Gary Davis & Chocolate Star

Way more than the EP you might expect from the title -- nearly 50 minutes of rare music from Gary Davis -- jazzy funk, old school hip hop, and lots more great grooves -- even grittier street soul than some of Davis' better-known work as Chocolate Star! The set's a self-produced effort that has Gary really digging through his older tapes to come up with gems -- messed-up tunes that are almost the club equivalent of some of the roughest funky 45s from a decade before -- and which show Davis really experimenting with a range of cool, creative new ideas! Imagine having some friend in the know visit the studios of some key underground producers in the east coast scene -- ripping off their best unreleased tracks to make a single CD -- and you'll get a good idea of the feel of this one. Gary's working here with artists who include Richard Groove Holmes, Sonjita Rosa, Flexx, and The Alpha Boyz -- and titles include "So Good", "Cruzin", "Ron", "Sticky Situation", "Skukill Express", and "One Life Time To Live". (CD comes in a handmade paper sleeve -- packaged by Gary Davis himself!) Dusty Groove

Rare work from Chocolate Star -- pulled from the vaults of Gary Davis, and a great companion to some of the other reissues of his work on the market! The tunes here are nicely rough-edged -- and feature rare funk, breaks, and more from Gary's work for the P&P labels -- but from what we can tell, most of these tunes are different from versions that were officially issued at the time. Many numbers are rare mixes or odd edits, and the CD runs for nearly 80 minutes in all -- a mad mix of grooves that never lets up at all -- much weirder and more experimental than other work of this nature on the reissue market! Titles include "What Can I Do (edit)", "I Feel Love (edit)", "Schoolyard Break", "Camden Intro", "Super Jake (dub)", "Gee Gee (Dopeman's mix)", "Professors On Mars", and "Roller Rink Funk". (CD comes in a handmade paper sleeve -- packaged by Gary Davis himself!) Dusty Groove