Jack Cole Quintet - Macy's (single)

Macy's, a rockin' sax-organ combo piece by the Jack Cole Quintet, sounds very much like Plas Johnson's singles for Capitol in the 1950s. You can also hear the influence of Earl Bostic's fine sides for King.

It's not surprising that Cole (I'm assuming he's the sax player) sounds very much like Johnson. On the "A" side of this single is a cover of Sax Fifth Avenue, which Johnson took into the charts, using the pseudonym Johnny Beecher, in the spring of 1963. Both versions were released around the same time.

Sax Fifth Avenue and Macy's appear to have been the only two sides recorded by the Jack Cole Quintet.

Macy's



Neither side of this single has appeared in a digital format.

Billy Martin & The Soul Jets - Doin' Their Thing

Trumpeter Billy Martin was from New York, but he and his fine funk band the Soul Jets did most of their recording in Montreal, Quebec.

Martin played in New York and Europe and studied at conservatories in Manhattan and Frankfurt, Germany. In the late 1960s he and his group toured Eastern Canada, staying in Montreal for a while. While there they recorded at least two albums -- Doin' Their Thing (London, 1969) and Strawberry Soul (Trans-World, 1970). Both were released only in Canada, are hard to find and have not been released digitally.

There was a third Billy Martin album of uncertain origin, I Turn You On, released on the Onion label in 1974. It possibly was made during the same period as the Canadian LPs. However, unlike those two releases it's a mainly vocal affair.

On the strictly instrumental Doin' Their Thing Billy Martin and the Soul Jets are in great form throughout, as evidenced by The Strut.

The Strut



Billy Martin seemed to disappear from the music scene after making the records in Canada. It doesn't appear that there were any further recordings with the exception of I Turn You On, which may or may not have been done later. Here's a sample from that LP.

The Buena Vistas - Hot Shot

Not a surf record as you might expect from the group's name but a tasty slice of Detroit instrumental soul from 1966.

Very little is known about the group, which recorded a half dozen or so singles for at least four labels. Credits on the record labels indicate the involvement of  Buffalo, N.Y., DJ and record man Tom Shannon and Carl Cisco, who had both relocated to Detroit and were associated with another Swan recording group, the Rockin' Rebels (Wild Weekend). For further information (and some well-informed speculation) on the Buena Vistas read this post on the excellent Funky 16 Corners blog.

Hot Shot came out in May 1966 and was a minor hit on both the Billboard (#87) and Cashbox (#82) charts.

Hot Shot



The flip side of the single was T.N.T., an organ driven number that reminds me somewhat of Dave (Baby) Cortez (The Happy Organ, Rinky-Dink).

Both sides of this single are being peddled as downloads from all the major sources, but I'd be willing to bet they've been dubbed from vinyl.

Hot Shot is also included on the 1996 CD compilation Swan's Soul Sides: Dance the Philly from the highly-regarded Ace label in the U.K. It's available at a reasonable price from Amazon and other online sellers.

Wilbert Longmire - The Way We Were

Jazz and R&B guitarist Wilbert Longmire gained a bit of notice after he joined pianist Bob James's Tappan Zee label in 1978. Longmire and George Benson knew each other and it was Benson who brought him to the attention of James.

Longmire's third Tappan Zee release, With All My Love (1980), contained the radio friendly track Hawkeye, which scored some airplay.

Longmire had begun his recording career as a solo artist in 1969 with the LP Revolution for World Pacific, and the LP pictured above also predates Longmire's Tappan Zee signing. The Way We Were (1975) came out on Astra Records, but the minimal packaging and black-and-white cover indicate this was probably a private release.

Longmire is joined on The Way We Were by keyboardist Bill Mason, Billy Kaye, percussion, bassists Lee Tucker and Robert Evans, drummer Larry Langston and rhythm guitarist Mark Shulte. Longmire's playing on the title track reminds us just how beautiful this tune is.

The Way We Were



The Way We Were has never had a digital release and vinyl copies go for $40 and up on the collectors' market. However, two of Longmire's Tappen Zee albums, Champagne and With All My Love, have appeared on an import CD that's available from Amazon and other online sellers.

Longmire apparently has not recorded as a leader since his Tappen Zee days. As of 2011 he was living in the Cincinnati area and playing local gigs.

Here's the track that got Longmire some national attention in 1980.

The Soul Brothers - Horsing Around (single)

The 1960s certainly proved to be a hotbed of dance crazes. The twist, the watusi, the monkey, mashed potato -- the list goes on and on.

Dance records seemed always to be on the charts, thanks in large part to powerful AM radio stations that covered much of the U.S. and network T.V. dance shows like American Bandstand. The countless local dance shows and promotions also played a significant role.

The success in 1968 of the dance instrumental The Horse by Cliff Nobles & Co., a No. 2 pop hit, inspired a raft of horse-themed singles, most of which passed unnoticed at the time and have now been largely forgotten.

Many of these records, like Cliff Nobles's original, emanated from soul labels in Philadelphia. Still others popped up from recording studios elsewhere.

Horsing Around by the Soul Brothers, led by Benny Gordon, came out of New York City sometime in '68. Although the group hailed from South Carolina most of their sessions took place in New York.

What sets Horsing Around apart from the other horse records is the dynamic drumming and the really tight horn section.

Horsing Around



Horsing Around was among the 21 tracks gathered in 2011 for the excellent northern soul CD compilation Dynamic Grooves: Funk and Groovy Soul from the Vaults of Scepter, Wand, Dynamo and Musicor. It's on the BGP (Beat Goes Public) label, an imprint of Ace Records in the U.K., and is widely available from Amazon and elsewhere at a reasonable price.

And here's The Horse that started it all, from Cliff Nobles & Co.

Floyd Morris - The ConSoul of Floyd Morris

Pianist and organist Floyd Morris (d. 1988, age 62) spent most of his time enlivening rhythm-and-blues recording sessions in his native Chicago and had a very limited career as a solo artist, waxing half a dozen singles and the album The ConSoul of Floyd Morris (Select, 1965) between 1964 and 1972.

In the early '50s Morris appeared with a group known as the Four Shades of Rhythm at the Bar-O-Music in Chicago for several years but apparently did not record with them. He moved on to join bassist Johnny Pate's trio and then vocalist Oscar Brown, Jr. Morris settled in at Chicago's studios backing artists like Gene Chandler, The Impressions and Etta James.

That brings us to The ConSoul of Floyd Morris, a fine helping of organ instrumental R&B that also features the sax of Buddy Lucas, another veteran of the studio scene. Lucas had played on hits such Why Do Fools Fall in Love by The Teenagers and Tears on My Pillow by Little Anthony and the Imperials.

Here's a sample track from the LP, which has not been re-released in a digital format.

Call Me Darling



One of Floyd Morris's most notable appearances isn't that well known. He plays piano on Soulful Strut, which was a big instrumental hit in 1968. The record was credited to Young-Holt Unlimited, formed by two former members of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, bassist Eldee Young and drummer Red Holt. The tune had begun life as a backing track for singer Barbara Acklin's Am I the Same Girl. The vocal was stripped out and Morris's piano was added and the result was Soulful Strut, which sold two million copies.

According to Robert Pruter's book Chicago Soul neither Young nor Holt appeared on Soulful Strut, which was tracked by an anonymous group of studio players. In any case, here it is.

Johnny Beecher - Jack Sax the City (single)

Johnny Beecher was a pseudonym that tenor saxophonist Plas Johnson used to record two albums for the Charter label in 1963. Johnson was under contract to Capitol at the time.

The title single of the first LP, Sax Fifth Ave., was a minor hit, garnering a fair amount of airplay. It originally came out on the Hollywood-based Omega label before Warner Brothers picked it up for national distribution. I believe Omega and Charter were part of the same company, but for some reason the Charter LPs were distributed in the U.S. by MGM.

The Sax Fifth Ave. single had a "B" side, Jack Sax the City, that didn't appear on either of the albums. Perhaps this stomping piece of crime jazz didn't fit the more laid back vibe of the long-players.

Jack Sax the City



The personnel on the Sax Fifth Ave. LP included organist Bert Kendrix (misspelled as Kendricks on the single but spelled correctly on the LP), Emil Richards on vibes, bassist Jimmy Bond and either Earl Palmer or Wayne Robinson on drums. All were veterans of Los Angeles recording studios.

Both Charter LPs -- the second was On the Scene -- were combined on a 2004 CD from Blue Moon Jazz, an imprint of the Spain-based Fresh Sound Records, and issued under Mr. Beecher's real name. The Warm Sound of Plas Johnson, Tenor Sax, Vol. 1: Midnight Blues can be ordered direct from the company. The single's "B" side, available above, is not on the CD.

Here's the one Johnny Beecher hit. The label shown is the original release before Warner Brothers picked it up.

Tiny Bradshaw - Heavy Juice (single)

The career of bandleader Tiny Bradshaw (1905-1958) spanned both the swing and rhythm-and-blues eras. He made his first recordings under his own name for Decca in 1934.

Bradshaw struggled over the next decade or so and when he got his band into the recording studio again, in 1944, he'd more or less left swing behind, opting for jump blues and R&B.

All of Bradshaw's best known R&B sides were cut for King Records in Cincinnati, with the majority coming between 1950 and 1954.

The instrumental Heavy Juice came out in 1953 and was reasonably successful as a followup to Bradshaw's big hit of 1952, Soft. Saxophonist Red Prysock is listed as co-writer of Heavy Juice and since he was a member of Bradshaw's band around this time, I'm assuming it's him playing the brief, but rousing, sax solo.

Heavy Juice



Most of the sides that Bradshaw recorded for King are available on Heavy Juice: The King Recordings 1950-55, a 32-track CD compilation issued by Rev-Ola in 2006.

The CD is out of print, but copies appear to be still available from the long-established and reliable Raucous Records, based in the United Kingdom. Postage rates for international customers are reasonable and the price ends up being half of what most North American sources are charging.

Bradshaw's King recordings are available on a number of download collections. I'd probably opt for The EP Collection... Plus, from the British See For Miles label, primarily because of the company's reputation for quality recordings.

I mentioned this one earlier -- Bradshaw's 1952 hit, Soft.

The Kingpins - In the Pocket (45 single)

This 1967 single has saxophonist King Curtis recording under the name of his band, the Kingpins. In the Pocket is the "B" side of yet another cover of Ode to Billie Joe, which actually was a moderate hit for Curtis under the Kingpins name. Apparently some pressings of the single give Curtis top billing, probably after Ode to Billie Joe got a fair amount of airplay.

In the Pocket was one of the few originals recorded at a session on Aug. 24, 1967, at American Studios in Memphis. It's a real "B" side gem. Listen to the MP3 taken from the original Atco single.

In the Pocket



In the Pocket has turned up on several King Curtis compilations and re-releases in the digital age, both on CD and as a download. On CD the one to go for is Instant Soul: The Legendary King Curtis from the well-regarded Razor & Tie label. You can get a used copy on Amazon for about $11.

The "A side of the single sounds like this.

Paul Humphrey - Humphrey's Overture (single)

It's not surprising that this single from Detroit drummer Paul Humphrey has one foot in the disco camp, since it's from the soundtrack of a 1974 blaxploitation flick, Black Fist, in which star Richard Lawson plays a streetfighter who goes to work for a gangster.

Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice) and Dabney Coleman are the most recognizable names in the cast, which also includes Edward James Olmos making his screen debut.

Although the film came out in '74 the soundtrack album, featuring disco and funk tracks from various artists, wasn't released until 1977.

Paul Humphrey's contribution was also released as a single (b/w Bionic Salsa).

Humphrey's Overture



Neither the Black Fist soundtrack nor any of Paul Humphrey's recordings, including his 1971 hit Cool Aid (credited to Paul Humphrey and the Cool Aid Chemists), are available as downloads, despite what iTunes may think. That site has managed to confuse the drummer with a Toronto-based singer of the same name. The Paul Humphrey and Cool Aid Chemists album (1971) is available on a Japanese CD, but prices start at about $30.

So, in the meantime here's Cool Aid.

Billy Ward and the Dominoes (Decca LP)

Billy Ward and the Dominoes were one of the most successful R&B groups of the early 1950s, but by the time this LP came out in '57 they were starting on their way down.

Many people assumed at the time that Ward was the lead singer, but that wasn't the case. Although Ward was the group's musical director (and by all accounts a strict disciplinarian) and played piano, the Dominoes' success was based largely on the styles of lead tenors Clyde McPhatter (1950-53) and Jackie Wilson (1953-57). When McPhatter departed to form The Drifters, Wilson was his replacement.

The group's success was largely confined to the R&B chart and the Dominoes had not had a pop hit since Sixty-Minute Man in 1951. That changed in 1956, a year after Ward signed the group with Decca, when St. Therese of the Roses was a surprise chart entry. It was included on the Billy Ward and the Dominoes album, which also included a version of To Each His Own, a 1946 composition by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. Eddy Howard, Freddy Martin and His Orchestra, the Ink Spots and several others recorded hit versions at the time. On the Dominoes' recording Jackie Wilson is the lead singer.

The MP3 is from the original vinyl LP.

To Each His Own



Some of the Dominoes Decca recordings, including St. Therese of the Roses and To Each His Own, are available almost everywhere on various download compilations, many of them of dubious origin. The quality varies widely.

The best overview of the group's career on CD, although it only includes a couple of Decca cuts, is Sixty-Minute Men: The Best of Billy Ward & His Dominoes, a 1993 compilation from Rhino.

No need to pay the $35 demanded by Amazon for this out-of-print item. Used copies are available at a fraction of the price.

Here's the one and only Decca hit by Billy Ward and the Dominoes.

Bill Black's Combo - The Memphis Scene

By the time this album came out on Mega Records in 1971 all the core members of the Bill Black's Combo that scored a number of instrumental hits in the 1960s were long gone. In fact leader Black had died of a brain tumor in 1965, at age 39.

Black, of course, was the bass player on all the early Elvis Presley recordings for Sun and the first sides that Elvis recorded for RCA Victor.

Black formed his own combo in 1959 and scored a number of instrumental hits, among them Smokie, Part 2, White Silver Sands and Don't Be Cruel.

The band heard on The Memphis Scene is under the direction of producer Larry Rogers, who had opened a Memphis recording studio, Lyn Lou Studio, with Black in 1962. Saxophonist Robert Gladney is the only musician identified on the album, although road manager and bassist Bob Tucker, who joined the combo in 1963 and had taken over leadership of the group after Black's death, likely also was part of this recording.

The Memphis Scene retains the basic sound of the classic Bill Black's Combo of the '60s, but adds a few funk elements as well.

Memphis Shuffle



The Memphis Scene is not available in a digital format.

Here's another selection, a funky little thing called Cotton Carnival, that was included on the LP.

The Moments - The Other Side of the Moments

I always tend to cast a jaundiced eye towards albums in which a pop or R&B/soul star decides to redo some prime selections from the standards songbook. The misfires far outnumber the successes, often because the artist has little or no affinity for the material.

Happily, The Other Side of the Moments (1972, Stang) is one of those that does succeed, due to a combination of the group's genuine feel for the songs and the out-of-the-park arrangements by Sammy Lowe.

Lowe's roots lie in the big band era, during which he played with and arranged for the Erskine Hawkins orchestra. He would go on to arrange and conduct on one of James Brown's biggest hits, It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World (1966), and dozens of other chart singles and LPs by the likes of Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, The Tokens and Della Reese.

In 1972 came Lowe's work on The Other Side of the Moments, a New Jersey soul group who topped the R&B charts twice in the 1970s, with Love on a Two-Way Street (1970) and Look at Me (I'm in Love) (1975).

Included on the LP was Lowe's most unusual arrangement of Blues in the Night, composed in 1941 by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. The MP3 is sourced from the original LP.

Blues in the Night



The Other Side of the Moments can be had as a download from iTunes and other sources. The album has received two releases on CD, the easiest of which to obtain is a 2006 release from the Collectables label that pairs it with another Moments release, My Thing. Reasonably priced copies are available in the Amazon Marketplace.

Here's one of The Moments' chart-topping hits.

Merlin & His Trio - The Swinging Hi-Fi Organ

You're probably looking at this and thinking ... Hmmm ... Is this something I really want to hear?

Don't be put off by the geeky looking cover or the wimpy title. Inside is a wonderful LP of down-to-earth organ and sax R&B grooves courtesy of Merlin and His Trio, whoever they might have been. I believe this came out in 1959 or 1960 and was probably recorded several years earlier.

Think Wild Bill Davis or Bill Doggett and you'll have a pretty good idea of what you'll hear. To whet your appetite check out the sample track.

Bluer Than Blue



The Swinging Hi-Fi Organ was issued on the bargain basement Bravo! label, put out by Pickwick Sales, a company that was originally headquartered in Freeport, Long Island, N.Y. Many of the Bravo releases -- there were about 60 of them -- were reissued several years later on Grand Prix, another Pickwick imprint, with the same catalogue numbers and identical front covers. Some of these albums, on both labels, were in mono only.

The Swinging Hi-Fi Organ still turns up in thrift stores, so grab it if you see it. However, there are several other LPs sporting the Merlin name that, unless you're a fan of roller-rink style organ music, you can safely ignore.

Rusty Bryant - Fire Eater (45 single)

The tenor saxophone of Rusty Bryant (1929-1991) graced some fine soul-jazz albums for Prestige in the late 1960s and early '70s. He'd come up through the rhythm-and-blues ranks in the '50s, recording several sessions that were issued on Dot. Among the tunes recorded was a frantic version of Night Train that was re-titled All Nite Long and became something of a jukebox hit.

But ... back to those Prestige recordings. Fire Eater was the title tune of a 1971 album that included Wilbert Longmire on guitar, Leon Spencer and Bill Mason alternating on organ and Idris Muhammad on drums.

For jazz DJs Prestige issued a single, Fire Eater/The Hooker, with severely truncated versions of those album tracks -- three minutes as opposed to about nine minutes on the LP. Here's the Fire Eater single. Mason is the organist on this track.

Fire Eater



Fire Eater and another Rusty Bryant album from 1971, Wildfire, were combined on a 1991 Prestige CD, Legends of Acid Jazz, Vol. 2. You'll have no trouble scoring a copy of this as cheap copies (some for less than $5) abound online.

From YouTube here's a sample of Bryant's hard driving R&B style from 1956.

Earl Bostic - Exercise (single)

Alto saxophonist Earl Bostic (1913-1965) was an acknowledged technical master of his instrument, but he remains unappreciated by many jazz purists who only know him for his rhythm-and-blues hits of the late 1940s and early '50s, including the chart-topping Flamingo in 1951.

Yet Bostic's rough tone is often cited as a major influence on John Coltrane, who told Downbeat magazine in 1960 that Bostic "showed me a lot of things on my horn."

Although Bostic made some jazz recordings early in his career it wasn't until he switched to his R&B style of a simple melody backed by a strong beat that he found major commercial success. He recorded prolifically for King Records through the 1950s.

Exercise, a strong R&B tune, was on the flip side of his 1957 single She's Funny That Way. The MP3 is taken from the 45 and has a bit of distortion due to vinyl wear and tear.

Exercise



The first appearance of Exercise on an album came in 1958 on the LP Invitation to Dance with Bostic.

Since the majority of the saxophonist's King recordings have been released on CD and/or as downloads a quick search should lead you to Exercise and any other Bostic tracks that might strike your fancy.

Here's the Bostic tune most people recognize.

The Family - Family Affair (45 single)

This mellow funk version of the Sly & the Family Stone hit was issued shortly after Sly's single topped the charts in 1971.

According to YouTube poster fonsoul, whose channel boasts an eye-popping collection of 1,500 soul, R&B and blues selections, The Family was a group of Philadelphia studio musicians that included Leon Huff on keyboards, Ronnie Baker on bass, Earl Young on bass, Roland Chambers on bass and Larry Washington on congas. This was the group that evolved into MFSB after a name change in 1973 to avoid confusion with a British rock band.

Producers Huff and Kenny Gamble put this single out on their North Star label. It was reissued in 1973 under the MFSB name on Philadelphia-International, which the producers had formed in '71. By this time MFSB had become the studio band that backed nearly all of the label's hit records as well as waxing their own instrumental recordings, including the 1974 No. 1 hit TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia).

Family Affair



An extended version of Family Affair (4:21 as opposed to the single's 2:17) was included MFSB's self-titled 1973 album, which is available as a download and on a recently issued British CD.

The flip side of the original Family Affair single contained something called Nation Time, and here it is from fonsoul's collection.

Willie Mitchell - Solid Soul

A third slice of Memphis soul from Willie Mitchell. You'll find the previous posts with more information on Mitchell HERE and HERE.

Solid Soul dates from 1968 and consists mainly of cover versions of other people's instrumental hits: Jimmy Smith's Prayer Meetin', Hugh Masekela's Grazing in the Grass and two Freddie King hits, San-Ho-Zay and Hideaway are among them.

Then there's Up-Hard, a driving R&B track from the LP that turned into a minor hit for Mitchell when it was released as a single.

Up-Hard



Solid Soul was packaged with its predecessor On Top on a 2-on-1 CD by Hi Records UK in 1995 and again in 2001. But it's out of print now and commands upwards of $40 for a copy.

Best bet for Willie Mitchell on CD is Soul Serenade: The Best of Willie Mitchell, a 1999 Capitol release. It includes Up-Hard and 19 other tracks. Used copies start at about $10 on Amazon.

There's a ton of Willie Mitchell material to download on iTunes and elsewhere. Stick to the albums on the original Hi label and avoid the compilations put together by companies that use old LPs as their source material.

Here's another track from Solid Soul. Thanks to mrsoul1770, publisher of the first-rate Groove Addict blog, for posting this on YouTube.

Ross Carnegie - Cool Dad (45 single)

I can't tell you much about this tasty slice of organ funk except that it came out of New York in the mid- to late1960s. Organist Ross Carnegie was mentioned several times in the society pages of New York magazines during the 60s and 70s so one would presume he lived there.

Cool Dad (b/w Win, Lose or Draw) on the El-Con label has turned into quite a collectible disc on the northern soul market.



Cool Dad has been anthologized at least twice in the CD age, first on the 1999 release Vital Organs, which apparently is still available here.

Cool Dad was also included in the 2006 compilation, Absolute Funk, Vol. 3, on the Body and Soul label.

You'll pay at least $35-40 for a copy of this out-of-print CD. Fortunately, it's available as a download.

YouTube has a video showing Ross Carnegie performing recently in Dallas, but the audio and picture quality is so awful I won't link to it here.

However, this YouTube selection starts off with Win, Lose or Draw, the "B" side of the Cool Dad single.

Gale Storm - I Hear You Knocking

Actress and pop singer Gale Storm (1922-2009) is little remembered today, either for her movie and TV work or her hit recordings in the 1950s.

In the '50s Storm was a TV star with her series My Little Margie and later The Gale Storm Show. Her singing appearance on something called the Comedy Hour Show caught the attention of Randy Wood, the head of Dot Records and he signed her to the label.

Like Pat Boone, her label mate at Dot, much of Storm's early recording success was based on her covers of rhythm-and-blues hits. Her first, and biggest, hit was a version of I Hear You Knocking, which Smiley Lewis took into the R-and-B charts in the summer of 1955. Storm's recording, released in the fall of that year, reached No. 2 on Billboard's pop singles chart.



Gale Storm's success on the pop charts was brief. Her last hit, Dark Moon, came less than two years after I Hear You Knocking.

Storm's hits were gathered on a 1995 CD from Varese Sarabande, Dark Moon: The Best of Gale Storm.

This out-of-print release commands premier prices. The cheapest I've seem recently was $22 -- for a used copy! There are other options, however.

The best of these would be two collections from the European label Jasmine, available both on CD and as downloads. There may be some duplication on the tracks, so check before buying both.

Other downloads of Storm's recordings exist, but they are likely inferior in quality.

Here's Storm performing I Hear You Knocking on a 1950s TV show.