HEAVY SOUL !

Description

As part of Ace 50, BGP has teamed up with its long-time friends at Concord Music to reissue one of the most significant albums in our history. In 1987, as the dance jazz scene was transforming into acid jazz, "Oh Baby (I Believe I'm Losing You)" by Billy Hawks filled the dance floors where Gilles Peterson and Baz Fe Jazz performed. The album "Heavy Soul!" from Prestige Records, which contained this track, was impossible to find, and DJs, frustrated, desperately searched for a copy. BGP, the Ace label run by the two DJs, reissued the album and adapted the highly sought-after track into a 33 RPM single. With sufficient supply, it became a club hit, turning into a mod classic and one of the most important tracks in our scene. In the years that followed, the track remained untouchable, and the album was never reissued in large quantities. With the attention to detail that has always characterized Ace, we carefully mastered the record to be as close as possible to the original Van Gelder mastering sound from 1967, and created a faithful representation of the album and label artwork. Hawks never lived long enough to be rediscovered, but thanks to our musical investigation, we found his brother and uncovered as much of his story as possible, while digging up a few photos. This Virginia-born organist, with an exceptional voice, was a staple of the Northeast lounge bar circuit, which was the cornerstone of African American musical entertainment at the time. His complete story is told on the illustrated inner sleeve that accompanies this album.