Loleatta Holloway RIP

RIP Loleatta Holloway. Provided the soundtrack to many a great night for me in the clubs over the last 20 years. Respect

Here is an article I wrote about her a few years ago. It's a shame that she wasn't given more recognition while alive
There's are some career highlights down below too including an accapella of "Love Sensation" and footage of us spinning it at an epic Mor Disco night.



One of the biggest tracks for me over the last few months has been Whitney Houston's "Million Dollar Bill". I'll be straight up in admitting to never being a huge fan of Whitney during her 80's and 90's heyday and though her pop music was highly accessible and successful, from a soul point of view i've generally felt she has not offered too much with lots of drab bland middle of the road material. This changed dramatically with the "My Love is Your Love" album and the likes of Rodney Jerkins, Wyclef and Missy Elliot really helped bring a more soulful Whitney through on some classics songs.

Raphael Saadiq helped her subsequent "Fine" single become a bit of an underground soul classic while on her generally disappointing next solo effort "One of those days" was pretty tasty. "Million Dollar Bill" is her best single yet in my opinion and it is clear that despite her well documented personal problems Whitney has still got the ability in her to create powerful music. It's a top class tune written by Whitney and produced by Swiss beats, who uses a really good sample of a classic disco tune from the wonderful Loleatta Holloway to arm the track with a hook that is highly effective on the dance-floor.

This is where the story gets interesting though. Loleatta Holloway's own personal life will never gather even a smidgeon of interest and though she is known only amongst dance and disco fans she is a very important vocalist who should be heralded more. Even though there has been very little mention of her involvement with the new Whitney track, she won't mind, as 20 years ago she was given even less recognition and respect as Black Box scored a huge hit with a sample or blatant rip off on her "Love Sensation" tune on their "Ride on Time" release. To be fair, Black Box didn't know what they had on their hands but there is no doubt that "Ride on Time" would have been nothing without Loleatta.

The culture of sampling has changed a lot since in our more legally aware music industry but the good thing about house music and even the charty dance music that Black Box made is that it brought a greater awareness of the pioneering disco sounds back to a new generation. Loleatta helped embrace this herself with a number of collaborations and she finally got more respect too for her amazing back catalogue from her disco career. The likes of herself, Jocelyn Brown and many more great singers have now found a much more favourable place in music history, and that can only be a good thing. As for Whitney, even if the rest of the album was bad she would have delivered one of the singles of the year for me and it is really refreshing to hear the disco sounds I love on mainstream TV and radio.

Rest in Peace Guru

One of the best yet

No doubt about it Gang Starr were one of the greatest and until recent years he had some great solo stuff too. Simply one of the all time best MC's, I had the pleasure of hosting him at our Jam night in 2001 and hanging out with him for the day too; he was a nice guy and down to earth compared to many of the big name rappers i've met. It's a sad day for hip-hop but i'll be paying homage at Jam on Friday at the Pavilion and on Black on Red on Saturday on Cork's RedFM

Teddy Pendergrass RIP

One of my favourite soul singers died yesterday

I'll have a full tribute on Black on Red on Saturday

Rest in Peace Teddy

Here's ten of his best, starting off with the track that defined 10 years of my DJing in Sir Henrys Back Bar in the 90's

Willie Mitchell RIP

The legendary producer of Al Green, Syl Johnson and Ann Peebles, died today (Full tribute written a few days later below)

Free download of my mix here



Willie Mitchell died last week. To the man or woman on the street this will not mean much but almost every even casual music fan will of heard and hummed one of his songs in various forms over the years. Willie was highly respected in the world of southern soul, and helped mould Al Green into one of the most important soul singers of the last 40 years. Tunes such as "Let's Stay Together" and Ann Peebles "I Can't stand the rain" are rightly regarded as some of the most important soul tacks of all time, and Willie Mitchell was behind these and many more over a fantastic career that saw him writing, producing and performing for well over five decades.
TIna Turner was one such artist who benefited from Mitchell's genius. Her own comeback in the early 80's was spearheaded by the U.K. success of her "Let's Stay together" cover, while she also covered "I Can't stand the rain" during her most successful era. Rod Stewart, John Mayer and a host of other well known pop stars also turned to Mitchell over the years, and he was at hand to help spearhead the comeback of Al Green a few years ago too, as the two recreated one of soul musics great partnerships on a couple of very good albums. It is his early work with Green that elevated Mitchell to soul genius though.
He had been a respected musician who enjoyed some solo hits and was constantly on the road, but once he took over as head of the impressive Hi records, he really made his mark. He assembled one of the most impressive house bands in soul music and helped create a signature sound that combined jazzy chords with tight funky drums. Disciples such as the Rza of the Wu Tang Clan helped re-popularize this sound many years later through a major pillaging of Mitchell's back catalogue while producing some of the best hip-hop ever made. Kanye, Timbaland, Dilla and most of the modern day producers held Mitchell in great esteem, and Timbaland helped put Missy Elliot on the road to stardom with their cover and re-interpretation of "I Can't stand the rain" in the mid 90's. Before that she was a respected writer, singer and rapper, but ever since she has been a major musical player in the U.S.
It's a shame that the songs original singer, Ann Peebles, never found the solo fame her talent so obviously deserved, and she is seen by many as one of the most under-rated singers of the 70's. Similarly Syl Johnson, O.V.Wright and Otis Clay are all under-rated, despite various degrees of success. All three benefitted from some brilliant production from their label boss but much of this remained under the radar despite some heavy sampling and acknowledgement from the modern hip-hop and soul generation.
The same could certainly not be said of Al Green. He's been even more sampled and highly regarded and has been massively successful over the last 40 years. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was mentioning how he gave Cork one of it's greatest ever concerts in 2005 and it is fair to say that he is one of greatest soul and pop singers alive. Willie Mitchell discovered Al Green and claimed "Of all the singers, he was the only one that could hear jazz changes and really sing in that style. Once we got that sound together, I just kept making those arrangements ... and it was just hit after hit. Al Green more recently said "Willie is like my brother, my father, my coach, my founder" The appreciation was mutual. May he rest in peace.

RIP Patrick Swayze and Darren Sutherland

Two for the late night crew