THE DAVID FLACK QUORUM
Jazz. Pure.
But hardly simple.
This took way too long
Summer 1970. Austin, Texas-based Sonobeat Recording Company began studio sessions with San Antonio native and freshly-minted University of Texas business school graduate David Flack, whose trio – David on piano, Emery Alford on drums, and Hugh Sparks on bass – performed as The David Flack Quorum. The resulting album, Mindbender, that was recorded piecemeal, wasn’t released until 1976, almost six years after the initial session in August 1970. Sonobeat recorded the album – which fused jazz, rock, and classical genres – at its home-based Western Hills Drive studio in northwest Austin, eventually completing the instrumental tracks in May 1973. The unusually long span was attributable in part to David’s departure for military service in 1971, and, when he returned two years later, an extended search for a vocalist who, as David recalled, could “sing against the ’soundtrack’ already in the can”. San Antonio jazz-blues singer Marva Jackson eventually was cast as that vocalist and ably filled the role. By the time David recruited Marva, Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Sr. was in the process of moving the studios from Western Hills Drive to more spacious facilities in the KVET Building near downtown Austin, creating still another bump in the road to the album’s completion.
Sonobeat Artists
The David Flack Quorum
A slowly-developing album
Sonobeat co-founder Rim Kelley“Rim Kelley” was the pseudonym used by Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Jr. as a radio deejay in Austin, Texas, during the 1960s and as a Sonobeat producer from 1967 to 1970. co-produced and engineered the Western Hills Drive sessions – consisting of the majority of the side I tracks – before relocating to Houston in fall 1970, at which time album co-producer Bill Josey Sr. took over engineering as well as full-time producing duties, finishing up the side I tracks. When David returned in ’73 from his Army service, he and Bill Sr. reconnected, and David pulled the trio back together to record the rest of the album, after which David and Bill Sr. sequenced and mixed the album at Sonobeat’s KVET Building studio. Bill Sr. immediately began offering the album to national labels. Eventually, Liberty/UA Records in Hollywood, with which Sonobeat had an established relationship through Sonobeat’s 1969 Johnny Winter and 1970 Afro-Caravan albums, expressed interest in Mindbender for its UA and Blue Note labels, but for reasons not documented in the Sonobeat archives, no deal with Liberty/UA materialized. Fast forward to early 1976, when Bill Sr. was struggling with cancer chemotherapy treatments that frequently debilitated him: David designed the album jacket and financed Sonobeat’s regional release of Mindbender in June 1976, after a long and oft-interrupted journey. Notably, Mindbender was Sonobeat’s first of only two commercial releases on which its stylized logo (in the ribbon-like Calypso font) did not appear on either the disc label or jacket (the other is Helmer Dahl’s album Toe-Tapping Tunes, also released in 1976).
Side I of Mindbender, initially themed under the subtitle Scatter-Power, featured six diverse pieces, including Marva’s terrific scat (which influenced the subtitle that eventually went unused) on Chas’er and David’s moody piano on So-Lo. Side II featured the Mindbender Suite, consisting of seven interlinked movements presented without breaks. David composed all songs on the album.
The Quorum
- Emery Alford (drums and percussion)
- David Flack (electric and acoustic keyboards)
- Marva Jackson (vocals)
- Hugh Sparks (acoustic bass)
Mindbender
Recording and release details
33-1/3 RPM stereo album
Mindbender
Catalog number: DFSQ-100
Black and white jacket
Released in June 1976*
*Release date is approximated using best information available from the Sonobeat archives and public records
All songs composed by David Flack
Side I:
- Purge • 1:57
- Once I Dreamed • 5:37
- Chas’er • 2:11
- So-Lo • 2:06
- So What?! • 2:57
- Taste of Time • 3:15
Side II:
- Free – Part 1 • 3:03
- Glimpses • 1:09
- Light • 4:31
- Heavy • 1:41
- Blue • 3:00
- Free – Part 2 • 1:32
- Flashback (formerly titled Contact • 4:54
Producers (uncredited): Bill Josey Sr., David Flack, and Rim Kelley
Engineers: Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr.
Front and back jacket photographs: Roy Harlow Jr. and John Cross Jr.
Liner notes: Bill Josey Sr.
Recorded at Sonobeat’s Western Hills Drive studio, Austin, Texas, on August 17-18, 1970, and at Sonobeat Studios, 705 North Lamar, Austin, Texas, in April and May 1973
Recorded using...
- AKG D707E dynamic, ElectroVoice Slimair 636 dynamic, and Sony ECM-22 electret condenser microphones
- Scully 280 half-inch 4-track, Stemco 500-4 half-inch 4-track, and Ampex AG-350 quarter-inch 2-track tape decks
- Custom 16-channel 4-bus mixing console
- Fairchild Lumiten 663ST stereo optical compressor
- Blonder-Tongue Audio Baton 9-band graphic equalizer
- Custom steel plate stereo reverb
Unknown number of copies manufactured
Lacquers mastered and vinyl copies pressed by Wakefield Manufacturing in Phoenix, Arizona
Labels and jackets printed by Wakefield Manufacturing in Phoenix, Arizona
In the dead wax...
- Side I: DFQS-A DFQS-100-A WMEMI-S
- Side II: DFQS-B DFQS-100-B WMEMI-S
- “WMEMI” in the matrix number identifies Wakefield Manufacturing as the lacquer and mastering and pressing plant. The W appears over the M.
In 1969, Emery completed his undergraduate studies at The University of Texas at Austin, and went on to earn his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Oklahoma, eventually pursuing a career in academia and relocating to Florida, where he still lives, teaching for years at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa. As recently as 2021, Emery served as Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, at Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers. In 1969, Hugh took his undergrad degree in Music Theory and Composition from The University of Texas at Austin, continuing on to earn his Ph.D. in Music History, Literature, and Theory. Following a 20 year career in the UT music department, Hugh founded Austin-based Hugh Sparks Musical Services and Ursa Major Productions. He succumbed in December 2016 to complications related to diabetes. Marva returned to San Antonio following her Mindbender vocal overdub sessions, where she continued to perform in a variety of pop-jazz combos. David took his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin and then returned to his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, where he began a career in executive coaching and motivational speaking. In 1975, he launched two ventures: David Flack Music (focusing on composing and arranging) and Creative Information Services (later changing the name to The Accelerator Coach and focusing on organization design, employee development and productivity, and executive coaching), serving as CEO of both companies until his death, at age 71, on September 8, 2019.
Mindbender liner notes
Bill Josey, Sr., producer
Conceptual in approach and communicative by design, Mindbender has that rare quality of freshness and timelessness. The lush chords of Once I Dreamed, the ethereal So-Lo, the funky So What?!, the Brubeck-ish Taste of Time only whet the senses for the incredible suite to follow.
Although there are no breaks between movements, the Mindbender Suite has stunning transitions as the music defines the Universal Character’s emotional peaks and valleys. The remarkable effect on the listener is evergreen – indeed, your satisfaction repeatedly grows – and the multi-levels of interpretation offer a distinct aural and mental experience with each playback.
Reflection and excitement, hard times and humor, classical, jazz, and pop-rock are all served up in a successful attempt to reach your consciousness and lead you to a new experience in recorded entertainment.
The talent is evident. The writing is on a wide canvas of colors and styles, and will surely be covered by major artists. DFQ has sterling improvisational ability with clever interplay techniques: The music is engaging, demanding, and fun!