Out this Friday (20 Jan '23) is the new single "Bonafide" from the illustrious Saint
Jainz.
It follows a 'Refix' of "She's My Monday" and Popz featuring Kaleo Ross "Technology" released at the tail end of 2022 and not forgetting four tracks from an, as yet, unreleased EP "The RNB Remedy" which videos for were posted in Oct '22.
Also check out more previous material from Saint Jaimz.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
Click icons below for further information or to connect with the
artist.
The latest, and third single, from Toronto's
Claire Davis on LRK Records is due a week on Friday, on 27
Jan 2023.
It's a retro, mid-tempo, song about trusting your gut titled "Intuition" and I think is my favourite from her to date. The song is a
collaborative effort with her writing partner Scott McCannell who gave her
the track to compose melody and lyrics for which she
says:
"I'm a big proponent of following your gut and not playing games with
people. My theory is, you always know what the right move is but we can
get in our own way by overthinking. Sometimes in relationships we’re
scared to say what we feel out of fear, but we always have the answers
within us".
The soulful background vocals, performed by Aphrose, Tegan Michelle
Gordon and Chynna Lewis, were arranged by another trusted collaborator
La-Nai Gabriel. Sounds like a good name for a band The
Collaborators!
The third single follows "Long Gone" / "Times Have Changed" from last year and "Thrive " / "Playground" from 2021 and in between she featured with The HP's on
their single "Hope To See You Again" / "Better Things" all released on LRK Records digitally and on vinyl (which are more than
likely now sold out so don't sleep on this on if/when it comes out on
vinyl).
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
Click icons below for further information or to connect with the
artist.
A year since he hung up his microphone, Roger Soulsorts Williams is back
with a new 'live' show in his old regular Sunday night slot 22:00-24:00 GMT on Starpoint Radio.
However, he hasn't been AWOL, as throughout the year has produced many podcasts, all posted here which you can check out via the Soulsorts drop down box on the menu.
The first show looks back at tunes from 2022 with an odd new one thrown
in for good measure.
It looks like we'll be having a reshuffle of radio show podcasts as DJ Kool Keith's Sunday Soulful Vibes show is being moved to Tuesday as of next week which fits in nicely now that Mr. Williams is back on board.
Roger's show is broadcast every Sunday between 22:00-24:00 (GMT)
on Starpoint Radio playing his selection of the best new soul and jazz
releases.
Sade (Helen Folasade Adu) was born in Ibadan, Nigeria
on 16 Jan 1959 so will therefore be celebrating her 64th
birthday today. She is one of the most successful British female
singers in history even though she has only released six studio albums
since 1984. In 2002 she was honoured by the Queen receiving an OBE (Officer of the Order of the
British Empire) and in 2017 a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British
Empire) which is only one step away from a knighthood were she would
be referred to as Dame.
Sade was raised in Colchester (UK) by here grandparents reuniting
with her mother when she was 11. At the age of 18 she moved to
London to attend art school after which she launched a career as a
fashion designer and model before joining a Latin soul band called
Pride.
In 1982 she formed a breakaway band Sade (initially named Folasade
and then shortened) with former Pride members Paul Denman, Stuart Matthewman and Paul Anthony Cook (who was later
replaced by Andrew Hale). They debuted at Ronnie Scott's Club in Dec 1982. Sade was
initially signed to Epic Records in 1983 as a solo artist but the
band joined her later and they released a debut album "Diamond Life" the same year which is the best selling debut album by a
British female artist reaching #2 on the album chart and selling 1.2m
copies in the UK alone and in excess of 4m in the US. It won a Brit
Award for Best British album in 1985. Three albums followed "Promise" (1984) (which fared better on the chart reaching #1 for which the
group won a Grammy for as Best New Artist) , "Stronger Than Pride" (1988) and "Love Deluxe" (1992) and then went on an eight year hiatus. The next album "Lovers Rock" appeared in 2000 followed by another break of ten years until the last album, to date (as it is rumoured
that an new album is in the pipeline) "Soldier of Love" in 2010. Since then she has only released two songs, both for
soundtracks.
Die-hard soul enthusiasts may not regard her as a
bonafide 'soul' singer. The BBC describe her songwriting as
"sufficiently soulful and jazzy yet poppy, funky yet easy listening,
to appeal to fans of all those genres"
[1]. However, her music seems to have
certainly influenced a new generation of neo soul
artists.
As always, rather than regurgitate all the tried and tested songs,
the playlist below includes some of her lesser know songs, mainly
album only tracks. Videos for all her singles are available on her
YouTube Channel and to give you a taste we've included below videos for the first hit single "You're Love Is King" and also the 1993 single "Kiss Of Life" covered beautifully last year by
Beth Griffith-Manley
on Blair Bryant's "Red Tiger" album.
Album Discography
All albums have gone Gold (500k sales) or Platinum (1m sales) with
the first quadruple and second double Platinum.
Split Evolution were from Chicago and released two singles.
The first "Jumpstreet" (vocal/instrumental) on Wasp in 1978 (although copyright on the label
states 1974 whilst publishing states 1978) followed by "If Only You Would Say (I Love You)" (vocal/instrumental) on Jumpstreet in 1984 as The Three Phases Of
Evolution. Both pretty hard records to find and not even listed on 45Cat but
appear to have been reissued by Magnetic Recordings in 2014 (both included
below). Interestingly, on the label for the latter it states that it is from
the LP "Jumsptreet" so perhaps an album was in the pipeline? They recorded a
third single which only made it to a test pressing as the full press was
cancelled.
The unreleased third single "Bedroom Eyes" / "Let Me Do It" is the one being released in March by Canonnball. The record was
found by rare soul DJ Dave Thorley (Stafford Top Of The World all-nighter DJ
amongst many others) on a record hunting trip to the States in the early
noughties. He met the ex-manager of the group and acquired the
remaining test pressing and has been playing it in his sets ever since.
Cannonball maestro Alberto Zanini has always loved the record and describes
it as 'the DEFINITIVE love song'. He met Dave at his home in Berlin and
negotiated its release on his label to celebrate the label's 8th anniversary
this year.
It is due for release in March and
pre-orders are being take now
for a very limited pressing, so get your orders in now if you don't want to
miss out ... as you know what will happen to the price! A digital copy is
included with your order but I don't believe that it will be available as a
digital download without purchasing the vinyl.
At present only a sample of "Bedroom Eyes" is available to listen to.
January 2023 continues to bring more sad news of yet another departing soul
brother. The sole remaining member of 60s/70s Detroit group The Dynamics, Fred
'Sonny' Baker, has died not even a fortnight after member George White
passed on 6 Jan.
As many of The Dynamics recordings where featured in the George White tribute, this post will focus on the writing of Sonny Baker.
Blues & Soul magazine columnist Dave Godin is credited with coming up
with the term Deep Soul (as he did with Northern Soul) and he unearthed
"You Make Me Feel Good" (below) on one of his several "Deep Soul Treasures" compilations. In fact
it was on Volume 4 which was thought would be his last as it was released in 2004
the year he died, but another was posthumously released resulting in five
volumes in total.
It's a previously unreleased song by Lawrence & Jaibi, Lawrence being singer/songwriter/producer
Larry Banks and his wife Jaibi (Joan Carol Pulliam). They only released one single as a duo in 1968
on RCA so, presumably, this was from the same sessions that was left in the
can until Dave featured it on the compilation. It was released on a 7" by
Sean Hampsey's Diggin' Deep in June 2019 as the flip to Jaibi's "It' Was
Like A Nightmare", another previously unreleased song. Larry Banks was
previously married to Bessie Banks who released "Go Now" (co-written by
Larry with Milton Bennet) which Godin championed and was later covered by
The Moody Blues who had a UK #1 pop hit with it in 1964 which hampered the sales of Banks' original.
That's all well and good, I hear you say, but what's it got to do with
Fred Baker, well he co-wrote the song with Dynamics member Zerben Hicks.
The Dynamics recorded it as the B side to their second, and last, single
on RCA Victor in 1967 on which the A side was credited to Zerben R.
Hicks & The Dynamics.
Baker and Hicks are credited alongside Jack Ashford on The Hesitations'
"That's What Love Is" from their "Soul Superman" album. Northern Soul aficionados will know
that the backing track is the same as Eddie Parker's classic "I'm Gone". Ashford was credited alongside Lorraine Chandler (as Ermastine Lewis)
on Parker's "I'm Gone", so I assume that Baker and Hicks wrote the new
lyrics replacing Chandler (Lewis) on credits. Baker is also credited on
another track on the album, "I'll Be Right There", co-written with Rare Earth member Ray Monette. Again, Northern Soulies
will be aware of Monette as he was one half of blue-eyed duo
Michael & Raymond with Mike Raymond who's RCA Victor
recording "Man Without A Woman" was a big tune and featured on the RCA compilation "Jumping At The Go
Go" compiled by Wigan Casino's Richard Searling in 1976. Mike Raymond later became an actor using the name Michael Champion appearing in many US TV series. Along
with Monette, he formed a band Scorpion which also included Funk Brother Bob
'Babbit' and also played on Meat Loaf's first album "Stoney & Meatloaf" on Motown's MoWest imprint in 1971.
Hicks and Baker wrote several of songs recorded by
Carol Anderson on Mid-Town in 1972 "Holding On" / "You Boy" and "It Shouldn't Happen To A Dog" as well as a one-off on Explosion "Master Plan (I Love You, I Do)" which is a superb deep cut. All four songs appear on a 2004 Grapevine compilation "Sad Girl: The Legacy Of Detroit's Lost Soul Sister".
To celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day, here are two of his famous
speeches, the "I Have A Dream" speech 28 Aug 1963 and his final speech "I
Have Been To the Mountaintop" on 3 Apr 1968.
He was born 15 Jan 1929 and was just 39 years old when shot dead the following day at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis on 4 Apr 1968.
Beginning in 1971 some states honoured his birthday and in 1983 President Ronald Regan made it a federal holiday with George W. Bush in 1992 designating it to be observed on the third Monday of January each year.
