Van Jones - 1981 - Time Has Made Me New

Van Jones

1981

Time Has Made Me New

01. Not About That (Show Me Some Respect) 5:21

02. Take To The Light And Wind 4:16

03. Say Ow Ow Ow 4:05

04. Let's Go This Go 4:02

05. Shake Your Cheeks To The Beat 6:07

06. Time Has Made Me New 3:58

07. She's A FFFF (Fine Foxy Freakie And Fat) 3:47

08. Loving And Hugging 3:03

Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Alexander Walt

Backing Vocals – Brenda Liverman, Jackie Myrick, Jamie Cannata, Lisa Demmings, Mary Diggs, Otis Jones

Bass – Carton Brown, Kenny James

Drums – Eric Roberts, Lemanel Harper

Handclaps – Barry Ashley, Beverly Hathcock

Keyboards – Julius Faulkner

Lead Guitar – Sam "Johnson Swanson" Diggs

Percussion – Clarence Vincent

Rhythm Guitar – Harold "Sundance Kid" Bonds

Strings – Doris Bagget, Lillian Zaret, Peter Zaret, Raymond Pancarowicz

Trumpet – Greg Galishaw

Here's one very rare early 80's soul and boogie LP, as clean original copies now fetch well over $500, if you can find it...

The story of Van Jones, as with all great singers, starts off in the church. Till this day, singing alongside his brothers as ‘The King David’s Harp’, the family gospel group would see Silvanis, ‘Van’ for short, join them at a young age. Needless to say, growing up in Norfolk in the late 50s & 60s and being surrounded by producers & artists such as Lenis Guess, Danny Gold, Lee Fields to name a few, it’s only natural that Van would start an R&B group and begin touring the East Coast.

In the mid-70s, on the way to New York City to audition for The Temptations, Van would stop off to see his brother Otis in New Jersey. Their cousin was dating George Kerr at the time, so Kerr & Linda Jones were natural fixtures at Otis’ place. In knowing that, Van’s first time meeting Kerr would be on this trip, he brought up some demo tracks he had been working on which would soon after lead on to recording ‘I Want To Groove You’ at the Guess studio back in Norfolk, with his backing vocal group ’The Jays’ whom consisted of Otis & his sisters.

Whilst visiting Detroit to work on his forthcoming album ‘Time Has Made Me New’, Van went to see a performance by Norfolk native, Wilson Williams. The two had previously worked on music together, however this would be the first time he met Mary Diggs, William’s backing vocalist. Diggs, another Norfolk native, would then perform with Van as well as feature on his album.

As mentioned earlier, Van is still singing alongside his brothers, and there are future projects on the horizon, however for now, there’s only one question….well, do ya?

Van Jones is one hip dude -- stepping out here in a wonderful self-produced set from the Virgina scene of the early 80s -- but one that crackles with the best sort of sound of the New York scene of the time! The record's really well done -- a great mix of funky steppers and mellower numbers that reminds us of some of our favorite indie soul sides in the post-disco years -- with a really lean feel overall, but one that's the result of focus, more than just a rough production on Van's part. The upbeat tracks mix in wicked keyboards and bass bits -- and often have two or more female voices stepping along with the grooves -- and the few mellower tracks slide in nicely too, with a sound that's smooth but never too slick. One of those rare indie sides that really sounds like it should have been more pro at the time.