Don Gardner - The Story of Don Gardner (2014) + Booklet + Bonus Track - Rare R&B/Soul (FLAC)

Donald Gardner was born in 1931 in Philadelphia and passed 2018. Don first went to school for cooking, baking and restaurant management first. He had plans to follow a culinary career but fortunately for us, he was destined to be followed by music throughout his life. Most proper soul fans will know Don via his wonderful duets with Dee Dee Ford & baby washington. With Dee Dee Ford "I Nedd Your Lovin" The pure mix of old school R&B and  soul forced its way into the top 20 back in 1962 and though future success eluded the Philadelphian drummer and vocalist he continued to record right through the 60s. Don began singing in church but his first love was the drums and in the early 50s he formed his first band – The Three Bachelors, later renamed The Sonotones. Don played drums, Albert Cass played sax, Thornel Schwartz was guitarist and a young man called Jimmy Smith played organ! (Smith by the way was eventually replaced by Richard “Groove” Holmes). Signed to Bobby Robinson’s Fire label, he hit pay day as co-vocalist with Dee Dee Ford on the aforementioned ‘I Need You Lovin”. Two more years with the label were relatively barren so Gardner and band mates decamped to Sweden, cutting two live albums. On his return to the US he released numerous singles on a variety of labels and it’s the best of those singles and some of those live tracks that form the core of this album his only solo ever released. The sound is rough, raw and intoxicating. Several of the cuts are instrumentals and include versions of ‘Watermelon Man’ and ‘Take Five’ while some of the vocal cuts like a fabulous, live, in your-face version of ‘Heatwave’ featuring Beverly Glenn. The Gardner penned cuts are tremendous too and include ‘I Really Love You’ an unashamed attempt to recreate the magic of his big hit. Interestingly Don quit music in 1970 to become a builder, he helped remodel Curtis Mayfield’s house, but in the 80s he got back into music and till his death was President of the Philadelphia Clef Club Of Jazz. Its a shame he never released any solo albums but he liked singing with the girls! But those elusive dancers are all here.

AMM

                                                                       The Tasters!