The Dynamics Label out of Detroit

[Mal C]

Hi folks, I have 2 nice sides on a label called 'Dynamics", but cant remember seeing many others on this label or Design... I see 'Dynamic' Records out of Texas, obviously not the same. Then I found 3 tracks by The Superlatives, that have blk and Blue labels, and slightly different label design, but same Detroit address, and separate release numbers...

Interesting label, dont see to much more out there, can anybody help with the missing info, maybe tell us what the TY-56957 relates to on my scans below? and I'll pip it over to Dave Rimmer for his web site once its reasonably complete...

So here's what I have:

Dynamics Records (Detroit - Michigan) - Discography
DYNA - M.A.P Productions / Labney Music

Maxine Jenkins - Sounds so strange / Black of face / (Dynamics 11242)

The Superlatives - Forget About Tomorrow / Do What You Want to Do / (D-1011-A/B)

The Superlatives - Won't You Please (Be My Baby) / Don,t Ever Leave Me (D 1012 A/B)

The Eldees - Don't be Afraid to Love / You Broke My Happy Heart (D-1013-A/B)

The Dynosonics -  Soul Bug  / You Got It / (D-1014-A/B)

Ace Jones & Blue Jays  Way down yonder / A letter to mother (D-1015-A/B)

Superlatives - Lonely in a Crowd / I Don't Know How (to say I love You) Don't Walk Away / (D-1016-A/B)
(later issued on Westbound W 144A/B)

The Superlatives - Don't Let True Love Die / She's My Wonder Woman (D-1017-A/B)

Johnny Adams  ‎– I'm Grateful / Going To The City (D-1101-A/B)
(Later issued on 'Gone' Records (G-15147) a division of Roulette Records.

 

The-Superlatives---Dont-let-true-Love-die

Edited April 18, 2016 by Mal C

[Mal C]

The-Superlatives---Dont-let-true-Love-die

[Dazz]

Mal

Dynamics 1015 is Ace Jones & Blue Jays  Way down yonder/A letter to mother

Dynamics 1016 is Superlatives  Lonely in a crowd/Don't walk away ... later issued on Westbound

Dynamics 11242 is Maxine Jenkins  Sounds so strange/Black of face ... not sure if this is the same Dynamic label

[Mal C]

1 hour ago, Dazz said:

Mal

Dynamics 1015 is Ace Jones & Blue Jays  Way down yonder/A letter to mother

Dynamics 1016 is Superlatives  Lonely in a crowd/Don't walk away ... later issued on Westbound

Dynamics 11242 is Maxine Jenkins  Sounds so strange/Black of face ... not sure if this is the same Dynamic label

amended, cheers Dazz...

[The Yank]

The TY5-56957 is the phone number. In the 60's and backwards, the instead of saying the phone number is 895-6957 

the operator would say something like "Tyson5-6957". Not sure when the phone company stopped doing this. Not sure

why they did this in the first place either.

[Robbk]

4 minutes ago, the yank said:

The TY5-56957 is the phone number. In the 60's and backwards, the instead of saying the phone number is 895-6957 

the operator would say something like "Tyson5-6957". Not sure when the phone company stopped doing this. Not sure

why they did this in the first place either.

I seem to remember it being around the beginning of the 1970s when they abandoned the "exchanges", and went to the 3-digit "forenumber'.  Before that, there were various different exchanges using the same 2 letters in the same area code.

[Weingarden]

Though they were no longer in real use, the two-letter exchanges were still familiar to anyone living in Detroit at least through the seventies. TY was for Tyler, the name of the street my mother grew up on. There was a well-known local TV commercial when I was a kid ca. 1974 for a home-improvement company where the jingle instructed viewers to "call Tyler-8-7100 for a home-improvement date." My own exchange was UN, for University District, as I lived near the University of Detroit. BEechwood, the famous one in the song, didn't actually exist.

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by weingarden
typo

[Chalky]

The Maxine Jenkins appears to be same label or related, has the same Labney Publishing on the label.

[Mal C]

26 minutes ago, chalky said:

The Maxine Jenkins appears to be same label or related, has the same Labney Publishing on the label.

ok, that ties this one in, given the look, release  number, and sound of this track, would folk agree this is an early effort before A.Abney / Labney got his label launched proper?

Anybody guess who A.Abney might be?

Cheers Chalky

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Mal C

[Mal C]

Some more related scans..

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Mal C

[Platters 81]

the flip of D1012 is "Don,t ever leave me " and is a girl lead lovely mid-tempo tune...........its on You tube...this is a nice 45 both sides...the label design on mine is same as the black and silver 1011

Edited April 18, 2016 by platters 81

[Mal C]

Updated, Nice track, my favorite is 'Won't You Please Be My Baby' which I guess is a bit more in the Northern Mid tempo vein... all good though.. here's the Johnny Adams first and second release...

 

[Robbk]

We had a long, detailed thread on this label on Soulful Detroit Forum years ago.  Detroit producer/record masterer, Ron Murphy, told us that the owner of Dynamics Records was  Arthur Abney.  He must have been the "Art" in Tru-Art Productions.  The Maxine Jenkins was certainly from that same label.  But, by sound (from memory from several years ago), I wasn't sure if it was before or AFTER the 1000 series.   The label ran from late 1967 or early 1968 through 1970 or so.

[Platters 81]

1012 is quite a hard 45 these days..........i wonder who the girl vocal is on the b side?

[Mal C]

Cheers Robb, I'll check out that thread on SDF...

so the label was short lived, and I guess as always with these small labels they are set up for a single group or singer, I guess the Superlatives in this case...

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Mal C

[Kris Holmes]

i always wondered how the Johnny Adams/Eddie Bo 45 ended up on this label.

[Robbk]

7 hours ago, Kris Holmes said:

i always wondered how the Johnny Adams/Eddie Bo 45 ended up on this label.

Yes, it's interesting that these master leases from across the country got in the hands of small indie labels in another city.  It's always about connections between people.  One might wonder how it came to be that our little Airwave Records distributed Montab Records, but no surprise that we distributed Freddie Gorman's Rene Records, as he was an Airwave artist and songwriter, and worked on productions other than his own.  Don't forget that almost all African-Americans in the "Rust Belt" cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron, Dayton, Youngstown, Toledo, Columbus, Detroit, Erie, Buffalo, Pittwsburgh, etc, had frequent, direct contact with relatives and friends still located in The South.  Abney must have known some of Eddy Bo's and Johnny Adams' people or contacts in New Orleans.

 

9 hours ago, Mal C said:

Cheers Robb, I'll check out that thread on SDF...

so the label was short lived, and I guess as always with these small labels they are set up for a single group or singer, I guess the Superlatives in this case...

 

The Superlatives were the only artists on that label that I heard of gigging outside Detroit.  They were certainly the "mainstay" of the label.  But Dynamics had almost 10 releases, so, I wouldn't say it was set up just for that group, like Drew for The Precisions.  Abney had seen how successful Golden World was copying Motown.  He (like so many other tiny indie label founders in Detroit in the 1960s) actually thought he could make some money producing and selling records, writing and publishing songs, and managing singing acts.  I actually heard of The Eldees, too.

Edited April 18, 2016 by RobbK

[Guest Marvin]

Hello my name is Marvin Abney, and my father was the owner of this label. His name was Butler Abney, rip... so that's not correct whoever said the owner was Arthur Abney I don't even know him. My brother was the co-owner his name is Armond Abney, Maxine was his wife rip the sister of Florence Ballard formerly was with the Supremes. If you or anyone needs to know anything else about this label I just about know it all. So you can ask me anything you want about it and I will answer it to the best of my abilities. Thank you I just happened to be searching to see what was on the internet for that label

[Mal C]

Hi Marvin, I started this thread a few years back, as you can see your fathers label was also discussed on another soul related forum...

We are obviously fans of the music, and as you can guess facts about smaller labels get lost over time, what more can you tell us about your father and your families involvement in the music business? 

Malcolm 

[Gilly]

On ‎18‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 09:15, Mal C said:

ok, that ties this one in, given the look, release  number, and sound of this track, would folk agree this is an early effort before A.Abney / Labney got his label launched proper?

Anybody guess who A.Abney might be?

Cheers Chalky

 

Butler L Abney

[Robbk]

So, was The Maxine Jenkins record before Dynamics' 1000 series, or after it? 

So, "A. Abney" was Armond Abney, Butler's other son.

[Gilly]

9 hours ago, RobbK said:

So, was The Maxine Jenkins record before Dynamics' 1000 series, or after it? 

So, "A. Abney" was Armond Abney, Butler's other son.

Your something else Rob, so much respect 

[Pomonkey]

1015 Ace Jones is brutally good uptempo r'n'b, super tough one too, old Finewine spin, JM auctioned a copy, I have one tucked away, too obscure to be popular

[Guest Marvin]

Hello all, sorry  it's been  so long checking back but this is Marvin Abney, the son of Butler Abney . may he rest in peace of the record label Dynamics. Any questions you can relay them to me... My email is Marvo626@sbcglobal.net I also was wondering where did you get copies of all of them records from

[jam66]

14 hours ago, Marvin said:

Hello all, sorry  it's been  so long checking back but this is Marvin Abney, the son of Butler Abney . may he rest in peace of the record label Dynamics. Any questions you can relay them to me... My email is Marvo626@sbcglobal.net I also was wondering where did you get copies of all of them records from

Hi Marvin. In the early to mid '60's in the UK out of the coffee bars and nightclubs grew a group of young people who called themselves, and were referred to as 'Mods'. The music of choice was, especially in the North of England (but not exclusively), Soul music. As there was such a wealth of Soul music put out in the US during the '60's it has carried it through to this day.

 

Because so many of the releases gained little or no attention they were quite hard to find. So our 'own' scene was created where we would hire places to stage events to play these records. Especially all nighters staged for between 8 to 12 hours where the music was up tempo for the large part. The rarity of the records gave them somewhat of a longer shelf life but the love of the music is where the real hook is.

 

This lead to certain enterprising young chaps from the UK making trips to the States to buy up these records and dig even further into record companies back catalogues and warehouses, record stores and flea markets across the States were combed trough for anything of interest, so there is now a huge inventory of Soul music original platters now residing in this country and indeed around the World as love of the music including the unfamiliar has spread. Europe and Japan also have some renowned collectors and collections. 

 

Indeed one member on here for certain runs one of the best reissue labels in the World and I think there's others involved in reissuing music. Not only reissuing but gaining access to the master tapes and issuing for the first time a wealth of music that would never have seen light of day. So pretty serious about the music.

 

So that's a short potted history to counter your surprise at the ownership of some of the singles and the sites knowledge about Soul music, hope it helps, Dave.

[Ficklefingers]

On ‎18‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 15:28, platters 81 said:

1012 is quite a hard 45 these days..........i wonder who the girl vocal is on the b side?

Ronnie Goodson possibly ??

 

[Robbk]

Some of us were buying those obscure Soul records in The USA, around the time they were released, and are still collecting today.  I bought most of Dynamics 1011-1017 in Detroit record store bargain bins soon (within 3-6 months) after they were released.

Edited March 24, 2018 by RobbK

[Nick Soule]

I've managed to track down promotional copies of 1012-1016. Do promotional copies of 1011 or 1017 exist? Also, if anyone has cleaner copies of 1015 or 1016 for sale feel free to get in touch.

Edit: Wow. I didn't mean to make the scans that large - sorry.

Edited March 23, 2018 by Nick Soule

[Robbk]

On 2018-03-21 at 06:39, Marvin said:

Hello all, sorry  it's been  so long checking back but this is Marvin Abney, the son of Butler Abney . may he rest in peace of the record label Dynamics. Any questions you can relay them to me... My email is Marvo626@sbcglobal.net I also was wondering where did you get copies of all of them records from

Hi Marvin,

I sent you another personal message to your message box on this forum.  Please check it out.  It answers a couple of your questions.

[Blackpoolsoul]

On 23/03/2018 at 01:55, Nick Soule said:

I've managed to track down promotional copies of 1012-1016. Do promotional copies of 1011 or 1017 exist? Also, if anyone has cleaner copies of 1015 or 1016 for sale feel free to get in touch.

Edit: Wow. I didn't mean to make the scans that large - sorry.

 

On 24/03/2018 at 03:27, Robbk said:

Hi Marvin,

I sent you another personal message to your message box on this forum.  Please check it out.  It answers a couple of your questions.

I missed this thread

There was a theory I heard many moons ago that the Superlatives here were Jimmie G. Edwards, Elees Lanton, George Jones & Jesse Henry 

What do we think and why are the label credits different ?

Group photo on Discogs

Edited January 17, 2021 by Blackpoolsoul

[Nick Soule]

19 minutes ago, Blackpoolsoul said:

I missed this thread

There was a theory I heard many moons ago that the Superlatives here were Jimmie G. Edwards, Elees Lanton, George Jones & Jesse Henry 

What do we think and why are the label credits different ?

I imagine it's just a typo either with the BMI registration or with the credits on the label - I don't know which one is correct though. I also think the line up of this group changed at least once before they released 1016 - it's clearly a female vocalist singing on "Don't Ever Leave Me".

Also, it's worth noting that the scan you posted is the bootleg pressing. It's easily recognizable by the single rectangle around Dynamics - the original has two. There are also two label variations of the original 1011 pressing with different publishing credits. 

[Blackpoolsoul]

1 hour ago, Nick Soule said:

I imagine it's just a typo either with the BMI registration or with the credits on the label - I don't know which one is correct though. I also think the line up of this group changed at least once before they released 1016 - it's clearly a female vocalist singing on "Don't Ever Leave Me".

Also, it's worth noting that the scan you posted is the bootleg pressing. It's easily recognizable by the single rectangle around Dynamics - the original has two. There are also two label variations of the original 1011 pressing with different publishing credits. 

Brilliant, I would love to know why the 2 different originals with 2 different credits, but history will probably defeat us.

[ReadeK]

Responding to Nick Soule, and to Robbk, after a long enough hiatus from this site that I needed to create a "new" profile...

First, to RobbK- Tru-Art was Eddie Bo's production company for a brief period in 1965. His Blue Jay releases have Tru-Art Productions listed as producer. As already established via Marvin, there was no 'Arthur' Abney. So, the mystery of how a New Orleans production ended up in Detroit remains.

To Nick Soule- I too was leery of the Dynamics 1011 with the single box around the logo- especially as it has the physical profile of many boots. That said, I have to point out that assuming the 1101 Johnny Adams is genuine (it looks and feels genuine to me), it came before 1011 and it also has a single box around the logo. I also can not for the life of me imagine why anyone would have booted a common record like 1011, let alone come up with "punny" names like 'Big Rubber Combo'. I don't have a good answer for that last question, so I have kept the "boot" as a maybe original. Now, though, I guess I need to find the one with Dynamo Music Pub on it to have the set...

[Blackpoolsoul]

On 18/04/2016 at 09:15, Mal C said:

ok, that ties this one in, given the look, release  number, and sound of this track, would folk agree this is an early effort before A.Abney / Labney got his label launched proper?

Anybody guess who A.Abney might be?

Cheers Chalky

 

I keep going back to this label and after some searching found out that Maxine (RIP) was Florence Ballard's sister (I do apologise if I missed it) and wrote the book about her.

There is so much more to tell me thinks

[Gilly]

I can tell you ''Popcorn'' Wylie's cousin was in that group, i met him by chance but cant remember his name x 

[Robbk]

2 hours ago, Gilly said:

I can tell you ''Popcorn'' Wylie's cousin was in that group, i met him by chance but cant remember his name x 

Are you referring to The Superlatives here?  Or another Dynamics Records group?

[The Yank]

On 18/04/2016 at 03:15, Mal C said:

 

Anybody guess who A.Abney might be?

Cheers Chalky

 

The Earthquakes were a Detroit group who recorded for Fortune in the late 50's/ early 60's. Group members (according to Discogs) were Butler Abney Sr., Butler Abney Jr. and last but not least Armand Abney. 

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by The Yank

[Robbk]

46 minutes ago, The Yank said:

The Earthquakes were a Detroit group who recorded for Fortune in the late 50's/ early 60's. Group members (according to Discogs) were Butler Abney Sr., Butler Abney Jr. and last but not least Armand Abney. 

 

Good catch!  I'd forgotten there were Abneys listed among The Earthquakes' credits. 

[Gilly]

8 hours ago, Robbk said:

Are you referring to The Superlatives here?  Or another Dynamics Records group?

sorry, The Superlatives 

[Blackpoolsoul]

Found this on a Funky Corners thing from 14 years ago (sorry if it has been posted before)

https://funky16corners.wordpress.com/2007/05/21/the-superlatives-i-don’t-know-how-to-say-i-love-you-don’t-walk-away/

Martez Thomas Jones Says: 
August 5, 2007 at 4:48 am

Hello,

I am the youngest son of George Jones of the Superlatives. I just wanted to let everyone on this site know how much of an honor it is that people still remember and enjoy my fathers work. Thank You. I f anyone has any questions about any of the work of the superlatives email me at the below email address. We love you all.

Sincerely
Martez T. Jones

teztiment@yahoo.com

Martez Thomas Jones Says: 
October 20, 2007 at 5:18 am

My father, George Jones, has passed. He died October 10, 2007. He was a great man who made great music and had great love for people. He is truly missed.

Is Phil Dick on this site (member) ? as he seems to know Marvin Abney Sr. 

[Blackpoolsoul]

Thought it was worth a revisit as I have found out that the D.Yancey credit (Eldees) and who was in The Ivies is Beverly Dewitt Yancey who was J.Dilla's (RIP) father.

Image appeared on FB

Edited October 18, 2021 by Blackpoolsoul

[G F]

Here's a pic of The Ivies.

I had a 45 of theirs on Willow - see below - that the group did for Johnnie Mae Matthews.

It's probably the same guy who was in The Ambassadors that recorded for Johnnie Mae on Bon. 

I'm sure there are other 45s I've seen with Yancie on.

[Blackpoolsoul]

1 hour ago, G F said:

Here's a pic of The Ivies.

I had a 45 of theirs on Willow - see below - that the group did for Johnnie Mae Matthews.

It's probably the same guy who was in The Ambassadors that recorded for Johnnie Mae on Bon. 

I'm sure there are other 45s I've seen with Yancie on.

Nice stuff here, which backs up your info

Willow, a subsidiary of the Cincinatti-based King labelowned by Mickey Guitar Baker & Syliva Robinson in New York.

http://doo-wop.blogg.org/the-ivies-1-aka-the-sensation-ivies-a129294298

Discogs has Yancey as a ghost writer for "It's A Shame" Spinners ?

Edited October 18, 2021 by Blackpoolsoul

[Nick Soule]

The Yancey brother that was in the Ambassadors (on Bon, JR, Soul Track, etc.) was Clemmer Yancey. As far as I know, Dilla’s father was not in that group. 

[The Yank]

Here's 2 more with Yancey credits - 

 

[Blackpoolsoul]

19 minutes ago, Nick Soule said:

The Yancey brother that was in the Ambassadors (on Bon, JR, Soul Track, etc.) was Clemmer Yancey. As far as I know, Dilla’s father was not in that group. 

Clemmer was Dilla's uncle

[Robbk]

1 hour ago, The Yank said:

Here's 2 more with Yancey credits - 

 

Wow!  I've never seen that Ambassadors' record before!  It looks like it might sound very good.  I'd guess they were the same Ambassadors from Detroit that recorded "Power of Love"/"I Wonder Why" for Johnnie Mae Matthews' Reel Records.   Those songs were written by a "G. Yensey (misspell of Yancey), with the usual J.P. Bennett and JMM added).  I can't find it on You-Tube.  Do you have a digital file of it?  If so, can you post it - or, at least a snippet of it?

I seem to remember having a couple of labels with the different Yancey names scattered on all their records.  Not just JR and Panik, but, I can't remember which others there were. I've seen a C. Yancey, for Clemmer, a D. Clancey, and a G. Clancey.  Maybe they owned JR, and possibly, Panik Records?

Edited October 18, 2021 by Robbk

[Nick Soule]

2 hours ago, Blackpoolsoul said:

Clemmer was Dilla's uncle

Sorry, I thought that was implied in my post. 

[Robbk]

8 hours ago, Nick Soule said:

The Yancey brother that was in the Ambassadors (on Bon, JR, Soul Track, etc.) was Clemmer Yancey. As far as I know, Dilla’s father was not in that group. 

But, Ida Bennett, who led on the Bon/Reel Ambassadors' cuts may have been J.P. Bennett (JMM's business partner)' daughter.  Nice to learn that The Sensation-Ivies were connected to The Ambassadors.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Robbk

[G F]

But, Ida Bennett, who led on the Bon/Reel Ambassadors' cuts may have been J.P. Bennett (JMM's business partner)' daughter.

Ida could be a wife or sister - her voice is certainly powerful on those Bon recordings.