Late in 2023, Demon Music Group revived its Disco Discharge series on the Edsel label. Two recent 2CD volumes, Disco Ladies and Disco Boogie, continue presenting the series in a deluxe, oversized seven-inch format. These titles, chockablock with disco deep cuts and hits alike, were originally issued on the Harmless label in 2009 and 2010, respectively, and have been tweaked (likely due to licensing restrictions) for this go-round. Disco Ladies offers a cross-section of the many women with varied styles who ruled the dancefloor. As original compiler/annotator Alan Jones notes in his…
Bet Your Lucky Star: Cherry Red, SoulMusic Anthologize the Best of Jean Carne
Cherry Red’s SoulMusic imprint has recently continued its series of artist anthologies with a pair of double-disc sets from two great ladies of soul-jazz: Jean Carne and Marlena Shaw. Today, we’re taking a look at Jean Carne’s collection! Jean Carne (also known as Jean Carn, though we’ll continue to use her preferred spelling with an “e”) has recorded for a variety of labels in a 45-plus year career: first, as part of a soul-jazz duo with her then-husband Doug Carn at his Black Jazz Records, and then solo at Philadelphia International, Motown,…
