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"CALIFORNIA
SOUL"
California’s
rich social fabric has given the world some amazing soul music.
Tower of Power, Santana, Sly and The Family Stone and Shuggie
Otis – the list is endless. Our compilation includes some
of the more hard-to-find moments featuring unreleased 7”s
and vinyl album-only soul, Latin, jazz and funk cuts recorded
as early as the mid-1960s through and into the early 1980s. This
slice of California’s underground musical history was assembled
by the Luv N’Haight rare groove digging crew, which means
that not only are the tunes preserved and made widely available
but also artists were tracked down and properly paid. This is
not a bootleg, this is a dedication to the soulful sounds of California.
Linda Tillery wrote and released “Freedom Time” in 1977
for her self-titled album on Olivia Records, at the time a Los
Angeles-based label dedicated to giving women access to the music
industry. The company, now based in Oakland and primarily dealing
in the women’s travel industry, was exclusively women-run.
Women made the music and Olivia Records offered technical training
and job opportunities to women. According to the original album
liner notes all profits from record sales went to paying Olivia
Records employees salaries and helping fund the building of their
own studio – to be run by women, of course. Tillery is still
active in the music industry, at the time of writing she was touring
Europe with her band the Cultural Heritage Choir.
Sweet Stuff and The Cool Sounds both come from the Soultown record
label run by Bobby Sanders, himself a producer and occasional
singer with the classic California soul group The Younghearts.
Sanders nearly laughed himself out of his seat when we called
to license the Sweet Stuff version of Leon Haywood’s “Freaky
(To You)”. Apparently it had been a while since anyone had
mentioned the track. Unfortunately for Sanders and Sweet Stuff,
this wasn’t the one-hit-wonder he was hoping for. Sanders
and Haywood have been friends for over 30 years, but Sanders is
pretty sure that even Haywood won’t remember this cover version.
“He was too into his own sound!” jokes Sanders.
The Cool Sounds pull out an awesome Marvin Gaye-like soulful but
apocalyptic warning song – something that Sanders sent us
on a cd-r, “just in case we might be interested” –
hell yeah! Sanders was only 19 when he released the Sweet Stuff
7”. “I wanted to be the new Berry Gordy with Soultown
and my other label Pick-A-Hit Records, “ he says. “I
was the youngest kid doin’ this stuff.” Sanders had
hits with McKinley Travis “Baby Is There Something on Your
Mind” and Lil’ Helen who at 12 years old sang “The
Richest Girl”. Sanders explains that back then Record Hops
were the way to promote music. Every Friday he would take music
and bands into schools and the buzz he’d create allowed him
to get radio play. “It was much easier to break an act back
then,” laments Sanders.
Courtial is the second band on this compilation, after Linda Tillery,
to record at Wally Heiders San Francisco studio. Their “Don’t
You Think It’s Time” album came out a year before Tillery's
album in 1976. William Courtial lead the band, which also featured
awesome bay area vocalist Errol Knowles, perhaps better known
for his work on the Azteca albums or Coke Escovedo's “I Would
Not Change A Thing”. Both Knowles and Courtial went on to
join the group Chela with Mike Clarke and Paul Jackson of the
Headhunters. Between the Courtial band members they amassed appearances
and collaborations with acts like Esther Satterfield, Jimmy Buffett,
Solar Plexus, Ivory Joe Hunter and the John Betsch Society. We
need to offer our thanks to Pam Courtial, one of William Courtial’s
ex-wives, who turned us onto his current whereabouts and coincidentally
lives right around the corner from our recently-opened offices
in Newport Beach.
Ike White wins best liner notes of all the records featured here.
He features a quote from Stevie Wonder and thanks to Superintendent
Jerry Enomoto of the California Department of Corrections “whose
help made the project possible”. Despite being in jail White’s
“Changin’ Times” album was recorded and released
in 1976 on the LA International label – also home to West
Coast Revival who’s version of “Feelin’ Alright”
can be found on the band’s self-titled album in 1977. Jerry
Goldstein produced both Ike White and West Coast Revival, he was
also the producer behind the seminal California soul-funk-rock-Latin
band War. Legend has it that vocalist Eric Burdon used to crash
on Goldstein’s couch before hooking up with the War. Goldstein
also had a hand in writing 2 huge pop hits - “Hang On Sloopy”
and “I Want Candy”.
"Patience" was recorded in 1976 as the lead single to
an album by Rokk. The album was never finished because producer
Calvin Carter became too ill. A handful of promotional copies
of “Patience” were distributed but the song has otherwise
never the seen light of day. Label owner Betty Chiappetta had
high hopes for Rokk and looked to re-launch her Tollie label with
the band’s success. Unfortunately when Carter fell ill the
band disappeared and the almost-completed Rokk album is still
in Chiappetta’s possession.
Tollie, coincidentally named after Carter’s son, was set-up
by parent company Vee-Jay who owned the rights to the Beatles
early material. Vee-Jay had so much success with Beatles album
material that radio stations were complaining about having too
many Vee-Jay releases in their charts. Chiappetta set-up the sub-label
as an outlet for the singles. Tollie went out of business when
an impending suit with Capitol over rights to the Beatles went
sour for Vee-Jay. Thanks to Los Angeles-based record hunter Mike
Vague who turned us on to the song and label. Thanks to Egon (Stones
Throw) for turning us on to Mike!
Roy Porter, Mike James Kirkland, and the Sons and Daughters of
Lite have all made several appearances on Luv N’Haight, helping
us establish ourselves as an archive label with the platters that
matter. Sadly Porter is no longer with us, but the tremendous
drumming skills honed in South Central LA live on in music like
“Party Time” – check the breaks! Be sure to seek-out
the B+ documentary “Keep In Time,” which gives Porter
plenty o’props and features Porter speaking in the end-sequence.
Or read Porters story in his own words in “There and Back,”
published by Bayou Press.
Mike James Kirkland’s background was in doo-wop and gospel.
Moving from Yazoo City, Mississipi to Los Angeles opened up Kirkland’s
ears to a world of new music. He and his brother Bob started Bryan
records and released Kirkland’s two ultra-rare but super
soulful albums “Doin’ It Right” and “Hang
On In There”. Apparently Kirkland’s records may never
have been created if it wasn’t for a bet. At a party Bob
offered a wager that his brother could cut a record as good as
any Motown offering. How this guy wasn’t a huge hit originally
we’re not entirely sure. “Hang On In There” mixes
socio-political commentary with an awesome bass-line and Kirkland’s
poignant vocal stylings in the indie-label equivalent to “What’s
Going On”.
The Sons and Daughters of Lite formed in Oakland in the early
1970s and their album “Let The Sunshine In” was re-issued
in full by Luv N’Haight in January 2000. The band’s
energetic sound earned them stage appearances with the likes of
Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine. The
term Sons of Lite comes from the Ancient Egyptian Mystery System.
The Creators or Sons of Lite were those who had experienced true
spiritual consciousness.
Cool Benny and his Stone Swingers is Benny Velarde, a San Francisco
musical fixture for as long as we can remember. The “Wobble-Cha”
7” single was released on Virgo records and came to our attention
via Cool Chris and Vinnie Esparza down at the Groove Merchant
record store – thanks fellas!
Orquesta Esencia’s “Carnaval” (from the album “Fuerza
Positiva”) is another San Francisco Latin track – this
one originally a hit in the Mission district when it came out
in 1981. DJ and music aficionado Rainer Truby (Compost records)
hipped it to us a few years back and since then the album has
grown in reputation to become a highly collectible item –
just check the breakdown and you’ll hear why. Not everyone
involved enjoys the tune, the original writer Dave Godines couldn’t
understand why we would be interested in it – he was kind
enough to do the deal anyway!
Adele Sebastian’s “Daydreamer” was taken from the
album “Desert Fairy Princess” on Nimbus records –
originally an LA based jazz label that specialized in avant-garde
jazz music by artists like Horace Tapscott, The Creative Arts
Ensemble and Nate Morgan. Sebastian joined the Pan Afrikan Peoples
Arkestra in the 1970s as a teenager. She played in the band until
her death in 1983 of kidney failure at the age of 27. According
to Tapscott’s liner notes she was “dedicated to the
task of contributing toward the ‘Ourstory’ of a rising
nation”.
While this compilation covers a lot of territory we’re aware
that there is an endless amount of music out there – known
or unknown. We love to dig for tunes so watch out for further
volumes of California Soul and other re-issues via Luv N’Haight.
*This release includes a special guest DJ-friendly re-edit by
Los Angeles-based People Under The Stairs. Many thanks to Thes
One for hooking it up!
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