Jerry Bell is the younger brother of Archie Bell, first cousin to Thom Bell, 2nd cousin to Robert 'Kool' Bell (Kool & The Gang) and 3rd cousin to Stax founder Al Bell! He went on to become a member of the Dazz Band.
He has released a new single "Keep It Real" today (1 Jul 2022) co-written with Dazz Band member Michael J. Calhoun and a few others.
Bell toured with Jimmy 'Bo' Horne in the Miami Ocean Liners (who would later become K.C. & The Sunshine Band) and then worked with McFadden &
Whitehead before relocating to California where he worked with Marvin Gaye and then became a member of The Niteliters/The New Birth between 1976-79. In 1980 he released a solo album
"Winter Love Affair" before joining Dazz Band in either 1984 or 1986 (as
there are conflicting accounts) but his first album appearance was on
"Wild And Free" in 1986.
In his illustrious career, Jerry has performed with Marvin Gaye, Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes, The Delfonics, The Spinners, The Jacksons, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, LTD, Joe Sample, McFadden & Whitehead, Al Jarreau, The Gap Band (Raymond Calhoun was also a member of Dazz Band), EWF, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic, The O'Jays and Blue Magic.
Whilst poking around looking for information on him I came across a video
of his cover of Rose Royce's classic "Wishing On A Star" posted in August
2018, but I can find no trace of it on Discogs or any of the DSP's. However, there are
several tracks on his Soundcloud channel which all have the same cover
design with the title 'Wishing On A Star', so perhaps it was an album that
was either not fully released or self released and no longer available? There are 13 tracks
and at first glance they all look like cover versions, including a superb
version of The Friends of Distinction's classic "Going In Circles",
which I have also managed to find a video for.
In 2014 he and Michael Calhoun, and a few others, applied to trade mark the Dazz Band name.
As an incidental, Jerry was apparently also a world karate champion.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
Click icons below for further information or to connect with the
artist.
| Rating: | 8.5 |
| Explicit: | N |
| Genre/Style: | New Soul |
| Format: | Single |
| Media: | Digital |
| Label: | Bungalo Records |
| Cat No: | None |
| Date: | 01/07/2022 |
| Key/BPM: | 8A/84 |
| Price: | £1 |
Copyright © 2009-2022 SoulStrutter All Rights Reserved
What a family!!! She is a big part of what Soul has become.
ReplyDeleteThank you all.
Yves