i'm a music journalist working on a Madhouse story (finally, huh?), and i knew the fine folks over here have got some stuff to add.

for anyone who messes around with facebook, feel free to join my new "mad 4 madhouse" group: http://www.facebook.com/g...=mf&v=feed

here's all my madhouse thoughts so far from over on my blog. feel free to chime in: http://www.furthermucker....4-madhouse

anyone know if drummer john lewis was real, or just sheila e? i interviewed dr. fink two weeks ago, i'll be running the Q&A transcript real soon.

When I was 15, I got the second girl I’d ever had sex with pregnant. Our secret lasted a few crucial months until blowing up in our faces, when both our families found out right around Christmastime. Her operation that January was the skeleton in my closet for a long time, but this is not that story. It’s weird, the details that stand out in bas-relief from an experience like that, details like the LP I bought from The Wiz on my way to the Brooklyn hospital with the girl’s sister and pops: 8, by Madhouse, the pseudonymous Paisley Park Records jazz-funk fusion band with Prince on nearly every single instrument.

In fact, the vinyl record I picked up that day in 1987 might not have been 8, but instead the long-playing 12-inch single “6 (End of the World Mix),” which – in a fine point you couldn’t invent – made it to #6 on the Billboard black singles chart. This was, remember, the age of Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F,” when a plucky instrumental sans lyrics could still become a radio hit. Madhouse was Prince’s cute little side project; with the Revolution’s Eric Leeds (late of The Family, of “The Screams of Passion” fame) on flute and sax, Prince had someplace to place his jazzier, slightly more avant-garde ambitions. But the Madhouse band was officially anonymous; no one was credited on the album sleeve.

Both “6” and 8 featured Prince’s busty sometimes-girlfriend Maneca Lightner on the cover in an itsy-witsy, teeny-weeny little polka dot bikini. She’d model for the funkier followup 16 later (the same year!), and its singles, “10” and “13.” Maneca also featured in the group’s only video, “10,” and she eventually became a record exec at Virgin and Warner Bros. And yeah, every Madhouse song was identified by a number instead of a title. I spoke with old Revolution keyboardist Dr. Fink a few weeks ago, and he told me tales of doing double duty during the 1987 European tour for Sign o’ the Times, also playing in Madhouse as the opening act. Much as I dug Madhouse (for what it was), Fink shared stuff I’d never heard: like how they’d pick a different sexy woman from the audience every night to hold up the numbers to the songs as they were performed, like at a boxing match.

Prince recorded a tune for Miles Davis called “Can I Play With U?” the year before 8 dropped, which Miles laid down trumpet on but never released. I may or may not have heard it live in the course of my first Miles show at Avery Fisher Hall way back then at the JVC Jazz Festival. From that spark, Prince initiated the so-called Flesh Sessions, a bunch of improv jazz pieces recorded with Sheila E., Eric Leeds and Levi Seacer Jr. at Sunset Studios in L.A., meant to result in a pseudonymous album/band called The Flesh. (At least according to biographer Alex Hahn’s Possessed; Dr. Fink had never heard of the sessions or The Flesh.) Instead, he quickly revamped the concept into the one-man-band of Madhouse. Before his death in 1991, Miles Davis rerecorded some Madhouse tunes meant for the unreleased 24 album: “Penetration,” “Jailbait” and “A Girl and Her Puppy.” Though 24 never happened, a Maneca Lightner cover exists, and a track called “17” appears on Prince’s 1991 compilation record 1-800 NEW FUNK.

By 16, Madhouse supposedly consisted of Eric Leeds on sax, Levi Seacer Jr. on bass, Matt Fink on keyboards and John Lewis (most likely an undercover Sheila E.) on drums. In concert, the group performed wearing black hooded robes. Tracks were playfully interspersed with snippets of dialogue from The Godfather. The former sax player tours occasionally as Eric Leeds’ Madhouse; I missed his Paris show this past July at Reservoir. As you might imagine, I’m working on a Madhouse piece at the moment. My brother Chris hit me with the super-rare 16 CD for Christmas, so I’ve been reliving that time period when Prince was more prolific than the neo-soulers he inspired could ever dream of being. I went ahead yesterday and created a Facebook group for Madhouse for the handful of Prince fanatics who have memories of any of this ever having happened. Join up and speak your piece!

(Unfortunately, Prince has wiped YouTube clean of Madhouse’s one and only videoclip.)

furthermucker said:

U mean 1994

On my local raqdio station the dj interviewd Eric leeds..
And from what i remember.. i could be wrong
Eric said : prince had all the tracks done.. and basicly gave them to eric...
And he was alowed to add his horns on them

furthermucker said:

That's interesting. Fink wasn't part of those sessions, but you might think he'd still know of them. Did he mention the 'Hard Life' "mini-movie" from 1987 which features members of Prince's band at the time and Madhouse music?

You find more info on 'The Flesh' LP in this thread, reply 11:
http://prince.org/msg/7/271890

The Flesh January 22nd 1986
Album sequenced:

Side 1:
01. Junk Music
Side 2:
02. Up From Below
03. Y'All Want Some More?
04. A Couple Of Miles

The only 'Flesh' track to circulate widely amongst collectors is 'U Gotta Shake Something', which didn't make the album configuration itself.

There are also a few other Madhouse projects you didn't refer to, including the second '24' from 1993, which differs entirely from the first '24' (1988) and had the following tracklist:

Madhouse 24 pt. II Mid 1994
17
Rootie Kazootie
Space
Guitar Segue
Asswoop
Ethereal
Parlor games
Michael B
(Got 2) Give It Up
Sonny T

The '17' on here is the one found on 1800-New-Funk. Both versions of 24 are circulating widely amongst fans/collectors.

Also, in 1989 Eric Leeds worked on a follow-up to '16' (after the first '24' was abandoned), when Prince encouraged him to choose some instrumental or unfinished tracks from the vault. By Sept.89 Eric had assembled 10 tracks intended for the new album, entitled 26, with the tracks titled 17 to 26 as per the previous albums. When Prince heard the album he felt it reflected Eric's style more than 'Madhouse', so suggest Eric should release it as a solo album, which then went onto become Leeds' 'Times Squared' album from 1991.

Also Prince worked on 'Madhouse' versions of the Kamasutra tracks (an instrumental "classical" album Prince released in 1998 as part of the 'Crystal Ball' 5 CD set). The circulating tracks were renamed '17' and '18' from their original titles on 'Kamasutra'.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w...use_(band)

If you haven't heard them, Prince also has two more recent instrumental albums both from 2003. Xpectation was a download-only album from his then official site, and N.E.W.S. was a general CD release. Neither is particularly close to the Madhouse material, Xpectation a little more so maybe.

I remember back in 2002 at the Xenophobia Celebration in Paisley Park, Eric told us in a workshop, that the complete line-up of the Band Madhouse on both LPs (8 and 16)consisted of Prince and Eric. All the other names of local MPLS Jazz musicians involved (that were given to the press at that time) were completely fictous. That's what Eric said.

COOL
i'll check out the facebook

I have never liked the 2nd version of 24, the original versions in much much better

thanks you guys. on a similar note, i so totally miss prince's great instrumentals pre-madhouse!! stuff like "susannah's pajamas" and "yes" from the family album, "alexa de paris" (which TOTALLY should've made the hits/B-sides album) and "god (instrumental)." i have N.E.W.S., and some of it is not too bad...

furthermucker said:

The entire Xpectation album and "Arboretum" from One Nite Alone: Piano & Voice are also great instrumentals.

Xpectation has a lot of Madhouse flavor.

For a lot more info on Eric/Madhouse/Miles check out this informative interview with eric leeds here:

http://www.thelastmiles.c...-part2.php
&
http://www.thelastmiles.c...-leeds.php

Was a big Madhouse fan, and the first poem I ever wrote was a rap to the tune of "Eleven" (will probably share the rap in the org artist community some time).