[Soul Jazz Records Presents] Miami Sound: Rare Funk & Soul From Florida 1967-1974

New 20th anniversary edition of Soul Jazz Records’ long out-of-print Miami Sound: Rare Funk and Soul from Miami, Florida, 1967-74. This album had been unavailable for more than 15 years and is newly remastered. Soul Jazz Records Miami Sound features rare and classic Funk and Deep Soul from Miami, Florida between 1968 and 1974. The album brings together million-selling artists such as Gwen McRae, George McRae and Timmy Thomas alongside artists little known outside of the sunshine state such as James Knight and The Butlers, Frank Williams and The Rocketeers and All the People. Miami Funk, Soul and Disco was dominated by TK Records, founded by Henry Stone in the early 1970s. Through a myriad of associated record labels such as Alston, Blue Candle, Dash, Glades, Cat and more, TK Records made international artists out of Gwen McRae and her brother George McRae, Betty Wright and KC and The Sunshine Band, all in the mid-70s crossover period between Soul and Disco. The music on this compilation shows the roots of this Miami Sound. All the artists and musicians on this album work together throughout the heyday of TK Records when it produced hit after hit on an almost daily basis. The house band (the equivalent to Motown’s Funk Brothers) included songwriters such as Clarence Reid (AKA Blowfly, the adult comedian!), Casey Finch (KC from KC and The Sunshine Band) along with musicians Little Beaver, Frank Williams and Robert Moore. As well as being the in-house band, most of these artists also ran successful solo careers, making Miami one of the most musically creative hot spots in the USA. The artists on this compilation include Helene Smith, Miami’s first lady of Soul, Frank Williams and The Rocketeers (featuring a very young Little Beaver on vocals), George McRae’s rare-groove classic “I Get Lifted” (written by Casey Finch), Timmy Thomas’ truly experimental track “Funky Me”, Gwen McRae’s classic “90% of Me” as well as a host of practically unknown Miami artists who never managed to make it outside the city borders!

TRK LIST;

1. All the People – Cramp Your Style
2. Helene Smith – You Got To Be a Man
3. George McCrae – I Get Lifted
4. James Knight and the Butlers – Funky Cat
5. Gwen McCrae – 90% of Me is You
6. Little Beaver – Funkadelic Sound
7. James Knight and the Butlers – Save Me
8. Joey Gilmore – Do It To Me One More Time
9. Helene Smith – a Woman Will Do Wrong
10. James Knight and the Butlers -Fantasy World
11. Timmy Thomas – Funky Me
12. The New Clarence Reid – Cadillac Annie
13. Frank Williams and the Rocketeers -the Spanish Flyer
14. Della Humphrey – Don’t Make the Good Girls Go Bad
15. Frank Williams & the Rocketeers – You Got To Be a Man
16. Joey Gilmore – Somebody Done Took My Baby and Gone
17. Little Beaver – I Love the Way You Love