Category Archives: R&B
NANCY WILSON-KALEIDOSCOPE AND I KNOW I LOVE HIM.
NANCY WILSON-KALEIDOSCOPE AND I KNOW I LOVE HIM. Not many artists have enjoyed the longevity that Nancy Wilson has. Nancy released over seventy albums over a career that’s spanned six decides. Her career started back in 1956, when she was just nineteen. Three years later, in 1959, Nancy released Like In Love for Capitol Records. …
T-CONNECTION-MAGIC.
T-CONNECTION-MAGIC. T-Connection were an unlikely success story of the disco era. First up, they weren’t American, like most disco artists. Instead, they were from the Bahamas. Founded in 1975, T-Connection’s charismatic lead singer and keyboard player Theophilus T. Oakley was a classically trained musician. Along with bassist Kurt Oakley, drummer Berkeley Van Byrd, guitarist Monty …
AURRA-A LITTLE LOVE.
AURRA-A LITTLE LOVE. It was in 1975, that Steve Washington formed his first band with his school friends Mark Hicks and Tim Dozier. Born in Newark, Steve was brought up in East Orange, New Jersey. Steve was from a musical family. His uncle was The Ohio Players’ Ralph “Pee Wee” Midlebrooks. During his holidays, Steve …
THE LONDON AMERICAN LABEL YEAR BY YEAR 1964.
THE LONDON AMERICAN LABEL YEAR BY YEAR 1964. 1964 proved to be an important year in the history of music. In January 1964, America finally “got” The Beatles. Coast to coast, Beatlemania swept the states. This kick-started the British invasion. Suddenly, American artists no longer monopolized the American charts. Instead, British artists stole the limelight …
PAAAARTY TIME-SERIOUS FUNK FROM THE 70S.
PAAAARTY TIME-SERIOUS FUNK FROM THE 70S. After its birth in the mid to late sixties, funk’s popularity quickly grew. With its fusion of soul, R&B and jazz, funk’s heyday was the seventies. While the peak of funk’s popularity was during the seventies, it was during the seventies that some of the greatest funk music was …
WILD ONE-THE CAMEO-PARKWAY STORY.
WILD ONE-THE CAMEO-PARKWAY STORY. Way before Philly Soul provided the soundtrack to much of the seventies, many of the architects of Philly Soul cut their musical teeth at Cameo Parkway Records. This included songwriters and producers Gamble and Huff, vibes virtuoso, songwriter and producer Vince Montana Jr. and many members of Philadelphia International Records’ legendary …
BACKBEATS-LAY BACK AND CHILL-MORE SUPERIOR AND SENSUOUS SOUL
BACKBEATS-LAY BACK AND CHILL-MORE SUPERIOR AND SENSUOUS SOUL. It was back in 2010 that Harmless Records released the first of the Backbeats’ series. Since then, Backbeats had grown to become the world’s most popular budget series. Now there are forty-two compilations in the series,plus ten artists specific compilations. They’ve come a long way. However, several …
WILSON PICKETT IN PHILADELPHIA.
WILSON PICKETT IN PHILADELPHIA. By 1970, when Wilson Pickett released Wilson Pickett In Philadelphia, his recording career was eight years old. He’d released his debut single If You Need Me in 1962, and since then, had enjoyed four number one US R&B singles. The first of these was his 1965 classic In The Midnight Hour, …
LAURA NYRO-GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE.
LAURA NYRO-GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE. Recently, I’ve been reviewing albums which although not strictly Philly Soul, feature many of the musicians, songwriters, arrangers and producers who were architects of the Philly Sound. This include Ecstasy, Passion and Pain’s Ecstasy, Passion and Pain, Joe Simon’s Drowning In A Sea of Love, Dusty Springfield’s A Brand New …
GEORGE DUKE-DON’T LET GO.
GEORGE DUKE-DON’T LET GO. There aren’t may artists who’ve worked with such an eclectic range of artists as George Duke. Among the artists George Duke has worked with are Frank Zappa, Anita Baker Flora Purim, right through to Jean Luc-Ponty, Cannonball Adderley, Billy Cobham and George Clinton. Whether it was jazz, rock, soul, disco, R&B …
PATTI AUSTIN-END OF A RAINBOW-THE CTI MASTERS.
PATTI AUSTIN-END OF A RAINBOW-THE CTI MASTERS. For Patti Austin, it was almost as if it was written in the stars that she would become a singer. It was her destiny. Quite simply, Patti Austin was born to sing. That is almost indisputable. After all, how many children aged five sign a recording contract. Patti …
YESKING-OVERPROOF.
YESKING-OVERPROOF. 2008. That’s when Yesking released their debut album Rock This World, which was produced by Yesking head honcho Rhys Adams and Mark Rae, of Rae and Christian. Now five years later, on March 18th 2013, Yesking will release their sophomore album Re-Record Not Fade Away on BBE Music. For Yesking’s legion of fans, that …
SWITCH-AM I STILL YOUR BOYFRIEND.
SWITCH-AM I STILL YOUR BOYFRIEND. When Switch moved from Motown imprint Gordy, to Total Experience Records in 1982, great things were forecast for them. Total Experience had beaten other labels to the signing of Switch and announced their signing of Switch in a December 1982 issue of Jet magazine. There was talk of Switch contributing …
OFFERING RECORDINGS ADE SAMPLER 2012.
OFFERING RECORDINGS ADE SAMPLER 2012. In an a constantly changing musical landscape, it’s becoming difficult for smaller record companies to discover new talent. All too often, artists with even a modicum of potential are signed by major labels, usually on a 360 deal. They hope they’ve just unearthed the next million-selling artist and Christmas has …
NEWBAN-NEWBAN AND NEWBAN 2.
NEWBAN-NEWBAN AND NEWBAN 2. After deciding to form a new band, sometimes one of the most difficult decisions its members make is choosing a name. After all, it has to be something original and catchy. For Albert “Duke” Jones Jr, and Peter Carroll Jr, they had what can only be best describes as one of …
DJ VADIM-DON’T BE SCARED.
DJ VADIM-DON’T BE SCARED. Sometimes, the word innovator is used too often, but in the case of Saint Petersburg born DJ Vadim, innovator is a fitting description of this veteran DJ and producer. Over the past twenty years, DJ Vadim has DJ-ed in sixty-nine countries, played over 2,500 times and still found time to found …
TAVARES-LOVE UPRISING.
TAVARES-LOVE UPRISING. As a new decade dawned for Tavares, they set about recording what would prove to be their ninth and penultimate album for Capitol Records Love Uprising. This was Tavares’ second album of 1980, the followup to Supercharged. Love Uprising, which will be released on 20th August 2012 by SoulMusic Records, would be produced …
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