Mazarati (partially found album studio recordings; 1984-1986)

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Mazarari1albumart.jpg

Album cover for Mazarti

Status: Partially Found


Mazarati was an American R&B/funk band created in the early-mid 80's by Prince as well as Brownmark (bassist for Prince's backing band The Revolution).[1][2] The members of the band were a collective of people Prince had worked with in other side projects like Sir Casey Terry, Craig "Screamer" Powell, and Marr Starr.

They enjoyed a brief peak of success with their first two singles, called "Player's Ball", which made it to #79 on the Billboard Hip Hop/R&B Songs Chart, and "100 MPH", which hit #12 on the Dance Club Play Chart as well as #19 on the Billboard Hip/Hop R&B Chart; the last single, "Stroke", did not chart. Their debut self-titled album, produced entirely by Brownmark, released in May 1986, with it peaking at #133 on the Billboard Hot 200 Album Charts.

Their second album was released on the world-wide known label Motown, and the band had attracted other producers such as Richard "Dick" Rudolph, Michael Sembello, and Bernadette Copper of Klymaxx fame. Brownmark returned to co-write and co-produce 7 of them. The album, nor did either of its singles "The Woman Thang" and "The Saga of a Man", ever charted.

The band broke up shortly after, and in 2013, most of the members including Marr Starr, Craig Powell, Tony Christian, and even Brownmark reformed the band to release more music and tour.

Lost Songs

Three songs that the band had hands in are, as of currently, unavailable to purchase. One was the original demo of "100 MPH" by Prince, who had recorded a demo and showed it to the group. The second was the original Mazarati-recorded version of the song "Kiss", later performed by Prince for his album Parade. The original version was bluesy and short, and Mazarati reworked it into the funky smash hit for Prince that topped the Billboard Top 40. The final unreleased demo/song was the recording of a song called "Jerk Out". It was originally performed by Prince in December 1981 and offered it to Mazarati for their debut album in 1986. The song didn't make the cut (though is circulated between bootlegs) and was offered to another Prince side-project, The Time, who hit the charts with it in 1989, getting to #9 on the Top 40 as well as topping the Hip-Hop/R&B chart.

One other lost Mazarati song is an apparent recording of the song "Susannah's Pajamas", which Prince later believed to better suit the side-project known as The Family. Three of the songs are on YouTube, though in poor and obviously cassette-ripped quality. An instrumental version of Prince's original recording of "100 MPH" is available on YouTube.

Status

The original studio versions have not been released, and will not likely be released anytime soon, as the two Mazarati albums and the singles released have long since been out of print.

References

External Link