Tony and Reality-Reality
Reality originating from Summer 70 was the first Caribbean latin funk group in Amsterdam and even the whole of the Netherlands. With their self-titled debut album, Franky Douglas (guitar), Tony Sherman (vocals), Roël Burnet (percussion), Glenn Gaddum (organ) and Leslie Vos (vocals) presented a highlight in the burgeoning Dutch latin, funk & soul scene. Just like the second album Tony And Reality, the LP has become a coveted collector’s item that people paid large sums of money for. Pseudonym Records is very proud to present the first legitimate reissues of Reality, remastered from the original tapes, and with the full cooperation of the band. From now on, Reality’s music is available to everyone. The album Reality (1972), with the sensitive and still up-to-date War, contains the original artwork. Reality later continued under the name Solat.
Nat Turner Rebellion-Laugh to Keep From Crying
“Lost” album from a Philly Groove Records artist, originally recorded in 1969. Remastered from the original tapes for the Vinyl Me, Please subscription service.
Sonny Clark Trio-the 1960 Time Sessions
Sonny Clark’s reputation as one of the finest jazz pianists of his era has grown in recent years, with many folks rediscovering his classic Blue Note recordings like ‘Cool Struttin’, ‘Dial ‘S’ for Sonny’, ‘Leapin’ and Lopin’, as well as session work with Lee Morgan, Grant Green and others. Cut down by heroin addiction at age 31 in 1961, Clark’s legacy continues to expand.
The Time sessions were produced by the late Bob Shad, owner of Time and Mainstream Records. The reissue includes the original Time album re-mastered from the original tapes by Dave Donnelly, plus an extra disc of alternate takes previously unavailable on vinyl. Nat Hentoff wrote the original liner notes, included in the reissue package, and former New York Times critic Ben Ratliff contributes a new 3500-word essay.
9th Creation-A Step Ahead
In 1980, the 9th Creation began working on new music at a Modesto studio, South East of Stockton. The studio was suspiciously cheaper than all of its competitors. After recording weeks of material, the band discovered the reason. ‘We didn’t know that the guys that were running the studio were drug dealers,’ A.D. Burrise recalls. ‘There was a big raid.’ All the studio’s master tapes were confiscated by the DEA. J.D Burrise unsuccessfully sued the DEA to recover the tapes but to no avail. Luckily Mike Micenheimer saved cassette mix-downs of some of the group’s songs from those sessions. ‘A Step Ahead’ is the the 9th Creation’s lost album. 8 unreleased songs of pure soul, funk, disco and boogie.
We are proud to present this lost album for the first time. The ultra talented Jacob Arnold also wrote the complete story of the band that we are presenting with never seen before pictures.
Finally the CD version includes bonus tracks from the Love Crime 12′, the Mellow Music 7′ and 3 previously unreleased (rough) demos.
New Tutenkhamen-Wish You Were Mine
New Tutenkhamen recorded I WISH YOU WERE MINE at Teal Records, produced by Crispen Matema, a talented jazz drummer in his own right who had played drums on the all-time classic “Skokiaan”, and had backed Louis Armstrong on his 1960 Rhodesia visit. Combining the heavyweight producing talents of Matema and the writing chops of Josamu, the New Tutenkhamen band created an album showcasing various musical styles popular at the time.
From the afro-jazz jam session aesthetics of “Tutenkhamen Theme”, “Big Brother Malcom” and “Forever Together”, to the almost Van Morrison-sounding “Sunday Morning”; from the upbeat rock ballad “True Love”, to the funk-infused dance song “Togetherness”; from the bouncy jazz exhortations to work hard in “Ane Nungo”, to the brassy, raunchy foot-stomper “Me & Dolly”. The title track “I Wish You Were Mine” is a ska-infused ballad that wouldn’t be out of place in post-war Birmingham, while the star of the show is “Joburg Bound”, itself a fast-paced rock piece with Motown undertones and funky guitar lines.
The New Tutenkhamen eventually moved from Mushandirapamwe Hotel to Saratoga, and then to the Kambuzuma Garden Party Hotel. The liberation war was intensifying, and one anecdote has a young schoolboy seeing the New Tutenkhamen band at the Garden Party Hotel, the Friday night before taking the train to Mutare, from where he crossed over to Mozambique to join the liberation war.
With intra-party fighting creating designated areas of political influence in the townships, patronage dwindled and the New Tutenkhamen’s shows were affected, with members gradually moving on.
As a collective effort, I WISH YOU WERE MINE provides a fascinating insight into a fraught time in Zimbabwe’s history, and the bands plying their trade through the turmoil, making music for young people, by young people.
Bobby Freeman-C’mon and S-W-I-M
Bobby Freeman’s energetic vocals punctuated two R&B dance hits in the late ’50s and mid-’60s. The San Francisco performer started the Romancers as a 14-year-old and later formed the West Coast Vocaleers, whose sound was much more pop-oriented than the Harlem group of the same name. Freeman’s single “Do You Want to Dance” just missed topping the R&B charts in 1958, staying at number two for two weeks (number five pop). It was one of three hits he enjoyed that year on Josie, although “Betty Lou Got a New Pair of Shoes” and “Need Your Love” only reached numbers 20 and 29, respectively. “C’mon and Swim” parlayed the 1964 dance craze into his second Top Ten R&B hit, reaching number five. But the follow-up went to the water once too often, as “S-W-I-M” fizzled at number 56. Both were for Autumn. It was also Freeman’s final visit to the R&B charts.
Soul Donuts 