Soul Jazz re-issues The Winston’s 1969 album “Color Me Father”, the source of the most sampled drum break in music history – the Amen Break. Remastered audio, exactv reproduction original sleeve design, 4 bonus tracks plus exclusive one-sided 12 inch dubplate featuring a specially extended break mix of “Amen, Brother”.

The Winstons’ ‘Amen, Brother’ was originally the B-side to ‘Color Him Father’ a superb soul tune released by a multi-racial group from Washington, DC, in 1969. The drum break was played by George G.C. Coleman, and the song was based on a Curtis Mayfield guitar riff. The soul connection was no coincidence. The Winstons were formed from the backing groups to both Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions before they came into their own spotlight. The Winstons signed to Mayfield’s Curtom Records in Chicago in 1968. Drummer extraordinaire G.C. Coleman had already played with The Marvelettes, Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield (and in the 1970s would play with the funk group Brick).

‘Color Him Father’ became a million-selling no. 1 R&B hit single in the US and the following year the Winstons released their debut (and only) album also entitled ‘Color Him Father’, on Metromedia Records, featuring both sides of the single alongside nine other excellent soul, funk, gospel and R&B cuts. ‘Color Him Father’ remains to this day a stone-cold classic soul tune. Unfortunately, the group split-up the following year, citing difficulties in touring the southern US due to their inter-racial line-up, and their sole album has long-since sunk into obscurity.

Fast forward nearly 20 years and the ‘Amen, Brother’ break was discovered by hip-hop producers after the song appeared on the seminal Ultimate Breaks & Beats series of original breaks (alongside ground-breaking tracks such as James Brown’s ‘Funky Drummer’, The Incredible Bongo Band’s ‘Apache’ and Herman Kelly’s ‘Dance to the Drummers Beat’) in 1986. The track became the staple of hip-hop, with countless songs based on George G.C. Coleman’s epic six-second drum break.

Fast forward once more, this time to the UK at the start of the 1990s, and 100s of drum and bass producers began sampling and speeding up the ‘Amen, Brother’ break, adding reggae bass lines to create first jungle and then drum and bass – and by the 1990s the ‘Amen’ drum break dominated this new musical genre.

The Winstons’ Color Him Father’ is a superb rare slice of soul, funk and gospel music that has changed the course of music over the last fifty years!