Anita Baker is back with the album Only Forever Out on Blue Note Records October 23, 2012

 Darrow Fletcher Crossover Soul - 1975 - 79 LA Sessions

There was a dilemma with compiling a CD of Darrow Fletcher’s recorded output in that he had two very distinctive periods to his career. The first part was the records he made in Chicago between 1965 and 1970, and then the handful of singles cut in Los Angeles in the second half of the 70s. As he was only 14 when he started recording, the two eras had quite a different feel.
In researching the 70s recordings Darrow made for Ray Charles’ Crossover label in Los Angeles, we turned up a cache of fully produced, previously unissued tracks. These included the complete tape of the unissued “Why Don’t We Try Something Brand New” album. Apart from longer versions of the four titles that came out on Crossover singles, there were five brand new songs. These were mainly from the pens of the Zane Grey and Len Ron Hanks team or Joel Webster; who had also provided the released songs. They were of a similar superb quality to the singles, the best dance track being ‘Secret Weapon’, written by Grey and Hanks with Jerry Butler. ‘(What Are We Gonna Do About) This Mess’ is another high quality groove, while ‘(And A) Love Song’ is a tender melodic ballad. ‘Together’ is a bluesier down-tempo tune and ‘(People Are Not) Wind-Up Toys’ is a pretty mid-paced number with a message, so prevalent in the mid-70s.
I am sure Crossover saw Darrow as a similar artist to Stevie Wonder during his mid 70s pomp; the funkier Joel Webster numbers in particular were in this vein. Although his two career stages were clearly defined geographically and historically, there were similarities. Zane Grey had grown up with Darrow inChicagowhich was where he and his writing partner Len Ron Hanks hailed from. Their first composition was Darrow’s penultimate 45 cut in Chicago, ‘Changing By The Minute’. Several of the Grey and Hanks Crossover tracks were written in Chicago prior to the duo following Darrow out to LA where the songs were cut. Darrow’s 60s fans will find plenty to admire in his later output as the songs are well crafted and produced with no expense spared. Despite the five year hiatus they can be seen as a progression of his maturity since the 60s.
Ray Charles seemed to take young Darrow under his wing and the notes describe a particularly poignant moment when the two appeared on stage together in Chicago. It is a mystery why the album never appeared as the label was quite adept at issuing music in this format, often on relatively little known acts such as Joel Webster himself. Darrow specifically mentioned versions of ‘Sunny’ and ‘Fever’ in recalling his time at Crossover. These tracks were actually cut after the LP and raise the possibility of a second album featuring them, the two Atlantic/Atco singles and other numbers such as the social commentary song ‘Election Day’ and the funky dancer ‘How Can You Live Without Love’.
All of the cherished 70s singles are here. Together with the unissued gems they give more than an hour of top quality modern soul from an artist whose excellent body of work is at last being recognised.

By Ady Croasdell

Buy it here: http://www.firstexperiencerecords.com/product-detail/CD+Albums/57/Kent+Soul/Darrow+Fletcher/Crossover+Soul+-+1975+-+79+LA+Sessions/cd/3021

Bobby Ross Avila - Runnin'

Beautiful piece of music. From unreleased album Audiography. 

Impressing voice like Stevie Wonder

Throughout the ‘80s and early ‘90s, Atlantic Starr was one of the most successful outfits in R&B. Little is known, however, of the group’s heady jazz and groove roots. Imagine the brassy ensemble funk of early Kool & The Gang or Earth, Wind & Fire on spirit-centric labels like Black Jazz or Strata-East, with vocals reflecting the freedom of mind and spirit in both lyric and timbre. This is the land from which platinum-selling Atlantic Starr came.
This is Newban.
Founders Albert “Duke” Jones Jr. and Porter Carroll Jr. were students in Greenburgh, New York, when they recruited a horde of classmates in forming Newban–named such because they were, after all, a “new band.”
John Shearer, a friend of Jones and photographer for Life magazine, was a neighbor of legendary audio engineer Malcolm Addey and arranged for Newban to record with Addey at the famed Bell Sound Recording Studios.

Newban and Newban 2 were released on Guinness Records in 1977. Guinness, however, was one of many labels during the late ‘70s that juked numbers and intentionally undersold and under-promoted albums for tax write-offs to keep parent imprints in the black.
Co-founder and drummer Carroll and the majority of the members landed a deal with A&M Records and became Atlantic Starr. The Newban masters, however, remained safe and secure in the closet of Addey’s home on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. “I just called him up and said, ‘Listen, we got some things we can do after all these years,’” Jones says. Addey was with it, and returned the tapes for a nominal charge – in pristine, digitally re-mastered condition.
Neither Jones nor Addey stopped believing in Newban, which is why he feels this BBE release could be the re-emergence of something lost some 35 years ago.
“It might really make some noise with someone behind it,” Jones says about the “new” Newban compilation. “We could get together tomorrow.”

http://www.bbemusic.com/

Drizabone Soul Family is BACK with the album THE RECIPE OF LIFE

Soul Junction Records

Who since then, have been steadily building an exciting and varied catalogue of new and previously unreleased soul and funk releases for you the record buying public’s delectation.

So please do take a look around our website, it's full of information about all our previous and current releases, whether on vinyl or CD. You'll find all the relevant information as well as sound-clips relating to each release.

We think we've got all the information contained herein, but if you require any further information please contact us via the details on the contact page.

Many thanks
John & Dave

Soul Junction Records was formed in 2008 by John Anderson and Dave Welding.

http://www.souljunctionrecords.co.uk/

Here is a fantastic release by Audio feat Vince Broomfield - Won't Somebody.

IMO a 2012 top 10

(Extracted from Luxury Soul by Ralph Tee on Jazz FM)

 

BGP Presents Jazz Funk

Look inside any issue of Blues & Soul magazine from the latter part of the 70s and you will be in no doubt as to the UK’s club music of choice. The club section and the display ads let you know that jazz funk was the sound you would hear on a night out to any hot-spot playing the latest sounds from black America. Look a little closer at the DJ charts and you will notice that the story is a little more complicated. What counts as jazz funk can range from hardcore jazz fusion monsters by Patrice Rushen to boogie soul sounds, via jazz-influenced funk by the Blackbyrds and Pleasure. These groups were made up of accomplished musicians: the Blackbyrds had been jazz studies students of Donald Byrd at Howard University in Washington DC, who were totally relaxed with the contemporary black music of the era, and would mix it effortlessly with jazz. Clouding the issue somewhat, certain DJs would also play latin-influenced jazz cuts, often aimed at hardcore dancers, in a section of the evening known as the jazz break.
This CD tells the story of how this was linked to the UK dancefloors of the late 70s and early 80s and gives an insight into the way in which jazz records, especially those from the US west coast, fought for commercial breathing space. By incorporating the sounds of soul and funk, jazz discs forced their way onto radio playlists while the groups got club dates outside the ever-diminishing jazz scene. Even in the States, some of these records were played at the hottest clubs in the country, shouldering their way into the nascent disco scene.

In Berkeley, California, on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay, Fantasy Records were one of the key protagonists in the development of jazz music throughout the 1970s. The success of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s blend of roots rock provided large profits. Instead of using the money to sign another big rock group, the label’s owners Ralph Kaffel and Saul Zaentz invested heavily in the genre they knew best. In a few short years they had acquired a phenomenal jazz catalogue by buying up the Riverside, Prestige and Milestone labels from the east coast and had also signed up some of the country’s most exciting jazz talent. It was a brave move, as jazz was not especially a growth market, but by taking a broad-based approach they covered all the bases, from the complex modal playing of piano legend McCoy Tyner to the jazz-based funk of the Blackbyrds.

By Dean Rudland

http://acerecords.co.uk/bgp-presents-jazz-funk