Disco Connection: BBR Spins Dance Gold With Latest Reissues

At Big Break Records, no stone has been left unturned in the label’s quest to reissue the best in soul, R&B, dance and disco, as evidenced by five of the Cherry Red imprint’s latest catalogue expansions.

1971’s “Funky Nassau” by The Beginning of the End established the Bahamas as a fertile ground for musical invention when the single on Henry Stone’s Alston label became a Top 15 Pop/Top 10 R&B hit. His interest in the region’s music piqued, Stone signed the quintet T-Connection to his T.K. Records imprint Dash, and they headed for Miami’s Criteria Studios with producers Cory Wade and Alex Sadkin to create the 1977 debut Magic, one of two T-Connection records just reissued by Big Break.

Brothers “T” (for Theophilus) and Kurt Coakley, Berkley Van Byrd, Monty Brown and Tony Flowers fit right into T.K.’s pop-friendly disco roster, famous for George McCrae and KC and the Sunshine Band. Though the beats were nonstop and the nominal title track was even called “Disco Magic,” the album reflected the group’s Bahamian roots with its vocals and prominent percussion by Flowers. The intricate, swirling keyboards played by T Coakley were a major part of the T-Connection sound, too, occupying as central a role as in KC and the Sunshine Band’s recordings. T Coakley also wrote every track on Magic, sharing credit for “Disco Magic” with Wade. Besides “Disco Magic,” the genre’s ethos was also represented with self-empowering songs like the opening “Do What You Wanna Do,” but T-Connection also showed its diversity. The plinking piano leading the smooth ballad “Mother’s Love” cedes in the song to a breezy Caribbean beat, and “Monday Morning” is a group-vocal respite with a soft-rock sound that wouldn’t have been out of place on the AM airwaves alongside the likes of Chicago. Lyrics encouraged love and social awareness, too. BBR’s Magic, produced by Wayne A. Dickson and remastered by Nick Robbins with new liner notes by Steven E. Flemming, Jr., has one bonus track, the single version of disco chart-topper “Do What You Wanna Do.”

T-Connection followed Magic with On Fire, but despite its two Top 10 Disco singles, the band and label found it a bit of a letdown. For their third album, T-Connection was ready to reinvent itself; hence the album was named T-Connection in the style of a debut. The album, produced by Cory Wade in Miami, attempted to fuse the goodtime feel and spiritual bent of Magic with the more commercially-aimed sheen of On Fire. Opener “Funkannection” is a tough piece of funk with a bit of rap, establishing the band’s desire to raise awareness while still keeping feet on the (dance)floor. Brassy horns dotted “Funky Lady” and the infectious “Don’t Stop the Music,” and strings and horns added to the disco majesty of “At Midnight.” The theme continued on the pop-ish “Midnight Train,” before wrapping up with the album’s sole mid-tempo ballad, “Love Supreme,” recalling the smooth soul of Earth Wind and Fire at their most pop-oriented. T-Connection was rewarded with a Disco No. 3 single thanks to “At Midnight,” which also ranked No. 56 Pop and No. 32 R&B. Follow-up “Saturday Night” also went Top 30 R&B. BBR’s reissue from the same team as Magic adds the 12” Disco Versions and single versions of “At Midnight” and “Saturday Night.”

1979 was a landmark year in disco, with Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Anita Ward and Sister Sledge all conquering the Billboard charts. But the prominence of the dance genre led to a backlash – and it happened in the blink of an eye. On July 21, 1979 – nine days following the Disco Demolition Night held by controversial Chicago disk jockey Steve Dahl and others – disco dominated the Top 10, with six records. By September 22, there were no disco songs in the Top 10. But, then as now, people still wanted to dance. And even as the musical merits of disco have been reevaluated and recognized with the passage of time, other dance music forms owing to disco continued to flourish from 1979 onward. In this rapidly-changing climate, New Jersey-born vocalist Taana Gardner recorded her self-titled album for the West End Records label.

Gardner owed much of her early success to the Paradise Garage’s influential DJ Larry Levan, who introduced writer-produced Kenton Nix to West End’s owner Mel Cheren. When the intended singer for Nix’s “Work That Body” – originally mooted as an instrumental – fell ill, Gardner stepped in, and the rest is dance music history. Gardner had a series of hit records with “Work That Body” and “When You Touch Me” (both No. 10 Dance in 1979) and “Heartbeat” (No. 6 Disco/No. 10 R&B) and “No Frills” a couple of years later in 1981. Nix would create the records, Gardner would sing them with her pure, clear soprano, and Levan would mix them for the most danceable effect. Taana Gardner was her only long-playing solo album, though she continued to team up with Nix for special projects through the 1990s and even scored a dance hit in the 2000s as “Work That Body” continued to enthrall club crowds and provide ripe fodder for remixing. Gardner’s girlish and sometimes-breathy vocals invite favorable comparison to Deniece Williams’, and Nix provided an ideal setting with his five lengthy disco-tailored productions issued on a special 2-12” vinyl set: one song on Side One, two songs on Side Two, one each on Sides Three and Four.

Big Break has reissued Taana Gardner with an additional five tracks, effectively doubling the album’s length. These bonuses include the 12” Club Versions of “Heartbreat” and “No Frills,” the 12” Party Versions of “Heartbeat” and “No Frills,’ and a previously unreleased 12” Club Version of “That’s the Word.” Nick Robbins has remastered all tracks for producer Wayne A. Dickson, and Mervin Malone has contributed four pages of new notes.

After the jump: news on two Salsoul gems from Logg and Aurra, plus links and full track listings for all titles!

Soul man Leroy Burgess, onetime lead singer for Black Ivory, made his mark on disco teaming with Patrick Adams for projects including Patrick Adams Presents Phreek and Dazzle, before landing at New York’s Salsoul Records in the early 1980s. Disco might have been pronounced dead, but Salsoul knew that there was still a market for upbeat, danceable grooves. As Burgess tells journalist Matt Bauer in the new liner notes penned for BBR’s reissue of 1981’s self-titled album from Logg, he found his niche in boogie: “Disco is generally 120 beats per minute [and up] while boogie ranges from the mid-90s to under 110. Also, boogie, while bouncy enough, is much more laid-back than disco...both forms are rooted in soul music.”

You’ll find six slabs of prime boogie on Logg, a Burgess/Greg Carmichael production with Burgess providing lead vocals, all keyboards, percussion and background vocals. Its funky jams were anchored by the rhythm section of Burgess, Sonny Davenport on drums and James Calloway on bass, with the trio also co-writing all six songs on the original album. Logg takes in influences from gospel to Philly soul and sets them all within a framework of burbling, buzzing synths and that Burgess bounce. Although Logg failed to chart in the U.S., Burgess points out that it gained a significant following internationally, and he still considers the one-off project a high point in his long career. Reissue producer Wayne A. Dickson (who also remastered the album) has added five bonus tracks including Larry Levan’s 12-inch remix of “I Know You Will,” 12-inch versions of “(You’ve Got) That Something” and “Dancing Into the Stars,” and Shep Pettibone’s remixes of Burgess’ solo tracks “Heartbreaker” and “Stranger,” both originally released on Salsoul in 1983.

Not long after the release of Logg, Salsoul issued A Little Love from the duo Aurra. Curt Jones and Starleana Young, like Leroy Burgess, were among the artists who proved that Salsoul could outlive the so-called downfall of disco and still prosper with dance grooves made for the eighties. Aurra was an offshoot of the funk band Slave. By the time of its fourth album in 1979, leader Steve Washington of Slave added New Jersey natives Jones and Young to the band’s line-up; Jones had actually appeared on 1978’s The Concept. When the decision was made to “spin off” Jones and Young as a vocal duo, Washington remained on board as producer, arranger, musician and songwriter. Aurra made its debut in 1980 on the Dream Records label in 1980, scoring a No. 86 R&B/No. 50 Dance hit with “In the Mood (To Groove).” They then moved to Salsoul for 1981’s Send Your Love, which yielded another successful single (The R&B Top 20/Dance Top 40 “Are You Single”) and charted at No. 22 on the R&B Albums chart and No. 103 on the Billboard 200.

Steve Washington co-wrote all eight tracks on A Little Love, with Jones and/or Young participating as co-writers. There weren’t many overt nods to the Philly-inspired disco sound on which Salsoul made its name, with Aurra emphasizing sleek, then-contemporary R&B with strong funk overtones. With the strongest material on any Aurra album, A Little Love made it all the way to No. 12 R&B/No. 38 Pop. Three singles charted on the R&B survey, the most successful of which was the No. 6 R&B/No. 71 Pop/No. 35 Disco “Make Up Your Mind” with its perky synths, scorching guitar and throbbing beat. Choice album cuts include the ballad-with-a-beat “It’s You” and sensual “Still Free.” The reissue produced by Dickson (who also remastered) and Michal Bednarek makes room for four bonus tracks: Tom Moulton’s remix of “Make Up Your Mind,” Shep Pettibone’s take on “Checking You Out” as well as the Original Extended Version of the song, and the 12-inch remix of “A Little Love” by Washington and Jones. Stephen “SPAZ” Schnee provides the new liner notes. Aurra went on to record one more album in 1983 before Washington, Young and Jones went their separate ways. Jones and Young rekindled the old magic under the name of Déjà vu, while Washington reactivated Aurra with his then-wife Sheila Horn Washington and Mark Stevens. The new Aurra recorded a double LP which remains unreleased.

Every title discussed above is available now from Big Break Records, and all can be ordered at the links below!

Aurra, A Little Love (Salsoul LP SA-8551, 1982 – reissued Big Break Records CDBBR 0239, 2013) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Make Up Your Mind
Patience
It’s You Out
Checking You Out
A Little Love
In My Arms
Still Free
Thinking of You
Make Up Your Mind (A Tom Moulton Mix) (previously issued on 12” Gold Master Series Vol. 2, Salsoul CD 20-10512, 1995)
Checking You Out (12-Inch Shep Pettibone Remix) (Salsoul SG-369, 1982)
A Little Love (12-Inch Remix) (original appearance TBD)
Checking You Out (Original Extended Version) (originally appearance TBD)

Taana Gardner, Taana Gardner (West End LP WE-107, 1979 – reissued Big Break Records CDBBR 0213, 2013) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

When You Touch Me
We Got to Work It Out
Just Be a Friend
Paradise Express
Work That Body
Heartbeat (12” Club Version remixed by Larry Levan) (West End WES-22132, 1981)
No Frills (12” Club Version remixed by Larry Levan) (West End WES-22137, 1981)
That’s the World (12” Club Version – previously unreleased)
Heartbeat (12” Party Version remixed by Larry Levan) (West End WES-22132, 1981)
No Frills (12” Party Version) (West End WES-22137, 1981)

Logg, Logg (Salsoul LP SA-8544, 1981 – reissued Big Break Records CDBBR 0235, 2013) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

I Know You Will
Lay It on the Line
Sweet to Me
(You’ve Got) That Something
Dancing into the Stars
Something else
I Know You Will (12” Extended Version remixed by Larry Levan) (Salsoul SG-351, 1981)
(You’ve Got That Something) (12” Extended Version) (Salsoul SG-359, 1981)
Dancing into the Stars (12” Extended Version) (Salsoul SG-359, 1981)
Heartbreaker – Leroy Burgess (12” Extended Version remixed by Shep Pettibone) (Salsoul SG-409, 1983)
Stranger – Leroy Burgess (12” Extended Version remixed by Shep Pettibone) (Salsoul SG-409, 1983)