Posts tagged soul

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RONNIE DYSON — ONE MAN BAND: Once More With (Philly) Soul

As soon as Kenny Gamble and Thom Huff started min­ing soul-music gold in Philadelphia, plenty of singers trekked over to Sigma Sound Studios to see if they could cap­ture a lit­tle Philly Soul magic for their own careers.  Indeed, dur­ing Gamble/Huff’s most suc­cess­ful years every­one from Dusty Springfield to Johnny Mathis would take a crack More >

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BOBBY WOMACK — PIECES: Deep Catalog Soul With A Side Of Midnight Moodiness

The test of how good a record­ing artist is lies in the qual­ity of their less com­mer­cially suc­cess­ful work.  When the light of suc­cess isn’t shin­ing on a musi­cian, is that per­son still able to pro­duce com­pelling, acces­si­ble music in a con­sis­tent fash­ion?  A true artist always has a reser­voir tal­ent and crafts­man­ship to draw More >

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WILLIE HUTCH — FULLY EXPOSED: Drowning In The Richness Of 1970’s Soul

When most casual lis­ten­ers think of Motown, they usu­ally think of the big names that came from that label: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, etc.  However, the hard­core fans know that there were sev­eral lesser-known per­form­ers who didn’t achieve the same share of the lime­light but still made impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions to Motown’s More >

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PULP FUSION (15TH ANNIVERSARY CRYSTAL EDITION): Grooves Flow Eternal

For those not in the know, the Pulp Fusion series has been the groove-head’s best friend since the mid-1990’s.  This clas­sic com­pi­la­tion series made a name for itself with fans by col­lect­ing the best deep cat­a­log funk, jazz and soul grooves (and cross­breeds of all of the above) for afi­ciona­dos, pre­sent­ing them in nicely curated More >

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THE MIRACLES — CITY OF ANGELS: A Conceptual Soul Classic From An Unexpected Source

Motown Records was a chal­leng­ing place to be dur­ing the 1970’s if your name didn’t begin with Diana, Marvin or Stevie.  For starters, label hon­cho Berry Gordy had moved the whole oper­a­tion to Los Angeles and shifted his focus to expand­ing the label’s reach into film and tele­vi­sion.  The label’s non-superstar acts were fre­quently left More >

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WORKING MAN’S SOUL 2: A Second Helping From The Cabaret-Soul Playbook

Albums by British cabaret bands who spe­cial­ize in soul and jazz are a pretty small sub­genre of recorded music.  That shouldn’t sur­prise any­body. However, it was a sur­prise when the peo­ple at Licorice Soul Records assem­bled a strong com­pi­la­tion from this tiny pool of mate­r­ial.  In 2009, they man­aged to assem­ble a cred­i­ble sec­ond vol­ume.  More >

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BARRY WHITE — I’VE GOT SO MUCH TO GIVE: The Original Concept Album For The Make-Out Music Set

There’s a great bit in Barry Williams’ mem­oir I Was A Teenage Brady where the erst­while Greg Brady chron­i­cles an attempt to put the moves on costar Maureen McCormick.  He’s got her in his room and he heads over the stereo to choose some make-out music that will set the amorous mood for Marsha.  He More >

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Schlock-Wire: Barry White’s Satin Soul Debut Returns On A New Hip-O Select CD

Hip-O Select is about to make a lot of 1970’s soul fans very happy with a reis­sue of Barry White’s clas­sic debut album, I’ve Got So Much To Give.  For those who haven’t heard it, it’s a man­i­festo of sym­phonic bed­room soul and does a beau­ti­ful job of defin­ing his style: breathy basso-profundo vocals, creamy More >