Sly and The Family Stone, Stand!, Epic, 1969
A landmark record, each and every song on this one is a jewel. Sly at the end of the golden sixties before the drugs and before “There’s a riot goin on”. When optimism was all around and this group of black and white people redefined Funk/Soul/Rock&Roll.

Lee Dorsey, Yes We Can, Polydor, 1970
Lets be clear, this guy said “Yes we can” bout 38 years before Obama. And lets be clear, he said it in a much more funky way than Obama did. The funkiest soul man to come out of New Orleans with Allen Toussaint doing production (I heard there is going to be a movie made bout Toussaint), this records is a bomb and u know it. Im not sure its an original, pretty sure though but I will have our expert Topper look at it just to be sure.

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Black Ivory, Dont Turn Around, Today Records Inc., 1971 (in orig shrink wrap)
Rare sweet soul music from these Harlem high school boys, they also have two tracks where they r going more down the funk-soul alley (like Surrender). They r in the line of The Chi-Lites, Main Ingredient and sorts. Do u recognize the sample on I Keep asking you questions?

Highest ranked vid for a youtube search on “vintage music” is some dodgy Bollywood clip. The second vid is great fun though. A 1907 Ma Rag tune with a hilarious video. Challenge you all to find a contemporary clip that can match this one. Certainly the two housewives boxing somewhere in the middle is awesome.

Red Garland Trio, Groovy, Prestige, no year, original LP7113
Gotta b honest, dont know his work very well except that he made his name with Miles Davis. This record is my favorite setup in Jazz: a bass (Paul Chambers), piano, drum (Arthur Taylor) trio. The title would mislead a rookie like me, for me Groovy refers more to funk but this record playing somewhere btwn Hard Bop and Cool Jazz definitely deserves the name “Groovy” and feels very smooooth.

Last weekend we went to the Utrecht show in Holland. The biggest in Europe. There were a lot of dealers from all over the world. Everything was perfectly organized, each row had its own style of music. The amount of records is different than in the States, of course more European stuff, but still ok. My impression, this show wasn’t as crowded as usual, but there were still a lot of happy dealer and buyer faces. I found a couple of nice Lee Hazlewood records for my personal collection and a stack of French stuff for resale. Since Topper Pete had to play a gig, Topper Igor joined me, oh yeah, he regained his interest for vinyl. Too bad Bavaria beer sucks!
Stay cool,
Topper & Topper.

B.B. King, Indianola Mississippi Seeds, ABC/Dunhill Records, 1970
The man can be considered one of the greatest blues guitarist/musicians ever. This record, has strong blues tracks and some 70’s influences on it. He was born in Indianola Mississippi, hence referring to himself as the seeds from Idianola Mississippi. Get it? “Chains and Things” is my favorite track for those of u interested, as a coincidence, it got two samples on it by Ice Cube and Bobby Digital/RZA.

The Surfaris play Wipe Out, Decca Records, no year – early 60s

Topper Michel (Vintage Crew encyclopedia) brought this one from his trip around the US. Dont be fooled by how geeky these guys look on the front picture: the original Surf Musicians, composers of Misirlou (covered by Dick Dale – soundtrack Pulp Fiction) and Wipe Out (The Surf Anthem). Gotta love it.

Aretha Franklin and the Ray Bryant Combo, Columbia, No year printed, probably early 60s.
Loong before her breakthrough with “Respect”, “Think” and “I never loved a man the way I love you”, looong before she added 200lbs, Aretha, at 18y old, was slim, good looking, two kids (!) and with Columbia records and recorded mostly Jazz tunes. (see also posting on 18 Nov). This record is a sweeet collection of the lady singing jazz.

Yo music lovers,
We’re gonna start a weekly column where we put each time a label in the picture. My pick this week is ACE Records, one of my favorites.

ACE Records was established in 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi. Founder was Johnny Vincent, who already launched the Champion label and was owner of of a record shop, later he got a job at Specialty. He started recording local blues musicians and after one year he expanded into New Orleans rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Here musicians were recording at Cosimo Matassa’s studio.

The label had some big national hits in the late fifties with artists as Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, Frankie Ford and Jimmy Clanton. Other influential names on ACE; Earl King, Charles Brown, Joe Tex, Mac Rebennack aka Dr. John, Lloyd Price, Lightning Hopkins and Alvin ‘Red’ Tyler. Teem became by the end of the fifties a subsidiary of ACE. In 1962 the label disappeared as an active label and continued as a small regional low budget label only releasing a few records. Because of interest of collectors and music historians, Mr. Vincent reactivated the label in 1971, producing reissues and some new material. In 1997 he sold the label to Westside Records, a UK label spezialised in re-issues. He died in 2000.

The label. Album; the very first print LP n° 1001, Jimmy Clanton’s ‘Just a dream’ is a dark green label with silver print, it is believed this is the only LP that used this color label. The second label is black with silver print or dark blue and white on top with ACE in a blue oval and lasted until 1962 (last one, LP n° 1027) except Jimmy’s happy and Jimmy’s blue by Jimmy Clanton (LP n) 1007, red bottom half and white top half with a picture of Jimmy looking happy and n° 1008, blue bottom half and white top half, a picture of Jimmy looking sad). All records were mono except LP n° 1024, ‘Sings our last goodbye’ by Gil Peterson. In the mid-sixties, labels were black, white and blue with ACE on top in an oval. The 1970 collector series had a yellow or red label with black print. 45’s were printed on a white label with blue print with ACE Records on top.

Some recommendations. on vinyl; ACE Story (volume 1-5), I’m not sure these compilations exist on CD as well. Some of these volumes are to be found in store shortly. On CD; go for Mark Lamarr’s ACE is wild on West Side Records.

Otber labels in the series