Mandrill

Three brothers from Panama

Mandrill grew out of the Wilson Brothers, Carlos, Lou and Ric, who were born in Panama and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Their father insisted each son learn an instrument. They formed the band in 1968, took the name after reading about the primates at the Bronx Zoo, and played New York clubs for about two years before signing to Polydor in 1970.

The sound was jam-oriented funk with Latin, Caribbean, jazz and gospel in it, which led to comparisons with Santana and War. All three brothers sang and played horns, backed by Claude Cave on keyboards, Omar Mesa on guitar and a rhythm section that changed over the years.

The Polydor years

The debut, Mandrill, came out in 1971 and the band played Carnegie Hall that October, billed as the first funk-rock group to do so. Mandrill Is followed in 1972, then Composite Truth in January 1973, which was their most successful record, reaching number 8 on the soul albums chart. Just Outside of Town and Mandrilland came in 1973 and 1974.

In 1975 they moved to United Artists and California and made Solid and Beast from the East. After records on Arista, including the soundtrack to The Greatest, the group had a song on The Warriors soundtrack in 1979 and broke up after Energize in 1982. They reunited in 1992 and returned with Back in Town in 2020, dedicated to Lou Wilson, who had died in 2013.

Legacy

Mandrill's records have been sampled by Public Enemy, EPMD, Ice Cube, Beck, DJ Shadow, Big L, Kanye West and Eminem among others. Madlib built a track for Quasimoto from a Mandrilland song. Radio station NTS has played the band over sixty times since 2013.