Black Ivory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Black Ivory is the name of an R&B group from Harlem, which had a number of hits in the 1970s, including "Don't Turn Around", "You and I" (which featured Larry Blackmon from Cameo on drums), "I'll Find a Way (The Loneliest Man in Town)", "Spinning Around", "What Goes Around (Comes Around)", "Will We Ever Come Together", and "Mainline". The group featured songwriter and prolific disco producer Leroy Burgess, Stuart Bascombe, and Russell Patterson. They were managed by Patrick Adams, an executive at the Today/Perception record company. Burgess was the lead voice of the majority of their hits in the early '70's. With Today/Perception being a small label, the promotion of Black Ivory's singles scarcely got beyond the East Coast. This lack of exposure, coupled with the rise of disco and the fact Adams was beginning to branch out into other projects, caused Black Ivory to lose steam.

Oddly enough, the group recorded several uptempo songs in the disco vein, such as "Big Apple Rock," "Walking Downtown (On A Saturday Night)", "What Goes Around (Comes Around)" and, later, "Mainline" but, not being known for the style, they were unable to compete when disco became the dominant music style. While he was with Black Ivory, Burgess frequently collaborated with Adams in writing songs. He also wrote the groups' final hit, "Mainline," which was recorded after he left the group.

Early in their career, Black Ivory's songs were covered by other artists on Today/Perception, a common practice with the label. Label-mates J.J. Barnes, The Eight Minutes, Debbie Taylor, and Lucky Peterson all covered Black Ivory tunes.

In recent years, some of Black Ivory's work has been sampled by a number of artists. In 2005, Omarion sampled "Don't Turn Around" on the remix of his song "I'm Gonna Try (Pt. 2)", and 9th Wonder sampled "Love Won't You Stay" on Kaze's "For The Record", and Brother Ali sampled "It's Time To Say Goodbye" on his track "Love On Display".

In addition, poet Wanda Robinson, on her album Black Ivory, used the instrumental track of "Don't Turn Around" as the background for her poem "The Final Hour" and "I Keep Asking You Questions" for her poem "Instant Replay."