Re-issue of the Woodstock visionary’s absorbing seventies debut. – Backseat Mafia

Following on from the exquisite folk-rock curio ‘Stargazer’ by Shelagh McDonald, DJ and selector Oz Adams’ Different Strokes For Different Folks label brings more crate diggers’ grail with ‘An Open Heart’ by hippy-dom’s mystical Fantuzzi.

Born in Spanish Harlem in the Fifties, of Puerto Rican descent, Fantuzzi’s bio is shaped by movement, music and performance. According to his web-page he left New York at 16 and went on the road hitch-hiking around the US then Europe and England. Absorbed into the free festival, travelling and global peace community Fantuzzi famously became the ‘Face of Woodstock’ when in 1969 his picture was the cover image used by Newsweek for their feature on that seminal event.

Fantuzzi was more than a front-page symbol though. He performed and MC’d at the festival, connected with Richie Havens, Dylan, Stephen Stills plus counted both Timothy Leary and Ram Das as his friends. ‘An Open Heart’, his long-lost recording debut, comes intriguingly from around a decade later than Woodstock but retains the sonics, sentiments and spirit of the late sixties. With a lo-fi honesty and free-jam spark it’s an album which quirkily feels more aligned with today’s eclectic, genre fluid tastes than it was at the time of release in 1979, when new wave pop, hair metal and stadium disco-soul were muscling in.

The set jumps off with the chunky acoustic funk of Come Along played breezy and brisk, all wristy congas and busy percussion. Fantuzzi’s earnest vocal, dramatic and quasi-gospel, soars around righteously, sometimes over -zealous but always seriously intense. What elevates the song is the wild flute replies which thread around his voice in a textured and ridiculously fluent conversation. Lost And Found takes on a similar Richie Havens-like jazz-tinged funkiness where some cool Chet trumpet rolls are a foil to another burst of feisty flute. The pace might shuffle sporadically but Fantuzzi’s enthusiasm keeps you locked in as he pours out a tale of redemption. His words are rooted in a previous time and place, snippets like “Got no home/ Mother nature’s my sweet wife/Lord I call this a living” or “I was lost and now I’m found/got my head in the clouds and my feet on the ground” show him stoically clinging to the summer of love possibilities in the face of a shifting late seventies world.

There is also plenty of sombre solemnity in these consciousness songs. On the touching samba-jazz of Mix Love With Every Breath the images are starker and drawn deep from harsher experiences. As the backing chorus coos sympathetically Fantuzzi remembers “Well I held a man in my arms just before he went into the arms of Mr Death/ and if he could only have said a few words he would have said/to mix love with every breath”. It’s such fine mid-tempo songs which seem to flow more timelessly on the album. The raw cantering Latin-soca of Aleloli Le Lo Lei has a natural charm about it with a rippling steel-pan solo and snaking ethio-sax breaks for that extra thrill.

What becomes clear as ‘An Open Heart’ unfolds is Fantuzzi’s stylistic range. You move from the slow, sultry gospel-soul of Warriors Of The Rainbow to the gorgeous melodic mix of folk and traditional air on Mother You’re Beyond The Beyond, where Fantuzzi’s succulent Tim Buckley-esque tenor is a highlight. On Deep Inside, a weeping slide guitar, forceful acoustic and his soaring echo-draped voice build up some heady blues rock momentum whereas First Day spirals to a violin stretched crescendo before a calmer, easy-listening coda.

Perhaps the album’s closer, Mother Father God represents ‘An Open Heart’s most sonically ambitious moment. Sitar and tablas lay the foundations here, delicate, hypnotic and softly droning. The song tingles with atmosphere, Fantuzzi’s vocals more restrained and hypnotic but mirrored by single resonating soprano. Everything is allowed to drift in its own time, four minutes of Laraaji meets The Incredible String Band mysticism which hangs in the air as the last notes sleep.

‘An Open Heart’ is another top delivery from Different Strokes which highlights a musician whose contribution on so many fronts should not be forgotten. The album is more than an historical document though. It’s a reminder that the inspiration to make music can and should extend beyond just ‘entertainment’.

Get your copy of ‘An Open Heart‘ by Fantuzzi from your local record store or direct from Different Strokes For Different Folks HERE

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