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Fontella Bass


45cellar

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With this thread appearing, now seems an appropriate time to make mention of the fact that a couple of old (mid 70's) previously unreleased tracks by Fontella may be escaping in the UK in the near future.

In the early days Fontella worked with the likes of Ike Turner cutting for Bobbin / Prann in her home town; St Louis. She also performed shows with the likes of Oliver Sain & Little Milton before she started recording in Chicago for Chess. For the label she cut loads of fine 60's soul, including all her big hits. In the early 70's, she was with Paula, cutting more southern soul styled tracks.

By the mid 70's, she was back in St Louis and there she recorded some more tracks. These were cut at Gold Future studios with Westmoreland Co. handling the backing. The city's 'hot producer' (back at that time) was brought on board to sort out the strings & horns (he even played sax on these cuts himself). To complete the tracks (You Can Bet'cha In Love" & "Testify") he undertook the final mixing at Technisonic Studios. But at the time they failed to escape and for many years the master tapes just languished in the vaults.

HOWEVER, now, with Fontella herself in very poor health, it seems likely that these two cuts may finally get to escape --- watch for probable news that a UK label has licensed them for release here on 45.

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Guest Dave Turner

Absolutely lovely track that I thank Kev Briscoe for introducing me to. Sublime!

Fontella Bass - I'm Leaving The Choice To You - Paula

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With this thread appearing, now seems an appropriate time to make mention of the fact that a couple of old (mid 70's) previously unreleased tracks by Fontella may be escaping in the UK in the near future.

In the early days Fontella worked with the likes of Ike Turner cutting for Bobbin / Prann in her home town; St Louis. She also performed shows with the likes of Oliver Sain & Little Milton before she started recording in Chicago for Chess. For the label she cut loads of fine 60's soul, including all her big hits. In the early 70's, she was with Paula, cutting more southern soul styled tracks.

By the mid 70's, she was back in St Louis and there she recorded some more tracks. These were cut at Gold Future studios with Westmoreland Co. handling the backing. The city's 'hot producer' (back at that time) was brought on board to sort out the strings & horns (he even played sax on these cuts himself). To complete the tracks (You Can Bet'cha In Love" & "Testify") he undertook the final mixing at Technisonic Studios. But at the time they failed to escape and for many years the master tapes just languished in the vaults.

HOWEVER, now, with Fontella herself in very poor health, it seems likely that these two cuts may finally get to escape --- watch for probable news that a UK label has licensed them for release here on 45.

Yep, heard these both last week and they're both good tunes, "Testify" being a slab of great Deep Soul Diva wailing and "You Can Betcha In Love" sounding suspiciously like what we'd describe as 'Funky Northern' these days. Could see these two sides as being signicant adds to the lady's stunning discography!

Ian D :D

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i cant rest is a personal fave,great voice that makes you almost believe shes telling her story....can remember watching an interview with her when she was talking about her move to chicago saying she wanted to sing gospel and didnt really want to do soul :thumbsup: apparently it was down to motowns sucsess she got so many soul tunes to sing...thank god for motown ...again !

dean

although some of the uptempo gospel comin on the scene nowadays is pretty good too

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Absolutely lovely track that I thank Kev Briscoe for introducing me to. Sublime!

Fontella Bass - I'm Leaving The Choice To You - Paula

I agree - a fantastic tune, which also got a UK release on Contempo. Some of the other Paula tracks are great too, especially "Now that I found a good thing"

Here's a nice pic of Fontella, from the Jan '66 issue of Pop Weekly

post-3741-0-10289300-1299013774_thumb.jp

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Absolutley Brian! Wonderful wonderful stuff. And of course not forgetting the material she cut with The Cinenmatic Orchestra a few years back. What a wonderful and varied career flitting from jazz to soul to gospel. Always rated her Paula material over the Chess group recordings but then thats just me.

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