The Manhattan Transfer is an American vocal music group. There have been two manifestations of the group, with Tim Hauser being the only person to be part of both. The group’s name comes from John Dos Passos’ 1925 novel Manhattan Transfer and refers to their New York origins.

The current group (still together as of 2010) was founded during 1972 by Tim Hauser and singers Alan Paul, Janis Siegel, and Laurel Massé. Performances at Max’s Kansas City, Trude Heller’s and Reno Sweeney with Herb Abramson’s A-1 Sound engineer Jim Reeves in New York City soon developed for them a cult fan base, and it was at the latter venue that Ahmet Ertegün, founder and chairman of Atlantic Records, saw them and offered a recording contract which resulted in the release, during 1975, of this team’s first album, The Manhattan Transfer. The album included the group’s first successful single, the gospel tune “Operator”. During the summer of 1975, the Manhattan Transfer were showcased in their own hour-long television variety series on CBS.

Their newest CD, “The Chick Corea Songbook” was released in September 2009. This release features Chick Corea’s most recognizable material with an appearance by Chick Corea himself on Free Samba. Other notable musicians on this recording are Airto, Scott Kinsey, Gary Novack, Steve Hass, Alex Acuna, Jimmy Earl, John Benitez, and Christian McBride.

Related Links and Information

• Manhattan Transfer Official Website – Free Music Samples