Even though
Margo Guryan's solo 1968 album
Take a Picture slowly accrued a decent and deserved cult status, this obscure delight barely scratched the surface in representing the long life she lived in music. While still a teenager in the mid-'50s,
Guryan became a staff songwriter for
Atlantic Records, focusing primarily on vocal jazz tunes. She studied classical and jazz piano at a college level at Boston University, and worked with
Don Cherry and
Ornette Coleman at the Lennox School of Jazz before transitioning to pop songwriting after being inspired by hearing
the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows." The archival collection
Words and Music tracks all of
Guryan's evolutions, beginning with a selection of her late-'50s jazz-pop compositions sung by vocalist
Chris Connor.
Guryan's off-axis personality can be heard early on with tracks like 1956's "Moon Ride," where
Connor croons a tall tale about being held captive and almost eaten by alien creatures over a smoky shuffle and zany flute playing. Demos of lonely piano ballads from the mid-'60s like "Goodbye July" and the lighthearted "Under My Umbrella" bridge the gap between
Guryan's jazz upbringing and the turn she took to psychedelic sunshine pop on
Take a Picture. Her songwriting powered hits for multiple artists in the '60s, and
Words and Music highlights how unique her approach was when she arranged, recorded, and sang her own compositions. The bouncy electric piano of "Timothy Gone," with its layers of vocal harmonies and uncommon chord voicings, is a prime example of
Guryan's specific blend of jazz theory and straightforward, commercially minded arrangement. The compilation includes songs from
Take a Picture and various previously released demo collections but fills in some of the blanks with unreleased material from throughout
Guryan's timeline. Absolutely packed with unsung gems,
Words and Music is a collection of spellcasting songs that should have been hits. From the ye-ye inspired "I Ought to Stay Away from You" to lonely pop-psych daydreams like "Don't Go Away," this digest of versatile and joyous songwriting is a cornucopia of beauty for anyone enamored with the Baroque pop of the flower power era and creates even more bafflement as to why
Guryan wasn't a much bigger star in her day. ~ Fred Thomas
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