Modern Masters: Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff On Philadelpia International

O'Jays: Family Reunion 

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes: Wake Up, Everybody 

 MFSB: Philadelphia Freedom

Billy Paul: When Love ls New

Dee Dee Sharp: Happy 'Bout the Whole Thing

Archie Bell & the Drells: Dance Your Troubles Away 

The Christmas season releases from Gamble & Huff's Philly International TSOP Records complex continue to advance the high standards of production and performing excellence which the two young masters of modem music ineradicably established in their initial releases under their label distribution deal with CBS (Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and The O'Jays Back Stabbers) back in 1975.

Seemingly undaunted by their current legal problems both Gamble and Huff were indicted some months ago for various record industry crimes involving the alleged payment of money, goods, and services to radio personnel in exchange for concentrated airplay of their product-The Dynamic Duo has managed to provide its vast public with six scintillating discs of The Philadelphia Sound, served up by the top of the line- The O'Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Billy Paul, and MFSB and a pair of G&H veterans Dee Dee Sharp and Archie Bell & the Drells who are making their reappearance under the aegis of their long-time associates.

Now riding high as the hottest producers in the business with their business partner, and life-long pal, Thom Bell, who produces the Spinners and a number of other singing acts for various labels, the Gamble-Huff-Bell combine placed a total of 21 singles in the charts. in 1974, taking both first and second place among all producers in the business Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff are only reaping the rewards of a lifetime of hard work, genius inspiration, and technical study and practice in the world of popular (i. e., "commercial" ) music.

Entering the hot Philadelphia studios as teenage session men, Gamble & Huff started learning how to make records in the early sixties, during the first era of Philly domination, when young white singers like Fabian, Frankie Avalon. and Bobby Rydell were turning out hit tunes under the careful, omniscient direction of the tough white producer's at Cameo-Parkway and other local recording outfits. Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharp (now Mrs. Kenneth Gamble) were among the young black artists who fronted what was essentially the same studio recording band behind all the Philly hits, and ice-cold commercially created tight two-and-a-half-minute packages of pop music which could cut across age, race, and class lines to cause millions of Americans to fork over millions of dollars for their own copies of these songs as the underlying and all-pervasive principle which propelled the Philadelphia Sound of the early '60s.

(Gamble and Huff soon teamed up to try their hands as free-lance producers, turning out such perfect early tunes as "Tighten Up" (Archie Bell & The Drells) for Atlantic Records and other companies before securing a label deal (as Neptune Records) with Chess Records of Chicago. They moved fully into their own as the producers to watch behind their collaboration with master vocalist Jerry Butler, a late-sixties smash titled The lceman Cometh, and their early work with the O'Jays and the Intruders, who are still among the stand-outs in the Philly International stable.

To make a long story short, the two young producers Fïnaliy hit the solid vein of gold in the recording industry when they signed a comprehensive label deal with Clive Davis then president of Columbia Records, in 1972. With the distribution, promotion, and marketing mechanisms of Columbia Records now ready to carry their records out beyond the R&B market and into every sector of America with full musical and artistic control over their product, based in their home town of Philadelphia, surrounded by musicians, writers. arrangers, producers, and business people they'd known and worked with for years, Gamble & Huff settled down to create some of the highest popular musical art of the seventies.

It is important to place the current work of Gamble & Huff in its historical and its commercial perspectives because both forces have been central to its shaping, and both provide along with the events of everyday life in Philadelphia and on the road for G&H and their many collaborators- the objective basis of the music itself. As commercial producers working strictly within the mainstream of the popular music tradition, shooting for the top of the sales charts with every release. 'Gamble & Huff have evolved an aesthetic which owes its existence to the classic masters of the form-such producers as George Goldner, Richard Barrett, Harvey Fuqua, Jerry Wexler & Ahmet Ertegun, Lieber & Stoller, Phil Spector. Curtis Mayfield, Berry Gordy, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, Isaac Hayes & David Porter, and which extends the work of these men in a very logical, direct, and beautiful way.

Like their mentors and predecessors, Gamble & Huff operate in the tradition of "giving the people what they want," and their strength as trend-setting producers derives in large part from their traditional ability to draw from and merge various strains of contemporary popular based music into a fusion of easily recognizable, comfortable but genuinely exciting sounds, totally in touch with the world of the streets and the people who work and play there, they are able to reflect the realities and the aspirations of common people in record after record by any number of artists under their direction. creating in the process a unified body of work which has come increasingly to bear

llie personal mark ol' the producen! to a much erealer degree Ihan tliat of .m ni their antecedailts. s tnodcrn-day urban black people struggting io upgrade and ciMitrol the conditions of iheii living .nul werking existencc and as two of the relative u-u w have bcgun toenjoy the sweei Iruils ol success in thal struggie Gamble & Huff are jvell qualitïed lo spcak l'or. and to, ihelr everprowing constituency. (It Lsnosccrel thal many white people are in a similar social sttiialion .is well, nor iliat ihese people are equali) well served by the work ol G&H as ii comes to them over Iheir radios and TVs.) (amble and Huff create music whii.li luis all the depth, speed. Flash and elcgance of ihc city muslc which, in its beauty ;md prace and iniili, helps ilio Hstener overeóme the ilrcir pain ot'úrbah lile while maintainiii!.' the desperate hope that things will :vi bettei somehow before iliey can el .my wurse. Vnyone near a radio r j jukebox in Ilie cities of America over the iis! few yc.irs can'l help bul have heard such (amble & Hufif masterworks as Ihc OMays'"For the Love of Money," "Love Train," "Put Your Hands Togethet," "Give the People What Thcy Want," "The Rich Gel Richer," '"I Love Music." 01 "Livin" for the Weekend": Ilarokl Meivin & the Blue Notes' "Bad Lucfc" 01 "Wake lp Kverybody"; MFSB's "TSOP": Billy Paui's "Me and Mrs. Jones," "Am I Black F.nough lor You," oi "People Power"; the Intruders' "Save the C'hildren," "Hang On In There," oí "I veryone's a Star"; or othet of the many lesscr masterpieces of the Terrible Two. Based in everyday reality. yel optimistic .ind inspirational as only that of desperate believers in righteousness can be, the recorded uork of Gamble & lluff stands alone in its magnitude, depth, and breadth at the top of the pile of contemporary popular inusic, where ii hélps light the way 10 the future of the form. Central to (amble & Huff's siictcs. both musically and commercially, is their unique complex of performing and recording;.: ariists centered at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. Starting with thcir own corrrpositional genius (thcy wrile most of the ir artists' liitsi and their mastery of the art of modern production, Gamble & Huff have assembled a band of crack studio players (Ml SB), a regular hom and siiiiiü section (headed by Don ftenaldoi, a leam of' rocordinsi technicians (hcaded by Joe Tarsia), a statï of arramiers (includini! Bobby Martin, Dexter Wansel, Jack Faith, Norman Marris, Tony Bell, Koland Chambers, and Kon "Have Mercy" Kerseyl, producers (Martin, Marris, Bunny Sigler); song-Vritcrs (notably the team of Whitehead-McFaddenCarstarphen. which is also developin into a production unit as well), and performers the O'Jays, Harold Meivin & the Blue Notes in dissolvm into Theodore Pendergrass & the Bluenoters). Billy Paul, the Intruders. the Three Degrees, Dee Dee Sharp, Archie Bell & the Drells. Detroit's own C'arolyn Crawford. the People's Chotee, Trammps. Soul Survivors. and MI-SB itself. Out ol' ihesc relutivelj stuble, yct ever-evolving dcinenis (.amble & Huff have t'.ishioned theii populür-inuiic fusión, neveí letting up for a minute in their relentless rush at the record-buyinp public, Tlie ne releases tb ose lisicd al the heul ol [lus review continue t unfold .nul extend the ünique (amble & Huff esthelic while dcveloping even l'urlher the individual idenlilies the producers have so painstakingly establisJied foreach of their acts, and none ol ihem is worth missing. Very briefly noted; the O'Jays' Family Reunión lias one "Livin" for the Weekend," "Stairway to Heaven," "I Love Music" of sheet pop êcstacy, scl offby the socially reactionair title cul and the n i r o contemporary but stiU hopelcssly sexist "She'sOnlyA Woman" on the ' ' side. I or Ihose who love the sweet and sensual as lilis riler does. "Stairway to Heaven" is the absolute bomb, and lor the social dreamcrs siill lelt umong us (count me ín there loo, picase'.), i lio lead cut. "I nity," says ít pretty goddamn well. "Wake Vp Fverybody," the tillo cut un llaroid Meivin and the Blue Notes' lates! opus. ix anothei socio] imperative numbei which is super slick lor ilie firsi half and very bol and preacln toward the end: "Dope piishers slop pushin that dope!" "Keep On Lovïn' You" and 'Teil the World How I Teel About 'Cha Baby". ue equaüy exciting in the more traditional R&B "love" vein, und the two numhers featuring Harold Mclvin protegee Sharon Paige are pretty gorgeous in their own right. You will want lo listen lo the l'irst side over and over again what more can yon ask lor.' Billy Paul makes hit bid lo step into the warm and wclcome footsteps of the great Marvin Gaye with his When Love Is New, ccept that K. Gamble surfaces in the lincr notes as ,m anti-abortion advocate and cases Billy Paul into a very convincing "Let's Make a Baby" antliem lo close the sel. Side One muintains a strong and beaulil'ul social emphasis, however, through "People Power," "America (We Need the Light)." and "Let the Dollar Circuíate" (ritten and produced by Billy himselO, with the lovely "Malorie" dosing the side on a light, tiemcndously swinging "love note." MFSB, the backbone of the modern Sound of Philadelphia. introduces its l'ourth LP with a prolonged fanfare and a quiek slip into Iheir laiest contribution to the dancing madness, "Get Down with the Philly Sound." A hip versión of htlle Reggie Dwight's "Philadelphia 1 reedom" follows, and the tone poems "South Philly" nul "Ferry Avenue" close out the side. "The .ip" is at the end of side ! o. and the rats llial come helore il won'i make you teel had eillier. I ots ol excellent saxophone soloing and the impeccable arrangements of most of the Philly International Staff make this one ,i dancing and listening delight. Dee Dee Sharp comes to us iliis time via Bobby Martin's tiist lull-scale production foi (amble & Hult', and she mms in an oHenexciting pcrforniance throughout the session. "Ooh C'hild" is the star of side one. and "Share My Love". nul the tille cut. "Happy 'Bout the Whole Thing," make side twe the one (hal will gel the needie again and again. I inallj . Arehie Bell & the Drells are back on wax with a reien tless production which goes either way with no pain whalsoever. "Let's Groove" kicks it ofl with the perfect spoken intro by the mature Mr. Bell. Bunny Sigler contributes two greal numbers ("I Could Dance All Night" and "I Won 't Leave You Honey. Never"). and the Whitehead-McFaddenCarstarphen team lakes care of all of side two. both coinposiiionalK and piodtictioii-w ise, except where the Terrible Two come in !o guide "Let's (.o Disco" lo the nlit place. Great stuff, and a truc testimonial to Gamble & Huff's detonnination lo put all their old pais hack where they belong on record players. radios and jukeboxes all over the w orld. m Ui T a í 9 w MtOf j telvii fll the faue JVOT ÏTT O'laY BMKPaw s 5' 88 1 : fe