Vince Mariani outside the Sonobeat studio in northwest Austin (1969)

From jazz to drum rock and making it look easy

Vincent (Vince) Mariani Jr., whose father was an internationally-acclaimed art professor at The University of Texas (he was commissioned to create the 1976 Olympic poster), studied under Ravi Shankar and legendary drummers Herbie Rich and Gene Krupa, developing a complex jazz-rock style using a larger kit – including double bass drums – than most other jazz or rock drummers. He came by his musical talents somewhat naturally: both parents were musicians, and his mother was classically-trained. In January 1969, when the Joseys delivered the Johnny Winter album master tapes to Liberty Records in Los Angeles, they toured several Hollywood recording studios and at Wally Heider’s legendary studio had control room seats for a recording session with noted jazz-rock drummer Sandy Nelson, who had released a string of successful drum specialty singles and albums throughout the ’60s. When the Joseys met Vince later in the year, Bill Sr. recalled Sandy’s session and, always up for an experiment, proposed that Vince record a pair of drum solos for release as a Sonobeat stereo single.

Vince’s master tape

Vince’s Sonobeat stereo single

In July ’69, the Joseys built a drum and vocal isolation booth at their home-based Western Hills Drive studio in northwest Austin, and there they recorded Vince performing his compositions Pulsar and Boots. Because there were no other instruments to simultaneously record, almost every piece in Vince’s kit was individually miked, providing a very detailed stereo mix. Despite what many thought after hearing Vince’s single, Vince overdubbed nothing. He was just that good. Nonetheless, Rim suggested adding effects to Pulsar, and, apropos of the song’s title, gave it a light flangingFlanging is a sweeping audio frequency comb filter created by playing two identical tapes on synchronized tape decks and recording the combined output onto another tape deck while lightly and alternately dragging a thumb on the outer flange of each tape reel during playback; the resulting slight frequency offsets create a swooshing sound. Modern digital audio workstations create a similar effect with the turn of a knob., much like he had given the Lavender Hill Express single, Watch Out!, the year before. The flanging imparted a distinctive otherworldly swooshing or tunnel effect to Pulsar. It became the “A” side of Sonobeat stereo 45 RPM single R-s116, which Sonobeat released near the end of ’69. Unfortunately, Vince’s single was a commercial failure – drum solos were already wearing thin when Pulsar was released, as Doug Hanners noted in his 1977 Not Fade Away Texas music fanzine article about Sonobeat – but the Joseys sensed that Vince’s remarkable talent and almost otherworldly charismatic personality could anchor a blues-rock band, and that was the next chapter in Vince’s story.

Following a prolonged illness, Vince passed away on April 20, 2022.