CLASSIC ALBUM
Ten City Foundation
Atlantic, 1989
After dropping his groundbreaking single, Move Your Body in 1986, Marshall Jefferson was “hotter than fish grease”. Sensing the heat, chum and vocal powerhouse, Byron Stingily, picked up the phone and got his hustle on, calling every major label, dangling the hottest name in house music in front of them.
Atlantic signed them up without even hearing a note from Byron, himself. “Imagine signing someone without hearing their voice,” says Jefferson. “And then getting Byron – jackpot!”
After that, the pair assembled a supergroup of vocalists and musicians, and would produce an album rightly celebrated as one of the most seminal in dance music history.
“For the Foundation album we had the legendary Earl Young on drums,” says Jefferson. “The Grand Staff’s horn section with Orbert Davis. My cousin Bill Dickens, who played with Ramsey Lewis. Herb Lawson on guitars. David Josias on percussion. Byron Burke, who would do musical bits. And, of course, Byron Stingily, who did lead vocals and most of the lyrics.”
This was a group of talented individuals, at the peak of their powers. There was no fumbling around in
