Tuesday Is (Motown Soul Jazz) Blues Day!

Dave Hamilton - Late Freight

Today's selection is one of this blog's rare forays into soul jazz, and it fits nicely in the "Tuesday Is Blues Day" theme as well. I featured multi-instrumentalist/producer/record label owner Dave Hamilton in a week's worth of posts some time ago. Today I turn to his early work with Motown. Hamilton played guitar and vibes on quite a few early recordings for Berry Gordy before he stepped out on his own to run labels and provide occasional session work elsewhere. While with Motown, however, Hamilton was one of a handful of musicians who recorded for the short-lived Workshop Jazz label. Berry Gordy had set up the label to give his musicians, many of whom were serious jazz cats (in the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Joe Hunter strongly emphasized that the Funk Brothers were playing jazz in clubs when they weren't down in the "Snake Pit"), incentive to work with him - sort of a "play some R&B for me, and I'll let you do what you really like" thing. Within a very short time, however, Gordy was able to shutter the label, so among the early Motown material the Workshop Jazz stuff is pretty rare. Interestingly enough, when the Four Tops first signed to Motown, they recorded a set for Workshop Jazz, which went unreleased until Hip-O Select put it out on CD a year or two ago!

"Late Freight" was part of Hamilton's Blue Vibrations LP, and the tune also garnered single release. After the band sets the "train" theme in the tune's aggressive intro, the groove settles into a blues shuffle and Hamilton, on vibes, does his thing.

Acid Lounge Funk Time!

Dave Hamilton:
Pisces Pace (Pt. 1) b/w (Pt. 2)

Dave Hamilton's shelved Soul Suite album was discussed in one of my "Dave Hamilton Week" posts (check them out to get info about the Detroit artist/sideman/label owner and his productions). "Pisces Pace," a two-part TCB single, was the only thing from that album to be released. It truly fits the "acid lounge funk" description given to it by Dean Rudland, but such a label is somewhat unfair, as the tune is a sweet piece of fast and furious funk, with Dave's guitar and vibes carrying the haunting melody. I'm actually partial to Part Two, which opens with a nice drum break and then some trippy guitar work from Dave.

Dave Hamilton's Eccentric Soul

James Lately - Tears Running and Falling From My Eyes

Detroit soul man Dave Hamilton and his productions were featured in a week of posts not too long ago. The first of the sundry labels Hamilton would run from the '60s through the '80s was called Temple, and one of Temple's acts was the mysterious James Lately. Both today's selection and "Love, Friends and Money" (which appeared on Kent's Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers Vol. 1 but appeared in final form on Vol. 3 of the series) find Lately providing meandering vocals over very atmospheric backing tracks. On "Tears Running and Falling From My Eyes" he very successfully puts over the disorientation and heartache that a broken relationship can create, managing to negate the premise of "Love, Friends and Money" in the process and providing one such stark lines as "Am I living on this earth? No - I'm just existing without you." It's a little odd, but it's very good.

Dave Hamilton Week: The Gospel According to O.C.

O.C. Tolbert - Give It To Glory

Dave Hamilton Week here at "Get on Down ..." concludes with some "Sunday gospel time" from O.C. Tolbert, who was featured earlier in the week. Toward the end of Dave Hamilton's foray in the record business Tolbert, who by this time had found God and got into gospel music (although I use this term loosely - his vocals showed tremendous gospel experience on his soul sides). "Give It To Glory" appeared on Volume 2 of Detroit Dancers and, despite its late vintage, is very good. The song starts with some noodling by Dave and the musicians before a glissando synthesizer lick brings the groove all together. Tolbert does his thing with gusto and, despite a very strange moment in the second verse (was there a master tape problem which Ace decided to ignore in including the song on the comp?) the whole thing cooks, from the aforementioned introduction through Tolbert's recitation of Psalm 23 to the call-and-response finale.

Although Dave Hamilton week concludes with today's post, I will surely feature other Dave Hamilton material on occasion in future posts and, as Ace uncovers more goodies fom Hamilton's tapes I will present neat stuff from there also. Kudos to Ace/Kent/BGP for doing such a great job so far in bringing this obscure figure of Detroit soul to the light.

Look out here later today for the podcast!

Soul-Blues Saturday / Dave Hamilton Week: Look Up and Smile!

Chicago Pete - Look Up and Smile

Dave Hamilton stayed in the recording business up into the 1980s, and his latter releases on labels such as Landy Bug continued to present some fine soul and funk on O.C. Tolbert and others. Today's selection appeared on Volume 3 of the Detroit Dancers series. Over a buoyant soul-blues beat, Pete delivers the song's warming lyrics with a confidence and smoothness that is only hampered by a bit too much echo. Look up and smile, folks!

Look out later today for the new podcast, and tomorrow we'll conclude the Dave Hamilton series.

Dave Hamilton Week: Funky Permutations

The Ebonettes - Just a Mistake (aka Side By Side)

The fact that Dave Hamilton's master tapes were far from efficiently organized, and the fact that Dave was willing to try out multiple versions of songs built around certain rhythm tracks, has caused the Ace compilers to feature certain songs multiple times on the Detroit Dancers series and other compilations featuring Hamilton's recordings. Sometimes it's a matter of finding "finished" masters of songs that appeared on earlier volumes (James Lately's "Love, Friends and Money" on Volume 3 of Detroit Dancers features strings and a quicker tempo than the version appearing on Volume 1) or finding versions of the song by other artists (Little Ann takes on "Sweep It Out In The Shed" on Volume 3). Then sometimes it's just a case of Hamilton experimenting, like in the case of "Ain't It a Groove" from Wednesday's post and today's selection.

"Just a Mistake," also titled "Side By Side," was recorded in alternate versions by the Ebonettes (apparently a completely unknown group) and the Barrino Brothers, with either party providing back up on the other recording. Although the Barrino Brothers' version of this tune, which appears on Volume 2 of Detroit Dancers, is probably the best-realized version of the song, as the group (who would go on to have some fame on Invictus after their tenure on Hamilton's TCB label) provides solid leads and background vocals for the song's interesting lyrics, I prefer the Ebonettes' version which appeared on Volume 1. I particularly like how the lead singer trades lines with an uncredited male vocalist, who I think probably was one of the Barrino Brothers, and that the background vocals, although buried somewhat in the mix, are very nice. The backing track cooks nicely also, featuring nice horn work and a good funky groove. Another Ebonettes take of the song appears on Volume 3, but it's the weakest of the three featured so far - although the different background vocals demonstrate how "Side By Side" is a good alternate title, the whole performance comes off just wrong to me, from some of the notes the girls sing to the stilted delivery the lead singer gives the lyrics. Fortunately the featured version was the first one I heard! It's great femme funk.

(EDITOR'S NOTE - If all goes well this weekend, in addition to two more "Dave Hamilton Week" posts I will record and upload Episode #11 of the podcast!)

Dave Hamilton Week: Tolbert!

O.C. Tolbert:

You Got Me Turned Around
I'm Shooting High (I Reach For The Sky)

Arthur "O.C." Tolbert crossed paths with Dave Hamilton several times in the '60s, '70s and '80s, in addition to sojourns with Jack Taylor's labels. Although his recorded output well exceeded Little Ann's, it is similarly unfortunate that his impact in the history of soul wasn't what his talent warranted. Tolbert's vocals have a hint of David Ruffin but also raw gospel, and his recorded output, spanning from soul to funk to gospel, is very impressive. Today I'll focus on two Northern Soul-oriented tracks that appeared on the Detroit Dancers series. "You Got Me Turned Around" started life as "Sweep It Out In The Shed," a tune that Hamilton recorded on Priscilla Page and Little Ann. Tolbert's version featured a horn section and new lyrics, and Tolbert's anguished vocal captured the theme of the song very well. "You Got Me Turned Around" was actually leased out to Palmer Records in New York. "I'm Shooting High" is a tasty piece of mid-tempo soul, featuring strings and a male chorus to buoy Tolbert's reading of the optimistic lyrics. All of the Tolbert tracks that appear on the Hamilton comps are worth checking out, and I'll feature Tolbert again on Sunday to show off some of his gospel stuff. It's worth noting that Tolbert recorded two 45s worth seeking out independent of the material reissued by Ace: "Hard Times" (not related to the Curtis Mayfield composition) was a late '60s record billed to "Rev. O.C. Tolbert and the Blues Congregation" (foreshadowing his own turn to religion in the 1980s, maybe?) and it's a great funky 45; "Message to Black Women" b/w "That's All She Wrote" was released under the pseudonym "King Diamond" and it couples another good up-tempo number with a great bluesy tune that appears, in re-recorded form, on Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers, Vol. 2.

Dave Hamilton Week: Dave Hamilton's Groove

Dave Hamilton:



Going to the Moon
Ain't It a Groove

As mentioned at the beginning of the series, in addition to his session work and his record labels, Dave was a recording artist in his own right. Dave was a multi-instrumentalist but featured his guitar and vibes most often (it is noted on one of the Dave Hamilton comps that Hamilton liked to play the vibes with six sticks instead of the customary two or four, which explains the full vibes sound that appears on a lot of his recordings on himself and others). As noted in Ace Records blurb for Detroit City Grooves, Hamilton even recorded and mastered a whole album's worth of material as a solo artist, but beyond the two-part funky 45 "Pisces Pace," he left it all on the shelf. "Soul Suite," as the album would have been titled, featured a style Dean Rudland called "acid lounge-funk," which is somewhat appropriate. There's a lot of wah-wah guitar in these recordings, as well as those vibes and occasional harmonica, all layered over pretty smooth backdrops. Listening to the material is akin to listening to a great lost blaxploitation movie soundtrack full of mellow cuts, although some tunes, like "Brother Ratt," have "car-chase scene" written all over them!

Beat Gone Public's Detroit City Grooves comped "Soul Suite" along with several other Hamilton instrumentals. One of the other instrumentals, "The Deacons" (which was released as a TCB single in 1970), has appeared on the blog already. One track that was not included on Detroit City Grooves saw the light of day on the Dave Hamilton's Detroit Funk and is further indicative of his style. "Going to the Moon" is built around the jazzy lick that opens the tune and an organ-based silky groove that is very nice. I first heard "Ain't It a Groove" on the Kent CD Even Mo' Mod Jazz and fell in love with it right away. Alternate versions of this tune have appeared on other comps as "Groove" and as "Cracklin' Bread" (both feature Dave wah-wah-ing away over the rhythm track), but "Ain't It a Groove" is a far superior recording. In three choruses, Hamilton works the catchy melody, starting with the basic theme, doing it in a bright upper register, and then giving it the Wes Montgomery treatment. It truly kicks butt, and it almost was the official theme song of the podcast!

Dave Hamilton Week: Little Ann's Detroit Soul

Little Ann:

Who Are You Trying to Fool
Deep Shadows
The Smile on Your Face

In a perfect world, Ann Bridgeforth would've been a major player in the story of Detroit soul and perhaps in the story of soul music itself. Unfortunately, like so many mysterious figures in this immense story, she did not. Her entire released output consisted of one side of a Ric-Tic single, the funky "Going Down a One-Way Street" (see this Soulful Detroit article about Ann and her one record). Bridgeforth recorded a handful of sides for Dave Hamilton in the mid-to-late '60s, and her marvelous voice and Hamilton's atmospheric backings made for phenomenal recordings. Any hope for any releases beyond the Ric-Tic single vanished when she, along with Hamilton associate Rony Darrell, moved to Canada to make a go of building a performing career there. With no artist to promote the records, Hamilton shelved the remaining material.

Fortunately, what could have been an open-and-shut story did not end there. An acetate of "What Should I Do" managed to wind up in Northern Soul circles in the UK (covered up as "When He's Not Around" by "Rose Valentine") and made a lot of noise in that scene. Some time later, Ace began its relationship with Dave Hamilton and learned the truth of that recording (which they promptly issued as a Town single, along with today's selection "Who Are You Trying to Fool"), and the revelation that there was unreleased material gave Ann her belated shot at renown.

All three of today's selections came from the first two volumes of the Kent Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers series. "Who Are You Trying To Fool" is a top-notch Northern Soul cut, featuring some nice sax work and Ann's strong singing. When reissued with "What Should I Do" it became a Northern Soul anthem in its own right, and for good reason. "Deep Shadows" is a slower number that is full of atmosphere. Ann's vocals are framed nicely by the background singers and the hushed accompaniment. My favorite of the lot, however, is "The Smile on Your Face." This recording seems to be the most unfinished of the three, with its over-recorded vibes and snare brushwork, but the sweet mid-tempo number features gorgeous lyrics and a "whisper to a scream" build-up by Ann. This beautiful song was accidentally included on Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers, Volume 3 but I'm sticking with the version on the second volume here, as the tune comes to a close and Ann is caught on tape saying, "That got me going!" It got me going, too, Ann! Bravo!

The reissue of all of this excellent material resulted in Ann getting a gig in the UK to perform for her appreciative Northern Soul fans. Although she was initially overwhelmed by the reception she received (after all, she had long been out of the music business and, like many artists who find themselves lionized by the Northern Soul crowd, she was totally unaware that her recordings had an audience overseas), all reports state that Ann gave a wonderful performance. Unfortunately, Bridgeforth would pass away in 2003, but fortunately she had the opportunity to know how enriched soul fans are to have her recordings around after so many years.

Dave Hamilton Week: Gimme Some Sugar!

"Sugar" Billy Garner:

I Got Some (Pt. 1)
Brand New Girl

Dave Hamilton made his first appearance on the blog last year, and I've decided to feature the outstanding works of this session musician / recording artist / record label owner this week. When the intrepid soul detectives at Ace Records located Hamilton and purchased his masters, they discovered a treasure trove of Detroit soul and funk that was truly recorded "in the shadows of Motown" (Hamilton was a session musician at Hitsville, U.S.A. in Motown's early days, recording a highly-collectible LP for the Workshop Jazz subsidiary during his tenure there). Fortunately for us soul fans, they shared some of it right away with the excellent Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers comp. As Ady Croasdell and company continued to trawl through the tapes, however, it became clear that Hamilton's output - albeit poorly organized on the tapes - was prolific enough to sustain several compilations (to date, two additional Detroit Dancers discs have come out, along with Detroit City Grooves, which is a compilation of his solo instrumental recordings, and Dave Hamilton's Detroit Funk) and to provide tracks for several other comps (including Even Mo' Mod Jazz and the Super Funk series), and there's even more to come!



As noted in the liner notes to Dave Hamilton's Detroit Funk, not much is known about Billy Garner, whose "Super Duper Love" was covered by teen British soul chanteuse Joss Stone on her hit Soul Sessions album. "I Got Some," a New Day 45, is well-known to rare funk fans, in no small part due to its inclusion in DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's classic Brainfreeze. Garner's soulful singing and the slinky groove Hamilton puts down captures the sexiness of the song to good effect. "Brand New Girl" had not seen the light of day until the Ace guys got a hold of it. The impact on them was so great that they put it out as a Beat Gone Public single and included it on one of the Super Funk discs (a single edit of the song has been recently located by the Ace guys and appears on the Detroit Funk comp, but the full version is better and is included here). The single immediately became a dancefloor sensation, and for good reason. This is the real funk, with Garner channeling James Brown in his performance and Hamilton and the band laying out a fast and furious groove (dig how the stop-time sections hit like a brick, and check out Hamilton's guitar solo). It's one of the injustices of the soul record world that this one didn't come out. It's lightning in a bottle and I cannot imagine that it would not make significant noise on early '70s radio. But fortunately we can enjoy it today!

George Clinton + Dave Hamilton = Sweet Soul Music

The Parliaments - I Can Feel the Ice Melting



I've been wanting to feature today's selection for awhile now, but reading the premiere issue of the rare soul fanzine There's That Beat! prompted me to get it posted. If you have not read or heard of this new magazine, do check out the website today. It's the official magazine of the Hitsville USA Soul Club, and it's a treat to read. One of the highlights of the magazine was an article about the Revilot label. LeBaron Taylor, Don Davis and George White owned Solid Hitbound Productions (under which the Groovesville and Solid Hit labels also existed) and their contributions to the soul world are immense, especially in relation to the Northern Soul crowd. I recommend that you get a copy of the magazine right away, as in addition to this graet article, there's a feature on the Carnival label and another about Jackie Wilson which may be of interest.

George Clinton and the Parliaments figure into the Revilot story both as artists and on the production side of things (Clinton was a co-producer of Darrell Banks' immortal "Open the Door to Your Heart," among other records for the Solid Hitbound labels). The Parliaments (some years away from being transformed into the "psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadooloop" Parliament / Funkadelic ("P-Funk"), from which Clinton would score major success, especially in the second half of the '70s) made a bit of noise with their Revilot debut, "(I Wanna) Testify", which accordingly is probably the easiest Revilot 45 to get a copy of today. (The honor of the toughest Revilot single to get a copy of goes to Jackey Beavers' "I Need My Baby," which is part of the Northern Soul "essentials" list.) "Testify" would be recorded by several other artists, most notably Johnnie Taylor, who would score a bigger hit with it than the Parliaments' original. I'm partial, however, to the Revilot 45's flip. "I Can Feel The Ice Melting" is a sweet, strolling fillet of soul, featuring tight group singing and a nice backing track that features no horns but puts the bass, piano and vibes right up front. (I learned from the magazine that the vibes came from Detroit soul session musician / recording artist / label owner Dave Hamilton, whose excellent recordings and productions have been the focus of some great reissues by the Ace label. Look out next week for a series of posts featuring Hamilton's recordings and productions.)