Soul Strutter: 01/12/23

Thursday, 12 January 2023

R.I.P. - Jeff Beck (24 Jun 1944 - 10 Jan 2023)

Another R.I.P. I'm afraid. Jeff Beck of The Yardbirds / The Jeff Beck Group died on Tuesday (10 Jan '23) with bacterial meningitis aged 78. Along with Beck, The Yardbirds started the careers of Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page.

Many may wonder what a rock guitarist, possibly most famous for the 1967 party anthem "Hi Ho Silver Lining", is doing on these pages. It is rumoured that Berry Gordy wanted to sign him to Motown when he signed the UK's Kiki Dee in 1970. That of course never materialised. However, in 1970 he recorded an album at Motown's famed Studio A which still remains in the vaults unreleased.

In 1972 he recorded an album, "The Jeff Beck Group", at TMI (Trans Maximus Inc. Recording Studios) in Memphis owned by Stax session guitarist Steve Cropper. Cropper produced the album and contributed one of the songs ("Sugar Cane") and another two songs on the album were Motown songs. An Ashford & Simpson and Brian Holland song "I Can't Give Back The Love I Feel For You" recorded by Rita Wright (Syreeta) in 1968 and "I Got To Have A Song" co-written and recorded by Stevie Wonder as the flip to "Heaven Help Us All" in 1970.

Although not still a member at this time, Rod 'The Mod' Stewart was one of the original members of The Jeff Beck Group, which helped launch his solo career which commenced in 1969 upon leaving the group.

Beck returned to Motown in 1972 on the invitation of Stevie Wonder to work on his iconic "Talking Book" album, apparently, in return for Wonder writing a song for him. In a jamming session Beck came up with the drum intro to "Superstition" and Wonder asked him to keep playing while he improvised over it. Wonder decided that "Superstition" would be the song to give Beck, but Berry Gordy stepped in predicting that the song would be a hit (it was a Billboard #1 R&B and Hot 100) which would help with sales for "Talking Book" so Wonder released it first on 24 Oct 1972. Beck released it in Mar 1973 on a self-titled album of his new group "Beck, Bogert & Appice" (Tim Bogart and Carmine Appice being the rhythm section (bass and drums) of Vanilla Fudge) which is a prog rock interpretation.

Whilst Beck's name isn't credited for "Superstition", he was given credits for guitar work on "Talking Book", specifically for "Lookin For Another Pure Love". If you listen carefully to the track Stevie shouts "Do it Jeff" around 1:58.

Maria Katre [2023] - Fairweather [In The AM Music]

Maria Katre (Maria Katre Osler) (pronounced kuh-tree) was raised by her grandparents in the small town just outside Detroit and grew up listening to soul music in her grandma's car. She took a particular liking to the sound of horns and she picked up the cornet in 6th grade and by high school she was singing and playing tuba, piano, and percussion in addition to the cornet and later the trumpet.

After graduating with a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Florida A&M University in 2009 she turned her focus to acting and moved to L.A. where she attended L.A. City College’s Herb Alpert Music Center studying music composition whist taking acting jobs.

Maria played trumpet at Beyonce's Super Bowl halftime show as well as on Taylor Swift’s 2014 MTV Music Video Awards performance and Beyonce's Homecoming performances at Coachella in 2019.

On 5 Jan 2023 she released her latest single "Fairweather" which sounded very familiar and discovered that it uses the same sample/backing as Cam Cones' "No Titles" from his EP "For Lost Time" last June.

The only previous material I have found for her is a 2016 single "Smile" although she features on trumpet on a single by Jazzy Rita Shelby "Those Days" from 2021.

She states that she is set to release an EP in 2023.

Thanks to Leigh 'The Flava' Taylor for sending this one over.

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

Click icons below for further information or to connect with the artist.

Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	In The AM Music
Cat No:	None
Date:	05/01/2023
Key/BPM:	2A/70
Price:	£1

Raegan Sealy Feat. The Gang of Angels [2022] - Make 'em Jealous [Self Released]

British-born, Brooklyn-based, singer/songwriter Raegan Sealy releases a debut single today (12 Jan '23) The single, "Make 'em Jealous", features The Gang Of Angels who are a choir from Nottingham (England), led by Honey Williams.

She describes the song as "reframing the cliché of being stuck in a toxic relationship, fusing her soul-pop vocals with an infectious recurring beat, the track shines a light of optimism on the self-delusion that so often keeps us from moving on".

Raegan is a poet, singer, rapper and the founder of Sound Board NYC. She had a troubled childhood in England moving around the country and continually into new schools and draws on her own experiences of domestic violence, sexual abuse and addiction in her work as an artist and advocate, to empower others to own their stories. Always interested in music but never learnt how to read or write it so instead wrote poetry and became a spoken word artist / rapper.

Raegan’s work fuses soul, rock, and indie-pop and is fiery, raw, and driven by a relentless pursuit of truth and uses words and music to make light of life’s darker experiences of her challenging past. She says that she offers others the chance to find affirmation, affinity and self-empowerment in her music.

She has performed around the world supporting artists such as Ice T, Shane Koyczan, Kae Tempest, and Judah & The Lion.

Raegan holds a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry and works relentlessly to work to create more educational opportunities for young women, receiving a P.E.O. International Peace Prize in 2016 and a standing ovation for her 2019 official TED Talk which was the first to be delivered entirely in rhyming verse.

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

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Details

Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	12/01/2023
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	£1

Ledisi [2023] - I Need To Know [BMG]

Most definitely the top track released in 2023 so far comes from the return of Ledisi with "I Need To Know". Although she released a Christmas single and another song "Knockin'" back in April 2022, which featured Gregory Porter, it was a more of a rock/blues song, and featured on a few tracks on "Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story" in which she starred in the leading role, it's been a minute since we had new contemporary music from her.

I guess she's been busy on not only a tribute to Mahalia Jackson but she also released a Nina Simone tribute album "Ledisi Sings Nina" and before that a live album "Live At The Troubadour", albeit it did have one new song, "Nothing But You", that wasn't live. So we have to go back to Aug 2020 for "The Wild Card" for her last new 'soul' material.

So it's great to have her back with new music and in such fine form.

There's no rest for Ledisi though, as she will also be featuring in yet another biopic, "Spinning Gold", this time for ex Buddah Record executive Neil Bogart who was one of the founders of Casablanca Records in 1973 (he died in 1982 aged only 39). Ledisi will feature playing Gladys Knight. A trailer for the movie (below), which is scheduled to hit screens on 31 Mar 2023, begins with Ledisi in frame.

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

Click icons below for further information or to connect with the artist.

Details

Rating:	8.8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	BMG
Cat No:	None
Date:	11/01/2023
Key/BPM:	4A/40
Price:	£1

George Duke - A Profile

George Duke was born on this day (12 Jan) in 1946 and would have been celebrating his 77th birthday, but we lost him on 5 Aug 2013 to leukaemia aged 67. He is probably best known in the UK for the title track of his 1980 album "Brazilian Love Affair" which, may surprise you to learn, didn't make the US R&B chart, although it peaked at #36 on the UK pop chart in Jul 1980 spending six weeks on the chart.

Duke was born in San Rafael, CA, and became interested in the piano after being taken to a Duke Ellington concert at the age of 4 and began piano lessons at 7. To begin with he played classical music before switching to jazz after being influenced by his jazz bass player cousin Charles Burrell. He is also the cousin of Grammy winning jazz singer Dianne Reeves.

His first album ("The George Duke Quartet Presented By The Jazz Workshop 1966 Of San Francisco") was recorded in 1966 and he then spent two years as a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention and another two playing with Cannonball Adderley before returning to Zappa. He often used the alias Dawilli Gonga when performing on other artists material.

He recorded approximately 37 albums between 1966 and 2013 and appeared on many more. In 2011 he released the first of three albums of early live recordings with Al Jarreau ("Live At The Half Note Club 1965 Volume 1") recorded in 1965 at The Half Note Club in San Francisco. Another two volumes were planned for release, whether or not they were before his death in 2013 I'm not sure, but they don't appear to have been.

He crossed over to funk (or jazz/funk as it became known and later Fusion) in the 70s with "Reach For It" being his first, and biggest, hit on the R&B charts reaching #2 in 1977.

In the playlist below I've endeavoured to select a track from each of his (available) albums to show his evolution, although a few from the 80s were skipped as sadly they suffered from that synthetic/artificial electronic sounding production that was prevalent in the mid 80s (along with bland ballads) which, for me at least, left the music soulless. There are also a few videos of him performing his classics live.

Album Discography

1966 - The George Duke Quartet Presented By The Jazz Workshop 1966 Of San Francisco

1970 - Save the Country

1971 - The Inner Source (Solus)

(First Disc Of The Album The Inner Source)

(intended as a separate released as a double album)

1973 - The Inner Source

(Second Disc Of The Album The Inner Source)

1974 - Faces in Reflection

1974 - Feel

1975 - The Aura Will Prevail

1975 - I Love the Blues, She Heard My Cry

1976 - Liberated Fantasies

1976 - The Solo Keyboard Album

(aka The Dream - not released until 1982)

1977 - From Me to You

1977 - Reach for It

1978 - Don't Let Go

1979 - Follow the Rainbow

1979 - Master of the Game

1980 - A Brazilian Love Affair

1981 - The Clarke/Duke Project

1982 - Dream On

1983 - The Clarke/Duke Project II

1983 - Guardian of the Light

1984 - Rendezvous

1985 - Thief in the Night

1986 - George Duke

1989 - Night After Night

1990 - The Clark/Duke Project 3

1992 - Snapshot

1993 - Muir Woods Suite

1995 - Illusions

1997 - Is Love Enough?

1998 - After Hours

2000 - Cool

2002 - Face the Music

2005 - Duke

2006 - In a Mellow Tone

2008 - Dukey Treats

2010 - Déjà Vu

2013 - DreamWeaver

R.I.P. - Dennis Budimir (The Wrecking Crew) (20 Jun 1938 - 10 Jan 2022)

It has been announced on The Wrecking Crew facebook page that long time member Dennis Budimir has died aged 84.

The Wrecking Crew were L.A.s equivalent of Motown's Funk Brothers, session musicians who played on hundreds of hit records in the 60s and 70s.

Budimir was a studio guitarist who first played professionally when he was 14 in the 50s playing with La Monte Young, Billy Higgins, and Don Cherry. He has played on hundreds of film scores and released several jazz guitar albums in the 1960s, and after being discharged after 2 years military service in 1963, he was essentially out of jazz by 1965 due to the limited opportunities to perform and became a session musician with The Wrecking Crew.

He has a wikipedia entry which lists his full discography which runs to hundreds, performing on recordings by soul/jazz artists such as: 5th Dimension, Bobby Caldwell, Chico Hamilton, Milt Jackson, Quincy Jones, Peggy Lee, Jon Lucien, Sergio Mendes, Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Rodney Franklin, Benny Golson, Lesley Gore, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Bobby Hutcherson, Johnny Mathis, Carmen McRae, Les McCann, Lonette McKee, Freda Payne, Lou Rawls, Bill Withers, Marlena Shaw, Lee Ritenour,.

He has also recorded with the following mainstream artists and many more: Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart, Dusty Springfield,, Ringo Starr, Robert Palmer, Linda Ronstadt, Helen Reddy, David Cassidy, Partridge Family, Julie Andrews, Paul Anka, Burt Bacharach, Glen Campbell, The Carpenters, Cher, Bobby Darin, Perry Como, Neril Diamond, Cass Elliot, Barry Manilow.

Discogs lists nine albums he recorded with the last in 2012 titled "The Soul of Dennis Budimir".

Included below is part 1 of 3 of a discussion featuring Dennis Budimir in conversation with jazz guitarists Bill Frisell and Bob Bain.

Thanks to Gary Van Den Bussche for letting us know.

Phil Perry - A Profile

We wish Philip Eugene Perry, who was born in Springfield, IL, on 12 Jan 1952, a happy 71st birthday.

He has spent most of his career as one of the most in-demand backing vocalists in the business which is not surprising, as any regular reader of this blog will know that I very highly rate Perry's vocals so hope the playlist below can do him justice to anyone not familiar with his talent. There are several covers which he makes his own. Take a listen to his interpretation of "Love Don't Love Nobody" for starters (first recorded by The Spinners and Jean Carn, amongst others, has covered it) and then Bernard Ighner's "Everything Must Change" .. and then he takes on Aretha's classic "Call Me" which he had a #1 hit with.

However, he began his career as the lead singer, and main songwriter, in East St. Louis group The Montclairs who were active between 1969-74 and released one album and a handful of singles. The first single is the highly sought after, "Hey You! Don't Fight It", which was the the last of only five singes released by the St. Louis based Arch label. Perry wrote and recorded the song (when aged only 16), followed by one on Vanessa (which also then got released by Paula), followed by six on Paula. Five of the six Paula singles registered on the R&B chart. The only one that didn't is "Hung Up On Your Love" which is regarded as a Northern Soul classic.

After leaving Paula, The Montclairs disbanded in 1975 and Perry moved to California with fellow Montclairs member, Kevin Sanlin, forming duo Perry & Sanlin releasing two albums and five singles on Capitol between 1980-81.

For the remainder of the 80s he featured on backing vocals for a host of artists including Anita Baker's "The Songstress", Bobby Womack's "Womagic" and "The Last Soul Man", and albums by Jerry Knight, Stanley Turrentine, Leon Haywood, June Pointer, Don Grusin, Lee Ritenour, Johnny Mathis, James Ingram, Sergio Mendes, El DeBarge, Patti LaBelle, Dionne Warwick, Deniece Williams, Howard Hewett, George Benson, George Duke, Al Jarreau, Roberta Flack, Quincy Jones, The Crusaders, Boz Scaggs, Rod Stewart and many others.

His solo recording career began in 1991. His first album "The Heart Of A Man" scored a #1 R&B chart hit with a cover of Aretha's "Call Me". To date he has released a dozen albums and his most recent recording was a cover of S.O.S. Band's "Tell Me If You Still Care" with Shannon 'SangingDiva' Pearson and keyboardist/producer Kevin Flournoy.

In the video for the song Perry appears to have lost significant weight which has concerned a few but in an interview given last year he explains that it is a conscious decision to lose weight on the advice of doctors and at that time (Feb 2021) he had lost 138lbs (almost 10 Stone or 62.5 Kg) in four years.