10/04/2024
Delighted to announce two new Jai Alai references, this time consisting in four favourite tracks never released on 7" before. Both Maze songs are simply outstanding so itยดs certainly surprising Warner Bros didnยดt pick up any of them for single releases ("Love Is" was quite hard to get on vinyl too, as the album only came out as promo). Same could be said about the dancefloor delight (an Isaac Hayes production, no less) "Everyday" and the CD only album track by Gerald Levert, obviously influenced by Curtis Mayfield.
๐ฃ๐ฅ๐ ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐๐ฅ ๐ก๐ข๐ช ๐๐ข๐ฅ 17๐๐ต ๐๐ฃ๐ฅ๐๐
www.soul4real.es
JAR13 - MAZE feat. FRANKIE BEVERLY โ SOMEBODY ELSEยดS ARMS / LOVE IS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixbqouUzlr0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xCINfjHURQ
JAR14 - DONAL BYRD AND 125th STREET, N.Y.C. โ EVERYDAY / GERALD LEVERT โ THE TOP OF MY HEAD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ7hwQLf9YI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbGT5PHfLmA
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๐๐๐ฅ13 โ ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐. ๐๐ฅ๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ฅ๐๐ฌ
The package, posted from Inglewood in California, dropped through my letter boxโฆ
I was looking forward to seeing this, the VHS of the then relatively โunknownโ but now legendary live show at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. But when I fed it into my VHS player, I was disappointed. I could not quite figure out why. The band were tight, each musician sounded great, the product of being on the road, year after year, club after club in the States, sometimes playing five shows a night, all propped up by one of the best soulful voices we had ever heard, the maestro Frankie Beverly.
It took a second play to realise what was missing. It was โtoo comfortableโ an atmosphere. A few wealthy customers sat around coffee tables quaffing champagne. It seemed to me that this audience, somehow, did not fit the band.
Paul Fenn at Asgard promotions received the contract from the band to appear live in London and Manchester. I became more and more convinced that his UK fans were going to be a lot more responsive than those from New Orleans.
We put the word out with just a couple of exclusive โshout outsโ by Robbie Vincent on his Radio London Soul programme. Those two plugs were enough to sell out all four shows at Londonโs premier music venue, the Hammersmith Odeon. The ticket office was rammed and the queue six deep, stretched halfway down Queen Caroline Street.
โI have never seen anything like itโ expressed the manager of the theatre as he rolled down the shutters and turned on the โSorry, SOLD OUTโ notice above the theatre box office.
I was curious, so I went up and stood in the wings of the Hammersmith stage on that first show. Frankie, introduced to the stage by his sound engineer, Greg Blockman, sauntered past me, strumming his rhythm guitar, dressed in a casual dark green towelling suit, a brown leather visor and flip flopsโฆand then five seconds later, he suddenly stopped. He seemed suddenly to be aware of the thunderous โWelcome to London Mazeโ roar, circling around the theatre about to engulf him. He slapped every black and white hand offered up to him that night, with a huge smile as he circled the edge of that stage. We wanted to get next to him, even if it meant climbing over rows of seats in front of us to do so.
That was the beginning of our love affair with Maze and Frankie Beverly. It certainly wasnโt New Orleans comfort; it was more like a crazy, but friendly, London riot.
Five albums on from the โLive in New Orleansโ LP, Frankie sauntered into the California recording studio, probably with the same swagger as in London, to cut the delightful A-side here, โSomebody Elseโs Armsโ, from his aptly named โSilky Soulโ album. Along with the B-side, โLove isโ (from the โBack To Basicsโ CD, 1993) both are so delicious you might want to relax and pour yourself that London glass of champagne, 1983 vintage. Tell your mates your Maze/Hammersmith story too. You deserve it.
๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ต๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฐ๐ฒ
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๐๐๐ฅ14๐ โ ๐๐ข๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ก๐ 125๐๐ต ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ง, ๐ก.๐ฌ.๐
The latest release on Jai Alai follows the format of forgotten vinyl tracks never before released on 7โ format, or previously CD only album tracks, and will raise some eyebrows in artist selection and pairing.
Donaldson Toussaint LโOuverture Byrd II was one of the most significant jazz artists of all time having joined Art Blakeyโs Jazz Messengers in the mid-50s and establishing himself as one of the best hard bop trumpeter/flugelhorn players. His progression was continuous through the 50s/60s working with John Coltrane, Gigi Gryce, Pepper Adams, Thelonius Monk, Sonny Rollins as sideman, and became one of Blue Note Records leading artists.
By the end of the 60s Byrd decided to move away from that idiom, experimenting with jazz fusion, African music and Rhythm & Blues. He worked hard to make jazz and its history part of the curriculum in US music colleges and he taught at many including Rutgers, Hampton, Howard, and Columbia, the latter from who he received his PhD in music.
Byrd took a great interest in how Miles Davisโ experimentation was resonating with a younger audience, and despite being castigated by his musical peers, his development of jazz fusion changed the jazz scene forever. His work with the Blackbyrds was a cornerstone for the progression of jazz funk in the UK.
The effect of his hook-up with brothers Larry & Fonce Mizell was immediate and his Blue Notes albums โBlack Byrdโ (1973), โStreet Ladyโ, โStepping Into Tomorrowโ (1974), โPlaces & Spacesโ (1975) and โCaricaturesโ (1976) became legendary on the newly evolving jazz funk scene with certain tracks such as โChange (Makes You Wanna Hustle)โ normalising dance jazz on the disco floors, not to mention being a rich source for many hip-hop samples.
A slightly leaner period followed when he moved to Elektra Records and of the three albums with his new incarnation 125th Street NYC, a group of musicians he taught at North Carolina Central University, two were produced by Isaac Hayes including โWordsโ, โSounds, Colors & Shapesโ (1982) from which โEverydayโ, a fabulous forgotten piece of mellow jazz funk derives.
By the end of the 80s he had returned to his harder straight-ahead jazz roots, but his place in history and the evolving of jazz as a dance culture in our clubs should never be forgotten.
๐๐๐ฅ14๐ โ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ฅ๐ง
There is only so much tragedy one family can take and legendary OโJay Eddie Levert has surely had more than most. To have lost both sons by the time they reached 40 is incomprehensible, particularly ones so talented, and in such tragic circumstances; an accidental but fatal mixture of over-the-counter drugs and prescription pain-killers in Geraldโs case, and due to incompetent medical care whilst temporarily incarcerated in Seanโs.
Gerald Levert left quite a legacy though. He set up his first band LeVert in 1985 with younger brother Sean, and childhood friend Marc Gordon. They released an album each year for the next five years enjoying increasing success, recording seven in total of which four went gold. Their initial album โI Get Hotโ (1985 Tempre) was critically acclaimed as one of the greatest soul albums of the decade.
A solo career beckoned in 1991 and he immediately topped the R&B charts with Private Line and the following year had huge success with the number one hit โBaby Hold On To Meโ, a duet with his father, which led to the album โFather And Sonโ in 1995. Levert released nine solo albums, discovered the R&B groups the Rude Boys, Men At Large and 1 Of The Girls, as well as being part of the Black Men Unlimited, the collective who scored with U Will Know, the soundtrack to the widely acclaimed ghetto film โJasonโs Lyricโ.
Gerald was also a member of supergroup LSG, with Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill (their initials forming the name) who between them had enjoyed thirty number one R&B hits and album sales of more than thirty million. Their debut album unsurprisingly sold over 2 million copies with the single โMy Bodyโ going platinum.
Of his solo albums, all but the first two were CD only, and the selection here, โThe Top Of My Headโ, is a delicate string-laden stepper taken from arguably his finest album, โG Spotโ (2002 Elektra), and features his lead falsetto vocal interwoven with his own background vocals. Pure class.
๐ฆ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐
(๐ฆ๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ผ / ๐ง๐ผ๐๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ ๐ช๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ผ)
