Friday, August 17, 2007

Nice 'N' Naasty

The Salsoul Orchestra definately made it's mark on the disco scene in the 1970's. With classic cuts like "Runaway", "212 North 12th", "Salsoul Rainbow", "Tangerine", this 50 member orchestra became a huge influence on both disco and the upcoming "house music" scene. I think this group hit their peak with the 1978 released disco classic, "How High". The original song was released, like many of their releases, by Salsoul Records as both the title track to their full length record, How High, and later as it's own 12-inch single. Another solid version of the song was recently released as a 12-inch single by Suss'd Records, which consists of a seven plus minute edit by Larry Levan. This New York based orchestra which included an instrumental section, arrangers and conductors, disbanded in 1982, however, not before they left their solid imprint on the disco and house music scenes.

The Salsoul orchestra - How High(Larry Levan 12" Remix)

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4 comments:

Unknown said...

i had the uk 12" of this but it was credited to a band called cognac??
anyone know why???

DELIO said...

very handsome

Unknown said...

Ah, one of my absolute favorites! Just the right amount of bump, of soul, of sax, of fat bassline that makes deep house heads do their "unHH!" face when I play it. I don't think it's just the UK version that's labelled as "Cognac" - I have the US white label promo and this also credits the track to Cognac. Since discogs claims this track is "featuring Cognac" it's likely that the singer is Cognac, and the idea was originally to release track under that name with Salsoul as the house backing band, as usual. But perhaps it was decided that the production was more likely to hit under the Salsoul Orchestra name, so that's how it ended up. At least that's my interpretation. This was my closing track yesterday at an outdoor disco brunch party yesterday, and imagine my surprise to find it listed here today! Synchronicity, that's what it is.

Jason Fist said...

Arrgh!

Learn how to spell definitely if you're going to use it all the time!