Jump to content

sketchy late 70s early 80s SAVOY GOSPEL lps


Recommended Posts

omg, what is up with these. 1st of all they are very cheap and thrown together looking, the covers look like there even manufactured and printed cheap, the music is always gospel on the ones ive seen from this time period, some of the songs really lay down a groove, more or less, the records are awesome. i just didnt know savoy existed the long....are these the "REAL" savoy....the address on the back deinftely said Elizabeth, NJ....(where HANK lived!).....that brings up another very good point, why didnt they pay hank to do a session, omfg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OMFG indeed ...

You and your "Hank" obsession ... :rolleyes:

Did it ever occur to you that maybe at that time he had become a "has-been" from the point of view of producers and record company execs? Personal problems that make handling such a man rather difficult in a music-producing "business" environment must clearly have spoken against the person concerned if there were so many competent and thoroughly professional session musicians around (and no doubt there were...).

Sorry to say this, but isn't it time to shed those rose-colored glasses? ;)

As for those gospel records, I am not too familiar with them either but if you take a look at Michel Ruppli's SAVOY records discography you will see that gospel records constitute the bulk of the latter-day new-recordings output of the label.

Nuff said for an explanation of why these are around? :smirk:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I looked through my gospel LPs - I've got four Savoys from the 1980's, by Dr. Vernard Johnson, Rev. Ernest Franklin, The Florida Mass Choir, and James Cleveland with the Houston Mass Choir. The covers aren't fancy, for the most part, but they don't look that cheap to me, and the Florida Mass Choir album is a nice full-color gatefold double album. The music is happening, especially Dr. Johnson's saxophone. As BBS indicated, I think that Savoy was pretty much exclusively a gospel label by this time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OMFG indeed ...

You and your "Hank" obsession ... :rolleyes:

Did it ever occur to you that maybe at that time he had become a "has-been" from the point of view of producers and record company execs? Personal problems that make handling such a man rather difficult in a music-producing "business" environment must clearly have spoken against the person concerned if there were so many competent and thoroughly professional session musicians around (and no doubt there were...).

Sorry to say this, but isn't it time to shed those rose-colored glasses? ;)

I think you added an "F" in there Steve but otherwise I'd have to agree with you. In fact, it could also be pointed out that at the time Savoy was making these records, I'm not sure Hank was even a has-been, considering that the critical re-evaluation hadn't started yet, and he was still tagged with the "solid, but not essential" tag.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you added an "F" in there Steve but otherwise I'd have to agree with you. ...

I did not, Dan ...

Read on here ... ;)

that brings up another very good point, why didnt they pay hank to do a session, omfg

This is quere I "quoted" from. But in fact that's a minor point anyway. I just wanted to point out that collectors' points of view (especially when blessed with the benefit of hindsight or wishful thinking of what "might have been") sometimes don't line up with the realities of the "business" side of the music as it was (for better or worse).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing at all "sketchy" about Savoy gospel LPs. They were a major player in the field throughout the 60s & 70s. If my memory serves(?), when Arista bought/leased/whatever the Savoy jazz holdings, the jazz holdings was all they bought, and Savoy continued to function as an active gospel label for some years afterward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that Malaco Records bought the rights to the Savoy gospel recordings. Don't know if that's the current situation.

Yes, Malaco has the rights to some or even all of the catalog. But they do not have anything close to a comprehensive reissue policy for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that Malaco Records bought the rights to the Savoy gospel recordings. Don't know if that's the current situation.

Yes, Malaco has the rights to some or even all of the catalog. But they do not have anything close to a comprehensive reissue policy for it.

Malaco knows its audience, though, and their audience is not necessarily the "comprehensive reissue" type.

Now that Acrobat has done justice to the Peacock label...

Guess I missed this...details, please!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that Acrobat has done justice to the Peacock label...

Guess I missed this...details, please!

It was easy to miss, and I am not sure about the current availability of the CDs. The motherload was on seven Acrobat CDs entitled "Texas Gospel," Volumes 1-7. I guess that they called it Texas Gospel because Peacock was based in Houston, but it was a strange choice of title as the majority of artists were not Texas based. The title also disguised the fact that it was a comprehensive Peacock label reissue.

These CDs contain all of the Peacock gospel singles that were not released on other Acrobat CDs (Early Blind Boys of Mississippi and the Bells of Joy). The first two volumes came out on single CDs and appear to still be available at Acrobat. Volumes 3,4, & 5 came out on a 3-disc set, and volumes 6 & 7 are on a 2-disc set. If you have trouble finding the CDs, downloads can probably still be located.

My calling this doing "justice to the Peacock label" is a bit of an exaggeration, as there are still a lot of album-only tracks that remain to be reissued. But Acrobat still did a great service in giving us the singles. I had all but given up hope of a CD reissue of this music.

66_img_2.jpg433_img_2.jpgTexas+Gospel.jpg

Texas+Gospel.jpg

Edited by John L
Link to comment
Share on other sites

im happy u guys like my thread i started, lets hear it for late 70s/early 80s savoy gospel lps. come to think if it, i got a real nice one from the 50s too!!!! name alludes me but its the same bag-- gospel headfirst, tons of B3 organ. its fantastic. only freddie roach did a gospel-hardbop fusion, right? *all thats good........... or are there other examples im missing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...