Philadelphia International Records turns 40 this year, and Big Break Records keeps adding more candles to the birthday cake! The label’s latest release from the PIR catalogue is one of the mightiest albums ever produced by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff: 1972’s 360 Degrees of Billy Paul, the long-player which introduced the world to the steamy soul epic “Me and Mrs. Jones.” This expanded and remastered edition follows BBR’s reissue earlier this year of Paul’s more jazz-oriented Ebony Woman, from 1970 (recorded by Gamble and Huff for pre-PIR label Neptune), and it’s…
He and Mrs. Jones: Billy Paul and Big Break Records Have a Thing Going On with “360 Degrees” Reissue
Lean On Him: Bill Withers’ “Complete Sussex and Columbia Masters” Box Coming in October
Bill Withers announced himself to the world in 1971 in typically understated fashion. He stood beside a plain brick wall, holding a lunch pail on the front cover photograph of Just as I Am. It offered no indication as to the fiery music contained within its grooves, from the plain-spoken, gut-wrenching “Ain’t No Sunshine” to the tender and moving “Grandma’s Hands.” Withers was clearly a singer/songwriter with whom to be reckoned. But did stardom suit Bill Withers? His follow-up album was titled Still Bill, as if to assuage fears that the real…
Déjà Vu: Expanded Reissue of Dionne Warwick’s 1979 “Dionne,” Produced by Barry Manilow, Arrives on CD
Dionne Warwick recently announced a new album, produced by Phil Ramone. Entitled Now, the projected October release will reflect on a storied career that’s lasted 50 years. But Warwick was in a very different place then, meaning in 1979. The sophisticated soul singer was at a crossroads. Her unprecedented string of pop and R&B hits written and produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal David at Scepter Records were far in the rearview mirror. Bacharach and David had bitterly split after just one album with Warwick at Warner Bros. Records, despite Warwick’s having…
Vinyl Renaissance: Omnivore Recordings Offers Art Pepper, Josh Haden’s Spain on Vinyl, Plus “Music City” Rarities
The term “record store” (two rather hallowed words in these parts!) has long been used to describe those stores that sell music, even well into the age of the CD, and now, the digital download. But lately, record store walls have been lined with more and more actual vinyl records. In 2011, more records were purchased than in any other year in the past two decades, with sales up 36 percent over 2010, to a not-too-shabby 3.9 million. Sales for 2012 are likely to best that number. Since its founding in 2010,…
Review: Booker T. & The M.G.s, “Green Onions: 50th Anniversary Edition”
Stax Records and Concord Music Group have brought the cool to this hot summer. Music simply doesn’t come much cooler than the hip Green Onions, from Booker T. & the M.G.s. The landmark album is being celebrated for its fiftieth anniversary in an expanded edition (STX-33960-02, 2012) as part of the ongoing Stax Remasters series that last delivered a new edition of Albert King’s I’ll Play the Blues for You. The main attraction is doubtless the title song, a favorite of the Blues Brothers which has also been covered by everybody from…
The Feeling Is Right: Kent Offers Expanded Etta James LP, Clarence Carter Singles Collection
When Argo Records crowned Etta James The Queen of Soul on the cover of a 1964 LP, Aretha Franklin hadn’t yet staked claim to that title. Revisiting that album today, Etta’s status as royalty still seems unassailable. Thankfully, we have that opportunity thanks to Kent Records via its new expansion of Queen of Soul with fourteen bonus tracks added to the original LP’s ten songs. Plus, Kent has delivered a new release from one of the undisputed kings of soul: Clarence Carter. The Fame Singles Volume 1: 1966-1970 includes his career-making “Slip…
Heaven In Her Eyes: BBR Reissues Two From Deniece Williams
The curriculum vitae of Deniece Williams can boast some of the most esteemed names in popular music: Maurice White, Charles Stepney, David Foster, Thom Bell and George Duke, just to name a few. All of those gentlemen produced albums for, or with, Williams, whose career has been the subject of a series of deluxe reissues from Big Break Records. Earlier this year, BBR (part of the Cherry Red group of labels) added Williams’ 1976 debut This is Niecy to its previous four titles from the artist: her sophomore effort Song Bird, disco-flavored…
I Feel Good (All Over): Dance All Weekend Long with Kent’s “Cleethorpes Northern Soul Weekender”
Though we’ve come to expect delightful and deeply soulful compilations from Ace’s Kent label, one of Kent’s latest is a particular trip: a trip, in fact, to the Cleethorpes Northern Soul Weekender. The 6Ts Rhythm and Soul Society has been throwing these bashes on a yearly basis since 1993, offering up plenty of dancing and some of the best names in soul music, among them Doris Troy, Barbara Lewis, Tommy Hunt, Bettye LaVette and Maxine Brown. Kent’s The Cleethorpes Northern Soul Weekender, 1993-2012: 20 Soulful Celebrations offers a variety of songs from…
Expanded “Green Onions” Coming From Booker T. & The MGs
Concord Music Group continues its Stax Remasters series by dipping into the label’s early days with a bona fide R&B classic. The title track of Booker T. & The MGs’ 1962 Green Onions is still instantly recognizable today from appearances in television (American Dad) and film (X-Men: First Class), and was in May 2012 inducted into the Library of Congress’ prestigious National Recording Registry. On July 24, the original Green Onions album will be reissued and expanded with two bonus tracks. “Green Onions” was created by the classic line-up of organist Booker…
Reviews: First Family of Soul – Rare Albums From Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, Cissy Houston Reissued and Expanded
If there’s such a thing as a First Family of Soul, it might as well be the combined Houston/Warwick clan. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1933, Emily “Cissy” Drinkard sang gospel with her family as part of The Drinkard Singers, which counted Cissy’s sister Lee Warrick among its members. Marie Dionne Warrick was born in 1940 to Lee and her husband Mancel; Delia Mae “Dee Dee” Warrick followed in 1942. Though The Drinkard Singers remain an important part of the history of gospel music, said to have recorded the very first…
Review: A Quartet From BBR – The Pointer Sisters, Buddy Miles, Pharoah Sanders, Greg Phillinganes
Among the most recent reissues from Big Break Records is a 1974 album from Electric Flag founder and Jimi Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles entitled All the Faces of Buddy Miles. But one could easily title any given batch of music from the Cherry Red-affiliated label as All the Faces of BBR, so reliably diverse is each group of the label’s releases. Today’s capsule reviews look at four of the latest from the Big Break team! Buddy Miles, All the Faces of Buddy Miles (Columbia KC-33089, 1974 – reissued Big Break CDBBR 0123,…
In Memoriam: Donna Summer (1948-2012)
Who among us hasn’t been touched by the music of Donna Summer? One of the defining voices of the disco era, Summer has been silenced today after a brave battle with cancer. Yet the music of LaDonna Adrian Gaines, born on New Year’s Eve in 1948, will doubtless continue to transport us back to a time when vivacious music blared “On the Radio.” Donna Summer implored us to take that “Last Dance” on the disco floor with some very “Bad Girls” in a nearly unrivalled string of hits. She reminded us about…
Just As He Was: Bill Withers’ 1971 Debut “Just As I Am” Reissued By Big Break
Bill Withers titled his 1971 debut album Just As I Am, and the raw, simple and understated cover photo seemed to support that title. Withers, with an ingratiating smile on his face and a lunch pail in his hand, is standing against a brick wall at California’s Webber Aircraft facility. The US Navy aircraft mechanic turned guitar-slinging singer/songwriter was somewhat of an anomaly on the music scene, and in his understated manner wrote on the album’s jacket, “It matters not where I came from in relation to the world, as long as…
Philadelphia Freedom: Dexter Wansel Is “Captured” By Robinsongs
Welcome to our second feature today spotlighting artists of the Philadelphia International label! First we looked at The O’Jays’ pre-PIR period! Now it’s time to look at a lost post-PIR album from Dexter Wansel! Philadelphia-born Dexter Wansel made quite an impression in the City of Brotherly Love, becoming one of the leading lights of the Gamble and Huff organization’s “second golden age” of 1976-1983 and playing a key role in shaping the latter-day Sound of Philadelphia. A keyboard virtuoso equally at home as a composer, arranger and producer, Wansel recorded four well-regarded…
Aces High! “The London American Label: 1957,” “Mod Jazz Forever” and “Smash Boom Bang: Feldman-Goldstein-Gotteher” Available Now
Smash! Boom! Bang! The ace compilation experts at, well, Ace Records are offering up plenty of Smash, Boom and Bang (both in impact and in label name!) for your buck with their diverse slate of February releases. You’ll find top-drawer pop, rock and soul for connoisseurs and beginners alike among the label’s latest. Perhaps the most unexpected is the new entry in the label’s long-running Songwriters and Producers series. Smash Boom Bang! The Songs and Productions of Feldman-Goldstein-Gotteher (Ace CDCHD 1317) turns the spotlight on those three named gentlemen who supplied hits for…
Back Tracks: Whitney Houston
Music was in both the bloodline and the spirit of Whitney Elizabeth Houston (1963-2012). The native of Newark, New Jersey called Cissy Houston of The Sweet Inspirations her mom, while Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick were her beloved cousins. Aretha Franklin was a close family friend and honorary aunt. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she began performing at Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church, singing in the gospel choir as a featured soloist, and began to make inroads in the music business as a background vocalist, again echoing the path of some…
Gonna Take a Miracle: Deniece Williams Trio Coming From BBR and FTG
Let’s hear it for Deniece Williams. By the time of her debut album in 1976, the resilient singer with the remarkable range had already recorded a Northern Soul favorite (“I’m Walking Away” on the small Lock Records label), performed with Minnie Riperton and Roberta Flack, and been a member of Stevie Wonder’s versatile backing group Wonderlove. This is Niecy, on Columbia Records, was produced by Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire and Charles Stepney of Chess Records fame, and their confidence in the vocalist paid off. Now, on the occasion of…
Reissue Theory: Whitney Houston, “Whitney”
We remember Whitney Houston (1963-2012) and her timeless legacy of song. We’re sharing this feature in her memory, and will return with a tribute to this musical legend, gone too soon. Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable album and the reissues they could someday see. Today’s entry: a 25th anniversary spotlight on one of the best dance-pop albums of any era, and a tribute to a powerhouse R&B voice. In a word: Whitney. Around this time in 2010, right when The Second Disc was starting out,…
Movin’, Kickin’, Groovin’: A Barry White Classic Expanded by Hip-o Select
Hip-o Select turns its focus away from Motown for some more satin soul from the inimitable Barry White, with a nicely-expanded release of his 1976 LP Let the Music Play. By the time the title track from the album – an underrated plea for music to soothe the pain of a lost love over some of the lushest strings from The Love Unlimited Orchestra – was released as a single in late 1975, White was virtually his own brand. He’d recently come off a triplet of Top 10 singles in 1974…
Epic Jazz and Funk: George Duke and Stanley Clarke Complete Boxes Coming Soon
With the latest two additions to its growing Complete Albums Collections roster, Legacy Recordings and Epic Records are looking to two musical pioneers for which the description “jazz artist” seems largely inadequate. George Duke, keyboard virtuoso, and Stanley Clarke, electric and acoustic bass pro, have extensively toured and recorded together, but these forthcoming box sets turn the clock back to their solo periods on the Epic label. George Duke has proven himself equally adept at jazz, funk, R&B and pop, but over a lengthy career, he’s refused to be boxed in by…
A Grande Cup of Burt: Starbucks Brews “Music By Bacharach”
If you see me walking down the street, and I start to cry…or smile…or laugh…there’s a good chance I might be listening to a song by Burt Bacharach. Since beginning his songwriting career with 1952’s instrumental “Once in a Blue Moon” as recorded by Nat King Cole, Bacharach has provided the soundtrack to many of our lives, often in tandem with lyricist Hal David. (Their first collaborations date to 1956, including The Harry Carter Singers’ “Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil,” and Sherry Parsons’ “Peggy’s in the Pantry,” a song Bacharach…
Ever Changing Times: Aretha In The 1980s, Anthologized by Legacy
On March 25, 2012, Aretha Franklin will turn 70 years old. That hardly means she’s ready to slow down, however. 2011 found the Queen of Soul looking trim and sounding vibrant as she returned to the concert stage and released a new studio album. Surely her landmark birthday will be celebrated with countless airings of her 1960s golden hits like “Respect,” “Natural Woman” and “Chain of Fools.” But Legacy Recordings and Arista Records are seeing to it that a latter-day hitmaking period for the music icon is given its due attention. Knew…
Review: The Cool Revolution Continues – Four From CTI and Kudu
When he established Kudu as an offshoot of his titanic jazz label CTI, Creed Taylor wore his ambitions on his sleeve. The label was named after the long-horned African mammal and its logo adorned with Afro-centric colors, as Taylor intended to do no less than make Kudu a home for releases “indigenous to the black popular music of the United States.” Taylor always knew the importance of a visual, and much as CTi releases were recognizable for their striking, provocative cover photographs and lavish gatefolds, Kudu’s were no-frills, with bold, plain print…
Stay Awhile: Dusty Springfield Box Set Packed With Rarities, Due This Month In Two Editions
UPDATE 10/6: We’re just a few short weeks away from the release of Goin’ Back: The Definitive Dusty Springfield, a super deluxe box set by any standards. With its four CDs, three DVDs and two hardback books, Goin’ Back may be the ultimate holiday gift for the Dusty diehard. Of its 92 audio tracks, 22 are previously unreleased, 10 are making their U.K. debut and five are appearing for the very first time on CD. Of its 98 video performances, a full 32 are premiering on DVD. But if Goin’ Back offers…
Ode To A Kudu: CTI Masterworks Series Continues In October With Kudu Titles
Tuesday, August 9 brought the most recent quartet of CTI jazz titles to CD from Sony’s Masterworks Jazz division. For the next batch, due October 4, the label has turned its attention to CTI’s offshoot label, Kudu. Named after the long-horned African mammal, Kudu was launched by CTI’s Creed Taylor in 1971. Taylor described his new endeavor as “a black awareness label, more commercial oriented than CTI and indigenous to the black popular music of the United States.” Even the logo’s familiar Afro-centric colors would be a calling card to Kudu’s mission. …
The Dave Clark Five
October 23, 2026