David Sea [2023] - Back In The Day / Back In Love Again [Jai Alai #JAR08]

The latest vinyl release from Soul4Real on it's offshoot imprint Jai Alai, specifically set up to reissue CD only tracks on vinyl for the first time, consists of two tracks from David Sea's 1996 album  "Groove Mission", namely "Back In The Day" and "Back In Love Again".

The single is available to pre-order now from Soul4Real (for release on 27 Jan 2023) via PayPal soul4realrecordlabel@gmail.com €14 plus postage (1-5 copies) (€3 (Spain)  €6.90 (UK & Europe) €10.45 (rest of the world)).

David Sea was born in 1948 in Sumter County, AL, and raised in a suburb of Birmingham called Hueytown. Like so many soul singers, he began singing gospel music from the age of 5 and joined the family group The Spiritual Nightingales. In 1970 he formed David Sea & The Question Marks who later became known as David Sea & The Uptown Movement which was more of a rock n roll group.

He recorded a couple of solo singles in the early 70s at Neal Hemphill's Sound Of Birmingham Studios written and produced by Jerry Weaver. I don't believe that they were released at the time but two sides ("Believe In Me" & "Let's Just Get Together") appeared on a Shotgun 7" in 2007 after featuring on a 2006 compilation "The Birmingham Sound: The Soul Of Neal Hemphill (Vol 1)" with another track "Work Hard" featuring on Vol. 2.

Whether or not any other material was recorded, which is highly likely, he didn't surface again until 1981 with a single "Angel (You're The Sunshine)". It was initially released by Birmingham label Hy-Tyde (which is most likely a private press as this is the only release) and then picked up by Ted Jarrett who owned a Nashville based label T-Jaye (and also owned Ref-O-Ree and Spar and a few other labels) who re-released it in Aug 1982. It had a big underground following on the UK modern soul scene. 

The song didn't seem to register at all in the U.S. and only one of his singles, his last, charted in 1991 with "Shake (You Make Me Shake)" on Magic City. In between he released around eight singles from 1982-91. Two for T-Jaye, Two for Crown Limited (owned by Hemphill) ("Do It Right Now" / "Who's Been Warming My Oven" and "Night After Night" / "When Did You Start To Stop Loving Me") and the remaining six on Birmingham label Magic City. He released two albums for the label "An Ocean Apart" (1988) followed by "Born To Sing" (1991).

After a  worldwide tour he became popular in Japan, in particular, and proceeded to release a further three albums for Victor Entertainment between 1993-96, the third of which ("Groove Mission") is where the two tracks on this release were selected from. His final album appeared in 2006 on a Jackson, MS, label, Park Place, linked to Frederick Knight.

It is said that he was close to replacing Dennis Edwards (who was a neighbour from Fairfield, AL) when he left The Temptations in 1984 but opted for a solo career. There are further Temptations connections as Eddie Kendricks lived in nearby Ensley where he met Paul Williams and along with Kell Osbourne and another (some sources quote Jerome Averette and another Willie Waller) formed The Cavaliers, later moving to Cleveland, OH, becoming The Primes and then moving to Detroit. They disbanded in 1961 when Osbourne left for California and a chance meeting with Otis Williams of The Distants resulted in a merger of the two groups to become The Temptations.

 

In more recent times, rather than replacing Dennis Edwards in The Temptations, he has joined forces with him along with Paul Williams, Jr. (the son of Paul Williams), Michael Pattillo, Chris Arnold and Curtis 'CJ' touring as The Temptations Review and released a live album "Live At Casino San Pablo" in 2001 which consists of classic Temptations songs. A video trailer below shows them performing (Sea on far right/foreground of photo) and they have an active facebook page which indicates that they are still performing together at the turn of the new year.

Details

Rating:	8.6
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Modern Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	7" Vinyl
Label:	Jai Alai
Cat No:	JAR08
Date:	27/01/2023
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	€14 + postage

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