The Music Asylum
Band members Related acts
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line up 1 (1968-70) - Leonard Argese (RIP 2009) -- lead vocals, guitar - Louis Argese (RIP 2008) -- piano, organ, backing vocals, effects - Leonard Conforti -- drums, percussion, backing vocals - Louis Luzzi -- bass, backing vocals
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- none known
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Genre: psych Rating: **** (4 stars) Title: Commit Thyself Company: United Artists Catalog: UAS
6776 Country/State: Brooklyn, New York Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+ Comments: gatefold sleeve Available: 1 Catalog ID: -- Price: $50.00
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I've purchased and enjoyed albums falling under musical niches like psychedelic-folk (Linda Perhacs), psychedelic pop (The Nova Local) and progressive-psych (Arcane Voyage). Until I stumbled across a copy of The Music Asylum's "Commit Thyself", I'd never encountered something that could be binned as psych-jazz.
As
others have discovered, The Music Asylum is one of those bands where there
For the two hardcore fans out there, there's also a earlier, non-LP single. While both pop-psych sides were covers (The Green Tambourine also covered the Paul Leka penned "A" side, given the 45 was produced by the Nathanson brothers, I'm guessing it was the same band.
- 1968's "I Need Somebody (The Painter)" b/w "Yesterday's Children" (Ascot catalog number 2238)
"Commit
Thyself" track listing: 1.) Mouse (instrumental) (Louis Argese) - 3:15 rating: **** stars Slowly adding instrumentation and energy, the combination of Conforti's martial drumming and Louis Argese's pretty, three chord piano sequence gave "Mouse" a mesmerizing feel. I didn't even mind Louis' flute colorings on this one. Shame it ended so abruptly. 2.) Star Dreams (Nebulous) (Louis Argese - Leonard Argese) - 2:27 rating: **** stars Leonard Argese's jazzy guitar and spacey vocals provided a nice foundation for "Star Dreams (Nebulous)" lysergic feel. Imagine a cross between The Association and The Free Design dipping their collective toes into psych. 3.) In My World (Leonard Argese) - 9:10 rating: **** stars The opening thirty seconds of Louis Argese's treated "churchy" keyboards and flute gave "In My World" a distinctly progressive feel. And suddenly the song exploded into a catchy, radio-friendly slice of pop-psych. The Argese brothers then took over the spotlight. Leonard trotted out an interesting, extended wah-wah guitar solo. Louis went to town on his Hammond B-3. Yeah, it sounded way more 1967 than 1970 and went on a little too long, but it was still pretty darn cool. By the way, the Conforti - Luzzi rhythm section kicked butt on this one. 4.) Flite of the Tick Bird (instrumental) (Louis Argese) - 1:05 rating: *** stars Ever seen one of those '60s "psychploitation" films that have a "generate gap" fueled plotline? They all seemingly feature at least one "freak out" scene in a discothèque. Well, the instrumental "Flite of the Tick Bird" serves as the album's version of that song. Powered by Leonard's jazzy guitar and Louis' Hammond B-3, this one would not have sounded out of place on a Jimmy Smith album. Docked a star for being so short. 5.) Tube Along With Me (instrumental) (Louis Argese) - 1:46 rating: ** stars Continuing with the "psychploitation" analogy, "Tube Along With Me" is where the main character's mom accidentally gets "dosed" and experiences full on psychosis. Needless freak out experimentation. Give you $5.00 if you open your windows on a quiet Sunday morning, crank up the volume and launch this one into your sleeping neighborhood. If these guys played live, I'm pretty sure this wasn't a crowd favorite.
(side
2) Opening up with an infectious Luzzi bass line and Louis Argese's piano, it took a couple of minutes for the group vocals to kick in. That shift revealed one of the album's best melodies and some of the most lysergic influences and one of the album's best grooves. I didn't even mind the horn arrangement; well until the final moments when it went full out discordant. 2.) Days of the Night (Leonard Argese) - 2:49 rating: *** stars With Louis on woodwinds. "Days of the Night" offered up a track that bounced between foggy ballad and one of their most mainstream and commercial melodies. Bassist Luzzi turned in one of his best performances. 3.) Louie's Tune (instrumental) (Louis Argese) - 0:17 rating: * star Essentially a song fragment, the instrumental "Louie's Tune" featured a snippet of barrelhouse piano. Needless. 4.) Million Dollar Bash (Bob Dylan) - 2:32 rating: *** stars The lone cover, their "rocked up" cover of Dylan's "Million Dollar Bash" was energetic enough with Leonard providing some screaming lead guitar throughout. Be interesting to know how they came to know the song since it didn't see an official released until appearing on Dylan's 1975 "The Basement Tapes" album. 5.) Garbage (Louis Argese - Leonard Argese) - 7:30 rating: *** stars Easily the most jazz-rock performance, powered by a nice, jazzy Luzzi bass line, Louis on brass and an extended Leonard guitar solo, "Garbage" would not have sounded out of place on an album by an early-'70s Canterbury jazz/progressive band 6.) Everyone (Louis Argese - Leonard Argese) - 1:15 rating: *** stars "Everyone" was a pretty, fragile ballad highlighted by some nice backing vocals. Shame it was so short.
The brothers remained active in music until their deaths, including forming and running the Patterson, New Jersey based Bioya Recording Studios, though neither seems to have recorded any additional material.
I tracked obituaries for the pair, though neither says much.: Louis Argese Obituary (2008) - The Record/Herald News
Lenny ARGESE Obituary (2009) - The Record/Herald News
© Scott R. Blackerby June 2026
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simply
isn't a great deal of biographical information to be found. The
line-up consisted of singer/lead guitarist Leonard Argese, his brother
Louis Argese on keyboards, drummer Leonard Conforti and bassist Louis
Luzzi. Since he was shown leaning against a piano, I'm guessing Louis
was featured on the front cover. Leonard was on the back cover and Conforti
and Luzzi were on the inner sleeves. The packaging and brief liner
notes ("") gave the album a very "we're accountants
trying to look cool" kind of vibe. Recorded at New York's The Hit
Factory with Steve and Eric Nathanson co-producing, I'll go out on a limb
and guess these guys were from the New York area. Together and apart
the Argese brothers were responsible for the bulk of the album's eleven
tracks. The lone exception was a cover of Dylan's then unreleased
"Million Dollar Bash". Musically the album was quite
varied. Jazz was the underlying genre on tracks like the ballad "Star
Dreams (Nebulous)" (recalling a
stoned version of The Association) and "Plastic People".
Elsewhere the collection bounced all over the musical
roadmap including surprisingly 
commercial
Baroque-pop ("In
My World"), Jimmy Smith-styled Hammond B-3 vamps (the instrumental
"Flite of the
Tick Bird"),
experimental. horn-rock ("Plastic People")
and psychploitation-styled freak outs ("Tube
Along With Me"). The album was
certainly inconsistent, but the performances were all professional;
occasionally engrossing - check out the pop oriented "Days of the
Night" and "Garbage"
which sounded as if the band had been listening to Canterbury-styled
jazz-rock. From a marketing perspective it was definitely a
curiosity. Hard to imagine someone at a major record label like United
Artists going "oh yeah, there's going to be a massive market for these
guys ..." Absent any real promotional support from United
Artists there wasn't a massive market for the album...