Society of Sound: Universal Togetherness Band

At the Universal Togetherness Band’s nucleus was Andre Gibson, a Chicago native who had gone from curious keyboardist to musical polyglot during his comprehensive musical education at Chicago Vocational School. Upon graduating in 1973, he enrolled at Illinois State-Bloomington, where he became part of the University’s exploratory Black Art Jazz Performers. Classmates, twin brothers, and fellow Chicago natives Fred and Leslie Misher became Gibson’s allies in a new off-campus group, Colorvision. Returning to Chicago mid-decade, Gibson assembled the Universal Togetherness Band with the Misher twins on bass and guitar (respectively), and his younger brother Arnold Gibson on drums. Upon enrolling in Columbia College’s music business program, he met guitarist/harmonica player Paul Hannover, who became the group’s fifth and final member.

While traipsing through Columbia’s cafeteria in the spring of 1979, Andre Gibson spotted a flyer announcing that faculty from the engineering department were seeking bands to serve as specimens for recording majors needing to clock studio hours. Shortly after, UTB auditioned for Malcolm Chisholm, the pioneering instructor of Columbia’s sound engineering program. Born in Chicago in 1929, Chisholm served as an electronics technician in the Coast Guard before turning to the music business in 1955. He was well regarded for his stints at not only Universal, but Chess and Paragon, and was celebrated in the field for his humour and expertise, which carried over into influential articles, diatribes, and public rants. In the studio, he was a hard-nosed instructor who hovered over his pupils, relishing the teaching opportunities afforded by their missteps. It was a tough brand of love, and thin- skinned students fared poorly, as did those allergic to profanity. Andre embraced the unorthodox lessons in mixing and mic placement, and thrived under Chisholm’s direction and mentorship on both sides of the console.

Sessions occurred either at Chisholm’s alma mater, Universal Recording, or newcomer Zenith/dB. Both studios had their advantages. A session at Zenith could run overtime, a luxury rarely afforded at the densely booked Universal. And while most of Universal’s high-profile clientele brought or rented their own instruments, there was always plenty of stray, exotic gear lying around Zenith. So long as Andre paid for the magnetic tape, the wild and imaginative Universal Togetherness Band sessions were his to keep.

(Mixed from the original multi-track sessions by Sean Marquand and Eber Pinheiro. Mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston, MA)

Universal Togetherness Band (BW81) released on Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound in February 2015.