NEW RELEASES: WARDELL PIPER – SPELL; FABULOUS EBONYS – ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT; DEXTER STORY - WONDEM

WARDELL PIPER – SPELL

The first full album from Wardell Piper in many many years – but a set that feels like it came right on the heels of her late 70s disco classics! Wardell looks surprisingly youthful on the cover, and sounds the same on the set – working with a sweet groove that mixes mellow steppers with more upbeat club tracks – of the sort she recorded famously many years back! Butch Ingram arranged and produced, with lots of help from the larger Ingram Family – who keep the groove mighty cool – and titles include "Spell", "Locked In This Position", "Don't I Ever Cross Your Mind", "After All", "I'm In Love With You", "Make It Last", and "Look To The Children". ~ Dusty Groove

FABULOUS EBONYS – ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT

A reformed version of the legendary Ebonys – that 70s harmony group you may know from classic work on Philly International and Buddah Records – brought back here under the leadership of original founder David Beasley! All the other singers are younger – as you can see from the image on the cover – but the group definitely hits that classic Ebonys Philly soul approach – working perfectly in a mix of male and female voices in the harmonies, and with the kind of mellow and midtempo grooves that always made the Ebonys so great! This version of the group sound especially great on the mellow cuts – which have the voices drifting together in these shifting shades of sound that are mighty nice, and very classic in their construction – and titles include "Do You Get Enough Love", "It's Forever", "Anything That You Want", "You're The Reason Why", "Love Town", "Determination", "Loving You Is Mellow", and a great remake of "You Know How To Make Me Feel So Good".  ~ Dusty Groove

DEXTER STORY - WONDEM

Dexter Story is a very cool singer with a sound that's almost impossible to describe in words – this hip fusion of global elements and cosmic spirit – one that's echoed by the slight Ethiopian style of the font on the cover, and the album's placement on the Soundway label – and sent home even more by the production efforts of the great Carlos Nino! We first discovered Story a few years back, on a similar project with Nino – but this one is even more fully developed, and has this wonderful quality that seems to build a bridge from the contemporary LA underground, back to the hipper African sounds of the 70s – but all without coming across like any lame world fusion at all. Dexter's got some great guests on the record – including Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Mark De Clive Lowe, and Yared Teshale – and titles include "A New Day", "Be My Habesha", "Saba", "Yene Konjo", "Mowa", "Merkato Star", "Changamuka", and "Lalibela". ~ Dusty Groove