Dazz Band – Keep It Live

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Dazz Band – Keep It Live

Dazz Band – Keep It Live. The Cleveland-based Dazz Band was one of the more popular funk groups of the early ’80s. Bobby Harris formed the group in the late ’70s, merging two Cleveland funk bands, Bell Telefunk and Mother Braintree. Harris and lead songwriter/guitarist Mike Calhoun’s concept for the group was “danceable jazz”; he shortened the description to “dazz” and called the group Kinsman Dazz.

The Kinsman Dazz became the Dazz Band in 1980. They had their first hit with “Shake It Up” in 1980.

While ballads were the group’s ace in the hole come concert time, they weren’t happening on the radio. A change was needed. ‘We called the third album “Keep it live”’, Bobby Harris says, because if it didn’t happen we’d be gone from Motown. I said ‘We’ve got to stay positive. That became the theme of the record. We were on a mission. We weren’t going to validate who we were until we had a dance hit’. That turned out to be “Let it Whip”, ‘which Reggie wrote with West Coast percussion great Leon ‘Ndugu’ Chancler, introducing a high-tech funk groove that would be the sound of choice for the era’.

So the group’s breakthrough came with the album Keep It Live (1982), containing their breaking hit “Let It Whip” — which reached No. 1 (and stayed there for 5 weeks) on the R&B charts and No 5. in The USA HOT 100. In 1983 Dazz Band won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The follow up single was ‘Keep it live (On the K.I.L.)’ and peaked at No. 20 in the R&B single charts. The highest position of the album Keep it live was No. 1 in the US R&B album Chart and # 14 in the US 200 Album Chart.

With an exclusive bonus-12 Inch Mix!

01. Let it whip (4:41)
02. Gamble with my love (3:59)
03. I’ll keep on loving you (3:36)
04. Just can’t wait ‘till the night (3:37)
05. Shake what you got (3:39)
06. Keep it live (on the K.I.L) (4:55)
07. Just believe in love (4:57)
08. Can we dance (4:40)
09. Let me love you until (3:55)
Bonustrack:
10. Let it whip (12 inch version) (6:09)

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