The next big reissue I got this year (it varies by two songs from the original issue) was St. Louis's R & B Giant & Legend Oliver Sain. I got a lot of St. Louis city music this year. Oliver Sain was a master saxophonist and producer par excellence of such greats as Fontella Bass (the original version of Deliver Me was sung by her and produced by Oliver-yes you know the song used for pizza delivery). This great reissue called Oliver Sain St. Louis Breakdown-The Best Of Oliver Sain is a must own for anyone with a passing interest in Rhythm & Blues, Disco, Soul and any other genre associated with not only the African-American music movement, but especially that of the Mid-West, and I ain't talking about Chicago and Detroit.
You can thank people like Tom "Papa" Ray, DJ of the program The Soul Selector on community radio station KDHX 88.1 FM and owner of Vintage Vinyl in University City for bringing these recordings to us. It would have been a magnanimous task. This album serves as a great historical document of Oliver. In the 90's in the heyday of Roy St. John's Morning Show Band, Oliver was always kind enough to lend his vast saxophone talents to this hodgepodge of a group who were typically raising money for KDHX. On these occasions I got to meet and shake hands with someone I consider as important as Allen Toussaint or Smokey Robinson as far as producers, songwriters, and performers go. Oliver was all of these as well as kind and humble too.
Pick up this very historically significant R & B/Soul album, it will not disappoint and should get your booty shaking and your hips grinding!
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