Skip to content

James Gilstrap – Love Talk (1976) (Roxbury Records RLX 105)

James Gilstrap – Love Talk
1976 Roxbury Records RLX 105

Jim Gilstrap is better known as a backup singer, but Stevie Wonder fans might know him for singing the first verse of “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life”, which also makes him the first voice you hear on the epic Talking Book.  His name appears on tons of albums. You can see a partial list of his session credits here , where you can see that he was very busy in the 1970s, working in the worlds of rock, soul, jazz, and funk.  The fact that Gene Page did the arranging on this record is also worth noting. This album, which has never appeared on CD, is a nice, short set of soulful disco-funk, and the mellow version of Todd Rundgren’s “Hello, It’s Me” has me wondering if Prince ever covered the song on solo piano.James Gilstrap – Love Talk (1976) (Roxbury Records RLX 105)

Billy Paul – 360 Degrees of Billy Paul (1972)

Billy Paul – 360 Degrees Of Billy Paul
1972 Philadelphia International Records ZX 31793
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/96kHz | FLAC |  Art scans at 300 dpi
932 MB (24/96) + 297 MB (16/44) |  Genre: Soul, Funk

Dr. Vibes 12 Days of Christmas – Day 10 – Second day in a row that I’m featuring somebody who I’ve wanted to feature here for years, but never have. Billy Paul, who passed only a few years ago,  without a doubt had the biggest hit of his career off this record, and one of the most famous soul hits of the 70s, “Me and Mrs. Jones”.  They had a thing goin’ on.  Lots of people with lots of different memories tucked away between the notes of that classic.    The whole record is prime cut Philly soul from start to finish though.  Some great Gamble & Huff originals and the cover tunes are extraordinary – Carole King’s “It’s Too Late” and Elton John’s “Your Song”, both covered by scads of other artists, get a top-shelf Billy Paul treatment here.

Billy Paul – 360 Degrees of Billy Paul (1972)

João Donato & Deodato – DonatoDeodato (1973)

João Donato & Deodato – DonatoDeodato
1973 Muse Records MR 5017
Vinyl rip in 24 bit 192 khz | Art at  300 dpi
24-bit 192 khz – 1.22 GB | 24 bit 96 khz – 645 MB | 220 MB 16-bit 44.1 khz
Jazz-Funk – Latin – Brazilian

 

Dr. Vibes’ 12 Days of Christmas – Day 5:  Quite a lineup on this short gem of a record. I mean, if I could have added Chuck Rainey, Idris Muhammad, and Phil Upchurch to it, it would have been PERFECT but heck, I’ll take this…  This is a nice, short, mildly psychedelic jazz-funk gem, if not quite the explosive results you might expect for a meeting of the minds like Donato & Deodato.  Ray Barretto and Airto are kept on kind of a short leash, for example.  Considering the total album time clocks in at around 30 minutes, one wonders why they couldn’t have stretched out a little more on a few of these tunes.  The band surely could have handled it.

João Donato & Deodato – DonatoDeodato (1973)

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson – From South Africa To South Carolina (1975)

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson
From South Africa to South Carolina
1975 Arista Records AL 4044

01 Johannesburg 4:47
02 A Toast To The People 5:45
03 The Summer Of ’42 4:38
04 Beginnings (The First Minute Of A New Day) 5:36
05 South Carolina (Barnwell) 4:33
06 Essex 9:19
07 Fell Together 4:26
08 A Lovely Day 3:25Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson – From South Africa To South Carolina (1975)