The Brooklyn Bunch
The story of the cult 70s/80s New York-based production duo Brooklyn Bunch.
Originally released as a 12” single in 1983, ‘Esmerelda / Slide Over (To The Real Slide)’ is the sole release from New York-based production duo Brooklyn Bunch. On the A-side, squelchy p-funk synths and Oberheim DX drum loops set the scene for a soulful tribute to Civil Rights Attorney Esmeralda Simmons. Over on the flip, the Brooklyn Bunch teams up with songwriters Bill Easely and Henry Williamson for a slice of glossy, pumped-up machine funk.
Thirty-eight years later, the first official digital reissue of these deep cuts from the golden years of The Big Apple’s post-disco/boogie era has hit the internet via Frederiksberg Records. However, before we go any further, let’s rewind things to the 1950s and 60s, the childhood and teenage years of the two central figures in the Brooklyn Bunch, David D. Wright and Selah Eric Spruiell.
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Bed-Stuy percussionist, keyboardist and trumpet player David D. Wright had the rare fortune of being raised around the notorious American music entrepreneur Morris Levy. The co-founder and director of the legendary Roulette Records, Morris was a music mogul with shady mafia ties and a peerless ear for talent. It's said that Herman "Hesh" Rabkin, the unofficial consigliere to Tony Soprano from the great Italian American crime drama The Sopranos, was based on Morris’ persona and story. “My mother worked for him as a domestic,” David recalls. “He bought me my first set of congas.”
David played in drum and bugle corps as a teen before taking on a sales and promotions role for Morris at Roulette Records and touring through the American south with the Bahamian soul singer Jamo Thomas. His time at Roulette led David to Atlanta, where he worked for Warner Brothers before moving to Los Angeles to take a punt at studio production. “I couldn’t finish any records because the musicians wanted to go to the beach every day,” he laughs.
A neighbourhood over from Bed-Stuy, David’s future friend, collaborator and fellow Brooklynite Selah Eric Spruiell was honing his skills as a double bassist, pianist, trumpet player and vocalist in Crown Heights. And when David was at Roulette and Warner Brothers, Selah was studying under Bebop jazz innovator Thelonius Monk’s bassist Ahmed Abdul Malik while also attending Kingsborough Community College.
David and Selah first crossed paths in the early seventies through the intense creativity of Brooklyn's socio-political Black Guerrilla Theatre scene. They played with a guitarist named Frank Mills as the pit band for The Brownsville Laboratory Theater, a founding member of The Black Theatre Alliance. Outside of the pit, Selah was the theatre company’s Assistant Director and Musical Director. Having recently returned from Los Angeles, David was also working as a recording engineer for jazz trumpeter Don Elliot and his wife Doris’ production company.
Through The Black Theatre Alliance, Selah became the publicity manager at the Afro-American Theatre in Harlem. There, he befriended future Chic vocalist Alfonso "Fonzi" Thornton, the frontman of Harlem nightclub dance/cabaret sensations FONZI (later known as F360, and soul queen Aretha Franklin’s vocal director during her final years. Alfonso dubbed David, Frank and Selah “the Brooklyn Bunch” and invited them to join the group.
After playing with Alfonso from New York to Europe, the Brooklyn Bunch left FONZI in 1973. David spent the next two years working at corrections and the New York City Police Department until he was laid off following budget cuts. Selah joined jazz fusion drummer Omar Hakim’s Harlem River Drive for a spell; until he put his music career on hold to raise a young family. He was also involved in youth offender rehabilitation and community activism. Around the same time, David taught himself to play the keyboard. Thanks to Mark Radice at Roadshow Records, he spent the late seventies touring with Brass Construction, Tavares Ohio Players, KC and the Sunshine Band before returning to the NYPD near the end of the decade.
In the early eighties, the sounds of post-disco and boogie were exploding. David and Selah put together a home studio and started recording demos on a Tascam 8-track with a collection of keyboards, drum machines and instruments. David was keen to take another shot at the recording industry, and thanks to Morris Levy, he knew the fundamentals of manufacturing, pressing and marketing records. “In that respect, Morris was an excellent teacher,” he explains.
The duo established Evelyna Records, named after Selah’s mother, and pressed three thousand copies of ‘Esmerelda / Slide Over (To The Real Slide)’ as the Brooklyn Bunch. “We didn’t make any money out of it, but we got a lot of exposure,” David chuckles. Selah also recalls the record getting picked up by DJs in discotheques across the city. “I remember us being played at The Paradise Garage, Leviticus, Pegasus, The Loft, The Warehouse, the Empire Roller Rink in Brooklyn and The Skate Key in The Bronx,” he says.
Afterwards, David remained at the NYPD until he retired in 1996 and returned to theatre work. “That suited me down to the ground,” he says. Selah kept playing percussion for various Brooklyn ensembles, led his own group Baba Selah and the Fort Greene Project and worked for the NYS Unified Court System. Close to four decades later, they’re overjoyed to see the Brooklyn Bunch getting a second life.
The Brooklyn Bunch, ‘Esmerelda / Slide Over (To The Real Slide)’ is out now through Frederiksberg Records (purchase here)