recorded several of the tightest, chunkiest disco themes of the 1970s, both on its own productions and as the backing group for several prime vocalists. Organized by
in 1974, the band was an experiment in fusing funk, Philly soul, and Latin music together in a highly danceable discofied style with plenty of room for solos by individual members. With arrangers, conductors, and whole sections of instruments (including up to 18 violinists) contributing to the sound,
routinely included up to 50 members. Though the
sound became passé in the wake of disco music's explosion and rapid commercialization during the late '70s,
was a heavy influence on house music in the 1980s and even the return of disco-inspired electronica during the following decade.
The beginnings of
the Salsoul Orchestra (and Salsoul Records) lie with nominal head
Vincent Montana, Jr. A longtime jazz vibraphonist, bandleader, and session man with Philly soul groups like
Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes,
the O'Jays, and
the Spinners,
Montana dreamed of constructing a large studio orchestra which could fuse polished soul and brassy funk with Latin percussion and live strings. In 1974, he was introduced to local entrepreneurs
Joe,
Ken, and
Stan Cayre (who ran a local Latin music label) by Afro-Cuban pianist
Joe Bataan. With their blessing (and financing),
Montana spent months recruiting dozens of musicians from the streets and studios of New York -- including more than a half-dozen percussionists alone. The collective recorded three tracks, which impressed
Bataan and the Cayres so much that they decided to form a new label -- named
Salsoul for its connotations of salsa and soul -- to release a full-length LP.
One of the original
Salsoul Orchestra recordings, "The Salsoul Hustle," was released in mid-1975 and it placed well on the charts.
Salsoul's second single, "Tangerine" (an unlikely cover of a
Jimmy Dorsey tune), hit the Top 20 in early 1976 and pushed the eponymous
Salsoul Orchestra LP to number 14 on the album charts. Follow-up singles like "You're Just the Right Size" and "Nice and Nasty" did moderately well on the charts but soon a glut of similar-sounding material began to flood the market, cheap imitations of the amazing instrumentation of
Salsoul Orchestra members -- guitarist and producer
Norman Harris, bassist
Ronald Baker, drummer
Earl Young, arranger
Don Renaldo, percussionist
Larry Washington, and vocalists
Jocelyn Brown,
Phyllis Rhodes,
Ronni Tyson,
Philip Hurt, and
Carl Helm. Many
Salsoul contributors played on the biggest and best disco tracks of the era, including
Trammps,
Grace Jones,
the Whispers,
Loleatta Holloway, and
First Choice.
Salsoul's third LP, the slightly amusing
Christmas Jollies, displayed a predilection towards the growing disco novelty trend. The slip was hardly improved upon with 1977's
Cuchi-Cuchi (which teamed
the Orchestra with
Charo) or 1978's
Up the Yellow Brick Road (a takeoff on The Wiz). After disintegrating
the Salsoul Orchestra in the early '80s,
Vince Montana led the studio group
Montana and recorded with several pop stars of the '80s as well as dance inheritors of the '90s like
Mondo Grosso and
Nuyorican Soul. Though
Salsoul records had long been out of print, several were brought back in the mid-'90s, as well as a prescient two-disc retrospective titled
Anthology.
–
John Bush, Rovi