STUCK IN THE VINYL AGAIN - MANDRE - M3000

[maggot]

Good Monday morning gang and welcome back to Stuck In The Vinyl Again . Today we remember  Michael Andre Lewis, best known as Mandré,  the pioneer of techno-funk, on the 10th anniversary of his death. He passed away in 2012, age 63. He started out in the band Maxayn, with his then Wife, Maxayn Lewis, whose real name was Paulette Parker. She was one of the Ikettes in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. After three albums they disbanded and   Mandré worked with the likes of  Grant Green, The Who, Labelle, Buddy Miles Band,  Rufus, White Chocolate, The Who, Sly & the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Leon Russell, Earth Wind and Fire and Frank Zappa. In fact, he replaced George Duke in Zappa's band and can be heard on the Zoot Allures LP. He was also the band leader for Johnny Guitar Watson. In the mid 70s he signed with Motown and released 3 solo albums. He often performed wearing a space helmet that was designed by Bill Whitten,  who also created Michael Jackson’s white glove. He was among the first musicians to use the Roland TR-808 and helped develop Roger Linn’s LinnDrum machine. His 3rd record, M3000, is our subject of focus today. M3000 was released in 1979 on Motown Records and produced by Mandré and Winston Monseque. The tunes, "Spirit Groove" and "Freakin's Fine" were released as  singles. 

A1 M3000 (Opus VI)
Written-By – Andre Lewis, Winston Monseque
5:42

A2 L'oasis
Written-By – Andre Lewis
4:25

A3 Final Funk
Arranged By – Boondoxatron, Drefus
Written-By – Andre Lewis, Emzre Parker III
5:47

B1 Spirit Groove
Arranged By – Andre Lewis, Maxayn
Written-By – Marlo Henderson
6:57

B2 Freakin's Fine
Written-By – Andre Lewis, E.S. Robins
4:21

B3 Do Whatcha Gotta Do
Written-By – Andre Lewis, Maxayn
3:28

B4 Swang
Written-By – C. Rogel
4:58

 Mandré -  synthesizer, keyboards, bass

Engineer [Main Systems] – Fred Borkgren
Engineer [Systems Mastering] – John Golden
Executive-Producer – Winston Monseque
Photography By – Yasuo Sasada
Producer, Arranged By – Andre Lewis
Technician [Instrument Systems Technician] – Kevin Smith