(Psychedelic Soul, Funk) Ebony Rhythm Band ‎ - Soul Heart Transplant: The Lamp Sessions 1969 - 2004, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

EBONY RHYTHM BAND – Soul Heart Transplant: The Lamp Sessions. Now Again NA 5011. NEW CD, but not sealed. Issued in 2004. Originally recorded in 1969 and 1970, tracks noted with * were issued as a single on LAMP Records, all other tracks are previously unreleased. Tracks listed as by The Vagabonds, The Pearls, and The Montiques are instrumental backing tracks sans the named artists’ vocals. Comes with a 20-page informative/photo insert booklet. MEMBERS: Robert L. “Master Boobie” Townsend, John R. “Ricky” Jackson, Ronald Hedrick, Lester L. “Pig” Johnson, Anthony J. “Tony” Roberts, and Matthew R. “Phatback” Watson. TRACKS: Soul Heart Transplant*, Light My Fire, Ode To Billy Joe, Vanilla Fudge, Drugs Ain’t Cool*, and Get Yourself Together (Smiling Phases/Sunshine Of Your Love, Medley). The Vagabonds – The Thought Of Losing Your Love (alternate edit), The Pearls – Can I Call You Baby, The Vagabonds – It’s Too Late For Love, The Montiques – Fool Am I. BONUS TRACK: Ebony Rhythm Band – Light My Fire (alternate take). DESCRIPTION: Contrary to today's prevailing view about the decade, it was not necessarily a good thing to be an ahead-of-the-time musician during the 1960s, especially if you were black and living in a provincial Midwestern city such as Indianapolis. Naptown does have a rich African American musical heritage, with notable figures including bluesmen Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell as well as jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, to name but a few. Although Funk, Inc. was probably the most famous band in the city's thriving late 1960s-early 1970s funk scene, there were many lesser-known outfits that were also musically compelling but recorded only a single or two before fading away into obscurity. The Ebony Rhythm Band was one such group. Their fondness for mind-expanding rock music is apparent on the sides collected on Soul Heart Transplant. And while this influence prevented them from being well-received in black nightclubs where patrons had more traditional tastes in music, it did help distinguish them as an extremely innovative unit for their time. The group's history is somewhat convoluted, so I'll leave it to you to peruse the informative insert booklet for the full details. Its members comprised the personnel of what was essentially the house band for LAMP (Layden and Miller Productions), a small label set up by Indianapolis entrepreneur Herb Miller. This businessman got his start as a record store owner and music distributor and, after becoming partners with boxing promoter Howard Layden, began signing local artists to recording contracts. Due to their instrumental chops, the Ebony Rhythm Band backed many of these performers on their studio sessions. The aggregation's origins can be traced to the time when drummer Matthew Watson, originally in blues guitarist Harvey Cook's band, joined forces with guitarist Robert "Master Boobie" Townsend and organist John "Ricky" Jackson in soul singer Baby Leon's backing group sometime around 1967. Bassist Lester Johnson came into the fold the following year, and it was through his contacts that they became associated with LAMP Records. Initially, the rhythm section played as part of the rehearsal band for a group already signed to the label, the Vanguards. Johnson and Watson's contributions were so well received that all four musicians earned an audition with Miller, who was sufficiently impressed to make them his label's "Wrecking Crew," so to speak. After settling upon the name Ebony Rhythm Band, they not only provided accompaniment for the Vanguards, but also for other LAMP acts such as the Montiques and the Pearls. It's Too Late for Love, Fool Am I, and Can I Call You Baby are all presumably hitherto unissued backing tracks for songs by these aforementioned vocal groups. Although Ebony Rhythm Band lacked a real vocalist, this did not prevent them from recording a significant amount of material (mostly instrumentals) in 1969 and 1970 under their own direction (in lieu of being paid for their session work). Several of the titles featured here resulted from occasions when the engineer had left the tape running during jam sessions. As the liner notes explain: The songs that the Band chose to record differed markedly from the solid, though traditional, R&B that they recorded for LAMP's vocal groups. "We were into R&B, but we were into it in a different sense," Lester offers. "We thought it was too confined. We listened to R&B stuff, but we were equally into rock. We were fascinated by (wah-) wahs, distortion, that sort of thing." The Band chose songs by the Doors, Cream, and Blood, Sweat and Tears and covered them as might a soul jazz combo recording for Prestige or Blue Note; sans horns, the Ebony Rhythm Band have much in common with Stax recording artists and house band Booker T. & the MGs. Thus the inclusion of previously unreleased instrumental interpretations of period pieces Light My Fire and Ode To Billie Joe (which, curiously enough, were also both covered by contemporary black group Africa on Music from "Lil Brown") in addition to a medley of Vanilla Fudge themes titled - what else? - Vanilla Fudge. Get Yourself Together is based on Traffic's Smiling Phases and Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love. According to Watson, "We was scorned. In that era, everybody else in the black community was wearing three-piece suits, processes, and Afro wigs, and that sh*t. We was the first guys to wear bell-bottoms. The first guys to wear big hats. We were off into a whole other thing." And Lester, "We wanted more of a rock thing, and that's what we did. When we played these R&B gigs behind these stand-up vocal groups that wore costumes and danced routines, we used to laugh at them. We thought they were corny." The Ebony Rhythm Band's lone 45 Drugs Ain't Cool b/w Soul Heart Transplant offers a tantalizing taste of what a full-length album by the group might have sounded like as both numbers put their collective influences on display. Believe it or not, the A-side was the winner in a contest held by the mayor of Indianapolis for the best anti-drug song, which netted the musicians $800 as well as the opportunity to perform in front of a municipal building in the city's downtown area. In what would have been a major disappointment to Nancy Reagan and the whole "Just Say No" crowd, the band apparently displayed a bit of hypocrisy by performing the song (influenced by the Spencer Davis Group's I'm a Man) while stoned on marijuana. This is a magnificent performance and in the same league as material by early Funkadelic, although admittedly not quite as far out. On Soul Heart Transplant, Ebony Rhythm Band comes off as a Midwestern version of the Meters, especially due to Townsend's absolutely wicked guitar playing and Watson's impressive percussion work. The members of the Ebony Rhythm Band continued performing live as the backing group for the Vanguards and the Pearls prior to heading to the West Coast in 1970 as part of the King James Version (band) and then metamorphosing into the Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign later in the decade. Those of you who like to dig for bones will dig this! from ebay.com

Heavy funk from the Indy scene of the late 60s – the lost album by one of the funkiest combos in the Midwest! Ebony Rhythm Band have an incredible sound that seems to take the heavy bottom of New Orleans Funk and merge it with the trippier elements of Detroit psychedelic soul – no surprise, considering they hailed from Indianapolis, a point about halfway between the two cities! The tracks on the set have a really great tripped-out groove – using lots of guitar and organ over heavy rhythms, in a style that's a bit like the Meters at times – but a lot freer flowing. The album features 2 tracks that formed the basis of one of the group's singles – plus a lot more that were never issued at the time, including a few by other incarnations of the combo! Titles include "Soul Heart Transplant", "Ode To Billie Joe", "Light My Fire", "Vanilla Fudge", "Get Yourself Together", "Drugs Ain't Cool", "Fool Am I", and "It's Too Late For Love". CD contains the bonus alternate version of "Light My Fire". © 1996-2013, Dusty Groove, Inc.

Bass – Lester Johnson
Drums – Matthew Watson
Guitar – Robert Townsend
Organ, Vocals – John Jackson
Producer – Herb Miller