In the early 1960s, through the patronage of Choker Campbell, Joe Evans
spent seven months living in one of Berry Gordy’s old houses in Detroit.
He was playing with the Funk Brothers on recording dates, performing
concerts in local auditoriums and touring the country with the first
Motown Revue. This experience showed him how successful black music
could become and he took the Hitsville set-up as a blueprint for his own
Carnival label. Undoubtedly Joe learned a lot from his Detroit stay and
this CD captures most of his Motown moments. The Manhattans were his “children” whom
he nurtured from their inception. When they left Carnival for what they
thought was a bigger company (but was merely a revival of the old Deluxe
label) it tore the heart out of his dream and his company. Joe Evans’ autobiography recalls the tragedy of George “Smitty” Smith’s (one of the manhattans)
death from a brain haematoma in 1970, it also reveals that it is Joe
playing the flute on the group’s ‘There Goes A Fool’, featured here. It is the lesser acts that get the most tracks on this CD. Newark
schoolteacher Phil Terrell only ever recorded three singles and all were
on Carnival. ‘Love Has Passed Me By’ was a huge record at the 100 Club Allnighter in london in the mid-80s and his other two contributions ‘I’ll Erase You
(From My Heart)’ and ‘I’m Just A Young Boy’ are so good they will surely
have their day soon. The Pretenders also get a trio of tracks and they
start with a storming version of the Manhattans’ biggest 60s hit ‘I
Wanna Be (Your Everything)’ before morphing into a classic 70s “modern
soul” group with ‘I Call It Love’ (also ex-Manhattans) and the Kent
exclusive, previously unreleased (until 1995) shuffler ‘A Broken Heart
Cries’. Phil Terrell was brought to the label by Manhattan
Winfred “Blue” Lovett who also attracted Norma Jenkins and the Lovettes
to the stable. The Lovettes regularly backed the Manhattans and other
artists and could veer from the shimmering and seductive stomping sound
of ‘Little Miss Soul’ to the plaintive and pretty ‘I Need A Guy’. Blue
was a heck of a song writer, the most “on the fours” influenced of all
the Carnival composers and he delivered a catchy, soulful ‘Me, Myself
And I’ for Norma Jenkins that really should have launched her career. More motor city links are revealed on the Pets ‘I Say Yeah’, written by
Joe along with the pre-Golden World label Parliaments. They later
turned the music world around with their Cosmic funk. Southerner Little
Royal later showed his funky side but in 1967 he was all Stax grit and
grits, not unlike New Jersey brother Kenneth Ruffin whose ‘Cry, Cry,
Cry’ a year later also had that brass laden Memphis groove. Jimmy Jules was the epitome of the itinerant musician who started out in
Louisiana but took in New York, Denver, LA and Colorado Springs, among
many other places that offered his cookin’ band some live music action.
His self-penned ‘Don’t Let Yourself Go’ was either recorded in NJ or NO
or both, depending on whose story you plump for. The main thing is, it’s
a fine slab of soul. The small (two releases) Chadwick label
is represented by both its great 1966 dancers from the Metrics with
‘Wishes’ and the Topics with ‘Hey Girl (Where Are You Going)’, while
Florida’s Turner Brothers turn up with a song by George Kerr’s oppo
Gerald Harris whose ‘My Love Is Yours Tonight’ is a really great record. Joe Evans remembers being approached by Ace Records in the 90s
with a view to re-releasing his catalogue onto CD. He asked director
Trevor Churchill whether he was the same guy who used to write to him in
the 60s for record release information, and was answered in the
affirmative that clinched the deal. Theres an LP also a kind of best of but all tracks on there are on the 3 albums reviewed. On monday i will be reviewing Lee Williams & The Cymbals on an album with a few tracks not included on the Kent albums and that should wrap it up on carnival records with the important sides.
AMM
**********REQUEST**********
The Tasters!
19 comments:
Thanks for more Carnival Soul AMM!
Thank you for the upgrade in Flac AMM
And another carnival comp! Thanks for review, P.
Yes please! Liked the others! So thought I could have a mini Carnival!
Cheers!
Bill(b3will@msn.com)
Thanks for the info, AMM. Looking forward to the Lee Williams Review. Great stuff.
Love it.
As Alan Price once said... don't stop the Carnival :)
Many thanks AMM.
BigD
Cheers, AMM, a fine series.
Thanks AMM for the rides at the Carnival.
thanks much for this AMM
Sweetness! The Carnival seems to go on and on, thanks for that ;) ☮️✌🏻
Thank you for the review mate
Thanks AMM for another great Kent Comp
Yes please AMM
I'll never erase you (from my bookmarks)!
Thanks, AMM!
Well now the carnival is over but it not time to call it a day as we have a Lee Williams as noted coming are way thanks for this AMM
Cheers Pedro
Thank you AMM for more great soul.
Thanks AMM the Carnival series from KENT is tops
Thank you for inviting us to a Carnival. Thank you for some excellent artist. Thanks AMM.
Post a Comment