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Loleatta Holloway
Hit And Run (Joe Claussell & Walter Gibbons Remixes)
Gold Mind
‘When Salsoul boss Ken Cayre handed over the multi-track tapes of Hit and Run to Walter Gibbons in 1976, the burgeoning art-form of the disco edit was liberated from its previous cut & paste routine. Following on from the likes of Grasso, Burgess, Levan, Scott, and Siano, Gibbons had become a lethal beat mixer, with an ‘uncanny sense of mixing that was so accurate it was unbelievable’, according to Francois Kevorkian. After early edit work with Salsoul releases Nice ’N’ Naasty and Salsoul 2001, Gibbons had established himself as a meticulous artist, able to completely rework existing tracks into new extended amalgams of rhythm and sound. Cayre’s multi-tracks conferred the ability to thoroughly deconstruct each of the songs elements, and Gibbons transformed the cut into an eleven minute opus which fellow tape pioneer Tom Moulton would distinguish as being ‘so different from the original that it must be classified as a new record.’ The resulting 12” would go on to sell 300,000 copies; DJs and the dance-floor would now dictate runnings as never before.
‘Whilst Gibbons transformed the original by banishing the strings and brass, Joe Claussell sets out for a different horizon entirely. The lead guitar is exchanged for a clean, chopped chucking; the vocals are promoted to a new spaciousness. The horns presage a rethinking of the rhythm, and by the time the familiar fuzz guitars are welcomed back, the coalescing orchestra has been sustained and revitalized in a complete surrender to time and pulse. As Holloway’s vocals are pulled into non-semantic expression, the track’s foundation is given a final rinse and farewell, before evaporating in delay. This is an iteration every bit inspired and fresh as Gibbons’ landmark mix.’
Released by Stax in 1973 — a massive rare groove album, sampled by Digable Planets and Jay-Z (amongst others) — Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth was a brooding, deep-funk admonition to the new black middle class, with no prospect of commercial success.
For its follow-up, Dale Warren cut out the rhetoric, and for political consolation dug deep into his musical roots, and his time in the mid-sixties as a songwriter at Shrine and Motown.
But Stax closed in 1975, and the tapes were abandoned. Now, miraculously retrieved from a Chicago basement, here’s a precious taster: hurt, disillusioned, beautiful, pure, sensuous Windy City soul music ,jazzy but street, musically sophisticated but emotionally direct.
The sleeve is all-black, with black-on-black text, and an embossed silhouette of the group — ‘probably the nicest single LP we’ve ever made’, says Numero.
Hurt, disillusioned, beautiful, pure, sensuous Windy City soul music from the mid-1970s, never out before.
The first of three volumes surveying surely the mightiest Gospel label of them all.
Stomping, rollicking gospel music, intermingling with raw soul, searing blues, hard-rocking doo-wop and jazz, and storming r&b.
Infused and incandescent with the hurting, surging indignation of the Civil Rights movement, here are twenty-four precious scorchers by giants like the Staple Singers and Jimmy Scott, alongside devastating sides by less celebrated names like the Harmonising Five of Burlington, North Carolina, and teen-group the North Philadelphia Juniors, culminating triumphantly with slamming, sanctified versions of Hit The Road Jack and Wade In The Water. Drawn from nigh-impossible-to-find 78s, sevens and LPs, hardly any of these recordings have been reissued since their first release.
Presented in a gatefold sleeve, with full-size booklet; beautifully designed, with stunning, rare photographs and original Savoy artwork. Sound restoration and mastering at Abbey Road; pressed at Pallas.
Co-curated by Greg Belson, compiler of Divine Disco; with deep, extensive notes by Robert Marovich, author of A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music (University of Illinois), and host of the award-winning radio show Gospel Memories.
Unmissable LP from 1973; round about the same time as Coffy.
Murderously pimped versions of Ain’t No Sunshine and Papa Was A Rolling Stone open and close. There is a slinky, bubbling go at Aretha’s gorgeous Day Dreaming, and the classy, tricky jazz-funk of Cocoa Butter. Not to mention the Pan-African title track: stone-cold-killer, energising, utterly essential Roy Ayers funk.
Cornerstone, fully-matured Ubiquity runnings from 1976, with classics like the killer Searching, The Memory, One Sweet Love to Remember, and the laid-back, atmospheric title track. Beloved by the hip hop nation; flipped by luminaries like A Tribe Called Quest, Dilla, Dre, and Common.
‘Verve Vault.’
The great Earth Wind & Fire singer with Robert Glasper, Christian McBride, Kamasi Washington and co. Kicks off with Curtis’ mighty Billy Jack.
Sometimes considered the greatest soul recording ever made, this was in the news a few years ago because a copy of the UK release on London Records went for £14,543.
Sensationally, the flip delivers the previously unreleased instrumental version by the Funk Brothers — the Solid Hitbound in-house band including Rudy Robinson, Uriel Jones, Eddie Willis, Bob Babbit and Dennis Coffey.
Trippy early-70s folk-jazz-soul from guitarist Ernie Calabria and singer Barbara Massey (back-up for Cat Stevens, amongst others) — orchestrated by Deodato, with Keith Jarrett amongst the guests.
‘This sequel to their landmark 1971 masterpiece Like A Ship finds the young Chicago preacher and his Youth for Christ Choir continuing their genre-bending spiritual journey. Banging drums, soaring falsettos, euphoric tambourines, effulgent horns, and Barrett’s unwavering devotion spark off a forty-piece choir, working up a sanctified slab of gospel funk. Pressed in a minuscule quantity in 1973, Do Not Pass Me By was sold primarily from the pulpit of Barrett’s Mt. Zion Baptist Church, disappearing into Chicago’s south side for forty-five years.’
With delirious Latin jazz dancers like Latin Strut and Aftershower Funk… and a Spanish-language version of Ordinary Guy.
‘After keyboardist/composer Bayeté aka Todd Cochran established his musical presence on the San Francisco scene playing in Bobby Hutcherson’s band, and before becoming a key member of the innovative band Automatic Man, which he co-founded with Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, he recorded a couple of solo albums for the Prestige label that feature some of the most far-out, futuristic music the legendary jazz imprint ever released… Early ‘70s electric Miles is a clear point on the compass, but so are Parliament-Funkadelic and Lonnie Liston Smith, if he were playing a fuzzed-out clavinet instead of a Fender Rhodes.’
“While I’ve held space for the blues aesthetic and jazz in everything I’ve done, I was leaving one world and entering another, unmooring the ship and heading into a sea of unknowns, so to speak.”
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