Keni Burke is 69 today (born 28 Sep 1953) and was a member of 'The First Family of Soul'
The Five Stairsteps with four of his siblings from Chicago who had around twenty hits prior to disbanding in 1976
and another later as The Invisible Man's Band. Their initial hits were
on Curtis Mayfield's short-lived Windy C label on which all but one
single was by them. Later releases were on another Mayfield label
Curtom, followed by Buddah and then George Harrison's Dark Horse label. In the
interim their name changed to just The Stairsteps.
When the group disbanded Keni remained at Dark Horse where he
recorded his self-titled debut solo album
In the UK he is probably best known for the 80s soul weekender anthem
"Risin' To The Top" which amazingly didn't register on US Hot 100 but
got to a meagre #63 R&B. Prior to that he hit with "Let
Somebody Love You". However, charts don't mean anything to
soulies and much of his material has been played on the modern
soul scene for years including the previous two along with "One Minute
More", "Indigenous Love" and "Nothing But Love" in particular. Many of
the Five Stairsteps recording have adorned northern soul
dancefloors and I have all of their Windy C records which are quite
cheap and easy to find and are prime examples of the mid 60s
Chicago sound.
Keni's brother James died last year and a
Stairsteps Discography
was posted as a tribute if you wish to explore it.
Included below some of his best tune along with a superb rendition of "Risin' To The Top" at the Baltic Soul Weekender in 2011.
Album Discography
1977 - Keni Burke [Dark Horse]
1981 - You're The Best [RCA Victor]
1982 - Changes [RCA Victor]
1998 - Nothin' But Love [Expansion]
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1 comment:
Excellent singer but obviously I have a weakness for the Chicago era of the Windy C and Curtom labels under the name of the Five Stairsteps. Worth a deep listen.
Yves
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