Soul Jazz Records

Various - Bunny Lee – Dreads Enter The Gates With Praise [3 x LP]

Release Date: 4th March 2022

What do Tyler the Creator, Mantronix, Stetsasonic, DJ Shadow, Eric B and Rakim, Brand Nubian, Jay-Z and N.W.A. have in common? How about UK Apachi and Shy FX, DJ Zinc, Bukem, Ganja Kru, Lemon D Ice, Dillinga, Photek, 4-Hero, Congo Natty, Krome and Time, Roni Size, Skream and Shut Up and Dance? Not to mention The Prodigy, Squarepusher, Leftfield, Oasis, Aphex Twin, Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa, David Bowie, Primal Scream, Lady Gaga and Dizzee Rascal?

Answer: They have all sampled The Winstons’ ‘Amen, Brother’, the most sampled drum break in the history of music (over 5000+ according to whosampled.com), it has shaped the history of electronic music ever since its creation in 1969.

This is the official release of the Winston’s ‘Color Him Father’ album, out of print for fifty years on vinyl, a glorious, break-heavy album of soul, funk and gospel featuring the tracks ‘Color Him Father’, ‘Amen, Brother’ and loads more.

The fully remastered album is housed in exact-reproduction original sleeve and design and comes with 4 extra bonus tracks that the group released only as singles. There is also a very special one-off, first pressing only of this album that comes with an exclusive one-sided dubplate special 12” of ‘Amen, Brother’ featuring a specially extended break mix of the classic tune.

The Winstons’ ‘Amen, Brother’ was originally the B-side to ‘Color Him Father’, a superb soul tune released by a multi-racial group from Washington, DC, in 1969. The drum break was played by George GC Coleman, and the song was based on a Curtis Mayfield guitar riff. The soul connection was no coincidence. The Winstons were formed from the backing groups to both Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions before they came into their own spotlight. The Winstons signed to Mayfield’s Curtom Records in Chicago in 1968. Drummer extraordinaire GC Coleman had already played with The Marvelettes, Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield (and in the 1970s would play with the funk group Brick).

‘Color Him Father’ became a million-selling Number 1 R&B hit single in the US and the following year The Winstons released their debut (and only) album, also entitled ‘Color Him Father’, on Metromedia Records, featuring both sides of the single alongside nine other excellent soul, funk, gospel and R&B cuts. Unfortunately, the group split up the following year, citing difficulties in touring the southern US due to their inter-racial line-up, and their sole album has long-since sunk into obscurity.

Fast forward nearly 20 years and the ‘Amen, Brother’ break was discovered by hip-hop producers after the song appeared on the seminal ‘Ultimate Breaks & Beats’ series of original breaks (alongside ground-breaking tracks such as James Brown’s ‘Funky Drummer’, The Incredible Bongo Band’s ‘Apache’ and Herman Kelly’s ‘Dance to the Drummers Beat’) in 1986. The track became the staple of hip-hop, with countless songs based on George GC Coleman’s epic six-second drum break.

Fast forward once more, this time to the UK at the start of the 1990s, and 100s of drum and bass producers began sampling and speeding up the ‘Amen, Brother’ break, adding reggae bass lines to create first jungle and then drum and bass, and by the 1990s the ‘Amen’ drum break dominated this new musical genre.

The Winstons’ ‘Color Him Father’ is a superb rare slice of soul, funk and gospel music that has changed the course of music over the last fifty years.

1. The Winstons – Color Him Father
2. The Winstons – I've Gotta Be Me
3. The Winstons – The Chokin' Kind
4. The Winstons – The Greatest Love
5. The Winstons – A Handful Of Friends
6. The Winstons – Everyday People
7. The Winstons – Love Of The Common People
8. The Winstons – Wheel Of Fortune
9. The Winstons – The Days Of Sand And Shovels
10. The Winstons – Birds Of A Feather
11. The Winstons – Only The Strong Survive
12. The Winstons – Traces
13. The Winstons – Amen, Brother
14. The Winstons – Say Goodbye To Daddy
15. The Winstons – Mama's Song
16. The Winstons – Amen, Brother (Extended Mix)

The Winstons - Color Him Father [LP + 12"]

Soul Jazz Records

£22.99 (£27.59 Inc VAT)

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Various - Soul Jazz Records presents: Studio One Dub (18th Anniversary Edition) [2 x Orange LP]

Soul Jazz Records

£23.49 (£28.19 Inc VAT)

Available: 7th May 2021

This is the new 20th Anniversary edition of one of Soul Jazz Records’ classic Studio One releases, now available as a special one-off blue double vinyl pressing.

‘Studio One Roots’ set the standard for Soul Jazz Records’ long-standing series of Studio One collections and features many of the classic artists from Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s mighty roster of reggae. This album includes Freddie McGregor, Willie Williams, Cornell Campbell, Alton Ellis and Devon Russell alongside some of the defining crack session men groups of Jamaican reggae history, including The Sound Dimension, Brentford All-Stars, The Skatalites, New Establishment and more. As ever the album is filled with a mixture of seminal cuts and superrarities from the vast vaults of 13 Brentford Road.

Stand-out tracks include Alton Ellis’ ‘Blackish White’, a surreal and powerful Afro-centric dream, Count Ossie Nyabinghi and Rastafarian drummers’ genre-defying interpretation of Booker T and The MGs ‘Meditation’, Willie Williams’ awe-inspiring versioning of the Skatalites seminal Rastafari anthem ‘Addis Ababa’ and many, many more.

This album has been fully digitally remastered, analogue cut and packaged complete with original sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley (author of When Reggae Was King), compiled by Mark Ainley (Hones Jons), high-quality Soul Jazz mastering, fantastic images of Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari on the cover and a rare image of Clement Dodd and musicians inside the studio at Studio One on the full colour inner sleeves.

“The music of this compilation is of a rare, rare beauty and is essential to anyone's reggae collection” - All Music

The Cyclones With Count Ossie - Meditation
Cornell Campbell With The Brentford Rockers - Natty Don’t Go
Freddie McGregor With The Sound Dimension - Africa Here I Come
Bunnie & Skitter - Lumumbo
Willie Williams With The All Stars - Addis Ababa
L Crosdale With Drum Bago & The Rebel Group - Set Me Free
Leroy Wallace With The New Establishment - Far Beyond
Lennie Hibbert - More Creation
Alton Ellis With The Sound Dimension - Blackish White
Winston Jarrett With The Sound Dimension - Fear Not
Devon ‘Soul’ Russell - Drum Song
The Gaylads - Africa
Black Brothers With The New Establishment - School Children
Linton Cooper With The Brentford Disco Set - You’ll Get Your Pay
Sound Dimension - Congo Rock
Zoot Simms - African Challenge

Various Artists - Soul Jazz Records presents ‘Studio One Roots’ 20th Anniversary Edition [2 x Blue Vinyl LP]

Soul Jazz Records

£24.75 (£29.70 Inc VAT)

Various ‎Artists - Rocksteady Got Soul [2 x LP]

Soul Jazz Records

£23.00 (£27.60 Inc VAT)