MoSoul / Mo-Soul Records

[Roburt]

Anyone have any idea what was going on back in May 67 in LA and New York.

A new label, Mo-Soul, was set up in New York by Tony Major (who produced tracks around that time that were released on MGM's Cub and Verve Forecast labels) and the label had signed 5 acts. Announcements were made in the trade press about upcoming releases and one of the acts was supposedly placed in a movie being made at the time (the movie was released not long after -- UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE).

BUT there was already an active MoSoul label based out of LA (the Keymen connected imprint). This had been going since late 66 and was just putting out it's 4th 45 release in May 67 .... strangely, the label went into hibernation soon afterwards but a 45 on Mo-Soul was put out by Barry White / Bob Relf in early 72 (though the 45's cat # was 45-1971 so I guess it was made ready in 71).

Incidently, there was another Mo-Soul label active in 71, this being out of Columbus Ohio and run by Eddy Parker (the manager of Vikki Kenyatta and funk / soul outfit the Suspicious Can Openers) ... to further confuse matters there was also a Mor Soul label (out of NOla) that was active around this same time period & back in 69 there was the More Soul label out of Chicago..     

To the best of my knowledge, no releases appeared on the New York based label and none of the named acts ever went on to enjoy releases elsewhere. 

Edited December 11, 2017 by Roburt

[Roburt]

Obviously, all the players involved with the various MoSoul labels were hoping that the similarity of their label name to 'Motown' would spark some record buyers interest.

[Roburt]

Two releases on the Ohio Mo-Soul label ...

 

[Roburt]

The other labels should have know about Keymen's MoSoul label, as it had a Soul Runners 45 on the US national R&B charts from January thru to March 67. In addition to the 45's chart status, it was getting lots of radio airplay and trade mags were featuring a full page ad for the record .... 

[Larsc]

On 11.12.2017 at 18:28, Roburt said:

no releases appeared on the New York based label

Looks like they renamed the label and the artist. Mo-Soul Records became M.S.R. and The Angry Six became The Sparks:

https://www.discogs.com/The-Sparks-Cool-It-Woe-Woe/release/9485553

 

[Roburt]

On 12/15/2017 at 17:18, LarsC said:

Looks like they renamed the label and the artist. Mo-Soul Records became M.S.R. and The Angry Six became The Sparks:

https://www.discogs.com/The-Sparks-Cool-It-Woe-Woe/release/9485553

 

Well spotted. Got picked up for national release & I'd spotted the Cub 45 but that didn't have the film credit on the label. The vocals on it are a bit rough though. Wonder what happened to the Production Co's other tracks.

 

Edited December 17, 2017 by Roburt

[Larsc]

Jet magazine mentioned why the name changed: