Ars Nova (American Band)

Ars Nova (American Band)

Ars Nova was an American progressive rock band that performed and recorded from 1967 to 1969. The original core of the group comprised two former students from Mannes College in New York City - Wyatt Day (guitar, keyboards, vocals), who wrote or co-wrote most of the band's songs, and Jon Pierson (trombone, vocals).

They recorded two albums. The first was a 1968 self-titled album for the Elektra label, on which the personnel comprised Day, Pierson, Maury Baker (organ, percussion), Giovanni Papalia (lead guitar), Bill Folwell (trumpet, bass, vocals), and Jonathan Raskin (bass, guitar, vocals). The band was signed to Elektra by Paul Rothchild, who produced their self-titled album in Los Angeles, with additional songwriting by Greg Copeland and released in April 1968. However, the band split up after a disastrous performance supporting The Doors at the Fillmore East in mid-1968, about the same time as they were hyped with a profile in Life magazine.

Day and Pierson then formed a new version of the band, with guitarist Sam Brown, trumpeter Jimmy Owens, bassist Art Koenig, keyboardist Warren Bernhardt and drummer Joe Hunt. They recorded a second album, Sunshine & Shadows, which was released on Atlantic in 1969.