Reservoir and Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design are pleased to kick off a new collaboration in the form of a hands-on music mixing course entitled Uncovering The Philly Groove. Utilizing never-released tracks from Philly Groove Records, the class will see music production and engineering students breathe life into decades-old tapes that have yet to be finished.

Reservoir acquired classic soul and R&B label Philly Groove Records in 2012.  In addition to managing the catalog’s well-known works, which include The Delfonics’ “Ready Or Not, Here I Come” and “La-La Means I Love You”, Reservoir endeavored to retrieve recordings of the unreleased Philly Groove tracks whose production hadn’t survived the label’s 1974 termination. Partially finished songs, recorded by undiscovered acts like Navy Star, The New Concept, and Music Machine, remained in storage.

Through the process of contacting recording studios, identifying their Philly Groove content, and digitizing the findings, Reservoir SVP of Creative & Business Development Faith Newman connected with Drexel Audio Archivist and Associate Professor Toby Seay, whose management of Drexel’s Sigma Sound Studios archives had familiarized him with much of the Philly Groove repertoire. Working with Assisting Teaching Professor Marc Offenbach and Reservoir Marketing & Communications Director Catherine Addo, the team developed Uncovering The Philly Groove.

Slated in Drexel’s Music Industry program throughout the 2015 Winter and Spring terms, Uncovering The Philly Groove involves a team of specially drafted students tasked with a number of songs from the Philly Groove archives.  Under the guidance of Seay, the class is tending to the songs’ technical upkeep, developing file names and metadata for each track.  For the creative portion of the project, the students will compile the recordings’ raw vocal and instrumental takes into finished, fully produced songs at long last.  The first of the finished pieces will be unveiled at a listening event to be held at Drexel’s URBN Center on March 3^rd, featuring Seay, Newman, and a handful of special guests related to Philly Groove and Sigma Sound.

“We are thrilled to partner with Reservoir in bringing this unique, exciting, and relevant course to Drexel’s Music Industry program,” says Seay.  “For students, this is a chance to jump time in recorded music history, using the skills they’re learning today to resuscitate a project that was started by professionals years ago.  For the Music Industry faculty, Uncovering The Philly Groove is a chance to demonstrate, in a very tangible way, the kinds of creative opportunities the music business continues to offer.”

Reservoir will remain involved in Uncovering The Philly Groove throughout the school year, lending Newman and other creatives for lectures, interviews, events, and guidance surrounding the project.

“I’m hoping to see students take on multiple interpretations of each track,” Newman shares about her hopes for the once-abandoned tapes.  “Sonically, it would be amazing to contrast sounds that might have been used on these recordings in the ‘60s or ‘70s with what a contemporary producer would do with them today.  I’d like to see the class embrace the creative challenge of realizing both what was intended when these songs were recorded and what we, years later, can imagine.”

MAD Dragon Media, a student-run enterprise within Drexel’s Music Industry program, will be working with Reservoir to assist in the marketing functions of Uncovering The Philly Groove, bringing focus to the project through local outreach and student involvement.

Reservoir’s Faith Newman visits with Drexel students,

original Philly Groove artist Wilbert Hart of The Delfonics,

and Philadelphia MFSB founder Bobby Eli.