Updated June, 2013

The MTA label was a faceless New York corporation primarily licensing recordings from both the East and West Coasts. Most of their California bands were signed through Leo Kulka at San Francisco’s Golden State Recorders. Their East Coast material seems to come from a variety of sources, and some bands seem to be purely studio concoctions.

One such shadowy group are the All 6, with this 1967 release. For years I thought they were a studio group like the Powers of Blue on the same label, as the only names I could ascribe to them come from the songwriters, Paul Leka (well known for writing “Green Tambourine” for the Lemon Pipers, among other hits) and Joseph Messina (credited on the label as J. Mesina).

Both are commercial pop of the time. Of the two I prefer “You Call It Love” for it’s arresting intro and consistent energy, while the A-side “Baby Hold On” has some fine organ playing. Production is credited to Cynthia and A.B. Jet Productions.

As it turns out, they were a real group, a quintet despite their name. Tom Southwell commented below: “This was a real group from Mamaroneck, Larchmont, and New Rochelle, New York. The odd thing about All 6 is that there were only five members Their names are in the anagram A.B. JET: Andy Stone (drums), Bill Hanff ( lead vocal, electric piano), Joe Messina (organ, principal writer/leader), Eddie Rigano (guitar, vocal), and Tom Southwell (lead guitar, vocal). While All 6 were promoting this record they often were the opening act for The First Edition, B.J. Thomas, The Association, and The Four Seasons. All 6 performed in the area thru high school and college but went into other specialties: journalism, medicine, law, business, and motion pictures, respectively.”

The All 6 also backed Terry Randazzo on a 45 for MGM, “Trick or Treat”.

I asked Tom some questions about the band and he kindly answered with a short history of the group and the photos posted here.

We really were a true performing band with costumes and routines and not just studio musicians. Our band was often hired to record the instrumental part of a vocal groups record. Some were master recordings and others were demos for writers to place songs with artists. We did quite a lot of these for Teddy and other writers. I was surprised when he put our name on that record (“Trick or Treat”). I think it may have been an accident (with our name on the envelope with the tape as it went to the place where the records are pressed… or a deal with our label MTA.)

We recorded an entire album (instruments only) for (Little) Anthony And The Imperials. All this studio work was after years of performing as a band in clubs and school dances. This was a way to gain experience for our own records when the time came. Sometimes I was in the studio working with some jazz legends.

The recordings were mostly done on Broadway across from The Winter Garden Theater, on Saturday or Sunday mornings. We would perform live the weekend evenings, and summers. I think it was Joe Messina who got us in front of MTA. Their A&R man had used us on a record or two and once Joe had a few songs they liked we recorded them. This is the way we worked, since we were all still students.

We played lots of senior proms and dances in the area (including Scarsdale High, Sleepy Hollow High, among others.) During the summers we played at the beach clubs, country clubs , and finally the New York night spots The Phone Booth, Joel Heller’s Eighth Wonder in the village, and often we were regulars at The Canada Lounge in Mamaroneck, NY. I studied guitar with Linc Chamberland from Norwalk, Connecticut, who also was a regular attraction at The Canada Lounge. Spectacular guitarist.

We were friends with Don McLean who lived a couple blocks from me (he was a graduate of Iona Prep school where Joe, Bill, and I briefly went). Don hit it big about 1969 but he was always building a guitar or playing his individual style of music. I was a class mate of Tommy Mottola who lived down the street and we would play guitars together. This was long before he became a legend in the music business. I was already in Hollywood when he got famous.

By the way, that James Burton record (Powers of Blue) really rocks! (too bad I wasn’t at his session.)

Tom Southwell

Ed Rigano added:

This band was formed by Joe Messina. Joe was a great musician besides the organ he was as accomplished drummer and of course a great song writer. Bill H. our lead singer had a incredible voice could sing with the best of them. Andy could play drums like no one else and Tom Southwell played lead guitar, wow could he play. I backed everybody playing rhythm guitar, bass on the recordings and backing vocals to bill. We did other recordings but they were never released, I’m sure Joe has copies.