For people of a certain age, the word "disco" is synonymous with the image of a white-suited John Travolta strutting his stuff in the blockbuster movie Saturday Night Fever while the hirsute, shiny-toothed Bee Gees squawked 'Staying Alive' with impossibly-high helium falsettos. However, as true connoisseurs of that much-maligned musical genre will know, there is much more to disco than the mainstream hits that brought what became a cultural as well as musical phenomenon a big slice of immortality.
But for every big disco hit, there was a stack of mirrorball-oriented singles that for various reasons, did not connect with the public at large but which enjoyed some healthy notoriety at a cult and underground level. Such was the case with Donna McGhee, a young, fine-voiced Brooklyn singer who made a superb single and a fabulous LP in the late '70s, but whose name is not a familiar one to those who think the Gibb brothers were gods of the dancefloor. Donna recorded what turned out to be one of the most collectable disco records ever: an album called 'Make It Last Forever.' Released by a small, New York-based indie label (Red Greg Records), the LP was a quality product packed with great tunes but perhaps lacking the distribution clout and promotional machinery of a more affluent major label, failed to generate the kind of interest it undoubtedly deserved.
Now, though, Donna McGhee, who is 65 and still working, is back in the limelight thanks to We Want Sounds' reissue of 'Make It Last Forever,' a record that in its now rare original US pressing commanded a three-figure price. Talking to SJF's Charles Waring from a rainy Portland, Oregon, where she was due to perform, Donna says she is elated by her album's revival. "I just got my copy the other day so I'm very happy that it has been reissued because now I have a new generation of people that appreciate it," she says. "It's had a good lot of good write-ups so I'm very pleased."
Last Updated on Saturday, 21 December 2019 16:23
"Life happens while you're a jazz singer," laughs Vanessa Rubin, explaining her long absence from the world of recording. For those mystified by her sudden disappearance back at the dawn of the 2000s, she says "I never stopped singing," adding, "but you can't be on stage all the time. I'm happy to have had time to be with family and do some normal things, instead of just travelling and focusing on my performance." 
Though he comes across as a softly-spoken man who laughs a lot, is self-effacing, and knows the value of humility, there's a core of inner steel that gives folk-blues troubadour Keb' Mo' a toughness that seems at odds with the gentle demeanour he projects. He's a strong believer in fighting for just causes and during a career that began in 1994 and which to date has yielded seventeen albums, Mo' has tackled many different and difficult social, political and environmental issues. Though he's been described as a protest singer, the 67-year-old Californian - who now lives in Nashville - doesn't express himself using cheap or catchy slogans; nor does he adopt a blinkered, dogmatic approach to his subject matter - rather, he convinces us his cause's worthiness by dint of his common-sense-reasoning combined with simple eloquence and the gentle art of persuasion. 
Sonically unique, Philip Bailey's celestial falsetto voice, with its unmistakable haunting quality has been a key component of Earth, Wind & Fire's sound for 47 years now. For a long time it was the yin to the yang of the late Maurice White's smooth baritone and helped define some of the R&B supergroup's biggest hits, including 'Fantasy,' 'Reasons' and 'After The Love Has Gone.' From time to time, though, Bailey has expressed himself as a solo artist away from the group. He first recorded on his own in 1983, when he released his debut LP 'Continuation,' and up until 2002, when he released his ninth solo LP, 'Soul On Jazz,' he was recording solo albums on a fairly regular basis. Since that album, though, he's been silent for 17 years. Now, though, the Colorado-born singer and percussionist returns with a brand new solo offering called 'Love Will Find A Way,' which was initially a self-funded project but is now being released by Verve Records on June 21st. 
