A young lady by the name of AJ.Williams (Angela J.
Williams) has uploaded around a dozen tracks to DSP's in the last few
months. The latest, until today, was posted on 19 Jul 2021 called "Why" which has a 90s feel. It has already been superseded by another today
called "Baby You Are The Man" which is a bit of swing jazz number.
There is an Angel J. Williams credited with backing Luther Vandross on his
"I Know" album from 1998, so perhaps she is a session singer?
Credit again to Paul Regan for highlighting this track.
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Another release from the JWE Music Group, the same label that
brought us
Jim White & The Motor City Orchestra
last week - JWE may be Jim White Entertainment as a guess? All tracks are
credited as being written by James E. White and, like the Jim White album,
it sound like these tracks were recorded in the 80, tracks 2 & 4
especially. Michelle Goulett is accompanied by an uncredited
male vocalist on "Home Away From Home" (Jim White?) which is one of the two better tracks, a deep slow jam,
along with "I Am In Love".
She is the same artist who released a
self-titled album on Island
in 1986 as Jim White is the producer. Her name was spelt slightly differently as Goulet and, by all accounts,
she was a blue-eyed session singer. I found the full album on YT
and it's typical mid 80s 'thrash' dance music, although she does a half
decent version of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" around 20 mins in
albeit a little 'over-egged' and gets a bit Patti'esque!
"I Am In Love" was actually released in 1986 as a single on Island as "I'm In Love" and features on the album, as was another track on the latest EP "Slow Down" which was also featured on the flip side to the single.
Note: Credit goes to Paul Regan for finding this and posting on his
YT channel.
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The first single for some time from Sam Bostic called "Green Light" was released last week (21 Jul 2021).
He must now be regarded as a veteran as he was recording in the 80s, he released a debt album on Atlantic in 1985 "Circuitry Starring Sam Bostic" His only other album was "Soul Supreme" in 2009. He is the son of another veteran, William Bostic, who released a modern soul/boogie track in 1983 called "What You Do To Me", the flip of which "You Are All I Needed" is a sweet soul tune.
This appears to be the third single from Jackson, MS, born Tarah Jaye
(aka Tarah Mannery) since her debut single "Cool It Down" in Apr 2019. She released another
last Feb called "Slow Down" which also got a remix.
"Love Yourself" was released on Friday (23 Jul 2021).
Credit to Paul Regan for finding this an posting on his
YT channel.
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My selection of this week's best cover versions, remixes, reissues,
previously unreleased and new songs using samples (Jul 2021 Wk
29). (In no particular order).
A few previously unissued tracks including Aretha Franklin from 1978
and two from Jim White from the 80s. I've also included two tracks from
the new Bridge City Revival album as they are retro tracks and couldn't
get squeezed into the main Dozen as there is just so much good new music
around this week, but they deserve to be heard. There's four covers:
Ledisi, Jamie Jones, Charles Jenkins and Big State, a sampler of The
Manhattans from J.B. Boogie and finally two 'reissues' from
GarciaWalker&Durrell from their 'new/old' album due out next Friday.
One is a cover of Beloyd that was released in March so both a cover and
a reissue, the other track only came out on a compilation in 2014.
My selection of the best releases this week (Jul 2021 Wk
29).
I think this is probably one of the best (if not the best) sets of
music featured in "The Dirty Dozen" to date. I think every single one
is a little gem. All have been released in the last week except two
(Maurice J and YAS) which were released the week before and the
wonderful Penzillathegreat (aka Francci Richard) is a hangover from 24
Jun as I only discovered it on Monday when it came up on Spotify
discover weekly! Credit must be given to Mark Merry who played it
last Sunday on his Soul Sermon show and Franklin Sinclair (Global
Soul), who, like me, simply adores it and played it on The New Music Hour and as one of his Essential 5 this week's Global Soul Chart show..
As far as the SoulStrutter Selection of the Week goes it was
originally a no-brainer when Penziallthegreat appeared but a couple of other tracks came into contention Samm
Henshaw "Grow" and James Vickery "All That I Am". In other week's
Justy's "Expectations" would also have been a strong contender. However, Penziallthegreat reigns as I just can't stop listening to it and my partner loves it, so she must be obeyed!
I believe every track deserves a place on the UK Soul Chart, but
realistically there would need to be a wholesale clearout of the
existing chart for that to happen which is unlikely. So being
pragmatic I think James Vickery may enter as he has a whole album full
of great tracks which will garner airplay, If Penzillathegreat or Samm Henshaw don't enter I'll be amazed (and
disappointed for them). Shaila Prospere is a new entry this week along with Hil St. Soul even
though Shaila Prospere wasn't officially released until 23/07 and
Hil. St. Soul 16/07 both had airplay from promos and both were posted
here prior to release.
Tygressa Jones' debut single "Hey You (A Minute With You)" was featured on SoulStrutter as a UK exclusive on 1st July. She also sent the complete EP but asked for it not to be posted until release on 16th Jul. Just over three weeks from it being premiered she has topped the Global Soul chart this week after entering last week at #9. It also entered the Starpoint UK Soul Chart at #15 this week (UPDATE 26 Jul 2021 now also #1 on Starpoint). I notified her last night that her single had reached #1 and she is absolutely delighted. This was her reaction:
"HAAAA!!!!! I am SOOOOOO PUMPED!!! This is AMAZING!!!!! Thank you and I MOST CERTAINLY will give mention to SoulStrutter! Thank you SO VERY MUCH!!!"
This week has seen a significant growth in visitors to the blog which has been growing consistently throughout the year with over 2,500 visitors on Friday and over 2,000 yesterday, so I'd like to thank you for visiting the blog and ask that you to share and spread the word to keep the numbers growing so that independent soul artists can gain as much exposure as possible.
For any independent artists / record labels / promoters wishing to promote their music then please consider sending material in advance (soulstrutter@gmail.com) to see if you can achieve the same level of success as Tygressa! A lot of radio presenters visit the site and select tracks to programme in their shows which has certainly contributed to Tygressa reaching #1. I also thank them for programming tunes found here as this is what the blog is all about - promoting independent soul music. Finally, of course all this would not be possible without the artists themselves producing the music we love, so please ... 'Keep On Keeping On!"
This week's 'Essential 5' and 'The Breakers' played by Franklin Sinclair on the Global Soul Chart Show which is aired between 5pm-7pm every Saturday on Global Soul Radio.
He plays the Essential 5 at the start of the show, whilst The Breakers are interspersed between chart entries.
Eight breakers were squeezed in this week, all except Misha have been previously. My alternate choice cuts from three albums featured are Justy "Expectations", Bridge City Revival "Take Me Away" Feat. LaRhonda Steele and James Vickery "All That I Am".
I've added the ratings that were applied to each track/album when posted, and as you can see they were all posted within days of release.
Eight new entries this week, all of which have already been posted. Two
have entered very quickly i.e.
Hil St. Soul & Noel Gourdin (the highest of the eight new entries at #8) which was only
officially released last week (16 Jul) and
Shaila Prospere
officially released on Friday (23 Jul), but both have had advance airplay
from promos and were posted here well before release.
Tygressa Jones (tipped last week) ends Kadeem Tyrell & Omar reign on the top spot after three weeks with her debut release
which was posted here as a UK exclusive prior to release. Tygressa, The Realm and Quisha Wint are the highest risers.
On Friday (23 Jul 2021) Ledisi released an album tribute
to Nina Simone with "Ledisi sings Nina" which features seven songs from Simone's extensive catalogue from a
recording career spanning from 1959-93. She is ably supported by Dutch
orchestra
Metropole Orkest. There is a good article on the album at
New York Times.
The album leads with "Feeling Good", a song that every man and their dog seems to want to sing recently on
talent shows! It came as a surprise to me to learn that it was actually
co-written by two Englishmen, actor Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.
Newley was the first to release it in Jan 1965 a couple of months before
Nina Simone's iconic and definitive version which was released in Mar 1965.
There are well over 200 other versions of the song.
Another iconic Nina Simone song was was already a jazz standard before
she recorded it in 1957 for her debut album "Little Girl Blue" released in
1959 (it was originally recorded in 1930 for a movie "Whoopee!") is "My Baby Just Cares For Me" which became a pop smash in 1987 reaching #5 on UK pop chart (it's a
bit confusing as it was reissued in 1982, 85 and 87 and was a hit third
time around) as a result of it featuring in a Chanel No. 5 perfume
commercial! I am led to believe that it was played on the Northern Soul
scene in the 80s, which I find quite hard to believe, but I was off the
scene by then so I'm not really in a position to confirm or deny! There
are also well over 200 recordings for this song. Feeling Good was also a
#40 UK pop hit for her in 1994.
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Jamie Jones is the founder of 90s interracial group All-4-One who had a run of seven Billboard chart entries between 1994-96. He was lead singer and main songwriter. In 2004 he branched out to release his debut solo album "Illuminate".
On 9 Jul 2021 he released an updated, contemporary version of Bobby Hebb's 1966 classic "Sunny" which is from a forthcoming EP.
Upon checking, I was quite surprised to learn that Hebb wasn't actually the first to record the song which he wrote as a tribute to his brother who was murdered six months before. It was recorded first by a Japanese artist Mieko Hirota (aka Miko) in Oct 1965, whilst Hebb's version wasn't released until April 1966. Mieko Hirota's studio version is sung as a jazz ballad but there is also another live version which starts off slow but picks up tempo around 2 mins into a cool jazz / Northern Soul dancer (the Mods would love this!). The YT poster (MrPJSoul) states that it is from a rare reel-to-reel tape titled "Ah! Soul...Introducing Miko On Stage" which is not dated, but could be around 1969 based on the cat. no.?
There are literally hundreds of recorded versions of this song but sadly probably one of the best know versions, other than Hebb's, is Boney M's 1976 disco version which was a #3 UK hit. Hebb's reached #12 in the UK in 1966. A previously unreleased version by Marvin Gaye from 1966 was posthumously released on a 1990 compilation "The Marvin Gaye Collection" and James Brown featuring Marva Whitney did a nice jazzy version in 1968 on "This Is James Brown" which wasn't released in the US.
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