Tssm issue 69 full edition

The Quintessential info provider for the Soul Survivor 1ST APRIL - 31ST MAY 2017

Issue 69

The ‘Minister of Sensuality’ issue

Dedicated to Leon Ware

16th Feb 1940- 23rd Feb 2017

News Reviews & Interviews The Brit Funk Association, Eddie Piller, Polly Gibbons, Barry King, Wunmi & Ash Selector thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk COVER ART

BY FITZROY FACEY

WHAT’S INSIDE? 3 FITZROY SPEAKS WITH THE BRIT FUNK ASSOCIATION 8 DARRELL’S FUNK BOX 10 FITZROY SPEAKS WITH EDDIE PILLER 16 ROLL CALL OF FAME 18 FITZROY SPEAKS WITH POLLY GIBBONS 23 THE SOUL SURVIVORS AWARDS 2016 26 RECORD REVIEWS 28 ROLL CALL OF FAME - TRIBUTES TO LEON WARE 30 MIRA PARKES - SPEAKS WITH BARRY KING 34 FITZROY SPEAKS WITH ASH SELECTOR 40 FITZROY SPEAKS WITH WUNMI - PART ONE 46 WHAT’S GOING ON All adverts are placed in good faith and The Soul Survivors Magazine take no responsibility for any issues arising from the use of those who have advertised.

All dates are correct at time of going to print – please check with venue or promoter if unsure.

All rights reserved 2006 - 2017 © The Soul Survivors Magazine It is essential to note that all artwork, adverts and listings must be confirmed and sent in to fitzroy@ thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk before Friday 5th May 2017 in order to meet the graphic designer and print 3 week preparation. This will ensure that the magazine for the 11th Anniversary June & July Issue is ready and out on the streets.Thanks in advance. The Soul Survivors Magazine Team!

Suite 013, 986 Garratt Lane, Tooting Broadway, London SW17 0ND E: fitzroy@thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk M: 07956 312931 C fitzroy.facey C Fitzroytheoriginalsoulsurvivor C TheSoulSurvivors MSoulSurvivors1

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WELCOME TO ISSUE 69 Greetings with this Donna Summer ‘Spring Affair’ edition of The Soul Survivors Magazine for April & May 2017. The University Challenge starter for ten is the hugest up to the sky and down to the ground Roy Ayers & Wayne Henderson ‘Thank You Thank You’ for those who attended and had kind words to say about The Soul Survivors Magazine Awards at Under the Bridge Feb 17th 2017. It was a surreal and emotional experience that mere words cannot describe. To have fellow soul survivors, from the dedicated music lover, to the club and radio DJ’s promoters, radio stations and celebrated figure heads of the music and entertainment world in attendance, all under the same Funkadelic ‘One Nation Under A Groove’ roof was awesome. The Awards seemed to be received well by those in acceptance of an award and those pleased to see various individuals and elements of the soul industry we dwell in, be rewarded for their hard work and services to the industry. The Brit Funk Association like Ron Seal ‘did what is said on the tin’ and I cannot thank them enough for bringing that unity amongst the collective audience who travelled as far and wide as the length and breath of the country and in particular one gentleman flew in from France, especially.

Thanks to Solar, Stomp, Starpoint, Mi Soul, Soultrain and Delite Radio stations for broadcasting the awards adverts. Extended thanks to Darrell S, Dez Parkes, Ayshea Scott, Michael Edwards for the fantastic footage, Clifford Irving Snr for the photography, Fat Freddie Morrison for his enthusiastic compare duties, Under The Bridge for their professional assistance in accommodating the event and to my business partner in rhyme Anna Benton for her perseverance, support and strategy planning over the three to four months preparation leading up to the event. Lastly thanks to those who on the back end of receiving an award see the benefit of deciding to advertise in the magazine, the support is much appreciated.

This issue of the magazine features news reviews and interviews with a Benetton multi-cultured cast including Acid Jazz’s ‘modfather’ founder Eddie Piller, The Brit Funk Association’s Beggar & Co and Hi Tension players and Mira Parkes speaks with KFP A&R multi-talented Barry King. We also speak with quadruple Soul Survivors Magazine Award winner Ash Selector, Kiss FM poster girl, ex Soul II Soul dancer now and singer/ Jackson Five ‘Dancin’ Machine’ Wunmi and Jazz FM Awards jazz vocal finalist Polly Gibbons. There are photos in this issue of the awards ‘Just In Case’ like Jahiem you missed out or wish to relive that Shalamar ‘Night To Remember’ and new adverts for the forthcoming months activities. ‘Headline News’ like William Bell, I will be Solar Radio’s guest DJ on Bank Holiday Monday 29th May 3PM6PM for an unorthodox, platonic 3 hour The Bob Generation ‘Ménage A Trois’ with me, my spiritual wife – music and fellow Soul Survivors.

Thanks to all who contributed in the making of this issue.

Fitzroy

FITZROY SPEAKS WITH

The Brit Funk Association

In rehearsals and myself, Harry Brown, Baps and Pat were playing and Pat looked round and said “Fuck me I’m playing with the Philly Orchestra.” and it really tickled me.

When you get offered a chance to work with a group that consists of four of the Brit Funk brat pack groups, who are responsible for some of the favoured hits and anthems of the jazz funk and soul scene, there’s two chances of turning that down, Bob Hope and no hope. The Brit Funk Association made history debuting at The Soul survivors Magazine Awards 17th February. Consisting of four founder members of Light Of The World (now Beggar & Co), two members from Hi-Tension and one from Central Line, these guys gave a performance that many who were there will remember for a lifetime. I met up with Kenny Wellington and Breeze (LOTW & Beggar & Co) and Patrick and Paul McLean of Hi-Tension for a mid morning Saturday brunch to chat about their future plans.

Kenny Wellington (LOTW & Beggar & Co): The reaction has exceeded our expectation. We always figured that as a concept, which we discussed a few months earlier, that for us, in terms of liking each other’s repertoire and what to put before an audience was a no brainer. To see the reaction via the videos messages and gestures of good will of people saying how much they really enjoyed the gig, and the fact that we were asked to play at The Soul Survivors Awards, for us as a launch pad was a great honour and we couldn’t have planned it better, so to speak.

say we should have done this before, I don’t think it would have made as much of an impact as it has now. Everybody’s been doing different things and we have a new generation of music listeners now. There are also older ones from when we first happened. People are already ringing me and Facebook messaging me asking when is the next one. I had one chap he wanted to pay in advance and had to tell him I cannot do that because I do not know where the next venue is going to be.

I’m really excited to be part of this and we really get on well and to see the reaction of the audience it’s been well worth it. I’m an artist who, when I’m on stage it’s like I welcome you into my living room. I’m going to make you feel so comfortable that you can dance and sing along.

Paul McLean (Hi Tension) : For me, it was something that really happened at the right time. We’ve spoken about it in the past when we’ve bumped into each other. For it actually to come to fortuity now is like having a wow moment and to

Breeze McKrieth (LOTW & Beggar & Co): Likewise for me it was an extraordinary night and to be sharing the stage with these guys like Paul and Patrick McLean was a dream come true for us. We’ve all come from the same era of music doing

My first question is, what’s the post mortem after February 17th at Under The Bridge?

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our different shows and we used to pass each other on the road on motorways but we never got to play with each other.

Having Paul by my side as the two bad boys playing lead and rhythm guitar together was amazing. Like Paul said timing wise where we all are individually we have evolved in our approach to music, and it showed at the awards with the photos and videos we saw that captured that liveliness on stage.

Patrick McLean (Hi Tension): As its already been said, we’ve thought and spoken about this for a long time and before we had to focus on our individual groups, Hi Tension, Beggar & Co and Central Line. Now we’ve had time to relax and have got to a stage in our life where we can relax, we’ve realised we haven’t quite finished the job. So I’m excited about this because I don’t see the legacy being brought on by the younger generation and it seems to have stayed dormant. I’m excited that we’ve now been given a second chance and are able to do more of what we did in the 1970’s. We get to show the youngsters first hand and who knows there might be an academy that teaches funk in this country. Like Kenny said what an opportunity to have the platform and play at The Soul Survivors Awards.

Fitzroy: I appreciate that as you guys were part of my musical tapestry, cross pollinating all your hits and including the not so familiar ones that I requested like ‘This Is This’ and ‘Breaking Point’ which was fantastic. I understand Caister and some other promoters have approached you since the awards, so what’s forthcoming?

Kenny Wellington: We’ve come from the Jazz Funk / Brit Funk background and between us we’ve secured a few hits as individual acts, and managed to sustain album and B side tracks, that have become anthems, whether it’s ‘Peace On Earth’ or ‘Pete’s Crusade’ because of the regular plays over the years. It suddenly dawned on us, hold on a minute we’ve got about 7 pop hits between us as opposed to us having say two each. The reason I say that is because now promoters are Page 4 - Issue 69

approaching us in a different way and we’ve decided to put together a mini tour or schedule. We’ve practically booked ourselves Friday and Saturday’s in August and it’s taken us five minutes (Kenny laughs). It’s interesting because it shows us that the market is there and people do want it and now it’s packaged the right way and The Brit Funk Association is now officially a band. It’s given us a lot to think about because after myself Baps and Breeze constantly playing ‘Time’ , ‘London Town’ , ‘Pete’s Crusade’ and ‘Somebody Help Me Out’ for years, now we have the luxury of asking the McLeans’ to do ‘Peace On Earth’ or ‘Power & Lightnin’. We also have Steve Salvari of Central Line, so we can do a different spin on ‘Nature Boy’ for example. We haven’t lost the passion for music but it’s been lifted similar to the time when myself Breeze, Baps and Tubbs first started recording in the late 1970’s. Now it’s a case of I can’t wait with all that excitement working with this band brings.

Fitzroy: Paul and Breeze, when you listen to the guitar licks of Hi Tension, Paul’s guitar licks are synonymous with the bands sound along side the bass lines and steel pans. The same can be said of Breeze’s licks on Beggar & Co and Light Of The World material.

This was a treat to see both of you throwing it down especially on ‘Funky Stuff’, so what was it like for you two who have admired each other from the 1970’s?

Paul McLean: For me, my mentality when it comes to music is, without getting to deep, that it is a conversation. Sometimes in a conversation you get sparkly and tingly and to work beside Breeze who is competent, knows what he wants to do and to say to me, as well as anticipate what I have got to say, as two guitarists, it doesn’t always work. But because we know and listen to each other we are able to change the rhythm a bit to go in front of or behind the bass. I’ve waited a long time to do this. Rehearsals are great but on stage it’s a one time thing, so you have to give your best for the band and the audience, and to be beside each other which is often not the case due to stage set up, it gave us that extra bond.

Fitzroy: What I liked was the challenge I laid down of the band doing ‘This Is This’ and ‘Breaking Point’. So how easy or hard was that, playing songs you were familiar with but were outside your repertoire?

Kenny Wellington: For me it’s not difficult because the horns of Beggar & Co were fortunate enough to work with a lot of people. Over the years we’ve also done quite a bit of session work so to learn isn’t anything out of the ordinary. But in this situation to play the tunes with these guys is something special. Playing the trumpet parts in Light Of The World was not easy but I’m used to playing those lines, either by flying by the seat of your pants when it’s a ridiculous number, but we managed. The preparation and learning music is fine but to have the experience and joy of playing it, you want to get it right because you hear other things sub consciously and get lost in the magic of the music.

Breeze McKrieth: The great thing is that it’s not so much a challenge to me because if I’m asked to learn it I just learn it and it’s that simple. Although there were great musicians in the band Light Of The World we were under great pressure.

Sometimes we would get pulled up in rehearsals for the slightest thing, but that helped us later in our craft. Working with Paul as a guitarist, he’s had to replace the influence of Bluey and Nat Augustine on our particular numbers, and me replacing Paul Phillips from Hi Tension. However we complement each other and play something a little bit different which Paul did on the Light Of The World stuff, and it’s how you get together and not over play your part.

From the rehearsals I remember Paul saying “I’m standing next to Breeze.” and I liked and felt that embracement, and we replicated that on stage and developed that in playing together. We have a little wind up thing we do where we have fun and we are relaxed, calm and comfortable. We only had two days of 4 hours rehearsals before hand with a different drummer each day, so that shows you how we are in a relaxed environment as opposed to a pressurised one.

Kenny Wellington : We were talking about our repertoires and I suggested doing ‘Power & Lightnin’ and we agreed on that. The next day Paul and Pat come in and said let’s do ‘We Got The Funk’. (Breeze : “I was vexed.”) (Big laughter from everyone.) So we listened to it and it’s got some busy horn lines going on, so I score it for the trumpet and trombone. We rehearsed it and then I asked Pat something about the tune and he said “I don’t know we’ve never performed it before live”. I took it as a vote of confidence that both Paul and Pat agreed we should do ‘We Got The Funk’ even though we had never done the horn lines before, but there was a curiosity to see how it would sound.

Patrick McLean : The reason we chose that is because Hi Tension wasn’t just in the 1970’s but the 1980’s also. We also had ‘You Make Me Happy’ and ‘How Does It Feel’. The Beggar & Co horn section is second to none and I said to Kenny that I could not wait to be the fourth musketeer. I didn’t want to spoil their flavour. In Hi Tension there was a horn section and I was on the front line but this for me was a big challenge.

Kenny Wellington: When we did Light Of The World and Beggar & Co things were fine. Then we got into the whole LA production with Augie Johnson of Side Effect, so suddenly like Earth Wind & Fire we are supplementing some of LA’s finest horn players. On the studio recordings there’s about 30 players but when you’re doing it live there may only be four to reproduce that sound and sometimes we’d be in the studio for 6 hours playing horns. We grew up listening to bands like Brass Construction who played riffs that were not full of semi quavers. When that came on board we had to work on achieving those kind of octaves, but this prepared us for better things because people realised we could now perform on that level. Our original intention as kids was just to play in a band. Funnily we played something in rehearsals and myself, Harry Brown, Baps and Pat were playing and Pat looked round and said “Fuck me I’m playing with the Philly Orchestra.” and it really tickled me.

Patrick McLean: I think that was ‘This Is This.’

Fitzroy: That’s the beauty of why this was so magical for me.

I heard ‘This Is This’ live in 1981 when you guys as Light Of The World did the ‘Round Trip’ Tour at Hammersmith. The band came on and were strumming up and that intro beginning was unfamiliar to me because on the ‘Boys In Blue’ 12, ‘This Is This’ comes straight in on the beat. (Kenny and Breeze recited the intro “We are eight people under the sun.”) Then all of a sudden the energy of the horns came in and wow what an intro! That’s why I said you’ve got to do that track because the audience wouldn’t have heard that for a long time and I know that Jeff Young, Robbie Vincent and Greg Edwards would have loved to hear those tracks.

Breeze McKrieth: I had a brief chat with Jeff Young and Greg Edwards and Jeff said he couldn’t wait to hear us on stage together. We used to do loads of gigs at Caister, The Goldmine, Canvey lsland and doing the Essex circuit regularly with Chris Hill, Froggy Tom Holland and Jeff Young. That night for them was special and many of the DJ’s said they were excited to see us.

Kenny Wellington : Pat kind of under did himself earlier when he spoke about laying out the horns, because Pat and Paul as a blend can actually sing between them. Now this from the perspective of Light Of The World and Beggar & Co meant thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

we finally had a balance of voices that we need sonically that is pleasing. Musically we’ve always been fine, but vocally hearing five or six people singing as opposed to just three with different ranges, we could now hear an additional and warm frequency. So with Pat as the fourth musketeer D’Artagnan of the horn section, we can say to him you don’t have to play you can just sing as it’s important to have that balance. We also want to get out the cowbells and extra percussion, timbales involved moreso too.

Patrick McLean : Going back to the Awards because of the categories, it’s that which brought out the full package of the attendance. It wasn’t just about the band, it was also about the DJ’s, and radio stations within the industry, and I don’t think those people actually got any recognition for what they did back in the day. So it was nice to see the people respect and embrace the awards they were given for their lifetime achievement. I looked around the room and watched that anticipation so it was an amazing time to do it especially whilst they are still here to acknowledge and receive it.

Fitzroy : Thank you for that Pat as it was a celebration of sorts. I have a question to all of you, out of all the songs which did you enjoy performing the most?

Kenny Wellington: I enjoyed doing one of the tracks that inspired us all which was ‘Jungle Jazz’, the b side of ‘Jungle Boogie’. Looking at these guys playing their instruments singing and chanting and Baps playing flute, it connects both us as the musicians and the audience because we are all coming from that place where we fell in love of falling in love with that music. That music inspired me to want to be on the front covers of magazines and play at Hammersmith. Before that you never saw Kool & The Gang on the front cover. Now I’m with a bunch of guys who can play ‘Funky Stuff’ and ‘Jungle Boogie’, tunes that when I was a kid I used to question how do they write and play those kind of horn lines. I never get fed up and I always say to Breeze you gotta play that guitar riff from the B-side of ‘Funky Stuff’.

Breeze McKrieth : For me it was ‘Funky Stuff’ and ‘Jungle Boogie’. When we were shown the list I saw ‘Funky Stuff’ and I said “what about ‘Jungle Boogie”?. Kenny said that it wasn’t on the list so I said “What, no! The two of them have to go together.”, because that’s what made me pick up the guitar.

The first gig I ever saw was Herbie Hancock at the Rainbow theatre and that made me want to form a band. But it was Kool & The Gang that inspired me to do what they do.

Paul McLean : I was also nurtured on that stuff but my introduction to funk was James Brown and it was something completely new to me because my background was more Jimi Page 6 - Issue 69

Hendrix and classical music. I spent some time in Jamaica listening to reggae which inspired the way I play. But on the night it was ‘Pete’s Crusade’ because as a musician you have to respect the mind and thought process of the person who created it. For me when I heard it, it was more of a world sound rather than just being a British sound. (Fitzroy : “Yeah.”) You could place that amongst the American tracks easily and when we were in rehearsals, Breeze advised me to check the level I’d be playing at. On the night with the excitement I treated it like a vase, and watching the playback was really something.

Because it’s a homegrown track with a new approach with the horns and guitars and Ernie on bass, Perry on drums, it made me want to perform it again.

Patrick McLean: Kenny knows what it is as I’ve always loved ‘London Town’ and ‘Pete’s Crusade’, there is just something about those songs when I used to hear them on the radio.

Fitzroy: There is something about ‘London Town’ and ‘Pete’s Crusade’. I remember Greg Edwards playing ‘Pete’s Crusade’ on Soul Spectrum 1980. It is beyond me why they didn’t use ‘London Town’ for the anthem of The 2012 Olympics.

Kenny Wellington: Music generally is a funny thing which we enjoy, it captures things and we want to capture this moment and record something as The Brit Funk Association. That love we have for ‘Pete’s Crusade’ could have been lost very easily, and Breeze will remember this because it was Peter warming up on his keys. We asked what you playing there and he just shrugged it off as nothing, and we all started joining in and adding bits and suddenly we had a tune. It evolves from nothing and to be able to take part in that process of making things happen out of nothing is the joy. Bands make a lot of music and a lot of the time songs have been made in the studio and not been recorded or been played since like Aspect from the first Light Of The World album. One tune I always think we should play is ‘Who Are You?’ and ‘Something For Nothin’.

Fitz you don’t realise that ‘This Is This’ really was for your birthday treat (Laughs). If we do a tour the trombone and trumpet requires a certain physicality especially if we have to play ‘Pete’s Crusade’ after because it’s very demanding physically, and it’s non stop playing so you gonna get blisters so you have to balance that out.

Thanks gents

See The Brit Funk Association on Aug 5th - 51st State Festival, Aug 11th - 100 Club & Aug 26th - Campsoul

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Wow! What a huge success the Soul Survivors Awards night was. Well done Fitz and Anna B for putting on a sterling night.

so I’ll pour a healthy measure of spiced rum to wash the Stilton and crackers down. And just how much is this like a Soul holiday!

The morning after the awards, as I sat at my table and had my breakfast, it got me thinking about how our nights out are akin to our eating habits. Now breakfast is very much like a night out. Once you’ve finished your start to the day you know that in a couple of hours you’ll be ready for some more. When you’re on a night out, and it is just SOOO good, it satisfying to know that your next night out is just around the corner. You can get out to work, do a bit of DIY or even walk the dog, safe in the knowledge that in a couple of days/ hours you will be at another stomper of a night or chomping on a lovely Ploughmans!

The starter is like arriving at the airport, meeting with your mates and grabbing a few pints before you board your 5:30am flight. Having a couple of liveners during the flight as you joke around and see if you can pull a cracker then landing and heading off to the all important soulfest. Which is where the Main course is served up. No matter how much is on your plate, you are going to enjoy every last morsel of this once a year blowout.

So, when you get home from work, you are ready for a spot of lovely dinner. You’ve been at work all day, you had to do some unexpected overtime and, to be honest, you’re a little peeved. So dinner with a glass of something around the 12% proof mark, will be most welcoming, and it will see you right through until breakfast. Just like a weekender! You work hard all week and now the weekend is here and it is time to let your hair down and fill your head with as much music as you can take over the next 48 hours. You’ll have the main, which is the Friday and Saturday, and if you’re in the mood you’ll go for the pudding, which is the Sunday. I tend to skip pudding and head home to have a good s**t!

Christmas time is a special occasion. It’s an opportunity for us all to show some love and get together as family should do at this special time of the year. It’s a time for us all to sit around the table, pour copious amounts of alcohol down our throats (my favourite part) then tuck into a sumptuous starter followed by a meal of gargantuan proportions. Unlike my dinners I will indulge in a rich calorie filled pudding washed down by some more drink and maybe something off of the cheese board. I should maybe have a cup of tea or a coffee at this point but no! It’s Christmas and I can only do it once a year

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Soul holiday? Exactly the same. You gorge yourself for the first night.

Laughing, singing, joshing around with those close to you and getting to know those that are new at the table and you strive to do this for the next seven days. Sure you have to take a little breather during the festivities. Like Xmas dinner you may need to use the facilities, pop out for a fag, maybe even take a walk before the chocolate gateaux is served up. But damn, you will stay the course. And once it’s over? That’s when you realise that you need a blinking good sleep. You are done for. The thought of breakfast is a distant one. But after a little bit you suddenly find that you are hankering for more of the same. Like looking through cupboards or holding the fridge door open for 15 minutes as you stare into the cold confines of this magic box, looking for something to eat, so you take to social media.

Searching in the events page for another hit. Another taster. One that was like the grand feast that you’ve just enjoyed.

Yes my friends, until now you weren’t aware of just how much our dietary requirements were just like our nights out. And would you believe me if I told you that 76% of Jazz music lovers are vegetarians?

You heard it here first.

I listened to Tony Rodriguez, Nu Soul Central, 14/02/17 on Mixcloud and MarkForce ‘Broken Mix vol.2’ on Soundcloud during the writing of this column

SOLAR radio Your Classic & 21st Century Soul Station

2016 AWARD WINNERS Best Soul Radio Station Best Radio Show Ash Selector ‘Groove Control’ Best Facebook Soul Music Group Page Pleased to have continuing connection with our friends at The Soul Survivors Magazine

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28/03/2017 10:10

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When the mod revival came along with The Jam, I was probably the only mod who had a soul boy wedge haircut.

FITZROY SPEAKS WITH

EDDIE PILLER

PART ONE

Eddie Piller’s musical destiny was already mapped out for his future role as the ‘Mod father’, unknowingly from his mothers swinging 60’s initiative. An Essex soul boy at heart who simultaneously embraced the late 1970’s mods culture of the then ‘Our Generation’ like The Who, Eddie became a teenage entrepreneur practically by default. His journey to co owning one of the most innovative and important UK independent labels for the last 30 years is quite a remarkable and educational one. Like The Jam ’What You Give Is What You Get’. Eddie Piller the floor is yours.

How was life growing up in East London. Apparently your mother ran The Small Faces fan club in the 1960’s?

My dad was an east end bookmaker and I was born there but I grew up just outside in Woodford. I had a quite a normal upbringing and yes my mother did run the Small Faces fan club in the 60’s until she got sacked by Don Arden (Sharon Osborne’s dad), who managed the band. I obviously didn’t know any of that at the time but I do have photos of me as a kid where I was dressed up as a mod in checked trousers and the hair cut aged four and five, which is quite bizarre.

I actually became one for real in 1978-1979 after I had discovered Paul Weller’s band The Jam. I remember telling my dad that I wanted to be a mod and he laughed and suggested I ask my mum about The Small Faces and it all came out then.

Before you became a mod, what do you remember listening to and what year were you born?

I was born in 1963. (Fitzroy: So you’re a year older than me so I’m guessing you were listening to The Sweet and Mott The Hoople?) Yeah, I liked ELO, Slade and the usual pop stuff until one day when I was 14, I was home ill with chicken pox and my mum’s friend, who worked at EMI, brought me some tunes that she picked up from work. There was a punk single amongst groups like Queen and Pink Floyd. It was called ‘I’m Stranded’ by a band called The Saints. When I put this on the Page 10 - Issue 69

turntable for the first time, it really blew me away. I hadn’t heard anything quite like it before and it really changed the way I listened to music. From that point on I greedily hoovered up as much punk as I could but coming from the Essex and east London borders, it was impossible not to be part of the jazz funk world because the scene was based just up the road, in Ilford. There were so many soul music clubs in Ilford at the time. We started at the Under 18s night at Room At The Top and soon graduated to the rest at Ilford Palais, the Town Hall, The Regency, Oscars, Lacy Lady and then further afield to Epping Forest Country Club, Dukes in Chelmsford Zero 6, Barons and TOTS in Southend. The late Derek Boland was part of our little crew of young soul boys.

I walked a line between punk and jazz funk as so many did in 1978. I remember the first two tunes I bought with my own money at Downtown Records in Ilford were ‘Something Better Change’ by The Stranglers and ‘Boogie Oogie Oogie’

by Taste Of Honey. Thinking back now I am reminded of the film ‘Young Soul Rebels’. Everyone dissed it at the time but it is the only real reflection of that scene that showed the punk/ soulboy mix. There were always punks in those clubs, they might not have particularly been into the music but they were always there!!! When the mod revival came along with The Jam, I was probably the only mod who had a soul boy wedge haircut. We used to wear Gabbicci’s and Farah’s and I had a parka and a scooter. It really was a strange mix.

Did you go to Lacy’s and The Goldmine?

Yeah but only a few times because were we young. Sometimes you could get in and sometimes you couldn’t, but it didn’t matter because there were tons of other clubs to get in to.

I understand you met Gilles at one of Nicky Holloway’s Special Branch gigs? (Eddie: The best gigs ever.) You had been championing things on the mod scene for a while and after becoming disillusioned you moved over to the soul and jazz scene.

It was inevitable that I would get to know Gilles Peterson. I had been listening to him on the radio for a while and loved his style of mixing all different black music genres together. I would occasionally DJ at The Royal Oak in Tooley Street on a Friday. One night the bouncer said, “You should come along tomorrow, they play stuff you’d like.” Sure enough it was the Special Branch and from then on I was hooked. What an amazing scene that was. Nicky Holloway surrounded himself with the best DJ’s in the world and put on the best parties.

The whole ‘London as the capital of world culture’ thing was born out of that ground-breaking club. I don’t think Nicky or the Special Branch gets the props to be honest. Anyhow Gilles used to have a weekly feature on his ‘Mad On Jazz’ show where he played three new records that he’d got from City Sounds and eventually he got round to including the James Taylor Quartet. You could tell he didn’t like it. To be fair, it was pretty punky and not a typical Gilles tune, but it surprised him, and me, by winning the public vote. Gilles was going to have to play it the next week, so I went along and hung out at the studio. It was an amazing place, he always had about a dozen of his mates helping out on the show and it created a fantastic atmosphere. The whole Acid Jazz scene started out of those sessions really as a joke initially but it soon blew up and we had to stop treating it like we didn’t care and start taking it seriously. It was Bangsy that came up with the whole Acid Jazz concept, another brilliant and truly inspirational DJ who doesn’t get the credit these days. London clubbing was firmly rooted in the Special Branch at the time, which was a complete mix of Rare Groove, Disco, Jazz, Go Go, Electro and Latin. And then we all went to Ibiza on the Special Branch holiday. BANG! It happened. A few of the DJ’s had spent the night at Ku where they heard this new music out of Chicago. They came down to breakfast (well lunch) the next day and were saying stuff like “We’ve

seen the future and it ain’t this. It’s called House, oh and you take these pills with it, they’re called Ecstasy”. Well, that was it. Game over. New dawn for a new day. Everything changed literally over night. Rare groove was finished.

Back in London, ‘The Trip’ and ‘Shoom’ took over and everyone, literally everyone from our world got on one, matey!! However, after the initial euphoria and the excitement of being part of a very small group who had discovered something and jealously guarded it and nurtured it, the Acid phenomenon exploded massively and after about six months, the totality of the new sound was becoming a little, well...boring.

We were still running Monday nights at The Wag (where I had been warming up for Gilles for about 6 months) as well as Sunday afternoons at Dingwalls. People forget that Dingwalls was often empty in the first year and it was only after we set up the Acid Jazz label that things started to pick up. It was really an organic thing that contained the roots of the jazz dance scene, rare groove and the more soulful elements of the Special Branch. There were a regular crew of about a hundred or so people and it is extraordinary that most of the Acid Jazz bands came out of this embryonic scene. This is around 87-88 and at the same time as Acid House so you decided to put your own spin on things and call your sound as an alternative Acid Jazz. The rare groove and funk thing was kind of filtering out and so the Acid Jazz thing came at the right time.

How did you know that the fusion of mods and jazz would become the underbelly of the Acid Jazz movement?

Quite simply it was the Special Branch do’s. As you aptly and succinctly put it, right then, I kinda got bored of the mod scene around 1984 and moved over to the rare groove scene which wasn’t far from my jazz funk roots. I really enjoyed that and a lot of the rare groove people got disenfranchised when Acid House happened. Really, ecstasy killed all existing youth culture, it pretty much ended football violence and ultimately the world, as we knew it was swamped by Acid Teds. After 6 months of this I’m listening thinking I like ‘Can You Feel It’ by Mr Fingers as much as the next man, but I’m getting a bit bored now. What happened next was not coined by me or Gilles Peterson it was actually Chris Bangs that came up with the name Acid Jazz, as a joke. Andy Wetherall had just finished an acid house set at The Waterman’s Art Centre in Brentford and Gilles and Chris were on after him.

Bangsy started off with that long intro to Mickey & The Soul Generations’ ‘Iron Leg’ and manipulated the pitch control up and down to make it sound weird, grabbed the mic and shouted “If that was acid house this is acid jazz” and then ‘bobs your uncle’!!! Gilles and I were looking for an outlet for thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

the bands that we were developing because they didn’t quite fit on the jazz dance scene, which had the massive legacy left from Paul Murphy or what was left of the Rare Groove scene, which had lost most of its best DJ’s to Acid House. We didn’t fit into either of them because we were also influenced by hip-hop, boogie, two-step, disco, jazz funk, reggae and gospel. Gilles was certainly the most exciting DJ in the country at this time. Fearless with the music he championed with the genuine charisma needed by a proper DJ. We were looking for something where we could play everything and Acid Jazz was exactly that. A bit of everything, all wrapped up in a catchy name. Although it started as a joke it soon blew up internationally. Initially we were only going to release two records (Galliano and A Man Called Adam) and then knock it on the head to try something else. However, Soul Trader, run by Marc Lessner, picked up the distribution and we couldn’t make the records fast enough. Galliano shipped 10,000 in the first month or so. A phenomenal amount from a bedroom indie label.

We knew we had to continue for a while yet. After a short time, there becomes a distinct sound and style to the Acid Jazz roster.

Personally, I was looking for hits and thought that the best way to get them was through the pop/soul of the Heavies and Jamiroquai. I think Jay Kay was the final straw for him. He didn’t like the sound and so just walked away. No regrets from either side. I was proud to have worked with the man who I rated as the best DJ in the world. I’m not talking technically, with scratching and mixing, I mean he played the best records in the best order. Anyone can have great records if they have the money, the trick is to play them in the right way and when and how to play them.

Gilles was the master of that. From our little crew of 100 people and his show on Radio London, we gave the world some of the biggest and best bands of the 90’s. He would mix French obscure electronica with Brazilian stuff in a way that no one had done before. I think Bangsy invented that style of eclecticism but Gilles perfected it.

Galliano, A Man Called Adam, Snowboy, Bangsy himself, Last Poets and The Brand New Heavies?

How did you link with the Brand New Heavies?

Yeah, they were basically our bands for the first 18 months but then Gilles got offered the Talking Loud label by Mercury and decided that he wanted to leave. I was not particularly surprised though. Galliano once said “Acid Jazz was always a mix of Casuals and Mods. The Casuals through Gilles and the Mods through Eddie” and this was absolutely true. We had forged a new thing that was a mix of a few old things. I always knew that Gilles was uncomfortable with the Mod element. He didn’t like the revival side of what we were doing and wanted to move forward.

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You mention The Brand New Heavies who are from my west London manor (Eddie: You went to their school didn’t you?) No. Jan Kincaid’s father Don was mine, Femi Williams and IG Culture’s Ealing Green High School headmaster.

I saw them live in the days of the Wag playing to 50 people when Linda Muriel was their lead vocalist. I liked them and they were very exciting on stage. When Rare Groove exploded the Heavies got picked up by Chrysalis and came out with ‘Got To Give’. It was a real shame that the label didn’t really understand the band, or the scene, and they were dropped after just that one single. I think the Heavies were shell-shocked. I mean they had all these brilliant songs and didn’t know what to do with them. Then Linda left them. I think she went to join Incognito. When a band gets dropped by a major, they don’t have many options. Acid Jazz had only released a couple of records at the point and was fundamentally operating as a bedroom label, with me and Gilles meeting every so often to discuss things. We had certainly never received anything as grown up as a demo

tape. But that’s what happened. Jim Wellman, sax-player and songwriter posted a cassette to our post office box in Woodford. When I heard it, it just blew me away. The pop soul of ‘Dream Come True’ and ‘Stay This Way’ alongside the radical Mizell Brothers inspired Jazz Funk of ‘Sphynx’ and ‘BNH’. We both decided to sign them and set about making an album. We were already recording albums with Galliano and Chris Bangs at the time but the cost was looking prohibitive.

I ended up borrowing seven grand from my family and put them in Pete Waterman’s studio in south London to make the record a reality. Half way through the recording, Gilles had second thoughts about the label. He had been approached by Phonogram about setting up a version of Acid Jazz (which by now had started to have international success in places like Greece, Germany and Italy) with a major label’s backing. I also think he had had enough of the mod influences I was bringing in to the mix. I was very into organ / Prestige jazz, boogaloo and sixties stuff, while he was more progressive. I also think that he wanted to be an elitist, while I wanted to be a populist. By that I mean that Gilles really wanted to be ahead of the curve musically, while I simply wanted to sell as many records as possible and saw the pop-soul of the Heavies as the route to do it. I had already had experience of the majors and wasn’t interested in working with them but I think that Gilles saw the funding possibilities it would give him to make music. The split, after around a year and a quarter of Acid Jazz was very amicable. We halved the roster. He got Galliano and The Young Disciples (who we were just demoing) and I got The Heavies and A Man Called Adam... Talking Loud came around in 1990 and then there were two labels competing and jostling which drove the scene to greater heights. I sent the finished Brand New Heavies album to a whole host of indie labels in America. I concentrated on the hip-hop scene as I thought there was a lot of synergy with what we were doing, after all, Tim Westwood was, outside of Gilles, our biggest supporter on radio. Delicious Vinyl went mad for it and from there things moved amazingly quickly. Six months later we were in the US charts! When the Heavies played their first gig in SOB’S in New York, the stage was invaded by the likes of Doug Wimbush, Q Tip, De La Soul and Third Base. We couldn’t believe the response, an absolute roadblock. (Fitzroy: Yeah, Jan told me about that.) One of the rappers asked us “Man, where do you get your dope sound from?” and we said, “From your mum and dad’s record collection.” (Fitzroy laughs).

Rare groove had never happened in America, nor northern soul or a jazz funk revival!!! Soon the scene was absolutely massive, the Totally Wired series was very important too, it gave kids outside London a taste of the eclectic sound coming out of Dingwalls and the Wag even if they couldn’t get there. The photos on the sleeves featured the jazz dancers from the

scene and were truly evocative.

(Fitzroy: Yeah, I thought they were taken at the Wag and Dingwalls as I recognised Brothers in Jazz and Osho). In 1991 I signed Jamiroquai.

Speaking of Jamiroquai, some friends of mine had an all black PR agency called The Watchman Agency.

Jason Jules and Dean Ricketts. I knew Jason pretty well at the time, he came from East Ham where my father worked and he was good friends with Andy McDonald who DJ’d jazz at the Wag. I used to pick him up in my little mini and drive up west. Jason was a very bright kid actually and I have got a lot of time for that crew, they used to do Jamiroquai’s PR back in those days.

Yeah two of them Dean and Trevor Blackwood were my best mates from school and college. (Eddie: I saw Dean Ricketts recently.) I heard that you were sent a demo of Jay Kay by his manager, who was his manager then?

No that’s not how it happened. You know his manager and you mentioned his brother earlier. (Fitzroy: Oh, Tunji, I knew he was, but not sure at what point.) Tunji Williams who is the brother of Femi from the Young Disciples, was a real good mate of mine who looked after the Heavies but he was slightly shambolic in his management style. I hope he won’t mind me saying this but he was a great spotter of talent, not a great administrator. Tunji came to me and said “I’ve got this kid who can sing.” and played me a cassette which was The Brand New Heavies track ‘BNH’ with this kid singing over the top, who I actually thought was a black woman. Before the demo had ended I said to Tunji ‘I’ll sign the project, when can I meet the woman singing?” He laughed as he opened our office window in Denmark Street and whistled to a 12-year-old white kid with a fucking pony skin hat on, pony skin trousers and a Mexican poncho. I said “Ok, but where’s the singer?” and Tunji said to wait. So this kid has came bounding up the stairs into the office like a puppy. I asked everyone from the other offices to come out and listen, put on the same Heavies instrumental and off he went, singing and dancing. To be honest it was incredible he exuded stardom. The song was called ‘How It Should Be’ which eventually turned into ‘When You Gonna Learn.’ Everyone was gob smacked and before he left, I gave him and Tunji a contract. Unbeknown to me at that time, Tunji had taken him round the majors, who had all said no. Three weeks later we had him in the studio working on the first single. thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

It’s interesting how things work because on a club level as soon as we hear something fresh like ‘When You Gonna Learn?’ or ‘I’m The One’ we wanna play it instantly, but on the radio there’s a lot of procrastinating. I remember when I got ‘Blow Your Mind’ by Jamiroquai (Eddie: Our third single with him.) and played it at the Sunday night jam ‘Gon Clear’ Maximum Leicester Square, it rocked the floor and I only got it a few days beforehand. (Eddie: Jamiroquai was the spearhead for Acid Jazz around the world partly and probably because of JK).

What else have you got with the relaunch of the label?

Well, we have been lucky enough to hook up with PIAS, the biggest independent distribution company in the world and they have insisted that we go back to our soul and jazz roots, the kind of music that used to be called Acid Jazz!! I am fine with that actually. For the last ten or so years I’ve kind of let things drift and haven’t been so interested in making music. I have been more into playing it on the radio!!! However, Dean Rudland (my partner) and I have been looking at a number of exciting projects. I have found a guy from north London, who sounds like a young Luther and I am compiling an album with the actor Martin Freeman called ‘Jazz On The Corner’.

We are also going to sign a couple of brilliant heritage artists as well. The only thing we are missing from the forthcoming roster is an exciting jazz project, but there is plenty of time.

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It is the 30th anniversary of the label later this year and we have lots of great things lined up. Listening to the soundtrack of Luke Cage has inspired me to make that music we used to have here in the UK, old school hip-hop and soul.

I call you the Modfather (Eddie: Bless you, thank you.) I have got to ask you, has anyone ever told you that you look like Sid James?

Yeah, many times in fact, but the thing I love about Sid James, and not a lot of people know this, is that he was a South African who left the country because of Apartheid to make his fortune here, probably in the late 50’s. Allegedly, he was in the back of a cab tootling around Trafalgar Square when the cabbie started making racist remarks about some of the black people walking around the square. Sid told him to stop the cab and get out. He knocked him out, so Sid James is a bit of a hero. It’s probably a complete urban myth but I would like to think it was true!!. I’ve got his big nose and his mannerisms.

You’ve even got his voice, not quite as gravely but similar.

Thanks for saying that Fitz you can put that in the interview.

I most certainly will, nice one Eddie!!

Thanks to Eddie Piller for the photos from his archives.

PRESENTS

NEW STREET ADVENTURE / Stubborn Sons

MATT BERRY / The Small Hours

THE FLEUR DE LYS / I Can See The Light: The Fleur De Lys Singles Box Set

THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES / Original Flavour

MOTHER EARTH / Stoned Woman

THE JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET In the Hand of the Inevitable (Bonus Tracks Edition)

THE JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET / The Moneyspyder

MATT BERRY AND THE MAYPOLES / Live

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Soul Survivors

Roll Call of Fame

Al Jarreau 12th March 1940 - 12th February 2017

Alwin Lopez Jarreau was born March 12th 1940 in Milwaukee famously known as the home of Arthur Fonzerelli and the Cunningham family of TV series Happy Days. Al recorded a single that he wrote on Ranard Records in 1964 called ‘Shake Up’. It’s an upbeat Motown R&B esque production without his trademark and at that time undiscovered vocal gymnastic legacy. Whilst working as a rehabilitation counsellor in San Francisco he moonlighted as a vocalist working with George Duke at The Half Note in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960’s. Al landed a deal with Reprise at Warner Brothers and in 1975 once ‘We Got By’ was released those trademark vocal acrobatics were starting to become evident. Al teamed up with Chick Corea on his 1978 ‘Secret Agent’ album, and wrote and sang ‘Hot News Blues’ as well as later recording an inspiring vocal version of the Return To Forever’s classic ‘Spain’. In between making albums Al recorded ‘The Singer’ in 1979 a whole album of Bill Withers compositions. Al’s 1981 ‘Break Away’ album on Warners thrust him into the commercial and wider audience with his jazz dance brilliance ‘Easy’, ‘We’re In This Love Together’ and the incredible ‘Roof Garden’. His providential moonlighting from the late 60’s as a session singer became the title he would sing for the successful Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd 80’s TV series ‘Moonlighting’. Al took a hiatus from recording in the 1990’s but still toured and performed on Broadway. Al still remained relevant recording ‘In My Music’ with the late Phife of TCQ in 2000. He had Michael Jackson singing background vocals on a light house production entitled ‘Random Act Of Love’, teamed up with George Benson on an updated vocal version of Breezin’, and with Seawind he did a rendition of the 1976 CTI classic ‘He Loves You’. Al won 7 Grammys and is unmistakably one of the most distinctive vocalists of his generation.

Listening to the double album ‘The One Note Samba’ showcases Al’s sorely missed genius if you listen to ‘Stockholm Sweetenin’’ and ‘The One Note Samba’. Al sadly passed 12th February 2017 aged 76.

Joni Sledge 13th Sept 1956 - 14th March 2017 Joan Elise Sledge was born 13th September 1956 in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. She was a founding member of the sister act group Sister Sledge who could be described as the female Jackson 5.

The sisters as a family group achieved many accolades signing to the Warner Brothers group recording on Atco, WEA and Cotillion, working as portages of The Spinners and travelling to Africa as part of the Ali-Forman ‘Rumble In The Jungle’ performance troop in 1974. The group had hits with ‘Mama Never Told Me’ and versioned Stevie Wonders ‘As’ before being catapulted into the stratosphere under the CHIC Organisation production masterpiece on the 1979 ‘We Are Family’ album. Although sister Kathy was the group’s main lead vocalist it was Joni who sang lead on one of their biggest hits ‘ Lost In Music’. When I interviewed Kathy to my surprise I discovered that it was actually Joni singing lead on that song. This is the testament Kathy paid to her sister Joni, “Bernard did share with me that they wanted me to sing it, however Joni did an amazing job and with the ad-libs and ideas they knew how to bring out the best essence. That song brings out a different feeling to “We Are Family” because when you’re on the dance floor that song would be very personal to every one getting lost in music.” Unfortunately Joni passed on the 14th March of natural causes aged 60.

Clyde Stubblefield 18th April 1943 - 18th February 2017 I was sorry to hear of the sad loss one of the greatest drummers of all time Clyde Stubblefield a friend and a lovely quiet and funny man. I remember playing some funk at one of his gigs and afterwards Clyde, Richard (his manager) and I came to the Jazz Cafe where I had another gig that night. I played one of my James Brown Dub plates at the time called ‘Can I Get Some Help’. As soon as the tune started Clyde was doin’ some James Brown glide and slides. It was wicked. R.I.P. Clyde. Dez Parkes (Musicologist Award winner of The Soul Survivor Magazine Awards 2016) Page 16 - Issue 69

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FITZROY ITH SPEAKS W

Polly Gibbons

Photo: Nigel Cooke

I didn’t know I could sing till I was about thirteen, my cousin heard me singing the chorus on a Monie Love song ‘It’s A Shame’

Polly Gibbons is someone given the chance to explore her vocal capabilities to watch out for. Her album ’Is It Me?’ showcases her swing jazz and big band adventures on ‘Ability To Swing’, ‘Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams’ a bluesy ‘Sack Full Of Dreams’ and the ode to New Orleans on ‘Basin St Blues’. Alternatively she successfully ticks the box on her self written big band cabaret pop funk composition ‘You Just Can’t’ previously explored by contemporaries like Liza Minnelli and Dame Shirley Bassey in the 1970’s. Ballads like ‘Sack Full Of Dreams’ and the gospel driven ‘Midnight Prayer’ allows Polly, influenced by so many genres and artists to diversify with her varied octaves.

Travelling often between the UK and USA transatlantic with an album release and a top three award nomination in April, Polly speaks with Soul Survivors about her teenage discovered, gifted voice and her influences.

How does the diverse influences of classical Bach, Mozart, Chopin, R&B, soul, hip-hop and folk, mixed with jazz and blues influences from Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis, mix with a ménage of Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and Bob Dylan impact on a young Polly Gibbons, a farmers daughter from Framlingham in Suffolk England?

be genius in so many different types of music. The only thing I’ve found it hard to get to grips with is techno and screamo rock music, as I can’t find many redeeming features in it, but I could be proven wrong one day.

Yes, it is a little remote, one mile away from the nearest shop. It’s funny the way and how music touches one. All those artists and musicians dig deep on some kind of level and I love them for many different reasons. Some vocally, some for their compositions and some for their ability to tell a story, and the awe inspiring classical music. I think it was a jazz musician who said there is only good or bad music and it’s really a bit genre-less ultimately. There can

Yeah. My Father and brother love blues and the Rock N Roll from the 1960’s and 70’s. My sisters were really into vinyl and had a lot of 80’s and 90’s hip-hop like De La Soul and Public Enemy.

Then there was the cheesy R&B like Blackstreet and Jodeci, which had amazing singing and tunes, so I listened to a lot of that.

They had a broad spectrum of music though, like funk from The Meter’s, Sly & The Family Stone, then Aretha, Gladys Knight,

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On your family side who was into the soul and the funk? Was it your sisters?

Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye and all this was in their vinyl collections and I heard a lot of it.

How much older were your sisters?

Esther and Amy are the next two up from me, as I’m from a family of 7. There are 5 and a half years difference with Esther and about 7 with Amy. Listening around them in their time I fell in love with Mary J Blige who I think is one of the best contemporary soul singers. They just loved vinyl collecting and I was brought into a whole host of music as a result.

So are you a 90’s baby? No 80’s, 1983.

Your father used to play bass, so was the classical side from your mother?

Yeah mum likes blues and soul music but she played a lot of classical music, Bach and Mozart.

At what point did you realise you had a thirst for music and that you wanted to pursue it.

I wasn’t very young actually. I didn’t know I could sing till I was

about thirteen. I’d done some theatre stuff before but my cousin heard me singing the chorus on a Monie Love song. (Fitzroy: Was it ‘Grandma’s Party’?) No, it was a sample...(Polly sings ‘It’s A Shame’) (Fitzroy: That was the next song I was gonna ask about.) I was singing that and my cousin said “Polly you have a very nice voice”. I wasn’t sure if she meant my speaking voice and she said, no your singing voice and asked me to sing to my sister. My sister Esther said I had a really lovely tone and then my mum asked me if I would like to pursue it. I went to a local singing teacher, who was a friend who taught me how to breathe, and then I just kind of went with it. I kind of got more into music as a result of finding out I could sing. I’d always liked music but it wasn’t a conscious thing that I wanted to be a singer, until my cousin noticed. I performed in the school Christmas concert when I was 14 and shortly after I joined a band at school. My first professional gig was in London at seventeen, when I used to drive down twice a month for 60 quid at Dover Street wine bar and restaurant and that was depping for a singer called Joanna Eden. I had to learn lots of soul tunes like ‘Isn’t She Lovely’, ‘Sir Duke’ and some Sister Sledge and stuff like that. Then I started gigging on the jazz scene. I always love new sorts of music but I think jazz is what I liked playing around with musically, singing things differently each time which jazz does afford, which is cool.

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Billie Holiday was my favourite and I remember the first time I heard her was when my sister was playing vinyl ‘Lady In Satin’, which was the last album she made before she died. She’s singing ‘I’m a Fool To Want You’, and I was wondering who’s that. As far as an emotional and deep experience I’d never quite heard that before. So I started rooting for more music discovering, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughn and Nina Simone.

When would you say you got your biggest break?

I suppose on some levels recently when I got signed to an American label three years ago. It was a gradual evolution really as I started working and gigging, started learning my craft and more about music as well as singing different types of music.

Has there been anyone along the way of notoriety that you have done backing vocals for?

OK the first guy I lived with was the singer Ian Shaw and he produced an album for me when I was 18 and he introduced me to the scene. James Pearson is a pianist and the artistic director at Ronnie Scotts, he got me some backing vocal work for Joss Stone on Radio 2 for Terry Wogan’s Children In Need. I sang at the Royal Albert Hall with The London Gospel Community Choir (Fitzroy: Oh with Basil Meade.) Yes, I was a dep for a charity concert raising money for Darfur. Alison Moyet was on the bill and that was a great experience. I’d love to do more singing in harmony or with a choir, as you don’t get to do that much as a jazz singer.

Was it a conscious decision to go down the jazz route with the style of your voice or did you just want to be a singer first and foremost?

Yeah, I see my self more as a singer/vocalist. You get asked to narrow down what your sound is. I had a few initiations with major labels when I was younger not being able to define whether I was bluesy, soulful or more jazzy, which was frustrating. But for their marketing purposes I suppose they like a clear vision. I do see myself as heavily influenced by all sorts of stuff. I think the playfulness of jazz makes me do things differently. I made an album with Ola Onabule a British soul singer and that’s more Page 20 - Issue 69

R&B-esque. I’m not quite sure why I ended up in the jazz world apart from as I’ve said earlier that you can play around with it and there is a calling for it with live gigging as well.

Interestingly I was introduced to a singer called Jo Harman (Polly: Yes, I think I’ve heard of her) whose got a very bluesy voice that lends itself to jazz and its soulful with raspy tones and she is doing quite well now. She’s got a similar black musical influence to you with Donny Hathaway and Aretha etc. but she has definitely found her niche in the avenue of music she is making and I’m sure she can do more. Listening to your album ‘Is It Me?’ on Resonance Records, it has a lot of characteristics or the traditional jazz, cocktail lounge jazz, big band influences and that music is kind of timeless.

That sound comes from the film and musical scores with that swing jazz era of the dated 1930’s and 40’s era onwards. What do you see as your target audience?

Photo: Nigel Cooke

Speaking of doing things in that vein, we are talking vocally Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Billie Holiday?

Well, there is still an audience for it that are prepared to pay and go see it as live music. That has changed in the pop world with a big gap between live jazz, soul and blues which will have a maturer demographic. Jazz was always cutting edge, forward thinking and relevant music that looked to attract a younger audience and I believe in that, and there’s evidence of that on this new album. There are three originals on the album, I think it’s important to put new music in there as well. I think there is something spectacular about big band music and there is a real genius to the art form of arranging and orchestrating it. I think people would be compelled by it if they were introduced to it.

Jazz itself is a very exciting art form, which comes alive more so when it’s live.

Do you get to wear all the grand dresses as well?

(Polly laughs) (Polly: Sometimes. I did a gig in Liverpool with the Philharmonic Orchestra and I had to wear a grand dress.)

Was that the one about John Lennon? (Polly: Yes and it was a beautiful experience and I got to wear a spangly dress, but I’m a bit more casual and relaxed naturally.)

Your album as I said earlier has that classic feel to it, but what I did like was one of the songs that wrote ‘You Just Can’t’. Out of all the tracks that is my favourite, because it’s different. The

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others are more ballad led or that swing trad jazz style. I have got stuff in my collection by artists like Cleo Laine, Shirley Bassey, Carmen McCrae and Liza Minnelli, where they do that funky, big band, soul thing. That’s why the track stuck out for me and the musicians are on point (Polly: Yeah.) What I would have liked to hear is more of that. That’s why I asked about your target audience, because sometimes people can get pigeon holed and you have a strong voice that can offer more. Is it hard to get away from the jazz stuff as opposed to doing something new?

It can be hard when you become labeled as a “jazz vocalist”, as there is an expectation of what you will do and what you should sound like. Firstly, thanks that you like that track, because I’m pleased with that one too! Sometimes it’s a gradual process to introduce your own music and it does take a bit of time. It’s a bit of a complicated one with jazz and I’m not sure why that is. There is a side of it that is historical and rich and there is the nostalgia.

The way that the American song book is interpreted constantly is an interesting phenomenon, they’re amazing compositions, but I do feel its really important to keep bringing in my own songs too.

You’re nominated in the best vocalist category of the Jazz FM Awards with Carleen Anderson and Norma Winstone (Polly: Yay.) I don’t know about Norma Winstone but I do know about Carleen.

So how is it to be nominated being one of three people and alongside Carleen who you would have listened to in the early 1990’s when she was with The Young Disciples?

(Polly starts singing ‘Apparently Nothing’ in a good key.) I love her singing. I wouldn’t call Carleen my contemporary, she’s too super! Norma is a British legend as well, but not in the R&B/soul vibe. I certainly grew up listening to Carleen so I’m very flattered to be one of those three. (Fitzroy: How did they dwindle it down to three?) I’m not sure but I’m glad to be in the company of Carleen and Norma.

How did you land opening up, at of all places, The Royal Albert Hall for George Benson and Gladys Knight?

(Polly laughs) It was an excellent experience. Gladys Knight can really still sing so wonderfully too!

Did you not find that daunting?

Er, yeah I did. It’s amazing really because it’s not an everyday thing. I grew up listening to these artists, it was quite surreal.

(Fitzroy: Was it a pinch moment?) Yeah, but also a reminder to get on with the job and do what I do. They were both very encouraging about my music.

Are the musicians the same age as you or more mature?

Pretty much the same, over here Chris Dodds and Saleem Raman are a similar age. For what I do, I need a rhythm section that can swing and groove, as I like to do both and the funky stuff needs that versatility.

The reason I ask is because as a vocalist you are championing a music that is more akin to a mature audience it would be good to see the new musicians coming through also carrying that mantel.

I think there definitely are, and there is a lot more genre blending and intermixing music these days too. It’s not so purist anymore, artists like Robert Glasper in the States is massively into blending his hip-hop and R&B roots with jazz and improvising.

Are you going to the Jazz FM Awards?

Alas, no I can’t make it, as unfortunately the launch of my album in New York is on that day!

Thank you Fitzroy, and for featuring me.

Is It Me?’ on Resonance Records released in the UK 12th May 2017 at Pizza Express in Soho, on 17th May

Did you get to meet them? (Polly: Yeah.) How was George?

(Polly: George was great and he’s a real character and still plays the guitar brilliantly. His son Marcus looks after him and his band are excellent. His bass player Stanley Banks is amazing who also plays the tambourine with his foot.)

Did you say to him, I’ll get my people to talk to your people?

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Photo: Anna B

Ooh that was a good one I should have mentioned that (Fitzroy: Well I did!) (Polly laughs) It was through my booking agent and the promoters for both George and Gladys were the same and I was put forward and both tours were next to each other.

Thanks to Emma Perry of UK Publicity for arranging the interview.

Fitzro Survivoy, The Soul rs Ma g a zine

“Thanks to Fitzroy Anthoney Facey, Anna Benton, John our stage manager, all the organisers, our personal caterers who provided us with and excellent meal compliments of the organisers. But most of all a BIG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL THE PEOPLE WHO ATTENDED TO MAKE THIS NIGHT HAPPEN. XX” (Patrick Mclean band member of The Brit Funk Association) “Runner Up for the best Live concert in the UK in 2016!! First place was Stevie Wonder!

Hey I’ll take that praise God!” Howard Hewitt (Shalamar) Enjoying

the Band

“Hi Fitz, Well done with the event last night.

You and your team deserve a big pat on the back.Kind regards, Robbie” (Robbie Vincent) Soul Survivors Magazine Award winner Master Of The Airwaves

ent e V i nc Robbi ER W I NN

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY CLIFFORD IRVING SNR

2016 AWARDS

It’s very humbling to share the following words of kindness, despite the disgruntled outcries, accusations and interrogations (and an attempt to bribe us) about The Soul Survivors Awards 2016. What follows is a ref lection on how The Soul Survivors Awards 2016 was received by nominees, winners, band members and fellow soul survivors.

To those of you who contributed to a great event, we thank you for the love and the support, it is much appreciated.

thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

ners & Runner Ups in W ds ar w A s or iv rv The Soul Su Place Name

Category

Natasha Watts Best Curren rgie B The Groove Association feat. Geo Wonder ist or Group 2016 Stevie Best Current Global Soul Art Gregory Porter ove Soul Family Affair - The Gro B rgie Geo ft. tion ocia Ass 6 Best Soul Album 201 ily Soul Legacy of Love - Kindred The Fam 6 t UK Soul Artist or Group 201

6 Best London Soul Club 201 Best Soul Club (Outside Lon

don) 2016

Caister Soul Weekend Margate Soul Weekend Soul in the Algarve Salou Soul Holiday k Stevie Wonder at Hyde Par Shalamar Tour 2016 Ash Sethi (Ash Selector)

Best Soul Weekender 2016 Best Soul Holiday 2016 Best Live Concert 2016 Best Soul Club DJ 2016 Best Events Promoter 2016 Best Face Book Soul Music

Group 2016

6 Best Soul Photographer 201 6 Best Soul Radio Station 201 6 Best Soul Radio Show 201 Best Soul Surviving Interna

tional Act 2016

6 Best Global DJ/Remixer 201

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Soul Shack Funky Nation at Ronnie Scot ts Soul By The Jetty Five Star Soul at the Goldmine

Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner Runner Up Winner

Jon Jules Vivy Bee Brian Rix Solar Radio Group ce Appreciation Runner Up Old Skool Jazz Funk, Soul & Dan p Grou Society Photography Winner Robert Alexander Malcolm Runner Up y) Jo Jo Guest (HobNob Photograph Winner Solar Radio Runner Up Mi-Soul Radio r - Solar Winner Groove Control - Ash Selecto Radio Runner Up Radio Soul Sanctuary - Darren Bull - Zero Winner Roy Ayers Runner Up Shalamar Winner Joey Negro Runner Up John Morales

ven B e st E e( e Vivy B

“Hi Fitzroy, I hope that you have recovered from your very hectic weekend and have now had time to appreciate what a successful event you had .

Congratulations and continued success to you.

Well Done.”

(Greg Edwards) Soul Survivors Magazine Award winner Master Of The Airwaves

G re g E dward s W I NN ER

“I also want to say a huge well done for up’in your game re the awards. You’ve rightly made them a bigger deal and people are taking them very seriously now.

Looks like you had a great turn-out too, so very well done mate, be proud of what you’ve achieved, our scene r o mot o deserves a proper awards.....and you’ve delivered them nts Pr rk) o w t e N #beproudandenjoyyourmoment” (Soul Bob Masters (Revenge Of The Soulboy & Ibiza Soul Holiday) “As I slowly surface with a massive hangover, I’d just like to thank everyone who voted Soul By The Jetty the No.1 UK Soul Club outside London again at the Soul Survivors Magazine Awards. It’s fair to say that me, Mark Messent and Brian Kelly are chuffed! Thanks to Fitzroy Anthoney Facey and the SSM team who put on a brilliant night - it was off the hook!!”

Jonny Layton (Soul By The Jetty Winner of Best Soul Club outside London 2017)

The S

oul Survivo Recognitio n Awards W rs inners Musicologist Award 50 Years as a Knigh 50 Years as a Knigh Best Soul Survivin

“After attending The Soul Survivor Magazine Awards on Friday can’t be bothered to watch The Brits, it won’t even come close!”

Steve Humphrey (Runner up of best Facebook group 2016)

Broadcasting Maste Independent Spec Most Inspirational Consigliere of The

Consummate Purve Services to Soul Su

rs of Jazz Funk &

on Jazz Funk Era

Soul Award

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Contribution Award yor of Black Music

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Award

Soul Award

Dancer Award

South East Soul Sc

Award

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ialist Soul Promoter

Pioneer of The Lond

Outstanding Vocal

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Broadcasting Maste N at a s h a W at t s W I NNE R

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Award

Award

Dez Parkes

Bob Jones Colin Curtis The Real Thing Robbie Vincent Greg Edwards Simon Precilla Trevor Shakes Chris Hill George Power Jean Carne Patrick Adams Anna Marshall

SEE THE FULL GALLERY ON THE WEBSITE

Record Reviews This editions record reviews hosts some nu wave Afro funk, a double CD classic artist anthology, and a new school soul jazz and hip-hop beats collaboration. Throw in a disco influenced piece of millennium boogie,a quarter of a century label celebration compilation and a superb touch of vocal jazz. Experience something new for everyone and quality beats for this Ramsey Lewis “Spring High’ season.

Wunmi - Emergency/ Don’t Look Away Review by Cav Manning Love is not afraid. Deep within the sinew of our souls we know this to be true, but occasionally, we need to be reminded. The source of remembrance may be a song. A song that implores us to look at the worlds pain through eyes that have beheld beauty and witnessed compassion.

To understand and overcome global struggles, injustice, conflict; love can no longer afford to be blind. We can no longer look away from the world outside our windows, or the reflection inside our mirrors. Listen to this song. All the passion in its separate components; groove, melody, lyrics, Wunmi’s voice; combine in a way that is more explanatory than words on paper or screen. It is love that tells us we cannot look away but to think love is fearless is not enough.

You must hear it and you most certainly have to feel it. ‘Don’t Look Away’ is a plea for empathy, decency and strength in times of trouble. EMERGENCY is the trouble. EMERGENCY speaks to streets filled with a panicked populace. It is the sound of citizenry reacting to a threat. It is a rhythm that runs, bumps and bustles, not unlike people distancing themselves from danger, without knowing exactly where safety can be found. Here’s an experiment: If you mute the volume on your television, ‘Emergency’ could be the sound track to every other story on the news.

Norman Connors - Valentine Love The Buddah / Arista Anthology (soulmusic.com/BBR) I’ve admired, in its many guises the work of Norman Connors drummer, producer and consigliere of many artists and bands, including Bridge, Vitamin E, Aquarian Dream and The Starship Orchestra. This features his Buddah and Arista catalogues from the 1970’s and early 80’s. Amongst the 32 tracks starting on CD 1 are classic ballads ‘Valentine Love’, ‘You Are My Starship’ and ‘Betcha By Golly Wow’ featuring Michael Henderson, Jean Carn and Phyllis Hyman. Norman a great master of covers showcases Jean Carn on the jazz standards ‘Dindi’ and interprets Herbie Hancock’s ‘Maiden Voyage’. Norman’s drumming prowess is exercised on ‘Kwasi’ and ‘Give The Drummer Some’ and his disco boogie highlighted on Aquarian Dreams ‘Phoenix’ and the universally admired ‘Once I’ve Been There’. However as an observation I’m not sure why ‘Mother Of The Future’, ‘Laughter’ or the sublime ‘Just Imagine’ didn’t make the Buddah selection.

CD 2 mirrors the evolving soul jazz fusion blend of Mr C with the first 6 tracks practically showcasing all but a couple of Norman’s entire ‘This Is Your Life’ Arista debut. This includes the 12” version of ‘Captain Connors’, a great cover of Bridge’s ‘Stella’ and very seductive ‘Wouldn’t You Like To See’. Thanks for the amazing rendition of ‘Your Love’ featuring Al Johnson, it’s unbelievably encapsulating and my preference to Donald Byrd’s version. More ballads from the same ‘Invitation’ album including the salacious title track and ‘Handle Me Gently’ introducing the brilliant voice of Adaritha, who excels on the cover of Renee Geyer’s ‘Be There In The Morning’. There’s three classic’s from the ‘Take It To The Limit’ album introducing Glenn Jones on ‘Melancoly Fire’ and Al Johnson again on a brilliant delivery of Lou Courtney classic ‘I Don’t Need Nobody Else’. To finish listen to the jazz funk instrumental of the self-titled excellence ‘Mr C’ you will be getting on the ‘Slew Foot’ for sure.

Page 26 - Issue 69

Retrospective For Love - Random Activities Of A Heart (Wormfood Records) Purveying the future of balancing digital beats with live music on audio as well as a live band, Retrospective For Love seem to have what it takes as a young progressive band. Female co vocalist Leslie Phillips compliments the lead vocalist and MC Davide Shorty who has a true voice of distinction and they both drive this eclectic sound of the band. I saw them live at The Jazz Cafe warming up for Mark De Clive Lowe and they were excellent and refreshing. Lots of jazz influences with muted trumpets can be heard on the catchy ‘Let Me Know’ and ‘Empty Bottles’, ‘Wanna Get To Know Ya’ and a very hip-hop soul chill pilled Adrianna Evans tinged ‘Lay Down’. Good to see this come ‘straight outta the UK’ with some extra terrestrial meets esoteric influences on ‘Aliens In The Cave’, ‘My Summertime’, ‘A Sky With No Clouds’ and ‘Mothership’ sonically transmitting interplanetary vibes. Experimental but essential listening.

Dome 25 years sampler (Dome) Celebrating 25 years this the label releases 50 tracks showcasing 15 on this sampler and opening up with Dennis Taylor’s Donell Jones’ influenced ‘Enough Is Enough’. One of the label’s great recent signing’s Jarrod Lawson represents with ‘Music & It’s Magical Way’. Inspired by The Isley Brothers and Curtis Mayfield, Shaun Escoffery’s Nature’s Call sends out a universal message. Championing the synergy of transatlantic soul Rahsaan Patterson’s ‘The One For Me’ represents much of the contemporary soul embraced on Domes catalogue roster.

Incognito’s Bluey’s solo effort ‘Got To Let My Feelings Show’ harbours a Hi Fashion ‘Feeling Lucky Lately’ vibe, and flying the flag also for the UK, Beverley Knight’s humble beginnings started 20 years ago at Dome with ‘Flavour Of The Old School’. It would have been sacrilege to exclude some Eric Roberson and Avery Sunshine hence why ‘Been In Love’ is a must and ‘I Got Sunshine’ are included. There are some diverse quality cuts including ‘Stories’ featuring Carleen Anderson, Incognito’s ‘Can’t Keep You Outta My Head’, Don-E’s O’Bryan influenced ‘Stay A While’ and a very Chic themed ‘Can’t Keep The Rhythm From The Dancer’ from Tortured Soul. 35 more Dome classics on the digital release.

Jimmy Gallagher ft Soul City Orchestra - The Soul City Theme and Philly Nights This really is a touch of class coming courtesy of Gary DGS promotions. Spearheaded in the mix by Nigel Lowis, this has the influence of Salsoul, Philly and Motown Disco ‘Love Hangover’ meets ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ in parts written all over it. It does remind me very much of Ron Hall & The Muthafunkaz Dimitri mix of ‘The Way You Love Me’ without vocals. The flip side Philly Nights is most certainly an ode to the sublime musicianship of the MFSB and Salsoul Orchestra and The Sweethearts of Sigma vocal attributes. Yes elements of MFSB’s ‘Sexy’ and ‘Love Is The Message’ within the melodic jazz funky saxophone tapestry is evident but engineered with respectful taste. Jimmy would give Michael Pedicin Jnr a good run for his money and capture the ears of Gamble & Huff or the late Vincent Montana. Great double sided musical biscuit.

Carmen Lundy - Code Noir. Available from ITunes and Amazon Carmen Lundy possesses one of the most alluring octave prowesses that has a synergy with some of her predeceasing and contemporary jazz vocal godesses. Can you possibly imagine Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughn to Anita Baker, Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson all rolled in one entity of vocal perfection and delivery? The whole album is pure class. ’Another Chance’ and ‘Live Out Loud’ sedates you before you the African American Diaspora experience is sonically and eloquently expressed in ‘Black And Blues’. Carmen’s zephyr like vocals lends itself to jazz dance, bossa and samba grooves ‘Afterglow’, ‘The Island, The Sea and You’ and ‘Have A Little Faith’, all done with the a great chemistry, struck up with her panache band of musicians. Carmen’s story telling on ‘I Got Your Number’ is that one many women can testify to surrendering to, and with the unifying message of ‘Kumbaya’ you will not be disappointed if you like your jazz ‘Pizazz’ like Patrice Rushen. Thanks Chip Shultzman for sending.

APART FROM WUNMI’S REVIEW ALL OTHER RECORD REVIEWS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY FITZROY FACEY

thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

Soul Survivors

Roll Call of Fame

Tributes To Leon Ware Where do I begin with the impact of loves endless servant and the self-professed ‘Minister Of Sensuality’ Leon Ware? Leon like myself was born as an Aquarian 16th February 1940. Leon once joked with me that he was born close to Valentines Day which they started because of him and that was part of his endearing charm.

He grew up in Detroit and spent two years at the same blind school, Fitzgerald, as Stevie Wonder after an accident involving a slingshot. He was associated with Lamont Dozier in the 1950’s till 1956 when they were part of a Doo Wop group The Romeos. Leon served his apprenticeship writing for Ike & Tina Turner and The Isley Brothers before he became a Motown writer. Leon wrote an enormous amount of material for other artists including ‘I Wanna Be Where You Are’ for MJ and various accolading material for his sister the late Minnie Ripperton. However it was the very sensual ‘I Want You’ album for Marvin Gaye originally entitled Comfort (Come Live With Me) that cemented Leon in Motown and musical history. Both him and Marvin were on lockdown for 6 months in the studio to record that masterpiece. At an unexpected expense to Leon’s own detriment, his own solo project ‘Musical Massage’ suffered with no promotional backing from Motown when Leon declined at the request of Motown to give the project to Marvin Gaye. Leon had already worked with greats like Quincy Jones on ‘Bodyheat’ as well as the already mentioned Minnie Ripperton and was forging a solo career recording a few albums including ‘Inside Is Love’ with a disco version of ‘Inside My Love’ and ‘Club Sashay’. Being honest it was in the early 1980’s, 1983 to be precise that I discovered the genius of Leon Ware when I had a tape including the mesmerising ‘Why I Came To California’. I eventually got the US promo LP, which is signed by Leon and discovered ‘Can I Touch You There?’ and eventually bought the promo 7” of ‘Why I Came To California’’ for less than £10. Leon’s repertoire is too much to squeeze into this article, as there are a few who also have some personal things to say about Leon.

However I will say this. I got to interview Leon in our 3rd anniversary issue 18 2009 courtesy of Lady Di Dunkley ahead of his Jazz Cafe date. We hit it off instantly as two musical Aquarians and he was gracious when we met after the show and had his photo taken with me and my son Jamal, then aged 16. I’ve met and spoken with Leon on a few more occasions when he came to the UK to perform at The 02 and was asked personally to voice over his EPK, which remains one of the most honourable things I’ve been asked to do for someone who I admired. Leon and his wife Carol always embraced me with love and on our earth days we would email each other as mine is 2 days after his. I did shed tears as I woke up on that morning in Jamaica, the 23rd Feb 2017 exactly one week after his 77th earthday when I saw a post on Facebook from Don-E. Leon is now in the heavenly ‘Club Sashay’ with many of his contemporaries now but he will forever be ‘In Our Garden’ of ‘Musical Massage’ memories.

From Fitzroy, Soul Survivors Magazine

Page 28 - Issue 69

So imagine almost 10 years ago I got a call from my business partner at the time, who was in LA, asking me for advice as she had just met this guy called Leon Ware and she wanted to know if I knew him and if I thought he would be someone we should work with! Don’t think I said yes quick enough! Little did I know at that point how much he would become a part of my life.

Over the last 10 years we worked on 5 European visits and became family. What always astounded me about Leon was the amount of love he showed to everyone he came into contact with. He never forgot you. Leon was the first of my artists to have a feature in Soul Survivors and from that moment on he never forgot Fitzroy, they had that Aquarian connection :) After his family, his biggest love was to perform, that is all he wanted to do. If you never saw him live you missed class, smooth, sensual, effortless magic.

I spent many hours listening to his stories, of which he had many, and we had many adventures on the road. He may have been 70 plus but he definitely kept me on my toes, you never knew what was going to happen next.

Leon Ware was a giant and my heart was gladdened when I saw all the tributes flooding in after his passing, including from Billboard and Rolling Stone. Finally some recognition as to who he was musically. But to me he was simply love with a good dash of sensuality! He told me once to make sure I cherish everything, and I will, and one of my most cherished things will be my memories which along with his music make him immortal......or should I say eternal.

From Di Dunkley, RM2 Music Some people are in your life for decades & apart from their silhouette touching yours you know nothing about them, others honour you with a moment of their time and bless you with a lifetime of stories. Such was the case when I met Leon Ware. From twinkling eyes that told you he had plentifully drunk from the cup of life to a mischievous grin which forewarned that some of his tales would contain cautionary as well as adult content. He was what we normal folk all imagined a man would be who had stood eyeball to eyeball with some of the most iconic important figures ever to grace the black music stage and never had to blink once. He was a great and talented man who passed too quickly through my life but whose presence & words ensured he would never leave my soul. R.I.E.P SIR LEON WARE from Orlando Gittens an awestruck fan.

From OrlandoGittens, Musical Therapy Entertainment

Mira Parkes

The Official Soul Survivors Balkan and Worldwide Correspondent.

Barrington “Barry” King is an international DJ, radio presenter, sound engineer, music journalist and A&R promotions manager for KFP ENTERPRISE. As a son to Jamaican parents with deep roots in music, Barry King was exposed to the music industry at an early age. His father Prince Bert and Uncle Jim Daddy (Universal Sound) were ‘Sound System Pioneers’ of the first cultural London underground music scene. This is the first part of the interview, and an important part of music history that should be remembered.

can imagine the Alpha Boys network that existed, also those that stayed in JA, but came to the UK to do shows, so they are like family to us. I was around so many people that are now considered Reggae legends from U Roy, Rico Rodrigues, Leroy Smart, the Skatalites just to mention a few. When

PART ONE What was it like growing up in that type of musical environment?

To be honest with you, it’s been an unbelievable time. I was born into sound system selectors producers, artists, producers, clubs, coach trips, blues dance, rudeboys, Rasta, everything that was associated with Jamaican style entertainment. My Fathers sound was called Prince Bert, which ran from mid 60’s to around 1972. He stopped then because the music changed and he was not a great fan of the new Rasta views which was being championed by most of the artists from Jamaica. Quadrell, Calypso, Salsa, Mento, Rock & Roll, Ska, Rock Steady, Gospel, Blues, Jazz and Soul was his style. I was always encouraged to play music, the selectors and soundmen like Delroy, Lloyd and Junior and so many more was always around our house playing new music.

What was your family’s journey like from leaving JA to landing in the UK? I had uncles that were traveling to and from the United States in the early 20th century and they were bringing back all forms of music back to the island. My Mother’s brother Uncle George being one for sure. My Father Norbert Kinghorn and his brothers where Alpha Boys, which is a Catholic school in Kingston Jamaica, formed in 1880, where most of the prominent musicians and singers from Jamaica studied.

Many of these performers came to live in England, so you Page 30 - Issue 69

BARRY KING AS A BABY members of our family came to London in the 1950’s, places like Notting Hill, Balham and Clapham were very heavily

populated Jamaican areas. Most of my family came to South West London and a couple stayed in West and North West London. We settled in the Brixton area. Renting rooms or apartments were at times not extended to us so we started saving our hard earned money to buy our own homes, also you have to remember every other road had a sound on it. The whole Soundclash thing was a serious part of life, some sounds folded while others went on and on to become worldwide names. Then there’s Auntie Miss Brown who was holding dances in Kingston Jamaica before she came to England. In the 50’s, she was organising coach trips to Southend, Margate, Brixton Town Hall etc, with all the sounds you can think of.

This is 50’s 60’s & 70’s London UK. Not forgetting that life in England could be very rough for us with Teddy Boys, the Rockers or Greasers, later on the Mods and then came the Skinheads, all of whom listened to and collected Jamaican and American music. There were collectives in London who made a point of going to pubs that would not serve them, you can image what would happen. I witnessed some of these meetings to decide ‘which place we a go mash up tonight’.

There’s a lot I could say at this point but let’s keep this about music and why I love it so much. From 1965-72 my Uncle Jim (a reggae unsung hero) aka Jim Daddy The Universal Sound, owned the 1st club in South London. It was called the ‘7-11 GoGo Club’ based in Kennington Lane where so many artists and sound systems got their opportunity to perform.

There were no late nightclubs playing music all night until the early morning. Police would close down our dances, take the sound, drinks and arrest people. On Sunday afternoons I’d go to the ‘GoGo’ club while they would be cleaning up the place where ‘My Boy Lollipop’s’ Millie Small’s, ‘Kung Fu Fighting’s’ Carl Douglas, the Great Prince Buster, Sir Desmond Dekker plus many more have performed. The house band was The Rudies. Jim Daddy sound was the main sound in the club, other top sounds of the time were King Arthur, Duke Lee, Neville the Enchanter, Fonso from North London, Soprano B, Daddy Evans, Duke Reid and Coxsone.

The next big club after the ‘GoGo’ club was the ‘Ram Jam’ on Brixton Rd. Celebrities like Ike & Tina Turner, The Supremes, Georgie Fame, Lee Dorsey, Geno Washington and many more came to soak up the vibes of both these clubs, after they performed elsewhere. People like Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Bunny Lee to name a few, were good friends with Uncle Jim. I would travel regularly with Uncle Jim and Dad on their visits to the East London docks to pick up imports coming from JA, USA. Later records and studio tapes were being picked up from the airport. Uncle Jim was forever cutting Acetates 7’’ 10’’ 78’s, the first time for me was at the EMI studio, not sure where in London because I would have only been around 5 years old. I also remember Lovers Rock producer and Jah Sufferer sound member Dennis Bovell saying his first everrecording cut onto a Dub Plate was bought by Jim Daddy.

Uncle Jim was one of the revered people of that time and so many of the sound men would come to him when they had a big dance, for speaker box’s, amps and most importantly the music he had. Uncle Jim told me that Bob Marley and Dennis Brown were the only Jamaican artists he didn’t record music with at his studio, which was based in Peckham, across the road from ‘Bouncing Ball’ club! There’s a massive piece of London UK music history that still has not been told. In the very late 60’s my family moved from Brixton to Crystal Palace. They purchased a 3-storey house with a basement and in that basement from Friday night until Sunday morning, things got lively. My Dad’s sound was kept in the basement but other sounds would bless us every other weekend like Coxsone and Soprano B sounds and other top sounds coming to play. In 1973 we moved to Elmer End, Beckenham, Kent.

The same year we opened ‘Emma P’s’ off licence on Railton Road, back in Brixton. Then I joined D’unes sound system, which was based right in the middle of The Frontline! Two years later Frontline International sound was born. Our members came from Sufferer Sound, Count Shelly, D’unes, Coxsone, Duke Reid, A Clash, Rub A Dub sound and top class in a Blues dance. So I kinda lived in the suburbs and lived in the heart of the UK’s black community. Around 1977 my family moved to 48 Mayow Rd, Sydenham (which is now the local Veterinary) two roads across was where Jah Shaka sound was based, then 2 roads from him Sir Coxsone. ‘Emma P’s’ was our base at 118 Railton Road, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Darcus Howe was part of a community organization that was based across the road, they would support us, and were great roll models of the time. Lord David sound, Trevor Frontline and so many other sound owners or promoters were supplied by us, plus if we knew you, you could get your drinks at all hours of the night!

This is a very impressive and important piece of history, Barry, and I’m glad that a lot of people will learn from this. Tell me more thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

about y o u r journey since you started DJ-ing from your teenage years and when did you switch over from the reggae scene to the soul scene?

Every style of music was a part of my make up. In the UK you didn’t hear Reggae on the radio stations so the dances we had were our equivalent of a radio station. Selectors had to know their game, people would get upset if your music was not on point. You had party DJ’s, club and clash sounds, but to be a part of all the styles was not a common thing. We played out 6-7 nights a week and in 2 or 3 places for the night. I was always putting on parties as Frontline Youths, we took the sound and played the up and coming sounds. English music as we called it back then was good. One of my sisters became a Punk Rocker so can you imagine the music I was listening to via her. There were also gigs where Frontline played and a Punk band would be on the bill. I started going to football matches and being around school friends that were Skinheads but not National Front or British Movement. In Sydenham in the 1970’s there were hardly any black people living in that Page 32 - Issue 69

area. As a teenager at school I was going to clubs like ‘Cheeky Pete’s’ in Richmond and The Lyceum on the Strand and various other jazz funk and soul clubs.

I stopped playing music around 1984 and sold or lent much of my music and equipment out. I started again around 1987 around the time I went to Cordwainers College which is a part of the London College of Fashion (Shoe Design & Construction.) This time I was much more into soul, jazz, funk etc and London West End became the place for me to find music. As soon as Black Market Records in Soho opened, I started hitting the records fairs in and around London. I would jump on a plane and go aboard to record fairs in other countries to pick up grooves. A shout to Dave Picconi, Nicky BM, Stafford and all the great staff that I either bought music from as a collector, or worked with from 1991-95. Black Market established a great dance label Azuli records and this went from strength to strength. So many DJ’s from around the world went there at some point. It would be true to say that many unknown artists and producers had a presence there because we had a reputation for supplying and pushing quality music. I left and joined the Wyld Pytch Record shop and Hype promotions with Digger, Dominic and Marcus, another good record shop in the Soho area. From there I took a sound engineering course at Islington Music Workshop (which is still in operation 2017). All this time I was a part of London’s pirate radio network. I started my own company Trend X and started importing independent projects from all over the USA, Canada, Jamaica.

To be continued... Big up to my greatest supporters, my son and husband Vuk and Dez Parkes. Endless love.

PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR PART TWO.

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How was life growing up as an Asian in west London, going to school wise and getting into soul music?

One day a girl came down and accused me of being racist. I said to her “Look at me, how could you say that to me?

Ash Selector FITZROY SPEAKS WITH

Literally fighting to find his identity at a time where his culture didn’t really lend to what he was drawn to, Ash Sethi aka Ash Selector has become one of the hardest working DJ’s who recently cleaned up winning several Soul Survivor awards at Under The Bridge in Feb 2017. His journey from west London DJ-ing at 17 to working with a who’s who’s list of DJ’s artists, clubs and various events within and outside the UK is not one he takes for granted. His radio show and main club event are nearer the double decade mark so his longevity lasts longer than Duracell and Ever Ready.

Ash tells us why his shack has got so much soul!!

Page 34 - Issue 69

Actually, I was born in Birmingham and our family moved to London when I was about 8 years old. I grew up in Northolt as a youngster and as all kids do I was buying records from Woolworths & Our Price and it was all 7-inch singles.

I was buying The Imperials ‘Whose Gonna Love Me’ and The Miracles ‘Love Machine’ which was unusual for a young kid to be buying. When I look back at those 7’s I realised they were all soul 7’s and I happened to like that sound, even though there were other types of music. My older brothers were into anything from rock music to reggae. One brother used to drive around in his Cortina Mark 2 with an 8-track cassette of John Holt’s ‘A Thousand Volts of Holt’ and I looked for that album for years as it reminded me of my brother. It is kind of a strange one where my musical influence comes from as I just kind of liked it. I remember watching The Jacksons cartoon. Soul music, you either like it or you don’t but it’s something that got under my skin.

How common or uncommon is it for someone of an Asian culture to embrace soul music in the way you have?

There are two sides to this. In my younger days, there used to be a lot of Asian sound systems and there was an Asian scene of soul music especially in west London if you go from Southall to Hounslow to Cranford. Now I went to a lot of those gigs back then. Later on that scene changed to an Asian music direction and I had incidents at college that were a bit uncomfortable for me. There were some Asian guys who wouldn’t accept what I was into. For example we had a common room at college and I knew all the brothers (black guys) and I used to shoot pool with them. They would ask me to make tapes to play in the common room. I had some common ground with the black guys because we loved the music. Then I would get certain Asian guys saying “So you think you’re black now dontcha?” I’d say, ”What, you mean, I think I’m black?” The reply was “Well you hang around with them.” I’d ask “ So what’s wrong with hanging around with them, we like music, they are people, we are all the same.

You choose to hang with Indian guys and that’s your choice.

I choose to hang with white, black or Asian and all colours and we all like the music”.

Those same guys years later would approach me and say, “Remember those tunes you used to play?” I’d say “What you mean the ones when you thought, I thought I was black?”

I’d brush them aside because of

their mentality. My dad never got it for a long time. (Fitzroy: I find that funny.) I would test out my sound system full blast on volume and the ceiling would be vibrating. He’d say “Turn it down!” and ask, “What’s this music?” I’d say, “It’s jazz funk dad”. It got to a stage where my dad got to like it, he’d listen and either give me a thumbs up or thumbs down or wave his hand in the middle. My mum never got it as much either and all they saw was me going out late night and coming in during the early hours of the morning which wasn’t the Indian way.

me and broke my nose with his steel toe capped DM’s, and I ended up with a broken nose bone in my eye. So that was the end of my days at that school. I also remember getting punched as a ten year old by some older skinhead in South Harrow who had asked me for the time. When I looked at my watch he punched me in the face. Why? I was a 10-year-old kid so I certainly went through it.

Do you remember when we both spoke at the weekender in Colchester a few years back and we were on a panel speaking about our humble beginnings as clubbers turning to DJ’s? I remember you telling me a story of how you’d be stretching your leg muscles on the radiator and your Mum would ask you what the hell you were doing?

(Ash laughs.) Yeah, that was before going out dancing to loosen the muscles. Back then dancing to jazz if you didn’t limber up you’d end up injuring yourself, so I remember stretching on the rad. My Mum used to say “What do you think you’re doing? You’re going to break the radiator?”

Did you get any static from the white community?

But you found salvation through the music fortunately Ash and the brothers welcomed you with open arms.

It was all right, later on but the earlier part of my youth was quite difficult because I grew up in Northolt. (Fitzroy: Northolt was notorious for racism.) Oh man, I mean to be honest I got attacked every day at school. (Fitzroy: What school did you go to?) I went to Northolt (Fitzroy: Northolt High, ok. So when were you born?) 1964 (Fitzroy: Ok, there were loads of kids from Perivale I know who went to Northolt and Walford high School, literally up the road from each other.) It was horrible. Back then, after the Enoch Powell rivers of blood speeches, the National Front had a massive following. Walking home from school you had to go certain routes to avoid getting your head kicked in.

The way schools were designed back then, you had corridors, double doors and a stairwell in between that went up to the next floor and another set of double doors on the other side of that and that was a dead spot where nothing could be seen.

Now you knew if you went between them doors that’s where you were going to get jumped. Sometimes I’d let someone go through before me to test the waters. I ended up having to change schools just before my last year because of an incident when I was stopped and asked for money. They made me jump up and down to hear if I had any change in my pocket, then a couple of them put their hands on me. I pushed them back and ended up fighting off six guys. I should have run but I thought there was no point, I knew I was only going to have to face it the next day, so they laid into me. One guy kicked

Funny thing was on the first day at my new school, Gayton in Harrow, I remember seeing some brothers who I didn’t know and thought to myself, what are they being fed on because they were big. These two great big black guys came up to me and said in a Jamaican accent “Eh bwoy, come ‘ere.” I was thinking, oh here we go. One of them said, “What music do you like?” In my little voice I said “Soul music.” He then said, “He’s alright, he’s one of us.” Thank God I’d said I liked soul music as I was thinking I’ve been beaten up by the white geezers, so now I’m gonna get it from the black ones. After that they looked out for me and it was great to have that for the first time. I used to bunk school or sneak out down the drainpipe to go to America’s in Southall. I’d watch the jazz dancers on a Thursday night and the soul thing on a Saturday. I met Magnum Force who looked after me, because I was a just a little kid who loved the music. I would learn the moves, then go home and practice and put my own twist on it. Generally the one thing I noticed and what I appreciated is that people would ask your name and what area you’re from, and not judge you by your colour. Don’t get me wrong there are bits of the soul scene that are dodgy and I’ve had a couple of situations, like when I did a party in Balham. I got the “What’s this coolie boy doing in here.” attitude with my wet look curly hair. When I got to the DJ booth I was met with “Ya cum fi play?” I said, “Yeah, I got asked to.” “What time?” and I said “When ya ready.” It was more of a reggae crowd and I dipped ‘Curly Locks’ Mr Shabeena and something else. thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

By my third tune I’m hearing “You Coolie bwoy, you playing some nice tunes, you want some rum and some curry goat?”

So that was an acceptance.

Apart from America’s where did you go in west London and outside and when did the DJ-ing kick in.

As a kid I would go to the Lyceum Best Disco In Town and I was just hitting early days of college so around 16 or 17. I went to all the west London clubs Bogarts, Tudors, Middlesex & Hearts and a big influence was Chevaliers in Stanmore where two brothers both called Russell DJ’d. They were called Brother To Brother. I used to ask them tune names and write them down and then purchase them. They were really cool guys. I used to go to the venue years ago now known as The Pheonix where Neville did Jazz Funk Soul later and there was an older white guy called Tony OBJ. He was playing such fantastic music and I rated him so much, because of his selection and that always stood out for me. I went to Titanics and anywhere there was to go across London and out of London. I used to go to Birmingham to The Locarno by myself even by car or coach and train, because I always wanted to experience things from elsewhere. I worked in a super market stacking shelves after school and saved £4 a week to buy two 12 inches at £2 each. I ended up playing at little parties and events with an all in one console that had Citronic turntables and traffic light, lights. Whilst at college I became part of a DJ crew called Soul Sentinals and we had vest tops you could wear over our tops.

One day we were due to play at a party in Blackbird Hill near Neasden, and the crew said “Take your top off as we ain’t going in, there’s no one in the party.” I said, “We can’t do that.” They went off and I stayed because it was wrong to let the girl down who had asked us to play. I went in and the DJ was Jerry Green. Him and I got talking and he said he had a residence at Melanie’s in Hendon. I was 17 years old. Jerry asked me to come down early doors on a Friday and to bring some tunes for him. So I arrived at 9pm on the dot and he asked me if I had the tunes. When I replied yes he told me to put the records on and to my surprise people started dancing and he then asked me to be his warm up DJ. Yeah, we both got history with Gerry as he used to work in R&D where I first met Jon Jules and Andy who owned the shop. Jerry sold me my copy of Affinity ‘Don’t Go Away’ mint for £4. Didn’t he used to supply the sound for the Special Branch do’s?

He did that for loads of people and I used to hire sound systems off him. What he was part of was one of the first mixers in the clubs at the time that had separate bass middle and treble and cross faders. They were JFS Mixers and he was part of that company. He gave me that break and when he left, I took over both the Friday and the Saturdays playing soul music. I Page 36 - Issue 69

did that for quite a while until I noticed one of my mates Rob Saddler from Edgware hadn’t turned up one night. I asked why he didn’t come and he said when he got to the door they wouldn’t let him in. So I had a word with the bouncers about not letting certain people in and they referred me to Chris, who was the guvnor. I found out there was a policy not to let too many blacks in, so out of principal I left the club. This was about 1983 as I started my first club residency in 1982 at Melanie’s. It was a shame because both nights were successful.

When the club was changing its sound system over I managed to get the equipment for £300. I had to sell a JVC boom box that had a radio, tape and a record player in it for £150. I really loved that boom box but I also sold other bits to make up the other £150. I bought an amplifier and became a oneman sound called Rhythm Box Soul Sound, when most sound systems had at least 4 guys in them. I started doing my own events photocopying up to 500 flyers with stenciled letters and handing them out. This was about 1983 -84. People still mention the Blues parties especially the one at Grant Road, in fact someone mentioned it Saturday just gone. I got speaking with a guy in a cab one day who was playing some really good soul music. He asked me if I’d like to play at Notting Hill Carnival in 1984 with him on his sound system People’s Choice International sound and that was DJ Richie Rich. I’ve got a photo of me with my long wet look curly perm wearing a Fila tracksuit with everyone dancing in the rain as it was piddling down. I remember playing Gwen Guthrie’s ‘Outside In The Rain’, which was appropriate and went down very well.

My memories of you are around the time of Shaft in the west end around 1996 ish so when did you first secure residencies in the west end?

I’d say 1989-1991. I was resident at Kiss FM’s 3rd Bass in the soulful houseroom at Shaftbury’s nightclub. We are talking 1500 people which was a big deal to get on a gig of that size back then. That purely happened because a DJ called Rob Blake aka Marathon Man who asked me to come and MC for him in the hardcore room because of my sound system background. So not knowing that genre of music I was able to impress Rob. That same night Paul Trouble Anderson fell out with his MC Pugwash and I was asked to MC for Paul Trouble Anderson as well. I had listened to Paul’s shows on Kiss and was aware of his cut style of mixing as he is the one who started all of that. I ended up working with Paul for 18 months including when he was doing his Legends residency when he did Trouble’s House. Then I made a record a version of Penthouse Orchestra’s ‘Let Me Be Your Fantasy’ called ‘Select The Rhythm’. I asked Paul to listen to it in between records at Legends one night which at first he was reluctant to do.

Eventually he listened to both sides and then he asked “What side do you want me to play?” I was so happy that he liked

it enough to play it, and that was my first taste into making records. I got talking to a guy at the bar In Maximus one night and asked what his name was and where he came from.

He said his name was Jimmy and that he was from Chicago.

Something went off in my head and I said “You’re not Jimi Polo are you?” and it was him. I loved his tune ‘Express Yourself’ (Fitzroy: Yeah, bad tune.) I’d stopped doing sample tracks and started writing and had a tune called ‘Now That I’ve Got You’. I asked Jimmy if he had his keyboards with him and he laid some keys on it. I signed the track to Hot Records and it made number 10 on Tony Humphries’s Miami Chart.

It got played on Kiss FM and I was featured in double page spreads in magazines like Echo’s.

How long have you been on Solar now? (Ash: 16 years.) You’ve also almost simultaneously been running Soul Shack with James Anthony?

Soul Shack started in 1998 at Reggie Reggies Soul Cafe in the west end and it was whilst Shaft was happening. It’s managed to carry on for 19 years, this Saturday, as it happens. We’ve had so many venues over the years. We’ve had nights where James Mason turned up and asked if he could sign his albums, and also when The Blackbyrds made an appearance.

(Fitzroy: How did it start?) I got James to spin at Shaft and he suggested we do a night together somewhere else. I thought

What’s your experience with Caister and Southport?

I ended up MC-ing for Steve Wren when he was at Caister after winning a Mastercuts album on his Choice FM radio show. He asked me to come down to his gig and pick it up at Reminisce, Broadway Boulevard in Ealing. (Fitzroy: Ok, when Trevor Nelson, Steve and I were doing the Sunday’s. Cool.)

I put on an event in Park Royal and Steve played for me and suggested we should work together more. He asked me to come and meet him at Choice FM and he put the faders up and we started talking on air. I ended up being on his show for 6 years. He took me to Caister with him where I MC’d for quite a while. I got a call from Brian Rix to DJ there, just the once though. I was Steve’s MC at Southport for quite a few years too. Both weekends are good in their own way doing their own thing. There are so many weekenders now as there are with soul holidays and other events, and the scene is much healthier now. The die hards are still here but it was sad to see Southport go because I thought it was a fantastic event in terms that you could see a phenomenal amount of artists live in one weekend. I got to take my hat off to Alex Lowes for that. Thinking back I was there at Caister when Froggy made his comeback and he did a three-hour set and it was amazing, my legs ached all week from dancing.

That alliance with Steve Wren was where I first became aware of you. That would have been around 1995-96 when you both did Shaft at The Milk Bar. But that’s not where it started. First it was at a club called Flamingo’s which was opposite The Hanover Grand. It became an overnight success and we then moved to the Milk Bar that had Soul II Soul’s sound system. In its second year it won a Blues & Soul award for being the number 2 club night in the UK. I used to play at Middlesex and Hearts with people like Lee Drummond and Tony Monson and now he is my guvnor at Solar Radio.

it was strange because he was a colleague of Steve Wren’s on Choice but he wanted to work with me. Anyway we went out looking at venues and found Reggie Reggies which felt right because it was the original venue for George Power’s Crackers residency in Wardour Street where I used to go as youngster.

It had a Caribbean restaurant too so it was perfect. We did a Friday night at first pulling in about 300 plus people but we encountered problems there. One day a girl came down and accused me of being racist. I said to her “Look at me, how could you say that to me?” She said that some black friends of hers had been turned away, and I thought here we go again from back in the day at Melanie’s. I went up to the door and they denied it, so I stood across the road and watched what the club was doing. Then the manager came out and spoke to me across the road from the club. I asked him why he was turning black people away from the door and his response was ‘I got a black mate’. I thought how many times have I heard that one and then I went downstairs and told James, we are pulling out because they are turning black people away and I’m not having it. I got a phone call a few months later from the new manager of the same club, who was black, and thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

I said I’d only come back if they gave me a Saturday night and ensured black people would not be turned away. The manager kept an eye on the situation and we were getting up to 800 people on a Saturday, until the owner was slack on paying his lease so we had to find another venue. We ended up at Number 10 club in Mayfair. Since then through no fault of our own we’ve changed venues and gone through many changes of different managers in that time. But we’ve been at the new venue nearly 4 years now and there have already been changes, and it’s been a battle but we are still there.

You do a lot of weekenders and you’ve been doing Salou Soul in Spain for a number of years. Recently you were victorious cleaning up with four awards at the Soul Survivors Magazine Awards at Under The Bridge Feb 2017. You told me when you said goodnight to your misses as you left to go that you didn’t have any expectations and was just glad to be nominated and to see the band. When you got home you had to tell her to build an extension to hold up the trophies.

Nahh.. But it was the biggest shock of my life. I was happy to be nominated in four categories because it’s an acknowledgement. I didn’t even know about it. A friend of mine advised me that I was nominated and I had to go on line to check. To come home with four awards was a shock.

(Fitzroy: You can chat Ash and you were rendered speechless.)

I was because when my name got called out for one thing and then at each point of all four, my jaw dropped. It was the biggest shock of my life!

What even more so than when you first got told you made a girl pregnant?

More shocking than that seriously. That you take in your stride even though that would shock you. I’ve done so much including remixing various soulful house track productions, as Soul Shack put Change on in concert at The Oval in Wood Green which cost a fortune. I’ve DJ’d at concerts for Atmosfear, Change and other memorable artists such as Marlena Shaw and Eddie Henderson. I recently compered for Shalamar and for Georgie B at Under The Bridge and The Jazz Cafe.

You’ve got Salou Soul in a few months, which won runners up award at the Feb 17 event.

We actually won an award back in 2011 as well so to get another award is great. Salou was set up because people were fed up of going on holiday hearing crap music and experiencing youngsters chucking up. It was only ever meant to be a one off that pulled 123 people. They asked us to do it again and it’s grown from the 2nd one at 200 and now we are capping it off at 450-500. We have 3 different night and 3 day venues. Last year we sold out by 1st of May and turned Page 38 - Issue 69

away 300 enquiries. This year 70% of the passes have been sold already.

I’ve recently re linked with someone from 37 years ago and she’s booked to go with quite a few of her mates.

So many people have met new friends at Salou Soul and have continued relationships with people when they get back here.

So there is a nice social family togetherness that has evolved.

Like I you have gone through the various genres and decades of the changing face of music and get booked to do various things some more specific than others. You do get booked for a lot of gigs where the music is more commercial and more anthem based. But you have another side to you where you can play much deeper.

I’ve experienced this when we did a jam together in some offices along the A40 or The Uxbridge Road in West London and a few weekenders including the back-to-back jazz set at Embassy in Colchester. I played Jazztronix Real Clothes and you said flipping hell what’s that? (Ash: Yeah, great tune. I remember that warehouse we did and I played a tune and you came running up saying what’s this tune Motown Sounds ‘Bad Mouthin’’.)

Yeah I got to give you that one 100 % Ash. Funnily enough I used to have the album but I sold it without listening to it properly but it will always remind me of you.

Nice one to end on Ash. Cheers Fitz must sort out my music for the weekend now. :o) Events info where you can see me www.ashselector.com

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Roy (Ayers) goes on stage and says “I got a special guest from Nigeria her name is Wunmi.”

Frigging heck I had to go on stage and bust my moves.”

WITH FITZROY SPEAKS

WUNMI

PART ONE

This interview is an incredible story of a young girl who had a Temptations ‘Ball Of Confusion’ upbringing with her dual heritage and cultural identity. The only thing that kept her sanity balanced was her Onenus Of Juju ‘African Rhythm’ dancing with or without ‘The Sound Of Music’ like Dayton. Juggling restricting curfews and risking the wrath of her father’s cane, resulted in an ongoing pre destined alliance with a ‘Virgo Red’ musical maestro. Still having pinch moments along the way dancing for one of the biggest cult outfits of its time and performing for a multitude of musical giants, Wunmi is still at heart the shy girl from South London with a long earned and deserved self assured confidence. We go back 30 years from the days when we get used to ‘Get On The Good Foot Charlie’ so it was good to catch up.

I’m assuming you are a similar age to me as a 1960’s child so tell me about your childhood?

Yes, I am a 60’s child, born in Camberwell, London and sent home to Nigeria at the age of 4. I spent 10 years there until I was 14. Once I did my sentence I came back cultured, to Stockwell, London. The one thing I had that kept me sane was me dancing with my silhouette, my shadow. I didn’t have a mirror but I had a bed lamp, so it was me, my shadow and I, busting moves to music on my radio. I attended Mayfield All Girls secondary school in Putney and I’d have adventures with myself walking to school dancing regardless whether there was music or not. I also made clothes. These were the two things I did independently. My dad picked my school subjects like everything else that my dad was in control of. When I left Mayfield I went on to CITY & EAST LONDON COLLEGE, in Old Street, for a foundation course in arts. This is where Page 40 - Issue 69

I built my portfolio so I could apply to London College Of Fashion for a fashion degree course in design. All through secondary school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, because I couldn’t do any of the academic stuff my dad had picked for me. I was failing left right and centre.

Just go back for the record, for people who don’t understand the Nigerian culture, about the parents insisting on being academic?

Yes, you have to have an academic background, with your PHD MPB and all that stuff, there is nothing about art, what art what are you talking about? It wasn’t even in the conversation, my father picked my subjects when I came back from Nigeria aged

14. He got my school, my curriculum and told me what I was going to do but it wasn’t for me.

OK so you probably caught Greg Edwards and Robbie Vincent?

Going back a bit, how was life in Nigeria?

It was a mix bag of joy and sadness. There were sweet beautiful moments. I found my music sensibility thanks to my late cousin Oduntun Osomo. He was my auntie’s stepson. I lived with them. My dad’s sister raised me from about 6 years old. I lived with my dad’s mum for the first two years, and then my aunt took me to live with her family. Her stepson was older than me and he was a music head. People have the impression that in Africa we don’t hear the same music as in England. It was the same and more so as we had music coming in straight from Jamaica, and we had the British stuff, with Nigeria being part of the Common Wealth. We had all kinds of imported music on the radio plus local traditional music like Juju music, high life etc., Fela Anikulapokuti and Sunny Ade were the two that were running things. There were also young college bands and as part of the culture if somebody dies or there is a birthday, wedding celebration it’s a live band that plays for any occasion. I have an uncle that is still alive and they call him the ‘Evil Genius’, he is one of the legends of High Life Music Victor Olaiya. So there was music all the time and Naija’s can party. My cousin Oduntun was my first DJ, it was Mighty Diamonds, U Roy, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Fela Anikulapokuti, James Brown, R&B all the music was funky and social conscious lyrics, I grew up with that in my head until I returned to England. Coming back in 1979 I used the same thing that kept me sane in Nigeria, which was music and dance. I was in my own world and I didn’t participate in gossip whatsoever. It was a bit of a shock because I thought my life would fix up again and things would make some sense because I didn’t grow up with my parents who were here all the time I was in Nigeria.

So as a teenager from 1979 to 1982 where were you going?

Hell no I wasn’t going nowhere! What are you talking about? I had Nigerian parents, didn’t you hear what I said earlier?

(Fitzroy laughs, So, you didn’t sneak out?). Hell no, I wasn’t that kind of girl.

Me, sneak out? Do you know at what age I left my dad? (Wunmi laughs) Talk about late frigging bloomer that was me. I didn’t need to go out to get lost. It was radio man.

Rayydiiooo!

So who were you listening to? (Wunmi: I can’t remember because I mainly used to surf the radio.)

Yeah, all of that and the first time I stepped out was at the age of 21. (Fitzroy: So about 1985-86) Yeah, but before that I used to go to Solid Soul because it was in the daytime. (Fitzroy: Ok, right when Chris Forbes and Jeffrey Daniel were presenting it.) My best friend Sandra Sealy and I met when we both worked at a clothing store in Covent Garden. We just wanted to dance and she was my running mate. It was my 21st birthday and I was stressing about what grief I would get when I got home, asking if it was worth going out and wondering if the door be locked by my father. When I got home it was open and my dad said, “Your aunty pleaded for you.” (Wunmi laughs recalling the memory.) So once I did that I had the nerve to do it again and then I got bug to go out. I used to go to all the underground warehouse parties featuring Trevor Madhatter and Shake & Fingerpop, until we discovered the African Centre. Trevor used to play at a club next to Holborn station and I remember my cousin and I were the only black couple, because it was purely black guys with white girls. The music was slamming and we used to go to Bass Clef. (Fitzroy: With Norman Jay on a Monday night.) We didn’t know how to get home afterwards because there was no frigging transportation, so we used to walk home.

How did you become the poster girl of Soul II Soul?

There wasn’t that many that looked like me back then.

Basically I went out strictly for dancing and I still had to get home before midnight by the way. So I used to go out and dance before my curfew was due. I’d be the first one in the club and be clock watching so I could catch the train in time to get home to my dad’s in Stockwell. I had no time for nobody as I just danced. I used to dance at places where Jazzie B thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

was DJ-ing and there were very few girls like Theo, Sam and my girl Sandra who would really just dance and bust moves.

We used to go to the WAG and also to hear Paul Trouble Anderson at Legends. Jazzie approached me and said he was putting this Soul II Soul thing together and he chose this beautiful American sister Pamelah Marage, a choreographer, to work with a crew. There was a dancer called Tony, how is he? (Fitzroy: Tony Houston? He’s doing ok he promotes an event called We Love Soul.) Tony was good, he had my back.

There was him, Paul Trouble Anderson and in total three girls and three guys. At the rehearsals I realised it wasn’t for me because I didn’t like choreography. I just wanted to dance freestyle as me, without thinking about what I was doing.

Even in the clubs I didn’t want to go in the circle because that was competitive and I wasn’t interested. Guys used to say to me “Girl we want to chat to you.” but I didn’t go there for male attention either. Anyway I called Jazzie and had a meeting with him about the dancing and he said he wanted to speak with me also. I said “Ok, whose gonna speak first.” and Jazzie said he’d decided that they were cutting the dancers down to just one person. I said “That’s ok because I was going to tell you I don’t want to do it anymore anyway.” He said, “No, no, no we’ve decided to just have you.” I didn’t realise they had done a shoot and that it was my photo that they had picked.

I remember, we are talking of an era where the dancers were people like Junior Isaacs, Cav Manning, Busy, Mark Terrell (Wunmi: Before then John Rielly, Muhammed and that crew, IDJ Jerry Barry and the brothers from Bristol.) There were certain people who stuck out like Rose Windross (Wunmi: Yes, she had her style too.) but I specifically remember you because you were unconventional in a sense, but also culturally doing things that were natural to you. Before the Soul II Soul thing I was gifted as a birthday present to go and see ‘Uncle’ Roy Page 42 - Issue 69

Ayers at the Hammersmith Odeon when they used to do the New York Jazz Explosion. I went that year and we went back stage dressed in my 50’s swimming costume, biker boots and a humungous beret that I’d made and I met Roy Ayers. I was with my cousin and I met Roy’s manager and his biggest fan, this small white guy (Fitzroy: I remember him. His name was Brian. He used to sell Roy’s albums and CD’s at the Jazz café.)

When I met Roy he said “You remind me of somebody who dances with Prince.” but he couldn’t remember her name.

Now he hadn’t even seen me dance yet and I laughed because I was a huge Prince fan, and thought by him saying that, that I was going to meet Prince. My cousin said “Nah man, no one dances like my cousin Wunmi.” Next thing Roy goes on stage and says “I got a special guest from Nigeria her name is Wunmi.” Frigging heck I had to go on stage and bust my moves. I later met up with friends who were there and they were dumbfounded how I got to go on stage with Roy. It wasn’t a song I knew of his but I just danced. I said to Roy after “What would you have done if I couldn’t dance?” and he said “It’s written all over you, you’ve got the presence of life.” I can say that this prepared me before I got the gig with Soul II Soul.

So when Jazzie asked me to do the solo I remembered, this is what ‘Uncle’ Roy talked about. So in the

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there was nothing else there for me, so I came in as Wunmi and left as Wunmi. It was an amazing era to understand the power of self and Soul II Soul represented the face of British black music in a way that people never thought we existed. To be one of the faces in it, you can’t touch that, it was awesome.

Janet Street Porter did a program about iconic images and one of them was mine.

Soul II Soul days when they announced the band doing live gigs with Caron Wheeler, I was the one who had to go out and dance solo. I remember when we did the Albert Hall and when we did Brixton Big World Café that’s when we knew Soul II Soul were huge. They were on the bill with Ten City and other American acts that I cannot remember but I realised I was now dancing on the world stage.

How long were you with Soul II Soul?

The last thing I did was 1989 when we went to the NAACP event in L.A. USA. When everything blew up Jazzie was nowhere to be found and Caron and I were very close.

I was naive and didn’t sign a contract and basically

After you left Soul II Soul what happened next?

People kept asking me about the music and it freaked me out because I didn’t hear myself singing with a voice that was not American but African. I was already self-conscious and only shared my thoughts with close friends and I danced in silence, but singing meant other people could hear me and I wasn’t ready. Going to America my manager accidentally heard me singing and I freaked out because she said, “I knew you could sing.” My manager Ziggy Golden was married to Gee Street Record’s John Baker. They moved to the USA to set up office in New York and Ziggy’s photographic agency was out there also. I got booked to choreograph PM Dawn, so I spent a year doing that and still people were asking me to sing. I did a one woman tour around the world with me, thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk

had on some tight black leather or spray on PVC trousers with some incredibly high stiletto heels. You came down the stairs entrance via the perimeter of the upstairs restaurant and when you hit that stage you were doing the splits, knee drops and the James Brown slide in them heels. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. (Wunmi laughs). For me that was when you came into your own zone. Being honest back in the day I felt you were a little erratic as a dancer, but now I understand what was going on with you. You were not conventional and most were either doing the east London boogie style of Trevor Shakes and Dez Parkes, The Pasadena’s style or the jazz fusion dancing, and even the girls danced masculine.

Everything you said is spot on but I just wanted to dance and I had no concept of following anyone. When I started the one woman show that’s where I had to have a plan.

When everyone else is controlling your life you have to have something you are in control of and dancing was it. (Fitzroy: I hear you) Roy told me that with him I grew, and that “I had the presence of life that no money can buy.”

DJ and a percussionist dancing. I did Womad in Japan and Reading, fashion and music showing in Singapore. I had a business fashion line called ‘Revolution With Love’ with my best friend from college Donovan Pascal. We created pieces that if you have them today, they are collectable vintage pieces. My manager got me a demo deal at Island records via Gee Street and I came back to London but it didn’t feel right.

I’d be at train stations and look up at the posters because I had done all the Kiss things, and there would be my image and it was all too much for me. I was approached by Lynn Franks to do a shoe campaign for Dolces shoes. They were going to plaster me everywhere but I had stipulations which prevented me from committing, as I didn’t want the exposure of being here today and gone tomorrow. It was a big thing to turn down and I called my manager who suggested I should go back to New York and do my demo. I then got a call from ‘Uncle’ Roy who said he was in London and asked me to come to his shows and dance. This was in the early 1990’s when I was moving back and forth between London and New York.

I remember DJ-ing for Roy Ayers at The Jazz Cafe between 199397 and practically did all of his dates. I do remember not seeing you for while and now we are currently talking, this interview is filling in the gap as to why that was. But I remember one particular time I was DJ-ing at Jazz Cafe and Roy had just started his show. I went upstairs to the restaurant and bumped into you.

I said “Hi Wunmi how’s you?” and you said “I can’t talk now Fitzroy I gotta go and dance for ‘Uncle’ Roy. I remember you Page 44 - Issue 69

I remember after that performance I caught you on your way back up and I was just speechless. (Wunmi laughs recalling that moment). Every time I DJ’d and you were due to come on, I would tell people wait until you see Wunmi come on and fling foot.

I appreciated my time with Soul II Soul but it was ‘Uncle’ Roy who mentored me. I couldn’t go to my dad for that. Things went quiet with my demo and I thought I was going to have to go back to my dad and say “What were those ideas you had planned for me again?” (Wunmi laughs). As I had no plans, ‘Uncle’ Roy called me around that time and said he was recording for BMG and to come along to the session. I was not really a late night person and I was falling asleep in the studio waiting for everybody writing and singing. I’m already selfconscious of my voice anyway and the only person I remotely sound like is Fela Kuti because of my tone. In between being asleep and being awake, I’ve gone in the booth and I write sing, scat things and then fill in the blanks. If a melody comes, I hear something to add words to and it’s like I’m sketching.

The next day ‘Uncle’ Roy says, “I’ve got a gig in Japan and got to leave straight away and when I get back we will finish the project.” I didn’t hear from him for two months and started feeling really sorry for myself. I was really down and being negative, thinking the label has not got back to me, and ‘Uncle’ Roy can’t tell me to my face that he doesn’t like what I’ve done. Then out of the blue ‘Uncle’ Roy calls me and says “Wunmi they are mastering the album.” and I was thinking how is that as I hadn’t finished what I was doing? Then he said to me “You’ve done two tracks, we’ve gotta do a contract

and get publishing and you need to join ASACP”. I was saying “‘Uncle’ Roy what are you talking about please explain?”

Next thing I went into the masters room and heard my voice coming out the speakers and I’m on ‘Uncle’ Roy’s Nasty’ album ‘Like It Like That’ and ‘Fantasy’. I toured for a whole year with ‘Uncle’ Roy and his band in America with me the only girl with all these guys. Pinch me again. (Fitzroy: When was this?) 1995 and every time things look bleak this man turns up, it’s like they sent me an angel called Roy Ayers. He shared with me his Fela Story, going to Nigeria, playing at the Shrine, and recording albums with Fela. Meeting all the wives.

He was really blown away by Fela! I’m always questioning myself, why has ‘Uncle’ Roy taken to me, but he can see it and I can’t. I wrote and sang the chorus hook for ‘Like it like That’ and on ‘Fantasy’ it was me speaking. I did not do much singing but it worked for him. At first hearing my voice it was like torture, and I cried but I had to grow because it’s not good to have no confidence in yourself. I became a regular guest singer/dancer in ‘Uncle’ Roy’s show and also got a dancing gig for jazz legend Ornette Coleman for four years. I became his muse, toured with him and his band called Prime Time. I was in the videos and when I danced they played off me and my movements, me the south London girl. (Wunmi laughs). It doesn’t get any better than that.

That brings us to the end of the 1990’s and I remember getting a call from your manager to DJ for you at The Jazz Cafe and that was probably the last time we saw each other.

The next thing I knew I’m was watching TV at my mum’s house and I hear this song ‘Radar Du’. I had to wait till the program ended to read the credits which stated it was Osunlade and Wunmi. Wunmi starts singing “Jack Ya Boots Up Baby.” I had to go down to Honest Jons and buy it instantly that same day or the next.

Before that I had done a track with Master’s At Work after getting a call via my manager from Louie Vega. I said, “Someone is pulling your leg.” It was called ‘Maw Expensive a tribute to Fela’. (Fitzroy: I don’t know that one.) When you hear it you’re going to cry because it has all the best Latin players on it. ‘Uncle’ Roy had persuaded me to stay in the USA in 1999 and when Fela Kuti died, I got the call from Louie. They had just done an album with India and Jocelyn Brown and now they wanted me. Yeah right. I called Caron Wheeler and told her Louie was looking for a vocalist, that’s how much I couldn’t believe they wanted me. (Wunmi and Fitzroy both had to take 30 seconds to stop laughing.

Once off the road with Uncle Roy, I stated hanging out at jam sessions in

Manhattan. At this point in time there were a lot of French African Musicians in NY! The likes of Richard Bona, Juju Quo, Francis Mbappe to name a few. One day I finally got on the mic and just started singing on a Fela tune, I never looked back, and from then on everyone was consistently waiting for me to sing. I started doing clubs with my own band in New York and killing it performance wise, and venues which were once only R&B now had Afrobeat /world music nights.

I was trying to get a song together with Body & Soul’s Joe Clausell, but couldn’t get hold of him for love nor money.

However it was him that saw my band and me perform and told Louie Vega about me. MAW were looking to do a fusion of ‘Expensive’ and ‘Upside Down’. With my band I was already doing ‘Upside Down’ so I told my band that I wanted them to come with me, to do the track with Louie. I think Louie had only planned for me to do the chorus hook but we did it one time, the whole track and in 1999 anywhere they played Afro, that was the track that was tearing the clubs up. Another joke was because I’d done this with Masters At Work no one would touch me because they thought I was in their camp. I went to the music conference in Miami and I came on after Kenny Lattimore and I was very nervous, it was so surreal and I had to go in front of all of these people and perform. Me, the shy girl. It went really well and that’s when MAW said we got to do a follow up and that is where ‘Ekabo’ comes i n .

So now like with ‘Uncle’ Roy I realised that’s what they wanted from me, just to go in quick do my parts and ad-libs.

LOOK OUT FOR PART TWO

THANKS TO WUNMI’S MANAGER JENNIFER FOR SUPPLYING THE PHOTO’S

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Saturday 22nd April - Good vibes DJ Graham Brown soulful house jazz latin& Nusoul – Olby’s, Margate (see advert) Saturday 22nd April - Osunlade and Friends – 10PM5AM – Kamio, 1 Riverton St, London, EC2A 3D (see advert)

What's going on?

APRIL Saturday 8th April – Patrick Forge & Perry Louis jazz, boogie, Afro, Latin & Cuban – Olby’s, Margate (see advert) Friday 14th April - The Long Groove Friday – 10PM–4AM - Dez Parkes, Dezzi D, Fitzroy, Soul Survivors – The Crowndale, 65 Crowndale Road, Camden (see advert)

Saturday 22nd April - Soul By The Jetty St Georges Day Special - DJ’s Jonny Layton, Marke Messant, Brian Kelly & Tony Fernandez (see advert) Friday 28th April - Kandace Springs in concert - Salford Keyes The Lowry Saturday 29th April - Push Raw Funk feat Eli on vocals - Guest DJ Fitzroy Soul Survivors – Olby’s, Margate (see advert)

MAY Tuesday 2nd May - Kandace Springs in concert Attenbourough Centre For The Creative Arts, Brighton (see advert) Friday 5th May - Kandace Springs in concert - Sage Two Gateshead (see advert)

Sunday 16th April - Silver Ghost Live & DJ Jerome Anderson 20’s & 50’s music – Olby’s, Margate (see advert)

Saturday 6th May - Kandace Springs in concert Shoreditch Town Hall (see advert)

Bank Holiday Easter Monday 17th April – Bless The Funk – 2PM-7PM (see advert)

Friday 26th & Saturday 27th May - Margate Mod & Sixties Festival - James Hunter Six - The Pretty Things – Olby’s, Margate (see advert)

Page 46 - Issue 69

JUNE Friday 16th June to Sunday 18th June – The Blackpool International Soul Festival 2 – Winter Gardens, Blackpool (see advert) Saturday 24th June - Summer Soulstice feat Shaun Escoffery, Aisling Iris, Push £30 11am-11pm OE’s Memorial Playing Fields Gypsy, May Lane Barnet EN5 2AG (see advert) Thursday 29th June – Joyce Sims – 30th Year Anniversary UK Tour – London – Hideaway (see advert) Friday 30th June - Joyce Sims – 30th Year Anniversary UK Tour – London – Hideaway (see advert)

JULY Saturday 1st July - Skagate Weekend, The Clarendonians - Olby’s, Margate (see advert) Sunday 2nd July - Joyce Sims – 30th Year Anniversary UK Tour – Leicester – 2Funky Music Cafe – see advert Thursday 6th July - Joyce Sims – 30th Year Anniversary UK Tour – Birmingham – Hare & Hounds (see advert) Friday 7th July - Joyce Sims – 30th Year Anniversary UK Tour – Cambridge – Junction – see advert Saturday 8th July - Joyce Sims – 30th Year Anniversary UK Tour – Manchester – Band on the Wall (see advert) Saturday 8th July - Roachford Live In Concert – Olby’s, Margate (see advert)

NOVEMBER Saturday 18th November - Music Without Labels presents - A New Night To Remember 7PM-1AM with Josh Milan, Dr Bob Jones, David Lyn, Paul Garland, Steve Laming - Tickets £20 at Rum & Sugar - No1 Warehouse, West India Quay, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4AL (see advert)

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