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Notes: The Funk Brothers: Robert White, Joe Messina, Eddie "Chank" Willis (guitar); Joe Hunter, Johnny Griffith, Earl Van Dyke (keyboards); Jack Ashford (vibraphone, percussion); James Jamerson, Bob Babbitt (bass); William "Benny" Benjamin, Richard "Pistol" Allen, Uriel Jones (drums); Eddie "Bongo" Brown (congas). Additional personnel: The Temptations. Producers include: Mickey Stevenson, Harvey Fuqua, Henry Cosby, Richard Street, Norman Whitfield. Compilation producer: Harry Weinger. Recorded between...
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20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Funk Brothers
Description While it is tempting to write for literally days about the contribution of the Funk Brothers to the Motown legacy, it would be redundant. Other than cold hard cash being paid to the remaining members and their families for their stellar performances and groove archetypes as a way of remedying an injustice, the verbal accolades have all been offered and received on countless web pages, in magazine articles that have been written from 1991 to the present (2004), and in the brilliant motion...
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Notes: The Righteous Brothers: Bill Medley, Bobby Hatfield. Recording information: 1963 - 1974. In the early and mid-1960s, there were few duos more soulful than the Righteous Brothers. With their desperately impassioned R&B style, the blue-eyed Southern Californians crossed barriers of time, place, and audience. "Brothers" Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield joined forces with legendary "Wall of Sound" producer Phil Spector, resulting in one the greatest, most enduring hits ever, "You've Lost That Lovin...
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20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection - The Best Of The Funk Brothers (Remaster), The Soul Brothers: R&B / Soul
Few bands last 30 years. Even fewer help define a country's music the way the Soul Brothers have that of South Africa. Their particular take on mbaqanga -- the ubiquitous township jive -- has made them stars in their homeland, with more than 30 albums covering their time. Singer David Masondo and keyboardist Moses Ngwenya have been playing together since 1976, but the genesis of the Soul Brothers goes back further, to the Groovy Boys, a 1970 Natal band where Masondo was the drummer. It didn't last...
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Notes: Flying Burrito Brothers: Chris Hillman (vocals, guitar, mandolin); Gram Parsons (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Bernie Leadon (guitar, dobro); "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow (steel guitar); Chris Etheridge (piano, bass); Michael Clarke (drums). Producers: Jim Dickson, Henry Lewy, Gram Parsons. Compilation producer: Mike Ragogna. Includes liner notes by Robyn Flans. Digitally remastered by Jim Phillips (Universal Mastering Studios West, North Hollywood, California). Personnel: Chris Hillman (vocals, mandolin...
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The Gap Band - 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best Of The Gap Band [Digip in Music: Funk
Although they got a bit of a slow start, Tulsa, Oklahoma's the Gap Band became one of the most popular funk/R&B outfits of the early-to-mid 1980s. The band relied heavily on synth-based, hands-in-the-air party jams of the P-Funk variety, with the occasional bedroom ballad tossed in for good measure--an approach that as quietly permeated much of the R&B and hip-hop that developed in its wake. The younger generation got the opportunity to show its respect for the band when lead singer Charlie Wilson...
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Notes: The Bar-Kays: Larry "D" Dodson (vocals); Harvey "Joe" Henderson (saxophone); Frank Thompson (trombone); Mark Bynum, Winston Stewart (keyboards); James Alexander (bass instrument); Michael Beard, Sherman Guy, Willie Hall (drums). Liner Note Author: Amy Linden. True success was a long time coming for the Bar-Kays, who started out as a sort of second-line studio band behind Booker T. & the MG's at Stax Records in Memphis. After releasing an instrumental hit, "Soul Finger," and becoming the backing...
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Though Roy Ayers was originally a pianist, his career took off after he picked up the vibraphone in the 1960s. With his group Ubiquity--which featured heavyweights such as Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter--Ayers made some of the finest jazz/funk fusion records of the 1970s. He worked with Afrobeat godfather Fela Kuti in the early '80s and later collaborated with Guru for the first installment of the rapper's JAZZMATAZZ series. His unique style has had a tremendous influence on numerous genres from hip...
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Notes: As the band Spyro Gyra, saxophonist Jay Beckenstein and company have been combining (and varying) elements of fusion jazz, pop, funk, and world music for decades and across more than two dozen albums; they've made the charts and grooved audiences all over the world. But how does a casual fan or potential devotee approach a catalog as massive as Spyro Gyra's? The band's mid-priced 11-track volume in the MILLENNIUM COLLECTION series is as good a place to start as any. It opens with a live version...
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Notes: Bob Marley: Bob Marley (vocals, guitar); Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer. This brief collection of pre-Island sides by Bob Marley & the Wailers hardly helps in clarifying their early discography, which has become a veritable mare's nest of licensing deals and one-off reissues, usually with the same set of songs. We are told on the cover of this compilation that it covers the JAD years, which in a way it does, but mostly it doesn't. JAD was the label co-run by Johnny Nash and Danny Sims to which Marley...
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Notes: Compilation producer: Andy McKaie, Dana Smart. Recorded between 1975 and 1988. Includes liner notes by Dana Smart. Digitally remastered by Gavin Lurssen (The Mastering Lab, Hollywood, California). Personnel: Toots Hibbert (vocals). Liner Note Author: Dana Smart. Toots & the Maytals' edition of 20th Century Masters is a very good summation of the group's greatest songs and therefore, their very importance. This doesn't have every great song they've ever done, and is not as comprehensive as...
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Rick James - 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best Of Rick James [Digipak in Music: Funk
Rick James got an early start on his music career, forming the Mynah Birds with future Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Bruce Palmer while still in his teens. Though signed to Motown, the group fell apart when James got in trouble for draft-dodging. He rebounded in the '70s, eventually becoming a solo star with his winning combination of rock, pop, and funk (which he called "punk funk"), scoring numerous hits in the '70s and '80s. He became quite the impresario, producing Teena Marie,...
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Notes: Con Funk Shun includes: Michael Cooper (vocals, guitar); Felton Pilate (vocals, trombone); Karl Fullert, Paul Harrell (horns); Danny Thomas (keyboards); Cedric Martin (bass); Louis McCall (drums). Producers include: Skip Scarborough, Con Funk Shun, Eumir Deodato. Compilation producer: Harry Weinger. Recorded between 1977 and 1983. Includes liner notes by Amy Linden. All tracks have been digitally remastered. This is part of Universal's "20th Century Masters The Millenium Collection" series...
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Notes: Liner Note Author: Martin Huxley. Photographer: Jeff Katz. The ten cuts on Larry Carlton's entry in the 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection series are from his MCA years -- after he had left the Crusaders, entered into a solo career with Warner Bros., and become nearly a household name for his work on Steely Dan's later records. The music here begins with his acoustic work on Alone/But Never Alone and Discovery. This was a departure for Carlton, whose breezy work sounded seamless...
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Second perhaps only to Bill Monroe in significance, the Stanley Brothers are one of the cornerstones of bluegrass. Virginian siblings Ralph and Carter Stanley started recording in 1947. Between the late '40s and mid '50s, they released some of the most influential bluegrass tracks of all time, often backed by their band the Clinch Mountain Boys. Ralph and Carter's close vocal harmonies (and Ralph's banjo playing) inspired countless musicians of subsequent generations. Carter died in 1966, but Ralph...
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Notes: Full Title: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection. Flatt & Scruggs: Lester Flatt (vocals, guitar); Earl Scruggs (banjo, background vocals). Includes liner notes by Rich Kienzle. Digitally remastered by Suha Gur (Universal Mastering Studios-East). Liner Note Author: Rich Kienzle. Recording information: Cincinnati, OH (??/1948-10/1950); Knoxville, TN (??/1948-10/1950); Tampa, FL (??/1948-10/1950). Flatt & Scruggs' volume of Mercury/Universal's 20th Century Masters - The Millennium...
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Notes: Spanky & Our Gang: Spanky McFarlane (vocals); Nigel Pickering, Oz Bach, Kenny Hodges, Lefty Baker. Liner Note Author: Scott Schinder. Spanky & Our Gang is one of the great overlooked bands of the '60s. As in the case of other groups like the Monkees or Paul Revere & the Raiders, their chart success seemingly blinded people as to just how good they were. Like a more baroque Mamas & Papas, their strength was their amazingly constructed harmonies. They also boasted impressive songwriting from...
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Notes: Since the introduction of the compact disc, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's musical collaborations have been anthologized on more than twenty different albums. Released during the summer of 2007, this Verve Millenium Collection contains only ten tracks but covers a wider-than-average time span by including two numbers that were recorded long before the famous and often reissued Ella & Louis sessions of 1956 and 1957. "The Frim Fram Sauce" comes from a Decca date that took place on January...
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