February saw the release of Soul Cellar, the latest double-CD collection from Jazz FM Records. Celebrating thirty years of Peter Young’s infamous show, a superb collection of soulful favourites in a must-have double-CD album.
The album can be bought from our shop.
The Soul Cellar started life as a one-off Bank Holiday Special in late 1979 and this new release captures Peter’s soulful journey from the heady days of the late 70s to today. Peter Young’s Soul Cellar can now be heard every Saturday afternoon in the last hour of his 3 – 6pm show on Jazz FM.
“I identified a gap in the market back in the late 70s,” says PY. “Rock and Pop was being catered for aplenty, along with new and recent Soul and Disco. But nobody was playing the classic and rare 60s soul of Atlantic, Stax, Chess, Motown and many of the other lesser known smaller labels.”
“The birth of the Cellar tied in with a tremendous interest in the music from the second wave of Mods in the late 70s, early 80s. These young people, mainly inspired by ‘Quadrophenia’, were rejecting the often manufactured new romantic, and glam rock of the day and going back to the real stuff,” claims PY. “Suddenly Booker T. and The MG’s ‘Green Onions’ was a smash, 17 years after its release! I am delighted to have been able to lay down these memories once and for all – it’s a great album.”
The Soul Cellar show has always been about the R&B music of Black America, mainly from the late 50’s through to the early 80’s and this new album is no exception.
Johnnie Taylor’s ‘Testify (I Wonna)’ perfectly illustrates what the Cellar is all about – timeless music that lifts the spirits and purifies the soul. This double album is an uplifting musical experience with plenty to fulfill that aspiration from Aretha’s gospel infused ‘Lee Cross’ from her early and much under-rated pre-Atlantic period with Columbia Records to Ben E. King’s soulful dance track ‘Music Trance’.
Combined with a few rare gems and currently ‘in demand’ tracks such as ‘Why Must Our Eyes Always Be Turned Back’ by Lou Bond, on the Stax subsidiary label and ‘We Produce’ from 1974, this is social and political comment with a whole lotta’ soul!
This treat of an album released on Jazz FM Records truly represents the quality and breadth of music played on ‘the Soul Cellar’.
Video
Track Listing
CD One
1. Testify (I Wonna) – Johnnie Taylor
2. Ain’t That A Lot Of Love – Taj Mahal
3. Ain’t Gonna Move – Larry Williams & Johnny Watson
4. Lee Cross – Aretha Franklin
5. Do Right Woman, Do Right Man – The Sweet Inspirations
6. You’ve Got To Earn It – The Staple Singers
7. Music Trance – Ben E. King
8. I’m Just A Kiss Away – Buddy Miles
9. Get Up – Brian Auger and Julie Tippetts
10. Star In The Ghetto – Prince Phillip Mitchell
11. Let’s Stay Together – Margie Joseph
12. Why Must Our Eyes Always Be Turned Back – Lou Bond
13. Wha’cha Gonna Do About It – Doris Troy
14. Type Thang – Isaac Hayes
15. Function At The Junction – Little Richard
CD Two
1. Shake, Rattle & Roll – Arthur Conley
2. Too Late (2:20) – Larry Williams and Johnny Watson
3. For What It’s Worth – The Staple Singers
4. Come Go With Me – Pockets
5. Halfway To Heaven – Candi Staton
6. Love Is In Season – Detroit Spinners
7. Fo Fi Fo – Pieces Of A Dream
8. Let Me Back In – Little Milton
9. Am I The Same Girl (Soulful Strut) – Salena Jones
10. How Long – Thelma Jones
11. Going In Circles – The Friends Of Distinction
12. New York, New York – Starship Orchestra
13. Trouble – Frederick Knight
14. I Take What I Want – James & Bobby Purify
15. Am I Grooving You – Freddie Scott
