24 Carat Black were a 70s group from Cincinnati, OH, evolving
from The Ditalians who had recorded three singles between 1966-69 all on
different labels. Several original members later formed Shotgun who released
six albums and around 15 singles between 1976-82, the first three albums
were on ABC, two on MCA and their last in 1982 on Montage.
Via a crowd funding initiative by Riffs on Riffs podcast they have got some
of the group members back together under the name
24 Carat Black Revival and have released a double sided single
"Blessings Be" (feat. Princess Hearn) / "Time for Love" (feat. Niambi Steele) who were both original group members.
A key member of the original line-up was Dale Warren who was born in Detroit (nephew
of Berry Gordy's second wife
Raynoma Mayberry
who later married Eddie Singleton and set up
Shrine
together) but made his way to Memphis to work with Stax and is responsible
for Isaac Hayes version of "Walk On By". Up until then he had written
and/or arranged many 60s soul songs now regarded as rare soul classics.
Artists include many on Eddie Singleton's, now highly regarded, Washington D.C.
based Shrine label and far too many others to list them all but include J.J.
Barnes, Darrell Banks, The Precisions, The Falcons, Deon Jackson, Edwin
Starr, Fantastic Four, Ben E. King, Betty Lavette, Patti Labelle & The
Bluebelles, Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes, Margie Joseph, The Emotions, Sam
Dees, The Soul Children, William Bell, Staple Singers and many more,
perhaps, lesser know artists.
24 Carat Black released just one album "Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth" on
Stax subsidiary Enterprise in 1973 which has become a cult album with
several tracks being sampled by hip-hop artists such as Dr. Dre, Eric B
& Rakim, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes, Digable
Planets, and many others.
Subsequently, two previously
unreleased albums have come to light "Gone: The Promise Of Yesterday"
which consisted of reworkings of songs he had written from his Shrine days
recorded at Stax in 1974 but remained unreleased owing to company going bust until
Numero Group released it in 2009. There were originally 20 songs under
consideration for the album but Numero only released six of them possibly
owing to the others having deteriorated on tape. Another eight were
released by Numero Group on "III" in 2020 but several reviews comment that
the sound quality is poor and the B side is pressed off centre.
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