The latest from the connoisseur's DJ, Roger Soulsorts Williams, whose
SoulSorts Sunday Soul Collection 2023 #25 was broadcast live
on Sun 16th Jul 2023, on Starpoint Radio 22:00-00:00 GMT.
Now with a preview trailer reel!
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.
As posted two weeks ago today, LRK Records has officially announced the
release of Natasha Watts' latest and fourth studio album "Music Is My Life". It is available to pre-order digitally and on vinyl (limited to 500 copies) today from
Bandcamp
for release on 22 Sep. It's an excellent album so if you don't want to wait
until then it is available exclusively to download from her
website.
We had a long phone conversation with Natasha only last week as she
wished to clarify the 'confusion' we alluded to in a previous post
regarding her releases. She is an independent artist who has written and
recorded the album and paid for the production costs (studio time,
musicians, digital (usb) production, artwork, promotion etc.) from her own
pocket at considerable expense and doesn't subscribe to the having
promoters giving her music away for free to radio as she has to recoup her
outlay to enable her to continue making music. However, she did pass
three tracks from it for promotion.
The confusion arose after "I Am Me" was billed as the lead single which we expressed our surprise to given that "Brighter Days" / "I Do, I Did, I'm Done" had already been released, albeit on vinyl, by LRK. She explained that,
as these weren't available digitally, they didn't count as far as the
FM radio stations were concerned so, in order for her material to gain
airplay on these stations, she needed to officially release a track digitally and make it available on the main digital platforms to gain airplay, hence the release
of "I Am Me".
We apologise for any confusion we may have caused and hopefully have now had it
clarified for us by Natasha.
The three tracks mentioned above, are the only ones currently available
to listen to until the album is digitally released on 22 Sep. Preferably,
if you'd like to support the artist directly, download now from
Natasha's website
to receive it in a unique (and almost certainly a future collectors item)
format, a usb stick housed within a cassette tape casing, and also cut out the middlemen's fees.
The album has involved Ziggy Funk (aka Zaidi Kiggundu who has just
released an album "Fortuitous" as Zaimie with Jaime McShane), Reel People's Mike Patto & Toni
Economides (who produced and played on several tracks), Dave Doyle and
Morgan How'll.
Musicians include Julian Crampton (bass), Nick Cohen (bass), Andy Gangadeen (drums), Tony
Remy (guitar), Nicolas Gilmore (piano). Elizabeth Troy (BGVs) and A Hundred
Birds Orchestra Japan (Strings and Piano)
The album is highly recommended and topped the Soul Associates Top 30 for
three weeks (weeks 13,14 & 15) in March/April when released via the
website.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
Click icons below for further information or to connect with the
artist.
On Friday we noticed that Essential Media Group digitally reissued a
'modern' Northern Soul gem "I Need You" (vocal and instrumental) by Diane Jenkins. The version released is the 'standard' version as there is
another, rarer, version which has a short spoken intro and also a
different arrangement that many prefer, so we've included a YouTube clip posted by Ted
Massey below.
A little anecdote, the song was written by Sam Culley who was a member of The Diplomats who morphed into Skull Snaps whose self-titled GSF album is a collectors item (that's been reissued multiple times and we are proud owners of an original acquired from John Anderson's Soul Bowl back in the day still in it's shrink warp) and had several tracks played on the scene.
The flip side to her first single "Anniversary" was "Tow-A-Way Zone" which was popular enough in the mid 70s to gain a UK issue by President imprint Crystal in
1975.
A bit of further investigation on the artist uncovered this statement by Ian
Levine who discovered "Tow-A-Way Zone" and gave it exposure at the Blackpool
Mecca in the early 70s which was posted on Soul Source
in 2012 from an older post on a forum ANS.
"I tracked down Creative Funk label owner Deke DeBerry. He's now living in
Carolina. His brother Gary DeBerry still lives in New York, and was the
bass player in Creative Funk.
Back in 1976, Sheila Hart and I went with them all to an open air
concert upstate New York for radio station WLIB. Diane Jenkins performed
with Creative Funk, and I got introduced to the audience. It was what
was called a "Picnic In The Park". We'd made "Tow Away Zone" such an
underground hit at Blackpool Mecca and the Northern Soul scene, that
they'd asked me to explain what sound we were into, and so "I Need You"
was born, as an attempt to create something that the Northern Soul Scene
would also like. Anyway, forward to 1999. We were desperately trying to
find Diane for the "Strange World Of Northern Soul".
Gary DeBerry tracked her down to a block of flats in Brooklyn and got
her phone number. But she wouldn't return any messages. He said he'd
heard she was a bit of a junkie, but didn't know if this was true or
not. In the end, he went over to Brooklyn twice, but couldn't get her to
even answer the door. I left many pleading messages on her answer phone,
but to no avail. As I said...... The STRANGE world of Northern Soul."
Creative Funk was an Albany, NY, based label (distributed by Bell) owned by brothers Gary
Lamont De Berry Sr. and Deek DeBerry who were also both members of the
band Creative Funk and Jenkins was their lead singer.
The label released 8 singles between 1973-75 before the band Creative Funk
split in 1975. Bassist Gary went on to play with Bobbie Humphrey,
Norman Connors, Jean Carne and Stanley Turrentine. Deek died in 2007. The
label seems to have been reactivated in the mid 80s
We discovered that also on Friday (and some earlier) Essential Media Group has actually
reissued all of the Creative Funk label's 70s output digitally so
rather than just posting "I Need You" we thought it well worth
posting all of them and have ordered them chronologically by
original release in the playlist below.
In addition we've included a later recording by Creative Funk which
we believe was released in the 80s (not dated on Discogs and
not listed on 45Cat) which is an in-demand deep funk recording which
featured Veedette Williams on the vocal B side and is allegedly the
hardest one to find in the label.
NB we've included Funk Machine "Soul Santa" for completeness as, if
you overlook the festive title, then it's a tight funky
number.
Creative Funk Discography
Creative Funk
1972-09 - Ready Made Family / Funk Power [#12,000] (NB A side
feat. Diane Jenkins)
1973-?? - Moving World / Breezie's [#12001]
Diane Jenkins
1973-?? - Anniversary /Tow-A-Way Zone [#12002]
1973-?? - Gee Baby, What About You / Recycle [#12003]
Funk Machine
1973-?? - Soul Santa - Part I / Soul Santa - Part II
[#12004]
Diane Jenkins
1974-02 - I'm A Woman / Sweet Wine, Music, And My Imagination
[#12005]
1975-?? - I Need You / I Need You [Instrumental] [#12005]
The Limelites / Creative Funk Orchestra
1975 - Before The Next Teardrop Falls / Theme: Before The Next
Teardrop Falls [#12008]
Creative Funk
198?-?? - The Whole Groove / The Whole Thing [#CF-1201]
