THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER TO PERFORM FOR THE SOCIETY OF SINGERS

The Manhattan Transfer are set to perform a benefit concert for the Society of Singers (SOS), which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The show will take place on the evening of September 11, at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood The Manhattan Transfer, which consists of Tim Hauser, Janis Siegel, Alan Paul and Cheryl Bentyne, was founded more than 35 years ago by Hauser, who dreamed of blending jazz, R&B, pop, rock 'n' roll, salsa and swing into a vocal group without limits. In the early 1970’s, performances at Max’s Kansas City, Trude Heller’s and Reno Sweeney in New York City soon developed for them a cult fan base, and it was at the latter venue that Ahmet Ertegun, found and chairman of Atlantic Records, saw them and offered then a recording contract which resulted in the release of their first album, The Manhattan Transfer (1975). The album included the group;s first successful single, the gospel tune “Operator”. The group has released more than two dozen albums, enjoyed 18 charting singles (including the Top 10 pop hit "The Boy from New York City") and won eight Grammy Awards in a variety of categories; in 1981, they became the first group to win Grammys in both pop and jazz categories in a single year. In 2006, The Manhattan Transfer released The Symphony Session, a collection of the group's successes re-arranged for symphonies and popular orchestras, and The Definitive Pop Collection, a two-disc collection of the group's tunes which would cause one to believe they were only from the group's popular music repertoire. Instead, it's a hodge-podge of the group's songs distributed by their contracts with the Atlantic company. Also that year their second concert DVD was released: The Christmas Concert, and was broadcasted by PBS in select locations. Four Quarters Entertainment will release Manhattan Transfer's new CD entitled The Chick Corea Songbook in September.