"Vincent Montana, Jr. (born February 12, 1928) is an American composer, arranger, and percussionist, most known as a member of MFSB and as the founder of the Salsoul Orchestra.
He is the spiritual father of the Salsoul Orchestra, the backing band for the many acts on Salsoul Records. The personnel of MFSB and the Salsoul orchestra overlapped substantially, and both groups were recorded at Philadelphia's famous Sigma Sound Studios." (from wikipedia)
"Gregory Porter, whose 2010 Motema Music debut, 'Water', was nominated in the 2011 53rd Annual Grammy Awards as Best Jazz Vocal Album, drops a powerful cinematic treatment of one of the CD’s most popular tracks, '1960 What?.' '1960 What?' is somewhat divergent from the rest of the album. This 12-minute track is Water’s most political song. It’s inspired in part by Kamau Kenyatta’s stories of life in Detroit and by the 1963 assassination of Martin Luther King, as well as Porters’s own experiences growing up in Los Angeles.
Swedish production wizard Opolopo’s soulful House remix, a “kick and bass rerub,” is already burning up dance floors from Chicago to the UK, where it’s currently getting airplay on Jazz FM. The founder of Amsterdam’s Wicked Jazz Sounds music collective, Phil Horneman, has contributed a Wicked Jazz Sounds radio edit, which clocks in at about half as long as the anthemic twelve-and-a-half minute long original version. The official videos for “Illusion” and “1960 What?” will be aired on VH1." - giant step
Unfortunately, it is all too possible that Tee Scott, an innovative DJ and producer/remixer who began impacting New York's underground dance scene in the early '70s, will never get the due that he deserves. A shy, humble, soft-spoken individual who passed away in 1995, Scott is just as much a key figure behind the evolution of dance music as François Kevorkian, Frankie Knuckles, and Larry Levan -- if not more so. His legendary sets at infamous clubs like Better Days and Zanzibar continue to be talked about by those who were present for them, and his often reconstructive remixes -- including Northend's "Tee's Happy," a club hit that Madonna more or less appropriated as the basis of "Holiday" -- trail blazed the art with methodologies that inspired peers as well as followers.
A cousin of Scott's introduced him to clubbing in the late '60s, first at a club called Stage 45. For a few years, Scott occasionally sneaked into the regularly packed place, which featured jukebox music and not a DJ. After that club closed, Scott and his cousin moved on to Willy's, and then they eventually hit a place called the Candy Store, where Scott got his first taste of club music that was played in a mixed fashion. One night in 1972, an otherwise shy Scott inadvertently talked his way into auditioning for a DJ spot at the club. At the time, Scott had no experience with mixing records, although he had studied radio broadcasting and electronic engineering. After several failed auditions, he was finally given a last-minute nod for a 15-minute spot while the club was open. With a handful of his own records and a feverishly self-taught crash course in figuring out the ways of the club's DJ booth, Scott winged it a little and did so well that he earned himself his first DJ'ing gig; for approximately three months, he spun at the club once or twice each week.
One of Scott's fans at the Candy Store told him about a club called Better Days that was in need of a DJ. After some propagandizing from his cousin, Scott went down to the club and discovered that the club wasn't looking for a new DJ. However, the resident there had just upset the owner by refusing to play a request made by his wife. Scott was granted an audition and eventually won the job. What hamstrung Scott was the club's low-budget setup, in terms of both sound and vision. Scott used his knowledge of electrical engineering to improve the technical capacities of the club's primitive sound system; not only did he have to make his own mixer to start off, but he also furnished and financed better lighting. Eventually the club's management kicked in with the financial support. All the while, Scott was holding down a 9-to-5 job.
The DJ single-handedly improved Better Days immensely from the ground up and won over its hard-to-please clientele to the point of earning their deep admiration and respect. The club was 100-percent black and mostly gay, which Scott made efforts to shake up a little by being openly receptive and supportive to enthusiastic dancers of all types; not just one or two. Through his legendary work at Better Days, his stature increased significantly and he eventually spun at several other hot spots around the country, including New Jersey's Zanzibar, DC's Clubhouse, and Detroit's L'uomo, just to name a select few.
Scott became known as a master of blends -- he would often play two records (featuring live drummers, not an easy thing to do) simultaneously, such that the beats would match up. He could ride out a blend much longer than the average or even excellent jock. One night, Scott started a trend with the addition of a third turntable to his deck. He began using the third turntable for sound effects (booms of thunder, cackles from the witch from The Wizard of Oz) that would go in and out throughout his sets, aiding in an experience that no jukebox -- let alone any other DJ -- could provide.
Scott was also one of the first DJs to hop into the remix game. By his own count, he ended up working on nearly 150 tracks before he quit (and quite possibly more); he was a very prolific figure. First Choice's "Love Thang" was his first job, and before all was said and done, he had extensive work for labels like Salsoul, West End, and Emergency under his belt. Many times, Scott was so unhappy with the material he had been given to work with that he would completely rewrite and reproduce the song, turning tin into gold and affecting crowds in another way.
As much as gossip attempted to pit Scott against so-called rivals like Larry Levan (a pointless rivalry was conjured in an attempt to place Better Days and Levan's Paradise Garage against each other), there was no actual animosity; quite the opposite. Levan and Scott would often dance at each other's clubs, and the two would go record hunting together with the Gallery's Nicky Siano. He was extremely tight with peers and up-and-comers as well; he gave Frankie Knuckles his first big break by offering the future Warehouse overlord two nights a week at Better Days, and he helped Tony Humphries get a spot at Zanzibar.
For a number of reasons, Scott more or less stopped DJ'ing in the early '90s. One of the factors was cancer, which he was diagnosed as having at the age of 41. Though he put up a valiant fight for several years and remained active, studying electronics and attempting to keep himself afloat financially (he made occasional trips to Japan to DJ), the Bronx-born legend passed away on December 12, 1995, at the age of 47. TCI in Manhattan, the school Scott was attending, posthumously awarded him with an associate's degree in electronics. Needless to say, an extensive overview of Scott's remix work is long overdue, as is a revisiting of his DJ sets (à la Larry Levan's Live at the Paradise Garage).
"Produced and mixed by the legendary Joaquin "Joe" Claussell, Hammock House: Africa Caribe is more than just remixes of Fania's back catalog. It's a stunning two-disc album with each track approached and assembled differently, each on its own terms. The first disc is a live continuous mix by Claussell, and the second disc features nine classic Fania tunes from Lou Perez, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto and more, all re-worked with the Joe Claussell touch.
Joe says of the project, 'I wanted to create bridges through different rhythms, so I worked with my brother Jose, as well as other percussionists and musicians in the studio, to create parts that flow between. I mixed it live with four CD players, effects, and reel-to-reel, then took it into the studio and tightened up some of the levels through editing. I wanted to mix it live so you get more of a human feel from it, to stay true to the texture of this music. And I really wanted it to reflect on the process of working on this whole project. Looking back, I'm honored and grateful to get to work on such historical music - and music I grew up with.'"
Released under the name of "You Don't Ever Stop" but acting more like a dub version of "Wordy Rappinghood". Some of the "Wordy Rappinghood" 12" singles contained "Elephant" on the B Side, and it seems that the "Wordy Rappinghood" 12" singles containing "You Don't Ever Stop" on the flip are a bit harder to come across.
Buy the 7" here! Of course the 7" version is significantly much shorter than the 12" single version posted here, but I couldn't find the 12" for sale anywhere online. Happy hunting!
"New York City, 1977 - It was a time when the city had fallen into decay, with too few jobs, money, police, schools, and social services. There was a city wide blackout with major looting, a serial killer on the loose, and the Bronx was burning. And yet out of the chaos emerged one of the most creative times any city has ever encountered.
Executive Produced by Academy Award Nominee Nanette Burstein ("The Kid Stays in the Picture"), "NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell" is a two-hour documentary that tells the story of one astonishing year in New York City history. The documentary is told chronologically and weaves together the stories of the emergence of hip hop, punk and disco, graffiti art, and sexual liberation. In the background are the major political events and social issues of the day -- crime, urban decay, financial woes, the infamous blackout, drugs, Son of Sam, the bitter mayoral election and the overall poverty that gripped the city.
Out of chaos came creation. From the South Bronx came hip hop. From the Lower East Side, the thrashing guitars of punk. And all over the city, a disco revolution was underway. Elaborate, finely crafted graffiti art decorated the subway cars and break-dancers shimmied in the streets. The sexual revolution was in full swing. In January 1977, most of this activity existed in its own underground bubble. Yet by the end of the year this artistic expression was on its way to mainstream America, and would be with us for generations to come."
Features interviews with Chris Stein of Blondie, Nicky Siano, David Mancuso, Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Richard Hell. Patti Smith, Chuck D, Nile Rogers, etc.
Tom Dowd and the Language of Music is a documentary about legendary engineer Tom Dowd who's worked with John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and the list goes on.
from wikipedia;
"Tom Dowd helped to shape the artists that he worked with, and because he worked with an array of great artists on some of the world's greatest recordings, Dowd was highly influential in creating the sound of the second half of the 20th Century. It was he who encouraged Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to install an Ampex eight-track recorder, enabling Atlantic to be the first recording company to record using multiple tracks.
Dowd is credited as the engineer who popularized the eight-track recording system for commercial music and popularized the use of stereo sound. Although stereo had been invented in the 1930s, Dowd was the first to use it on a record. He also pioneered the use of linear channel faders as opposed to rotary controls on audio mixers. He devised various methods for altering sound after the initial recording."
From the soon to be released John Morales "M&M Mixes Volume 2", which is scheduled for release March 29 on BBE Records. Note that this is titled as "Promo Edit", and that the commercial release will contain a longer, full length version.
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