Singer/songwriter finds his niche in the 70's

As singer and principal songwriter for Boston's Heavy Metal Horns, Thaddeus Hogarth had a taste of success in the early 1990's. Although the group was popular, the aggressive brass-to-the-wall approach kept him from pursuing the warm and rhythmic soul sounds he had always been hearing in his head.

In 1994, he quit the group and began writing, stockpiling, and recording an arsenal of his own Curtis Mayfield- and Stevie Wonder-influenced songs. He played his new music for producers who remarked that the music didn't sound as commercial as other records that were selling well. "They told me that it didn't sound slick enough," reports Hogarth. "So I said: "That's good. That's what I'm looking for'."

Hogarth, born in England and raised in St. Kitts, West Indies, joined the Heavy Metal Horns after graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1988. A singer with a sweet, bluesy, mid-range vocal style, he had learned how to play the chromatic harmonica at a young age to further emulate his idol, Stevie Wonder. In the 80's, however, Hogarth got caught up in the technological drum machine/sampled-sound ethic of the times. Now, he is striving to recapture the more raw, natural sounds of recording the way it was done in the '70s.

"I met this woman Lauren Passerelli, a Berklee professor who had a recording studio set up in her house in Winchester," says Hogarth. "She was using a lot of older tube gear, not digital like most modern studios, and it gave recordings done there a real Beatle-esque quality."

When he left the Heavy Metal Horns, Hogarth started to steep himself in the lucrative corporate wedding circuit as a way to finance his own recordings while he worked part time at WGBH-FM. Along the way he met drummer Joey Scrima and bass player Steve Cuoco, top-notch musicians also playing weddings who shared his fascination with '70s soul. With Hogarth on wah-wah guitar, the three laid down the basic tracks in Passerelli's studio. Hogarth layered the vocals and keyboards later in his own small home-recording facility.

The result is a promising debut CD that combines funky, earthy-sounding tunes with more personal ballads for a work that has the feel of a complete musical statement. The trio has performed a few gigs out of town and has planned a Boston debut, with the addition of some backup players (including Steve Hunt and a special guest percussionist Carlos Bislip from Aruba) at the Milky Way Lounge and Lanes, 403 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, on Friday, starting at 10 p.m. Call 524-3740.