If (band)
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IF was a Jazz-Rock band formed in Britain at the end of the 60s and especially active in the early 1970s.
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[edit] History
IF was a seminal jazz-rock band formed in 1969 as Britain’s answer to the pioneering US bands Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago. The main difference was that IF did not have a trumpet or trombone player and featured two saxes instead. Essentially a live band, true to its strong jazz influences IF was probably the only jazz-rock group, both then and now, to feature solos by all the band members, not just by the lead instruments.
They toured extensively in Europe and the States during the early Seventies, performing at most of the major venues and festivals of the day (Newport, Reading, Fillmores East & West, Whiskey A-Go-Go, The Marquee, etc.) and shared billings with, amongst others, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Leon Russell as well as many of the classic rock bands of the day, such as Cream, Traffic, Yes, Black Sabbath, Grand Funk Railroad, Ten Years After, KISS, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Like the early Chicago, they were difficult to classify with any of their contemporaries; they seemed out of place wherever they played, and were considered too jazzy when billed with groups with a more rock orientation and too bluesy or loud when billed with more jazz-oriented bands.
IF thus became one of the most highly-acclaimed groups of the Seventies to never quite make the big time, despite good record sales and full venues. The band was managed and its albums produced by Lew Futterman, who had previously produced US jazz/soul stars Brother Jack McDuff and J.J. Jackson, amongst others. Signed on by Chris Blackwell, an enthusiastic early fan, to Island Records in the UK and to Capitol Records in the US, their first album, IF (1970), entered the charts in both the States (Billboard) and the UK, as well as winning a design award for its cover, and was followed that same year by IF 2, also released on Island and Capitol.
The albums IF 3 (1971) and IF 4 aka “Waterfall” (1972) were accompanied by heavy touring schedules in the States and Europe, especially in Britain and Germany, where the band appeared on TV (BBC’s Top of the Pops/Old Grey Whistle Test in the UK and one of their tracks was used as a signature tune for the news in Germany). Finally, in the summer of 1972, the band had to come off the road in the middle of a US tour when Dick Morrissey was admitted to hospital for major surgery. As a result of the break-up, the band members went off to work on other projects.
[edit] Line ups
The original band had a heavier leaning towards jazz and was formed by Dick Morrissey, on tenor sax and flute, and Terry Smith on guitars, both of whom were Melody Maker award-winning British jazz musicians who had played together in US soul singer J.J. Jackson’s band. IF’s original line up included Dave Quincy who had also been in Jackson's band, on alto and tenor saxes, with Spike Wells on drums, Lionel Grigson on keyboards and Daryl Runswick on bass, although these last three musicians did not record with the band.
The definitive seven-piece line-up, with a more (jazz-)rock-oriented style, and which appears on the first four studio albums, as well as a live recording, was J.W. Hodkinson on lead vocals, John Mealing on keyboards, Jim Richardson on electric bass, Dennis Eliott on drums, with Dave Quincy on alto and tenor saxes, Terry Smith on guitars, and Dick Morrissey on tenor and soprano saxes and flute.
The above line up is the band's best known, but the band was subject to other personnel changes [1]. With IF coming off the road when Dick Morrissey was admitted to hospital, J.W. Hodkinson joined Darryl Way's Wolf, Terry Smith and Dave Quincy went off to form Zzebra, John Mealing joined The Strawbs, Jim Richardson went on to do studio session work, and Dennis Elliott joined the hugely successful group Foreigner.
[edit] Later Line up
A new line-up had Dave Greenslade replacing Mealing on keyboards, and Dave Wintour replacing Richardson on bass, although they only played live gigs and never recorded with the band.
A fifth studio album, Double Diamond (1973), with only Dick Morrissey left from the original line up, featured Fi Trench (keyboards) and Pete Arnesen (keyboards), Steve Rosenthal (guitar/lead vocals), Kurt Palomacki (bass) and Cliff Davies (drums).
The last two IF albums, Not Just Another Bunch of Pretty Faces (1974) and Tea Break Over, Back On Our ‘eads (1975), saw the band back on Capitol Records, and were decidedly more rock oriented, in some ways reminiscent of Steely Dan. They featured Geoff Whitehorn on guitar and vocals, Gabriel Magno on keyboards and Walt Monaghan on bass and vocals, as well as Cliff Davies and Dick Morrissey. The style was unique in generating a distinctive harmony of electric rock guitar and jazz sax.
Coinciding with their more rock-influenced style, they also changed their famous small-case logo "if" for the more solid looking large-case "IF".
IF finally broke up in 1975, Dick Morrissey going on to work with the Average White Band and to eventually form Morrissey-Mullen, Geoff Whitehorn to join Bad Company and Procol Harum, and Cliff Davies, Walt Monaghan and Gabriel Magno to join Ted Nugent, the rock 'n' roll star also produced by Lew Futterman.
[edit] Discography
- IF 1 (1970)
- IF 2 (1970)
- IF 3 (1971)
- IF 4 / Waterfall (1972)
- IF – Europe ’72 (released 1997)
- Double Diamond (1973)
- Not Just Another Bunch of Pretty faces (1974)
- Tea Break Over, Back on Our ‘Eads (1975)
Compilation: Forgotten Roads: The Best of IF
[edit] Notes
- ^ Logan, Nick &Woffinden, Bob (eds.) „The New Musical Express Book of Rock”, W.H. Allen &Co. Ltd (Star), 1973, p. 257. ISBN 0-352-39715-2.
