Brand New Heavies

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Brand New Heavies
US Album cover of Brother Sister (1994).
Background information
Origin	Ealing, London, England
Genre(s)	acid jazz, funk
Years active	1985-present
Label(s)	Acid Jazz, Delicious Vinyl, FFRR, Chrysalis UK, EDEL
Associated acts	N'Dea Davenport
Website	TheBrandNewHeavies.net
Members
Jan Kincaid Simon Bartholomew Andrew Levy N'Dea Davenport
Former members
Siedah Garrett Carleen Anderson Nicole Russo Sy Smith

The Brand New Heavies are an acid jazz and funk group formed in 1985 in Ealing, a suburb of London, England.

1 Band Members
2 Biography
3 Discography
4 Trivia
5 External links
6 Reference

[edit] Band Members

Band Member	Instrument	Dates
Jan Kincaid (born 17 May 1966 in Ealing)	drums, keyboards	1985-present
Simon Bartholomew (born 16 October 1965 in Ealing)	guitar	1985-present
Andrew Levy (born 20 July 1966 in Ealing)	bass, keyboards	1985-present
N'Dea Davenport (born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA)	vocals	1990-1995, 2005-present
Siedah Garrett	vocals	1997
Carleen Anderson	vocals
Nicole Russo	vocals	2004
Sy Smith	vocals

[edit] Biography

The Brand New Heavies began in the 1980's as an instrumental rare groove group called Brother International.^[1] According to Simon Bartholomew, "We made a tape on 7 microphone on cassette and they played it, nobody stopped dancing... and the rest is history!"^[2]

The group came up with the Heavies name after signing their first record contract, borrowing from a liner note on a James Brown single declaring the artist "Minister of New Super Heavy Funk".^[3] As The Brand New Heavies, they gained a cult following in the London club scene and soon signed to Cooltempo as acid jazz replaced rare groove in clubs. The band would issued a debut recording for Eddie Pillar's Acid Jazz label in 1990 with Jay Ella Ruth as lead singer.^[4]

A single, "Got To Give", came out on Cooltempo before the Brand New Heavies signed to Acid Jazz Records and released Brand New Heavies to critical acclaim. The band signed to a division of Chrysalis Records in the UK,^[1] and American distribution was picked up by influential label Delicious Vinyl, and N'Dea Davenport (who had signed an artist development deal with Delicious Vinyl) joined the group. A revamped version of the first album with vocals by N'Dea Davenport was then released.

The group's appearance with MC Serch (formerly of 3rd Bass) and Q-Tip (of A Tribe Called Quest) at a performance in New York City, inspired the group to incorporate elements of hip hop music. Their next album was the critically acclaimed Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1, which included collaborations with Guru of Gang Starr and The Pharcyde, among others, but lacked any female vocals.

Brother Sister (1994) was the last album for a while with N'Dea Davenport, who had left to complete her solo album (which she had put on hold to join the Heavies). Singles like "Dream Come True" and "Never Stop" became hits on both sides of the Atlantic. Notably however, the single, "Midnight at the Oasis", a cover of Maria Muldaur's hit single, was popular only in the UK because it was not included in the US version of the album.

Siedah Garrett joined the group for their next album, Shelter (1997). It contained the minor hit, the Carole King-penned song "You've Got A Friend" that was originally made famous by James Taylor.

The Brand New Heavies then released their greatest hits album, Trunk Funk (2000) with Carleen Anderson on vocals for some newly recorded songs, followed by the Japan only album We Won't Stop (2003) featuring a variety of vocalists and Allaboutthefunk (2004) featuring Nicole Russo on vocals.

In April 2006, the Brand New Heavies reunited with N'Dea Davenport and former label Delicious Vinyl. A new album, Get Used to It was released on 27 June 2006 via Starbucks and more traditional music retail outlets. The album was recorded in New York and London; and the lead single "I Don't Know Why (I Love You)" was issued in early May. The single was notable for being one of very few late releases to feature the trademarked "A Tom Moulton Mix", as the legendary disco pioneer had been asked to contribute mixes. Later that year, their song "Jump 'N' Move" was featured on the soundtrack for the 2006 computer animated film Happy Feet and the in-game soundtrack for 2004's NBA Live 2005. The band toured at the end of 2006.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio Albums

The Brand New Heavies (1990, debut, almost no vocals)
The Brand New Heavies (1991, vocals by N'Dea Davenport)
Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1 (1992, vocals by various hip hop groups and rappers)
Brother Sister (1994, vocals by N'Dea Davenport)
Shelter (1997, vocals by Siedah Garrett)
We Won't Stop (2003, Japan Only release; vocals by various singers)
Allaboutthefunk (2004, vocals by Nicole Russo)
Get Used to It (2006, vocals by N'Dea Davenport)

[edit] Compilations

Original Flava (1995)
The Brand New Heavies: The Platinum Collection (1999)
Trunk Funk - The Best of The Brand New Heavies (2000)
Excursions, Remixes & Rare Grooves (2001)
Acid Jazz Years (2002)

[edit] Singles

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

"Dream Come True" (Delicious Vinyl, 1991)
"Never Stop" (Delicious Vinyl, 1991)
"Stay This Way" (Delicious Vinyl, 1991)
"Dream On Dreamer" (Delicious Vinyl, 1994)
"Brother Sister" (Delicious Vinyl, 1994)
"Spend Some Time" (Delicious Vinyl, 1994)
"Mind Trips" (Capitol, 1995)
"Sometimes" (Delicious Vinyl, 1997)
"You Are The Universe" (FFRR, 1997)
"You've Got A Friend" (FFRR, 1997)
"Shelter" (FFRR, 1998)
"Saturday Nite" (London, 1999)
"Apparently Nothing" (FFRR, 2000)
"Boogie" (Onetwo, 2004)
"Surrender" (Onetwo, 2005)
"I Don't Know Why (I Love You)" (Delicious Vinyl, 2006)

[edit] Trivia

"I Don't Know Why (I Love You)" is a cover of a song performed by The Jackson 5 originally written (and also performed) by Stevie Wonder.^[5]
Simon Bartholomew has a side project band called Akimbo.^[1]
Jay Kay auditioned for the Brand New Heavies but was turned down. Simon Bartholemew and Andrew Levy both contributed to "Emergency on Planet Earth".