Philadelphia soul

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For the American arena football team, see Philadelphia Soul.

Philadelphia (or Philly) soul, sometimes called the Philadelphia Sound or Sweet Philly, is a style of soul music characterized by funk influences and lush instrumental arrangements, often featuring sweeping strings and stabbing horns. The genre laid the groundwork for what are now considered disco, Adult contemporary and smooth jazz by fusing the R & B rhythm sections of the 1960s with the Pop Vocal tradition, and featuring a slightly more pronounced Jazz influence in its melodic structures and arrangements. Afro-Caribbean percussion would slowly seep into the genre as the (New York-based) Salsoul label picked up the torch from the Philly-based labels and producers that had founded the genre.

[edit] The style

Due to the emphasis on sound and arrangement and the relative anonymity of many of the "style's" players, Philadelphia soul is often considered a producers' genre.^{[citation needed]}

Philadelphia soul songwriters and producers included Thom Bell, Linda Creed, Norman Harris, Dexter Wansel and the production teams of Gene McFadden and John Whitehead, and Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff (the latter pair of Philadelphia International Records) worked with a stable of studio musicians to develop the unique Philadelphia sound used as backing for many different singing acts. Many of these musicians would record as the instrumental group MFSB, which had a hit with the seminal Philadelphia soul song "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" in 1974. A notable extension of the Philadelphia sound were bassist Ronald Baker, guitarist Norman Harris and drummer/Trammps baritone Earl Young, (B-H-Y) who also recorded as the Trammps and would produce records themselves. These three were the base rhythm section for MFSB and branched off into a sub-label of Philadelphia International, called Golden Fleece, distributed by CBS Records (now Sony BMG), after which Harris created the Gold Mind label, in conjunction with SalSoul. Gold Mind's roster included First Choice, Loleatta Holloway, and Love Committee (all of whom would feature Baker/Harris/Young productions of their material. Their hit by Double Exposure, Ten Percent, (1976) was the first commercial 12" record. The Salsoul Orchestra was composed of key players from MFSB. Salsoul Orchestra (as its name implies) leaned toward R&B-Latin-fused musical flavor. The group was conducted by one-time Mike Douglas television show bandleader/vibraphonist, Vincent Montana Jr., another founding MFSB member.

Philadelphia soul was popular throughout the 1970s and it set the stage for the studio constructions of disco and urban contemporary music that emerged later in the decade.