In 1975, Clarence Avant hit rock bottom. Or so it seemed. The North Carolina music entrepreneur’s record company, Sussex – launched in 1969 and whose roster included hit-making soul troubadour Bill Withers – was closed down and sold off by the IRS for alleged non-payment of taxes. But Avant hadn’t lost everything – he still retained the fierce drive and burning ambition that had seen his inexorable rise from being a Macy’s store clerk to become a pioneering African-American music executive with valuable experience in artist management (he had looked after the affairs of R&B star Little Willie John and jazz diva Sarah Vaughan in the early 60s). Less than two years after Sussex closed its doors, Avant bounced back and started a new label, Tabu, with distribution from RCA. In terms of the hits that it generated, Tabu became the most successful of Avant’s musical ventures. Its story is chronicled by a tremendous new 6CD box set that comprises 93 tracks plus a bonus DVD and a 7” (with soul singer Sharon Ridley’s Paradise Garage anthem Changin’ adorning the A-side).
Initially, though, Tabu didn’t take the music world by storm. The label’s formative years are detailed on Disc One, Introducing Tabu. Avant’s first signing was Detroit disco-funk and soul aggregation Brainstorm. Though they enjoyed modest success – and cut some pretty decent records, such as Journey To The Light – they’d disbanded by 1979. Other signings included leftfield soul chanteuse Ms (Sharon) Ridley, Argentine jazz man and movie composer Lalo Schifrin, plus blind Brazilian bossa nova pianist Manfredo Est (whose sexed-up jazz-disco romp Jungle Kitten appears on the flipside of the set’s bonus 45).
Tabu’s fortunes changed dramatically with the acquisition of Atlanta’s SOS Band, a self-contained soul and funk unit that scored a US R&B chart-topper with their disco-fuelled 1980 debut 45 Take Your Time (Do It Right). The band then plunged into a creative dip but were revived in 1983 by ex-Time duo Jimmy ‘Jam’ Harris and Terry Lewis, who masterminded a string of memorable global smashes including the synth-driven electro-soul groundbreaker Just Be Good To Me. Such was the production duo’s impact with Tabu’s small roster (they also helmed hits for smooth soul crooner Alexander O’Neal and his duetting partner Cherrelle) that the whole of Disc Four is devoted to their work. They also feature strongly on the fifth CD but, by that time (the late 80s through to the early 90s), they were beginning to farm out some Tabu acts to their understudies, which yielded less successful results. Come 1993, the label’s output dwindled to almost nothing as Avant pursued other interests in the music business. But by then, Tabu, had written itself into the R&B annals.
This six-disc trawl through the archives is a rewarding experience for soul connoisseurs. The addition of a DVD featuring 80s promotional videos from Tabu’s hit-making Holy Trinity (SOS Band, Alexander O’Neal and Cherrelle), plus filmed interviews with Clarence Avant and the men who helped make the label’s fortune, Jam and Lewis, makes the package even more desirable.
Brainstorm was an American funk and R&B band active in the late 1970s, based in Detroit, Michigan. Their debut album, Stormin' , was their best-selling album, and was released in 1977 on Tabu Records, executive-produced by Clarence Avant and produced by Jerry Peters. It contained the disco hit single "Lovin' Is Really My Game", which was featured in the film 54 starring Mike Myers, and won the 1978 Billboard magazine Light Radio/Heavy Disco Record of the Year. The album also contained the radio hit "This Must Be Heaven" which is considered a soul classic, by virtue of its continued air play 34 years later. Other single releases from subsequent albums included 1978's "On Our Way Home", and "Hot for You", featuring Belita Woods on lead vocals.
Chuck Overton started the band. The members of the band (on the Stormin' album) were Belita Woods, bandleader and saxophonist Charles Overton, Lamont Johnson on fretless bass and vocals ("This Must Be Heaven"), Renell Gonsalves on drums, Treaty Womack on vocals, percussion, and flute, Bob Ross (a.k.a. Professor RJ Ross) on keyboards, Gerald "Jerry" Kent on guitar, Jeryl Bright on trombone, and "Leaping" Larry Sims on trumpet. Future Wham!/George Michael bassist, Deon Estus, was also a member of the band for a time. A teenage Regina Carter, who later became internationally known and respected as a jazz violinist, joined the band around 1978 and performed for a time with them. TheBrothersAli.com Jerome Ali and Jimmy Ali(guitar and bass), joined about the same time in 1978, these days performing in Las Vegas, Houston & Detroit.
Members of Brainstorm continued their musical careers with other bands or in production. Woods later went on to perform as part of the Parliament-Funkadelic collective in touring sets around the world. Sims became the trumpeter for the Sounds of Blackness, which won two Grammy Awards during the 1990s. Bright went on to play trombone with the funk band Cameo for over twenty five years, and later released an album with other former Cameo members Aaron Mills, and Thomas TC Campbell, known as MCB (which was also the title of their album). Trenita "Treaty" Womack performs regularly with the Funk Brothers as well as a wide variety of other artists, and appeared in Standing in the Shadows of Motown, an award-winning documentary, as percussionist. Gerald "Jerry" Kent has produced a BMI-affiliated self-published CD in 2006, under the name Kent's Way Overdue entitled Tone Paintings, an original jazz-fusion guitar-based collection of instrumental cuts. He also plays guitar and bass with the IDMR Detroit Choir, which choir was used in the closing scenes of Standing in the Shadows of Motown, singing background harmony behind Chaka Khan in a Grammy 2003 winning performance of "What's Going On". William Wooten, who joined the band after the first album playing keyboards, now tours with The Dramatics and The Spinners. Lamont Johnson released several solo albums and teaches bass. Renell Gonsalves performs with a wide variety of artists, as a skillful Latin-jazz percussionist (His father was renowned jazz saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, late of the Duke Ellington band). Professor RJ Ross has written and co-produced a number of music projects with well-known artists in California including a 2008 CD Face to Face.
The group consisted of sisters Brenda (December 7, 1954 – April 3, 2017),[3][4] Valorie (April 17, 1956 – December 2, 2001) and Shirley Jones (born September 22, 1953). They performed as backup singers for Lou Rawls, Teddy Pendergrass, Aretha Franklin, and Le Pamplemousse. They worked with Diana Ross[5] from 1975 to 1978 and were the backup singers on Linda Clifford's 1978 album If My Friends Could See Me Now.[1] They also performed on Tower of Power's disco-themed 1979 album Back on the Streets. Their biggest hit was "You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else". The song hit the Billboard Magazine Top 40 at number 38 in May 1979.[2] The song was also a Top 5 R&B hit.[2] It became a gold record. An additional hit followed in 1980, with the single "I Just Love The Man", charting at number 9 in January 1981.[2] The less successful "Nights Over Egypt" (1981), written by Dexter Wansel, charted at R&B number 23 in 1982.[2]
After the release and failure of their fourth U.S. album, On Target, lead singer Shirley Jones pursued a solo career and had a number 1 R&B hit on Billboard with "Do You Get Enough Love", from her top-ten debut album Always in the Mood (1986).[1][6] "Do You Get Enough Love" was written by Bunny Sigler who also produced it with Kenny Gamble.[7] Valorie Jones died on December 2, 2001, in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 45.[8] In 2007, Shirley Jones released an album Ladies Night Out together with Jean Carn and Cherrelle, on CD and DVD.
Brenda eventually moved to Atlanta, where she sang frequently with her four-piece band, performing both jazz and R&B numbers, including many Jones Girls' tunes. She later moved to New York after her children were grown, to have a more active performing and recording schedule. On April 3, 2017, Brenda was visiting her daughter in Wilmington, Delaware, and was hit by several cars and killed while attempting to cross the street.[9] She was 62.[9] Shirley continues to perform successfully as the Jones Girls with two of her nieces and a nephew on background vocals.
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I'm Movin' On is the third studio album recorded by American singer CeCe Peniston, released on September 9, 1996, by A&M Records. Taking Peniston's work deeper foray into mainstream R&B genre, A&M consulted a number of pop musicians to record with her, including Dave Hall, Gordon Chambers, and Andrea Martin. Other collaborated include DJ Steve "Silk" Hurley, Damon Thomas, Danny Sembello, Darryl Pearson, and Jorge "G-Man" Corante.
Upon release, the album garnered mixed to favorable reviews from music critics. Most of them criticized the predominant promoting of R&B tracks, as well as her label for insistence on Peniston abandoning dance community in favor of urban arena. In terms of chart performance, the album has been viewed as a commercial failure with no entry on the US Billboard 200, nor overseas. The only out of two released singles that cracked the US Billboard Hot 100 list was the lead single "Movin' On", which climbed to number eighty-three, eventually. "Somebody Else's Guy", an update of Jocelyn Brown's hit from 1984, became a surprising hit for Peniston in addition, after being promoted as support of her greatest hits compilation, and the closing release under her contract with A&M.
I'm Movin' On was supposed to be Peniston's deeper foray into mainstream R&B followed the pattern of her previous release Thought 'Ya Knew (1994), in which Peniston began her unsuccessful transition into the R&B market. The label heavily focusing on hip-hop influenced R&B jams and a variety of slow ballads invited several producers to join her session, in front of Dave Hall and Gordon Chambers, who co-wrote the title track. This time, Peniston reprised her fellow collaboration with Steve Hurley on two songs. "The Last to Know" that she co-wrote, and "Don't Know What to Do". None of these would be released on single, though. In order to push her musical horizons further, A&M also featured JoJo Hailey of the group Jodeci and Tenina Stevens (also known as Suga T), as the first time ever that another artists would be vocally credited on her record.
Good News in Hard Times is the album released by American gospel group the Sisters of Glory, released on August 22, 1995, by Warner Bros. Records. The set included solo performances by five female singers from different musical backgrounds: Thelma Houston, CeCe Peniston, Phoebe Snow, Lois Walden, and Albertina Walker.
The concept of their modern gospel ensemble was initially created by Lois Walden. For the first time, the vocalists performed together on April 25, 1994, at the New York benefit concert named "Gospel Music: From the Church to the Charts". The next gig for the gospel quintet was at the music festival Woodstock '94 on August 14, 1994. Later that year, on December 16, they appeared before Pope John Paul II at the Christmas at the Vatican II concert in Rome.[2] After receiving an offer from Warner Bros management, the Sisters also recorded a studio album in common.
The album, produced by Jennifer Cohen in collaboration with Walden, earned positive to mixed reviews from music critics. With no song released in support either on promotional single, Good News in Hard Times charted on the U.S. Billboard Top 40 Gospel Albums at number twenty-nine.
Thought 'Ya Knew is the second solo studio album by American singer-songwriter CeCe Peniston, released on January 11, 1994, by A&M Records, and on February 10 in Japan.[1] For this album, Peniston once again collaborated with Chicago-based producer Steve "Silk" Hurley, along with other producers Carsten Schack and Kenneth Karlin (better recognized as duo Soulshock & Karlin) from Denmark, David Morales, Sir Jinx, and on one track ("Forever in My Heart") also with the multiple Grammy Award-nominee Brian McKnight.
Deciding not to get pigeonholed into the dance genre, Peniston recorded several ballads for the album, trying to move into an R&B direction. Unlike its predecessor Finally, Peniston's second album was, therefore, a calculated mixture of pop ballads and R&B beats, though incorporating also other genres, such as jazz ("I'm in the Mood"), funk (I'm Not Over You"), reggae ("Through Those Doors") and gospel ("I Will Be Received").
The album received generally mixed reviews from music critics, and commercially, it proved to be a moderate success. Debuting on February 12, 1994, at number 102 on the Billboard 200, the album reached its peak a week later at number ninety-six, while spending nineteen weeks on the US chart in total. Overseas, the album entered the UK Albums Chart at number thirty-one, but charted for only two weeks there. Other territories included Switzerland (at number thirty-two), Japan (at number sixty-six), Netherlands (at number sixty-nine), and Germany (at number ninety-two).
Four official singles were released from the album, three of which entered the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the UK Singles Chart. All of them became successful on the dance chart, bringing Peniston two additional number one hits on the US Hot Dance Club Songs. In Japan, the album was shortly followed by Remix Collection, which featured alternate versions of songs issued on singles. It was reissued in Japan on September 11, 1996.[2] The album was not accompanied by a worldwide tour.
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This album stands as the poignant conclusion to his extensive discography. The iconic voice behind hits like "Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)" and "You Are My Lady" passed away on October 5, 2026, at the age of 70, just three days after his birthday.
R&B singer Freddie Jackson became a stalwart of the genre in the late ’80s and early ’90s. From 1985 to 1992, he scored 19 Top 10 singles—including 10 No. 1 hits—on the R&B charts. His latest album release, My First Love, is a collection of songs continuing the tradition of classic soul sounds Freddie Jackson is known for.
Love Signals is the eleventh studio album by American R&B singer Freddie Jackson, released on June 4, 2018, under the Climax Entertainment label. This 10-track project features his signature smooth soul and urban adult contemporary sound, focusing on themes of love, peace, and unity.
Featuring overstated atmosphere, Jackson makes the effort to co-pen three original songs - "One Wish," "Come On Home for Christmas," and the title track.
(October 6, 2026) This has been a sad year for soul music fans, one in which so many great artists have died. But some passings have additional weight, and feel like the end of an era. This is one of those. We are extremely sad to inform readers that R&B great Freddie Jackson has died, just three days after his 70th birthday. Jackson had announced two years ago that he had been diagnosed with kidney disease, but it is unclear whether that was the cause of his passing.
Jackson’s family posted a heartfelt tribute on Facebook: “It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that we share the passing of our beloved Freddie Jackson, who went home to rest last night. Freddie was more than a legendary voice. He was a kind, generous soul who loved his fans, his family, his friends, and his music with everything he had. For decades he gave us the songs that became the soundtrack to our love stories, our celebrations, and our most treasured memories. That gift will live on forever.”
It is tough to look at the emergence of adult-oriented R&B music in the 1980s without focusing on the ascent and chart dominance of Freddie Jackson. Born in New York City, Jackson began his professional career in the late 1970s, including a stint with the group Mystic Merlin, before emerging as a solo artist in spectacular fashion in 1985. His Capitol Records debut, Rock Me Tonight, became a platinum smash, led by the six-week #1 R&B title track and the equally memorable ballad “You Are My Lady.” The album immediately established Jackson as one of the premiere male vocalists of his generation.
And the hits kept coming. Jackson followed with another platinum album, Just Like the First Time, which included the chart-toppers “Tasty Love,” “Have You Ever Loved Somebody” and “Jam Tonight.” He also scored with “Hey Lover,” “Do Me Again,” “Nice and Slow,” and his wonderful duet with Melba Moore, “A Little Bit More.” In all, Jackson placed ten songs at the top of the R&B charts, becoming one of the dominant adult soul singers of the second half of the 1980s.
While musical styles changed in the decades that followed, Jackson continued recording and performing, releasing independent projects including Life After 30, Transitions, For You, Love Signals and, most recently, My First Love. We last wrote about him as he released the touching tribute to his mother, “Never Let Go,” three years ago.
For SoulTrackers, Freddie Jackson represented a special era when sophisticated soul ballads ruled radio, and few singers delivered them with more elegance or feeling. Songs such as “Rock Me Tonight” and “You Are My Lady” have long since moved beyond hits to become part of the soundtrack of a generation.
We send our condolences to the family, friends and millions of fans of Freddie Jackson around the world. Rest in Peace, Freddie Jackson.
Son of Luzia Motta (sister of Tim Maia) and Antonio Motta,[2][3] Ed Motta listened to disco, soul and funk from an early age. He became a fan of rock music as a teenager.
His musical career started as vocalist of the hard rock band Kabbalah.[4] After hearing Jeff Beck's album "Blow by Blow", he realized that the British guitarist had soul and funk influences.[5] While still in his teens, he abandoned his studies to dedicate himself to music, and explored a fascination with soul music. He worked as a DJ and produced the fanzine "Curto Circuito",[6] eventually meeting guitarist Luiz Fernando Comprido,[5] with whom he formed the "Expresso Realengo", later renamed "Conexão Japeri" which recorded their first album in 1988.
In 1990 Motta departed to begin his solo career, recording his debut Um Contrato Com Deus, where he played almost all the instruments by himself. Since then he has released several solo albums. In 1997 he supplied the soundtrack to the film, Pequeno Dicionário Amoroso (The Book of Love).
In 1994, he lived in New York City for a year. There he recorded an album with American musicians that has not been released yet. He discovered the universes of classical music, which eventually reflected on his musical conception. Once opposed to Brazilian music, he discovered that foreign artists had recorded Brazilian songs, such as recordings of Francis Hime's Minha by jazz artist Bill Evans,[8] and discovered a partnership between Brazilian Marcos Valle and American Leon Ware,[9] famous for composing the song I Wanna Be Where You Are, recorded by Michael Jackson.
In 1999 he translated Phil Collins's songs for the Disney film Tarzan into Brazilian Portuguese.
His album Aystelum was nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards of 2006 in the Latin jazz category.
Motta has worked with Cassiano, Roy Ayers, 4 Hero, Seu Jorge, Eliane Elias, Incognito, Bo Diddley and Ryuichi Sakamoto among others.
His work covers a variety of genres from jazz to popular Brazilian music, rock to Hollywood film soundtracks, funk, classical music, AOR, bossa nova and reggae.
