Sam’s Jams: Jackie Dee “Who”
This week on Sam’s Jams, rare music from The Detroit Funk Vaults
Dave Hamilton was a producer and musician in Detroit who worked as a session musician at Motown during the 1960’s. He went on to work with other record labels in Detroit as a producer, composer and musician, but most of his work was unreleased until the early 2000’s. Independent record labels labels have released compilations of Hamilton’s material (the Detroit Funk Vaults, Detroit Funk, Detroit City Grooves), showcasing the underground funk and soul scene coming from Detroit in the 1960’s. The sound was more raw and grittier than Motown, but featured great arrangements and production by Hamilton.
One of the artists that Dave Hamilton worked with was Detroit vocalist, Jackie Dee. Not much is known about Jacqueline Ann Wheeler’s (Jackie Dee) music career. She has a very few releases, and they are hard to find copies of. Hamilton recorded, produced, and wrote the song “Who” for Jackie Dee sometime in the 1970’s, but wasn’t available until 2012 when Ace Records (London, UK) released the compilation by Dave Hamilton titled The Detroit Funk Vaults. The track has also been released as a 7” single in 2015 on First Light records.
Sam’s Jams is the weekly song selection of WDET’s creative producer Sam Beaubien, a longtime Detroit musician who also helms the soul-funk band Will Sessions.
From 70 years ago to contemporary releases today, Sam’s Jams is the musical equivalent of digging for hours in dusty record store bins to find forgotten-but-should-be-remembered deep cuts pulled from the genres of funk, jazz and soul genres.
