Mickey Finn

Geraldine Hunt's son Freddie James recorded an LP partly at Alpha International studios in 1981, and although there's no credit you would put money on the solo belonging to Vincent Montana, Jr.

Norman Harris produced an LP for Blue Magic on Capitol in 1981:

Thom Bell also produced an LP for Dee Dee Bridgewater in 1980 on Elektra, recorded at Sigma Sound:

Thom Bell produced 2 LPs for Deniece Williams on CBS in 1981 and 82, both recorded at Sigma Sound:

Richard "Richie" Rome gave the Ritchie Family its name, as it was originally a studio concept with the Sigma Sweethearts doing vocal duties for the "Brazil" LP in 1975. Eefore that he worked as arranger of the tracks recorded at Sigma Sound for Jimmy Ruffin's 1973 LP, this sounding more Memphis than Philly: Rome went on to produce an album on CBS for the Three Degrees in 1977 and released a solo LP on Elektra which ended up producing the midtempo classic "Deep".

Having said that, Judy Freeman and Blackrock's "Hold on" hasn't been posted so far:

In fairness to Josep, there's also potential for a thread on "West coast"/"Yacht rock"/AOR that crosses over into the various soul scenes. But this thread's original focus on blue-eyed *northern* soul would seem to have run its course. For anyone interested, Richard Searling played an hour of the northern stuff yesterday:

When Howlin' Wolf recorded his "London Sessions" album for Chess in 1971 he was accompanied by Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart and Bill Wyman, along with Clapton and Steve Winwood. Winwood was also involved in the Muddy Waters "London Sessions" LP a year later, along with Rick Grech (ex-Blind Faith), Rory Gallagher and ex-Jimi Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell. In the 60s Mike Vernon did a lot of work bringing over and recording older blues artists like Champion Jack Dupree and Otis Spann, who recorded with a lot of these guys and others to do with the UK blues scene. To get some idea of what it must have felt like for these African Americans to be treated like royalty by white people, it's worth reading Miles Davis' autobiography where he talks about his first visit to Paris and how mindblowing it was to be treated simply with respect. Whatever beef DG had with Jagger or anyone else, it's unlikely to be based on any kind of bad attitude of Jagger's towards the original artists and music. The most obvious difference between them from this distance is their very contrasting political views, and especially Jagger's unashamed moneymaking. That's what so impressed Rees-Mogg, who tried to persuade his establishment chums that Jagger was anything but a threat to them, but was in fact just the kind of entrepreneurial type that was required to shake up the country. Not much of a rock'n'roll rebel in reality. Alternatively, maybe DG just had an irrational dislike that couldn't be explained properly. Did DG ever say anything about Rod Stewart?

For me the Stones are among those who always "got it" re black music. They could do it authentically, as opposed to pastiche or nervously respectful tribute. They've done a lot of other stuff that doesn't really fit the category, but that's no reason to condemn them. Jagger produced the recent film doc of James Brown, and it's clear how much he held and still holds JB in awe. Perhaps we'll be none the wiser until Jagger publishes his autobiography. Or maybe Jerry Hall will provide some clues Sadly it's not so uncommon that a loathing of personality overrides any objective appreciation of that person's work or achievements. Perhaps Mick ran off with Dave's girlfriend. How out of character that would have been

I'm not ashamed to say I like it either. It's just that I don't Don't see why jazz shouldn't get a look in here. The overlap with blues and soul is big enough. Motown's Funk Brothers were originally jazz musicians playing in Detroit clubs before they were hired by Berry Gordy. The acrobatics of James Jamerson came out of that jazz background. The story goes that Leon Huff's organ solo on MFSB's Kay-Jee was him simply arriving in the middle of the recording session and joining in at the improvised moment. The musicianship of so much soul is top notch and the freshness of so many recorded tunes comes down to that style of playing and the ability to improvise, such that recordings could be done in one or a few takes.

Not "The snake", surely

Did he ever explain in any detail why he disliked the Stones so much? Maybe it was politically motivated - Mick Jagger was already being wowed by Times editor William Rees-Mogg (yes, the father) in 1968 for his libertarian views. Clapton is credited by some with inspiring the Rock Against Racism movement after a drunken concert appearance some time in 1976 when he spoke in favour of the NF. Not really the sort of thing you'd expect a blues afficionado to do. Possibly Godin thought that tax exiles were poor champions of a musical form born out of suffering.

I've answered both questions anyway but some definition of "retro" might help. Daptone? Ian Levine? Diane Shaw? Bettye Lavette? Recently on another thread it was pointed out that "contemporary" soul hasn't really moved on since the 90s. Does that make it retro too? By retro, do we mean 60s? Across the soul spectrum from northern to jazz and everything in between, the difference for me between good and bad retro is often a question of production. Too much clinical precision can destroy whatever warmth might have existed otherwise. This is a recurring problem with instrumental funk and jazz funk, which can sound simultaneously technically brilliant and utterly flat, at least to these ears. Some of the Daptone-ish stuff can be a bit clinical for me, as if reverence for the original sound has taken away the joy and spontaneity that made the original sound original in the first place. It's almost like an overreaction to synthesisers and programming. But it seems to be popular, so that takes care of question 2 perhaps! Good topic - looking forward to more views.

Stick with the early stuff - at least for me their debut album is strongest. Some years back I got a copy of their 1981 "Blue Jeans" album, which stood out alright - horrible lamest of the lame by the numbers funk. That's how I felt about it anyway...

And on to the northern one in the process - well recovered! From around the same time, another W, Dorothy Williams:

From her 2014 release, Zanyé:

Ken has been a relentless taskmaster - I mean it was only Monday when we started with A so it's just as well he's been relaxed about catching up. And since W does seem to be still busy, here's Jody Watley:

Angie and Debbie (Winans)

(BeBe and) CeCe Winans:

Zulema again, this time as a member of Zalmac on The Sound of Brooklyn Records:

Mahogany featuring Bernice Watkins:

No mention of this lady yet - Mary Wells:

Sorry Ken, for whatever reason my reply box was jammed and I had to post something to get things moving again. Now, since you brought us so rapidly to Z, what about mid 90s Motown act Zhane:

And Linda Womack: