in 2010 in a limited pressing of 200 copies. The song "Is There Any Love" was sampled by Kid Cudi and Monsters of Folk.
The album itself is fetching a pretty penny, currently at around USD$1,100 and up, placing it firmly in the upper echelon of Canadian collector records http://citizenfreak.com/playlists/10-1000-record-club
Back in 2014, Rafael Fido found 13 sealed copies at a garage sale in Kitchener, Ontario. He sold them to me and the album was posted to citizenfreak.com immediately thereafter. A year or so later, I sent one copy to soundtempel.com. They got a hold of Trevor Dandy and Paul Zaza and obtained the rights to re-issue the album, in 2016 on Presh Media GmbH.
A year later in 2017, I was unwittingly introduced to my cousin Daniel Williston's future wife by my uncle Bob Williston (who himself recorded a few xian albums in the 70's and 80's, one with Dale Jacobs, in Vancouver....) - to Kristen Zaza, at my mother's place in Kamloops, British Columbia. When I heard her last name, after gulping my pardon, I immediately asked Kristen if she was any relation to Paul Zaza. She said, oh yeah that's my dad! I had a tingle down my spine - I told her about this album that her dad played on, produced, arranged, and had released it on his own label. How it came to be re-issued and how even her Grandpa Jack Zaza, a Canadian music legend, had also played (flutes) on the album.
And now they're in my family! How cool is that!
Kristen Zaza has her own award winning podcast, described as ideal for horror lovers with insomnia: https://www.kristenzaza.com/
Daniel Williston is an actor (currently headlining "Elvis Has Left the Building" at StageWest in Calgary) and also has his own podcast that pairs the right weed with the right film https://www.danielwilliston.com/lets-bogart/tag/Weed+Podcast
Paul Zaza composed the musical scores for several Canadian cult movie soundtracks including Quentin Tarantino's favorite slasher movie of all-time, My Bloody Valentine http://citizenfreak.com/titles/307608-zaza-paul-my-bloody-valentine, and a host of others including Prom Night http://citizenfreak.com/titles/324749-zaza-paul-prom-night, The Brain http://citizenfreak.com/titles/307626-zaza-paul-the-brain, Porkys, Porky's 2, Meatballs III, Curtains, Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Chearleaders, Hot in Here http://citizenfreak.com/titles/325027-zaza-paul-hot-in-here, Her Vengeance, Popcorn, etc, as well as more than 100 other films. He won a genie for best Musical Score in 1980 for 'Murder by Decree' and won several Society of Composers, Authors, and 14 SOCAN awards. He is now retired and lives in Florida.
Later on in 2017 Trevor Dandy sent me his latest CD - Trevor Dandy & Friends Sing Hallelujah. It was also recorded and engineered by Paul Zaza and Paul also played a few instruments. Together, they re-imagined two of the tracks that appeared on the original album - "Don't Cry Little Tree" and "Is There Any Love in This World": http://citizenfreak.com/titles/326610-dandy-trevor-sing-hallelujah
Jack Zaza passed away at the age of 91, on July 13, 2022. Jack's deep repertoire included player on The Juliette Show, The Friendly Giant, Front Page Challenge, The Tommy Hunter Show and the recording of the original Hockey Night in Canada theme with Dolores Claman. : https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-session-musician-jack-zaza-was-sought-after-for-his-legendary-improv/
-Robert Williston
Paul J. Zaza: piano, electric piano, conga, organ, bass guitar
Jack Zaza: flutes
Judy Tate: voice
Lillian Nicholoff: strings
Dave Brown: drums
Produced, Engineered and Arranged by Paul J. Zaza
Technical Assistant: Ken Friesen
Photographer: Lennox Lennard
Recorded at Zaza Sound Productions, 16 Edenvale Crescent, Etobicoke, Ontario
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