Mable John: My Name Is Mable - The Complete Collection (1960-1963)

Mable John's stint with Motown was sufficiently obscure that even some of the relatively few soul fans who know of her work at all aren't aware that she started her career with the label. She did record a fair amount of material while there, and the accurately titled My Name Is Mable: The Complete Collection has all of it, containing all nine songs that showed up on 1960-1963 singles (including both the stringless and with-strings versions of 'No Love' and both the 1960 and 1963 versions of 'Who Wouldn't Love a Man Like That') and ten previously unreleased outtakes. It's fine music, not just as quality early soul by one of the style's more underrated vocalists, but also as a document of Motown when it was at its bluesiest, and still looking to nail down the pop-soul groove that would eventually become its strongest suit. Several of the figures who would be key to Motown's success were involved with these sides, among them (as producers and songwriters) Berry Gordy, Mickey Stevenson, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Clarence Paul, Brian Holland, and Lamont Dozier. What, then, was missing, considering that John was a mature, passionately strong gospel-influenced singer? Not much, except perhaps truly great songs that would have been obvious hits. The songs are decent, and though they've been a bit lazily classified as blues by some, you can virtually always hear the classic Motown sound in embryo. 'Who Wouldn't Love a Man Like That' doesn't sound much different from the early Miracles' material, for instance, and you could certainly hear other songs fitting into the early repertoire of fellow Motowners like Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells without a problem. Check out Joe Hunters amazing piano intro on this song. 'Looking For a Man' is the first indication on this disc of the Motown sound we all love and could have been a hit for Mary Wells this chirpy foot tapper is a very strong contender for being one of the best commercially sounding tracks on this set. Mable teams up with Singin' Sammy Ward on the upbeat 'I'm Yours, Your Mine' a much heavier arrangement than her other songs and a formulae that was to work wonders for Mary Wells and Marvin Gaye in 1964 - of particular note the drum beat was much heavier on this recording and was a sign of things to come. It is well known that Berry Gordy utilised some of the artists on the label to provide backing vocals on songs for other artists you'll find a stellar performance from non other than the Supremes on 'I'm Finally Through With You' where on close inspection they have used a similar backing vocal to Marvin Gaye's 'Stubborn Kinda Fellow' to complement what is great song full of commercial promise which sadly failed to materialise into a hit song. Examination of the track 'Say You'll Never Let Me Go' released as a 'B' side finds a gorgeous gospel flavoured ballad featuring the Temptations on backing. The disc closes with the HDH written 'Meet Me Halfway' which whilst being unreleased at the time could have been a single release and rates as good as anything else out at that time. Some fans might prefer the funkier stuff that John recorded later in the '60s for Stax (as heard on the Stay Out of the Kitchen compilation), but this anthology is strong enough to appeal to general fans of early soul music, not just specialist collectors. http://sixtiesmotown.co.uk/, http://www.answers.com/

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VA: Girl Crazy - 20 Northern Soul Tracks by Female Artists (2006)

The ladies are taking over ... or at least that's the case on this great compilation from the folks at Goldmine! This package pushes away a bit from their usual Northern Soul bag, and explores the world of female soul in the '60s, still in a way that's very much in the rare indie mode we've come to expect from Goldmine, but with a focus on tunes that mix uptempo soul with sweeter girl group numbers. Put aside any fears you may have about this stuff being too pop, or too oldies-focused, because the set's hip soul all the way through, with a good mix of standout names from the indie scene, plus a few others yet to be discovered. 20 tracks in all, with titles that include 'Bad Love' by Marlene and the Debanettes, 'Third Time Under' by Third Tuesday, 'I Only Cry Once a Day Now' by The Puffs, 'What's Wrong with Me Baby' by The Toys, 'Just As Much' by Kris Peterson, 'Stoney Face' by Barbara and The Castles, 'In My Life' by Linda Carr, 'GI Joe We Love You' by The Fantasions, 'Head and Shoulders' by Marlina Mars, 'Ooh Boy' by Adorables, 'Your Love' by Miller Sisters, 'Look What I Got' by Gerri Thomas, 'Girl Crazy' by Gigi and The Charmaines, 'Sweet Talkin' Willie' by Teri Nelson Group, 'Give Him Up' by Vicki Hill, 'You're Something Else' by Chris Calloway and 'It's Good Enough for Me' by The Sensations, among others. http://www.dustygroove.com/
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Esther Phillips: From a Whisper to a Scream / Alone Again Naturally (1972) ... plus

Two of her best albums ever, From a Whisper to a Scream and Alone Again Naturally (1972) really helped Esther Phillips transform her sound for the '70s. The approach in From a Whisper is a lot more jazzy than before, served up with a good dose of funk, thanks to arrangements from Pee Wee Ellis, fresh from his work with James Brown, but even more electrically-oriented here. The groove is great, and the album is one of the best Kudu sides from the early '70s: a perfect blend of soul, jazz, and funk, all wrapped up with a new level of sophistication that benefits all parties involved. Other players include Richard Tee on keyboards, Eric Gale on guitar, Bernard Purdie on drums, Airto on percussion, and Hank Crawford on alto sax. Titles include an incredible cover of Gil Scott Heron's 'Home Is Where the Hatred Is', plus 'From a Whisper to a Scream', 'Till My Back Ain't Got No Bone', 'That's All Right with Me', 'Scarred Knees', and 'Baby, I'm for Real'. Recorded in late 1972, Alone Again Naturally was the follow-up to From a Whisper to a Scream. Producer Creed Taylor assembled a stellar cast of musicians - some of whom had already played on her previous effort -, including George Benson, Maceo Parker, Eric Gale, Bernard Purdie, Ron Carter, Richard Tee and Billy Cobham. Superb arrangements, again courtesy of Pee Wee Ellis and Don Sebesky, melded perfectly with Esther's smoky vocals to produce one of the finest albums of her career. Both critics and NARAS voters took note, the latter awarding Ms. Phillips a second Grammy nomination for this Kudu classic (the first being for From a Whisper). The album has got a great version of Bill Withers' 'Use Me' that features a tasty break in the intro, plus the cuts 'Alone Again (Naturally)', 'Let's Move and Groove', 'Cherry Red', 'Let Me in Your Life', and 'You and Me Together'. There are also four bonus tracks: 'A Beautiful Friendship', 'How Blue Can You Get', 'Don't Run and Hide', and 'Brother, Brother'. http://www.dustygroove.com/

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Yvonne Carroll: Anthology (1963-1965)

Yvonne Carroll is a complete mistery to me. Actually, I didn't know about her existence until only a few days ago! I have been trying since to find any useful information about this rare early soul singer, with little success, I must say. All I found out is that she recorded about half-a-dozen 45s for different labels, including Vee-Jay, Domain and Challenge, during the early to mid-'60s. She also issued one single in 1963 as Yvonne Carroll and the Roulettes. But I was not able to find a complete discography list or something of the kind: this is the closest I could get (and mostly I did it myself!). Some of these sides are available on different Girl Group / Northern Soul compilations, but otherwise they are quite obscure and hard to get. Anyway, I have gathered here many of her recordings, though I couldn't find the B-side of the Northern Soul tune 'A Little Bit of Soap', 'Stop the Party', the A-side of 'Laugh or Cry', 'Magic Moment', and the 1963 Domain single 'Earth Angel' b/w 'My Sad Love'. Needless to say, a link to any of those would be appreciated! Highlights here include 'Please Don't Go', 'There He Goes', 'Stuck on You', 'Gee What A Guy' and 'How Long Must This Fool Pay' a song which bears more than a passing resemblance to Brenda Holloway's 'Every Little Bit Hurts'. Yvonne has got a really beautiful velvety voice which I am pretty sure you are going to love as much as I do!

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Bettye LaVette: Take Another Little Piece of My Heart (1969-1970) ... plus

Outside of R&B circles, LaVette has been something of an obscurity until recently. Her singles, released on a variety of independent labels, each with varying degrees of distribution competence, often stalled out mid-chart or failed to build on her earlier success. The result is a string of much sought after collector's items that never built the sort of overall legacy these works should have wrought. This compilation goes part of the way to rectifying this, pulling together material from 1969 and 1970 sessions that LaVette recorded with producer Lelan ("Brother of Kenny") Rogers for his Silver Fox label. Waxed in Memphis with a crack set of soul musicians (starring Jim Dickinson on keyboards, Charlie Freeman on guitar, bassist Tommy McLure, drummer Sammy Jackson, and a horn section), the core of whom would soon become The Dixie Flyers, these are hard-soul sides that frame the awesome rawness of LaVette's voice with sizzling horns up-top and funky, deep bass down below. The set includes all of her singles for the label, and her burning version of 'Piece of My Heart,' issued on the SSS label after Silver Fox went under. Other highlights include 'He Made a Woman Out of Me', a song that cranked its way to #25 R&B despite being banned by many radio stations down South, 'Do Your Duty' and 'Games People Play'. There are also some unreleased cuts, such as 'Hello Sunshine,' one of two duets with Hank Ballard (the other one is 'Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go'). The collection is stellar, the material is pure, gritty soul rooted in deep blues and R&B. LaVette had no gospel training, making her a pure soul singer. This is tough, rootsy material given an immediate, live-sounding treatment. The grooves are deep and wide — just check 'My Train's Comin' In,' or 'Nearer to You', written by Allen Toussaint. This compilation is simply wonderful. There isn't a weak cut in the bunch, and it leaves the listener wondering how it came to pass that LaVette didn't become a superstar. I added two bonus tracks to the comp, her 1975 Epic B-side, written and produced by Ron Dunbar, 'You're a Man of Words, I'm a Woman of Action', and the previously unreleased track 'Waiting for Tomorrow'. http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.allmusic.com/

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Bettye LaVette performing 'He Made a Woman Out of Me' on the Lilac Festival Roch NY:

Lea Roberts: Excuse Me, I Want to Talk to You (1973) ... plus

Unfortunately, it is not easy to find much info about Lea Roberts on the net (or elsewhere), which is quite hard to understand as she is such a gifted vocalist! Lea Roberts was born Leatha Roberta Hicks in Dayton, Ohio on 15 April, 1946 and she began to record in the late '60s-early '70s, when she issued two singles for Minit Records, 'Prove It' b/w 'When Something Is Wrong With My Baby' and 'Love on My Mind' b/w 'Stay with Me'. She signed to United Artists in 1970, recording eleven singles for the label between 1970 and 1975. She released a couple of albums on UA, too: the first one - and her best - was Excuse Me, I Want to Talk to You (1973) and the second, which I posted months ago, was Lady Lea (1975). Her debut, arranged by Wade Marcus, is a mixture of smooth and deep soul with some funky tracks. Highlights include '(If You Don't Want My Love) Give It Back', 'I Take My Fire with Me', 'I'm Losing My Mind', 'Maybe I Don't Show It', and 'Jeremy'. Roberts' R&B recording of Neil Sedaka's song 'Laughter in the Rain', which appears on Lady Lea, went to #20 on the R&B charts. As far as I know she released one final album entitled My Silent Place, on Skies Unlimited Records, in 1982. No need to say it would be more than appreciated if someone could share a copy of that one ... Lea Roberts' unique gospelised vocal stylings are something like a cross between Aretha Franklin, Della Reese and Judy Clay, if such a thing was possible. I am sure you are going to like this great soul singer, in case you din't know her. For those of you who already had this album, I have left a second link in the comments section with three extra tracks, consisting of two sides from her Minit years, plus one track of her 1982 album.

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Baby Washington & Don Gardner - Lay a Little Lovin' on Me (1973) / Edwin Starr & Blinky - Just We Two (1969) ... plus

Two older '60s soul stars, Baby Washington and Don Gardner, team up in this early '70s album of sweet soul duets titled Lay a Little Lovin' on Me. Don had worked previously with Dee Dee Ford, and he is going for a similar style here with Baby Washington, with both singers trading off vocals, and one usually dominating the song more than the other. The groove is kind of early '70s indie, and the smoother numbers are the best. Arrangements are by Bobby Martin, Burt De Coteaux, and Paul Riser, and cuts include 'We're Gonna Make It Big', 'I Just Want to Be Near to You', 'Baby Let Me Get Close to You', 'Can't Get Over Losing You', and 'Lay a Little Lovin' on Me'. Edwin Starr & Blinky Williams' Just We Two album opens up with a soulful rendition of 'You've Made Me So Very Happy,' a #2 hit for Blood, Sweat and Tears earlier in the year that was itself a cover of a Motown original by Brenda Holloway, and it concludes with the Smokey Robinson classic, 'Ooo Baby Baby.' One particular standout in between is a new version of 'Oh How Happy,' which was written by Starr under his given name of Charles Hatcher for the group Shades of Blue in 1966. The cute duet grazed the lower reaches of the Hot 100 in the summer of 1969. Starr went on to record his signature hit, 'War,' the following year, so it's not a surprise that the pairing was so short-lived. But the reasoning behind the mass of powerhouse, unissued Blinky recordings remains one of Motown's many mysteries. As bonus tracks I added seven of those elusive Blinky's solo tracks, including 'The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game', 'I Wouldn't Change The Man He Is', 'This Time Last Summer' and 'Money', plus an extra duet with Edwin Starr, 'Never Gonna Give You Up', which was unreleased at the time. http://classic.motown.com/, http://www.dustygroove.com/

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Etta James: The Second Time Around (1961)

Etta James was just 22 when she made the recordings for this album in 1960 and '61, but she had already established herself as a youthful belter of spirited R&B numbers. The Second Time Around was originally released by Argo Records as a 45-inch LP, containing five tracks on each side of the LP (with ten tracks overall). Like her previous album, At Last!, producers, Phil and Leonard Chess added orchestral strings arranged and conducted by Riley Hampton to the background music of James's voice, which garnered her with Pop crossover appeal. Like Aretha Franklin in the same period, James felt pressure from recording executives to go in different directions. Chess was unsure whether to market her as an R&B singer or to press her toward mainstream adult pop and jazz. This album presents both sides of the coin, with James doing rousing R&B numbers such as 'Seven Day Fool' and the protosoul of 'Don't Cry Baby,' lounge tunes like 'One for My Baby', the jazz-flavored ballad 'Fool That I Am,' Ellington's 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' and a cover of the Pop standard 'Dream'. It hardly matters, though, for James's emotional immediacy and potent delivery make all the material her own. The album spawned three singles, which all became major hits on the Hot Rhythm Blues Records and Billboard Pop Chart in 1961. Etta would surely do her best with later albums like Tell Mama, but on The Second Time Around one hears the singer at her peak in a swinging and varied program of blues, R&B, and jazz standards. http://en.wikipedia.org/, http://www.amazon.com/

Della Reese: Black Is Beautiful - The Avco Years (1969-1972)

Della Reese is a renowned gospel singer, working with Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward before becoming lead singer with the Meditation Singers. Her place was taken by Laura Lee when she left to join the Erskine Hawkins orchestra in 1956. Reese began a solo recording career with Jubilee in 1957, releasing the Top 20 hit 'And That Reminds Me' and a version of Cole Porter’s 'In The Still of the Night'. Now established as a gospel-influenced ballad singer, she signed to RCA Records in 1959 where Hugo And Luigi produced 'Don’t You Know', based on an aria from Puccini’s opera La Bohème. It reached number 2 and was followed by the Top 20 single 'Not One Minute More'. Later RCA singles included revivals of 'Someday (You’ll Want Me to Want You)' (1960) from 1946 and the '20s standard 'Bill Bailey' (1961). During the '60s and '70s, she worked frequently in cabaret, recording for Avco and ABC Records, where she had a minor dance hit with the Northern Soul tune 'If It Feels Good Do It', in 1972. Black Is Beautiful is one of the two fantastic albums Della released on Avco in the late-'60s to early-'70s. Nice stuff from a period when Della was forging a unique mix of country-soul, blues, gospel, funk and pop vocals into a sophisticated blend that transcended all styles. Produced by Hugo & Luigi, the record features some really nice moments, like 'Games People Play', a funky take on Eugene McDaniels' protest song 'Compared to What', a truly tip-top lick of The Impressions' classic 'Choice of Colors', Bobby Goldsboro's 'With Pen In Hand', the beautiful country soul song 'Comment' and 'Cycles'. One curious note is that Black Is Beautiful was the only album of the Avco label to ever reach a chart, peaking at #44 R&B, in 1970. I have added 14 bonus tracks from the same period, including a handful of singles, all but four of the cuts from her other album for the label, Right Now (1971), plus three songs which were not issued at the time. 24 tracks in all! http://www.oldies.com/, http://www.bsnpubs.com/ For obvious reasons this post is dedicated to one of my dearest blog followers, Della! ;-)
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VA: Troubles, Heartaches & Sadness - Hi Records' Deep Soul Sisters (1966-76)

Whenever the classic sound of Memphis is discussed, the holy trinity of Stax, Goldwax and Hi dominate the proceedings. Although the Hi label was a relative latecomer in the soul stakes, it soon equalled, and often surpassed its rivals in both commercial and artistics terms. The company's roster was home to an array of talent, some already established, others fresh-faced and ready to roll, from whose ranks this collection of distaff delights has been assembled. Janet & the Jays' Memphis residence was brief, but the group's legacy, which includes Don Bryant's 'Without a Reason' and 'Love What You're Doing to Me', stands proudly among the finest Hi product of all time. Ann Peebles made her R&B chart debut in 1969 with her very first single, the start of a decade of chartbusters and, finally, the breakthrough into the soul market that had since eluded Hi. Four of Peebles' classic cuts are featured here, including 'Give Me Some Credit', 'Troubles, Heartaches & Sadness' and 'Run Run Run'. Memphis' best secret, Toni Green, was the lead vocalist of Imported Moods, a harmony outfit whose 'What Have You Done to My Heart' was released on the label in 1970. Five years before ex-fashion model Veniece joined Hi, released two singles pdq and promptly disappeared from the recording scene for six years. She returned from that hiatus with the driving downhome saga 'Stepchild', prompting a trip to Europe supporting Wilson Pickett. A revival of Otis Clay's 'Trying to Live My Life Without You' in 1975 proved to be her farewell disc. Signed to Hi Records, Quiet Elegance were produced by Willie Mitchell and Dan Greer, who acting independently, whip up a batch of hot, tough Southern sounds as magnificent as their debut single, 'I'm Afraid of Losing You'. Blue-eyed soul trio Joint Venture worked for several years as in-house back-up singers for Al Green before releasing one of the greatest 45s to find on the label, 'What Have You Done to My Heart', in 1970. One of their members, Donna Rhodes, recorded solo 'Where's Your Love Been' three years later. Erma Coffee's 1973 Hi single coupled her version of 'Any Way the Wind Blows' and 'You Made Me What I Am', both included here. She later recorded as Irma Coffee for Tamtown. Chicagoan soul diva Jean Plum arrived at Hi Records in 1975, where she debuted with the remarkable “soft-deep” double-header 'Look at the Boy' and 'Back to You'. Talking to the British publication Blues & Soul the following year, the singer expressed her excitement at the completion of sessions for her first album. The inclusion of treasures like 'Loneliness' and her supremely soulful interpretations of Aretha Franklin’s 'Today I Sing the Blues' would surely have ensured a top quality se but, sadly, the LP was never released. The 1976 single 'I Love Him' was Plum’s only other release until her final platter two years later. Meanwhile Hi girl group Known Facts delivered their impressive two-sider 'He's Got It' and 'How Can I Believe You', in 1975; same year that the Duncan Sisters issued 'It's You That I Need', their only outing on Hi. The fact that Ann Peebles alone amongst this talented asemblage hit the big time, detracts not one jot from the greats sounds laid down by her equally deserving labelmates, whom posterity has, at last, granted a wider and more appreciative audience than they attracted back in the day. Partially Taken from the original liner notes.

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