Hello, today into the groove focusses on one artist, The Rhythym Funk Master...Hamilton Bohannon, after a career at Motown he was already past 30 before he released his first solo album, subsequently he released a dozen albums in the seventies, a decade later i collected a number of them. Now Hamilton had the habit of splitting his albums into a dance/funky side and a ballad side, a format that did justice to the vinyl yet less so to the cd format..so you won't find his original work as such, though there are some collections around. I picked three albums, to give you a good impression of his work.
After graduating from Clark College, Atlanta, and playing in local bands, Bohannon was hired by Stevie Wonder to be the drummer in his touring band. He moved to Detroit in 1965, and was employed by Motown as band leader and arranger for many of the label’s top acts. When Motown moved from Detroit in 1972, he stayed behind to form his own band. He signed with Dakar/Brunswick Records, and in early 1973 released the album Stop And Go. This was followed by five more albums for the label over the next two years, on which he perfected his formula of heavy, thudding bass accents and aggressive rhythms. Although several of his tracks were club hits but he had only limited chart success .
In 1976 Bohannon signed to Mercury Records, and two years later had his biggest success with "Let’s Start The Dance". It made the R&B Top Ten and featured the singer Carolyn Crawford, whose subsequent albums Bohannon went on to produce.Bohannon kept recording for Mercury, though barely getting light chart action in 1979 and 1980. He started Phase II Records in 1980 and recorded there until 1984. Bohannon introduced another vocalist, Liz Lands, on a remake of the Originals' "Baby, I'm for Real," which was included on the 1980 LP One Step Ahead. He signed with MCA in 1984 and recorded several albums. His 1989 release Here Comes Bohannon featured another fresh female voice, Alltrinna Grayson. "It's time to Jam" (1990) was his last housemusic inspired album .
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Hamilton Bohannon - Insides Out (75 ^ 98mb)
Bohannon's distinctive sound is in place from the opening moments of "Foot-Stompin' Music": two rhythm guitars playing cross rhythms over a steady bass and drum vamp, and not too much else. "East Coast Groove" is similar, but less original, borrowing its groove from the distinctly West Coast "Dance To The Music." Side Two is mostly turned over to near-instrumental slow ballads ("Thoughts And Wishes," "Love Is Fading"), with Bohannon's thin voice piping out the leads, such as they are... it's the sort of piano-led light fusion you might hear on contemporaneous work by, say, Ramsey Lewis, and successful in its small way, though I'd be a lot happier if the tunes averaged three minutes rather than six. The concluding "Happy Feeling" blends both styles, with a midtempo dance beat and a curiously dissonant keyboard line. As with nearly all the records to follow, everything was written, arranged, directed and produced by Bohannon. The band is Fernando Saunders (bass); Leroy Emmanuel (guitar); Mose Davis, Rod Lumpkin, Van Cephus and Harold McKinney (keyboards). (DBW)
01 - Foot-Stompin Music (7:11)
02 - East Coast Groove (5:34)
03 - Disco Stomp (5:05)
04 - Love Is Fading (7:07)
05 - Thoughts And Wishes (5:30)
06 - Keep On Being My Girl (3:26)
07 - Happy Feeling (6:43)
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Bohannon - Phase II (77 ^ 82mb)
The title either refers to Bohannon's switch from Brunswick to Mercury, or to the birth of his son Hamilton F. Bohannon Jr. In any case, there's finally a change in the approach, as the midtempo opener "Andrea" is relatively complicated and lushly orchestrated (by Johnny Allen, another Motown vet). "Daddy's Little Son" - with "Isn't She Lovely"-style crying from little Hamilton - is similar but less memorable. The funky dance tracks are on Side Two this time, starting with the single "Bohannon's Disco Symphony," and even that features some pseudo-Romantic piano along with the usual guitar scratching. McKinney is the album's featured soloist, playing piano on four of the seven tracks, and he makes good use of the opportunity, finding different approaches each time. The core band is the same; guest guitarists Melvin "Wah Wah" Ragin and Ray Parker Jr. thicken the stew, which is particularly helpful on the less developed numbers ("Just Doing My Thang"). (DBW)
01 - Andrea (6:12)
02 - But What Is A Dream (5:15)
03 - Daddy's Little Son (5:40)
04 - Bohannon's Disco Symphony (6:37)
05 - Isn't It A Beautiful Morning (4:45)
06 - Just Doing My Thang (4:37)
07 - Moving Fast (3:21)
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Bohannon - Alive (81 ^ 98mb)
This can be considered a remix album, three remakes of "Start The Dance," and two each of "A Happy Song For You" and the familiar funk jam "Take The Country To New York City" ( featuring Maceo Brown and Fred Wesley regurgitating horn charts originally written for P-Funk). So you'll almost literally not hear anything you haven't heard before, but on those terms it's fairly decent: "Let's Start II Dance Again" is livened up with frantic rhythm guitar, female vocals, and a rap from Dr. Perri Johnson. The instrumental version of the pleasantly dippy "A Happy Song For You" spotlights an endless trumpet solo, and the ballad "You're The One" features unpredictable vocalizing from Lands. (DBW)
01 - Let's Start The Dance Part II (6:37)
02 - Take The Country To New York City (5:46)
03 - Let's Start II Dance Again (7:30)
04 - A Happy Song For You Part I (4:49)
05 - You're The One (5:47)
06 - Take The Country To New York City (Instrumental) (4:29)
07 - A Happy Song For You Part II (4:44)
08 - Start The Dance (Inserts) (2:16)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
Bohannon.. I had some vinyl LPs of him back in those days but some of my friends and me had some good laugh about the predictionalibity of his music..
ReplyDeleteanyway, he got some quality stuff, some strange funk african flavour that can't be beaten at all. And I think Daft Punk? forget that! Bohannon has all that!