Dave Hamilton's Detroit Soul Vol 2 - CD Review

A Masterclass in how to review a :  CD,Lp, etc!  1, Full and  comprehensive track listing,so you know what you are buying to avoid duplication. Etc' 2,  Knowledgeable, factual, erudite description' Not the usual  jibberish about:  "spine tingler", " ," Super" , Classic Thumper" and my fave cliche " Every Collection should have One".  3, Short and sweet ,taster of a sound clip. 4, Clear picture  of product. Roberts words are up there with the  greats of musical literature ;  Manship,  Mac Cadden and Croasdale,  Oh and. ,"Every home should have one" the CD,  Dave Hamilton Vol 2.! Johnny.

Conchitta, remind me again ..........  where do I send the cheque ??

Roburt, with a U its Twuu, your head and shoulders etc, sites and magazines! 

I wonder why "It Takes Two" by The Del-Phi's (Dell-Fi's) ((Martha & Vandellas with Gloria Williamson on lead (Motown's Vells)) is included in a Dave Hamilton CD.  That session was run and produced by Joe Hunter and Fred Brown for their Kable Records.  Hunter was the pianist and arranger, and Don Davis was lead guitarist.  Maybe Dave Hamilton was 2nd guitarist (he certainly didn't play the vibes on it).  Hamilton wasn't likely to have been as important as Hunter or Brown on that session.  I guess Ady will chime in on this, and give us the lowdown.

Robb, the explanation is in the CD booklet ........... a tape was found in DH's studio containing 3 tracks; Nosy Neighbors (Nosy Folk), My Heart Tells Me So (I Know Its You) & It Takes Two People. The origins of when & where these were all cut is probably lost in time now.

19 hours ago, Roburt said:

Robb, the explanation is in the CD booklet ........... a tape was found in DH's studio containing 3 tracks; Nosy Neighbors (Nosy Folk), My Heart Tells Me So (I Know Its You) & It Takes Two People. The origins of when & where these were all cut is probably lost in time now.

As far as I remember, Fred Brown and Joe Hunter recorded their Kable cuts in mid to late 1961 and early 1962 at United Sound Systems with Hunter arranging and Don Davis on lead guitar.  The Del-Phi's 2 cuts, were recorded in early 1962 (February or March) if I remember correctly.  I can't imagine why Dave Hamilton ended up with "It Takes Two".  Brown and Hunter leased "It Takes Two" and "I'll Let You Know" to Billy Davis' Check-Mate Records (Chess subsidiary).  Chess may have only had use of the master for a year or two.  It should have reverted back to Brown and Hunter.  Could Dave Hamilton have bought it from them?

On 12 March 2016 at 00:27, RobbK said:

I wonder why "It Takes Two" by The Del-Phi's (Dell-Fi's) ((Martha & Vandellas with Gloria Williamson on lead (Motown's Vells)) is included in a Dave Hamilton CD.  That session was run and produced by Joe Hunter and Fred Brown for their Kable Records.  Hunter was the pianist and arranger, and Don Davis was lead guitarist.  Maybe Dave Hamilton was 2nd guitarist (he certainly didn't play the vibes on it).  Hamilton wasn't likely to have been as important as Hunter or Brown on that session.  I guess Ady will chime in on this, and give us the lowdown.

Hi Robb,

it's different session to the Kable one abs a different line up, the girls remembered it clearly. I think it was Joe, Dave on guitar and Jamerson on bass. I don't have the notes in front of me. I think it's a better version. We already have an unreleased track from the session out on an Ace girl group CD

3 hours ago, ady croasdell said:

Hi Robb,

it's different session to the Kable one abs a different line up, the girls remembered it clearly. I think it was Joe, Dave on guitar and Jamerson on bass. I don't have the notes in front of me. I think it's a better version. We already have an unreleased track from the session out on an Ace girl group CD

Thanks!  Wow!  I'd love to hear all the songs from that session.  Was it before or after the Kable one? 

On 3/13/2016 at 10:51, RobbK said:

Thanks!  Wow!  I'd love to hear all the songs from that session.  Was it before or after the Kable one? 

According to the girls it was Benny Benjamin on drums, Jamerson, Joe and Dave, recorded in Cleveland before the United Sound sessions that came out on Checkmate, not Kable but that set-up of publishing etc. I'll send you the CD with the full story and MP3s of the other two.

Ady, where in Cleveland was it cut: Agency Recording, Boddies ??

Lots of Cleveland folk (O'Jays, etc) left Cleveland to record as the city had very few good recording facilities back then.

Different styles and moods, something I like very much in a good compilation. The deep soul piece from Presberry is outstanding. Nice work.

Andy

8 hours ago, ady croasdell said:

According to the girls it was Benny Benjamin on drums, Jamerson, Joe and Dave, recorded in Cleveland before the United Sound sessions that came out on Checkmate, not Kable but that set-up of publishing etc. I'll send you the CD with the full story and MP3s of the other two.

Why would Fred Brown, Joe Hunter and Dave Hamilton take other Detroit session players and a Detroit group to Cleveland to record???

Robb, I know it seems strange but there was a lot of interplay between the music folk in Detroit & Cleveland (plus the cities are less than 175 miles apart).

Lots of Cleveland soul music biz guys would go to Detroit a lot (from the mid 60's onwards) to try to learn the Motown-secret. Choker Campbell had come to Detroit from the Ohio / Cleveland area. Mike Terry ran recording sessions in Cleveland (for Way Out) and Beans Bowles would also visit the Way Out guys. 

So lots of interchange going on BUT I also think it's strange coz Cleveland didn't really have good studios back then.

27 minutes ago, Roburt said:

Robb, I know it seems strange but there was a lot of interplay between the music folk in Detroit & Cleveland (plus the cities are less than 175 miles apart).

Lots of Cleveland soul music biz guys would go to Detroit a lot (from the mid 60's onwards) to try to learn the Motown-secret. Choker Campbell had come to Detroit from the Ohio / Cleveland area. Mike Terry ran recording sessions in Cleveland (for Way Out) and Beans Bowles would also visit the Way Out guys. 

So lots of interchange going on BUT I also think it's strange coz Cleveland didn't really have good studios back then.

I knew there was lots of interchange between Cleveland and Detroit back then.  But it was mostly Cleveland talent going to Detroit to record, because Detroit had a LOT of good and decent studios, and Cleveland only had a couple decent ones.  Detroit had a plethora of good session musicians, while Cleveland had very few.  Joe Hunter, having been a band leader for so many years had many connections in Detroit studios.  Why would he and his partner, Fred Brown take his session musicians ans singing artists all the way to Cleveland, to record in a mediocre studio?  It couldn't be that they couldn't get a recording date in ANY of the 50+ available Detroit Studios.  Even Motown's Snakepit was available for rent back then.  Could The Del-Phi's have been on a weekend gig in Cleveland, and Brown and Hunter decided to take their backing band into a Cleveland studio while there?  Even that doesn't make sense.

18 hours ago, ady croasdell said:

According to the girls it was Benny Benjamin on drums, Jamerson, Joe and Dave, recorded in Cleveland before the United Sound sessions that came out on Checkmate, not Kable but that set-up of publishing etc. I'll send you the CD with the full story and MP3s of the other two.

The Del-Phi's record came out only on Check-Mate, but the group was signed to Kable at the time and, I'm sure that the session was paid for by Brown and Hunter, rather than Chess.  Otherwise, the master would have been found long ago, together with other Chess masters.  I'm sure that Brown and Hunter, as Kable Record Co.,  leased the masters to Check-Mate Records (Chess).

On 3/19/2016 at 09:24, RobbK said:

The Del-Phi's record came out only on Check-Mate, but the group was signed to Kable at the time and, I'm sure that the session was paid for by Brown and Hunter, rather than Chess.  Otherwise, the master would have been found long ago, together with other Chess masters.  I'm sure that Brown and Hunter, as Kable Record Co.,  leased the masters to Check-Mate Records (Chess).

Agreed, I was just pointing out it was on Checkmate not Kable

On 3/19/2016 at 09:19, RobbK said:

I knew there was lots of interchange between Cleveland and Detroit back then.  But it was mostly Cleveland talent going to Detroit to record, because Detroit had a LOT of good and decent studios, and Cleveland only had a couple decent ones.  Detroit had a plethora of good session musicians, while Cleveland had very few.  Joe Hunter, having been a band leader for so many years had many connections in Detroit studios.  Why would he and his partner, Fred Brown take his session musicians ans singing artists all the way to Cleveland, to record in a mediocre studio?  It couldn't be that they couldn't get a recording date in ANY of the 50+ available Detroit Studios.  Even Motown's Snakepit was available for rent back then.  Could The Del-Phi's have been on a weekend gig in Cleveland, and Brown and Hunter decided to take their backing band into a Cleveland studio while there?  Even that doesn't make sense.

Two of the girls in the group conferred on this one so it's more reliable than some memories and there are always quirks in recording history that made the most unlikely of scenarios actually happen.

Robb, perhaps this was the studio the Del-Phis cut at .........

In 1950, Fred Wolf opened radio station WDOK at 1515 Euclid Ave (the Loew's State Theater building) and hired a young Navy veteran, Ken Hamann, as his engineer for both the radio and the recording studios. Hamann became chief engineer of Cleveland Recording in 1956 and over the next decade he helped build the studio into a state-of-the-art recording and mastering facility. Here many regional and national hit records were produced (the Outsiders' "Time Won't Let Me", the Human Beinz "Nobody But Me" & other successful stuff including tracks by Grand Funk Railroad).

The other top local studio was Agency Recording, which was above the Agora Ballroom. Lots of top acts were recorded by Agency when they played lived gigs @ the Agora, these sessions being released many times on vinyl. But that studio wasn't above the Agora until 1967.