In contrast to its musical predecessor, boogie was defined by slower rhythms and more of a bouncy, dirty and synth oriented groove. But really who came up with this sound? The true answer is Prince, P-Funk and the Gap Band. These were the guys that were playing the gritty, synthy funk tracks in the late 70's. That's not to say that Leroy Burgess and his writing partners Sonny T. Davenport and James Calloway were not on the forefront, they were indeed. Thing is, I like to think of boogie as a sort of indie genre and to the people that have the tasteful hindsight to appreciate it, it is quite arcane. Overall, most of us like to hunt down the rarest records on esoteric and private labels. But these obscure bands that were popping up all across the country in the early 80's were most likely not taking their cues from Convertion or Logg songs, they were doing their best to emulate artists on the level of Prince.

At the end of the day, Leroy Burgess and his Convertion producer Greg Carmichael were very deep in the game, many of their projects were groundbreaking and definitive. Recorded and released in 1980 Let's Do It was one of the very first tracks that clearly defined the "Boogie-Funk" sound of the 1980's. It's also an amazing fucking record.

Both Convertion and Logg performed live shows at the Paradise Garage in the early 80's. Need that damn time machine again.

Convertion - Let's Do It

Some tracks are so good that you have to have more than just one copy. Black Ivory were actually around for a while. They formed as the Mellow Souls in 1969 and were managed by Patrick Adams. They soon picked up Leroy Burgess and changed their name to the ominous sounding Black Ivory. The put out the hit LP Don't Turn Around out on Perception Records in 1971. They put out a couple more LP's in the mid '70 before Leroy Burgess left to work on a myriad of other projects. Burgess came back to pen and arrange the incredible track Mainline with the help of Patrick Adams. Mainline has such a stomp and is so nicely produced it belongs on every dance floor. It is a very funky and soulful track for 1979.

mp3: Black Ivory - Mainline
mp3: Black Ivory - Dance

The identical twins Taharqa and Tunde Ra Aleem started putting out records as Aleem in 1979. They were in rock groups in the early 70's, including The Ghetto Fighters. The Aleem twins shared an apartment with Jimi Hendrix and played in his band The Cry of Love. In the Aleem period hey worked with Leroy Burgess on most of their tracks. This 1984 early house track is some of their best work. This track features Leroy Burgess on the vocal and is very similar to their hit electro track Release Yourself.

mp3: Aleem - Get Loose (Dub)

We have covered the work of Leroy Burgess and Greg Carmichael here at Beat Electric several times now and of course for very good reason. Everything these gentlemen touched turned to solid gold. Logg, which also featured Burgess's cousin Sonny T. Davenport, was probably my favorite of their endeavors. Released on the Salsoul label in 1981, "I Know You Will" (thanks in part to a stellar mix by Larry Levan) is a very heavy lazer soul joint. As respective pioneers of the disco sound with Black Ivory and Bumblebee Unlimited in the 70's, Burgess and Carmichael were obviously on the forefront of the boogie tip as well with this cut. The increasingly rare and pricey Logg LP has quite a few more jams on it, but we will have to share those with you further on down the line.

Logg - I Know You Will (Larry Levan Mix)

The dream team collaboration of vocalist Leroy Burgess with producers Greg Carmichael, and Patrick Adams yielded so many amazing recordings between their many different musical projects. The Universal Robot Band's tenure began in 1976 with the "Dance and Shake Your Tambourine" single and ended in 1982 with the release of the boogie masterpiece "Barely Breaking Even". The majority of Burgess's releases in the early 80's came out on Salsoul, but this single was released on the fairly obscure Moonglow imprint, which makes an original pressing much harder to come by. The 12 inch was reissued in recent years due to the track's high demand and influence in the disco universe.

Universal Robot Band - Barely Breaking Even (Club Version)