Email from International Anthem today announces the first release from what is apparently more forthcoming posthumous material from Charles Stepney. The first song released is discussed in the email below and is on Spotify so probably on other services, too. Here's a youtube link:

https://youtu.be/-n-n0tQIICI

Here's the full email:

Today, 3/23/22, we are honored to share “Step on Step,” the first eponymous recording ever released by the late Chicago producer, arranger, musician and composer Charles Stepney.

Stepney died tragically in 1976, and his legacy includes essential behind-the-curtain work on world famous recordings by Rotary Connection, The Dells, Muddy Waters, Minnie Riperton, Ramsey Lewis, Earth, Wind & Fire, Terry Callier, and many many others. In his music – as producer, arranger, and composer – Stepney routinely transcended trend and convention. Much of Stepney’s work, including from his prolific days as a staff arranger at Chess Records in Chicago, employed prismatic horn and string arrangements (in some cases brought to life by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). His arrangements – like the idiosyncratic underpinnings of “That’s The Way Of The World,” as recorded by Earth, Wind & Fire, “What Color Is Love” by Terry Callier, or “California Soul” by Marlena Shaw – are still squarely in our hearts nearly fifty years after their inception. His sound has been sampled countless times by artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, Kanye West, Jay-Z, D’Angelo, Gang Starr, and Jurassic 5. Yet all too many of us don’t know his name.

Today’s “Step on Step,” the first recording ever to be released under Stepney’s name, comes 3 days ahead of what would have been his 91st birthday. The song was recorded by Stepney to 4-track tape in the basement of his home, sometime in the late 1960s. It features Stepney layering his own performances on piano and vibraphone over a primitive drum machine. It is perhaps the most stripped-down impression ever heard of Stepney, an artist known for his epic, orchestral arrangements.

He was a genius relegated to the shadows, whose enigmatic lifeforce was snuffed out far too soon. However, his genius is being brought into brighter light by his three daughters, Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté Stepney, who have spent the greater part of their lives engaged in a quest to exalt their father’s legacy.

This “Step on Step” single is just a beginning. There will be much more news and music to come from The Stepney Family together with International Anthem in 2022.



-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

https://www.intlanthem.com/summer-of-stepney

Big summer of events including a new ensemble led by Junius Paul called Rotary Connection 222. From the press blurb:

"Rotary Connection 222 is a new large ensemble created by Junius Paul in collaboration with The Stepney Family, featuring Makaya McCraven (drums), Jackson Shepard (guitar), Alexis Lombre (keys), Meagan McNeal (vocals), and Stepney’s granddaughter Brandice Manuel (vocals).

Across several Summer of Stepney events, Rotary Connection 222 will grow to include 24 total musicians performing new interpretations of Stepney’s signature sound, with new arrangements written by De’Sean Jones and Jeff Parker, for a culminating August 18th performance on Chicago's grandest public performance stage, The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park."

Plus a launch party thing at the end of this month at the Hideout (in Chi), and a new song at https://international-anthem.lnk.to/DaddysDiddies

Man, International Anthem is killing it right now!

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~