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Lou Johnson passed away this week after a long illness caused by a severe stroke many years ago. I only ever met him via the phone but he was so warm and welcoming, I felt I knew him well. I also got on famously with his wife Linda, as we had something in common – Lou was our favourite singer.

Dave Bartholomew, who did so much to create the New Orleans R&B sound and in turn rock ’n’ roll—especially his recordings with Fats Domino—died in Metairie, just outside New Orleans on June 23 at the age of 100.  He was born up the Mississippi River in Edgard, Louisiana, some 30 miles from the Crescent City, on December, 24, 1918.

Mary Love Remembered

Ace has been in the R&B business since the early 80s when LPs from the likes of Huey Smith, Earl King, Rosco Gordon and Ike Turner were released. In 1982 our Kent label kicked off with “For Dancers Only” and “For Dancers Also”, inspired by my and Randy Cozens’ 6TS Rhythm ‘N’ Soul Society functions. Alongside the soul sounds the LPs featured tracks by Lowell Fulson, Z. Z. Hill, Vernon Garrett, Ike & Tina and Johnny Otis all of which were on the R&B side. Kent continued to feature R&B sides on its label-based CDs of Carnival, Excello and Poncello and there were compilations from R&B giants Chess - “Chess Club Rhythm & Soul” and Atlantic - “At The Club” devoted to where R&B met soul.

In 2001 Kent came up with “New Breed” to describe the sort of R&B records that were getting played on the emerging dance scene frequented primarily by second-generation Mods and Northern Soul dropouts. The increased interest led to prices of the most popular dancefloor plays rising; vintage music fans, record collectors and dealers took notice. A high percentage of the spins were from the early 60s, a period which had been somewhat overlooked by traditional blues collectors. As black music began to experiment with different productions, instrumentation and backing vocals, many collectors felt the music had been bastardised and any pop tendency was looked down on. Some stunning records with poppy choruses or heavily featured organs and the like were overlooked by collectors but this new dance scene was paying more attention to the beat than the virtuosity of the guitarist so a sub-genre came about. Ace having purchased Modern and Kent records in 1990, that catalogue was a natural one to mine for our first foray specifically targeting the new scene. With the help of Manchester’s Hideaway club DJs we put an impressive collection of R&B together and adopted the “New Breed” moniker of Jimmy Holiday’s 1967 Kent release of the same name. It was an appropriate raver of a record that summed up the burgeoning scene’s vitality and freshness.

The CD was very well received and within months “New Breed” was being used as a term for this new approach to black music. A year later we delved into the vaults of King and Federal records, an even better source with monsters such as Mike Pedecin’s ‘Burnt Toast And Black Coffee’, Little Willie John ‘I’m Shakin’’ and Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s ‘I Say I Love You’. Running parallel with interest in the blues was the influence of the Belgium-originated Popcorn scene in the UK. These records were more mid-tempo than what would normally be played here but Popcorners had a thirty year history even then. Their DJs had discovered some sublime black music grooves from this very period over those years. They were not averse to slowing down records that did not fit their perfect dance groove, so some were already suited for UK plays at the correct rpm. Many of the black Popcorn records were accepted onto the New Breed scene simply because they were brilliant, previously overlooked tunes. The mod end of the crowd in particular had no trouble adapting to them.

So in 2008 we brought out the CD “New Breed R&B with Added Popcorn” with tracks like Nappy Brown’s ‘Coal Miner’ and Harold Atkins’ ‘Big Ben’ which fitted neatly with the raucous R&B of Banny Price’s ‘You Love Me Pretty Baby’ and Luther Ingram’s dancefloor sensation ‘Oh Baby Don’t You Weep’. In 2012 we produced a second volume from the deep King vaults and the following year saw “New Breed Blues With Black Popcorn” emphasising the musical hue of Popcorn on there.

Some of the tracks used on the Various Artists CDs were tasters to label stories or solo projects that usually appeared on our Ace label. The Tiny Topsy and Lula Reed shared CD of their Federal recordings was sub-titled “Queens Of New Breed R&B”. Little Willie John’s R&B sound is a cornerstone of New Breed and Ace has four solo CDs riddled with dance classics. Kent Harris’ early productions were spotlighted on “Kent Harris’ R&B Family” Ace CD in 2012 and “Foxy R&B; Richard Stamz Chicago Blues” on the same label the following year, was mainly mid to uptempo R&B that would entertain New Breeders with a hunger.

By the time of those releases younger collectors who had been attracted to the new dance scene were broadening their interests and inevitably finding the wonderful music of the previous decade. Ace of course had been issuing exactly that throughout its thirty plus years and compilations by Etta James, Young Jessie, 5 Royales, Hank Ballard and Otis Williams were just some of the many compilations that would widen the R&B experience. The recently released Ace CD “Cracking The Cosimo Code” is an education in New Orleans R&B as well as a great listen.

Ace and Kent continue to lead the way in all things R&B with our access to master tapes, issued or unheard. We continue to find musical gems, frequently making their first digital (sometimes any) appearance.

The vaults of Scepter, Wand and Musicor were the first to which we gained unlimited access. The great thing about that from a personal point of view was that my co-founder of the 6Ts soul club, Randy Cozens, had championed Scepter and Wand since the mid-60s. Wand’s main acts, Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown, were the most played and revered artists to feature at our dances.

Florence Greenberg had formed the labels in the late 50s, recording mainly black acts from the New York area. The success of the company was guaranteed once the Shirelles began a string of hits in 1960 with the chart-topper ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’. An astute businesswoman with a great feel for the music, Florence knew to employ the cream of producers, arrangers and songwriters available and could hustle with the best of them. This was shown with her purchase of Maxine Brown’s contract from the major ABC label when her career there stalled.

Florence’s ability to get some of the best songs from the Brill Building and 1650 Broadway writers was demonstrated in the stream of pop-soul masterpieces that she secured for Dionne Warwick from the hottest composers in town, Bacharach and David. Scepter also boasted Tommy Hunt, whose record ‘Human’ was a big R&B hit, and later pop singer B.J. Thomas, who sold millions of records in the second half of the 60s. Those major talents were augmented by acts such as Rosco Robinson, Freddie Hughes and Nella Dodds, as well as great one-miss-wonders Jack Montgomery, Wally Cox, the Ivorys and the Gentleman Four.

The first few various artist compilations Kent issued featured mainly the lesser-known acts whose discs had been adopted by the Northern Soul scene. There were also solo sets from Chuck Jackson, Maxine Brown, Tommy Hunt and the Shirelles. In 1984 we gained access to the Nashville-housed master tapes and unearthed a slew of wonderful unissued recordings. To British soul fans’ ears it was almost criminal that they had been deemed not good enough for public consumption. Tracks from Maxine, Chuck, the Shirelles, Tommy, Bettye Lavette, Maurice Williams and others helped revitalise a sub-culture that had struggled through the early 80s.

Playing an equal part in this belated New York soul explosion was the Musicor catalogue. Musicor sported the Platter’s stunning mid-60s period, Porgy & the Monarchs, Jimmy Radcliffe, Sammy Ambrose and a single by the young Melba Moore. By the mid-70s, Melba’s 45 had enjoyed enough plays on the UK’s soul dance circuit to warrant bootlegging, but it was the discovery of the third track from the session, the soulful original version of ‘The Magic Touch’ (as recorded by the Bobby Fuller Four), which shook the rare soul world. With all the qualities of the best Wigan Casino dancers, it became massive across the UK’s Northern scene and quickly spread via scooterists and mods right across Europe. Coming at the peak of that first Euro soul movement, it was one of the key records to convert so many devoted soul fans.