Roy Ayers - Uno Melodic

The label is Uno Melodic Records and was home to some of the most classic productions in the early Jazz Funk and Disco period. Soul Jazz Records have recently been issuing some of the labels rarer releases such as the ‘Ladies of the 80′s’ LP which features the classic ‘Turned Onto You’ and Roy’s own LP  ‘Lots of Love’ which features the much loved track ‘Chicago’ (amongst other dancefloor nuggests).

Another release the label is quite well known for is the classic LP released by Sylvia Striplin entitled ‘Give Me Your Love’ which was entirely produced by Roy himself who seemed to focus his production on female artists around this time and features ‘You Cant Turn Me Away’ a two step classic. Two other female artists included Bobbi Humphrey who put out the essential cut ‘Baby Dont You Know’ and Ethel Beatty who recorded one of our favorite cuts ‘I Know You Care’ which can all be listened to below. A classic label, one master producer, rare releases and timeless pieces of music all make the Uno Melodic label worth mentioning. Check it out!!

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The super talented T&S crew feature on this BunchTV production, the show is recorded from Cologne in Germany last month and we are working our best to make this show happen in Ireland this year, Lee Fields has a voice like no other, buy their album ‘My World’ which came out last summer.

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Sometimes records attain legendary status because they’ve been long unavailable and to hear them you have to part with a week’s wages for a dusty slab of vinyl. Their status is derived from their scarcity as much as their quality. Some records though are as precious as they are rare. Candi Staton is a case in point. There aren’t many old soul records as highly regarded, yet as elusive as the singles and albums that Candi recorded for FAME Records of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but one listen to the sides she cut there and you’ll know that these records deserve all their acclaim and more.

There’s little in the soul canon that matches the strength and beauty of the work Candi produced during her six years recording at FAME. The songs are masterpieces of the genre, the musicianship often astounding, the production perfectly tailored. On top of it all sits Candi’s voice, an instrument of unsurpassed grace and sensuality that weaves its way through the songs with gentle strength and undeniable dignity. Candi’s voice is honeyed with experience, the experience of loving and of living, of loving and of losing. To be able to sing of love with such clarity, honesty and compassion is a rare gift indeed.

Canzetta Maria Staton (pronounced Stay-ton) was born in 1943 in the small Alabama town of Hanceville, population less than 800, and had just the kind of rural upbringing you might imagine; helping pick cotton and singing in the church choir. Candi’s father worked as a farmer in the summer and a coal miner in the winter. The family were poor but Candi was happy. ‘We lived by the barest of necessities,’ remembers Candi. ‘We were a very poor family, but we had a lot of love between us so we managed.’

By her eighth birthday Candi was already singing in a gospel group, the Four Golden Echoes. ‘I was the youngest. We all sang together and we were one of the most talked about little groups in the area… We’d have all day singing in church and then we’d have dinner on the ground. The singing was okay but the dinner on the ground was the thing for me. That’s what I lived for, that was the highpoint of my life! I loved that food.’

When Candi was ten her mother moved the family north to Cleveland in order to escape her alcoholic husband. Candi, though, was sent to a boarding school in Nashville, the Jewel Christian Academy, where she joined the Jewel Gospel Trio, cutting sides for Nashboro Records and touring with gospel greats of the time like Mahalia Jackson, The Staple Singers, The Soul Stirrers and a young Aretha Franklin. ‘We stayed on the road all year and we had a schoolteacher out there with us. It was hard but it was exciting. We were like the Jackson Five of gospel. We were the greatest thing. People came from everywhere to see us.’

“We saw everyone on those tours… I also saw the Jewel Gospel Singers at the Apollo in New York; these young girls could sing and shout. I especially liked Canzetta, whose voice was filled with feeling. Later Canzetta became known as Candi Staton in the secular arena. Many a night Canzetta shook up the service singing `I Buckled Up My Shows and Started’ or `Precious Lord.’ I related to Canzetta as a Christian and a professional.” – ARETHA FRANKLIN

At seventeen Candi ran off to Los Angeles with the Pilgrim Travelers’ singer Lou Rawls, but they were talked out of a wedding by Lou’s mother. ‘We almost got married but his mother sent me back and told me to stay in school.’
Shortly after that she turned her back on school and her gospel career as she became increasingly frustrated with the hardships of life on the road. Back in Alabama she was soon pregnant, by the son of a local Pentecostal minister, and had to get married. Her husband was a jealous and abusive man, and any hopes of a musical career had to be forgotten, but Candi never stopped singing. ‘I still sang in the church, I just didn’t do any public singing on tours or anything like that. I was just

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Two of our good friends join forces and drop a new mix titled ‘Music for Night People‘. Daniel Drumz and Mr. Krime are true school deejays from Krakow, Poland who are as soulful as they are funky. So it comes as no surprise that they have been at the forefront of the Polish DJ scene for the last 10 years. Here is a nice trailer to promo the new mix and we are hoping they have our copy in the post already.

Looking forward to checking it out, 100% Vinyl too for added flavour!

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Truth & Soul do it again, this time unearthing a gem from Ghetto Brothers.

One of the most enigmatic, purely New York records of all time is finally available to the masses. The Ghetto Brothers 45 “Ghetto Brothers Power” b/w “I Saw a tear”, which is a single taken off their full-length “Power Fuerza” LP have been polished up and re-mastered from the original record.

The Ghetto Brothers were a gang founded in New York Citys South Bronx in the late 1960s. They eventually spread to much of the Northeastern United States. Like the Young Lords, they were involved in Puerto Rican nationalism, including, in the case of the Ghetto Brothers, an association with the then new Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

Ghetto Brothers founder Benjamin Melendez, who left the organization in 1976, was also known as a guitarist. He led a band, aslo know as the Ghetto Brothers, which included his late brother Victor Melendez on drums. They released one album in 1972, which had only informal, local distribution. In the past ten years, “Power Fuerza”, which has become shrouded with mystery, has fetched quadruple digits on ebay and become one of the most sought after New York records of all time.

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A little over two weeks to go to this highly anticipated show that seems to be grabbing the attention in all corners of Dublin and beyond..new single/vid and interview to whet the appetite. Oh, and go snap up the deluxe green 12inch if you can.

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Dam Funk plays Burn Rubber and Killdat live from Seoul, Korea – a leg of his Japanese Tour. Playing Revolution @ The Twisted Pepper on Friday October 23rd.

After a four-year break from the studio, L.A.’s finest practitioners of gritty soul/jazz, party funk & breaks, BREAKESTRA, return to the fray with a brand new studio album on Strut this September, ‘DUSK ‘TILL DAWN’.

The brainchild of producer, engineer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist “Music Man” Miles Tackett, Breakestra was formed from a love of golden era late ‘80s / early ‘90s hip hop and a fascination for the dusty samples that peppered the era’s classic records. From watching revered West coast DJs like Cut Chemist and Mixmaster Wolf cut up hip hop, funk and breaks, Tackett looked to form a live collective of musicians that could play the originals live with all of the same sounds, feel and musicianship. Through weekly jams at a local coffeehouse session called The Breaks, Breakestra was created.

From then on, with their base at fabled Thursday L.A. club night Rootdown, Breakestra became renowned as one of the great live funk bands of their era. Mixmaster Wolf, first persuaded off the decks at The Breaks to voice Bobby Byrd’s ‘I Know You Got Soul’, became a key voice and hypeman out front. An amorphous line-up of L.A.’s finest players, led by Tackett on bass and vocals, ensured that the grooves were kept super-tight with local musicians like drummer Pete McNeal (Z Trip’s band), James “The Funky Penguin” King (The Lions) and Jeremy Ruzumna (Macy Gray’s band) all a part of the Breakestra fold at different times.

The band’s recordings have been rare to savour, numbering an early live cassette-only mixtape, a handful of singles and second mixtape release on Stones Throw and a debut studio album, ‘Hit The Floor’, on Ubiquity in late 2005.

For 2009, Breakestra return with their long-awaited sophomore set exploring all colours of the funk spectrum. Built around the vision of “Music Man” Miles and Mixmaster Wolf (as well as producing, recording and writing the tracks, Miles performs bass, drums, guitars, cello, keys, percussion and vocals on the record), the trademark Breakestra touches remain intact: Wolf fronts tough breakbeat jams ‘Dark Clouds Rain Soul’ and Stones Throw single ‘Low Down Stank’; Miles himself brings his soulful vocals to ‘Need A Little Love’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Wait’ and amazing new female vocalist Afrodyete recalls the heyday of JB’s Funky People on the terrific ‘Come On Over’. The album even journeys into psychedelic soul (on the fuzzy ‘Show Me The Way’) and stripped-back West African farfisa stylings on instrumental cut, ‘North-East To Nippon’.

‘Dusk ‘Till Dawn’ is a tribute to Tackett’s late DJ partner at Rootdown, DJ Dusk, whose life was tragically taken in a road accident in 2007. Dusk himself appears alongside Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na on the funky rap joint ‘Posed To Be’ and the album is a fitting tribute to a much-loved L.A. figure and integral member of a scene which has become globally respected.

New Lp out on Strut Records on September 22nd

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Our favourite funk label have a new download to give away, bless the good people at T&S

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Truth & Soul is proud to present the first single from Michael Leonhart & The Avramina 7. Long time trumpet player for many of the T&S releases, Michael Leonhart has masterfully created something that sounds like the musical love child of R.D Burman, Fela Kuti, & Beck. A mix of reverb drenched vocals, afro beat horns, and fluttering tablas all work in perfect harmony on The Avramina 7′s first single on Truth & Soul.

A Little bit about Michael Leonhart & The Asvamina 7: ” As a solo artist Michael has released six albums — “Aardvark Poses” (1995), “Glub Glub vol. 11″ (1997), and “Slow” (2002) all on the Sunnyside label; “The Suzy Lattimore EP” (2005) & “The Ballad of Minton Quigley “(2006) self released and 2008’s “Hotel Music” on limited edition vinyl with hand painted covers released through St. Ives (an imprint of Secretly Canadian). He has composed and performed music for movies, television, dance, fashion shows and theater, and has appeared on over 100 albums.  At age 17, Michael was honored as the youngest Grammy recipient in history, cited as the most outstanding musician in a U.S. high school.  That same year ABC World News named him “Person of the Week”.

Michael has performed with Steely Dan since 1996, recording two albums with them, including 2000′s Grammy winning Album of the Year “Two Against Nature” on which he was a featured soloist, arranger and conductor. He has performed and/or recorded with such diverse artists as A Tribe Called Quest, Arif Mardin, Arto Linsday, Bill Frisell, Bobby McFerrin, Bonnie Raitt, Brian Eno, Busta Rhymes, Caetano Veloso, D.J. Spooky, David Byrne, Henry Mancini, James Brown, John Barry, Joshua Redman, Lenny Kravitz, Mark Ronson, Michael McDonald, Mos Def, Natalie Merchant, Q-Tip, Raekwon (Wutang Clan), Slash (Guns and Roses/ Velvet Revolver), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Todd Rundgren, and Wynton Marsalis.  Most recently, Michael recorded with Yoko Ono as a featured member of the Plastic Ono Band for her upcoming album, “Between My Head and the Sky”. Michael also appears on upcoming albums by Sharon Jones and the Dapkings, Foreigner, Sean Lennon, and Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto).

After 20 plus recordings as the house trumpet player for Truth and Soul records, the Brooklyn based funk and soul label will release Leonhart’s heavy-funk concept album “Seahorse and the Storyteller” late this year.”

UPDATE: 4 star review from Mojo here (PDF, .5MB) for the new album album ‘A Strange Arrangement’

Mayer Hawthorne grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,” claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, and Barry White among his influences, but draws the most inspiration from the music of Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, and Eddie Holland Jr.

The “retro” tag is added to almost any contemporary work that sounds like it was originally recorded between 1966 and 1974, and Hawthorne, among the newest contributors to the genre, is aware of how trends come and go. After being introduced to Stones Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf by mutual friend Noelle Scaggs of the Rebirth, even his current boss was skeptical. “He showed me two songs and I didn’t understand what I was listening to,” Wolf recalls. “I asked him if they were old songs that he did re-edits of – I couldn’t believe they were new songs and that he played all the instruments.”

And after meeting in person, it was even harder for Wolf to believe that Hawthorne was also the lead vocalist. Few expect such heartfelt sentiment to come from a 29-year-old white kid from Ann Arbor, but he has caught the ear of his family at Stones Throw, as well as BBC Radio 1 host Gilles Peterson and producer/DJ Mark Ronson. Expectations are high for the admitted vinyl junkie who never planned on taking his crooning public. Hawthorne’s hanging-by-a-string falsetto and breakbeat production on his first recorded effort, the tender “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out,” are simultaneously Smokey and J Dilla – equal parts “The Tracks of My Tears” and “Fall in Love.” “It’s soul,” he explains, “But it’s new.”

Hawthorne has produced and played instruments for much of his life, but never intended to become a singer. He isn’t formally trained, and never sang in the church choir or in any of the bands he was in before founding the County (formerly the County Commissioners). But here he is, new school soul sensation, who has taken the Motown assembly-line production model and eliminated nearly every element but himself and a few hired hands. “I think Mayer is the only artist in the history of the label that I’ve signed after hearing only two songs,” says Peanut Butter Wolf. “Sometimes, you just know it’s the right thing to do.”

And for those willing to believe anything is possible, be grateful to have Mayer Hawthorne on the scene. It’s not just throwback music anymore – this revival is all about progression.

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