The title of The Salsoul Orchestra’s second album said it all – Nice ‘n’ Naasty. The soul-disco orchestra, originally under the baton of MFSB alumnus Vincent Montana Jr., could serve up nice, shimmering and lushly elegant soundscapes…and naasty floor-filling grooves that practically demanded you hit the dancefloor! Happily, the group has recently received a lavish tribute in the form of a sizzling 3-CD collection from Groove Line Records (the label responsible for the recent, definitive Change anthology). The Salsoul Orchestra Story: 40th Anniversary Collection chronicles the group via 37 ebullient tracks drawing…
The Year In Reissues: The 2014 Gold Bonus Disc Awards
Welcome to The Second Disc’s Fifth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! As with every year’s awards, our goals are simple: to recognize as many of the year’s most essential reissues and catalogue titles as possible, and to celebrate as many of those labels, producers and artists who make these releases happen in an increasingly-challenging retail landscape. The labels you’ll read about below have, by and large, bucked the trends to prove that there’s still a demand for physical catalogue music that you can purchase in brick-and-mortar stores. And from our vantage point,…
Categories:
Genres:
Release Round-Up: Week of September 16
Jimi Hendrix, The Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Experience Hendrix/Legacy) Legacy and Experience Hendrix have reissues of Jimi Hendrix’s first two posthumously-released albums, both from 1971; The Cry of Love is long out-of-print on CD, while Rainbow Bridge makes its first authorized appearance in the CD format. Both titles have been freshly remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog masters. The Cry of Love: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Rainbow Bridge: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack : Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Charles Lloyd, Manhattan Stories (Resonance) (Amazon U.S….
Categories:
Formats:
Genres:
Love Is: Carol Williams, The Salsoul Orchestra Make Sweet Music on “‘lectric Lady”
Carol Williams signed to New York’s Salsoul Records label in 1975 for one single, but stuck around for one memorable album. That lone long-player, titled ‘lectric Lady, paired the New Jersey-born vocalist – Salsoul’s first female contract signing – with the label’s premier musical outfit, The Salsoul Orchestra, for an alluring blend of disco and sleek soul. Cherry Red’s Big Break Records imprint is now feeling electric with an expanded and remastered reissue of ‘lectric Lady. Williams came to Salsoul as a seasoned performer both onstage and in the recording studio. When…
The Salsoul Orchestra Goes “High,” “Up the Yellow Brick Road”
Big Break Records’ non-chronological series of remastered and expanded reissues for The Salsoul Orchestra has already taken listeners from 1975’s eponymous debut to 1982’s farewell release Heat It Up. With the recent releases of 1978’s Up the Yellow Brick Road and 1979’s How High, the label has filled in the gaps of its lavishly produced program of the Orchestra’s classic non-holiday studio albums. (No fear, however – there are other collaborative albums and even a collection credited to The Salsoul Strings still left to reissue!) For what would turn out to be…
Release Round-Up: Week of April 29
Grace Jones, Nightclubbing: Deluxe Edition (Island/UMe) Pull back up to the bumper with a generously expanded version of the almighty Jones’ most beloved album. 2CD: Amazon U.K. 1CD: Amazon U.S. 2LP: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S. Blu-Ray Audio: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S. Diana Ross & The Supremes, Sing and Perform Funny Girl: Expanded Edition (Motown Select) A digital-only expansion of The Supremes’ 1968 album of the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill musical, featuring the original LP alongside a brand-new remix and a pair of live cuts. (Amazon U.S.) Funny Girl: Original Broadway Cast Recording – 50th Anniversary Edition (Capitol/UMe) Speaking of…
Big Break Has “Street Sense” With Two New Salsoul Reissues
Cherry Red’s Big Break Records label continues its deep exploration into the vaults of Salsoul Records with two releases that might seem like business as usual for these artists, but are anything but. Street Sense, from The Salsoul Orchestra, isn’t a Vince Montana-led extravaganza but rather a project helmed by Tom Moulton, “the father of the 12-inch remix.” And Loleatta Holloway’s self-titled 1979 album isn’t a Philly-style banquet but rather a feast of southern soul. Street Sense is another indispensable entry in BBR’s definitive reissue series for The Salsoul Orchestra. The 1979…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 11
Sid Selvidge, The Cold of the Morning (Omnivore) A long out-of-print classic, produced by Big Star producer Jim Dickinson and featuring a killer set of tunes written or arranged by the late Memphis folk master (and father of Steve Selvidge, current guitarist of The Hold Steady, who produced this new reissue) and featuring six unreleased bonus tracks. CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Bayeté, Worlds Around the Sun (Omnivore Recordings) The debut album by jazz keyboardist Todd Cochran, known for his work with names as diverse as Carl Palmer, Peter Gabriel and Joey Scarbury, is released on…
Dance a Little Bit Closer with Charo and The Salsoul Orchestra, Loleatta Holloway
Cuchi-cuchi! Charo, or María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza, burst onto the cultural radar with her goofy, slightly suggestive catchphrase during the late-sixties run of the television phenomenon Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Once a frequent passenger on The Love Boat, the comedienne-bombshell still is a familiar face today on television (Dancing with the Stars, RuPaul’s Drag University) and onstage – on land and on sea, even on the good ship Disney Magic. In 1977, Charo teamed with Vince Montana Jr., the arranger-conductor of Salsoul Records’ house band The Salsoul Orchestra,…
BBR “Heats It Up” with Salsoul Orchestra, Joe Bataan, Herbie Mann, Chris Jasper
As Big Break Records’ first releases for 2014 hit stores in the U.K. today (more on those shortly!), the time is right to take a look at more from the label’s closing slate of 2013. This eclectic roster – from legendary Latin music artist Joe Bataan, the post-Vince Montana iteration of The Salsoul Orchestra, jazz flautist Herbie Mann and soul man Chris Jasper – is doubtless one of BBR’s strongest. So influential was Joe Bataan‘s 1974 Mericana Records release Salsoul that it literally inspired an entire label. The Filipino-African-American artist, born Bataan…
BBR Continues Its “Journey” With Salsoul Catalogue
If you’re looking for another chance to “dance your ass off,” look no further. Big Break Records has returned to the mighty catalogue of Salsoul Records for another three “made in Philadelphia” classics from the soulful disco label. “C’mon, Vince, play your vibes!” Loleatta Holloway exclaimed before the leader of The Salsoul Orchestra, Vince Montana Jr., stepped forward for a solo on “Run Away,” the third track on the powerful unit’s third non-holiday long-player. 1977’s Magic Journey follows its predecessors The Salsoul Orchestra and Nice ‘n’ Naasty in receiving the deluxe BBR…
It’s Good For The Soul! The Salsoul Orchestra’s “Nice ‘n’ Naasty” Arrives In Expanded Edition
The third song on the first side of The Salsoul Orchestra’s second album proclaims “It Don’t Have to Be Funky (To Be a Groove).” But under the leadership of vibraphonist Vince Montana, Jr., the grooves were most certainly funky…as well as soulful, jazzy, and above all, danceable. 1976’s Nice ‘n’ Naasty, just reissued in an expanded edition by Big Break Records, is an even more eclectic collection than its predecessor. It continues Big Break’s top-flight program celebrating all aspects of the Salsoul Records legacy in high style, and also serves as a…
Dance A Little Bit Closer: Gold Legion Uncovers “The Salsoul Records Story”
Just in case you didn’t already know, there’s plenty of gold to be found from the Gold Legion label. Since its inception, Gold Legion has reissued and remastered classic disco records from master tape sources, adding copious annotation and bonus tracks to flesh out the stories behind the music. Some of Gold Legion’s previous releases have been dedicated to iconic singer-actress-model Grace Jones, “Turn the Beat Around” diva Vicki Sue Robinson, The Emotions as produced by Maurice White and Charles Stepney, Blondie’s Debbie Harry, and Oscar and Grammy-winning producers Paul Jabara and…
The Year in Reissues: The 2012 Gold Bonus Disc Awards
Wow! Was it just over a year ago when a rather dubious report began circulating (that, shockingly, was picked up by many otherwise-reputable publications) that proclaimed the death of the CD was secretly scheduled by the major labels for 2012? Well, 2012 has come and (almost) gone, and it might have been the most super-sized year in recent memory for reissues, deluxe and otherwise, from labels new and old. Here at the Second Disc, we consider our annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards a companion piece to Mike’s own round-up over at Popdose,…
Do The (Salsoul) Hustle: Big Break Celebrates Salsoul Records Legacy with Four Reissues
By 1975, Philadelphia soul had become too big even for the City of Brotherly Love. In the first half of the decade, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff had, along with the third member of their Mighty Three, Thom Bell, reinvented the sound of soul music. The Pennsylvania city had become synonymous with sweeping strings, punchy horns and the hi-hat cymbal of drummer Earl Young, offering up music that could be dramatic, sweet and funky, sometimes all within the same three-minute song! Bell had long kept a foot outside the Philadelphia International Records…
