"Upchurch" by PHIL UPCHURCH (August 2014 Japan-Only CD Reissue on Universal/Cadet as part of the 'Chess Best Collection' Series) - A Review by Mark Barry...

...Badly Mastered - Dubbed From Vinyl Most Likely...

I'm a huge Charles Stepney fan - the arranger, producer, songwriter and driving force behind the Cadet Records label - Chess's offshoot for Soul and more Avant Garde material.

I own the Japanese SHM-CD of Upchurch's meisterwerk "Darkness, Darkness" - a double-album from 1971 Remastered onto one CD. That disc is virtually Audiophile in its sound quality – a blast - unfortunately - not so here.

"Upchurch" is the album that preceded "Darkness, Darkness" - released Stateside mid 1969 on Cadet Records LPS-826 as a 10-Track LP in Stereo.

1. Black Gold [Side 1]

2. America

3. As You Said

4. You Wouldn't, You Couldn't Be True

5. Cross Town Traffic

6. Adam And Charlene [Side 2]

7. Spinning Wheel

8. Voodoo Chile

9. More And More

10. Midnight Chile

Uncharacteristically the normally solid 'Chess Best Collection' CD Reissue Series out of Japan is poorly represented here on this 2014 reissue. It's clear the album has been mastered from a clean record but you can still here the distorted edges of the notes - never more so than on the awful beginning of the Hendrix cover "Voodoo Chile" with scratches aplenty. And as other buyers have pointed out - someone has edited out the beginning of the epic "Black Gold" Side 1 opener - reducing the Charles Stepney penned track from 4:31 minutes on LP to 4:16 minutes on CD. And given that Stepney layered 36 players onto the track (strings and singers) - being a vinyl dub - it feels terribly cluttered and overly harsh too audio-wise. To the CD release itself...

Japan-only released 27 August 2014 on Universal/Cadet UICY-76556 (Barcode 4988005840219) - "Upchurch" by PHIL UPCHURCH is also budget priced (part of the Chess Best Collection series) so can be bought for about twelve quid including P&P in the right places (35:05 minutes). The gatefold slip of paper that acts as an inlay repro's the front and rear artwork of the original 1969 Cadet Records sleeve - but the gatefold Japanese inlay inside that is in Japanese-only and tells you bugger all – not even mastering credits. The musicians are listed and for me one of the big draws here is DONNY HATHAWAY on Piano and the James Mack Singers giving it those "Black Gold" backing vocals.

So the disc sounds good - very good in places - his own "You Wouldn't, You Couldn't Be True" and Upchurch's cool Flute and Guitar take on Blood, Sweat & Tears "Spinning Wheel" - a sexy Rock groove written by the band's vocalist David Clayton Thomas that was adapted by many Soul Artists who heard the potential in the song. But his cover of Hendrix's "Cross Town Traffic" sounds terrible - distorted and out of joint. "As You Said" (a Cream cover from "Wheels Of Fire" penned by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown) doesn't fare much better but Don Juan Mancha's "More And More" is excellent. 

For the price it's not a bad buy and there's no other CD on the market even in 2018. But we can only hope that someone like Hip-O Select or Cherry Red has a go at the Stepney output - Box Set and Individual Releases? For those who must have it - I'd advise a listen first if possible...

"I Just Can't Help Myself" by TERRY CALLIER (2013 Japan 'Chess Best Collection' CD Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Lead Me To The Bridge Of Bright Tomorrows…”

Hailing out of Chicago and a childhood pal of Curtis Mayfield, Terry Callier had put out his debut album "The New Folk Sound Of Terry Callier" on Prestige in July 1965 and then did 2 albums on the Cadet Concept label prior to this - "Occasional Rain" in 1972 and "What Color Is Love" in early 1973.

The third and final album for the famous Chicago label "I Just Can't Help Myself" (October 1973) has been missing on CD for decades. Bootleg copies of the vinyl LP have been in London shops for over 15 years now because the US original is so rare. Which brings us to this welcome digital release - part of a 2013 Japanese-only CD series called 'Chess Best Collection'. Here are the helpful details...

Japan released 12 Dec 2013 - "I Just Can't Help Myself" by TERRY CALLIER on Universal Japan/Chess UICY-75986 (Barcode 4988005792747) is a new CD remaster with glorious sound that plays out as follows (40:54 minutes):

1. (I Just Can't Help Myself) I Don't Want Nobody Else

2. Brown-Eyed-Lady

3. Gotta Get Closer To You

4. Satin Doll

5. Until Tomorrow

6. Alley-Wind Song

7. Can't Catch The Trane

8. Bolwin' Green

Tracks 1 to 8 are the album "I Just Can't Help Myself" – released October 1973 in the USA on Cadet Records CA 50041.

You may see this CD reissue called 'Chess 1000 Collection' in some quarters which refers to the price code - 1000 Yen or less. Depending on exchange rates this translates into 7 to 9 dollars, 5 to 7 pounds and a similar amount in Euros. Even with P&P costs - this weighs in at less than nine pounds for UK customers - which is very cheap for quality Japanese releases. It's in a jewel case - the foldout inlay sandwiched between a paper repro of the sleeve (back and front). Typical of these Japanese reissues - the inlay has an essay you can't read - and a decent stab at printing the English lyrics for all the songs. It doesn't say who or where this was remastered but the sound is GORGEOUS.

This album is firmly in the FOLK-SOUL category and for me is very much a tale of two Sides - Side 1 being not that great - while Side 2 is magical. Tracks 1 to 5 make up Side 1 which features three of the songs co-written with LARRY WADE - "(I Just Can't Help Myself) I Don't Want Nobody Else", "Brown-Eyed Lady" and "Gotta Get Close To You". Unfortunately they're trying too hard to be commercial - like Barry White but not in a good way. Things get better as they slow down considerably on his cover of Duke Ellington's "Satin Doll" which is lovely. And Charles Stepney's arrangement of "Until Tomorrow" (closes Side 1) give it a sweeping feel with strings vying with the acoustic rhythms.

But for me Side 2 is incredible. It's like Callier suddenly changed tack and realised that less is more. Less production - more Soul. It has only 3 tracks - two of which "Alley-Wind Song" is nine minutes long while "Bowlin' Green" (co-written with Holmes Daley) is nearly eight. They are very much in the Folky Soul tradition - acoustic guitars with the occasional Bongo flourish and scat vocals. "Alley-Wind Song" is just so good (lyrics from it title this review). It's an acquired taste - but a stunning one if you get bitten. "Can't Catch The Trane" sees him scat faster and faster to a point where he almost vocally loses it towards the song end (great Alto Sax by DON MYRICK sails in at the song reaches its climax). "Bowlin' Green" is masterful - building all the time - but never getting out of control - oboes and strings softly introduced as his vocals become ever more impassioned. Personally the three simpler tracks on Side 2 (all Callier originals) makes for much satisfying and genuinely Soulful listen.

I should also mention that CHARLES STEPNEY freaks will need to own this. Stepney is another big name in small circles - a hero of sorts for soul lovers. He was involved in The Rotary Connection with Minnie Riperton, produced four albums with The Dells and even twiddled the knobs on the iconic and now much-vaulted psych-blues-fusion album "Electric Mud" by Muddy Waters. I'd personally scour down anything he had a hand in...a genius...

In the end - Terry Callier had morphed (like Richie Havens) into a sort of elder statesman of Soul - still spreading his gospel of love and understanding right up his sad passing in 2012. His "Lean On Me" song with Beth Orton on the "Best Bit EP" in 1997 is truly beautiful. Also check out his "Timepeace" set from 1998 - unbelievably good and relevant to the now and not just past glories.

Like Donny Hathaway's Atlantic output - it's hard for me to be rational about Terry Callier's fabulous run of albums with Charles Stepney on the cool Cadet Concept label. And even though "I Just Can't Help Myself" isn't the best of the three (a three-star album given a four-star CD reissue) - try to find a way to buy this CD album before it gets deleted in mid 2014. RIP Terry Callier you lovely journeyman...

PS: I've also reviewed "The New Folk Sound Of Terry Callier”, "Occasional Rain" and "What Color Is Love"

"Hey, Love" by The New ROTARY CONNECTION (2013 Japan Chess 'Best Collection Series' Reissue/Remaster on Their 1971 on Cadet Concept) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Try Expanding Your Understanding..." 

For years I've been looking for an excuse to review this fabulous and criminally neglected Soul Funk Gospel gem - and now I have one. It's been reissued in Japan as part of the "Chess Best Collection" CD series and its just arrived on my doorstep in time for a cool Yule y'all (sorry couldn't resist).

I've had the 1998 Ace/Beat Goes Public disc that offers two LPs on 1CD of Rotary Connection's "Songs" (1969) and "Hey, Love" (1971) (2LPs on 1CD) for years now and treasure it. But this Japanese reissue is listed as having 2013 DSD remastering in adverts - so I had to own it. Doesn't actually say that anywhere on the disc or liner notes nor the Obi - but it does sound stunning - if not a little clinically clean in places.

Released 11 Dec 2013 in Japan – "Hey, Love" by The New ROTARY CONNECTION on Universal/Chess UICY-75987 (Barcode 4988005792754 for the right issue) is a straightforward transfer of the 9-track American album (40:25 minutes). 

The OBI wraps around the outside of the jewel case. The 16-page booklet is the usual Japanese affair - front cover artwork on Page 1 with the rear LP art on the last page. In between there is a Japanese essay and the lyrics in English - naught else (nothing you can really get your teeth into). It's a budget release so its priced at below 1000 Yen which means that even including P&P it's below a tenner - and often only eight quid - a bit of a steal frankly.

1. If I Sing My Song

2. The Sea & She

3. I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun

4. Hangin' Round The Bee Tree

5. Hey, Love

6. Love Has Fallen On Me

7. Song For Everyman

8. Love Is

9. Vine Of Happiness

Originally released on vinyl in the States on Chess/Cadet Concept CC 50006 in August 1971 - it features the hand of writer/arranger/player maestro CHARLES STEPNEY - Chess's answer to Norman Whitfield - a man with a conscience and a way with a funky and soulful tune. The other attractions are MINNIE RIPERTON, KITTY HAYWOOD, SHIRLEY WAHLS and DAVE SCOTT all on Lead Vocals with Stepney playing a huge number of instruments as well as arranging. Top session-men include superb guitarists PHIL UPCHURCH (see my review of his stunning 1971 double-album "Darkness Darkness" also on Japanese CD) and the fuzzed up axework of PAT FERRERI. The album also featured RICHARD RUDOLPH (Minnie Riperton's husband of the time) - he solo wrote both "Hanging Round The Bee Tree" and "The Sea & She" and excepting one other - co-wrote the rest of the album with Stepney.

The album's big tune is the magnificent "I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun" which was rescued from obscurity by British/US Funksters NUYORCIAN SOUL featuring JOCELYN BROWN when they sampled and covered it in 1997 on the hip Talkin' Loud label. They brought the song and Rotary Connection in general into the charts (to 31). Ace then reissued that CD the following year and there's been vinyl repros of the "Hey, Love" LP in the West End of London ever since - meeting the demands of those constantly searching for something cool and Soulful to rediscover. Besides "Gold" there are 4 other masterpieces on here - the echoed and swirling vocals of "Hanging Round The Bee Tree" (graced many of my Reckless in-store play lists), the gorgeous and sunny upbeat title track "Hey, Love" followed by Kitty Haywood letting it vocally rip on the sublime "Love Has Fallen For Me" (covered by Chaka Khan on her "I'm Every Woman" LP). But the best for me is the lone TERRY CALLIER track (a songwriter Stepney was plugging) called "Song For Everyman" - it is just brilliant and sends me every time I hear it (lyrics from it title this review).

In truth - and I played both to hear the differences - the only thing I'd say about the supposed 'remaster' is that it is unbelievably clean - but perhaps I suspect a little over-compressed. You have to give the tracks a bit of wedge - but even if you do - the clarity is gorgeous (hiss gone) and I've loved re-hearing these tracks in such beautiful sound.

So why didn't they make it? I suspect that with all those hippy-dip lyrical references to helping out your brother and bombing others with love - the group was perceived as a poor man's Fifth Dimension - a sort of watered down gathering peddling a lame "Hair" musical. This of course did for them commercially and is just plain wrong as an assessment. Typically it took British Soul fans to reignite interest and a torrent of well-deserved praise has followed ever since.

Stepney is a sort of underground cult figure now amongst aficionados - spoken about in hushed tones. Riperton went solo and produced a string of gorgeous Soul albums in the mid-Seventies only to sadly succumb to breast cancer at a criminally young age in 1979. Still - they all have this legacy to remind us. I adore "Hey, Love" and its infectious Soul upbeat message vibe - reminds me of the same joy I feel when I hear a great Staples Singers album.

Get this disc into your life soonest - I believe its up for deletion June 2014...

PS: See also my online reviews for "Rotary Connection" (their 1968 debut) and "Songs/Hey, Love" (a 2LPs on 1CD) release in 1998 on Ace/Beat Goes Public – and the Terry Callier album "I Just Can't Help Myself" also in this Japanese series of reissues...