Making a Transfer : The Group Has Been Changing Directions--and So Has Its Leader

Last year, Tim Hauser, the founder and leader of the Manhattan Transfer, was faced with a quandary.

After an association with Atlantic Records that had lasted 16 years and had resulted in 12 albums and nine Grammys, the Transfer--Janis Siegel, Alan Paul, Cheryl Bentyne and Hauser--had signed with Columbia Records (the group’s first album for the label, “The Offbeat of Avenues,” has been out a couple of months).

“We started feeling like an old piece of furniture at Atlantic, something somebody looks at and likes but was kind of just there,” Hauser recalls. “And the label was changing, going more into heavy metal and rap and farther away from jazz and R&B;, where we were.

“So we started looking around, and Columbia showed considerable interest. It was a really excellent deal, calling for four or five albums. It was for very good money, and that’s a great feeling, especially being around as long as we have.”

A new record deal for good money? This is a quandary?

Well, yes, answered Hauser, who brings the Transfer to Orange County on Sunday for a concert at Irvine Meadows. A new label meant a new start, but the group was perplexed.

“We didn’t know what direction to take. We asked each other, ‘Shall we do another ‘Brasil,’ another ‘Vocalese’?”--references to two Grammy-winning LPs that had spotlighted the band’s fascinations with Brazilian music and with “vocalese,” in which lyrics are set to previously recorded instrumental jazz solos and performances.

“Since we couldn’t make up our minds, we decided to explore what was inside each of us by writing our own material,” continued Hauser, a 50-year-old New Jersey native who now lives in Studio City.

The new album, like many Transfer releases, touches on numerous genres: pop, jazz, R&B; and swing, sometimes with several styles within a single tune. For example, said Hauser, “Janis’ ‘Sassy’ has all her jazz and R&B; stuff.”

Concocting their own tunes--with the aid of some first-class Southern California musicians including Van Dyke Parks, Jeff Lorber, Mark Isham and Don Freeman--was a first for the singers, who had always been “interpreters, not composers,” as Hauser put it a few years ago.

On “Offbeat of Avenues,” eight of the 11 selections were composed or co-composed by group members. “This is like opening another door for us,” Hauser said.

Composition proved to be a group effort. The snappy, pop/jazz title track has music by Ian Prince, lyrics by Bentyne and Freeman and a vocal arrangement by Bentyne. “Sassy” has words by Siegel and Bentyne, music by Siegel and Bill Bodine and voices arranged by Siegel. Paul wrote the words to Chuck Jonkey’s “Quietude” and did the vocal charts, and he and Jonkey collaborated on the musical arrangement.

Hauser, who has produced all the Transfer albums, found that he had less work to do this time.

“On the ‘Vocalese’ album, I handpicked all the players and oversaw everything. Here, most of the tunes were brought in as completed demos. It seemed to me like everybody had it together, so I just stayed out of the way.”

The band’s new direction marks only one change that Hauser has been through lately. He has also become a father. And he has quit smoking.

A son--Basie--was born to Hauser and his wife, former actress Lori Lethin, 28 months ago.

“When I was single, I made a lot of money and I spent a lot,” Hauser recalled. “Now I live for my family. When my son was born, I took all my savings and put them into a trust fund for his education. There’s nothing that I really want now; I just want it to be good for them.”

Having a young son and being on the road--the Transfer has been touring extensively in the United States and Europe since the beginning of summer--don’t always mix. “I come home and he’s mad at me. He misses me and yells. I try to explain to him what I do, but he’s too young to understand. Well, at least he’s getting the anger out.”

July 2, 1990, is when Hauser stopped smoking, cold turkey.

“I had been smoking a pack and a half of Marlboros a day since I was 17, and when I quit, I noticed right away that my voice started to change. To be truthful, I never used to like my voice. Now I feel like I can sing anything that’s inside me. Before I never could do that.

“And quitting has allowed me to get in touch my feelings. I think smoking was a form of self-loathing and quitting is a form of self-love. There were emotions I didn’t used to explore, and I’m not that way now.

“I have a family, I’m singing better than ever. The group has a new record. I figure I have everything.”

The Manhattan Transfer sings Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. Tickets: $22.75 to $25.75. Information: (714) 855-8096.