RIBS Archives: Side Effect, Crusaders & Swing Out Sister…
Filed under: R&B, RIBS, Triple Play Thurs-Day, jazz, podcasts/mixes, soul
Time has been tight over here at the RIBS kitchen lately. So this week I thought I’d pull a mix out of the RIBS Archives and replay it for you. Back in November, 2007 we presented to you: Side Effect, The Crusaders and Swing Out Sister. If you were with me way back then, hopefully you’ll enjoy this one again. If you are relatively new to RIBS, then I think you are in for a real treat today…
Man I think we’ve got us a real good one this week!
While it’s always fun putting together a new mix, sometimes the vibe you get from the combination of music selections feels like something special. It’s one of those things that you can’t exactly explain or put your finger on… but it is definitely there. Today’s TPTD is one of those kinds of mixes. Overall, I’d characterize this one as having that “jazzy” feel to it, although I think you’ll find enough toe-tapping rhythms in this one that you’ll be hard pressed t keep still while it’s playing.
This week we present to you:
Side Effect: What do Sylvia Nabors, Helen Lowe, Sylvia St. James, Miki Howard and Elaine Gibbs have in common? They all have, at one time or another, been the lead singer with the group Side Effect. It seems like with every new release there was a new female member of the group (although I believe Sylvia St. James actually recorded on two consecutive albums for the group!). Even with all of the various leads, Side Effect always had, IMHO, just the right mix of soulful rhythms and jazz influences to produce a dynamic, enjoyable sound.
Most of our SE selections are from their What You Need album, their first release on the Fantasy Records label. Helen Lowe is the lead singer on this one. My first taste of the group was the fantastic vocal version of Ronnie Laws’ Always There. Man, just listen to Helen blow it out on that one. Even better though is the final SE track in the mix S.O.S. Wow! I have to admit even though I’ve had this album since it first came out, I completely overlooked this song until now. And speaking of covers, Side Effect’s version of Toto’s Georgy Porgy just had to be included. My second favorite SE song after Always There.
The Crusaders: Joe Sample, Stix Hooper, Wilton Felder and Wayne Henderson. Also known for a time (1961-1970) by the name The Jazz Crusaders, this group is legendary (IMHO). Their jazz-funk style that they adopted in the early 70s right around the time they shortened their name to just “The Crusaders”, produced some of my favorite jazz music that I remember from my college days. Street Life for example (released in 1979, sorry not in this mix; gotta wait for a Crusaders ‘double-triple’ for that one), is a classic that sounds just as good today as when it was first released.
For today’s mix though we have some of my other Crusaders favorites: their fantastic instrumental cover of Carol King’s So Far Away, the funky Put It Where you Want It and Chain Reaction, the beautiful It Happens Every Day and my favorite Crusaders cut, And Then There Was The Blues. You how there are just some songs you never get tired of hearing and you can listen to them over and over and over again? ATTWTB is that kind of song to me. I’m so familiar with it that I tried not to include in the mix. No, really. I really did. Oh well, guess I didn’t win that battle, eh? {smile}
Swing Out Sister: I just love Corinne Drewery’s singing voice. Can’t tell you exactly why, but I just love to listen to her sing. Are they Jazz? Are they Pop? Soul? R&B? Smooth Jazz? The actuality of it is that SOS combines elements of all these genres, plus some others. The other interesting aspect of the group is how time and again they tend to tinker with their production and arrangements, essentially reinventing themselves with each release of new material.
While I love their original hits, Breakout, Surrender and Twilight World, there just wasn’t room in the mix to include them (looks like there may have to be a special SOS ‘double-triple’ in the future also). I did manage to squeeze in Waiting Game, couldn’t have omitted that one! Swing Out Sister also has a knack for producing quality interpretations of other artists’ songs, imbuing them with a freshness that more than does justice to the original. Just check out their versions of Dusty Springfield’s Am I The Same Girl?, the Delfonics’ La La (Means I Love You) and the Fifth Dimensions’ Stoned Soul Picnic.
RIBS TPTD: Side Effect, The Crusaders, Swing Out Sister
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Playlist:
- Side Effect - Always There
- The Crusaders - Put It Where You Want It
- Swing Out Sister - Waiting Game
- Side Effect - Keep That Same Old Feeling
- The Crusaders - Chain Reaction
- Swing Out Sister - Am I The Same Girl
- Side Effect - Georgy Porgy
- The Crusaders - So Far Away
- Swing Out Sister - La La (Means I Love You)
- Side Effect - Do Your Thing
- The Crusaders - It Happens Every Day
- Swing Out Sister - Stoned Soul Picnic
- Side Effect - S.O.S.
- The Crusaders - And Then There Was The Blues
Have you missed any of the RIBS mixes we’ve posted? If you have there is now an easy way to catch up on what we’ve been up to. Just go check out the new RIBS Archives Page to see a very easy to read listing of every post (and music mix) we’ve uploaded to the site.
Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: soul, TPTD, playlist, mp3, mp3blog, soul music, jazz, Rhythms In Black Satin, RIBS
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Comments
2 Comments on RIBS Archives: Side Effect, Crusaders & Swing Out Sister…
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tgrundy (tgrundy) on
Thu, 17th Sep 2009 10:20 am
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El Slick on
Mon, 21st Sep 2009 6:25 am
RIBS: one from the Archives… Side Effect, The Crusaders & Swing Out Sister - [link to post]
- Posted using Chat Catcher
FYI!
Side Effect’s Helen Lowe is actually world renown gospel singer Helen Baylor.
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