Travis Pike's Tea Party (1967-1970)
Travis landed the job of studio manager for Lightfoot Recording Studios in Jamaica Plain, the first recording studio in the Greater Boston area to feature sound-on-sound recording.  He booked studio time, assisted with engineering and helped hopeful clients with vocal arrangements.  In off hours, Travis began laying down tracks for some of his 80 original songs.  By the end of  1966, Travis finally had enough material written to put together a band, so he went down to Boston's prestigious Berkelee School of Music in search of musicians.  There, he met classical guitarist Karl Garrett, trying to make up his mind whether to stay on and finish at Berklee or take up an invitation to study with André Segovia in Spain.  Travis offered a third option, complete with a recording studio in which to rehearse.  When Karl heard Travis' demo tapes, he signed on.  Meanwhile, Mikey Joe Valente, the bass player from Natick High School's "New Jesters," learned that Travis was putting together a band and wanted in.  His technique was weak, but his rhythm was solid and he took  instruction well, so Karl agreed to take him under his wing.  Mikey Joe discovered percussionist Phil Vitali (ex Navy Band), and rhythm guitarist George Brox and when they signed on, the cast was complete.
These blow ups off a proof sheet, are the only pictures Travis has of the original Tea Party.  From left to right, Karl, Phil (his face hidden by the tea pot), Mikey Joe, Travis and George.  These photos were taken in Watertown, Massachusetts, just outside the old Pike Productions Studios at 47 Galen Street in 1968.
"Drum breaks" were common, and the Tea Party's Phil Vitali, with double bass and six toms played some of the very best, but the Tea Party also featured lead guitarist Karl Garrett, performing classical guitar solos or percussionist Phil Vitali and bass player Mikey Joe Valente with Karl as a jazz trio!
Equipment failures sometimes forced Travis to solo with poetry or ballads, but singer-guitarist George Brox (above) also did solos.  These odd configurations were spontaneous evolutions, in response to local atmosphere and the mood of the audience, and  were accepted, even widely anticipated events!

"The Red-backed, Scaly, Black-Bellied, Tusked, Bat-winged Dragon"
Travis Pike's Tea Party rehearsal on MP3  (3:50)

(This very early, very sloppy rehearsal captures the fun of the
rinky-dinky ragtime number to which the critic, below, refers.)

Their extraordinary versatility was not always understood or appreciated by record producers, who wanted groups to fit neatly into "pre-sold" niches, or even by critics who seemed to have a good time!  William Phillips, contributing critic to a Boston newspaper covering the 1967-1968 Boston Pop Festival wrote "Travis Pike's Tea Party performed in about every conceivable pop style from straight rock to psychedelic to folk to rinky-dinky ragtime.  Aside from an excessive fondness for gimmickry and bad humor, they are pleasing and versatile entertainers."

Compare the MP3 file of the 1986 "LONG-GRIN" English Music Hall arrangement of
"The Red-backed, Scaly, Black-bellied, Tusked, Bat-winged, Dragon" (3:24)