Don Blackman

A pianist, songwriter, producer, and vocalist from New York, Don Blackman is one of those artists where if you found an old dusty record with his name on it, you'd buy it on sight. Hip-hop heads, jazz, funk, disco, rare groove, and soul fans all share a love for his music. Here's the full story from the label on how this unreleased material saw the light of day:

''We couldn't quite believe it when Chicago DJ/digger/producer, Marc Davis (Black Pegasus), told us he had heard of a vault of unreleased Don Blackman material. Marc had reached out to Don Blackman's children, Irene and Kyle, in 2019, building a relationship with Kyle with whom he shared a musical affinity. To Marc's delight, Kyle confirmed that there was a treasure trove of Don's music that had never seen the light of day.

As Kyle described it, ''In 2013, shortly after my dad's passing, my sister and I collected all of his possessions and put them in a storage unit. After 2 years I finally got back into the groove of things and went through the unit. I came across forty years worth of music history. Hundreds of cassettes, CDs, Disks, reel-to-reels, paperwork, photos and VHS tapes. It took about ten years to organise and digitise everything. All of this magic was almost thrown away in the trash, never to be seen, never to be heard forever.''

On first hearing the tracks, Marc knew he wanted to extend the songs and enlisted fellow Chicago legend, Tone B. Nimble, to work on the project with him. Their extension/edit of the songs was conducted in a way that was respectful and true to how the tracks were originally recorded by Don. They extended and re-sequenced the groovy parts of the songs organically for the DJs and dancers.

In Marc's words, ''Don Blackman was a true musician and an awesome songwriter. The beauty in it is many people are just now discovering him and his music which helps keep his legacy alive.''

• 01 Say Youll Be Mine
• 02 Your Love Makes Me Crazy