I was just jammin this yesterday in my car. Fonky

Whatever happened to him?

I never heard this song before,what year is it from? Sounds very early-80s.

I have his 1985 album which includes the singles "Who Do You Love" and "After You".Should I find some of the other albums? Any recommendations?

scriptgirl said:

I believe he's still doing guest-appearances for various artists.
Last time i saw him mentioned was some years ago in albumcredits for a few projects of jazz-trumpetplayer Roy Hargrove and his conceptgroup, the RH Factor.
[Edited 7/27/09 4:23am]

SoulAlive said:

That's from "Nard" (1981 on Arista/GRP), which is his debut and imo an absolute recommendable/essential classic :

Solalive said:

Also his second album, "Funky Beat", has a few solid cuts :




Both "Nard" and "Funky Beat" were reissued in Japan on cd in good quality. I think they did the 24-bit mastering on those.

Yeah, i dig that "Mr. Wright" album from 1985 a lot, as i like most of his work, and it was great to finally see again the "After You" video, which i only saw once in the 80's lol :




I've seen in a catalogue a detailed tracklist of an album called "I Can Tell" which release-date supposedly was around 1987 on EMI-Manhattan, after his "Mr. Wright" album,
but it seems untracable. I guess it remained in the vaults of EMI-Manhattan. One track (somewhat similar-sounding to "Who Do You Love") from that albumlist called
"We'll Keep Striving" appeared on the debut-album of female composer/producer La Forest "La La" Cope, around 1987 on Arista : http://www.allmusic.com/c...foxql5ldje





After that he recorded 3 more gospel-albums during the late 80's/early 90's : "Brand New Gospel Format", "Fresh Hymns" and "Fresh Hymns 2".
I found the first 2 on cd, which are okay, but i actually don't play them so often :

http://cgi.ebay.com/BERNA..._500wt_956

http://cgi.ebay.com/Berna...7C294%3A50



Another interesting project he did was the album "Back To Our Roots" with the group "Too Bad" :



http://www.cduniverse.com...id=1196995





Here's some recent footage of Nard :


[b][Edited 7/27/09 7:12am]

...


My favorite cut by "'Nard" is "Won't You Let Me Love You", from the Funky Beat album...I've never seen it posted on Youtube, though.....







...

pali, go to www.imeem.com. they might have it there

Snippets of "Won't You Let Me Love You" :

http://mog.com/music/Bern...e_Love_You

http://www.soulandfunkmus.../998279454


Just rewinded his "Mr. Wright" joint. Some jams on there too. Man, that vocal bridge in "Love You So" ( "...Never gonna let you gooo..." ) :

http://www.imeem.com/t44j...ve-you-so/

http://www.imeem.com/t44j...killin-me/

http://www.imeem.com/t44j...own-shoes/




Most of his "Brand New Gospel Format" album can be heard on youtube.

And just noticed 2 Japanese LP-pressings online :

Shango said:

...
[Edited 7/27/09 10:17am]

Jamaica Queens all day. Bernard Wright was way ahead of his time. I love Bread Sandwhiches!!!!!

Shango said:

Hey,thanks for posting those clips! I will definitely look for some of his albums on my next vinyl dig

SoulAlive said:

Have fun diggin' !

Speaking of the "After You"-video. You can see Chaka Khan's brother Mark Stevens play the bass in the clip with the sound of Marcus Miller's studio-recording lol.

Shango said:

LOVE THAT SONG!! I remember hearing it alot on the radio in early 1986.A big hit on the R&B stations.The song sounds like something that Stevie Wonder would have done....maybe it's the "la la la la la la" hook,which kinda reminds me of "Another Star"? GREAT TUNE! Probably my favorite by Bernard.I haven't seen that video since the 80s.

SoulAlive said:

Yeah, that "la la la" chanting is very Stevie indeed, though the rhythm and chords feels really like the Jamaica/Queens-sound to me.
The Jamaica Boys somewhat continued this sound with the albums after this one.

Soualive said:

You neither huh ? I wonder how much airplay it got on tv back then.

I remember seeing the "Who Do You Love" video all the time.That one is excellent....very funny too

I didn't see the "After You" video very much.