The Skylarks, or the Famous Skylarks, recorded for Nashboro from 1950 (this year is given on the back cover of their only LP release, LP 7058) until 1967. Apart from the LP, which marked the end of the group’s recording career, 24 singles were issued. Yesterday and today I’ve added scans of all the Skylarks records in my possession – sixteen 45’s/78’s plus the LP release.
After recording the previous album (Gospel Chords on Chalice) I was in the mood to do another one: the album “Thank You Jesus” by the Six Voices of Zion of Columbia, SC. This rather obscure LP, released on Gusman 1001 in c. 1972-73, featured ‘new’ recordings on the A-side and older recordings on the B-side (1966-69). This was the group’s first album, with follow-up releases on Pitch (1976) and Co-Town (1980’s).
Three songs on this album were released on the 3CD release “The Pitch/Gusman Record Story” on Big Legal Mess (#BLM 0224; 2009). This CD release is still available from their website.
The album is available on CD-r and as a download. Send me a message if you’d like to make an order.
Today I transferred the album “Introducing the Gospel Chords” (Chalice LP 1001) to the digital format. It’s available as a CD-r and as a download (see For Sale and then CD-r’s from the menu). This female group featured Emiley Harris, Marva Harris, Wilma Dunlap and Martha Rowena Smith, and this was probably their only release, from 1965-66. The Chalice label was owned/operated by Bill Justis in Nashville, TN. Bill Justis had a couple of instrumental hits as a saxophone player on Phillips (a Sun sub label, run by Sam Phillips) in the late 1950’s (“Raunchy” being his most famous recording), and was also known as a composer and arranger. He moved to Nashville in 1961 where he became a successful record producer and music arranger for Monument, Mercury and other labels. During these years he also started his own label, Chalice Records, not to be confused with the Chalice label from Memphis (which was a Stax subsidiary). Justis’ label was only short-lived but featured a few gospel acts; apart from the Gospel Chords, Lucille Barbee also recorded for the label (a 45 was released). I guess it was a bold action to release a black gospel LP on the Chalice label, but Justis probably saw the potential of this group. I don’t think it brought him any financial success and both the group and the album vanished in obscurity.
In the last week I’ve been adding several images to the website: Peacock 1857 and 3089, Specialty 876 and 894, all Myrl issues, plus several Nashboro’s (591, 603, 627, 634, 656, 672, 681) – and this is just the beginning. The Nashboro label will keep me busy for some time to come…
In the last few days I’ve added new images to the Choice discography: a few 45’s (22, 26, 31, 53) and LP’s (101, 506, 507, 508, 512, 514, 516). With the LP scans came the song listings and other details. Most interesting detail is the mention of Tru-Sound on the labels of Choice LP 514 (Savettes). It says “TRU-60014”, most likey referring to Tru-Sound LP 60014. Tru-Sound only released albums until #60007 (60007 was actually released by Prestige, the parent label of Tru-Sound). This Savettes albums was probably intended for release on Tru-Sound when the label was still active, and one may assume that numbers 60008 – 60013 were granted as well. Maybe one day I’ll find out more about it. As far as I know, on the labels of other Choice LP’s there’s no mention of Tru-Sound.
Also added, a few days ago, are scans for the Meteor label discography (two gospel issues).
In the last few days I added 60+ scans to the website. Some came from Per Notini, some more from the internet. Most scans were new, some replaced previous scans (because they were better looking) and there were a few previous unknown releases as well. Probably the most interesting of these was an EP on Friendly by the Gospel Lights (better known as the Gospel Light Singers). Remarkable was a different release of Ark 148; shown already was a version credited to Charlie Baker and the Six Gospel Stars, but on the internet appeared a version credited to Charlie Baker and the Five Singing Stars.
Here’s a full list of what’s new:
Ark (138, 145, 146, 148, 164, 165/66, 184)
Chance (5005)
Choice (18)
Deluxe (1157)
Fine (176)
Friendly (EP 1192)
GRC (515)
Hosanna (1004, 1013, 1519, 1529, 8020, 9009)
And a couple of weeks ago, I added scans for the Lloyds, Manor and Message discographies, as part of the ongoing move of images from my old website to this new one. Forgot to mention it in a post earlier.
It appeared I had an error in my Planet discography; there were actually two Planet labels listed – one from St. Louis and one from (prob.) Chicago. It has been corrected today. The St. Louis issue (Rev. W.B. Rouse) has been deleted and the notes have been updated.
Yesterday and today, I’ve worked on a Tru-Sound/Prestige discography. I still have to add a couple of images, and will do that soon. Tru-Sound was a subsidiary label of Prestige, in operation between 1961 and 1963. As for gospel, nine 45’s and seven LP’s were released, the last LP as a Prestige issue (in 1964). Apart from that there were several secular releases by artists such as King Curtis, Rhoda Scott, Ernestine Allen, Eddie “Blues Man” Kirkland, etc. This short-lived Prestige offshoot remained a little obscure, which is especially the case for the gospel releases. Most or all recordings were made by Ozzie Cadena (producer) and the world famous Rudy Van Gelder (engineer).
Today I added scans for the three gospel releases on the La Val label. Per Notini sent me a few additional scans for the Score label and these can be seen now as well (#5004, 5006, 5009, 5012, 5013). Finally, I added scans of one more 45 in the Gospel Corner discography (145) and one more in the King/Queen discography (5764).
I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz albums lately and one of these was “Pyramid” (Atlantic, 1960) by the Modern Jazz Quartet, featuring John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Connie Kay. The song after which the album was titled, got a short introduction, written by John Lewis. This is what it says:
The song was originally titled “Blues For Junior” and an earlier (first?) version can be found on Herb Ellis’ album “Nothing But The Blues” (Verve, 1957), featuring Ray Brown on bass.
The text by John Lewis above is illustrative for the influence that gospel had on black jazz artists, especially from the mid 1950’s onwards, with the rise of hard bop. “In essence, it [hard bop] undeniable returned jazz music to its “blackness””, as Stuart Baker writes in the introduction of the book “Black Fire! New Spirits!” (Soul Jazz Books, 2014).
To listen to the version of the Modern Jazz Quartet, click here for a YouTube-clip.
In the last weeks, I haven’t been very active with the website, but I did add lots of images to the King/Queen discography. Many thanks to Per Notini, who sent them to me.
