ERRANT NIGHTS | 03

"All We Love” - Troublemakers

"We Got One (Extended Mix)” - Matt Covington

"Hey Lover (Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad)” - Roy Ayers

"Trust Me” - Aged In Harmony

"Stacy” - Chico Hamilton

"Breakin' In The Streets” - Curtis Mayfield

"Love Vibes” - Bootsy Collins

"This Feeling's Killing Me” - Jones Girls

"Lovin' You” - Vanilla

"In Your Eyes” - BadBadNotGood

"Her Light” - Cleo Sol"

"I Would Like To Call It Beauty (Freddie Joachim Reprise)” - Corinne Bailey Rae

"Stay with Me (One More Chance Instr Edit)” - Debarge

"Lucky (K&D Session Kruder & Dorfmeister Suicide Mix)” - Lewis Taylor

Troublemakers — “All We Love”

Troublemakers had already established themselves through the Marseille-to-Chicago route of Doubts & Convictions, described as a cinematic, soulful trip-hop record released on Guidance in 2000, but Express Way opened a different chapter. Our opener “All We Love” appears on the 2004 Blue Note album written by Lionel Corsini and Arnaud Taillefer, E. Cremer handling string arrangement and a crew that includes Jules Bikôkô Bi Njami on bass, double bass, guitar, and vocals, Sebastien Martel on guitar, Mr. Jam on percussion, and Jean-Philippe Dary on piano, Rhodes, and JP4. As part of the larger identity of Express Way, a companion film project was also released reflecting Troublemakers’ longstanding interest in cinematic form, pushing Troublemakers’ sound deeper into arranged soul-jazz and soundtrack territory without losing the downtempo foundation.

Matt Covington — “We Got One (Extended Mix)”

“We Got One (Extended Mix)” is the version most commonly tied to the 1992 UK Expansion Records 12-inch reissue, with the original source discovered by the South London based reggae/soul sound system called Just Good Friends. The core players include Buddy Turner and Johnny Bellmon named as producers, Jack Faith handling the arrangement, and Mattcov Music listed as publisher. Matt Covington was the former lead singer of the Philly Devotions, and “We Got One” was his solo record that became especially prized in the UK with modern soul and rare-groove collectors during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The track fits in that inner-city modern soul lineage, which is how a Philadelphia vocalist with an obscure 70s track ended up traveling to new levels of appreciation through DJs, pirates, and collectors rather than the mainstream industry machinery. 

Roy Ayers — “Hey Lover”

“Hey Lover” first appeared in 2020 on Jazz Is Dead 1, the compilation that introduced Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s new collaborative Jazz Is Dead series following Roy Ayers' four sold-out Black History Month shows in Los Angeles in 2018. Recorded at Younge’s Linear Labs studio in Los Angeles not as a nostalgic cover, but a new studio piece built with Younge and Muhammad’s commitment to preserving the compositional and sonic standards of late-60s and early-70s analog soul-jazz. The track is built from the core studio ensemble of Greg Paul on drums, Younge and Muhammad constructing much of the instrumental frame, and a vocal cast that includes Anitra Castleberry, Elgin Clark, Joi Gilliam, Loren Oden, and Saudia Yasmein. 

Aged In Harmony — “Trust Me”

“Trust Me” was originally released in 1977 as the A-side of Aged In Harmony’s “Trust Me / Dance Awhile” 7-inch on Detroit’s Mor-Tones Productions Ltd. Arnold Moore was the writer, arranger, and producer of the group’s surviving recordings. The track later returned on Melodies International’s 2016 triple-7-inch set You’re a Melody and sits alongside the other five privately recorded Aged In Harmony sides cut in the Detroit area between 1973 and 1978. Melodies International describes the Aged In Harmony recordings as long-revered within the modern soul scene, prized enough to inspire both the label’s “You’re a Melody” party and the eventual full reissue campaign done in conjunction with Arnold Moore himself. The track’s reach extended well beyond rare-soul circles, with samples in MURS and 9th Wonder’s “The Lick” and Buckwild’s “Ease Up,” giving this soft-focus Detroit harmony cut a second life in hip-hop.

Chico Hamilton — “Stacy”

“Stacy” appears on Chico the Master, the 1973 Stax Enterprise album that brought Chico Hamilton together with members of Little Feat at a moment when his music was opening further into funk and R&B-inflected territory. Chico Hamilton was the composer and drummer alongside Bill Payne on piano, Simon Nava on congas, and Kenny Gradney on bass. A hidden gem built from Hamilton’s melodic drumming and a more groove-centered ensemble language. “Stacy” captures a more suspended, late-night mood, and its return in Craft’s 2023 anniversary reissue helped bring renewed attention to one of the more elegant corners of Hamilton’s 1970s catalog. 

Curtis Mayfield — “Breakin' In The Streets”

“Breakin’ In the Streets” appears on Curtis Mayfield’s 1985 album We Come in Peace with a Message of Love, a seven-track late-period release. Recorded in 1984 at Curtom in Atlanta, with production credit to Curtis Mayfield, Norman Harris, and Ron Tyson, while the personnel around the record include Mayfield on vocals, guitar, and Linn drum sequencing alongside Joseph “Lucky” Scott, Edward Gregory, Hank Ford, Master Henry Gibson, and Nella Rigell-Colson. As one of the stronger cuts from a transitional Curtis record, its reggae-leaning groove and frenetic pacing led to its subsequent release as the B-side to “Baby It’s You” in 1986 showing it carried enough weight to travel beyond the LP itself.

Bootsy's Rubber Band — “Love Vibes”

“Love Vibes” appears on Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band, the 1976 Warner Bros. debut by Bootsy’s Rubber Band made after his rise with James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic, recorded at Detroit’s United Sound Systems and showed that he could move from hard funk into slower, more melodic material. Songwriting credit went to William Collins and Leslyn Bailey. The track sits in a distinct corner of the album, away from the more explosive P-Funk charge that made Bootsy’s name and deeper into the ballad side Rhino later highlighted as part of the record’s range. Bailey’s role is especially important as the lead vocal, showing how Bootsy’s band album made room for tender vocals without losing rhythmic pull. In the broader Bootsy timeline, it marks the moment when a player already sharpened by James Brown and George Clinton began shaping a full band identity of his own.

The Jones Girls — “This Feeling’s Killing Me”

“This Feeling’s Killing Me” opens The Jones Girls’ self-titled debut album, released in 1979 on Philadelphia International Records. The song is credited to Joseph Jefferson, Richard Roebuck, and Charles Simmons. The Jones Girls were anything but newcomers by the time they reached PIR: Gamble-Huff’s own biography traces Brenda, Shirley, and Valerie Jones through more than a decade of session work and touring, including background vocals for Diana Ross and Betty Everett, before they finally arrived at a label strong enough to frame them as stars in their own right. The track had an afterlife with covers by Norma Lewis and Celetia and later sampling by Die Fantastischen Vier and Flamingosis, showing how a deep album cut from the group’s first Philadelphia International LP kept traveling long after its original quiet-storm origins. 

Vanilla — “Lovin' You”

“Lovin’ You” appears on Vanilla’s 2020 album Into the Dream, released in Germany as a 2xLP crediting Vanilla as producer and main artist, and Hugo Harrison as composer. The album was the third installment in a trilogy of instrumental releases built from soul, jazz, funk, and ambient samples after Origin and Moonlight, placing “Lovin’ You” inside a longer, deliberately sequenced body of work rather than an isolated beat. In a 2017 interview, Vanilla described himself as a private person who had largely stayed off social media and kept the focus on the music first. Combining contemporary instrumental hip-hop construction assembled from deep jazz and soul materials without flattening either genre, the track’s samples include Freddie Hubbard’s “Little Sunflower” and Frannie Golde’s “Wish Upon a Star” :

BADBADNOTGOOD — “In Your Eyes”

“In Your Eyes” appears on BADBADNOTGOOD’s 2016 album IV, released on Innovative Leisure. The song’s place on the record is especially important because IV was the first BADBADNOTGOOD album under the group’s own name to feature vocalists, with Charlotte Day Wilson joining a lineup that also marked the arrival of longtime collaborator Leland Whitty as a full member alongside Matthew Tavares, Chester Hansen, and Alex Sowinski. More than a one-off feature, the track captures a particular Toronto scene in the mid-2010s music, when Wilson was emerging as a solo artist in her own right, with “In Your Eyes” characterized by  its sweeping, almost cinematic arrangement, and the collaboration proved durable enough that BADBADNOTGOOD and Wilson returned to each other repeatedly afterward, including on the 2023 single “Sleeper.”

Cleo Sol — “Her Light”

“Her Light” closes Cleo Sol’s debut full-length Rose in the Dark, released in 2020 on Forever Living Originals, with the track credited to Cleopatra Nikolic and Dean Josiah Cover and produced by Inflo. Rose in the Dark was presented as a record shaped by self-love, spirituality, hope, and perseverance, and it also marked Sol’s first solo LP after her emergence to a wider audience through SAULT.   “Her Light” is both a standalone single and a closing statement of creative songwriting from her first full-length album release. 

Corinne Bailey Rae — “I Would Like To Call It Beauty (Freddie Joachim Reprise)”

“I Would Like To Call It Beauty” first appeared on Corinne Bailey Rae’s 2010 album The Sea, released by Virgin Records, with the original version credited to Corinne Bailey Rae and Philip Rae and built within the album’s more live, open studio language, including Bailey Rae on acoustic guitar and Steve Brown on production, recording, and flute arrangement. The song carries unusual emotional weight as it was written for and to her late husband Jason Rae and framed around the attempt to find beauty in the darkest times, which places it close to the heart of The Sea as a record of grief, love, and endurance. Freddie Joachim’s reprise surfaced in 2012, giving the song a compelling second life, recasting through the sensibility of a producer whose own work moved between hip-hop, jazz, and soul on and around Mellow Orange. The remix added rhythmic lift, creating an after-hours translation that preserves the ache of Bailey Rae’s song.

"Stay with Me (One More Chance Instr Edit)” - Debarge

What gives “Stay With Me” its larger life is that the record effectively split in two after 1983: first as a tender DeBarge album cut from the group’s most refined early LP, then as one of the defining sample sources of 1990s and 2000s R&B and hip-hop with The Notorious B.I.G.’s “One More Chance / Stay With Me (Remix),” and later sample histories tracing the song into Ashanti’s “Foolish,” and Musiq Soulchild’s “Ifiwouldaknew.” The edit  adds the “One More Chance” instrumental to DeBarge’s original composition, extending the original with the hip-hop instrumental, blurring into a late-night blissful groove.

Lewis Taylor — “Lucky (K&D Session Kruder & Dorfmeister Suicide Mix)”

“Lucky (K&D Session Kruder & Dorfmeister Suicide Mix)” begins with Lewis Taylor’s original “Lucky,” first released on his self-titled Island debut in 1996, considered a touchstone of 1990s British soul, and admired by artists including D’Angelo and Aaliyah even as it slipped industry and chart attention. A 1997 UK remix campaign brought in Kruder & Dorfmeister, whose “Suicide Mix” proved particularly aligned to Taylor’s writing, slowing the song into a more suspended, late-night form without draining its emotional force. The remix was included in  2024 K&D Sessions 25th anniversary box, where the “Suicide Mix” was restored alongside a previously unreleased “Reprise Mix,” confirming that Lewis Taylor’s meeting with Kruder & Dorfmeister was one of the more durable collaborations of British psychedelic soul and downtempo. 

Listen to: Errant Nights | 01