Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Tuesday 12-inch Flashback: ‘In the Bush’

As I mentioned a few months ago, this surprise hit from 1978 by Musique featured Jocelyn Brown as one of four female vocalists. Ms. Brown later established herself as a solo artist, and she is still rocking the U.K.

Musique was the creation of Patrick Adams, a Harlem-based producer, arranger, engineer and songwriter.

Adams produced other dance-club hits such as “I’m Caught Up (In a One Night Love Affair”), “Dance and Shake Your Tambourine” (one of the earliest 12-inch singles) and Narada Michael Walden’s “I Don’t Want Nobody Else (To Dance with You).”

9 comments:

bklyn6 said...

I've never heard of Patrick Adams. Yet, I have both "Push, Push in the Bush" and "Dance and Shake Your Tambourine” on my mp3 player.
:-D

The latter's got me wondering if he produced Cloud One's album. It reminds me a little of one of my all time favorite joints Atmosphere Strut."

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Dang, good ear, bklyn6. That's another Patrick Adams joint. (I never heard of "Atmosphere Strut.")

bklyn6 said...

^You know I never made the connection until I happened upon "Dance and Shake" a few months ago.

When I was younger I saved enough money to buy Cloud One's album, however I got confused and ended up buying the 12-inch "Disco Juice." "Atmosphere Strut" wasn't even on the B-side. :-(

I searched for the album for years. Eventually, I was able to find the CD. Actually, I'm looking at it now. Patrick Adams's name is all over it! (Never paid attention to this.) The executive producer is Peter Brown. I wonder if that's as in "Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me"?

Dacks said...

Hey bklyn6, you are correct, that is the same Peter Brown. Their production partnership of the late 70's on P & P records has been much chronicled of late. Any time you see a P & P comp, buy it! Some of the grittiest disco/street funk ever made.

Adams was a real innovator in synthesizer sounds but also had old-school arranger chops. His songs were always musically rich as well as being funky and cutting edge.

UBM, have you ever done a post on Leroy Burgess, another producer cut from similar cloth?

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Hey Dacks. I'm unaware of Leroy Burgess. What did he have his hands in?

Dacks said...

Leroy Burgess is beloved in England from the Acid Jazz era to the present. He was a frequent cohort of Adams - Bumblebee Unlimited, Phreek etc.

His most famous group was probably Black Ivory which straddled the symphonic soul era of the early 70s and the Paradise Garage sound of late 70s/early 80s.

Other projects included the Universal Robot Band and Logg (great name!) & was in Inner Life with Jocelyn Brown.

His biggest contribution to those years was his production of Fonda Rae's "Over Like A Fat Rat" (aka the bass line for "Eric B Is President). BTW, Adams engineered Eric B. & Rakim's "Follow The Leader"....

bklyn6 said...

Thanks Dacks!

I don't think I know the name Leroy Burgess, but I've probably danced to his music back in the day. I love Black Ivory's "Mainline" so if he was behind that, right on!

Nowadays producers get shout outs on records or appear in videos so everybody knows their names.

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Yeah, bklyn6, I think that phenomenon started with Teddy Riley... when Bobby Brown addressed him on "My Prerogative."

bklyn6 said...

^"Yo Teddy, kick it like this!"

I would hear the name "Dark Child" a bit too. And Diddy is always up in somebody's video.