As I’ve mentioned before, it’s always wise for a blogger to pick artists that either have plenty of biographical details already out there or new, original stuff that you have unearthed yourself. In the face of this sound advice my next disc is by an artist that, like Jackie Ivory only appears to have issued one 45 before sinking into oblivion and he is RUSSELL EVANS & THE NIGHT HAWKES who gave us ‘The Bold’ on UK Atlantic 584010 / US Atco 4611.

I did however unearth plenty of info on this guy courtesy of a famous teenage friend; Evans hailed from Cleveland and was in the Futuretones with Charles Hatcher aka Edwin Starr. The band had a vocal line up of Hatcher, John Berry, Parnell Burks, Richard Isom and Roosevelt Harris and also musicians Russell Evans on guitar, ‘Pinhead’, trumpet, Julius Robertson, bass, ‘Brownie’, drums and Gus Hawkins, saxophone.

The group played hometown venues such as the Chatterbox, Gleason’s, Lucky Strike, Rose Room, Cedar Gardens, Che Breau, Playmor, Majestic Hotel and the Mercury Ballroom. They also appeared on the Gene Carroll Talent Show on local TV which led to them turning professional and their first date was support to the great Billie Holliday at the Chatterbox.

In 1959 they secured a recording deal with Tress Records and ‘I Know’/’Rolling On’ which sold few copies and a year later, on the brink of wider fame Hatcher was drafted with William Isom replacing him. When Hatcher returned from Germany he re-joined the group but all momentum and purpose was gone and he soon signed with Bill Doggett. Because most of this Futuretones information is associated with Edwin Starr’s roots, the minute he quit the info trail goes cold and it can only be assumed that the Futuretone ground to a halt soon after and Evans moving on to this gem of a record.

Probably the most well-known artist in this issue’s bundle is GOOGIE RENE, born Rafael Leon Rene in March, 1927. Since before WW2, Googie had been brought up in a music related environment becoming a pianist but also the son of a record label man.

After a stint in the US Army in Europe he returned to his native Hollywood in 1950 where his father Leon’s Exclusive Record label was based but had just gone bust. This was his second label, the first being Ammor which lasted about a year between ’43 and ’44. In ’53 Leon launched his third venture, Class Records but due to his disappointing track record he leased the early material to Modern and RPM Records for the first couple of years until the launch of Class with a local group, the Drifters.

As with Exclusive, Class had scores of releases well into the next decade with a break in production in 1955 and Googie making his debut on the new 200 series in ’56 with ‘Wham Bam’ the first of twenty sides by him for the label. At some point in the late 50s Googie was given creative control of the venture and in ’63 ‘Flapjacks parts 1 & 2’ Class #305 reached #25 in the R&B charts.

His biggest hit came in ’66 with ‘Smokey Joe’s La La’, a play on the Coasters smash hit which was issued on the UK black Atlantic label due to Atco handling Class in the States as they also did with ‘Chica-Boo`’ that gained UK release in June of that year on red Atlantic. So, I hope that this short offering of jazzy/R&B instrumentals has tempted you to check the genre out as they are relatively easy to obtain and are all inexpensive.

THE ‘5’ ROYALES – The Complete Apollo Recordings. History of Soul Records. SOUL016
A while ago, I warned you about those lunatics at History of Soul and how they were complete obsessives and if they say they are going to cover a group they know no bounds. Along with the last 5 Royales CD I reviewed plus this and the next HOS Records CD set below, they have provided us with almost 180 tracks. The 5 Royales were the very first group to merge secular and sacred musical influences into a coherent whole, laying down the future guidelines of soul music. These CDs contain some of the very best early soul and R&B ever recorded and the Royales’ music still has the power and the passion to move us all.

Long may it continue. Available through record outlets or direct from www.historyofsoul.net at £8.50.

THE ‘5’ ROYALES – King A Sides & B Sides. History of Soul Records. SOUL015.
This collection contains all 25 singles that the 5 Royales recorded for King between 1954 and 1960. This was the time when they developed their classic style and again merged secular with the sacred, laying down yet more guidelines for the soul genre that was yet to come. The music herein equals their output on the other two HOS CDs and it still hits the feet and the heart some fifty years on.

Available through record outlets or direct from www.historyofsoul.net at £8.50.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Ohio Soul. History of Soul Records. SOUL026.

Before WW2, the afroamerican population of Ohio was small and concentrated in the southern part of the state, mainly in Cincinnati; black music recordings from that era in the state are pretty rare. But the great migration northward from the old slave states during and after the war drew large numbers of blacks to the factories of Akron, Dayton and particularly Cleveland.

This encouraged musical entrepreneurs to establish independent recording companies in Ohio that produced music for the new populations. The state’s powerhouse for the music was of course the King label and its subsidiaries run by the iron fist of Syd Nathan in Cincinnati. So it is quite appropriate that this CD set has a predominance of tracks from this source and King’s Chicago outpost.

Available through record outlets or direct from www.historyofsoul.net at £8.50.

I must admit to never having heard of today’s choice until I came across the disc at a record fair about ten years ago, ODELL BROWN & THE ORGANISERS ‘No More Water In The Well’, Cadet 5591. Odell Elliott Brown was born in Louisville in February 1940 and was another relatively late starter in the business after he moved to Tennessee and met up with some likeminded State University music students and got a scratch band together comprising himself, Artee Payne, Curtis Prince, Henry Gibson and Tommy Purvis. His aspiration to enrol for university himself was curtailed when he was drafted into the 179th, 5th Army Band which led to the group disbanding.

Upon his discharge some of them did however reform in Chicago in ’64 where they came to the attention of Chess Records and in 1966 were signed to Cadet, the destination for their various jazz-related artists. Their debut LP, Raising the Roof had such an impact that they received the Best New Group award from Billboard and a couple of years later the Billboard Jazz Award. Their status was never fulltime however and some releases were solo from Odell and he also did plenty of session work alongside Gene Barge, Minnie Riperton and Billy Davis for many Chess legends.

1969 proved to be pivotal as Tommy Purvis and label boss Leonard Chess both died which prompted the group to disband permanently and Odell’s life began an unpredicted new phase in Ostend, Belgium where he hooked up with the estranged Marvin Gaye.

Cadet Records was also the home of RAY BRYANT and his marvellous ‘After Hours’ #5639. Born Raphael Homer Bryant in Philadelphia in December 1931 he began his musical career in his teens when, at only 14 Mickey Collins signed him to his band.

He soon began touring and recording with Tiny Grimes & his Rocking Highlanders, he then recorded some unissued tracks while with the Jimmy Johnson Band and also became the house pianist at the famous Blue Note Club in Philly. The club was the best in town and the visiting jazz dignitaries encouraged Ray to seek his fortune in NYC where he recorded on Blue Note and Prestige. During the early 50s he toured with most of the jazz greats before he eventually relocated to Detroit and formed a trio which recorded for Columbia and having played in every jazz style over the years he began to develop a jazz/gospel/R&B signature that this 45 captures perfectly.

Despite his considerable vinyl output in the USA, including a stint on Sue he only managed a couple of titles in Britain in 1960 on Pye International and Philips 45s.

The disc kicking off part 2 is on UK Sue 313 / US Sue 795, ‘So Far Away`’, one of my all-time favourites from Henry ‘HANK’ JACOBS, who amazingly did not even contemplate sitting in front of a piano until he was seventeen. Oozing talent, Kent Harris who had fronted Boogaloo and His Gallant Crew soon recruited Hank to gig with him as a duet traveling all over the States and co-wrote ‘Sting Ray’ with him for Hank’s first release appearing on Imperial.

While touring the pair stopped off in NYC and signed for Juggy Murray’s Sue label which resulted in Harris and Jacobs penning my featured side, which debuted on the R&B charts in January ’64. The original track had a piano lead but Jacobs later over-dubbed a Hammond B3, but even with this enhancement the track is effectively a two instrument affair, a B3 and a cymbal.

A couple more 45s followed but didn’t match up to ‘So Far Away’ but while at Sue he contributed to other artists sessions including piano on the Ikettes’ ‘I’m So Thankful’ and independent of Sue he played piano on Bettye Swann’s ‘Make Me Yours’.

After NYC he began jamming and recording with the obscure T-K-O’s with his name featuring on the label of their second 45, ‘The Charge’ on Ten Star #105, an amazing, powerful record if ever there was one, discovered by Simon Soussan. The group had three releases, the first of which ‘The Fat Man’ began making noises around LA in March ’66 culminating in reaching #18 in the Billboard R&B charts a month later. His final destination was the Call Me label where he recorded three 45s including ‘Elijah Rockin’ With Soul’ a track that was so popular on the Northern Soul scene that it was bootlegged to meet demand but in my opinion was his worst.

Next up, BROTHER JACK McDUFF, ‘Down In The Valley’ UK Atlantic 584036 / US Atl 5069, Brother Jack has a far more jazz-based background than the artists featured so far – born Eugene McDuff, January 1926 in Champaign Illinois. His first instrument was bass with Danny Zeitlin and Joe Farrell, evolving into keyboards with Willis Jackson in the late 50s where he began to work with Prestige Records. By the start of the 60s he specialised in playing the Hammond B3 and he formed his own band which featured a young George Benson as guitarist and Red Holloway on saxophone.

Still doing session work at Prestige with Jimmy Forrest, he soon released his first LP, Brother Jack in 1960, the first of an unbelievable twenty six albums for the label. He then went on to exceed that number under other logos such as Cadet and Blue Note. As far as Britain is concerned his output of vinyl reflected that of the USA with fifteen LPs and four 45s on Stateside, Atlantic, Transatlantic, Blue Note, York and Prestige.

Brother Jack quickly cultivated a dual following when his first releases appeared in Britain in 1964. Due to his prolific output in the States many UK jazz fans were already familiar with his style despite private importation of records at the time being virtually unheard of. The other ban of fans were the Mods who craved this laid back jazzy – R&B style that was more palatable than some of the more avant garde, Blue Note offerings that were difficult to dance to but being seen toting a couple of such albums around Soho was far more the point.

I spotted a few familiar faces in the audience including David Nathan who was a co-founder of the Soul City record shop in 1966. The interviews were punctuated by live vocalists performing Motown hits and never having been a fan of Motown tribute acts I must say that they were all very good.

The principle reason for Berry Gordy being in Britain was to promote the forthcoming Motown The Musical opening on February 11th at the Shaftsbury Theatre in London’s West End. The vast majority of the dialogue did however relate to Motown in the 60s and its growth in Britain which was great for me as that is the exact period covered in my forthcoming book, Stay In The Blue Groove: The story of the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society due out around April of next year.

Mr Gambaccini had clearly done his homework and was bold enough to ask BG some probing questions including why the ’65 Motown tour of Britain had been a box office disaster and what were his views? Berry, ever the skilled statesman simply batted the question to one side by saying that he was not involved, having left that side of the tour to others! The show will make good listening and is scheduled for broadcast on Christmas Eve.

So, onto today’s blog and selection of tracks. As many of you will know, Berry Gordy was initially a modern jazz fan, selling discs with his brother from their store, the 3-D Record Mart – House of Jazz. Gordy later launched the woefully under promoted and vastly underrated Workshop Jazz label which, according to Earl Van Dyke, hosted some of the best music recorded at Hitsville, although most of it remained in the can.

With this Motown connection in mind my first pick this issue is ‘High Heel Sneakers’ by JACKIE IVORY on UK Atlantic Records 4075/US Atco 6398. Born in Blytheville, Arkansa 1937, as a child he moved with his family to South Bend, Indiana, the home of Jr Walker (Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr) who also hailed from Blytheville, and the two boys attended the same school, South Bend Central High. Jackie soon formed his own trio, Jackie Ivory and the Gents of Soul comprising Jackie, Paul Renfro and Billy ‘Stix’ Nicks on drums. Nicks later became a member of another local band the Rhythm Rockers but often swapped places with mutual friend Jr Walker in his group the Jumping Jacks.

When Nicks was drafted the group became less active but Jackie Ivory retained his connection with the fast becoming famous Jr Walker and subsequently often sat in with him on keyboards. In ’65 Jackie signed for Atco and issued this solitary 45 plus an album, Soul Discovery but the Gents of Soul split very soon after the album was issued with Jackie continuing to sit in with Jr Walker and also Willis ‘Gator’ Jackson for the remainder of the decade. He then moved to the west coast for twenty years before returning to South Bend and reuniting with Nicks.

The Motown thread continues with GENE DOZIER, ‘I Wanna Testify’, Minit 32031. Fellow Manifesto columnist John Smith presented a wealth of original information of this great keyboard player some years ago on the soulfuldetroit forum from which I have drawn heavily – thank you John.

Gene Lloyd Dozier’s career began as an A&R man at Cameo Records in Philly and while there he was the pianist on Harriet Lavern & the Lovenotes’ ‘A Letter To My Love’ on Brenna Records and also their next 45, ‘On Fire’ on Sandee which was picked up by Cameo. Gene soon got together with Norman ‘General’ Johnson to write songs including one for Sheila Ferguson, ‘How Did That Happen’ and also the Orlons’, ‘Envy’.

Despite these and other songs being successful, Gene was eventually fired by Cameo but his next break came along very soon when he went to the Uptown Theatre, Philadelphia to see the Temptations’ show. This culminated in Eddie Kendricks introducing him to Mickey Stevenson and Gene then undertaking an epic overnight drive to Detroit to meet Mickey at Motown who had the luxury of an aeroplane journey. Gene left Mickey with a song he had written and then returned to Philly the same day with little expectation and indeed heard nothing.

After a short stint at Jamie Records, he met Jeffrey Bowen who, listening to Gene’s plight cut demos of four of his songs which he sent to Stevenson at Motown who was sufficiently impressed to invite Gene back to Motown and paired him with Ivy Hunter. Little came of it and having the same surname as Lamont Dozier, Gene reflected that some of his material could well have been unintentionally attributed to him. In his short and rather fruitless stay there, Gene’s main achievement turned out to be signing backing vocals on Stevie Wonder’s ‘Uptight’.

At the invitation of Richard Parker, A&R man at Motown’s rival Golden World, Gene moved across town under the pseudonym of Billy Jackson aka Billy the Kid as he did not wish to burn all of his bridges with Gordy and immediately contributed to songs such as ‘I’ll Love You Forever’ by the Holidays and Teresa Lindsey’s ‘Daddy O’. After his Detroit flurry he returned to Philly and Gamble & Huff working with the O’Jays on Neptune and then most surprisingly for me, he announced that he was the vocalist and co-writer on Lorenzo Manley’s ‘(I’m Gonna) Swoop Down On You’on Original Sound.

His next port of call was LA working with the Groovettes on Reness Records and Dobie Gray on Charger before joining Ike Turner’s band prior to moving to Minit records with some of Ike’s band that became Gene Dozier & the Brotherhood where they had an immediate smash in ’67 with ‘A Hunk of Funk’ that I have featured previously.

100 Proof’s blistering ‘Somebody’s Been Sleeping’ was an R&B and pop hit in the summer of 1970, and arguably one of the finest 45s to emerge from Holland, Dozier & Holland’s Invictus/Hot Wax stable.

Easy to dismiss as lightweight pop soul, everything about this 45 is class. From the chiming guitar introduction, doom-laden bass line and ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’ chant the tone is set perfectly. An adult twist is given to the Goldilocks and Three Bears fairy tale, with lead vocalist Steve Mancha on fine form as he rasps his dismay at the telling evidence of an unknown visitor to his marital home – ‘Cigarettes in the ash tray, and I don’t even smoke’ and ‘My brand new silk pyjama’s, They’re rolled up in the chair’.

The YouTube video features the extended album version with an instrumental break that reminds me of the Politicians ‘Love Machine’ which was a later Hot Wax 45.

Intriguingly, two years later, Syl Johnson’s cover of the old Jackie Wilson hit ‘That’s Why’ kicks off with an exact rendition of the 100 Proof intro, and as the 100 Proof original does, the intro theme is used as a break in the middle of the song. Given that Syl’s song was a B-side it was probably missed by the guys at Invictus/Hot Wax.

After hearing Mary Well’s ‘You Lost The Sweetest Boy’ in 1963, he wrote to Berry Gordy asking for permission to form a fan club for her and the labels’ other artists. From the initial typed newsletter it grew into the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society, with upwards of a thousand members who helped to spread the word leading up to the Motown Revue’s acclaimed tour of the UK in 1965. The story behind this influential network of Motown fans is the theme of Keith Rylatt’s forthcoming book with the working title taken from the masthead of the society’s newsletter Hitsville USA!

Planned for publication next year, the book includes many photographs taken by founding member Clive Stone, that had been kept unseen in the loft since the mid 1960s.And it was only by chance that the pictures came to light, when Clive’s younger brother Mel met Keith at a small village club in Kent.

Aware of Keith’s interest in Motown, Mel arrived one day toting a supermarket carrier bag with the aforementioned photographs and negatives, alongside an array of Motown-related ephemera ranging from a novelty key to the Motor City to an autographed programme for the 1964 Motown Christmas party held at the Graystone Ballroom in Detroit. Such a find had to be seen by Motown fanatics and the outcome will be Keith’s book.

We’ll keep you regularly updated on the book’s progress through the blog, and if you would like to register for a discounted copy on publication please register at info@groovesvilleusa.com.

She had divulged this information on the eve of her joining the Beatles autumn tour of Britain and so although her tour repertoire consisted of her Motown songs she was in fact a 20th Century Fox signing by then. Her remaining, unissued Motown tracks later saw the light of day on her Vintage Stock LP issued in ’66 but that would be the last time her name would grace a new Motown record.

Meanwhile in Britain in 1965, just a year after the My Guy LP was issued EMI’s sixth release on their new Tamla Motown label was Mary Wells, My Baby Just Cares For Me TML11006 and was, apart from the cover shot a straight re-issue of the My Guy album.

The record was never issued in the US and indeed bore a cover shot of Mary in London around Oxenden Street and Coventry Street, Piccadilly taken by Dezo Hoffman.

Eagle-eyed Motown fan John Lester pointed out that the photo was taken when she was on the Beatles tour and so was not, when the shutter clicked a Motown artist and so we have the embarrassing situation of EMI/ Motown using a photograph of an artist on a rival label to adorn one of their album covers.

Thanks to John and Francis Murphy for your info.