What up with the unissued 1968 Marva Whitney LP
Artichoke
112 Posts
or for that matterFred Wesley and The JBs Test Press only 
Anyone got the more info, tracklist, or MP3 of either of these badboys.
Comments
"Here is another one-of-a-kind James Brown item. A white label test pressing of an UNISSUED album by Fred Wesley and The J.B.'s from 1973!! The People label record has the number LP 5603 in the vinyl but that number was eventually assigned to the "DOING IT TO DEATH" album. This is an entirely different album!!! The title track has The JB's romping through "Watermelon Man" (is that James on drums??) and the balance of the album features Fred Wesley and some terrific big band arrangements of both well known tunes and originals. Titles include "Use Me", "Everybody Plays The Fool", "Get On The Good Foot", "Transmograpification", "Seulb", "Sweet Lovliness" and "Secret Love". This is a plain white label test pressing in strong VG condition - much of it plays VG+. It's been well cared for but does have some wear from play and handling. A super, super rare item you won't see again - it's safe to assume there were precious few of these pressed and most didn't survive. "
I can't believe the global balling out of control wealthy azz monolithic octopus that is LI>STRONG>soulstrut-inc /STRONG>/LI> hasn't gripped and shared this with the JBs worshiping massive yet.
someone in the loop gots to have a copy of the above rarer-est-ness.
pretty sure that came out on a 45 - it's a duet with James
ive been looking for that - only been able to find it on a reissue 45
I knew it, I knew it...every single time some female soul singer from back in the day has an Unissued Album In The Vaults, it always turns out to be their Vegas album...
Although I gotta say, Stax just released a CD of Carla Thomas singing jazz and showtunes at a jazz club in 1966, and it's actually pretty good! Not as awkward as other "lounge-soul" albums out there (Lorraine Ellison's Heart & Soul, way too many Motown/Sam Cooke/Jackie Wilson elpees to list)...
We will release "I sing Soul" in 2008 on on Soulpower/Shout Records. We had some problems locating the masters ... for a long time it was believed that the masters were stolen and disappeared. But that turned out to be a mistake. Universal Music, owner of the KING catalogue, simply shelved the music as seperate songs, not as a complete album, because it was never released. Every track was issued a seperate catalogue number. Onc we figured that out, Universal was able to find the songs.
Alan Leeds will write the liner notes, and the record will be released on CD and vinyl (with original cover design). We'll also release a 45, most likely Marva's version of "Respect".
We also wanted to release the unreleased JB's album "These are the JBs" as well as Fred Wesley's "Watermelon Man", but Universal won't let us (even though Fred himself was excited about it). "Watermelon Man" is mainly as Jazz album. It has only a few funky tracks.
Yeah, Marva was not really a Funk singer when she started working with JB. Her Jazz side is reflected well on this record. The first track she recorded for KING was "Your love was good for me", and the "I sing Soul" album was recorded as her first solo album. However, "Your love was good for me" was a major flop, so JB changed the concept, shelved "I sing Soul" and had Marva record "Unwind yourself", hence turning her into a Funk singer. Marva struggled with this new direction - not because she didn't like Funk, but because JB made her sing impossible tunes.
The SS Illuminati comes through again! Thanks for dropping the info.
So why won't Universal let you guys release the JBs album? Is someone else going to do it?
The guy who runs what I call the "James Brown department" at Universal is Harry Weinger, who's a huge James Brown fan as well. He's behind the Grammy winning "Star time Box", the "Funky People" compilations and pretty much all official material released. I think he wants to keep most of the music in Universal's hands, which I understand.
I had a hard time convincing him to let us have "I sing Soul" .. there are a few instrumental tracks on the album, and Harry didn't want to let these go at first, as he considered them James Brown tracks, not Marva Whitney tracks. But then he understood that we were interested in releasing the complete album only, and I am glad that he agreed.
Marva Whitney really wants to have it released, it means a lot to her.
Man this is great. Any clue to when in 2008 this will drop?
Hopefully next spring, so we can support the release with a tour ..
Yup.
I picked It up on the It's My Thing (expanded edition) CD. Which has a couple of other only 45 released tracks.
Sounds great!
I'm pretty sure that "Sunny" never came out as a 45. Do you have a catalogue number? As far as I know, "Sunny" ended up only on JB's "Gittin down to it" album (where it fits perfectly, as it is a Jazz album with the Dee Felice Trio, not the James Brown Orchestra).
Amazing.
I'll be looking out to pick this up.
Is this going to be limited pressing on the vinyl?
Obviously we'll press more CDs than LPs, but you'll be able to get it. It will be properly distributed.
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