Circus Maximus was a United States band (Texas) in the late 1960s, who combined influences from folk music, rock, and jazz into a form of psychedelic rock.
History:
The band, originally called the Lost Sea Dreamers (Vanguard Records insisted on a name change, as the initials "LSD" were considered too linked to the drug culture), was formed in 1967 by Bob Bruno and Jerry Jeff Walker. Bruno's song "Wind", from their eponymous first album, became a minor hit in the United States, particularly through airplay on "progressive" FM radio stations. This track was a great favorite on Boston radio including Dick Summer's seminal "Night Light" program on WBZ-AM, and also on WBCN-FM.
In late December 1967, they performed in an unusual pair of "Electric Christmas" concerts together with the New York Pro Musica, an ensemble devoted to performing early music. The 80-minute performance in New York City (rehearsed in the nightclub Electric Circus where Circus Maximus were in residence much of that month, but performed at Carnegie Hall) included a light show by Anthony Martin and electronic music by Morton Subotnick; the groups performed both together and separately. The material performed together included a reworking of 14th-century composer Guillaume de Machaut's "La douce dame jolie" as an English-language song "Sweet Lovely Lady" and a Bruno original "Chess Game" that, unbeknownst to Bruno himself but noted by John White, director of the Pro Musica, strongly echoed the "Romanesca", a piece first written down in 16th-century Spanish lute books.
The concert was not a critical success. Donal Henahan, writing in the New York Times, said that it "fell somewhat short of being the total-environmental trip that was promised… the night summed up most of the esthetic ideas now in the air: incongruity, simultaneity, games theory, the put-on, the parody, the Trip… and the effort to create a 'Total Environment' in which all the senses can come into play." Henahan opined that the concert's commercial success showed a break-down in the separation of classical and popular audiences.
Bruno's interest in jazz apparently diverged from Walker's interest in folk music, and by July 1968, the band had broken up and Walker was appearing at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, sharing a bill with Joni Mitchell. Bassist Gary White went on to write Linda Ronstadt's first solo hit, "Long, Long Time."
Robert Shelton included the Circus Maximus album Neverland Revisited in a November 1968 list selected to represent "the breadth… of today's rock".
Members:
Jerry Jeff Walker: rhythm guitar and vocal (credited on first album as "Jerry Walker")
Bob Bruno: lead guitar, organ, piano, vocal
David Scherstrom: drums
Gary White: bass
Peter Troutner: vocal and tambourine; also some guitar work
Wind:
Discography:
- Circus Maximus, Vanguard VRS-9260 (mono) and VSD-79260 (stereo) (1967)
- Neverland Revisited, Vanguard VSD-79274 (1968)
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