CHAPTER THREE: INSTRUMENTAL SIDE-PROJECTS

The making of Madhouse: 24 vol.2

On 7 July 1993, O(+> recorded six instrumental tracks during a five-hour session. Where he had just played guitar for the The Undertaker session with Michael Bland on drums and Sonny Thompson on bass, he now played keyboards along with Michael on drums and Sonny on bass and had Levi Seacer Jr. join them on guitar and Eric Leeds on saxophone. The idea was to make a second attempt at a third Madhouse album of which the first attempt from 1988 remained unreleased. The first Madhouse albums, 8 and 16 from 1987 and the unreleased 24, had consisted of instrumental tracks mostly performed by just Prince and Eric Leeds. Now, there was more of a band-sound to the music.

With the new band line-up, O(+> recorded an instrumental take on the song Space from his then unreleased Come album, as well as a cover of the Marvin Gaye song Got To Give It Up from 1977. The other four tracks recorded were Carnac, Rootie Kazootie, Edward and Parlor Games. Post-production work on the tracks was done in late August and September 1993 by Ricky Peterson.

When O(+> started dating Nona Gaye, the daughter of Marvin Gaye, in 1993, he added her vocals to Got To Give It Up, and The Steeles added background vocals for Space. Eric Leeds also added additional saxophone to the recordings. When the 24 album was completed by mid-1994, O(+> also added a few new segues featuring the musicians from the 7 July 1993 session. The track Carnac was retitled 17 and Edward was retitled Asswoop.

Madhouse: 24 (mid-1994)

1. 17 (5:22)

2. Rootie Kazootie (7:05)

3. Space (4:47)

4. Guitar Segue (1:05)

5. Asswoop (7:09)

6. Ethereal (0:32)

7. Parlor Games (4:02)

8. Michael B. (0:40)

9. (Got 2) Give It Up (7:18)

10. Sonny T. (1:44)

Warner Bros. had no interest in releasing the new Madhouse album, but eventually it got bootlegged in its entirety. However, the opening track 17 got officially released on the 1-800-NEW-FUNK compilation of songs by various artists signed to Paisley Park and NPG Records released in August 1994. 17 was also the B-side to the hit single from the 1-800-NEW-FUNK compilation, Standing At The Altar performed by Margie Cox.

Recording a ballet

In March 1994, O(+> also started work on an instrumental project entitled Kamasutra. The title was inspired by the Indian erotic book Kama Sutra by Vätsyäyana. O(+> performed all of the non-orchestral instruments, Eric Leeds added saxophone, The NPG Hornz added horns and in December 1994 Clare Fischer had his orchestra add the rest.

O(+> considered Kamasutra to be a ballet and sent a copy of the work-in-progress to his ex-fiancée from eight years back Susannah Melvoin with a card that read: "This is my 1st ballet. A few passages are still missing but Eye'm almost done. Eye love U. Please write."

When O(+>'s television movie The Beautiful Experience was released in early April 1994, it included a brief instrumental that sounded like it might have been from the Kamasutra sessions. It lasted about 1 minute and 20 seconds and was played in continuation of a live performance of the song Shhh that had Nona Gaye get all hot for O(+> only to have her heart broken by watching him handcuff and kiss his dancer Mayte.

Combining the experiences

On 5 January 1995, O(+> sequenced an NPG Records Sampler Experience that included a snippet of Asswoop entitled Asswhuppin' In A Trunk, Ethereal Segue and a snippet of Parlor Games. An 0:42 excerpt of Kamasutra credited to The NPG Orchestra was also included. The experience was handed out on cassette to some fans at the 3 March 1995 opening of O(+>’s European Gold Experience tour in London.

Also in December 1994, O(+> resumed work on the Madhouse: 24 project by recording a mostly instrumental take on his 18 And Over version of the song Come. Madhouse versions of the Kamasutra tracks Kamasutra/Overture #8 and Promise/Broken were also recorded with overdubs by Eric Leeds done in January 1995. They got included as Overture #5 and Overture #6 on a new configuration of the 24 album in May 1995. (Got 2) Give It Up was edited for length and Parlor Games was now spelled differently.

Madhouse: 24 (May 1995)

1. 17 (5:22)

2. Rootie Kazootie (7:05)

3. Space (4:47)

4. Guitar Segue (1:05)

5. Asswoop (7:09)

6. Ethereal Segue (0:32)                                                                                

7. Parlour Games (4:02)

8. Drum Segue (0:40)

9. Overture #5

10. Overture #6

11. 18 And Over (5:53)

12. (Got 2) Give It Up

13. Sonny Segue (1:44)

By 8 July 1995, O(+> had also sequenced a “soundtrack” to a Versace fashion show during Paris Fashion Days 8-10 July 1995, previewing some of the music he was hoping to get released around that time. The Versace Experience included a 0:28 edit of Sonny T. Segue and a 2:37 edit of Rootie Kazootie from the Madhouse: 24 album, as well as Kamasutra Overture #5 by The NPG Orchestra.

Change of plans

In mid-July 1995, Mayte told Uptown magazine about the Kamasutra ballet: "It has three characters in it. It is done with elegance and beauty. It is a romance that ends up in, well not a tragedy, but it ends up with you thinking about everything."

The plan was for the Kamasutra ballet to open in Puerto Rico in December 1995. "Because I know of a really good company that I worked with before and they asked for it," Mayte told Uptown. "They'll be starting out in Puerto Rico," she added. "We are talking about going to New York to film it. And if it does well, we'll tour."

Those plans ended up not happening, though.

Meanwhile, Nona Gaye left O(+> on 3 December 1995 and O(+> removed the song (Got 2) Give It Up featuring her vocals from the Madhouse: 24 album. The cover picture of the Madhouse band featured O(+>'s keyboard player Tommy Barbarella instead of Levi Seacer Jr. who had left O(+>'s employ in 1994. O(+> was pictured in his Tora Tora disguise that had also been used for his NPG: Exodus album project. Michael Segue was renamed Drum Segue and Sonny Segue was now called Bass Segue.

The release of Kamasutra

An early 1996 configuration of O(+>'s triple album Emancipation included the Kamasutra track Coincidence Or Fate? as the fourth track on the second disc which featured love songs for his wife Mayte. Toward the end of the 1996 sessions for the Emancipation album, O(+> recorded the brand-new track The Plan of which a 1:46 edit was included instead of Coincidence Or Fate? on the album which was released in November 1996. The cover said it was an "xcerpt from full length ballet Kamasutra available on NPG."

The NPG Orchestra: Kamasutra became available on cassette from O(+>'s 1-800 NEW FUNK mail-order store in February 1997 and was also sold at concerts. The slightly longer full version of The Plan was now the opening track on Kamasutra and Kamasutra Overture #5 from the Versace Experience had been renamed Serotonin.

The NPG Orchestra: Kamasutra (February 1997)

1. The Plan (2:03)

2. Kamasutra (11:49)

3. At Last... "The Lost Is Found" (3:37)

4. The Ever Changing Light (2:59)

5. Cutz (3:03)

6. Serotonin (0:47)

7. Promise/Broken (3:46)

8. Barcelona (2:16)

9. Kamasutra/Overture #8 (3:11)

10. Coincidence Or Fate? (3:24)

11. Kamasutra/Eternal Embrace (4:02)

In her 2017 book, My Life With Prince, Mayte revealed that she believed that Kamasutra had been composed for her wedding with O(+> in 1996. "On our first anniversary, February 14 1997, he released Kamasutra, the music he'd composed for our wedding," she wrote.

O(+> promoted the release by telling Harper’s Bazaar that it was “perfect music to make love to.”

The short-lived Kamasutra dance performance
In late 1997, Mayte's NPG Dance Company danced to the full Kamasutra album during the second act of their three-act Around The World In A Day performance in Detroit. The choreography was by herself and Dwight Rhoden, formerly of of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. "For a long time I'd wanted to do a major project of my own," she recalled in her 2017 book. "Ever since I saw the Joffrey Ballet interpret some of his music, I'd been thinking I'd like to form a dance company and take that idea to the next level."

"He'd created the NPG orchestra to do the music for our wedding," she claimed. "I looked at the image of myself dancing on the cover. My shadow was the symbol that was now his name. This music was moving and told a story about a love affair between a rock star and a ballerina."

"I developed a script with a three-act structure," she continued. "The first act was the hits, because Mama gotta pay them bills. The second act was Kamasutra, because - wow. It was classical instrumental, and with a darkness and a sexiness that a dancer would drool to move to. The third act was all new music."

A pregnancy got in the way of Mayte herself appearing in the show, but on opening night in Detroit on 19 November 1997, she sat in the audience with a headset giving lighting cues. O(+> attended the performance sitting next to her. "I did him proud," she recalled, but: "We went home and after some heart-to-heart discussion, we disbanded the company."

In 1998, Kamasutra was released on CD as part of a 5 CD limited edition of O(+>'s Crystal Ball collection that was only available from 1-800 NEW FUNK.

In 2000, O(+> made a promotional cassette entitled Man 'O' War (Remix) NPG Records Sampler that included snippets of the two unreleased Madhouse tracks Overture #5 and Overture #6 now renamed Seventeen and Eighteen.