A Message From Harlem

The Voices Of East Harlem: Right On Be Free and For What It's Worth
From: Right On Be Free [Elektra, 1970]

'We know who we are and what we are and we're free' is a pretty powerful statement to have on the sleeve notes to your first album and when it comes from a twenty strong ensemble of singers you'd expect and hope that the music offered up an equally powerful righteousness. Luckily The Voices Of East Harlem's debut album from 1970 doesn't disappoint with it's blend of more traditional gospel and damn funky covers of hits of the day.

The gospel group were formed in 1970 and ranged from the prepubescent to the early twenties, offering up a mix of sweet vocals and youthful energy over four extremely solid albums. It must have been somewhat of a head scratcher for producer/manager supremo Jerry Brandt to capture the energy of the group on vinyl but he succeeds on this debut release with great results.

Right On Be Free, the title track, is a great upbeat combination of gospel vocals and funky percussion, kicking off the album with aplomb as the band get able support from a cracking backing band including Ralph McDonald's congas and Richard Tee's keyboards.

The real highlight of the album for me though is one of the funkiest covers of For What It's Worth that you'll ever hear. The band ably transform the mellow atmosphere of Buffalo Springfield's original into a bass heavy monster with rattling percussion and a great group workout vocal from the singers themselves.

Happily for once the album has been reissued so you can pick up a far cleaner copy than my scratchy original, plus you get bonus tracks. Anyway, enough from me, enjoy the weekend.