Ralph Tee is going to replay "Judy" on JazzFM next sunday, 3rd May!!

http://www.jazzfm.com/shows/expansions/expansions-blog/coming-up-on-3rd-may/

I've been fascinated to hear the Mathis material at last - all those years ago Tony Thompson was raving about the music they made together and here it is. And Mr Thompson, a man of immaculate taste as his playing always demonstrated, was right - it was brilliant, state-of-the-art dance groove of the era and despite the bright and brash 80s sound (oh those DX7s) it still sounds incredible. Thank you for making it available to our ears, and a particular respect to Mr Ralph Tee, still out there doing after all this time.
There was only ever one Chic. Why did they have so many fabulous projects that the record companies nixed?
Keep up the brilliant work.
Sincerely
Ian McCann

And thank you, Ian McCann, without your article, where Tony Thompson, confirms the project, we fans would perhaps not have tried so hard to surface this project.

Maybe Ralph Tee's initial broadcast of "I Love My Lady" last year, has started the ball rolling, and Andy Zax can now pick it up and get the record co's to release the album.

6 songs posted here on CHICtribute.com, and all of them great tracks. 2 more to go (and perhaps a proper version of "Love And Be Loved"), let's hope the full album will be released, or at least announced, before we've posted the remaining tracks.

With 6 tracks we have heard (for 8), it's now ridiculous not te release the album. If Sony has fear about a CD there is now a very simple and cheap solution for the major : to sell the album on a music download website.

Even better, to my mind, would be a limited vinyl release, perhaps at a premium price. That way more DJs might play it and it would have a collectable cachet. In the event it proved a bigger success than expected, a CD could follow later in the usual way.

A great idea Ian. I wouldn't mind buying it on vinyl first. One wonders if there was any cover art made for the album back in '81, perhaps that's laying on some shelf waiting to be discovered too?

I think for Sony (and every major) a vynil is more expensive to release than a CD. Maybe a collector vynil could be relesed but after a CD or a download version with some success. And a lot of people have no more vynil turntable.

I'd go for a Collector's vinyl release followed by a Deluxe Edition cd with a written essay/history of the project and like Pocat suggests, possibly some original cover artwork or pictures of Mathis & Chic in the studio, etc.

I am amazed how strong the songs are and how good they sound too. You really would have to remember how the pop charts and the soul/R&B music scene was at that time in '81. In the UK the pop charts were very varied-Human League, Spandau Ballet, Adam & The Ants, Bucks Fizz(!), New Romantics et al. Kool & The Gang were soul/disco's only act consistently hitting the pop charts. In the US MOR by the likes of Dolly Parton, Christopher Cross, Lionel Richie's duet with Diana-"Endless Love", AOR by Daryl Hall & John Oates, REO Speedwagon ruled the airwaves & charts. Then you have the Johnny Mathis set. Standing on its own as there would have been nothing else out there sounding quite like it. I think Columbia did not have a clue how to begin to market it. It wasn't disco, dance, Hi-energi or even comparable to the pop music of the time. It definitely wasn't middle of the road!

It's apparent to me, that because it didn't fit into a neat category/box they thought it'd be easier just to bury it. This set in hindsight for me would have been groundbreaking if released at the time simply because it would have pre-dated Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson and others by about 3 years. I just can't get over the sound, the production. Nile & 'Nard were truly excited about this one. For me they pulled out all the stops.

Think about it. Their arrangements and the songs have moved on a lot since "Diana". This would have been such an influential set. Come On Columbia. Music of all forms is now widely popular despite attempts in the past to categorise & market music and artists to seperate audiences. You're sitting on a goldmine here and I think you under-estimate the level of interest out there for this. I gaurantee it would sell better than any other reissues you've got ready to re-release in the next few months. You got cold feet before in 1981. Now, Do The Right Thing and release this. Heck, you could put Mathis & Nile on any chat show-Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres' Show to help promote it. Nile's the most entertaining talker and has so many stories in him. They could probably duet! Nile on guitar and Mathis' voice... It really wouldn't be that hard if you thought about it. Just do a little market research to test audience reaction. The Time Is Now. Do it already.

These songs are ridicuolous -- Sony I will buy 3 copies alone! Release the magic!

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