TONTO's Expanding Head Band was conceived in 1970 by two Grammy-winning musicians and sound designers: Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff. Despite releasing a relatively small number of albums, it became a highly influential electronic music group. Currently the Head Band is experiencing a tremendous resurgence of interest and was invited to perform live at this year's Big Chill Festival at Eastnoor Castle in England.
TONTO COLLECTORS LIMITED EDITION CD
TONTO's Expanding Head Band CDs have been unobtainable for some years. Mint copies of "TONTO RIDES AGAIN" have been bringing more than $300 on eBay - if you could find one!
To commemorate the Head Band's live performance at the BIG CHILL, a LIMITED EDITION CD (1000 pressings only) was released.
To Order, contact:
[email protected]
The CD was re-mastered from the original Head Band analog master tapes by Malcolm himself and the pressings were manufactured in the UK.
This is the best TONTO has sounded - EVER!!
Titles include all songs from the "TONTO RIDES AGAIN" CD
(Cybernaut, Jetsex, Timewhys, Aurora, Riversong, Tama, Ferryboat, Pyramodal, Cameltrain, Judgementor, Freeflight, Tontomotion, Tranquillium)PLUS a never before released bonus track "Bittersweet"
TONTO Live!
Malcom Cecil and his son, DJ Moonpup, brought TONTO's Expanding Head Band to the live arena performing at the Big Chill Festival on Saturday, August 5th, 2006 at 9:30 PM the Sanctuary stage. The festival was a 3 day affair held at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire, about 2 1/2 hrs drive north west of London. While TONTO was not actually there - it's way too big and expensive to ship for a one hour performance - Malcolm Cecil created a "Virtual TONTO" and played live over pre recorded backing tracks with DJ Moonpup and a magnificent visual show with hundreds of pics of TONTO and Poli Cecil's art pieces.
The performance was received with tremendous enthusiasm by the Big Chillers and "Virtual TONTO" proved a great success.TONTO Videos
TONTO was featured in the recent BBC TV documentary "DEEP SOUL" and TONTO clips on www.youtube.com have been getting heavy traffic (more than 7,000 plays in August 2006).
TONTO Collaborations
Tonto's Expanding Head Band's first recording, the album "Zero Time", was released in 1971 and attracted the attention of many leading artists of that era because of the unique, warm, musical sounds that TONTO was capable of generating. Chief among those artists was Stevie Wonder whose involvement with TONTO started with "Music of My Mind" and continued through "Talking Book", "Innervisions", and "Fulfillingness' First Finale", all projects which featured Margouleff and Cecil as associate producers, engineers and programmers.
Writing in Keyboard Magazine in 1984, John Dilberto asserted that "... this collaboration changed the perspectives of black pop music as much as The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper altered the concept of white rock". Indeed, the remainder of the 70s and 80s featured TONTO on albums from Quincy Jones, Bobby Womack, The Isley Brothers, Gil Scott-Heron and Weather Report, as well as releases from Steve Stills, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Little Feat and Joan Baez, among others.