Wha-Koo

by Paolo FilipponiAmong the overlooked groups of the Seventies is an American band called Wha-koo. Their debut album of 1977 for ABC Records, recorded under the name of Big Wha-koo, is a very good collection of rock songs and ballads mostly composed by singer/guitarist Danny Douma. The band line-up was filled in with David Palmer, the excellent singer on Steely Dan's first album "Can't Buy a Thrill"(1972), Nick Van Maarth , the guitarist from the late Crickets (originally the Buddy Holly's backup band), Richard Kosinski on keyboards, Andrew Silvester on bass, Don Francisco(ex Highway Robbery and ex Crowfoot) on percussions and Claude Pepper, alias Jack Mack, who will, in the Eighties, lead his own band, an r&b ensemble called Jack Mack and the HeartAttack. With new bass player Peter Freiberger(Andrew Silvester left the band after the recording of the first album),Wha-Koo recorded"Berkshire" in 1978, again for ABC,. The work,beautifully produced by Ken Caillat and the band itself, is their artistic highlight, a shining effort including such gems as the title track and the ballad "You're such a fabulous dancer", both composed by Danny Douma. His seductive, well honed songwriter's talent was further showcased in 1979 when Danny released"Nigh flight", his stunning solo album for WarnerBros. Most of the Wha-koo members joined Danny in his solo album, along with such guests as Eric Clapton, Garth Hudson from The Band and members of Fleetwood Mac. Even if the album is on Danny's name, it can be easily considered a Wha-koo piece of work. In the same year David Palmer reorganized Wha-koo with the support of Ron Fransen, Eddie Tuduri and Eric Gotthelf, and "Fragile Line" on Epic was released. This third Wha-koo album, actually the more rock oriented,is full of great vocal performances by Palmer and it has a solid song construction. Unfortunately it never connected with any kind of mainstream success and so the band split up. Wha-koo will remain a shadowed name in the rock galaxy, but one that has created some excellent music which is definitely worth listening to. Highly recommended is"Berkshire", an excellent album that has failed to find the audience it deserves.