SOUL4REAL’S wonderful JAI ALAI subsidiary is lining up two ab fab 7” singles featuring four different artists – one per side, obviously.
The first 45 pairs a G C CAMERON tune with one from the lesser known but no less soulful, THE GREEN BROTHERS.
G C Cameron (“Garbage Can” but more properly George Curtis) is a soul legend. He’s revered for his work with the Spinners, of course – that’s him out front on ‘It’s A Shame’. Then there’s a storied solo career. You may know that when the Spinners left Motown, he decided to stay in the Gordy fold – well, he was married to the boss’s sister, Gwendolyn. There followed a series of collectable singles and three albums including the classic ‘You’re What’s Missing In My Life’ . In the early 80s he stepped back from music before making a comeback with Malaco where he recorded a now in-demand LP, ‘Give Me Your Love’. Then came spells back with the Spinners and a stint with the Temptations before once again stepping away from the business with just the odd Motown review tempting him back.
Collectors will be delighted to know that one side of the new Jai Alai 45 features the title track to that Malaco album and if you don’t know it, you’ll discover a joyous, mid paced modern soul gem that underlines why good old G C is so highly regarded and why the Temptations wanted him in their ranks. This is the first vinyl 45 for ‘Give Me Your Love’.
The Green Brothers were Robert L. Green (Bobby) and younger brother Aaron Alexander (Al) and they came from Fort Pierce, Florida where they enjoyed a righteous, church-based up-bringing. By the mid-60s, the family were in Royal Oak, Michigan and the boys were part of the gospel group The Violinaires (Wilson Pickett had been a member in the late 50s). The brothers then formed the Soul Superiors and set up their own Warfell label. The label folded and the brothers then joined Designer Records before they were eventually snapped up by Stax for their Truth imprint. Their first single ‘Dy-No-Mite (Did You Say My Love’was a flop and with money issues between the Greens and the label, the twosome moved on.
Don Davis saw the Green’s potential and signed them up to the Tortoise label where the single ‘Lack Of Attention’ / ‘Sweet Lovin’ Woman’ was a great example of Davis’s skill at combining the passion of Southern soul with uptown production skills. Sadly, the disc (now collectable, of course) bombed and Al Green went back to Florida while Bobby stayed in Detroit and that seemed to be that.
Then some 30 years later Stax musician Bobby Manuel discovered some of the Green’s’ unissued Truth recordings and after enhancing them with strings they were released on CD in 2009 on LocoBop Records. And it’s one of those cuts, the searing, soulful ‘Your Love Lifted Me’ that appears on the flip of the Jai Alai release. It’s different all together to the “up” Cameron side… deep and tortured, it epitomises the passion of Southern soul and it’s patently obvious that the Greens were Gospel -reared. Sadly both brothers are now dead but this release is a fine testimony to them. This is the first time that ‘Your Love Lifted Me’ has appeared on vinyl.
Learn more and order @ https://www.soul4real.es/soul-4-real-records-jai-alai-records/
