About Charisma

Charisma came about from diverging roots emanating from 3 directions. The core of Charisma was Rich Tortorigi (drummer) and George Tyrell (bass player). Both were members of a New Britain, Connecticut soul band called The Mantiques. The Mantiques had been one of the three main horn-based bands in New Britain in the mid to late 60's, along with Detroit Soul and The Paramounts. Paramounts drummer, Tyrone Lampkin went on to play with Gutbucket and the Parliament Funkadelics. In 1968, Rich Tortorigi recruited Tom Majesky to play guitar with The Mantiques, following their breakup. Tom enlisted Bernie Kornowicz, former bassist of The Last Five, to share guitar and organ duties. The final addition to the group was folk singer Mike DeLisa to sing lead. Tom and Bernie brought the rock and roll element to the Mantiques and Mike brought the band an element of folkiness.

It was in 1969 that The Mantiques signed with Roulette Records as a convenient tax write off to record an album. The album was produced by Ed Vallone and most of the songs were penned by Bruce McGaw. During the recording of the album, the band fought over a new name with their new management. Finally given an ultimatum, The Mantiques became Charisma, a name they hated. The album was recorded at Incredible Sound Studios in NYC. Charisma attempted to take control of the writing and production, but were put in their place and ordered to record the songs as scripted. Being the obstinate egocentrists that they were, they turned the recording sessions into a parody of the original intent.

Following the recording of What's It Like, the very first song on the album, (which, was in fact recorded at Vanguard Studios), there was a shakeup. George Tyrell quit the band, Bernie Kornowicz became the bass guitarist, Tom Majesky became the lead guitarist, and a new organist was recruited: Bob Mocarsky. The album was eventually completed. In the meantime, Tom, Bob and lyricist/art director Suzi Langlois began writing songs for a second album.

Before the recording of the second album, Mike DeLisa decided to go his own way, leaving the job of lead vocalist to guitarist Tom. Beasts and Fiends was recorded at the Record Plant in NYC during the summer of 1970. The lead engineer was the top engineer in the business: Jack Hunt (the Woodstock album, Electric Ladyland), assisted by Dave Ragno (the Woodstock album), and Tom Fly (the Woodstock album, former drummer of Lother and the Hand People). While credit was given to Bruce McGaw and Ed Vallone for production, fact is the album was produced by Charisma with interference run by Jack Hunt.

Charisma was offered the option to record a third album for Roulette Records, but let it pass by. Probably a mistake.

Both albums sold better in Europe than they did in the USA. All income went to Roulette Records. Charisma got squat. Same old story.

It looked like Charisma was headed for a breakup as drummer Rich Tortorigi and keyboardist Bob Mocarsky decided to leave the band, but Tom and Bernie located drummer Jim Roselle and keyboardist Mike Reynolds and decided to give it another go. Jim recruited Paul Midney to play saxes and flute, and Ray Mase to play trumpet, piccolo trumpet and coronetto. For a while, Charisma became Midney, named after Paul (?!!), but ended up changing their name back to Charisma. Paul eventually ended up leaving the group to do his own thing in the world of meditation and Ray went on to play with the American Brass Quintet. About this time Charisma, along with sound engineers Ron Scalise (now at ESPN) and Norman Campbell (now in California) began building a recording studio. Charisma spent the next few years in the studio. But to be able to do that they were forced to compromise their principles by playing commercial music to raise money to pay for the studio addiction. Charisma auditioned several singers as front men and finally decided on Brian Salke. Brian was not allowed to do the few non-commercial gigs that came up once in a while, but he did appear on some of Charisma's homegrown recordings.

In 1976, Charisma disbanded, leaving one incomplete recording,

Following are MP3s of the two Charisma albums; not only in their entirety, but in order they appeared on the albums as well. Following the album cuts are the Charisma 1973-76 recordings.

Charisma

The first Charisma album, entitled Charisma, was recorded during the summer of 1969 at Incredible Sound Studios in NYC and released on Roulette Records. The executive producer was Ed Vallone and the producer/song writer was Bruce McGaw. It was a foot in the door, but the final result was under the complete control of the producers and record company.

Charisma: Beasts and Fiends

The second Charisma album, entitled Beasts and Fiends, was recorded during the summer of 1970 at the Record Plant in NYC and released on Roulette Records. The executive producer was Ed Vallone and the producer was Bruce McGaw. This time the band got their way. They wrote all the material and contrary to the contractual stuff, Charisma produced the album with the help of Jack Hunt, who always voted with the band. The first one or two songs were recorded in Studio A at street level. But the rest were recorded in Studio C on the 10th floor, a secluded-feeling location in the middle of Manhattan. Album cover by Suzi Langlois, who also created the stage scenery and generally tried to get the band to do stuff other than just sit or stand there staring at their instruments.

Charisma 1973 - 1976

This, the final incarnation of Charisma, included Jim Roselle on drums and Mike Reynolds on keyboards, replacing his cousin, Bob Mocarsky. This was revealed when Bob stopped by the band's studio and they stared at each other for a few seconds before they realized they were related. There were actually two versions of this incarnation. This one was only interested in sitting in their studio and recording. The other version had an extra front man named Brian Salke. He had a great rock and roll voice and the girls liked him. This version was the one that did the lowly bar scene for a few measley bucks to support the other version.