Listened to the complete madhouse recordings...both released and unreleased. Besides just being brilliant and funky, it shed alot of light on Prince's music-making.

It almost seemed like this project was the "factory" in which the "paint" was created for use on future Prince projets -- he'd dip his brush into that paint for decades and use a horn-sample here, a melody there, etc... Lord knows how many individual songs resulted from these extended jam sessions.

it illuminated how Prince's music used to be - his songs seemed to organically be born from jam sessions and drum loops. The horn arrangement would serve as the chorus for a brand new song. If I had the musical-training/vocabulary to speak intelligently about the technical aspect of all this, I could describe this better - but hopefully it's clear what I'm sayin.

Again - it was like Prince had a huge bag of tools from which to work, and madhouse created that tool box.

I wonder if his new music, and his seemingly new perspective on song writing (e.g. songs being individual "beings" on their own, not just outgrowths of prior jam sessions) has changed the way he's operated...or maybe we just aren't privy to his tool box anymore.

Either way - we should feel damn blessed to be able to listen to Madhouse and get such a in depth view into prince's music making. I imagine decades from now - when Prince's music will really be studied and appreciated - the importance of these recordings, and what they show about how he creates music, will be recognized.

[Edited 7/8/12 14:10pm]

[Edited 7/8/12 14:11pm]

No Doubt

Every time I revist, I move EVERYTHING to my ipod. It gets better with each listen. I even include the two Eric Leeds albums. I think there should be 24 and 32, the two 24's have nothing really in common. It would be great for him to reactivate this idea.

Madhouse are amoung the most creative and ageless recordings he's ever done. Everyone is correct when they say Eric's two solo CDs are basically Madhouse. It would be nice if he did this again with his current crop of musician's. As I do like NEWS I don't think it touches ANY of the Madhouse albums. It seems to be missing the fun and the FUNK.

Jatrig said:

Listened to the complete madhouse recordings...both released and unreleased. Besides just being brilliant and funky, it shed alot of light on Prince's music-making.

It almost seemed like this project was the "factory" in which the "paint" was created for use on future Prince projets -- he'd dip his brush into that paint for decades and use a horn-sample here, a melody there, etc... Lord knows how many individual songs resulted from these extended jam sessions.

it illuminated how Prince's music used to be - his songs seemed to organically be born from jam sessions and drum loops. The horn arrangement would serve as the chorus for a brand new song. If I had the musical-training/vocabulary to speak intelligently about the technical aspect of all this, I could describe this better - but hopefully it's clear what I'm sayin.

Again - it was like Prince had a huge bag of tools from which to work, and madhouse created that tool box.

I wonder if his new music, and his seemingly new perspective on song writing (e.g. songs being individual "beings" on their own, not just outgrowths of prior jam sessions) has changed the way he's operated...or maybe we just aren't privy to his tool box anymore.

Either way - we should feel damn blessed to be able to listen to Madhouse and get such a in depth view into prince's music making. I imagine decades from now - when Prince's music will really be studied and appreciated - the importance of these recordings, and what they show about how he creates music, will be recognized.

[Edited 7/8/12 14:10pm]

[Edited 7/8/12 14:11pm]

I agree, he does use jamming to come up with songs, and pulls things out of lead instrument lines for vocals on a later project. (or vice versa)

Just so u know, there is a fifth Madhouse album (uncirculating), from around 1995.

I respectfully disagree with the OP as NOTHING proves that some of Prince's current songs aren't the fruit of extended jam sessions with his band. And on the other hand many old songs were recorded on the fly, as individual songs. So the whole comparison between a supposed old composing process and a supposed new one is kinda absurd.

U hear Madhouse beginning during the Parade era's Junk Music and Flesh recordings as well as the Family music ie Yes Feline etc

http://www.furthermucker....ag/prince/

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Mad for Madhouse

filed under: madhouse, prince, wax poetics

Wax Poetics, the true music-lover’s music magazine, celebrates its tenth anniversary this month with a special issue devoted to Prince. Naturally I crashed the party, with a nearly 5,000-word feature on the late-1980s Paisley Park Records jazz band, Madhouse. Wax Poetics #50, freshly resized and redesigned, should start showing up in bookstores and magazine shops everyplace next week.

My Madhouse article came about because it may be another 15 years before I get a shot at a 10,000-word Vanity Fair story. Four years ago I decided to start work on my dream story, something personal that only a handful of people (the right handful, of course) would even get: an exposé on the cult group Madhouse. For those who don’t know, Prince plays every instrument except sax on their 1987 début album, 8, and nearly everything on the followup record, 16. There is no Madhouse. It’s Prince, with ex-Revolution saxophonist Eric Leeds.

Prince wrote, played and produced these tunes at the tail-end of the most monumental creative peak of his career (1982-1987). Don’t bother trolling iTunes for the music, it’s not there. If you’re interested in hearing Madhouse, then YouTube is probably your best bet. This year I promise to start bugging Rhino to produce a killer Paisley Park box set.

And but so, “Syncopated Strut” is the Madhouse story I would have written for Vanity Fair if Graydon Carter had any idea who I am. I interviewed Eric Leeds in Paris, and his brother Alan Leeds (tour manager to James Brown, Prince, D’Angelo and more). I spoke with ex-Revolution keyboardist Matt Fink; sexy Madhouse cover girl Maneca Lightner; and saxophonist James Carter.

Did I mention the entire story is uncut and online for free? Nearly twice as long as the magazine version? See WaxPoetics.com.

(P.S. Love the image above, a modern take on the flavor of photographer Richard Litt’s classic Madhouse albums for the ever elusive, never released 24. If you’ve never seen the originals, scroll through Facebook’s Mad 4 Madhouse fan page, administrated by you-know-who.)