Truth & Soul | |
---|---|
Founded | 2004 |
Founder | Leon Michels Jeff Silverman |
Defunct | 2016 |
Distributor(s) | The Orchard (catalog) Independent (former) |
Genre | |
Country of origin | United States |
Location | Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York |
Official website | truthandsoulrecords |
Truth & Soul was a record label and production team based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was formed in 2004 by Leon Michels and Jeff Silverman with Philippe Lehman. The label was best known for their releases with Lee Fields & The Expressions and other New York retro-soul / funk groups. As a production house and recording studio, Truth & Soul worked with artists like Aloe Blacc ("I Need a Dollar") and Adele ("Right as Rain"). In 2016, Truth & Soul's catalog was acquired by The Orchard, and was succeeded by Big Crown Records and Mighty Eye Records.
Truth & Soul was born out of Soul Fire Records, a label run by musician Phillip Lehman. Lehman had previously run soul revival pioneer Desco Records with Bosco Mann, and founded Soul Fire in 1999 as a funk label; Mann would later open the soulful Daptone Records. Between 1999 and 2003, Soul Fire put out numerous records by artists including Lee Fields and The Whitefield Brothers. In 2003, Lehman retired from the music business, leaving his studio to young musicians Jeff "Dynamite" Silverman and Leon Michels, both former Soul Fire artists. [1] [2]
Silverman and Michels founded Truth & Soul with help from Lehman in 2004. [3] Silverman and Michels ran the label with label manager Danny Akalepse, and were the in-house production team. [4] The label has recorded and released the music of El Michels Affair, Bronx River Parkway, Quincy Bright, The Evil D's, Lee Fields and The Expressions, The Fabulous Three, Cosmic Force, The Olympians, Tyrone Ashley's Funky Music Machine, Ghetto Brothers, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, and Bama & The Family.
In 2008, Truth & Soul produced and released the Lee Fields & The Expressions album My World to critical acclaim. The same year they produced Aloe Blacc's sophomore record, Good Things , which was released on Stones Throw records on September 28, 2010. [5] A new studio, The Diamond Mine, was built in Long Island City 2014 by Michels and his frequent collaborators Thomas Brenneck, Nick Movshon, and Homer Steinweiss. [6]
Truth & Soul has remixed "Love Is a Losing Game" by Amy Winehouse, the Gabriella Cilmi single "Sweet About Me", Dinah Washington's "Cry Me A River" for Verve Remixed 4, and Truth & Soul are credited as writers on Adele's grammy nominated album, 19. Their records have been sampled by Ghostface Killah, Just Blaze, Jay-Z, Young Jeezy. [7] Other venture included curating the in-game radio station of the same name in the 2009 video game GTA: Chinatown Wars .
Big Crown Records | |
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Founded | 2016 |
Founder | Leon Michels Danny Akalepse |
Distributor(s) | |
Genre | [9] |
Location | Brooklyn, New York |
Official website | bigcrownrecords |
Mighty Eye Records | |
---|---|
Founded | 2022 |
Distributor(s) | Fat Beats [10] |
Genre | |
Location | Brooklyn, New York |
Official website | mightyeyerecords |
Michels and Silverman dissolved Truth & Soul in July 2016 with The Orchard acquiring the label and the distribution rights to its catalog. [11] Soon after, Michels co-founded Big Crown Records with Truth & Soul manager Danny Akalepse. [12] [13] [14] Some artists on the Truth & Soul roster moved to Big Crown at this time. In 2022, Mighty Eye Records began in collaboration with Silverman. [15] [16]
Noted 'featured artists' included: [17]
† denotes artist on Soul Fire Records
‡ denotes artists on Big Crown Records [18]
Artist | Title | Catalog Number | Release date |
---|---|---|---|
El Michels Affair | Sounding Out The City | TSCD-001 | 2004 |
Various Artists | Fallin Off The Reel | TSCD-002 | 2005 |
Tyrone Ashley & Funky Music Machine | Let Me Be Your Man | TSCD-003 | 2007 Reissue |
Various Artists | Fallin Off The Reel vol.2 | TSCD-004 | 2008 |
Bronx River Parkway | San Sebastian 152 | TSCD-006 | 2008 |
Lee Fields & The Expressions | My World | TSCD-007 | 2009 |
El Michels Affair | Enter The 37th Chamber | to be released in conjunction with fat beats records | 2009 |
Michael Leonhart & Avramina 7 | Seahorse & The Storyteller | TSCD-009 | 2010 |
Bama & The Family | Feeling Good b/w Drums of Asiko | TS001 | 2004 |
Bronx River Parkway feat. Analu | Deixa Pra La b/w Mas y Mas | TS002 | 2004 |
Timothy McNealy | K.C Stomp b/w Easy, Easy, Easy | TS003 | 2004 |
Lee Fields & The Expressions | Do You Love Me b/w Honey Dove | TS004 | 2004 |
El Michels Affair | Creation b/w Behind The Blue Curtains | TS005 | 2005 |
The Expressions | Money Is King b/w These Moments | TS006 | 2005 |
Quincy Bright | My Ghetto Looks Like This | TS007 | 2006 |
El Michels Affair | C.R.E.A.M b/w Glaciers of Ice | TS008 | 2006 |
Funky Music Machine | Gotta clean Up The World | TS009 | 2006 Reissue |
Bronx River Parkway | La Valla b/w Nora Se Va | TS010 | 2007 |
Tyrone Ashley & Funky Music Machine | Can't Help Myself b/w Love Me A Little While Longer | TS011 | 2007 Reissue |
El Michels Affair | Bring Da Ruckus b/w Duel Of The Iron Mic | TS012 | 2007 |
Black Velvet | Is It Me You Really Love b/w Earthquake's Coming | TS014 | 2007 Reissue |
El Michels Affair w/ Raekwon | The PJ's...from afar | TS015 | 2007 |
Lee Fields & The Expressions | My World b/w Love Comes and Goes | TS016 | 2007 |
Bronx River Parkway | Agua con Sel b/w Me Toca | TS017 | 2008 |
Timothy McNealy | What's Going On b/w I'm So glad You're Mine | TS018 | 2008 Reissue |
Quincy Bright | My Ghetto Looks Like This Vol. 2 | TS020 | 2009 |
The Olympians | How Can I Love b/w Stand Tall | TS025 | 2009 |
Lady | Lady | 2013 |
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Nicole Monique Wray (born May 2, 1979, also known as Lady Wray, is an American singer and songwriter. Her 1998 debut single "Make It Hot" was certified gold. In the 2010s, she began pursuing a more traditional soul sound, first as part of the duo Lady with Terri Walker and subsequently as Lady Wray. As Lady Wray, she has released two albums: Queen Alone and Piece of Me.
Daptone Records is a funk and soul independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York. Best known as the home of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and Charles Bradley, the label boasts a roster which includes Menahan Street Band, The Budos Band, The Sugarman 3, and Antibalas, and runs the recording studio Daptone's House of Soul.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings were an American funk and soul band signed to Daptone Records. They were part of a revival movement of mid-1960s to mid-1970s style funk and soul music. They released their debut album Dap Dippin' in 2002, the first of seven studio albums. Their 2014 album Give the People What They Want was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. Following Sharon Jones' death in 2016, the band released the posthumous album Soul of a Woman in 2017 and a compilation of cover songs in 2020.
Sharon Lafaye Jones was an American soul and funk singer. She was the lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, a soul and funk band based in Brooklyn, New York. Jones experienced breakthrough success relatively late in life, releasing her first record when she was 40 years old. In 2014, Jones was nominated for her first Grammy, in the category Best R&B Album, for Give the People What They Want.
Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III, known professionally as Aloe Blacc, is an American singer and rapper. He is best known for his guest performance on Avicii's 2013 single "Wake Me Up", which peaked on the charts in 22 countries, including in Australia and the UK. As a lead artist, he is known for his singles "I Need a Dollar" and "The Man", the latter of which topped the UK Singles Chart. Aside from his solo career, Aloe Blacc is also a member of the hip hop duo Emanon, alongside American record producer Exile.
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Nicholas Anthony Movshon is an American bass guitarist, drummer and songwriter, best known for his considerable contributions to the New York funk and soul revival. A frequent contributor to the recorded output of Brooklyn-based labels Daptone Records and Truth & Soul, he has spent the past two decades playing with Charles Bradley, Lee Fields, and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, and as a member of groups including Antibalas, Menahan Street Band, and El Michels Affair. He is also a founding member of The Arcs and has toured with The Black Keys.
Gabriel Roth, also known as Bosco Mann among other aliases, is an American record producer, musician, and co-founder of Daptone Records. He is best known as the bandleader, bass player, primary songwriter, and producer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. A prolific recording engineer, he runs Daptone Studios in Brooklyn and Penrose Studios in Riverside, California.
"Loving You Is Killing Me" is a song by American singer Aloe Blacc, with music and lyrics by Jeffrey Scott Silverman, Leon Marcus Michels, Nicholas Anthony Movshon and E. Nathaniel Dawkins and produced by Leon Michels and Jeff Dynamite.
"Green Lights" is a song by American artist Aloe Blacc, with music and lyrics by Jeffrey Scott Silverman, Leon Marcus Michels, Nicholas Anthony Movshon, E. Nathaniel Dawkins and produced by Leon Michels and Jeff Dynamite. It was released on 9 September 2011 as a Digital download in the United Kingdom. It has peaked to number 130 on the UK Singles Chart.
Elmer Lee Fields is an American soul singer, sometimes nicknamed "Little JB" for his physical and vocal resemblance with James Brown. He has worked with Kool and the Gang, Hip Huggers, O. V. Wright, Darrell Banks, and Little Royal. Fields has also worked with musicians such as B. B. King, Clarence Carter, Dr. John, Tyrone Davis, Johnny Taylor, Denise LaSalle, Bobby Blue Bland, Betty Wright, The Manhattans, Little Milton and Bobby Womack. He recorded his first single in 1969 and is still active. His recent work is with The Expressions, including the albums Faithful Man (2012), Special Night (2017), and It Rains Love (2019). In 2014, he provided additional vocals for the James Brown biographical movie, Get On Up.
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Leon Marcus Michels is an American music producer, record executive, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist best known as the leader of the eclectic soul project El Michels Affair and co-founder of Truth & Soul Records and Big Crown Records. He is a founding member of soul and funk bands Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Menahan Street Band, and Lee Fields & The Expressions, and has played with Charles Bradley as well as Wu-Tang Clan. A frequent collaborator of Dan Auerbach, Michels was a touring member of The Black Keys and co-founded The Arcs. As a producer, Michels has produced records for artists such as Lee Fields, Norah Jones, Clairo, Chicano Batman, Nicole Wray, and Hanni El Khatib.
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Phillip Lehman is a Franco-American artist, music producer, and cave diver best known as Bando, the graffiti pioneer of France who helped popularize the medium in Europe throughout the 1980s. Following this period, Lehman co-founded a string of funk labels in Paris and New York including Desco Records, the precursor to Daptone Records and his Truth & Soul Records. Since the 2000s, he has worked as a cave diver and speleologist in the Dominican Republic.
Once Jeff Silverman and I decided to dissolve Truth & Soul, me and Danny Akalepse, who worked at T&S for a number of years started Big Crown.