Dig This

They’ve been around for only nine years, but archival-record label Numero Group is already making—better yet, preserving—history. And the Chicago imprint, dedicated to rescuing obscure recordings from auditory exile, treats its findings with great care. In 2010, Light: On the South Side, an impossibly funky compilation from Chicago’s South Side night-club scene of the mid-70s, complemented by a 132-page book of photos by Michael Abramson, was nominated for a Grammy for best boxed set. Next up: Boddie Recording Company: Cleveland, Ohio 58 tracks distilled from Thomas and Louise Boddie’s mom-and-pop studio, which somehow managed to issue nearly 300 albums and press more than a million records on its Soul Kitchen, Luau, and Bounty labels between 1958 and 1993. It took Numero four years of entreaties to convince Louise Boddie to open up her midwestern vault. When she finally did, Numero’s musicologists found a treasure trove of kitchen-sink soul, fuzzbox funk, and hook-laden spirituals. “It was like walking into 1969,” says Numero co-founder Ken Shipley. “We tore the place apart.” (numerogroup.com)

DUFF McDONALD