A famous French proverb says : learning is an every day job. And the fact is although me been around for more than 30 years, I’ve never spent a single day without finding something/someone to tickle my curiosity. The latest being that man who I discovered the name of a few weeks ago, while searching for some ol’tune on the net. A guy who happens to be none other than the creator of Clyde Alexander’s anthemic ‘Got To Get Your Love’ released at the end of the 70’s on Heavenly Star which would end up finding a new owner for more than… US$ 500 !!! And you know what ? The cut in question was just to be revamped in the meantime by Kenny Dope himself on his own label. Ladies & gents, please welcome Gary Davis…

Hey Gary, much respect for what you’ve accomplished. It looks like you’re now quite far away from the said dance music scene. What’s your look in regards to it and, more widely, to the current production ?

I am working on a Dance/House version of ‘Got To Get Your Love’. I was in the studio before I left Florida working on it. I’m presently re-writing a script for my movie ZEN. I plan on shooting during the summer. I just did a piano solo project too. I write music for the movies I produce. Now, I am working on movie #14 and I want to do a Miami Bass compilation of the artists I have worked with.

The current producers/artists you appreciate the works of ?

You mean who do I like and listen too ? Jazz pianist Joe Sample, Earth Wind & Fire w/Kenny G. I listen to a lot of Jazz.

When having a look at the record sales, we’re very far away from the 70’s/80’s period, having people being almost happy today with 2,500 units sold… Any comment ?

Right now ! I am intertested in people knowing about me and my work.
I am intertested in people knowing that I also produce/direct and write movies. I also want them to know that, yes I have written dance music. But! I also have written big band jazz tunes, string pieces, orchestra pieces, piano solos, some rock, reggae, rap, gospel, Latin… I’ve even worked on Miami Bass when it was first taking off.

How do you feel today seing some of the records you’ve made back in the days being the subject of hard battles between auctionners thus reaching an average price between US $ 3 hundred something and sometimes even up to 500 Bucks ???

I’d like to get a copy of this first release of ‘Got To Get Your Love’ on Heavenly Star ! I find it rather intertesting that good things come to light. It helps me know that people may get to see my movies one day or another in the future.

Quite ironical when being said that the vinyl doesn’t sell and should disappear within a couple of years…

To me the music is what matters. I am not a DJ who spins music. I am a composer who writes and performs music. Therefore, it doesn't matter if it is in my movies, on CD, a computer hard drive, cassette tape, DAT or vinyl. It's like film vs video or DVD. I just want to hear the music.

Tell us about your starting point, the way you was seing the things, the way the environment was as well as the atmosphere at the time…

 I started doing dance music in NYC for Peter Brown of P & P. At the time, I was a senior at Glassboro State College in Glassboro, NJ and my life music was everywhere. My Uncle, the late jazz great Richard "Groove "Holmes, was showing me musical things. I was learning a lot.

As an already active people at the time, how do you see the differences between this precise period and today ?

25 years ago when I began recording music, we recorded with people, groups. I played with a drummer, guitar player, bass player and sometimes horn players and singers. It was very different as compared to nowadays. I can get a whole Orchestra sound at home in my studio. I do not get a chance to play with people much like I did. Peter Brown, Patrick Adams and I was in the studio in December last year working on two new projects.

What has decided you to become a musician ?

My father who let me listen to a lot of different types of music when I was very young, like jazz, country and classical music. My Uncle, Richard "Groove" Holmes, as well. I always wanted to play piano, since I can remember.

 

Your ‘models’ if I may say so at the time. Got the feeling that you’re hailing from the fusion field alongside people such as Dennis Coffey, Roy Ayers, Isaac Hayes or Norman Connors…

This is somewhat true. I like Roy Ayers and Isaac Hayes, but I love Barry White, Ramsey Lewis and Joe Sample who is now my favourite. I listen to the Big Bands too and write Big Band music.

Could this so called fusion have been driven by a spirit ? And if so what was its meaning ?

That is a hard question. Spirit, feeling, emotion is what drives my music. specially back then.

How would you define your touch at the time ?

Jazz ! Jazz touched all my music and still does !

How come a growing amount of people get back to this disco/funk period ? Could it be that they figure that life was better at the time ? Would it then be a sort of fantasm ?

Simply because it is good music connected to other forms, like jazz, classical or whatever. As for this precise period, I do not think life was really better but… As far as I’m concerned, the opportunity to do or record music with others back then was more available. I guess I’d been at the right time and the right place.

You look like having been at the epicenter of what would soon after be divided into forms of expression such as post disco/funk, rap and hip hop, house music and techno. Could it be that this fragmentation which had given birth to as much as niches has played a role on today’s situation ?

Yes, yes, yes ! 100% Yes !!! All the stuff I hear nowadays is an arrangement/sampling of older music. Some of the music I did back in the days like ‘Listen To Space Walking & Slow Walking’ came from ideas I learned from my Uncle and was a kind of techno. I did it when the drum machine first entered the market. This said, I do not believe that we or I saw where music was going. We just did what we liked.

Although quite active at the time, being the creator of the much sought after ‘Got To Get Your Love’ officially credited to Clyde Alexander, your notoriety hasn’t reached the status of Patrick Adams or Peter Brown which you were working with ? Any explanation/comment ?

Well, first I was not working with Peter, unlike Patrick, but for him. Both are older. I was 25, Peter & Patrick were in their late 30's. I only did about a year’s worth of work for Peter, before I began Chocolate Star in New Jersey. Also at that time I was a composer/arranger and keyboard/piano player. I was not Peter's artist, nor Clyde (Alexander) who was mine. Clyde was about 15 when we did ‘Got To Get Your Love’. His vocals on it are not even turned up like I had planned for them to be. Artists always get more credit ; writer and others, less. I was the little guy in the background, putting the pieces together. Sanction was my band. I had put it together to do session for Peter who did not really have a studio band.

What was the type of relations you was having with each other at this period ?

I first did Wayne Ford's 12" for Peter. I played with a member of Wayne's Band or his back up band. They were from NYC. Dyral was from the Bronx and his father lived in Camden, where I met Dyral who was the guitar player. He invited me to play with them on the Wayne Ford session. After that I did the ‘Queen Constance Theme’ with the two Jones Sisters, who sang back up on Wayne's tune. The sisters were the friends of Michael Campbell and we all became pals. I helped produce these two and wrote the theme, ‘Searching For My Lover’ for Velma and ‘Remember Me’ for Joyce. Later I did ‘Got To Get Your Love’. By time I did the latest, I had my own artists and Sanction, my studio band. We all lived in the same town and neighborhood (Camden, NJ). We were all friends and family.

Did you have say a sort of method ? Were you interfering on each other’s works while bringing ideas or were you rather left each on your own ?

At that time I wrote the music, we were going to record. But everyone was allowed to share their ideas and make changes including the singers Clyde, Rhonda and Amanda.

A few words about your former partners ?

Well, I never really had any partners except Dennis P. Jones. He was the person who came up with the name Chocolate Star. He was already using it by we launched Chocolate Star Productions/Records in September 1980. Dennis created "POP". It was the most popular tune at that time and in our hometown.

What was your everyday life as a (post) teenager at the time ?

I was a college student. I was a Theory & Composition Major. I worked a lot at school and outside writing music.

Did you use to party a lot ? If so to which places where you going ? Paradise Garage ?

I did not party at all ! I played out when our bands did.
As for the Paradise Garage’s concern, never heard of it until a couple of weeks ago !

What were the differences between those labels you’ve been working for such as P&P, Queen Constance and Heavenly Stars ?

None ! They were all Peter's labels.

Then you’ve created your own structure (Chocolate Star). How has it done ? Never felt the temptation to reactivate it the way Mel Cheren did with West End Records ?

I never stopped ! When I moved to Florida in 1984, I worked on the Miami Bass scene. We still do music and now movies too!

I’ve noticed the presence of a name amongst the people you were close to who I’d never heard before. I mean Michael Campbell… Would you mind having a few words as to who he was ?

He was the Man ! He was about 18 at the time. He was the co-producer, sometimes drummer like on the Jones Girls tunes. He also engineered all the session before ‘Got To Get Your Love’ that I can remember. He was a great person and still is. He cared about everyone and still does. I spoke to him for the first time in 23 years a few months ago and he was interested in everyone welfare still after all these years. Great Person !

 

What was your perception of the DJ’s at the time ? I mean people such as Larry Levan. Artists/producers like Leroy Burgess, Tom Moulton, Shep Pettibone and the lilkes ? Labels like Salsoul, Prelude ?

All these people ? Never got to know who they are !

Salsoul was OK ! Prelude ? I heard of but nothing stands out. I was a real jazzman. I didn't listen to a lot of disco. To me, real musicians took real music and put a disco beat behind it. To me, disco is just the beat behind some type of music. I discofied many of my tunes that were not written to be disco. When I met Peter in 2/13/79, by the following year, he had gone from disco to rap ! So I did not record all my disco stuff because rap took over !

When did you feel it was time for you to take another direction ?

I never really took a different direction. Even nowadays. I take a tune and add elements of today’s music to it. Most of the tunes I write can be arranged to be house, bass, jazz and even yes… classical !!!.

What have you done since ?

In the last 10-15 years I have done music just like I did 25 years ago that was way ahead of it's time. I mixed Miami bass, reggae, R&B, jazz and everything together when I had to fight artists to do it ! I remember tricking a R&B group to do a session with my daughter who was a rapper. I had to record the group take them out than do the rap part and let them listen to the mix. At the beginning of ap and  God knows I was there with Peter, bands did not want to play for DJ’s and Rappers. Peter as an example did not have a studio band therefore anybody played the beat and the bassline. It was the first time many of these rappers may have picked up a bass or drum stick and so rap music was simple in nature because real players did not play it. Soon all the rappers would copy each other as far as beat was concerned. Then they started searching for people like me to do my thing, because they wanted to keep it simple like what they heard the other guy doing on his record. I remember when I moved to Florida in the mid 80's rappers were telling me not to do so.. They didn’t understand how that what they heard from New York Rap had been done. They didn’t understand I was there ! I could have put them years ahead ! It is still very much the same way ! It’s hard to make people understand. I just do my thing and try to make everyone happy the same way I did 20-30 years ago. If I want to really do my thing I do it with the people who do understand or by myself. The people have to decide what they like best !

I understand that you now live in Florida and are involved in the cinema industry. A few words about your current activities ?

Presently, I have just did a new studio session of ‘Got To Get Your Love’ and released two movies at Filmbaby.com called ‘A Sinner's Prayer’ and ‘Jade & the White Tiger’, an Asian martial arts movie. I’m currently writting another called ZEN ! I’m still doing the same thing !

Do you feel yourself any nostalgia ? Never tempted to make a come back ?

Yes ! As for a come back, I will, if I can !

Suppose starting today, would you do it the same ? And if not, what and how would you do it ?

Knowing what I know now I would be more prepared. I would have followed up with where the music was going and played a lot more in concerts or at clubs and parties, but we didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t really know that ‘Got To Get You Love’ was even put out by Peter until several months ago !!! I never realized the impact this would have in England and elsewhere until recently.  I am getting ready! I want to go all over and play ! I think not knowing was the biggest problem. If we knew, we would have done some really greater things I guess

Your current projects ?

As I said, ZEN ! The Movie is my big summer project along with Kenny Dope’s remix of Got to get your love and the Jones Sister's tunes and compilation CD release by me and Traffic Entertainment. A Miami Bass Compilation as well and a redo of ‘Got To Get Your Love’. Maybe a piano solo CD.

No more Q’s ? I’m just getting warmed !

CLYDE ALEXANDER ‘Got To Get Your Love’ (P&P)

GARY DAVIS & HIS PROFESSOR EP (Chocolate Star)

GARY DAVIS ‘Got To Get Your Love’ – Kenny Dope Remixes (Kay Dee)