Charles Stepney's "Black Gold" out on all DSPs +++ Episode 2 of 'Out of the Shadows' docu-series out on Wax Poetics today +++ ALBUM OUT ON FRIDAY !!!
BLACK GOLD
“Black Gold,” the final lead single from Charles Stepney's imminently forthcoming Step on Step, is out today on all digital music platforms.
The first commercial release of this song was produced and arranged by Stepney at Chess Records’ Ter Mar Studios in Chicago, for Phil Upchurch’s debut album in 1969. But today’s version of “Black Gold” is the original compositional demo – written, performed and recorded by Stepney alone in the basement of his home, likely in the months preceding the Upchurch sessions.
In the early 1970s, Stepney would rearrange his composition, with the addition of lyrics written by Richard Rudolph, for The New Rotary Connection featuring Minnie Riperton under the new title: “I Am The Black Gold of the Sun.” The New Rotary Connection’s version of “Black Gold” is possibly one of Stepney’s greatest known works – it’s a multi-faceted, progressive orchestral soul arrangement of epic proportions – which makes today’s bare-bones demo version all the more incredible to hear. Stepney’s creative compositional prowess can be heard in its most intuitive state, as he sketches with piano, acoustic guitar, percussion and bass over a skittering hi-hat loop.
Listen to “Black Gold"
"The Next Plane"
Also today, Wax Poetics presents the second episode of Charles Stepney: Out of the Shadows – a four part web series directed by Chicago documentarian Brian Ashby (known for his work on Scrappers, The Area, Harry Who & The Chicago Imagists, and a forthcoming film about Damon Locks and Black Monument Ensemble). Where Episode One shed light on Stepney at work in his basement studio on the Southside Chicago, Stepney’s daughters Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté (aka The Stepney Sisters) are the focus of Episode Two, “The Next Plane.” In the piece, Ashby highlights the circumstances around Stepney’s death, as recounted from historical, communal, and familial perspectives, and just some of the subsequent work The Stepney Sisters have been doing over several decades to archive, cherish, and celebrate their father’s legacy.
Watch Episode Two of Charles Stepney: Out of the Shadows via Wax Poetics
SUMMER OF STEPNEY: GRAND FINALE WORLDWIDE
As you may know... across the Summer of 2022, we've been working with The Stepney Sisters to arrange events and performances across Chicago, a series we collectively dubbed the “Summer of Stepney.” For our grand finale, Summer of Stepney is going global. We've connected with independent record shops and music appreciation spaces in 40 cities worldwide to organize Charles Stepney listening parties, where local selectors in each location will play tracks from Step on Step in between records from Stepney's vast catalog of productions, arrangements, compositions, and samples. Curators, DJs, and Record Shop People in each community will take the concept and make it their own. Some parties will take place in a busy record store, some in a club over drinks. Most events will take place this weekend, around the album’s release date September 9th. Whatever the expression, each event will be unified by an admiration of Stepney and his work.
Participating Locations Confirmed So Far:
Amsterdam, NL - Rush Hour
Lisbon, PT - Flur
Helsinki, FI - WeJazz
Paris, FR - Balades Sonores
London, UK - Honest Jons
London, UK - Stranger Than Paradise
Brighton, UK - Resident
Sheffield, UK - Beartree
Düsseldorf, DE - A&O Medien
Cologne, DE - Parallel Schallplatten
Hannover, DE - 25music
Hamburg, DE - Groove City
Hamburg, DE - RIAA Bar
Tokyo, JP - JustAnotherSpace, in partnership with RINGS and Epigram
Beijing, CN - BIE Music, in partnership with fRUITYSHOP
Chicago, IL - Conservatory Vintage & Vinyl
Los Angeles, CA - Club Tee Gee, in partnership with Jacknife Records
Portland, OR - Bar Norman
Portland, OR - Speck's Records
Detroit, MI - Paramita Sound
Brooklyn, NY - LEGACY
Winooski, VT - Autumn Records
Bloomington, IN - Orbit Room, in partnership with Landlocked Music
Bellingham, WA - ShBANG Festival
Shepardstown, WV - Admiral Analog's
Oxford, MS - Bar Muse w/ The End of All Music (Oxford)
Jackson, MS - The End of All Music (Jackson)
Atascadero, CA - Traffic Records
Philadelphia, PA - Ars Nova Workshop
Pittsurgh, PA - The Government Center
Kansas City, MO - Mills Record Company
Nashville, TN - Vinyl Tap
Bakersfield, CA - Going Underground
Wallingford, CT - Redscroll Records
Oak Park, MI - Street Corner Music
Golden Valley, MN - Down In The Valley
Miami, FL - Technique Records, in partnership with Brainville
Austin, TX - Breakaway Records
Atlanta, GA - Criminal Records
Honolulu, HI - Aloha Got Soul
West Palm Beach, FL - Rust & Wax Record Shop
Details & information for participating locations & events up-to-date at:
www.summerofstepney.com
(Photo by Rubie Stepney)
In the decades since his passing, the presence of Charles Stepney’s name in liner notes and on vinyl labels has become a seal of quality for record collectors, music historians, and aficionados, while his sound has been used by countless samplers in the hip-hop world including Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, MF Doom, and Madlib. A Chicago born and bred arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Stepney is known for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Deniece Williams, and Ramsey Lewis, and as a staff producer for Chess Records in the 1960s, where he was an essential creative force behind seminal recordings by Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Terry Callier, The Dells, The Emotions, and many more. But in comparison to the post-mortem renown of his sound, or the music he created and the artists he supported while he was alive, Stepney is a greatly underappreciated figure… a genius relegated to the shadows.
Step on Step comes almost 50 years after his passing and features 23 tracks, most of which are original compositions by Stepney that were never again recorded by him or any other artist. It also features prototypical, seedling-style demos of Stepney compositions for Earth, Wind & Fire, including “That’s The Way of The World,” “Imagination,” and “On Your Face,” as well as today’s original demo version of “Black Gold.”
The album’s announcement and lead singles “Step on Step,” “Daddy’s Diddies,” and “Look B4U Leap,” brought on excitement from many longtime fans of Stepney’s work, including Tyler The Creator (who played “Daddy’s Diddies” on his NTS Radio show while bantering: “Charles Stepney…Genius!”), Elton John (who recently told The Guardian: "What he was doing was like nothing else: beautiful string parts, really bold, funky, different… Charles Stepney would have been my arranger of choice, without question”), Chaka Khan (who exclaimed: “Oh my God! That man... Hey Love by Rotary Connection – that’s my frickin’ album”), and Floating Points (who shared: "Stepney’s music is hugely important to me… those arrangements and that recording sound helped shape the way I write music”), among many many others.
*Deluxe Vinyl Package*
Certified Gold color vinyl
Step on Step comes on two 140-gram vinyl LPs (pressed by Pallas in Germany and Smashed Plastic in Chicago) inside a reverse-board gatefold jacket, with IARC obi strip and dome-patterned inner-sleeves.
And, as always, we have a limited edition color vinyl option for the first pressing only, available via our Bandcamp page only, which is 555 copies of *Certified Gold* color vinyl.
Distribution via RedEye for US, Canada, North & South America
This album will also be available on CD, Cassette, and Classic Black Vinyl (same package specs as listed above).
Retailers in the United States or Canada or anywhere else inside of North, South and Central America... Please reach out to your sales rep at RedEye Worldwide if you are interested in making wholesale purchases of this album, or any other album in our catalog. Don't yet have a RedEye rep? Please just reach out to us and we'll get you hooked up!
Distribution via !K7 for Europe, UK, Australia, and ROW
This album will be distributed by our good friends at !K7 and their various territory partners in Europe, UK, Australia, and everywhere else in the world outside of North & South America.
If you are a retailer or store with questions about wholesale or are just looking to get some of our records... we'd like to make things as easy for you as possible, please do not hesitate to /cont
