01	Baby Night						16:34
	02	Silly Sally						16:34
	03	Just another empty dream						04:24
	04	I'd rather burn than disappear						04:18
	05	Kundalini						13:28
	06	Believe me my friends						04:30
	07	Show me the way to the war						05:33
	08	Darkness to light						12:50

Sweet Smoke - "Just A Poke" (1970) The first, and from what I've been told, best and most progressive of the two studio- albums by this American group (who in fact lived in Germany). Judging from "Just...", Sweet Smoke was one of the first American groups who really could be called progressive rock. The album is made up of two sidelong tracks. The first, "Baby Night" has got mellow vocal-parts with some Tull-sounding flute. The instrumental parts are more uptempo, and dominated by the group's very distinctive guitar sound (they used no fuzz). They also didn't use any keyboards at all. I think these elements gave the group a sound of their own, and it's not easy to label their progressive rock. "Silly Sally" is more based in energy and jams and it works very well. Energetic instrumental parts driven forward by saxophone and the earlier mentioned guitar sound, while the vocalist sings in a very cool and slightly jazz-influenced way. It also features a great percussion part (in fact one of the more interesting drum-solos I've heard). Overall, a very interesting and progressive album, which (apart from the Tull-sounding flute) sounds like no other band.


Sweet Smoke

I'm sure you know Sweet Smoke, this mythical american band playing in Germany in the early 70's, but you don't know how to find information about it...
Stay HERE ! here is the site you were looking for.


sweet smoke are...
Andrew Dershin - bass guitar
Jay Dorfman - percussion and drums
Marvin Kaminovitz - lead guitar, vocals
Michael Paris - tenor saxophone, alto recorder, vocals + percussion (just a poke, darkness to light)
Steve Rosenstein - rythm guitar, vocals (just a poke, darkness to light)
Jeffrey Dershin - piano, percussion, vocals (darkness to light)
Rochus Kuhn - violincello (darkness to light)
Rick Greenberg - rythm guitar, sitar (live)
John Classi - percussion, sound effects (live)
Martin Rosenberg - tambourra, percussion (live)

records...
just a poke (1970)

Baby Night (16'24)
Silly Sally (16'22)

from darkness to light (1973)

Just An Empty Dream (4'20)
I'd Rather Burn Than Disappear (4'15)
Kundalini (13'25)
Believe Me My Friends (4'29)
Show Me The Way To The War (5'30)
Darkness To Light (12'51)

sweet smoke live (1974)

First Jam (19'15)
Shadout Mapes
Ocean Of Fears (18'02)


story...
Sweet Smoke was created in 1967 at Brooklyn New York where all members lived. The original members were Andrew Dershin, Mike Paris, Victor Sacco, Jay Dorfman and Marvin Kaminovitz. The complete name of the band was : "Sweet Smoke of the Happy Plant Pipefull".

"Our first gigs were in St Thomas in the Virgin Islands, with the name "Ice Company", because the club thought "Sweet Smoke" was too contrivercial.
I always felt that the band was influenced by Cream, John Coltrain, the Greatfull Dead, and Chicago."

Andrew Dershin

"Sweet Smoke was an American music group living and playing in Europe from 1970 till 1974. Originally from N.Y. the group moved to Germany where they lived as a family commune. Within a year of their arrival they recorded their first L.P. Just a Poke which almost immediately turned them into a sort of cult icon of the underground scene which was beginning to emerge as europe's response to the american hippy scene.
An extremely resourceful and creative group, they took the art of spontaneous improvising to new heights, very often involving their audiences in their music. Words like rock jazz, acid rock, raga rock, hard rock, experimental music are only some of the words used to describe their music. Looking back one can see the early roots of fusion and new age music beginning to manifest through them.
Though the basic group consisted of 5 musicians, they came to most of their concerts with their communal family (10-15 of their friends) who helped them on and off stage to create an atmosphere of a musical happening."

Mike Paris

"To Sweet Smoke music was not simply a collection of songs that the audience would sit back and listen to, but rather it was a living vehicle through which they could share with everyone their vision and joy of life.
To sweet smoke music was magic, their concerts were an interaction between them and their audiences, and their group was like a Cosmic Space Ship forever exploring the unknown regions of our musical universe."

Mike Paris


links...

Brian Currin

warning...
You may find the name Sweet Smoke and the pictures on the site are suspicious, but this site is only dedicated to music (real good music).


L'USAGE DE STUPEFIANTS EST INTERDIT PAR LA LOI.
winners don't use drugs



"Just a poke was recorded live in the recording studio. We played the songs straight through not overdubbing each instrument. This I always felt gave the album a great amount of energy."
Andrew Dershin
unofficial web page



just a poke (1970)

Just a Poke is the Sweet Smoke's record you'll adopt the fastest way if you're discovering the band, as the song Baby Night expresses the whole genius of the players.

Baby Night is architecured in three parts, looking like an overture, a development and a conclusion that reminds the introduction. Four minutes of an instrumental phase let us discover the virtuosity of the band, chaining different rythms and tonalities.
You'll remark that the flute gives the play a magic sound, and solos played on both bridge or neck microphone of the guitar, and overdrive or clean sound will force you to buy a SG and a Stratocaster. People who already own these two guitares but not this record should see a doctor ASAP.

Silly Sally doesn't reach the same perfection degree, because based on a totaly different approach. It offers to the auditor a great wha-wha solo, followed, after a good time with the bass, by a huricane of percussions, during more than 5 minutes.
This time, you will run and buy a complete drum set at the corner shop after hearing this.

As a conclusion, we can say that with only 33 minutes of music, this record is a pure magnificent thing, and a very good introduction to Sweet Smoke.

Just a Poke is produced by the label : Electrola.
"Peace and clear light to the family Kuhn and may the lord watch over Nico Scholtens forever."

back to





Thibault Ducray




"Sweet Smoke
responsible for all
manner of percussion"
unofficial web page



Sweet Smoke Live (1974)


A Live that sounds like a studio record, with lots of rythm and melodic changes, very well chained. Sorry, this record is just 37 minutes long, but what for 37 minutes !

First Jam, in the begining lets the feeling of an improvisation, and you may ask yourself if the song was really written.
Guitar soli are really remarkable, with unbelievable texture and rich harmony. You may note that Kaminowitz seems really at ease during all the live. This First Jam gives 19 minutes of a great pleasure, with a magic feeling between the players.

Shadout Mapes is the second song of the disc. There again, you find lots of wealthy melodies, but as the track is shorter than the first one ("only" 11 minutes), there are less harmonies. You may notice that Kaminowitz and Greenberg play with a great commitment.
A strange solo concliudes the song, that sounds again like an improvisation, and then plays the initial theme, flirting with blues and jazz.

Ocean of Fears will expose you a different kind of music, more peacefull, in the style of From Darkness to Light, but Kaminowitz still dominates the music. Dershin reveals its essential presence during the play, and particularly during the soli. Very nice !

To conclude, let's say that Sweet Smoke Live is for Sweet Smoke what Ummagumma is for Pink Floyd : a marvelous record, old but still young. Don't care if you don't like Pink Floyd, you'll like this live anyway !

Sweet Smoke Live is produced by Electrola (EMI).
"Recorded live in Berlin, Musikhochschule, for the benefit of Ananda Marga Yoga Society."



"Sweet Smoke
responsible for all
manner of percussion"
unofficial web page



From Darkness to Light (1973)

From Darkness to Light is a very rare record. EMI made a new edition on a CD with reference "Rarities Harvest" 8326802. Each copy has a unique number (I have the # II 0271). It's a very different record than Just a Poke, quite religious, with the arrival of an acoustic guitar which may be responsible of the general sound of the record.

Just an Empty Dream is dominated by an acoustic 12 strings guitar, underlined by a perfect rythm from the electric guitar. This all is accompanied by a melodious voice (take care to the the wonderfull stereo). A solo with the flute, some guitare, piano and saxo solos during rythmic changes, that all makes a "big Sweet" !
The purists will pay attention to the light tremolo on the right during the first piano solo !

I'd rather Burn than Disappear also begins with the 12 strings accoustic guitar, with flute and cymbal. Kaminovitz seems closer. Some kinds of percussions and bass give rythm to the end of the verse. The song is very harmonious. Piano and voices fill in the musical space before a change in rythm well orchestred.
This track is less mysterious than others, but represents a very melodious evolution. It also contains the first crunchy solo of the record.

Kundalini spends a few time in the state of "sounds" before becoming real "music". But the vocal introducton is very beautyfull. This song offers an exhaustive panel of the Sweet Smoke styles.
Then you hear zither, flute, chorus and (yes, yes !) violin. The song offers a more understandable music, followed by a solo of saxophone, on a background of zither and bongo. This comes to a more "jazzy" sound, with great guitar solos. At the end, you discover a dual between voice and wha-wha.
Then again, purists will remark the tremolo on the left.
This song is a prayer.

Believe me my Friends is more close to southern rock style than the usual sweetness of the Sweet (or smokness of the Smoke ?). Rythm is much faster, with less radical changes.
A slower part with acoustic guitar will directly transform you in a folk singer !
We come back the piano and violin, always in pure southern rock style.
The song shows its real value after 2 minutes from the beginning to the end.

Show me the Way to the War is very beautifull, with various rythms and tonalities, from brasses and guitar really psychedelic.
The vocal part is perfect. That's pure Sweet with a new style !
Solos of saxophone, guitar or piano are amazing.

Darkness to Light, new song, new discover, 12 minutes of happiness. Hear that song in the morning (while you're waking up) ! Everything is harmonious, vocals, solos with light stereo delay, flute, arpeggios.
You will sing the song all day long.
Good solos from every intrument.


From Darkness to Light is produced by Electrola (EMI). In France, you may get it at "FNAC" or "Crocodisc" (Paris 5). Otherwise, try http://www.gemm.com. If you find this record, think to other people. Send me a mail to tell me where you found it.
"We, therefore, humbly dedicate this music at the divine lotus feel of Sri Anandamurtil, Narayan Swami; and R.H.H., who patiently guided our first footsteps on the path of knowledge."




Sweet Smoke
American prog-rock band
who played in Europe in the early 70s

Photo from back cover of 'Just A Poke' album.

Introduction
Where are they now?
Discography
Buy CDs
Links
Introduction
My name is Brian Currin and I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I first heard the album 'Just A Poke' sometime in the late 70s and fell in love with its progressive, well-produced and experimental sound. After years of fruitless search for the CD or any more info on this obscure band, I eventually found both (and much, much more) thanks to the Internet and the band members themselves!

Since putting up this page in October 1997, I have received e-mail from Andy Dershin, Mike Paris, Jay Dorfman and Rick Greenburg, all ex-members, who have been very generous in supplying more information and answering my questions.

I have also received many e-mails from Sweet Smoke fans around the world, who have helped with info for this webpage.



Bulgarian fan: Sweet Smoke is totally unfamiliar in Bulgaria. Year after year I tried to gather some news about the group but my efforts were fruitless. I didn't even know that the members of the band are still alive, because once a friend of mine told me they had died in a helicopter crash in the early 70s...
Thanks God this is not true!
So, perhaps, you could imagine my great joy and excitement which I am trying to share with you...
For a first time I heard the album "Just a Poke" in 1986 when I was 17 - in a cold winter morning I found a lost old record dropped by someone in the street ... I took it home and played it at my record-player - I found the music really great and magical and up to now this album is one of my favourite!!!
-- Zornitza "Ronny" Harizanova, Bulgaria, July 2001
Hi Brian, I found your Sweet Smoke site when doing a search for the band. I lived with them in late '69 and early '70 in Emmerich - actually the village of Huthum. Steve Rosenstein was a good friend of mine at college and he gave me the address of the band when I went to Europe. Steve wasn't in the band yet - Victor Sacco was the lead guitar - very fast, chilly style - excellent musician though. Steve had a brilliant, very warm musical sense - been trained in classical violin, could turn anything into a beautiful, melodic piece. He played fiddle with some very good Irish bands in the mid-70s in Boston. The crew was very much like the main web pages say they were - we had a lot of fun, everyone was very close and supportive, and the music - which I had nothing to do with other than as a listener - was great. I remember that winter the Rhine was in the basement of the house a lot, and every morning we ate oatmeal with cinnamon and delicious fresh milk we'd get from the manor house a few hundred yards up the path. The Kuhn family - the father, who was a fairly renowned sculptor, mother, and a number of kids included Rochus and his brother and two girls, one of whom married Jay later on - I don't think they're still together. But the relationship with the Kuhns was very close and it was a great family - they had Afghans, one of which, Rita I believe, was the only dog to ever bite me - she was nursing at the time.

They all were great musicians - Mike's solos, of course, would drive the crowd wild - fantastic on the recorder. When I went back to NY, I brought Steve the message that they wanted him in and Victor out - he was astonished and left that summer, I believe, or perhaps sooner, to join the band. It's strange to read that none of them made a profession of music because there was a lot of experimental energy and imagination coursing through the instruments. With all their Brooklyn accents, they thought my Bronx accent hysterical and thought no one else could speak that way till my sister visited them in the summer of 1970. Last I saw of them was in the mid-70s - ran into Marvin when he was at Berklee, Mike came up to visit, Steve was around Boston, etc., but haven't seen any of them since. However, a friend of mine about 6 years younger than me had a childhood friend visiting her last year, and both of them remembered Sweet Smoke quite well. So as you can see, your web site has stirred up some memories and it is much appreciated, because you are keeping a bit of history alive.

Best wishes, Barton Kunstler, November 2002
For more detailed info on the band and their history and reviews of the albums, visit Thibault Ducray's excellent Unofficial Sweet Smoke Web page which is half in French and half in English. Well worth a visit.

Where are they now?
Rick Greenberg: My name has changed a few times since 1974 when 'Sweet Smoke Live' was released. I was Rick Greenberg then. I just wanted to let you know I've enjoyed seeing your web-tribute to the band. I played some gigs with Sweet Smoke in early 1970, a few years before I joined the group full-time. I was studying music in London and traveled to Holland and Germany for concerts. My first exposure to a Sweet Smoke stage forever transformed my take on music - driving rhythms with sweet exciting solos soaring, and all with a trademark chaotic mix of humor and heart.

Throughout all the years the band lived in Europe, Sweet Smoke was a loving family of musicians and friends on a spiritual search for a state of musical expression where the ego lets go and the imagination plays with joy and spontaneity. That energy erupted on and off the stage (" . . . a vision of heaven in our hearts and the devil at our feet . . ." - Just a Poke). We had many names for it, "Light," "Baba Nam Kevalam," even "Baloo," but the names were only passing thoughts, like sweet smoke itself, you take it all in, you let it all out and in a moment of creation the music gives you freedom and ecstacy.

Sweet Smoke lives on. At the reunion last summer, the same energy from the early Seventies immediately manifested and kept us joking, storytelling, laughing and playing music, and like smoke from a wizard's fire, the atmosphere was filled with magic.
-- Rick Rasa, April 2000
Jay Dorfman: I was the founding member and drummer of the band through all three recordings, this weekend we had a 30 year reunion where all members of the band regrouped, I have lots of rare orginal photos available and would like to make them available for the site... and yes feel free to post my e-mail on your site...
-- Jay Dorfman, Unherd Of Productions, 9th August 1999
Andy Dershin: I left Europe in '73 and returned to the US and I went to Berklee college of music in Boston. There I studied jazz and improvisation. I continued playing music up till 1980. At that point I got tired of not being able to play the creative style of music I had been accustomed to. In reality I also found it hard to earn a living. So I went into the crazy world of business. I still play but just for enjoyment of it. In the States if your not playing what's hot and popular, it's very hard to earn any money. But I have done OK in business and life is great. The other guys in the band have mostly done the same.
Jay is in the video production field.
Mike is a heavy computer programmer.
Steve is now a lawyer and lives in Los Angeles, but I'd hate to be one of his clients.
Marvin still plays but mostly just for weddings and such. He also sells advertising for cable TV.
Marty is a programmer and works with Mike.
John is a manager of a retail store.

So as life has gone on we still miss each other and the great music we created.
-- Andy Dershin, February 1998
Discography
Just A Poke
Darkness To Light
Live






Just A Poke


(Click on image for full cover scan)

Baby Night (Sweet Smoke) (16:24)
Silly Sally (Sweet Smoke) (16:22)
Released:
1970 (LP) Germany
1996 (CD) Holland
2000 (CD) Germany
2000 (CD) Germany (with 'Darkness To Light')

Label: EMI Electrola

Catalogue numbers:
1C 064-28 886 (LP)
1C 244-28 886 (MC)
CDP 538-7 48871 2 (CD)
7243 5 22641 2 4 (CD with 'Darkness To Light')

Musicians:
Andrew Dershin: Bass
Jay Dorfman: Drums and percussion
Marvin Kaminowitz: Solo guitar, Vocals
Michael Paris: Tenor sax, alto recorder, vocals, percussion
Steve Rosenstein: Rhythm guitar, vocals

Sweet Smoke responsible for all manner of percussion

Rosie Schmitz and Winfred Ebert: Producers
Conrad Plank and Klaus Lohmer: Engineers

Cover art: Jan Fijnheer


Reviews:

Taken off the German Amazon website.


Sweet, sweet, sweet: First bought this as an album in 73-74 while in Germany as a GI. We all loved it then and now since I've turned-on my friends here in the States they all love it. I know of 2 others that have ordered it through Amazon since I got it on disc a couple months ago through Amazon. This album will bring you up when down, mellow you when needed and thoroughly blow your mind. Full of surprises and fantastic solos. Sweet, sweet, sweet; thank you for making this available Amazon!
-- Richard M Huff from Iowa, USA
Awesome: This has to be one of the most awesome albums I have ever heard, and I've been listening to rock music for more than 40 years! Excellent solos throughout, and even a cover of the Doors 'Soft Parade' hidden in there. I guarantee you'll love it!! --
A Music Fan from USA


Darkness To Light


(Click on image for full fold-out cover scan)

Just An Empty Dream (4:20)
I'd Rather Burn Than Disappear (4:15)
Kundalini (13:25)
Believe Me My Friends (4:29)
Show Me The Way To The War (5:30)
Darkness To Light (12:51)
Released:
1973 (LP) Germany
1997 (CD) Germany
2000 (CD) Germany
2000 (CD) Germany (with 'Just A Poke')

Labels: EMI Electrola (Harvest) (LP, MC & CD) / OSA (CD)

Catalogue numbers:
1C 062-29 471 (LP)
1C 244-29 471 (MC)
941041 TSP (OSA - CD)
8326802 (EMI Harvest Rarities - CD)
7243 5 22641 2 4 (CD with 'Just A Poke')

Musicians:
Michael Paris: Sax, Flute, Vocal
Marvin Kaminowitz: Guitar, Vocal
Steve Rosenstein: Guitar, Vocals
Rochus Kuhn: Violin, Cello
Jeffrey Dershin: Piano, Percussion, Vocals
Andrew Dershin: Bass
Jay Dorfman: Drums



Inside of CD cover



Live

1974 original album
1997 CD re-issue
2000 CD re-issue


First Jam (Sweet Smoke) (19:15)
Shadout Mapes (Rick Greenberg) /
Ocean Of Fears (Marvin Kaminowitz) (18:02)

Bonus tracks on 2000 CD re-issue:


People Are Hard
Schyler's Song
Final Jam
Released:
1974 (LP) Germany
1997 (CD) Holland
2000 (CD) Germany with bonus tracks

Labels: EMI Electrola (Harvest) (LP & MC) / Disky (CD)

Catalogue numbers:
1C 038 15755701 (LP)
1C 244-29 513 (MC)
DC 869952 (CD)
7243 5 22683 2 0 (CD with bonus tracks)

Musicians:
Rick Greenberg: Rhythm guitar, Sitar
Marvin Kaminowitz: Lead guitar, vocals, percussion
John Classi: Percussion, sound effects
Andrew Dershin: Bass guitar, percussion
Jay Dorfman: Drums, percussion
Martin Rosenberg: Tamboura, percussion

John Moring: Producer
Wolfgang Thierbach: Engineer
Heidi Janik: Cover photo

Recorded live in Berlin, Musikhochschule, 1974, for the benefit of Ananda Marga Yoga Society.

Shadout Mapes was a character in Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel "Dune".




Sweet Smoke in Southern Germany, 1974.
Photo supplied by Rick Rasa, September 2000.



Buy CDs
29 April 2000:
My name is Valerie and I'm very fond of Sweet Smoke music. I have great news for you (if you don't already know it!). The live album contained only three pieces of music of the Berlin concert in 1974. But now the complete version has just been released and it has been available in Europe since March. The background of the cover is the cover of the original live album, and there is a caricature of the musicians.
-- Valerie de Clerck
18 April 2000:
My contacts at EMI tell me that a new release of 'Sweet Smoke Live' with previously unreleased cuts will soon be available on CD.
-- Rick Rasa (Greenburg)
February 2000:
All CDs of Sweet Smoke are available again via
Amazon Germany.
Search for "Sweet Smoke" and you will find all you need.
-- Rudolf Techert


Links
The Unofficial Sweet Smoke Web page
Thibault Ducray's excellent website which is half in French and half in English. Well worth a visit.

Vagabond's World
My general rock music trivia site

Send any comments to: Brian Currin

Graphics from Diana's Free Graphics page