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The first big soul bands, Psychedelia and “Heavy”
rock.
 An
unusual and rather psychedelic publicity photograph of
“Gunther’s Bus” truly one of the greatest groups of
musical performers ever in the 38 years of Tony Mart’s
history. Gunther’s Bus first appeared in Tony Mart’s in
1968 and performed again with some personnel changes in
1969.
Depicted in this photograph is their bass player, Joe;
the first guitar player to appear with them at Tony
Mart’s, Tommy Bittle; and to the far right John Dzubak
who replaced drummer “Jerry” who wore a blond, curly,
afro-type wig on stage but actually had a crew cut
because he was a school teacher in the off season. To
the left in this photograph are the Foti brothers who
were the heart and soul of Gunthers Bus. With the afro
in the center is the phenomenal vocal performer and
multi talented key board player, Art Foti, and at the
bottom of the grouping is his brother, Carl Foti, who
was rhythm guitar player and a superb vocalist who
performed touching renditions of the early Bee Gees’
hits and the first popular songs recorded by Kenny
Rogers and the First Edition.
Performing everything from Tom Jones, Led Zeppelin, Otis
Redding, Santana, lengthy versions of Iron Butterfly’s
“Inna Gadda da Vida” and the entire backside of the
Beatles “Abbey Road”, Gunthers Bus were critically
acclaimed by other musicians and music aficionados for
their phenomenal performances covering these rock and
roll classics.
Unfortunately, Gunther’s Bus was the epitome of an
incredibly great band that never achieved any
appreciable fame or any serious commercial success
beyond headlining nightclubs. Indeed their notoriety at
Tony Mart’s and the consequent bookings in the
Philadelphia area during the winter season represented
some of their greatest commercial successes. Those who
were fortunate enough to have seen them remember how
breathtakingly excellent and exciting they were.
 Publicity
Photo of “Grant Smith and the Power” one of the greatest
funky, soulful big bands ever to appear at Tony Mart’s.
Grant Smith and the Power appeared for a lengthy
engagement during one season in the late 60’s.
They were Canadian and performed popular music by James
Brown, Otis Redding and the increasingly popular soul
singers from Stax Records in Memphis.
They also performed many of the great, “blue eyed soul”
hits from groups such as “The Young Rascals” who
eventually became “The Rascals”.
Grant Smith was a dynamite front man with all of the
slick, fancy moves of “the electrifying style of James
Brown” performing as a lead singer in front of this big,
horn driven soul band.
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