Strut continues it’s superb Black Fire Records series, reissuing Southern Energy Ensemble’s 1977 jazz-funk masterpiece
London’s Strut Records continues it’s superb series diving deep into the vaults of Jimmy Gray’s now considered legendary Richmond, Virginia based label Black Fire Records with another highly in-demand reissue of Southern Energy Ensemble’s 1977 masterpiece Southern Energy.
Incredible from start to finish, this seven-track recording features a mix of jazz-funk, soulful spiritual grooves and melodies, heavy-hitting funk, and African-influenced percussion rhythms.
Led by trumpeter and vocalist Marvin “Dash” Daniels (who actually played with Lee Fields in the late 60s), the nine-piece band was made up of students from Virginia state College (half of the members were music students). For a few years, the group mostly played weekend gigs at clubs, universities and military bases in Virginia and North and South Carolina.
After Daniels attended a JuJu concert and actually sitting in with them, he met bandleader Plunky and Black Fire’s Jimmy Gray. That connection led to Southern Energy Ensemble recording a record for the label at Bias Recording Studio in Falls Church. After the session, the group actually never got a chance to hear the album and the band members eventually moved onto other things after graduating college. The record was finally released 26 years later in 1993, and that was actually the first time they heard the recording.
Remastered from the original tapes by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, the new reissue also features never-before-seen photos and extended liner notes by Daniels.
As many of us have come to know through this series, that there are many essential recordings from Black Fire Records, however this mid-seventies gem from Southern Energy Ensemble has to be up there with just about anything else the label released, even those groundbreaking JuJu records. Definitely one of the best reissues of the year!
Southern Energy Ensemble — ‘Southern Energy’
(Released: 1993 / Black Fire Records)
(Reissued: 2021 / Strut)
- Open Your Mind
- F-U-N-K-Y ‘Til the Day I Die
- Third House
- See Funk
- Looking Ahead
- Energy
- The Best Part of Me / Southern Energy
