Brand New Heavies

The Brand New Heavies
Origin	Ealing, London, England
Genres	Acid jazz, funk, jazz rap
Years active	1985–present
Labels	Acid Jazz, Delicious Vinyl, FFRR, Chrysalis UK, EDEL
Associated acts	N'Dea Davenport
Website	TheBrandNewHeavies.net
Members
Jan Kincaid Simon Bartholomew Andrew Levy N'Dea Davenport
Past members
Siedah Garrett Carleen Anderson Nicole Russo Sy Smith Jay Ella Ruth Ceri Evans

The Brand New Heavies are an acid jazz and funk group formed in 1985 in Ealing, a suburb of London, England.

Biography

The Brand New Heavies began in the 1980s as an instrumental acid jazz group called Brother International.^[1]

The group came up with the Heavies name after signing their first record contract, borrowing from a liner note on a James Brown single declaring the artist "Minister of New Super Heavy Funk".^[2] As The Brand New Heavies they gained a cult following in the London club scene and soon signed to Cooltempo as acid jazz replaced rare groove in clubs. The band issued a debut recording for Eddie Piller's Acid Jazz label in 1990 with Jay Ella Ruth as lead singer.^[3]

A single, "Got to Give", came out on Cooltempo before the Brand New Heavies signed to Acid Jazz Records and released Brand New Heavies to critical acclaim. The band signed to a division of Chrysalis Records in the UK,^[1] and American distribution was picked up by influential label Delicious Vinyl, and N'Dea Davenport (who had signed an artist development deal with Delicious Vinyl) joined the group. A revamped version of the first album with vocals by N'Dea Davenport was then released, and the singles "Dream Come True", "Never Stop" and "Stay This Way", all with Davenport on lead vocals, became hits on both sides of the Atlantic, with the latter becoming a music video directed by Douglas Gayeton that saw heavy rotation on MTV.

The group's appearance with MC Serch (formerly of 3rd Bass) and Q-Tip (of A Tribe Called Quest) at a performance in New York City, inspired the group to incorporate elements of hip hop music. Their next album was the critically acclaimed Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1, which included collaborations with Guru of Gang Starr and The Pharcyde, among others, but lacked any female vocals.

While under management by Colin Lester's and Ian McAndrew's Wildlife Entertainment, The Brand New Heavies released Brother Sister (1994) which was the last album for a while with N'Dea Davenport, who had left to complete her solo album (which she had put on hold to join the Heavies). The album spawned more singles, though one of them, a cover of Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis", was popular only in the UK because it was not included in the US version of the album.

Siedah Garrett joined the group for their next album, Shelter (1997). It contained the minor hit, the Carole King-penned song "You've Got a Friend" that was originally made famous by James Taylor. Again, though, this song did not appear on the US version of the album. The album also contained the hit "Sometimes". The remix of "Sometimes" included the rap vocals of Q-Tip.

The Brand New Heavies then released their greatest hits album, Trunk Funk - The Best of The Brand New Heavies (2000) with Carleen Anderson on vocals for some newly recorded songs, followed by the Japan only album We Won't Stop (2003) featuring a variety of vocalists and Allaboutthefunk (2004) featuring British singer Nicole Russo on vocals.

In April 2006, the Brand New Heavies reunited with N'Dea Davenport and former label Delicious Vinyl. A new album, Get Used to It was released on 27 June 2006 via Starbucks and more traditional music retail outlets. The album was recorded in New York and London; and the lead single "I Don't Know Why (I Love You)" was issued in early May. The single was notable for being one of very few late releases to feature the trademarked A Tom Moulton Mix, as he had been asked to contribute remixes. Later that year, their song "Jump 'N' Move" was featured on the soundtrack for the 2006 computer animated feature film, Happy Feet, and the in-game soundtrack for 2004's NBA Live 2005 and 2009's NBA 2k10. The band toured at the end of 2006.

The Brand New Heavies released a live album in October 2009 - Live In London - and announced plans to record two new studio albums in 2010-2011. The first likely to be released is "Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol. 2", which would be a follow-up to 1992's "Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol. 1". Dizzee Rascal and Roots Manuva are rumoured to be contributing to this project. The second new studio album is to be the true follow-up to 2006's "Get Used To It", with N'dea Davenport once again on vocals. No release date for either album has been mentioned by the band or its record label as of late 2011.

Members

Band Member	Instrument	Dates
Jan Kincaid (born 17 May 1966 in Ealing)	drums, keyboards	1985—
Simon Bartholomew (born 16 October 1965 in Ealing)	guitar, vocals	1985—
Andrew Levy (born 20 July 1966 in Ealing)	bass, keyboards, writer, producer	1985—
Lascelles Gordon	percussion, guitar	debut album (1991)
Jim Wellman	tenor sax, soprano sax, keyboards	debut album (1991)
N'Dea Davenport (born 6 May 1966 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA)	vocals	1990–1995, 2005—
Ceri Evans	keyboards	1985–1992
Jay Ella Ruth	vocals	1990
Siedah Garrett (born 24 June 1960 in Los Angeles, California, USA)	vocals	1997
Carleen Anderson	vocals	2000
Nicole Russo	vocals	2004
Sy Smith	vocals	2003
Max Beesley (born 15 January 1971)	live percussion, live keyboards

Discography

Studio albums

• 1990: The Brand New Heavies
• 1991: The Brand New Heavies (featuring N'Dea Davenport)
• 1992: Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1 (featuring vocals by various hip hop groups and rappers)
• 1994: Brother Sister (featuring N'Dea Davenport)
• 1997: Shelter (featuring Siedah Garrett)
• 2003: We Won't Stop (Japan only release; featuring vocals by Sy Smith)
• 2004: Allaboutthefunk (featuring Nicole Russo)
• 2006: Get Used to It (featuring N'Dea Davenport)
• 2012: Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol. 2 (featuring vocals by various hip hop groups and rappers)
• 2012: TBA (featuring N'Dea Davenport)

Live, remix collections, compilations and soundtracks

• 1995: Original Flava
• 1995: Excursions, Remixes & Rare Grooves
• 1996: Excursions, Remixes, Rare Grooves And More
• 1998: Sliding Doors (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) ("More Love" - 4:45)
• 1999: Trunk Funk - The Best of The Brand New Heavies (featuring Carleen Anderson)
• 2002: Acid Jazz Years
• 2006: The Brand New Heavies: Platinum Collection
• 2007: Elephantitis - The Funk + House Remixes
• 2008: Get Used to It - The Tom Moulton Mixes (featuring N'Dea Davenport)
• 2009: Greatest Hits Live in London (featuring N'Dea Davenport)

Singles

• 1988: "Got to Give"
• 1990: "Dream Come True (Brand New Mix)" (Acid Jazz; different version from the single two years later)
• 1991: "Never Stop" (UK #43)
• 1991: "Stay This Way" (UK #24)
• 1992: "Dream Come True '92" (UK #24)
• 1992: "Ultimate Trunk Funk EP" (UK #19) (Never Stop/ Stay This Way/Mr. Tanaka/Don't Let It Go...)
• 1992: "Don't Let It Go to Your Head" (UK #24)
• 1992: "Stay This Way" (UK #40)
• 1992: "Bonafied Funk/Death Threat"
• 1994: "Dream on Dreamer" (UK #15)
• 1994: "Back to Love" (UK #23)
• 1994: "Midnight at the Oasis" (UK #13)
• 1994: "Spend Some Time" (UK #26)
• 1994: "Brother Sister"
• 1995: "Close to You" (UK #38)
• 1995: "Mind Trips"
• 1996: "World Keeps Spinning" (From The Truth About Cats & Dogs soundtrack)
• 1997: "Sometimes" (UK #11)
• 1997: "You Are the Universe" (UK #21)
• 1997: "You've Got a Friend" (UK #9)
• 1997: "Shelter" (UK #31)
• 1997: "Top 5 Heavy Hits"
• 1997: "You Can Do It"
• 1999: "Saturday Nite" (UK #35)
• 1999: "Apparently Nothing" (UK #32)
• 2000: "Worst Case Scenario/Saturday Nite (Jay Dee Remix)" (Split EP with Fat Lip
• 2003: "What Do You Take Me For" (Flower Records)
• 2004: "Boogie" (OneTwo Records/Edel Records, UK #66)
• 2005: "Can We/Sometimes (Bullseye Remixes)" (Split EP with SWV)
• 2005: "Surrender" (OneTwo Records)
• 2006: "Get Used to It"
• 2006: "I Don't Know Why (I Love You)"
• 2009: "C'est Magnifique"

^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Hammer, Steve. "Interview: Simon Bartholomew". http://www.nuvo.net/hammer/int/bnheavies.html. 
2. ^ Interview with Jon Scragg, Jazz FM 102.2 (London), 22 October 2004.
3. ^ "N'Dea Davenport Interview". SoulTalk. http://www.soultalk.rhythmflow.net/shows_ndea_davenport.html. 
4. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 75–76. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 

External links

• The Brand New Heavies official website
• The Brand New Heavies at MySpace
• Delicious Vinyl Official website
• NDeaDavenport.com - Official Site of N'Dea Davenport
• Interview 2009