Don Blackman

Don Blackman - Heart's Desire (HD)

Heart’s Desire  (1982)

Jazzy Funky Soul. Don Blackman was a session musician who worked with Earth, Wind and Fire among others. He wrote songs including Peanut Butter and Morning Sunrise.

Don Blackman

Earl Curry

EARL CURRY - ONE WHOLE YEAR BABY - RPM

One Whole Year Baby

A song that Georgie Fame had in his repertoire when he played at the Twisted Wheel.

Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt Plays [Full Album]

The Double O Soul Of Sonny Stitt

The great Jazz artist Sonny Stitt does his version of the Edwin Starr song. With the same orchestration and same backing vocal girls – well it was recorded at ED Wingate’s New World Studios at the same time as Edwin’s.

OO Soul and secret agent Soul of the sixties

Slim Moore and the Mar-Kays

Slim Moore and the Mar-Kays - How Long

Cool Breeze 

Great Jazzy Soul instrumental by Slim Moore and the Mar-Kays

HOW LONG

Single

Al Jarreau

Al Jarreau - Mornin' (Official Video)

Al Jarreau - Moonlilghting
Al Jarreau – Moonlighting

Moonlighting

Al Jarreau, well a great musician, most famous for the TV theme “Moonlighting” (1985-89) which he sang. A musician as well as a singer, he made many television appearances, having a good face for TV. He had a voice not dissimilar to Curtis Mayfield.

He had a musical family, mainly practised in the church – his father being a Seventh Day Adventist minister and singer, mother being a pianist.

He died of respiratory failure, just short of his 77th birthday.

Worked with Deodato on Double Face.

Al Jarreau - Eumir Deodato
Al Jarreau – Eumir Deodato

Born: March 12, 1940

Died: February 12, 2017

Al Jarreau – Wikipedia

Eumir Deodato

Eumir Deodato - Deodato 2 (1973) - Completo / Full Album (HQ)

Double Face

Eumir Deodato played with Al Jarreau on this great track. In fact, it is Eumir Deodato’s version of Richard Strauss’s  Thus Sprach Zarathustra.

Eumir Deodato
Eumir Deodato – Double Face

The recording was a big instrumental hit in 1973.

Eumir Deodato – Wikipedia

Sarah Vaughan – Smooth Operator

Sarah Vaughan - Misty (Live from Sweden) Mercury Records 1964

SMOOTH OPERATOR (1958)

She likes it like that and so do we. Sarah Vaughan was a fantastic singer. Great voice and vocalisation. Of course regarded as a great Jazz artist, this one’s certainly got Soul.

As well as having a distinctive and appealing voice, she was an accomplished pianist, having started learning at the age of seven. Another star who came from a religious family and whose career started off in church.

In more recent times, singers such as Amy Winehouse were heavily influence by her sound and in particular, her musical phrasing.

Sarah Vaughan

Born: March 27, 1924

Died: April 3, 1990

Sarah Vaughan – Wikipedia

Jo Ann Henderson

Jo Ann Henderson Baby Please Don't Go

BABY PLEASE DON’T GO

Jo Ann Henderson was a Jazz Blues singer from the late 1940’s early fifties.

This record was updated by the Northern Ireland group Them in 1965 with Van Morrison singing lead vocals. It was a standard that many blues artists used to sing including Muddy Waters and Joe Turner. It reached number ten in the UK pop charts And was a very good version with excellent guitar and organ work. This version by Jo Ann Henderson is more of a jazz treatment and if you didn’t know her voice, you could swear it was Shirley Bassey!

The song by THEM was used as the intro To Ready Steady Go a TV show about pop culture in the UK in the Sixties.

Jo Ann Henderson – discography

Eddie Bishop – Call Me – Northern Soul?

Eddie Bishop - Call Me

Call Me

The weird, strange world of Northern Soul includes Call Me by Eddie Bishop:

Kev Roberts is puzzled as to why this was/is popular on the Northern Soul scene. Well, even so I guess for accuracy of the 45’s that influenced and made that second Soul scene. He puts it in at 312 on his Top 500: Really?  

Eddie Bishop – aint No Soul

Amazing; a Tony Hatch song – Petula Clarke, Lulu and many pop artists were involved with this song. It must be one of the most covered songs – ever! (See the list by Secondhand Songs below). At least this is an instrumental. Yes it’s got a nice dance beat but it ain’t half not Soul: no way, no how and would never never, never ever have got played on our original scene. call us Soul elitists? Certainly!

Call Me – List of Versions – SecondHandSongs

WHAT IS SOUL?

Derek and Ray

Derek And Ray - Interplay


Interplay

Harpsichord sounding instrumental from Derek and Ray but is this Soul?

Even Kev Roberts is not too sure, but due to its ‘strange’ popularity on that strange Northern Soul scene, he puts it at 212: enough said.