Gonzalez

Gonzalez operated as a fluid, London-rooted collective whose lineup rotated between ten and thirty musicians at any given moment. Their sound centered on an instrumental blend of funk, jazz, soul and, in time, disco, although singers appeared on chosen cuts across nearly every release. The founding lineup featured saxophonists Mick Eve, Chris Mercer and Geoffrey “Bud” Beadle alongside keyboardist Roy Davies and guitarist Gordon Hunte; earlier résumés for these players encompassed Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames, Juicy Lucy, John Mayall, Keef Hartley and the Night-Timers. The group first assembled in 1970. By the release of its self-titled EMI-Capitol debut in 1974 the roster had expanded to include bassist DeLisle Harper, trumpeter Ron Carthy, saxophonist Steve Gregory, drummers Richard Bailey and Glen LeFleur and vocalist George Chandler. Tracks such as the Latin-tinged “Saoco” and “Funky Frith Street” later earned cult status among collectors of rare funk grooves. The follow-up, Our Only Weapon Is Our Music, arrived in 1975 and introduced guitarist/vocalist Lenny Zakatek, trombonist Colin Jacas, guitarist Robert Ahwai, bassist Larry Steele, percussionist Bobby Stignac and singer Viola Wills. Selections from the first two LPs later surfaced on compact disc through See for Miles and Soul Brother. Shipwrecked, the third album, emerged in 1977 under the production of soul singer Gloria Jones. Two years afterward the band’s reading of Jones’ “Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet” reached the British charts, prompting a reissue titled Haven’t Stopped Dancin’. Jones also helmed the next project, Move It to the Music, issued in 1979 after Eve and Hunte had departed; the single “Ain’t No Way to Treat a Lady” failed to match the earlier hit’s reach. Watch Your Step closed out the major-label period in 1980. Thereafter Gonzalez issued 45s on PRT and Tooti Fruiti throughout the eighties amid continual personnel changes, ultimately dissolving in 1986 upon the death of Davies.