Out of all the stories of small indie record labels that vanished almost without a trace, none screams more for a cinematic representation than the Bandit label out of Chicago. Founder Arrow Brown was more than just a producer and visionary, he was like a polygamous cult leader, who lived with with his singers, who he referred to as his daughters, all in the studio and label HQ.
The Bandit label's stars included the Majestic Arrows, a group who's membership was kept anonymous on their only full-length album; Johnny Davis, who was brutally murdered in 1972; arranger/composer Benjamin Wright, who found fame and fortune arranging strings on Michael Jackson's Off the Wall along with albums by Outkast, Destiny's Child, and Aretha Franklin; and seven year old Altyrone Deno Brown, one of Arrow Brown's numerous sons, who would go on to act in a few commercials, win a Tony, and make a cameo appearance as a dancer in the Blues Brothers film. The label released very little music from the years of operation 1969-1981, ceasing operations due to Brown's aging and the groups splitting. Upon the death of Arrow Brown in 1990, the house was cleaned out, master tapes gone, and, as some eyewitness accounts, records strewn across the streets below.
Once again master of all masters Jeff Lipton has been brought in to restore the audio foraged from old record bins and remaining relatives, and the results are, for the most part, fantastic. The lengthy string-heavy openings on songs like "Doing It For Us" and "Another Day" by The Majestic Arrows are nothing short of grand. Songs like the blistering "Glad About That" by soul temptress Linda Balintine, however, were in sadder shape but Lipton has managed to make the wear and tear as minimal as possible to allow the music to be the foreground.
Arrow Brown was a bit over the top in terms of production but the lyrics just weren't quite there. There's no argument for the talents of the singers and players for the entire label. From the powerful vocal delivery of Gloria "Poolie" Brown on "I'll Never Cry for Another Boy" to little Deno's prepubescent conviction on "Sweet Pea," and the Neville-like crooning of Johnny Davis on his power ballad "The Love I See Now."
More than any small indie soul label, Bandit probably knew best what it was like to sing from the trenches. Most of these people didn't live well but it's clear they held on to their dreams, and it's that glimmer of hope that makes everything on this sampling so sincere, so much more real than anything from any multi-plantium, "blue-eyed-soul" act that the mainstream has been brainwashed the masses into believing for decades.
samples:
- The Majestic Arrows - Doing It For Us
- Altyrone Deno Brown - If You Love Me
- Linda Balintine - You're a Habit Hard to Break
Read More
