Aristocrats

The Aristocrats are renowned in deep funk circles for his or her legendary and impossibly rare 1974 single “Don’t Go,” which only 1 copy may exist. Sometimes acknowledged because the Aristocrats Corporation, based on the Fall months 2003 problem of Grandslam Journal, the group originally created in Louisville, Kentucky through the past due 1960s, a vocal quartet within the mold from the Drifters as well as the Coasters; composed of Albert Workman, Robert Ford, William Bradley, and Gary Rogers, they performed at regional venues just like the Golf club Louisvillian, the Elk’s Lodge as well as the Infirmary, the second option possessed by car salesman and aspiring maker Mel Yarmuth, who consequently became the foursome’s supervisor. Often supported bythe Brain Liberators — an area instrumental outfit comprising guitarist Ollie Kirby, bassist Wayne Stewart, saxophonist Rick DeBow, trumpeter Ted Plunkett, and drummer Charles Curry — the Aristocrats also started posting the stage with vocalist Linda Blakely, a previous winner from the Louisville Defenders’ Exposition Beauty Competition, and a recently available senior high school graduate. The group cut its lone studio room program for Yarmuth’s Rondo label in early 1974, immediately after issuing its debut solitary “Become My Woman”; documented at the same day, “Don’t Proceed” — in fact the B-side to the initial foursome’s rendition from the Billy Paul Philly spirit traditional “Me and Mrs. Jones” — was, actually, a solo display for Blakely, supported by an incendiary funk combo including saxophonists Jonas Jarrett and William “Mitch” Mitchell, guitarist Ray Hickman, bassist Donnie Bridges, trombonist Gary Tifford, trumpeter George Grimes, drummer Maurice Tyler, and percussionist Bobby Davis. Speculation is the fact that Yarmuth pressed only 1,000 copies from the solitary, with distribution limited by the Louisville region; the Aristocrats by no means recorded again, and finally went their independent methods. Bradley and Blakely eventually wed, using the second option dying through the early 1990s; sometime through the past due 1970s Workman passed away of congestive center failure, and some years later on Ford was struck by way of a car and wiped out. The Aristocrats loved a renaissance in 2000 when “Don’t Proceed” was included on the BBE compilation Sister Funk, producing much enthusiasm among funk and uncommon groove aficionados — the lone known duplicate was acquired a couple of years previously by NY City-based collector Jeff Silverman, and happens to be kept by collector Ian Wright. The Today Once again label also reissued “Don’t Move” on vinyl fabric, backed by your brain Liberators’ “Comin’ Through, Pt. 2.”