I first heard of Don-e thirteen years ago, in 1992, when he was a much hyped new act on 4′th & Broadway with the release of his debut single Love Makes The World Go Round and the album Unbreakable that followed soon. 1992 wasn’t such a bad year after all with Don-e’s debut and releases by The Watergates (Never Gonna Give You Up on Bump’n'Hustle), Mass Order (Maybe One Day on Columbia), Mr. Fingers (Introduction on MCA) Robyn Springer (Makin Moves on Cardiac), Jody Watley (I’m The One You Need on MCA) or Out Of The Blue feat. Marlon Saunders (Lover Caravan on Flatbush) to name just a few…ah, my personal good ol’ days.
Don-e got the chance to do a second album (Changing Seasons) on 4′th & B’way and then vanished from the scene. If you’re an avid reader of liner notes you certainly have discovered him as writer and producer for artists like Nu Colours, Deni Hines, Shaun Escoffery, Mica Paris, Beverley Knight, Lynden David Hall, or Rahsaan Patterson in the meantime. After a long hiatus he is finally back under his own name with a new album for Dome Records, who seem to focus on British artists again with Carleen Anderson’s Soul Providence and Incognito’s upcoming Eleven albums.
Like Don-e’s first two albums this is a self-produced/written/played journey into his musical world with his own blend of black music. Listening to Try This unveils that Don-e really has his own sound and doesn’t seem to give a damn about what’s hip right now. If you know his previous works you’ll recognize most of the tunes as Don-e songs at once like the midtempo soulful Walk In My Shoes.
One of the highlights is No Reason, his collaboration with Omar. This song is pure Brit soul bliss and they should really do a whole album together. I Do is an beautiful ballad with some charming vocoder effects à la Roger Troutman. More highlights come with the mellow, acoustic Let Me Be Yours, the hypnotic One More Time and the acapella See What I See.
Variety is added with the funky Keep On Luvin U, the urban inspired All We Need (with rapper Grimm…well actually not what I need as you may know my reservations about featured rappers but the song works well within the album context) and the uptempo Try This. Don-e also introduces Lornette Ford with the summery vibes of Slow.
And make sure you listen to the comical Dropped Recordz (an interlude between track 16 and 17). This track is surely influenced by Don-e’s past since it’s message is that a musician might as well sign to Dropped Recordz because they’ll get dropped anyway.
It’s good to have Don-e back with a strong album that features excellent songs and kudos to Dome Records for bringing back one of the UK’s finest black music artist.

Tracklisting of Try This: 1. Sickest Style/ 2. Walk In My Shoes/ 3. Bus Stop/ 4. No Reason - Don-e & Omar/ 5. Keep On Luvin’ U/ 6. Slow - Don-e & Lornette Ford/ 7. I Do/ 8. All We Need - Don-e & Grim/ 9. Rising/ 10. One More Time/ 11. Let Me Be Yours/ 12. Hott Honey/ 13. How I Feel/ 14. See What I See/ 15. Lonely/ 16. Try This/ 17. UK Black (hidden bonus track) | released 2005 by Atomic Dread Productions /Dome Records

For more infos visit domerecords.co.uk and don-emusic.co.uk and download the video Slow here.

[If you want to discuss Don-e’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

Courtesy of Jon Freer from mosoul.co.uk here are eight reviews (sorry no cover shots or tracklistings this time):

V/A – Scratch Massive: N.A.K.E.D (Nocturne)

Inspired by their weekly de-robed nocturnal escapades of the same name, Parisian spinners and promoters Scratch Massive give us the sound of ‘NAKED’. Energetically mixing between hardline techy grooves and punked up trashy electronic chic, this comp throws up some pretty hot cuts alongside some less appealing numbers. Pixeltan’s “Get Up/Say What” as revisited by the DFA sees chilling vocals ride cold-hearted synths and open-close cymbalic percussion. “101.3″ from Steve Bug is a synth based, assertive teched House outing. Out Hud’s “Put It Away, Put it Away, Put It Away, Dad” stumbles along in a keyed-up drugged haze, with startling synths providing the extra energy. Exciting stuff.

Who Made Who – Who Made Who (Gomma)

Digitising their guitars and linking them up to all type of electronic mumbo jumbo, Denmark’s Who Made Who produce notable rockin’ grooves. Perhaps surprisingly, in general, the group’s instrumental compositions have more impact than their vocal efforts. “Johnny Lucky” floats dead cool guitar work over probing synths and simple drum percussion. All-powerful guitars emerge through the thick smoke on “Cigar”. Virtuous guitar work and confused synths provide the power on “Green Dogs”. A fine debut.

V/A – A Slice Of Paradise: Vol 1 (Fusionova 021 Recs)

“A Slice Of Paradise: Vol 1″ is dedicated to a beach based bar in Spain called Xiringuito, located on St. Joan’s Beach, Alicante. This five CD set has called upon resident record selector Enrique Domench and friends to choose their favourite musical fruits associated with the venue. Domench takes listeners on a slow broken jazz ride, taking in Dynamic Syncopation’s clinging key refit of Break Refrom’s “Medusa” and Casbah 73’s dizzifying “Carbo Verde Strut”. BiggaBush brings some deep dubby flavours, which includes Fitchie’s warm digital mix of Bush’s own “Deep Eastwood” and Dolphin Boy’s fragile “On The Ceiling”. Nick Matthew’s mix is on the neo House and Broke beat vibe, with highlights in the shape of Alison Crockett’s devoted “UR” (Yam Who Remix) and David Borsu’s hypnotic “Nocturne”. Belladonna’s
fuzzy guitar dominated “Ebatule” and SUMO’s robust revision of Lonesome Echo’s “Spirit Of The Drums” feature on Gav Smith’s energetic mix. Ben Mono winds up proceedings with a set of weird cosmic downbeat and fracturedly percussed numbers, where Afronaught’s heavenward giving mix of Season’s “Juice” and Amphibian’s unhappy “Empty”, as remixed by Marlow, feature. A mouth watering summery outing.

V/A – This Is Skateboard Music (Diggler)

Jump on that board and hurtle along the street to the hedonistic poppy sound of “This Is Skateboard Music”. The comp digs up an array of dusty guitarry-toned odes to a teen based pastime, and fun Skateboard influenced tracks sit alongside slightly duller outings. The Carvell’s gives us both “Skateboard Racer” and “Skateboard Queen”. The former skips along at quite a pace, excitedly extolling the virtues of boarding, whilst the latter is a string-lifted admiring number. Lightning speed guitars and fast drums meet on Zack Ferguson’s exuberant “Skateboard Dancin’”. What’s next – “This Is Snowboarding”?

Marathon Men – Blessings (Chillifunk)

Marathon Men Freddie McQuinn and Simbad follow up single releases on Chillifunk with this CD album that dishes out techy floor bound and classic NY inspired House, and a range of other grooves. The title track sees Alex the Kid’s hopeful vocals ride ear-catching synths and plodding drums. “Party Track” featuring Bunzi B is a moody broken step number, with breath-quickening keys and darkly elegant strings. “Breakin’ My Heart” lets out all the hurt over fluid keys and an unfriendly bass. Once more moving away from Chilli’s relaxed and more overtly full of soul sound, “Blessings” should still win the label a few more fans.

V/A – Finger Lickin’ Pres. Freshtraxxx (Finger Lickin’)

Hipped hoppety and funked up breaks is the remit of this comp from Finger Lickin’. Ranging from happy-go-lucky party grooves to darker nu school vibes, there are some pretty tasty cuts here. Slyde’s “Slippery Slide” places hip hoppery vocal excerpts over brass snippets, hot keys and a clean yet fuzzy bass. A. Skillz & Krafty Kuts draft in Kurtis Blow for a remake of “The Breaks” entitled “Gimmie The Breaks”, where his vocals groove happily alongside flowing synths, cheerful guitars and a brill bass. “Mind The Gap” from the Drumattic Twins takes strength from a murky bass, which submerges mad guitars and tense strings. A fine Breaks based comp.

V/A – Milk & Honey: B&b Tunes Vol 5. (Brillianttree)

Berlin’s Dr. Atmo brings us this gorgeously packaged double CD, which focuses on life’s most relaxing sounds. The first disc is comprised of eerie electronically driven downbeat, whilst the second is still chilled, but the percussion plays a more obvious role. CD one contains Miss Silencio’s “Life Is Nothing Without Love”, where strings seep over melodious keyed percussion and Aod’s “Shadow”, a touching string and bitingly percussed outing. The second disc features the unsure key led “Easy” from Lost Kids and Animater’s synthified “Real Candy”. Luxurious on the ears, but unfortunately a little vapid in places.

M1 – Robopop (Reinvent Music)

M1 ditched his Jinxx imprint in order to Reinvent his music and focus on electroey flavours. This means that “Robopop” is full of banging electro-technoid hitters, sweet tooth poppy cuts and ambientish flavours. However, the killer cut on this album is a straightforward organically toned House number entitled “Wake Up”, where gorgeous guitars, ever so beautiful strings and true keys meet. Strong heavy hitting Teched up numbers include the mentally keyed “Acid The Phenomenon” and the robotically percussed “Earth Beatz”. Any chance of a few more tracks in the style of “Wake Up” next time?

In conjunction with radiopellenera jazz-not-jazz presents a weekly show with quality soul, jazz and house music. You can catch the show every Sunday from 13:00-15:00 UTC+1 and if you missed it it will be repeated on Tuesday (07:00-09:00 UTC+1) and Friday (10:00-12:00 UTC+1). For conversion to your local time zone have a look at the wikipedia or at radiopellenera’s schedule on live365.com.

Blame Will Wheaton and his tune Old School Soul for this weeks collection of tunes. There are a few 70s soul tracks like Alaskan Pipeline from Gladys Knight & The Pips or Good Luck Charme by the Ohio Players (by the way a great ballad and it’s worth every second of its 9 1/2 minutes). Most tunes are from my good ol’ days the early 90s (well, good ol’ days is meant musicwise if you consider that I started collecting music in the mid 80s). Chuckii Booker’s Games has been a great hit amongst soul music lovers back then, just like Mica Paris’ Young Soul Rebels or Kipper Jones’ Shock Wave. I wonder what Kipper’s doing these days. Years ago he appeared with Better on the Hidden Hits collection but no album followed as far as I know.
Yvonne Jackson released her album I’m Trouble on the famous Ichiban label, which brought us some fine independent soul in the late 80s/early 90s like Barbara Lynn’s You Make Me So Hot or Roy Ayers’ Black Family.
Margi Coleman’s album Margi was Neo Soul before this genre has been invented. It was released a little too early, otherwise she would’ve become the Queen of Neo Soul.
And file Denise La Salle’s Long Dong Silver under music just has to be fun from time to time.
By the way if you thought Ledisi’s album Feeling Orange But Sometimes Blue was expensive, then have a look at what you have to pay for the Lady T album these days at amazon. So enjoy this show which starts with a track worth over 27 Euros.

Teena Marie: Too Many Colors (from Lady T)
Dianne Reeves: I Remember (from Bridges)
Ohio Players: Good Luck Charme (from Mr. Mean)
Brigette: Starlite Lounge (from Starlite Lounge)
Wall Of Sound: Love Is On Our Side (from Storybook)
Laverna Mason: Deliverance
Chuckii Booker: Games (from Niice ‘n Wiild)
Will Wheaton: Old School Soul (from Old School Soul)
Mica Paris: Young Soul Rebels (original mix)
Margi Coleman: Let Me Down Gently (from Margi)
Kipper Jones: Shock Wave (from Ordinary Story)
Denise La Salle: Long Dong Silver (from Love Me Right)
Yvonne Jackson: If Tears Are Only Water (from I’m Trouble)
Gladys Knight & The Pips: Alaskan Pipeline (from Pipe Dreams)
F.B.I.: Talking About Love (from F.B.I.)
The Rebirth: Got Your Madness (from This Journey In)
Sirius B. Project: Always Remember (ft. Donnie) (from Sirius B. Project)
Deni Hines feat. Don-e: Delicious (extended version)
Uschi Classen: Now Illuminate feat. Kimra (from Soul Magic)
Shayna Steele: High Yella (from Shayna Steele)
Jacci McGhee: Skeeza (from Jacci McGhee)
Simphonia: Can’t Get Over Your Love (Dave Lee’s Full Length Mix)

Ian Martin has recently released his stunning album The Way. Although it follows the album One, Ian really considers The Way as his first solo project, because the spirit behind it was to make a CD, as he tells us in the jazz-not-jazz interview. If you want to know more about Ian, his new homeland USA and what he likes about Barry Manilow then continue on reading.

Q: The Way is your second solo album. Please tell me what’s different between this one and your debut, “One”. Also, where do you see your progress as a musician?

Ian Martin: The main difference is intent. “One” was never meant to be a formal CD release, and “The Way” was. “One” is a collection of student demos that I had originally intended to use to showcase my songwriting and overall musicality. But because of such positive responses from friends who heard it, I compiled them, and started to sell them to cover costs of putting it together. I really consider “The Way” as my first solo project, because the spirit behind it was to make a CD. When I listen back to “One” now, I can see just how far I’ve come.
As far as my musical progress, I see it all areas, producing, writing, and performing. And I think a lot of that is from just being more mature. I now have more life to share in my music-without putting your “life” in your music, its just notes. I also feel that I’m now comfortably finding my own voice as an artist. I’m less concerned with trying to categorize or, “fit in” musically. When producing my own projects, I write from my heart, and that’s very liberating. I also find that as I change and grow, the music is starting to change too. I have a strong feeling that the next album will be quite different than both “One” and “The Way”. I’m learning more now than I ever have, and I get excited because the music that’s coming out of me is better than I thought it ever could be!

Q: You were born and raised in Canada, studied at the Berklee College of Music and are now living in LA. What are the differences between the USA and Canada? Making comparisons, what do you and don’t you like?

Ian Martin: Wow, there are so many! I love the US for the opportunities that it offers, there are very few places on the planet that can allow someone to make a better life for themselves in almost anyway they see fit, if they work hard. Now of course, America is not nearly perfect, but you are free to pursue your dreams.
What I love most about Canada is the cosmopolitan flair that the country has. Generally people are more open-minded and are less dogmatic about their particular views. Social attitudes are so different than by comparison to America.
Musically, there’s a lot more to choose from in the US. However the irony is that only a small percentage gets supported in the mainstream, so you have to search it out. Radio isn’t very friendly to independents and people trying to do something innovative. I find it so interesting that even though the countries are attached, they are so different.

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“SoundJunction is all about exploring, discovering and creating music.
You can listen to music, find out who made it and how, discover how the music works, and then recreate it yourself, using interactive music tools.”

Sounds nice and fans of black music will be pelased that they can hear music by Jason Yarde with vocal input by Eska Mtungwasi, Cleveland Watkiss, Tunde Jegede or Dennis Rollins. Unfortunately the music can only be heard by the use of the flash plug-in (no audio files for downloading :-/) and the interactive (shockwave) music tools either didn’t work on my firefox (plus within the shockwave file I get directed to apple.com to install Quicktime…no thanks, I don’t want this crappy player, I prefer vlc) or the browser just crashes. Nevertheless I like the idea of soundjunction.org and it provides some useful information.

In conjunction with radio42.com and rautemusik.fm
jazz-not-jazz presents two hours of simply great music every Friday 19:00-21:00 UTC+1 (you don’t have to convert it for Germany…that’s Friday 13:00-15:00 in NYC, Friday 10:00-12:00 in San Francisco and Saturday 04:00-06:00 in Sydney). The links of the audio stream can be found on radio42.com or rautemusik.fm (look for #Musik.Lounge there).

After a much too long absence the audio streams finally work again and you can enjoy the D-Influence special this Friday.

Dome Records will release Incognito’s new album on October 31, 2005 in the UK. The album is aptly titled Eleven with, er, eleven songs and vocal input from Maysa, Imaani, Tony Momrelle and Carleen Anderson. For more infos visit Incognito’s website.

Above The Water starts with an MC asking us if we’re ready for one of these neo soul artists. Judging from the quality of Demetress “Nuwamba” Cook’s debut album he surely won’t be one out of many but a soul singer to reckon with in the future.
Nuwamba, which means “November” in the Nigerian language Hausa, takes us back in time with his mission to put the blues back into rhythm & blues. Those of you who are old enough may remember the days when R&B was a synonym for black music, i.e. soul and funk, and not just crappy formulaic pop. “A lot of the songs on this album are influenced by the blues, which I feel is one aspect of soul music that people don’t fully appreciate,” Nuwamba says. “The blues are the inner core of soul music.”
Demetress “Nuwamba” Cook’s music has a warm, organic sound. He has obviously studied all the eclectic masters in soul music’s history like Marvin, Curtis, Smokey or Stevie; luckily that didn’t prevent him to create his own style.
Nuwamba’s debut has it all, neo soul highlights like the Soul Mix of Tease, spiritual midtempo love songs like Heaven (which musicwise reminds me of Big Brooklyn Red from the Organic Soul 3 compilation) or food for thought like the funky title track Above The Water or the hip hop influenced Caught Up. When Words Are Spoken is a great spoken word track which shows that Nuwamba is not only a gifted singer. More food for thought comes with the hidden track, the so called Wise Words by Lyrical. Here we get some lamenting and criticism about the state of most Western societies that are in the stranglehold of neoliberalism with increasing surveillance and a reduction of fundamental rights or economic fascists like Lyrical puts it. Especially her remark “I hate to be here when the infrastructure crashes” has become a sad reality recently with numerous natural disaster like hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Above The Water is a really impressive, musical and lyrical diverse album or in a nutshell one of the albums of the year 2005 that will stand the test of time.

Tracklisting of Above The Water: 1. Beginning Words/ 2. Smooth Intro/ 3. Tease (soulmix)/ 4. Forever/ 5. Savior/ 6. When Words Are Spoken/ 7. All Mine/ 8. Heaven/ 9. Put It Down/ 10. Above the Water/ 11. Caught Up/ 12. Sweetness/ 13. Tease (acoustic)/ 14. Take Me Away/ 15. Smooth Outro/ 16. Hidden Track (Wise Words By Lyrical)| released 2005 by Born Soulful Entertainment/Nuwamba

For more infos visit nuwamba.com, chocolatesoul.net and cdbaby.com.

[If you want to discuss Nuwamba’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

Thanks to Peter from Dome Records to provide me with a video of Don-e talking about his album followed by live performance in the studio of his song Slow together with Lornette Ford.
Since I’m not the most informed person when it comes to video codecs (audio codecs is a whole different thing though), I’ve tried to convert the vob-file on the DVD to avi but the result wasn’t half as good as converting it to divx. So that’s why you can download the Don-e video as divx. I’ve made two version with different screen resolutions (340×352 and 176×96) with a file size of 45MB respectively 10MB.
If your computer can’t play the files then I recommend the free vlc player, which by the way can handle almost every audio and video codec.
So enjoy the video:
don_e_340×352.divx
don_e_176×96.divx

Shirley Horn has died last Thursday night aged 71 in her native Washington, DC after a long illness, according to a statement released by her recording label Verve Records. For more info have a look here, here or here.

In conjunction with radiopellenera jazz-not-jazz presents a weekly show with quality soul, jazz and house music. You can catch the show every Sunday from 13:00-15:00 UTC+2 and if you missed it it will be repeated on Tuesday (07:00-09:00 UTC+2) and Friday (10:00-12:00 UTC+2). For conversion to your local time zone have a look at the wikipedia or at radiopellenera’s schedule on live365.com.

This time the emphasis is on songs and records mainly reviewed on this site. The review for the Nuwamba records will follow soon. The CD has just arrived, but Heaven grabbed my attention on initial listening. Plus there’s a special for my listeners, the Jason Rebello Piano & Vocal Mix of Shaun Escoffery’s Let It Go hasn’t been released yet, thanks to Ade from Oyster Music for it.

Misty Oldland: Orange Fox (from Forest Soul)
Sandra St. Victor: Act Of Beauty (from Geminin: Both Sides)
Bernadette Cooper: Nothin’ You Can Do (from Drama According To Bernadette Cooper)
Ronee Martin: Come On Through My Door (from Come On Through My Door)
Teena Marie: Deja Vu (I’ve Been Here Before) (from Wild & Peaceful)
Alison David: Keep Shining Like A Star (from Believe)
Shaun Escoffery: Let It Go (Jason Rebello Piano & Vocal Mix)(unreleased version)
Grenique: Wonderland (from Black Butterfly)
Vikki Wright: The Other Woman (from Tales From The Amazon)
Nuwamba: Heaven (from Above The Water)
Angela Johnson: Early Bird (from Got To Let It Go)
Sounds Of Blackness: I’m Movin’ (from Unity)
Ty Causey: Love’s Messsin’ With Me (from Love Notes)
H2o Productions ft. Peter Hadar: Need Love (from While U Wait)
Martha Redbone: God Created Woman (from Skin Talk)
Nadir: Soulmate (from Distorted Soul 2.0)
Alice Russell: Mirror Mirror On The Wolf – Tell The Story Right (from My Favourite Letters)
LAL: Creep (from Warm Belly, High Power)
Ian: Brother (from The Way)
Bah Samba: Let The Drums Speak (Harvey Lindo Edit)
Colonel Abrams: In The Groove (from About Romance)
Drizabone: Catch The Fire (The 151 Mix)
Lou Courtney: What Do You Want Me To Do (from I’m In Need Of Love)
John Arnold with Paul Randolph: Rise Up (from HVW8 Music Is My Art)
Geoffrey Williams: Somewhere On A Beach (Phil Asher’s Restless Soul Mix)

If you cherish Vikki Wright’s debut album Tales From The Amazon just like me and if you like to have a little more information about her than you can find on her website and her cdbaby-site than keep on reading what Vikki tells me in the jazz-not-jazz review. She gives us an insight on her family, the making of her debut album, the part of co-producer Bill Jolly and more.

Q: Please tell me something about yourself. Who turned you into music and was responsible for you to pursue a career as musician?

Vikki Wright: I’m probably one of the most honest people you’ll ever interview and have few fears in life. I’m the youngest of 5 children (I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters) and I choose to define myself as an Amazon-a woman who can withstand many adversities and still overcome them. I would say my family primarily supported my initial music endeavors. My family was very musically diverse. My mother’s family played piano and gave music lessons. My father, however was tone deaf, but listened to everything from gospel to country and sang it loudly and off-key. His mother played violin in her youth and I assume that’s how I became interested in stringed instruments. My sisters loved the Jackson 5 and lots of R & B. My brothers played bass and guitar and listened to rock and jazz. There always was lots of noise and music going on at my house. So I got it from all family members. My career choice was intrinsic. If it’s in you, you can’t fight it. If God places that in you then you have no choice.

Q: Who has influenced your songwriting and style of singing?

Vikki Wright: My songwriting has been something I’ve done since I was a little girl. Whenever I was hurt or my infatuations didn’t work out, I would write about it. Over time and with life changes, its joys, adversities, love and its constant dissolution and disappointment, my culture, and people in general have always been fair
subject matter for my songs. My style of singing has been a longer journey, and it has taken me time to truly “find” my voice. I’ve been so blessed to work in Philly where there’s so much diversity and talent, that the singers here have also been an influence on my vocal style. My love of “low range vocalists” like Al Jarreau and Betty Carter, who I think of as a vocal musicians have amazing tone and resonance that comes from the spirit. Their sounds are orgasmic and organic.

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Some of you may have noticed it that this site wasn’t available for hours…from the early morning hours until now to be exact. There’s been a problem with the server (the power supply unit and the hard drive both decided to call it a day) but everything’s working again. If you’ve send me a mail to any of my jazz-not-jazz.com accounts in the last hours I’m afraid it might have got lost, so please send it again. Sorry for any inconveniences.

Courtesy of Jon Freer from mosoul.co.uk here’s an event review of a live performance by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings from 8th October 2005 at the Roadhouse, Manchester.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings’ most recent album was entitled “Naturally”, and this is a fitting name for a group to whom live performance comes oh so easily. The Dap-Kings are a real funky outfit, who use dapper brass work, neat guitar moves and dependable drumming, to create an authentic retro-toned sound. Hailing from Augusta, Georgia, where a certain elder statesman of Funk was also born, Sharon Jones is a musical force to be reckoned with, who has the ability to bring a crowd to their knees whenever she wishes.

This welcome mid-evening showing from Jones and the gang, put on by the amiable Friends & Family, saw the poky Roadhouse packed out by a large crowd of various ages. Before the show-woman made it to the stage, the Kings worked the crowd up with a mixture of jamming and instrumental funked-up pieces. This performance from the Dap-Kings set the mood for the show rather nicely and showed the talents of the group, who were most definitely pushed out of the spotlight once a certain colourful singer took to the stage. A former prison corrections officer and current Brooklyn resident, to suggest Sharon Jones is an impressive performer is a bit of an understatement. Standing atop of a speaker in order to let the whole crowd get a good view, the charismatic large lady delivered an incredibly entertaining performance, which must have used up every ounce of energy in her body. The funkified powerhouse delivered breath-taking renditions of the theatrical “What Would They Do If We All Stopped Paying Taxes?”, disconsolate “How Do I Let A Good Man Down” and heart-warming “This Land Is Your Land”, but her singing was not her only type of soulful ammunition. Absentmindedly regaling listeners with tales that were spoken perfectly in time over her band’s music, dancing in a frenzied manner and plucking a fella from the audience for her obligatory flirtatious moment with a local, added that extra firepower to her unforgettable performance.

[The photo was taken by Kelly Jo Garner, you can find more photos in her gallery. For more info about Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings visit daptonerecords.com]

Unfortunately promised CDs for reviews got stuck somewhere in the mail and that’s the reason why you haven’t read much new reviews in recent weeks here. So instead of focussing on underground soul like usually why not tell you about a recently purchased double compilation on Motown UK.
Before the term Disco was coined for a certain type of music,which you could hear in a discotheque, it was just an uptempo version of very danceable funk and soul music. Of course it was all watered down within a short time with rather uninspired songs which sounded more like doing music by numbers as soon as people discovered that there were large amounts of money to be made. And even established acts like Marvin Gaye (Got To Give It Up), Gladys Knight (Love Is Always On My Mind) or Stevie Wonder (Do I Do) jumped on the bandwagon by doing some disco-inspired songs.
Certainly the fact that Disco had a large black and gay following (just listen to Carl Bean’s I Was Born This Way on this compilation) was one of the reason that the mainstream condemned it as hedonistic music and were happy that they could burn Disco records in the end.
Naturally with the rise of house music some of the problems of Disco resurfaced (i.e. lack of ideas, cliché-ridden, uninspired music and established acts doing house inspired versions or getting remixed) but since the days of Disco much have changed in the way of communication and distribution of music (for one thing there’s the internet) and it looks like any music genre invented since then never really disappeared or died. It just goes underground with some hardcore fans still listening to a certain music genre. In the end Disco was never really dead, it just waited for the right time to see its rebirth on house dancefloors with many house records being a shameless (and often uncredited) rip-off or remake of old disco songs.
But back to the album Motown Disco. What has a rather meaningless and cheap cover (though the profound comments to each featured song make more than up for it) is an impressive compilation of groovy and funky dance tunes covering a period from 1972 to 1983. There are the songs, I’m sure everyone knows, like Diana Ross’ Love Hangover (I still like the way this changes from a slowie to an uptempo track) and The Boss (the former also saw a more than solid remake by Pauline Henry as a Joey Negro remix and the latter was re-done by the Braxtons with remixes by Masters At Work). While Diana was never the greatest singer (of the Supremes and in general) her voice fits perfectly to the midtempo and uptempo stuff. The Supremes’ High Energy is sung by Scherrie Payne who certainly possesses more vocal power than Diana. (Anyone remembering the uptempo Disco clone named High Energy?).
Marvin Gaye’s Got To Give It Up may not reach the musical level he has reached with What’s Going On but it’s still a perfect song to move your hips and it’s featured here in all its 11+ minutes glory.
Also on the more funky side are the two Rick James cuts You & I and Big Time. Former Rick James protégé Teena Marie is featured with Behind The Groove from her Lady T album.
Good to see Eddie Kendricks’ Date With The Rain on this record as well. House music fans will recall Jamie Principle’s cover version from 1990 on Atlantic.
Add to this The Temptations Law Of The Land, Thelma Houston’s Saturday Night, Sunday Morning or the original 12″ promo version of Down To Love Town by The Originals and you have an impressive insight on the way Motown handled Disco.

Tracklisting of Motown Disco - Soulful Grooves from the 70s & 80s:
Disc 1:
1. The Temptations - Law of the Land/ 2. Eddie Kendricks - Keep On Trucking/ 3. Diana Ross - Love Hangover/ 4. The Originals - Down To Love Town/ 5. Supremes - High Energy/ 6. Eddie Kendricks - Date With the Rain/ 7. Thelma Houston - Saturday Night, Sunday Morning/ 8. Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up/ 9. Rick James & The Stone City Band - You & I/ 10. Platinum Hook - Standing on the Verge/ 11. Tata Vega - Get It Up For Love
Disc 2:
1. Finished Touch - Need To Know You Better/ 2. Thelma Houston - Don’t Leave Me This Way/ 3. Dynamic Superiors - Nowhere To Run/ 4. Jerry Butler - (I Love To See You) Dancin’/ 5. 21st Creation - Tailgate/ 6. Diana Ross - The Boss/ 7. Carl Bean - I Was Born This Way/ 8. Teena Marie - Behind The Groove/ 9. Rick James - Big Time/ 10. Switch - You Pulled A Switch/ 11. Willie Hutch - In & Out | released 2005 Motown/Universal Music Operations

For more infos visit motown45.co.uk, The Motown Story, discomuseum.com, jahsonic.com, livingart.com.

[If you want to discuss Motown Disco, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

In conjunction with radiopellenera jazz-not-jazz presents a weekly show with quality soul, jazz and house music. You can catch the show every Sunday from 13:00-15:00 UTC+2 and if you missed it it will be repeated on Tuesday (07:00-09:00 UTC+2) and Friday (10:00-12:00 UTC+2). For conversion to your local time zone have a look at the wikipedia or at radiopellenera’s schedule on live365.com.

Here’s the playlist for the next show starting Sunday, October 16th:

Dinah Washington: Stranger On Earth
Courtney Pine: The Holy Grail (from To The Eyes Of Creation)
Brian Patneaude Quartet: Alone (from Distance)
Shara Nelson: Inside Out (Orchestral Version)
Curtis Lundy: A Long Journey Home (ft. Carmen Lundy) (from Against All Odds)
Vanessa Simon: You Can’t Deny It (from Definitive Source)
Vivienne McKone: Come Into My Life
The Escofferys: Something Within Me (from Soul Stirrings - The Nu Inspirational)
Curtis Mayfield & Sandra St. Victor: I Believe In You (from New World Order)
Pru: Hazy Shades (from Pru)
Cloud Nine: Peace & Love (from Millenium)
Asaph Womack: I Love You (from My Love My Life)
Jody Watley: The Way (Parts I&II) (from Affection)
Carl Hancock Rux: Wasted Seed (from Rux Revue)
Robert Owens: AM Blues Overture (from Rhythms In Me)
Alison David: 1 Last Look (from Believe)
Legends Of The Underground: Paradise Garden (from Original Soundtrack)
The Nation Funktasia: Anti Funky World (from In Search Of The Last Trump Of Funk)
UFO: Flying Saucer (feat. Dee Dee Bridgewater)
JC Hopkins Biggish Band featuring Queen Esther: Here Comes Love (from Underneath A Brooklyn Moon)
Negrocan: African Bird (from Medio Mundo)