HOOD VIBRATIONS

There's a shimmering, otherwordly quality to The O'Jays' music, a gossamer lightness to their gospel fervour. It's there on their hits -Love Train, Put Your Hands Together and especially on their 1972-3 albums, Back Stabbers and Ship Ahoy, which, argues Philly soul expert Tony Cummings, merit contention alongside What's Going On and There's A Riot Goin' On in the annals of conscious R&B

- Tony Cummings

If you were to gather together a bunch of soul buffs and ask them to name the greatest album ever, you'd be sure to hear named What's Going On, Oris Blue and Songs In The Key Of Life. One album bound to be acclaimed is Ship Ahoy by The O'Jays. The Miami Herald once called the title track "a dark, atmospheric, frightening masterpiece" while several DJs and critics today have suggested that the album's For The Love Of Money is the greatest piece of dance music ever recorded.

What is certain is that every component necessary in creating a true classic album came together in time (the early months of 1973) and space (Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studio). The individuals that producers and songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff assembled to record Ship Ahoy were as good as anyone working in popular music. Here were a vocal group whose lead singer, Eddie Levert, could wrench the listener from reflective introspection to surging joy; an arranger with deep jazz roots, Bobby Martin, who had expanded his skills to create luxuriant string and horn arrangements with moonlighting symphonians; songwriters like Bunny Sigler, Gene McFadden and John Whitehead; and hand-picked session musicians who had, by 1973, been dubbed MFSB (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother) - Norman Harris, Roland Chambers and Bobby Eli (guitars), Vince Montana (vibes), Ronnie Baker and Anthony Jackson (bass), Earl Young (drums) and Larry Washington (conga, bongos), often with Leon Huff on electric piano - who were a foundation stone on which Gamble and Huff could build their Philly soul sound of the 70s. It was like the way Berry Gordy built the Motown sound of the 60s with the Funk Brothers.