IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS JACK

Part 3 of the continuing saga of pruning my record collection. This week was House.

 

Let me start off by unabashedly and in no uncertain terms stating: “Peace to the Nation!” We don’t really say that anymore, but it feels good. The nation being, of course, the “House Nation” – a term of community and solidarity among those that shared varying degrees of ownership of this thing, back when it was largely an underground scene connecting the next generation of would–be disco heads in Chicago, New York, Detroit, and many points in-between and eventually the world. Being a Hip Hop/Reggae kid at heart, I was only a peripheral member of the House Nation for many years, eventually seeking asylum within its borders once the dirty south militias had rendered Hip Hop territories no longer habitable.

 

Growing up in the midwest and moving East when I was 18, I missed the early–80s, nascent stages of House that flourished in the Black clubs of the Chicago and New York underground. Those who were there will keep you up all night telling you about the songs and dances and clothes and cliques and clubs and reel–to–reel edits and loft parties and acid-spiked punches that organically and cumulatively created a sound and scene that was and is the direct descendant of Disco. I had to play catch up, starting in 1987, which is several years late, depending on who’s telling the story, and where you are situated in the blunt rotation.

 

Some of you reading this may not even like House music. I’d wager you actually do, you just don’t know it yet. You take the blue pill, and this story ends. You wake up in your bed believing house music is those rubber–neck white boys from Night At The Roxbury and you die a hater (how sad for you). However… if you take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

To begin with, a great many old heads, myself included, have a far broader definition of the genre than you might imagine. Once you step through the looking glass, and really listen to all of the musical flavors contained within its oontz oontz gumbo, you have an epiphany of sorts: There is no single definition. There is no closed timeline. No alpha. No omega. It’s all house.

 

Nina Simone – See Line Woman is House.

Prince – Erotic City is House.

The Fatback Band – Goin’ To See My Baby is House.

Eddy Grant – Nobody’s Got Time is House.

Manuel Göttsching – E2E4 is House.

Dinosaur L – Go Bang is House.

Kraftwerk – Numbers is House.

ESG – Moody is House.

Hector Lavoe - Para Ochún is House.

War – Flying Machine is House.

Loose Joints ‎– Is It All Over My Face? Is House.

Two Tons of Fun – Just Us is House.

Donna Summer – I Feel Love is House.

Talking Heads – Born Under Punches is House.

Big Daddy Kane – Warm It Up Kane is House.

LCD Sound System – All My Friends is House.

Roy Ayers – Running Away is House.

The Clash – Magnificent Seven is House.

Baba Olatunji – Jingo is House.

I could go on and on…House is music that moves you to move your body. Full stop.

THE GOSPEL OF THE VAMP

Do these aforementioned masterpieces above also fall under their own genres and eras? Sure. Do many modern imitations fall short by comparison? No doubt. But if your ears are paying attention, you can notice that there are just enough 11 herbs and spices from all these songs in the DNA of the best House music. The same roots from the Black American church. The same percussion from the drum circles before them. The same spirits. The subtleties. The crescendos. The minor keys and moody themes. The major keys and uplifting anthems. The beats and rhythms and syncopations that lockstep with your own heartbeat. If you’re already a member of this nocturnal cult, you hold these truths to be self evident. If not, you just might need to be on a dark, foggy, pulsating dance floor at 5am to recognize it. But once you do, the ear muffs are lifted. You hear the Matrix for what it truly is. You hear and FEEL this music as part of the greater continuum. All part of that same gumbo. And I stay hungry.

 

My own theory as to what connects all of these different songs to house music comes down to what musicians call “the vamp”. The vamp being the essence of the groove upon which a song is built. The vamp is often employed by bands who are just warming up, or really stretching out a particular number. The JB’s “Doin’ It To Death” is classic example of this. It’s one groove, with a key change or two, where both individual musicians, and all the singers in the band, take some space to riff off of it. They isolate a good groove, a good loop, and then run with it – augmenting when needed. If you like the JB’s, you like a good vamp. And if you like a good vamp, you like House.

 

There are a myriad of genres and sub–genres and sub–sub–genres we could get into – each a bit further from the source. I tend to traffic in Deep House and its close 1st cousins Soulful House and Afro House – with a pinch of Detroit Techno and/or left field weirdness stirred in for good measure. Some half-jokingly call this “House, the Black kind” and/or “the Black, Gay kind”. A quick way to get people to stop asking LOL Importantly, it articulates a shared desire to reclaim this music for those that created it – as the lion’s share of wealth generated by the global EDM cringe-fest rarely trickles down to people of color. Same as it ever was.

 

As loose and all–encompassing as my above definition may be, organizing a wall of records required tighter, more practical parameters. This proved more straight forward than Hip Hop & Reggae, but it also required a different methodology.

For starters, My recently established formula for sorting – discarding anything whose label didn’t immediately evoke the song in my head – was out the window. I found myself staring at crates of records whose titles rang no bell and whose melody eluded me. This speaks to the fleeting nature of a great deal of House music, which is, I’m sad to say, often quickly discarded after just a few plays. This has only gotten worse in the digital age, with no barriers to entry and a flood of new, mediocre releases every damn week. I excluded club music made before 1984. This takes essential, proto–house groups off the board, sending them back to the Disco classics crates.

 

The NYC Peech Boys

 

Secret Weapon

 

Yazoo

 

Gwen Guthrie

 

Etc

Then there’s the issue that there are relatively few identifiable “acts”, much less “stars” by which you can arrange thousands of records. This is not to say we don’t have singers we immortalize. Please. We have DIVAS. They come to House by way of Gospel, R&B, Latin freestyle, and Disco. Shout out to the queens Grace Jones and Loleatta Holloway and Chaka Khan and so many Disco/Funk/Boogie/R&B sisters who laid a large chunk of the vocal house foundation. Moving on...please forgive any of the worthy folks I may have omitted in the lists that follow.

FEMALE VOCALISTS

Ultra Naté

Dawn Tallman

Jocelyn Brown

Sandee

La India

Monique Bingham

Joi Cardwell

Michelle Weeks

Barbara Tucker

Liz Torres

Lisa Fischer

Róisín Murphy

Jeanette Thomas

Kim English

Kim Mazelle

Donna Allen

Inaya Day

Ann Nesby

Lady Alma

Norma Jean Bell

Kimblee

Fonda Rae

Sabrynaah Pope

Sophie Lloyd

Vernessa Mitchell

Dajae

Crystal Waters

Roberta Sweede

Etc

Shout out to Teddy, Sylvester, and Luther. Crucial influencers on the list of male vocalist below, along with Prince, Eddie Kendricks, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, etc etc

MALE VOCALISTS

Robert Owens

Michael Watford

Kenny Bobien

Romanthony

Josh Milan

LT Brown

Byron Stingily

Arnold Jarvis

Kenny Latimore

Peven Everett

Colonel Abrams

Vikter Duplaix

Keith Thompson

Darryl D'Bonneau

BeBe Winans

Donell Rush

Gary Michael Wade

Seven Davis Jr

Roland Clark

Michael Proctor

Erro

Shaun Escoffery

Freedom Williams (yes dammit)

Etc

A quick word about Robert Owens, who IMHO is to House what Mary J Blige is to blazing Hip Hop + R&B. He is THE voice of this thing. The soul. The struggle. The tragedy. The heartbreak. The sass. The shade. The power. The quintessence of a House vocalist. We are not worthy. 

There have been a handful of House "groups" over the years. These were often bigger in the UK and Europe, where this music was at times far more integrated into mainstream pop music than it was stateside. Several that seem like groups are really just producers with some guest vocalists.

 

GROUPS

Ten City

C+C Music Factory

Jasper Street Company

Mass Order

Inner City

Dee Lite

Sounds of Blackness

Soul II Soul

Moloko

808 State

Tortured Soul

M People

Etc

One could try to organize by DJ/producers, but you get the opposite problem: there are just too damn many. Here are some of my favorites, both as DJs and as Producers. A few of these guys I’ve gotten to play with, over the years.

A quick word about Larry Heard AKA Mr Fingers who, for me, is really the cornerstone (Rosetta Stone?) of Deep House. So much of this music can be traced directly back to him. Hearing “Can You Feel It” for the first time was a real game changer, as it was such a new sound, and so undeniably great. And when you consider that while Kenny Loggins was releasing “Highway to the Danger Zone”, Larry was releasing “Washing Machine” – this was SUCH a radical, sonic departure coming out of Chicago at that time. It really had no equal, anywhere.

The problem with sorting by producers is that most don’t just stick to one genre, so you’d be mixing vocals with instrumentals, techno with gospel, etc and you’d have a big mess on your hands. Record labels are equally unhelpful, in this regard. So once again, I returned to the simpler methodology I’ve always used in record crates while playing:

Vocals VS instrumentals.

Males VS females.

Deep VS Afro VS Techy.

House Classic (pre–1992)

The following are some songs that crystallize categories for me.

CLASSIC FEMALE VOCALS

Groove Committee ‎– I Want You To Know

Lil' Louis & The World ‎– Club Lonely

Inner City - Good Life

Ralphi Rosario - U Used To Hold Me

Sandee - Notice Me

The Underground Solution – Luv Dancin'

Etc

CLASSIC MALE VOCALS

Robert Owens ‎– I'll Be Your Friend

Donnie – The It

Boyd Jarvis ‎– The Music Got Me

Ten City – Devotion

Fingers Inc. – Bring Down The Walls

ESP – It’s You

Etc

Within Producers, there are a gang of prominent production duos or crews. Basement Boys, Underground Resistance, Daft Punk, Etc. However, for me, one duo stands above them all. Louie Vega and Kenny Dope AKA Masters At Work, have always been essential evangelists of this sound, converting countless Hip Hop heads like me into House Heads. They have had a continued guiding hand in shaping the sound of NY House – and therefore the world – since damn near its inception, and their global influence is truly unparalleled. When they debuted their supergroup Nuyorican Soul in 1997, it was as if all the musical genres in my brain had come together to form this incredible Voltron of NYC culture. Both Black and Latino. Louie and Kenny continue to push the boundaries of live House music with the Elements of Life band, and numerous solo projects that never disappoint. I am forever in their debt.

CLASSIC INSTRUMENTALS

Mr Fingers – Can You Feel It

Lil' Louis & The World ‎– The Conversation

Phase II ‎– Mystery

Tyree - Acid Crash

Soft House Company – A Little Piano

After Hours ‎– Waterfalls

Etc

DUBBY INSTRUMNETALS

Instrumental categories get a bit tricky, as I'm including tracks where I only ever play the dub and/or songs where the vocals are essentially just a sampled phrase or vocal vamp repeated. But this can muddy the waters.

K Joy – Like This (dub)

Master C & J - Face It

Jeanette Thomas – Shake Your Body

KC Flightt ‎– Let’s Get Jazzy

Steve Poindexter – Work That Mutha Fucker

A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray

Etc

Spoken word has always had a place in House Music, rooted in Sun Ra and Gil Scott Heron and The Last Poets, who often set poetry to music – an age old tradition in the realest sense of the term. Some of these are minimalist repetitions used for texture. Others are fully formed narrative anthems.

 

TALK THAT TALK

Bobby Konders – The Poem

Adonis – No Way Back

Ellis D - My Loleatts

Jon Cutler feat Eman - It’s Yours

Blaze - My Beat

Sinnamon – I Need You Now

Etc

MORE FEMALE VOCALS

Sunkids feat Chance - Rescue Me

Cajmere Feat Dajae – Brighter Days

Black Magic – Freedom

Big Muff - My Funny Valentine

Voices - Voices In My Mind

Voices - Can You see The Light

MORE MALE VOCALS

Peven Everett - Stuck

Michael Watford - Michael’s Prayer

Amp Fiddler - Love & War

Blaze - How Deep Is Your Love

Kenny Latimore - If I Lose My Woman

Armand Van Helden feat Roland Clark - Flowerz

Etc

DASSIT FOR NOW

When it was all sorted I did manage to isolate about 5 more crates to sell - surpassing 30 in total. Not bad. I just need an army of gnomes to catalogue them all, first.
This continues to be an exhausting process, but also really enjoyable. I’m living and breathing music, all day and often all night. It’s as if I built a rare book library over the last 40 years, and I’m flipping through the pages of every single volume. Not a bad way start to the year!

 

After the House was wrapped I moved on to Funk/Soul/Jazz, then Rock/Punk, then Spoken Word. Ugh. It just never ends. Never collect records. Terrible idea LOL.

 

If you like any of this music, there is plenty for you to hear, in the mixes section of this very site. Enjoy!

 

 

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