The Year in Reissues: The 2013 Gold Bonus Disc Awards

Welcome to The Second Disc’s Fourth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards!

Though this is a slow time of year for news, it’s the perfect time to look at the year in review.  As with every year’s awards, our goals are simple: to recognize as many of the year’s most essential reissues and catalogue titles as possible, and to celebrate those labels, producers and artists who make these releases possible in what many might deem an increasingly-challenging retail landscape.  These labels have bucked the trends to prove that there’s still a demand for physical catalogue music.  And from our vantage point, there’s still great strength and health in this corner of the music industry.  By my very rough estimate, The Second Disc covered around 500 releases in 2013 – and we firmly believe that the best is still yet to come.  We dedicate The Gold Bonus Disc Awards to the creators of the music and releases we cover, and to you, the readers.  After all, your interest is ultimately what keeps great music of the past – this site’s raison d’etre – alive and well.

With that in mind, don’t forget to share your own thoughts and comments below. What made your must-have list in 2013?  Please join us in recognizing 2013′s best of the best.

Which releases take home the gold this year? Hit the jump below to find out!

Release Round-Up: Week of February 5

Taj Mahal, The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (Columbia/Legacy)

Fifteen discs of the blues legend’s Columbia output, including last year’s The Hidden Treasures of Taj Mahal compilation of unreleased material. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Townes Van Zandt, Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions and Demos 1971-1972 (Omnivore)

A new two-disc set features entirely unreleased outtakes, alternates and demos from the Texan singer-songwriter’s early-’70s career. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Barbra Streisand, Classical Barbra: Expanded Edition (Masterworks)

A newly-expanded version (with two bonus tracks) of Barbra’s 1976 album of pieces by Handel, Debussy, Orff and others. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Billy Paul, Going East: Expanded Edition / Dick Jensen, Dick Jensen / Azteca, Azteca: Expanded Edition / Pyramid of the Moon: Expanded Edition / Tyrone Davis, In the Mood with Tyrone Davis: Expanded Edition / Carmen McRae, I Am Music (Big Break)

Check out the scoop on the latest Big Break batch (complete with Amazon links) here, and read Joe’s review of Dick Jensen here!

Jewel, Greatest Hits (Atlantic/Rhino)

One of the biggest country-pop hitmakers of the ’90s releases her first compilation with a new single and two new duet recordings of previous hits with Pistol Annies and Kelly Clarkson. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Tony Bennett, As Time Goes By: Great American Songbook Classics (Concord)

A new budget-line, 12-track compilation of Tony’s mid-’70s Improv and Fantasy output. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Deep Purple, Slaves and Masters: The Deluxe Edition (Friday Music)

The band’s only Mk. V album, featuring onetime Rainbow frontman Joe Lynn Turner on vocals, gets expanded on CD with two bonus tracks. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Boris Midney and Festival, Evita/The Empire Strikes Back (Harmless)

Two mind-blowing disco adaptations of a legendary Broadway musical and the superb score to a sci-fi sequel? Yes, indeed! (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Paul Williams, Still Alive (Virgil Films)

A compelling documentary on one of the best songwriters of his age, newly released on DVD. (Amazon U.S.)

Review: Dick Jensen, “Dick Jensen” – A Lost Philadelphia Soul Classic

When Dick Jensen was signed to ABC’s Probe Records label in 1969, only one album title seemed appropriate: White Hot Soul.  The Hawaiian-born entertainer’s stage moves earned him comparisons to James Brown and Jackie Wilson, while his voice recalled the booming sonorities of Tom Jones or Engelbert Humperdinck.  Tucked away on Side Two of that Don Costa-produced LP, Jensen included The Soul Survivors’ “Expressway to Your Heart” as part of a medley.  That 1967 Top 5 hit, of course, was written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, later to found Philadelphia International Records.  Jensen couldn’t have known that just a few years later, he would be poised for his American breakthrough as one of the artists signed to PIR.  The showbiz veteran had taken his act to Mexico City, New York City, Las Vegas and throughout the Hawaiian Islands by the time he was welcomed to the label of the O’Jays, Billy Paul and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.  That breakthrough, alas, never came, and 1973’s Dick Jensen became one of the most neglected items in the PIR catalogue.  The LP is long-deleted, and a CD edition was only released in Japan.  Thanks to the upcoming reissue by Big Break Records, however, you can rediscover an album which stands squarely among the best released by the iconic label.

Being an early production made before the famous MFSB orchestra splintered, Dick Jensen teamed the vocalist of Hawaiian, French, English, Danish and Irish descent with the combined forces of the greatest musicians the city had to offer.  Indeed, the line-up recorded at Sigma Sound Studios is quintessential: co-producer Leon Huff on piano, Norman Harris, T.J. Tindall, Bobby Eli, and Roland Chambers on guitar, Earl Young on drums, Ronnie Baker on bass, Larry Washington on congas, Lenny Pakula on organ and Vince Montana on vibes.  Don Renaldo brought his Horns and Strings, and the Sweethearts of Sigma (Carla Benson, Barbara Ingram and Evette Benton) were on hand for the background vocals.  Gamble and Huff, Bunny Sigler and Thom Bell all contributed production, while Bell, Montana, Harris and Bobby Martin all wrote arrangements for Jensen’s artistic rebirth.

Are you sold on this LP yet?  You know what to do – hit the jump for more on Dick Jensen!

Big Break Serves Up Soul, Jazz and Funk from Carmen McRae, Billy Paul, Azteca and More

Timeless soul music knows no regional boundaries, at least based on the latest quintet of releases from Cherry Red’s Big Break Records imprint.  With this group of reissues, you’ll travel to Philadelphia by way of Hawaii, Oakland, Harlem and Chicago.  All of the titles previewed below are available now in the U.K. and next Tuesday, February 5, in the U.S.!

Two new titles hail from the Philadelphia International Records catalogue.  Perhaps most exciting is the first CD release outside of Japan for 1973’s Dick Jensen, the self-titled album by the renowned entertainer from Hawaii.  Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff enlisted the MFSB orchestra plus producers and arrangers like Bobby Martin, Bunny Sigler and Thom Bell to craft a major musical statement from the high-energy performer, but Dick Jensen quickly sank without a trace.  It was no reflection on the album’s quality, however, as the LP is filled with stunning mini-pop/soul masterpieces.  BBR’s edition features new liner notes by Stephen “Spaz” Schnee that shed light on the late, enigmatic singer and this lost classic.  Click here for our full review of Dick Jensen!

Big Break is also delivering another title in its series of releases from Philadelphia’s own Billy Paul.  Going East (1971) was not only Paul’s first PIR platter, but the label’s very first album altogether.  As such, the smooth PIR soul sound was still in its formative stages, and Going East bears many of the jazz hallmarks that informed 1970’s Ebony Woman (previously reissued on BBR).  Musically, Going East is rough-hewn, with the full MFSB Orchestra not in the picture.  Of the familiar players, Norman Harris and Roland Chambers appeared on guitars, Vince Montana chimed in with vibes, and Don Renaldo as usual supplied the (subtle) strings.  The prominent flute of Tony Williams adds a distinct character to the album.  Eddie Green wrote the rhythm charts for the album, and Lenny Pakula arranged horns and strings for the epic title track, a slow-burning, mystical meditation on slavery which does look forward to similarly widescreen productions like “War of the Gods” from the album of the same name (also a recent BBR reissue).

The rest of the album’s horn and string charts were divided between Thom Bell and Bobby Martin, who each arranged four songs.  Bell’s symphonic stylings are most apparent on a striking rendition of Jimmy Webb’s “This is Your Life,” while his arrangement of Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” is simply atypical for both Bell and Paul.  “(If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why Can’t I Touch You?” came from Peter Link and C.C. Courtney’s off-Broadway musical Salvation, and was previously recorded by Ronnie Dyson.  Dyson, of course, recorded an album with Bell that didn’t include the Salvation song; here’s your chance to hear what a Bell arrangement of the song sounded like, with Paul’s incomparably mature vocals.  (It’s worth noting that Going East was issued in September 1971; two months later, the Thom Bell-produced debut of The Stylistics followed.  How remarkably different his work is here, minus most of the stylistic and instrumental hallmarks for which he would become renowned.  Yet all three issued singles from Going East were Bell’s handiwork.)  Of the Bobby Martin tracks, there’s a slick, languid version of Rodgers and Hart’s On Your Toes standard “There’s a Small Hotel,” and Martin’s own song “I Wish It Were Yesterday,” which has the same late-night cabaret vibe.  A pleasant if unexceptional Gamble and Huff tune, “Love Buddies,” and a fiery take on Eugene McDaniels’ “Compared to What” continue the album’s diverse approach.  Going East is one of the most unusual PIR albums, but Paul’s vocal mastery was in its prime even if Gamble and Huff hadn’t yet found the formula to best marry those jazz-honed pipes with silky soul.  BBR’s edition includes all three single A-sides released from the album along with new liner notes from Andy Kellman drawing on an interview with Billy Paul himself.

After the jump: Azteca, Tyrone Davis and Carmen McRae take the spotlight, plus track listings with discography and order links for all titles!