Cliff Nobles

Northern Soul - The Collection is another addition to the Collection series. Spread over 3CD's this collection delivers the biggest hits at a great value price with over 60 tracks from the Vaults of Atlantic, Atco, Loma, Reprise and Warner Brothers providing the listener with a truly authentic Northern Soul Experience. Chuck Wood / Tami Lynn / The Coasters / Archie Bell & The Drells all feature in a great introduction to the scene as well as forgotten favourites.

Hell on Wheels, the Jay Willie Blues Band’s fourth ZOHO CD release, reunites the Newtown, CT-based crew with their sultry vocalist Malorie Leogrande in an adventurous, funky cruise through nine soulful 1950s and 60s R & B gems and four earthy band member originals.

Jamie Records was a record label founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1957 by Harold Lipsius (1913–2007) and Allan Sussel (1924–2003). Their first 45rpm single, "It's Great to Fall in Love"/"Truly" by Marian Caruso, was issued in 1957. The label was named after Allan Sussel's eldest daughter, Jamie Sussel Turner.

Like the Motown Sound of the mid-60s, the Philly Sound of the 70s did not suddenly appear overnight with the establishment of Philadelphia International Records and the rise to international stardom of acts such as the O Jays, the Three Degrees and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. This new Kent release Nothing But A House Party focuses its attention on the years 1967-1971 and provides a first-class overview of how recording in Philadelphia moved on from the lightweight Cameo-Parkway sound of the early 60s to become considerably more inventive and sophisticated. Most of the musicians heard on these tracks became part of MFSB, the musical backbone of nearly every black American recording that came out of Philly between 1971 and 1976. Many of the songwriters and producers also went on to far greater fame in the 70s, after honing their craft with these and many other classics. Some artists featured here had fallen by the wayside by the turn of the 1970s, while others had moved their recording base elsewhere but all played a significant role in developing Philadelphia's standing as one of one of soul music's most significant cities of the 20th century. With the kind of copiously annotated and illustrated booklet and top-notch mastering you would expect from Kent, this is a release no serious soul fan should overlook.

Philadelphia Roots Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Soul Jazz's releases tend to be groove-oriented, putting a premium on funky, rhythmic grooves – all the better to sample you with, my dear. Consequently, their loving reissues of obscurities are aimed at third- or fourth-generation listeners mining these recordings for sounds, not people who were there at the time, or collectors looking for great forgotten songs and singles. That's not to discount the material on their recordings, but it's to put them in the proper perspective – this is minutiae, collectors items only of interest to the diehard, or those who are only interested in arcania, since it'll provide great unheard beats for their own recordings.

1968…. A immortal year that history finally changed! The year of the big strikes and protests. A revolt got started
that a new dynamism gave to the democratisation of politics and culture. But also musically, was 1968 a revolutionary year! MAY ‘68 brings all the musical highlights from the year 1968 together in a 4 CD box. With oa. Steppenwolf, The Kinks, Deep Purple, James Brown, Johnny Cash, The Monkees e.v.a. this is a fantastic historical document with great music that is still current sounds! 50 years of Imagination to the power! Relive those unique times back thanks to MAY ‘68!

For the whole of the 1970s, the Philly Sound was a leading and immediately identifiable component of black American music. A crack team of producers, songwriters and musicians raised worldwide awareness of Philadelphia soul to the level the Motown Sound had enjoyed during the previous decade. Anyone with half an ear for music could spot a Philly soul record by its opening bars, whatever the location of the label on which it appeared. In the same way the Motown Sound really came together after the company started recording almost exclusively in its own premises, the Philly Sound quickly took shape once Joe Tarsia, the former chief engineer at Cameo-Parkway Studios, opened Sigma Sound in 1968.

Best known for recording the hit theme to Soul Train, MFSB were the pre-eminent instrumental outfit of Philadelphia soul, backing numerous Kenny Gamble/Leon Huff productions while recording regularly on their own throughout the '70s. The group's name stood for Mother Father Sister Brother, and prior to their formation in 1971 as the house band at Gamble and Huff's Sigma Sound studios, some of the core personnel had been working together as early as 1968. Guitarists Norman Harris and Bobby Eli, bassist Ronnie Baker, and drummer Earl Young had an uncredited dance hit with "The Horse," the instrumental flip side of singer Cliff Nobles' "Love Is All Right." As the Horse dance craze swept Philadelphia, the group also backed singers the Fantastic Johnny C and (as the James Boys) Jesse James, while also issuing singles as the Music Makers and Family.