Artist:Mandrill
Song:Love Song
Album:Fencewalk:The Anthology
Mandrill was a very popular 70s funk group. They're mostly forgotten by mainstream music fans but hip hop guys know about the group and sample them all the time. The basis of Mandrill are the three Wilson brothers. They were born in Panama and grew up in Brooklyn. There's Ric Wilson (sax), Lou Wilson (trumpet) & Carlos Wilson (trombone). Mandrill signed with Polydor in 1970 and added Claude "Coffee" Cave on keyboards, Omar Mesa on guitar, Fudgie Kae Solomon on bass and Charlie Padro on drums. Mandrill was never a singles group. They were popular with music fans who were already listening to sophisticated jazz rock fusion like Weather Report & Osibisa. Neftali Santiago was brought in as the new drummer in 1973 and Mandrill had their biggest hit with Fencewalk. Love Song is from the 1974 album Just Outside Of Town. Rapper Nas sampled it for his hit U Gotta Love It. Mandrill started to have conflicts around 1975 over the Wilson brothers control of the group. They were also dropped by Polydor and went to Arista. This 2CD comp covers their Polydor recordings. The Wilson brothers have reformed Mandrill in recent years and have released a couple of CDs independently. Mandrill is recommended to fans of other funk groups. Here's Mandrill performing Get It All in 1973. This video was posted by Mandrill drummer Naftali Santiago.
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