Soul Junction
has licensed two previously unissued dance orientated compositions
from
Lamont Johnson
for their latest single offering with more still to come. It is
released under the project/artists name of "Lamont Johnson & Eugene". The A side "Let’s Go Dance Tonight" is a male vocally led early 90's mid-tempo feel good dance number.
Whilst the B side "Burnin’ For Your Love", in contrast, is a more synthesized bass driven 80's female dancer
which should appeal to the Boogie crowd.
The single will be available from
Soul Junction
on 7" vinyl from 30 Aug 2022.
Eugene Lamont Johnson was born on 20 Apr 1955 in Highland Park, MI.
He holds the distinction of being the first internationally recognized
fretless bassist in R&B music and rose to prominence as a session
musician on Gloster Williams & The King Vision’s gospel album
"Together" (1977) which possibly passed most of us by. However, an
album that most certainly didn't was Detroit based band Brainstorm's
"Stormin’" released the same year on Tabu Records.
Brainstorm was initially formed during 1975 by bandleader and
saxophonist Charles 'Chuck' Overton, and included Belita Woods (lead
vocals), Lamont Johnson (bass), Renell Gonsalves (drums), Trenita
'Treaty' Womack (percussion, flute and backing vocals), Bob Ross
(a.k.a Professor RJ Ross) (keyboards), Gerald 'Jerry' Kent (guitar),
Jeryl Bright (trombone) and 'Leaping' Larry Sims (trumpet and
flugelhorn).
Their debut album "Stormin'" was recorded during 1976 and released in
1977 containing the massive disco hit "Loving Is Really My Game" along
with "Wake Up And Be Somebody" and "This Must Be Heaven" which
featured Lamont Johnson's vocals (video below of his solo
performance).
Brainstorm went on to release two further albums before disbanding in
1980 but Lamont didn't feature on either i.e "Journey To The Light"
(1978) and "Funky Entertainment" (1979). However, 1978 was a prolific
year for Lamont as he played bass on Hamilton Bohannon's "On My Way",
Jimmy McKee's "First Time Out" and Keith Barrow's "Physical
Attraction" which contained the rare groove two stepper "You Know You
Want To Be Loved". Barrow released just one more album
before being taken by AIDS in 1983 aged 29. Coincidentally, earlier
Barrow was a member of The Hi-Lites (not the same group that became
The Chi-Lites) who released just one single on
Holland-Dozier-Holland's Invictus label in 1973/74.
The same year Lamont released his debut album "Music Of The Sun" on Tabu which spawned two singles "Sister Fine" / "Yours Truly, Discreetly" and "Hey Girl" / "Differently".
In 1979 Lamont featured on bass on Chapter 8's debut eponymous album
on Ariola followed by Nightflyte's self-titled debut on the same
label. Chapter 8 at this time included one Anita Baker and Niteflyte
Howard Johnson.
During 1980 Lamont began work on a second solo album for Tabu. Two
singles were recorded "Rock You Baby" / "Something More" followed by what was to be the album title song "Rhumba" c/w "Masta Luva" which went on to become a modern soul favourite (live video
performance below). Unfortunately, for whatever reason, CBS/Tabu
decided to shelve the remainder of the project.
Yet another link to a recent post as Johnson played on Was Not Was'
"Tell Me I'm Dreaming" (as did Kathy Kosins posted yesterday) and also
Robert Lowe's "Double Dip" jazz/funk album.
Lamont has released two further CD albums on his own Allee Records
label, "Amore' Dance" (2001) (which also has a song titled "Burnin' For Your Love" which
is a ballad and not the same song) and "This Must Be Heaven" (2004). The latter featured Belita Woods (Brainstorm) and Detroit
legend Pat Lewis with Sharon Jones also featuring on one of the
tracks. Another Brainstorm group member Trenita 'Treaty' Womack
also appeared on a few tracks.
Note both of his last two albums are available on Spotify (links on
album titles) and also
YouTube
with his 1978 album also available on YouTube.
| Rating: | 8 |
| Explicit: | N |
| Genre/Style: | Modern Soul / Boogie |
| Format: | Single |
| Media: | 7" |
| Label: | Soul Junction |
| Cat No: | SJ1019 |
| Date: | 30/08/2022 |
| Key/BPM | N/A |
| Price: | £13 |
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