On February
9, Craft Recordings will reissue the definitive version of one of the most
ambitious, groundbreaking records in the Stax catalog: The 24-Carat Black
Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth. Composed, arranged, and produced almost entirely
by longtime Isaac Hayes collaborator Dale Warren, the album draws marked
comparisons to the lush, transformative arrangements penned by Warren for the
seminal trio of Hayes albums, Hot Buttered Soul, The Isaac Hayes Movement, and
…To Be Continued. Often cited as one of the first concept albums in the soul,
funk and R&B genres at a time when such boldly artistic statements were
reserved for progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd, this ‘soul opera,’ featuring
just eight tracks, is an entrancing mixture of lush, orchestral soul ballads
and Blaxploitation-era funk grooves, split into vignettes dealing with aspects
of everyday life in some of America’s poorest areas. Its unique blend of
immaculately arranged grooves and socially conscious narrative launched the
album into cult-classic status among DJs and producers who have sampled it for
tracks, most recently by Kendrick Lamar, Jay Z, Digable Planets, Dr. Dre, and
many others.
This
pressing, released as part of Craft Recordings’ “Made In Memphis Series,”
features 180-gram vinyl cut at Ardent studios on the original Stax lathe and
pressed in Memphis at Memphis Record Pressing. The Old-school style tip-on
jacket with printed inner sleeve contains new liner notes by Rob Bowman,
Grammy® Award winning author of Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records.
Track
Listing:
Side A
A1. Synopsis
One: In The Ghetto / God Save The World
A2.
Poverty’s Paradise
A3.
Brown-Baggin’
Side B
B1. Synopsis
Two: Mother’s Day
B2. Mother’s
Day
B3.
Foodstamps
B4. Ghetto:
Misfortune’s Wealth
B5. 24-Carat
Black (Theme)
More about
The 24-Carat Black Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth:
Composed of
Larry Austin (bass); Tyrone Steels (percussion); Jerome Derrickson (saxophone);
Ricky Foster (trumpet); James Talbert (electric piano); William Talbert
(organ); and Princess Hearn, Kathleen Dent, and Valerie Malone (vocals), The
24-Carat Black was helmed by Dale Warren who famously orchestrated the strings
for Isaac Hayes' albums Hot Buttered Soul, The Isaac Hayes Movement and ...To
Be Continued. This reissue of their lone studio album for the Enterprise label
follows a 2009 archival compilation from the Numero Group entitled Gone: The
Promises of Yesterday (2009), which collects previously unreleased material
from the group.
In
connection with last year’s celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Stax Records,
Craft Recordings paid tribute to the ambitious spirit of Memphis-based Stax
Records by releasing a series of albums that embody the label’s diversity and
inclusive nature. The series, composed of unique and historically
underrepresented albums in the legendary Stax canon, celebrates some of the
lesser-known stories from the label and the community that made it possible for
the label to succeed and thrive as a distinctly American cultural institution.
Featuring audio from the original analog tapes, remastered and cut at Ardent
studios in Memphis on the original Stax Records lathe, each album in the series
boasts 180-gram vinyl pressed at Memphis Record Pressing and new liner notes.
Other releases in the series include John Gary Williams’ self-titled, soul-searching
debut, Moloch’s blue-eyed psychedelic blues trip, and Melvin Van Peebles’
groundbreaking soundtrack to the Blaxploitation genre-buster, Sweet Sweetback’s
Baaddasssss Song.
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