Madhouse (band)

Madhouse is a jazz-fusion pseudo-band from Minneapolis that was created by Prince. Two Madhouse albums (and a few singles) were officially released in 1987. Prince had caressed the idea of an instrumental jazz-funk album ever since he recorded his first tracks with Eric Leeds for his 1985 side-project, The Family. In late 1985-early 1986, he recorded hours of instrumental music with Leeds and other musicians from his band, Sheila E. and musicians from her own band, as well as members from Wendy & Lisa's families. From these sessions, Prince compiled an album called The Flesh, supposed to be released by an eponymous pseudo-band, but the project was abandoned and its concept lightly modified to become Madhouse. As he did with most of his side projects, Prnce created an alter ego, named Austra Chanel, who was said to have been the mentor/producer for Madhouse, ala Jamie Starr's "mentoring/producing" of The Time.
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