Various Artists Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples
It only takes a few bars of LaVel Moore’s “The World is Changing” to remember […]
It only takes a few bars of LaVel Moore’s “The World is Changing” to remember that the Numero Group is amongst the most prescient archivists of American music working today. “Changing” could be an Obama-era cry of hopeful civility—the fact that it was recorded in the drug-and-gang-ravaged streets of 1970s East St. Louis, Illinois just shows that music needn’t be known to prove timeless. This Eccentric installment explores East St. Louis’ Young Disciples—a program that replaced needles and guns with guitars and song amongst ’70s “at risk” youths. The result was a diverse assortment of political funk (“Crumbs From the Table”), boy-girl ballads (“Girls, Girls, Girls”), and northern-soul dancers (The Georgettes’ brilliant “Hard Hard”).