Funk | Soul Sale 369 Items

Limited vinyl edition!

Although best known in the global music world for his four years (1984-1988) as the music director and bandleader for Whitney Houston, John’s tenure in the soul music field began when he was a member (with his brother Edmund ‘Butch’ Simmons) of The Reflections, a New York City-based quartet who toured from 1972-1975 as the backing group for the legendary Melba Moore. In 1975, The Reflections had a Top 10 R&B hit with “Three Steps From True Love.”

In 1978, John began touring with Stephanie Mills, at the same time collaborating with Phillip Ballou, a member of another New York-based vocal group, Revelation and UK soul music journalist David Nathan (who he met when Nathan did an interview with The Reflections for Britain’s “Blues & Soul” magazine in 1975). The trio wrote a number of songs for Ballou’s demo as a solo artist and while nothing transpired in that regard, John recorded his own version of one of the tunes, “Ain’t Nothing Like The Love” for a small independent Michigan label, Sabrina Records in 1981. John had worked with Cissy Houston at New Hope Baptist Church in New Jersey where she was the minister of music was asked by her to do some initial promotional dates with her daughter Whitney after Arista Records released her first single in 1984; he continued doing world tours with Houston until he passed away at the age of 45 in March 1989.

The Ballou sessions (held mostly in Montclair, New Jersey) expanded into recording dates for both Nathan and Simmons. None of the original recordings were released commercially – until now. In the wake of the interest among rare groove collectors in John’s version of “Ain’t Nothing Like The Love,” Nathan – himself a recording artist since 2003 – has uncovered the tapes of all the material he, Phllip and John recorded in 1978 and 1979.

Gaining its first-ever release now on Nefer Records via Super Disco Edits is the coupling of John’s solo composition, the upbeat gospel-infused “Safe” and the midtempo, “I Wanna Be Closer,” another one of the songs also recorded (and thus far unissued by both Ballou and Nathan).

The original 12” version of this badboy will set you back near on £150, so it’s a much welcomed official, remastered reissue. A favourite from the likes of Sadar Bahar and Mr Scruff you’ll be hearing this one a lot come summertime.

The Meters is the debut studio album by the band of the same name. It's an essential album in the funk scene and one that contains a lot of energy and soul.

November 5th, 2018 would have been Charles Bradley’s 70th birthday. In celebration of his extraordinary life, Daptone imprint Dunham Records is proud to announce the release of his fourth and final album, Black Velvet.

Black Velvet is a celebration of Charles Bradley, lovingly assembled by his friends and family at Dunham/Daptone Records. Though chronologically the material spans Charles' entire career, this is no anthology, greatest hits or other shallow rehashing of the songs that already made him famous. Rather, this album is a profound exploration through the less-travelled corners of the soulful universe that Charles and his longtime producer, co-writer and friend Tommy "TNT" Brenneck created in the studio together over their decade-long partnership. It features new songs recorded during the sessions from each of his three albums, heard here for the very first time in all their scorching glory: "Can't Fight the Feeling," "Fly Little Girl" and the heart-wrenching single "I Feel a Change", hard core rarities like his funk-bomb duet with LaRose Jackson, "Luv Jones," the psychedelic groover, "(I Hope You Find) The Good Life" and the ever-illusive alternate full band electric version of "Victim of Love", sought-after covers of Nirvana's "Stay Away," Neal Young's "Heart of Gold" and Rodriguez's "Slip Away", and the title track "Black Velvet," a stirring Menahan Street Band instrumental to which Charles was never able to cut a vocal.

Charles was truly a transcendent singer who led a remarkable life, overcoming unimaginable adversity to achieve great success and international acclaim very late in his life. What was really special about him and made him different from everybody else in the world was how he understood his pain as a cry for universal love and humanity. He felt that if he loved enough—if we all loved each other enough—we could take away the world’s pain and sadness. That is why he jumped off the stage and literally tried to hug everybody he could. It's why he took such great care of a mother that had abandoned him. It's why he sang and danced like a lunatic. It's why he screamed like an eagle. And that's why we love him.

Black Velvet is a celebration of his life, and is destined to join Charles' first three albums alongside the cannon of essential soul records for the ages.
The new album is comprised of ten tracks the singer laid down in the years before his death, taken from different recording sessions over the years.

Smile your way through two songs by The Teacher Haters — in fact, we challenge you to get through these tracks without smiling. Even the name of the band invokes a chuckle as it suggests what these guys are about — and that’s the P-A-R-T-Y. Straight out of the 60s comes a group that could have been played with Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs back in the day. These whimsical works are deceptively deep as they take us to a time when garage punk fused with R&B.
“Big Pig Alley” is uncomplicated, and that’s what makes it great — it sounds like a bunch of college guys having a good time, writing lyrics on the spot: “If you’re lookin’ for romance, take a train, take a plane...or a raft to France.” The guys have something other than romance on their minds as they chug along on acoustic guitar and trash can drums (and possibly other things). What really makes the track, though, is the witchy background voice — the performance is loose enough, while the witch is doing his own thing entirely.
The witch returns on side B in the up-tempo, dance-ready “Cut Loose.” No obscure artistry here — these guys tell you exactly what the song is for in the title. In fact, just in case you missed it, they state their thesis in the opening lines: “I wanna shake all night, I wanna do it right, I wanna dance, dance, dance with you…” All of their collegiate effort is put toward getting you to move your hips in this groovy, rockabilly-flavored mix.
Snap up the mid-century college party in a box that is PP006 — and hope your tables don’t get too scuffed up from people dancing on them. The fun that The Teacher Haters had in making these tracks is all here and available to you — whether you want to go on a nostalgic trip through a 60s coed party, or host your own shindig where dancing is mandatory. Get your hands on this 7" before the regents show up.

We at Now-Again unearthed so much information about the bands that recorded the definitive disco and modern soul contained in our Soul Cal anthology that we decided we had no choice but to release this album at the same time. With that, Loving On The Flip Side was concieved. Loving On The Flip Side offers the enthused a chance to listen to and reflect on another great burst of black American creativity: the creation of the sublime genre we like to call "sweet funk." It seems laughable to skip past Thomas East’s "Slipping Around" 7' for the cheesy funk of "Just A Trip," or to listen obsessively to Lou Ragland’s instrumental funk on the Hot Chocolate LP and ignore his indolent-yet-stirring "We Had True Love." Yet we did just that, until we first heard the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s beautiful two-sider. This was the record that set Loving On The Flip Side in motion, as the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s two songs precipitated the sweet funk genre: the dichotomy of Funky Heavy’s skull snapping rhythm section and the teenage Dears’ angelic harmonies didn’t sound like anything we’d heard before. That discovery set off a decade long search for the band and culminated in their discovery, the documenting of their stories, the emergence of their master tapes and the inclusion of their songs on Loving On The Flip Side. The excitement we felt while listening to the Darling Dears and Funky Heavy’s masterworks forced us back into the field, in search of other sweet funk swooners and beat-heavy ballads to round out this anthology. The opportunity to present anew such wondrous soul music made the exhaustive process that produced Loving On The Flip Side worthwhile, and allowed us to collect one-offs that escaped prior investigations into the deep funk and sweet soul genres.

Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice proudly present the 4th edition of the AOR Global Sounds compilations series: 14 rare and hidden tracks, produced between 1977 and 1986 in various parts of the world. Started in 2015, the AOR Global Sounds series was born from the will of Charles Maurice (aka Pascal Rioux) to share his longtime love for the AOR and WestCoast movement and highlight its influence for many artists in the late 70s and early 80s. In this 4th volume, he selected again highly forgotten productions, deeply infused with Disco and Soul flavors.
Half of the compilation’s tracklist is naturally coming from the US, homeland of this music style, but the other half is made of productions from all over the globe, from France, Belgium, Italy, to Mexico. And for most of these beautiful songs, it came from artists and bands rather unknown and often released as private press.
As an example, “Come Back” is the result of a music talent competition won by a student band named Parenthèse, gaining a full recording session in a professional studio and the production of a limited promotional 7inch vinyl, which still completely obscure til now. “Mellow Out” comes from the only album by Pacific Dreams, which was fully self-produced and released by its leader Tommy Sweet. Fernando Toussaint, however having quite a solid career and discography as a drummer and with his brother forming the Mexican Jazz-Funk band Sacbé, had solely one solo album released in very limited quantities on Discos Alebrije, a label directed by Alain Derbez. As for “Never Was Love” by Russ Long, despite becoming quite famous when recorded and sang by Judy Roberts, it’s still surprisingly undiscovered in its original version, taken from Russ’ beautiful album from 1982, Long On Jazz In Kansas City.
And we could detail stories like this for each of the titles included in AOR Global Sounds Vol.4, but our guessing is the best way to learn more about all these gems is to listen to it, fully remastered from originals, and whether your preference is for vinyl or CD formats.

The Diamond Street Players, Atlanta, GA's modern equivalent of Stax, Motown, or Fame Studio's legendary in-house studio bands, follow up last year's mesmerizing "Living In Harmony" with two distinctive 7" sides, melding two different vibes of this versatile group of true soul/funk purveyors. Led by organist, writer and producer, Spencer Garn, The Diamond Street Players focus first on laying down gritty soul, funk and R&B tracks that more than hold their own instrumentally. Occasionally a track works out well for a lead vocalist, as is the case with the A-Side Million Miles, a smooth and soulful mid-tempo love-soul bender that brings forth remeniscenses of Al Green and Shuggie Otis. This cut features a collaboration with Amanda Joy, whos love for soul and gospel began at age 5 singing in church. A top graduate of the performing arts school she attended, she brings a powerfully soulful voice to the Diamond Street funk.The B-Side is quite another side, indeed, displaying one of those aforementioned "other vibes" of The Diamond Street Players. This edgy, raw and funky "Murky Retrograde" has already received dance floor approval from b-boys and b-girls nationwide--with early floor-filling spins from ATL to Portland, Oregon. But don't worry, it's not just this one side.

AS PRELUDE TO THE UPCOMING EDDIE MURPHY-STARRING NETFLIX FILM DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, THE EPONYMOUS DOLEMITE RECORDS PRESENTS THIS RECORD STORE DAY-EXCLUSIVE VINYL REISSUE FROM CULT COMEDIAN RUDY RAY MOORE

Despite never achieving major mainstream success in his career, the scope of influence from cult comedian Rudy Ray Moore is palpable and far-reaching. A consummate performer and raconteur, Moore's comedy emphasized raw and explicit story-telling and wisecracking, often told in rhyme, and featuring a backing band; a style of performance that inadvertedly set a blueprint for early hip-hop music. Following in the footsteps of comic legends Redd Foxx and Moms Mabley, his stage presence would inspire the likes of Katt Williams and Snoop Dogg, find widespread underground success among inner cities in the 1970s, and would lead him to collaborate with a wide swath of artists into his later years, from Big Daddy Kane to Insane Clown Posse. His various bits and sketches would even become sampling fodder in tracks by Madlib, A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Shadow, 2 Live Crew, and innumerable others. Above all else, Rudy Ray Moore's best known and most beloved claim to fame is his tales of the legend of Dolemite the pimp. Derived from various obscene stories he overheard while working in a record store, Moore's most famous routine saw him take on the role of Dolemite, and recount humorous stories and anecdotes which framed the hustler as something of a ghetto folk hero. These anecdotes proved to be incredibly popular in urban clubs and parties, and would later be adapted into the hit 1975 blaxploitation film Dolemite, of which Moore would produce and star. In celebration of Rudy Ray Moore's extensive works, as well as the upcoming Eddie Murphy-starring Netflix biopic featuring him, Dolemite Records proudly presents this vinyl reissue of one of his 1975 release, The Return Of Dolemite. Coming just on the cusp of the feature film's release, Return sees Moore at the top of his game, spinning anecdotal yarns about sexual conquests, hustling stories, and in his own parlance: “F*ckin' up motherf*ckas!” Exclusive to Record Store Day 2019, this deluxe reissue comes decades after its initial release, and the first time pressed on vinyl in over 40 years.

Our Deep Soul series already sports Eddie Parker’s acclaimed ‘But If You Must Go’ and now we have his supremely soulful version of ‘Crying Clown’ taken from the same sessions. Already a great ballad cut by him in the 60s, this sparser piano-led take is as intense as soul music gets. It is backed with the beautiful melancholy of Detroit great Sandra Richardson’s ‘Deserted Garden’, previously only available on our first “Jack Ashford - Just Productions” CD.

The soul CD hit of 2019 so far has been the Lowrider compilation and on that, the previously unissued ‘I’m Just Passing Time’ by Melvin Hicks & the Versatiles has impressed everyone – including the Southern Soul Spinners of California who initiated the compilation. Its flip is another stunning ballad, ‘Now Girl’, taken from the Goldwax master tapes and sung by the Lyrics. Now it is available on vinyl, it is guaranteed to have a new lease of life.