Listen: Unreleased Grace Jones Track From Nightclubbing

On April 28th 2014 Island Records / Universal Music Catalogue will release announce the first ever deluxe edition of Grace Jones’ groundbreaking album ‘Nightclubbing’, celebrated in a variety of formats. A deluxe vinyl with new packaging and unreleased tracks and 12″ mixes including this little unreleased beauty called “If You Wanna Be My Lover”. How did this not make it onto the original album?!

It was Island Records founder Chris Blackwell who put together the Compass Point All-Stars for Jones’ sessions; keyboard player Wally Badarou, guitarists Mikey ‘Mao’ Chung and Barry ‘White’ Reynolds, percussionist Uziah ‘Sticky’ Thompson and the drum and bass powerhouse of Lowell ‘Sly’ Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. These players can arguably be seen as the final great rhythm section in a lineage of the Funk Brothers, Muscle Shoals, Phil Spector’s Wrecking Crew and the Chic Organization. Rolling Stone magazine was to suggest that Sly and Robbie leavened their “sprung riddims with a salty dash of funk, and hipped Jones to rock’s new wave.”

‘Nightclubbing’ took the angular punk funk template of bands like Gang Of Four and A Certain Ratio, and enriched it with a fuller, blacker, bottom-heavy sound. Jones made a strange, alien music; a fusion of reggae, funk, soul and new wave, which seemed radical yet chimed perfectly with the times – akin to a sleek panther treading wet streets in the glare of neon signs. Continuing the selection of covers and originals that had formed such a remarkable template for her Compass Point debut, ‘Warm Leatherette’, Jones set to work on ‘Nightclubbing’, using leftovers from the previous sessions and recording new material. The sound was further bolstered by the occasional contributions of T-Connection guitarist Monte Browne, plus backing vocals were provided by Island artist Jess Roden, Tyrone Downie from the Wailers, and Masai Delon. Needless to say, the sessions exceeded expectations. The body of work that Grace Jones made her own at Island Records in the early 80s is among the most startling in popular music. Beginning with ‘Warm Leatherette’ and concluding with ‘Living My Life’, the three albums Jones recorded between 1980 and 1982 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau in the Bahamas and produced by Alex Sadkin and Island records owner Chris Blackwell became benchmarks. Nestling in the middle of these records – the best of the best, is ‘Nightclubbing’, the album on which her musical legacy rests – a sophisticated mêlée of sound, astute A&Ring and a perfect example of artist and musicians working in complete accord.

The album is re-mastered for the very first time and will be available on 1CD, 2CD Deluxe Edition, 2LP 180g Deluxe Edition vinyl (cut at Abbey Road Studios), Blu Ray audio and Digital formats. 

Each format presents ‘Nightclubbing’ with the love and respect that it deserves, and is sure to cement the already lasting legacy of this fabulous album for many years to come.