& Sylvester Stewart Viscaynes - Yellow Moon (The Complete Recordings 1961-1962)

March of 2021 will mark sixty years since a teenaged vocal group from the San Francisco Bay Area entered a local talent contest that would become the first step along the path to fame for a young Sylvester Stewart. That fact is celebrated in the new deluxe anthology by Sly & The Viscaynes, "Yellow Moon: The Complete Recordings 1961-1962," released on Ace Records at the end of February.
It’s tempting to view The Viscaynes sextet as a dry run for the blend of black and white, boy and girl, pop and R&B synonymous with Sly’s greatest achievement, the incomparable Family Stone. But their story is not only emblematic of the congeniality of its most famous member, but also an inspirational and heartwarming tale of youthful friendship and camaraderie, marked only with a bittersweet coda, given that the socio-cultural issues they encountered in Vallejo, California in the early 1960s – not to mention the continued deviousness of the music business - still exist today.
"Yellow Moon: The Complete Recordings 1961-1962,” contains 19 tracks from this first era of Sly Stone’s career, including the first singles he made as a solo artist. So, for the Sly fan and collector, what is the difference in this collection, compared to the many previous CD and vinyl LPs that have some of the same songs?
- 11 tracks have never appeared on legitimate CD before. These include the painfully rare ‘Real, True Love,’ Sly's first lead vocal on vinyl (unless you count The Stewart Four);
- 3 tracks are completely unreleased, including a fascinating solo demo by Sly, ‘While I’m Gone’;
- the compilation uses the correct versions of the Viscaynes and Sly tracks produced by George Motola, several of which were either speeded up on their original release or artificially extended on all subsequent reissues;
- with access to the original master tapes, sound quality and mastering is the best yet heard on this early material;
- the booklet features a 9000 word essay by compiler Alec Palao , based on fresh interviews with Sly and the members of the Viscaynes, with much new detail on the groups career and their recordings;
- the CD comes in digipak form and the 32-page booklet is heavily illustrated with photos and memorabilia, with many previously unpublished images from Sly’s early days;
- associate producers on the compilation are the Konings twins, guaranteeing that "Yellow Moon: The Complete Recordings 1961-1962” is truly the last word on Sly’s “baby pictures." Don’t miss it!