Disco | Boogie Vinyl 482 Items

Don Blackman is an iconic, cult artist. A pianist, songwriter, producer, and vocalist from New York he is a mystical figure for record collectors, one of those artists where if you found an old dusty record with Don's name on it, you'd buy it on sight. He is best known for his 1982 magnum-opus, the eponymous album that featured the all-time classics 'Heart's Desire' and 'Holding You, Loving You’. He also collaborated with other greats such as Bernard Wright, Weldon Irvine, Roy Ayers, and Lenny White.

We couldn't believe it when Chicago DJ/digger/producer, Marc Davis, told us there was a vault of unreleased Don Blackman material. Marc had reached out to Don’s children, Irene and Kyle, in 2019, building a relationship with Kyle with whom he shared a musical affinity. To Marc's delight, Kyle confirmed that there was indeed a treasure trove. As Kyle described it, “In 2013, shortly after my dad’s passing, my sister and I collected all of his possessions and put them in a storage unit. I came across forty years’ worth of music history. Hundreds of cassettes, CDs, Disks, reel-to-reels, paperwork, photos and VHS tapes. It took about ten years to organise and digitise everything. All of this magic was almost thrown away in the trash, never to be seen, never to be heard forever.”

Two tracks were selected, 'Your Love Makes Me Crazy' and 'Say You'll Be Mine'. 'Your Love Makes Me Crazy' is as funky as it gets, with infectiously catchy vocal hooks, and a serious jam, whereas ‘Say You’ll Be Mine’ is a classy, soulful boogie, instrumental number, that shows off Don’s masterful piano playing. Both tracks warrant full attention and capture a master at work. He was also a one-man show when it came to production, playing all of the instruments when recording these tunes in his home studio in South Jamaica, Queens.

On first hearing the tracks, Marc knew he wanted to extend the songs and enlisted fellow Chicago legend, Tone B. Nimble, to work on the project with him. Their extension/edit of the songs was conducted in a way that was respectful and true to how the tracks were originally recorded by Don. They extended and re-sequenced the groovy parts of the songs organically for the DJs and dancers.

The final words on this release are best coming from Kyle, “We are very excited and thrilled to continue to share all of this unreleased magic with the world. We hope that this music will help, heal, and inspire a new generation of artists to never give up, and to strive for what their hearts desire.”

Here's a brand new EP for the italo lovers. Released for the first time
in 1982 on Full Time Production off-shoot Good Vibes, 4 M
International's "Space Operator" is repressed on hand-numbered limited
edition vinyl on Mr Disc Organization!
This special EP includes the Techno producer Donato Dozzy cadillac
rhythms reshape and the vocal and instrumental versions of the record.

Spaced out disco electro. The mysteriously named 4M International was a
side project of the production team behind the Italo group Trilogy ("Not
Love", "Black Devil" etc). "Space Operator" is the only record the
outfit recorded and is an ultra spacey, pitched down, cosmic anthem with
a wealth of killer sound FX, synth washes and sinister vocoded voices
inviting us to join them in some intergalactic space travel!

Limited to 500 copies.

Harbans, Steve and Mark met and recorded library music a few times prior. Steve and Mark were from Coventry and Harbans, Frank and Jaki were in Birmingham. Everyone was involved with the scene at the time playing jazz/funk and soul music with various acts.
Harbans had played with the popular disco/funk band The JALN Band. Frank played with the Cissy Stone Band who had a great following. Steve and Mark were in a popular jazz/rock/funk outfit called Pzazz. Jaki was singing in various bands and drawing a great deal of attention, of course we all know she went on to some great pop success. These songs were recorded sometime around the 1980's, during that explosive time of uk jazz funk, where it had a massive following up and down the country.

Well back in 1981 The New Jersey Connection gained cult Jazz Funk status at the very first time of trying!! The record "Love don't come easy" was a worldwide smash. Unfortunately no follow-up materialised. But the core of the group stuck together with writer and producer Eddie Saunders at the helm. Roll on to 1987 and a few musical ideas were recorded in the studio. Roll on to 2017 with a few new members a brand new beautifully crafted soul disco tune has emerged! With the writing skills of Eddie Saunders and his partner Perthea Brown plus the dynamic vocals of Cynthia Wilson we are happy to bring you "Red Light Green Light" A classic love struggle asking are you together or not!