Vida Blue (top), Albert Jones (bottom left), Choker Campbell (bottom right)

Listen/Download – Albert Jones – Vida Blue

Greetings all.

The tune I bring you today is something that found its way into my ears in a rather roundabout way.
A while back, my man DJ Prestige traveled over to the UK, and while he was there he did some digging (natch) and sat in with UK legend DJ Andy Smith on his radio show. It was during that show that he spun a couple of his UK finds, one of which was today’s selection. I dug the tune a lot, so I set out in search of my own copy, and fortunately I turned one up rather quickly (and cheaply).
The tune in question, ‘Vida Blue’ by Albert Jones (from 1971) is a stomping funk tribute to the early 70s Oakland A’s hurler of the same name.
Jones was a Detroit area singer who recorded for a number of labels including Tri City, Bump Shop, Kapp (one of the Kapp 45s duplicated material originally released on Tri City) and Candy Apple from the late 60s to the mid 70s. Much of his work was under the auspices of Walter ‘Choker’ Campbell, a saxophonist/bandleader who recorded a number of records under his own name before going to work running the Motown road band, eventually recording for the label as well.
After Campbell left Motown, he started his own set of labels, including Tri City. Moonville, and Ultra City, with artists like Jones, Betty Renay, the Soul Merchants (I’m not sure if this is the same group that recorded for the Stax subsidiary Weis Records) and Lee Moore.
Albert Jones recorded four singles for Tri City, the last of which was ‘Vida Blue’.
Oddly enough, the flip side of this 45 is a country version of the same song by a singer named Tom Newton. Since the single was released to capitalize on the popularity of the ball player, it seems likely that the genre switch on the flip was engineered to double the chances that the record might be a hit (though I can imagine most people – like myself – being surprised one way or the other when they flipped the record over).
The Albert Jones side is tight, and to be honest, where else are you going to hear a funk 45 that namechecks Harmon Killebrew and Carl Yastrzemski?
Jones would go on to record a full LP (‘The Facts of Life’) for the Campbell and the Candy Apple label in 1977. One of the tracks from that LP, ‘Mother Nature’ was later sampled by Common for the song ‘Be’.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back later in the week with something cool.

Peace

Larry

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4 Responses to “Albert Jones – Vida Blue”

1. Stu says:

   May 24, 2010 at 2:59 pm

   Hi Larry,

   This appears to be linking to JJ Barnes?

   Not that I want to complain, but you got me all excited about hearin’ Albert Jones! 🙂

   Cheers,

   Stu

2. Larry says:

   May 24, 2010 at 3:57 pm

   Stu
   Check the link again. I just looked at it and it was fine.
   What browser are you using?
   Larry

3. Stu says:

   June 1, 2010 at 3:12 pm

   My bad!

   Don’t know what happened last time, but it is definitely fine.

   Apologies dude, how could I doubt you!

   I am hanging my head in shame as I type.

   And a cracking tune it is too!

   🙂

4. Larry did you know your songs are selling in The UK says:

   February 8, 2011 at 4:31 pm

   Contact me
   George Hendricks