Numero Group's "Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label"

Eddie Ray - Wait a Minute (Numero Group 2007, recorded 1971)

Various Artists – Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label / Numero Group

You have got to be impressed with the production level of Chicago’s Numero Group collective. Rob Sevier, Ken Shipley and Tom Lunt (with the increasing presence of Dante Carfagna) started the reissue imprint back in the waning moments 2003 and in just a short four years have nearly climbed atop the American crate-digging market with their high quality aesthetic and ridiculous level of consistent production. Fifteen releases in three-and-a-half years is pretty impressive when you consider the time it takes to catch wind of unearthed gems, research, establish contacts, travel, dig, dig, dig, dig, wrangle the rights to actually release their finds, remaster, repackage, write extensive liner notes, issue and promote. Perhaps at this point they can devote all their time to their music-rediscovering love, but I am assuming for a good while all of that was scheduled around a forty-hour workweek as well. Damn is right. But the final product absolutely speaks for itself, and each concurrent release flies off the shelves at increasing speeds, so I sincerely doubt that production level is going to slow down any time soon. Well, at least as long as there are overlooked labels still to be rediscovered.

I barely had time to fully digest Numero 014, Grand Bahama Goombay, when a promo for Numero 015 came gleefully rolling into the record store a few weeks back. The eighth installment what has become the bread and butter of the Numero reissues, the Eccentric Soul series, The Prix Label finds the crate-destroying collective-extraordinaire heading back to the site of Numero 001: Columbus, Ohio. Not even the most notable city in Ohio (ahem, Cleveland), the Buckeye state’s capital is not typically a go-to point as a music-breeding metropolis, no matter what the era is in context. Yet the Numero boys have now dug up not one, but two incredible, overlooked labels from the 70s, first the Capsoul label and now the Prix label. Both share a penchant for intertwining the characteristics of Motown and Stax (sitting geographically between the two probably has something to do with that) and producing decisively left-of-center singles, but each definitely exists in a realm all their own with idiosyncratic details to their short-lived sounds.

The Prix label itself was created solely as an imprint to release material from Harmonic Sounds Incorporated. The joint venture between a black defense contractor and a white attorney, the music production company was very much a labor of love with the people involved spending five years of their lives pouring money, time and energy into it, but with only a catalogue containing a handful of 45s to prove that the company even existed. When George Beter headed west seeking better luck as a flailing attorney, his older brother hooked him up with one of his co-workers at the Defense Construction Supply Center right outside of Columbus. The ambitious Clem Price was an electronics enthusiast and had many a connection throughout the central Ohio city. He was able to hook Beter up with a job at the Attorney General’s office, which allowed the financial freedom to open up a studio and start a label to release exclusively the music produced within its walls; The Prix label was born.

Like most burgeoning labels during the early 70s, Harmonic Sounds became the home for a handful of promising young local artists, ambitious jingle writers, displaced careers and studio musicians looking to craft material of their own. Culling nearly the entire officially released back catalogue of Prix (only eleven cuts) as well as eight additional tracks discovered at an estate sale (four of which included in the “extended play” are unfinished demos and in the case of Penny & the Quarters, a group no one seems to recollect), this compilation contains some brilliant deep soul numbers that were sorely passed over in their time. The artists involved are varied, but the talent is undeniably above par across the board.

Singer Eddie Ray has probably both the saddest story and highest level of talent of the bunch. His career began infinitely promising as his first gig was in a Florida night club joined by fellow up-and-comers Same Moore and David Prater—ahem, Sam & Dave. Ray left just before their Atlantic deal and traveled the country with his own band, The Meditations, and later fronted a band run by J.C. Davis, James Brown’s original bandleader. He eventually found his way to Harmonic Sounds where he became the Prix label’s first release in 1970 with “You Got Me” b/w “Glad I Found You,” both of which are included on the disc. His sensational third single, “Wait a Minute,” which opens the disc, was never released after the first 45 flopped and Ray and Price parted ways. His career never took off, and he now resides in Atlanta performing to this day.

Also included on the compilation are two excellent deep funk numbers by the interracial, long-traveled group OFS Unlimited (who also back the thick soul croon of Mitch Mitchell), honey-voiced guitar player Joe King, youthful party-soul quartet Royal Esquires, R&B saxophonist Chip Willis, multi-instrumentalist and studio innovator Ron Farthing who recorded as the Soul Ensemble (and when paired up with the Royal Esquires as Soul Partners) and socially-conscious mod-blues singer Marion Black. There is a definite shared aesthetic by the artists involved, and it gives the Prix label a very deep, soulful aura. Sadly though, none of the releases distributed by the label ever gained much momentum on even a local scale. After two years of production, the actual Harmonic Sounds studio closed and two years after that the label folded for good. The Prix imprint only lasted from 1969-1973, and Harmonic Sounds Inc partnership quietly disbanded in 1976.

Like every entry and the Eccentric Soul series and really every release by the Numero Group, Numero 015 is of the highest quality in all facets. And in all honesty, of the entire catalogue, Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label ranks among my favorite. Maybe I am just a sucker for deep soul music, but regardless, this release is worth ever penny you may spend for it. Better get it quick too, because I sincerely doubt the Numero boys will be sitting idly for long and we will have a brand new overlooked blip of musical history to finally discover for the first time.