As the world focuses today on the previously unreleased rehearsal footage that has been transformed into Michael Jackson’s“This Is It” tour documentary, legendary producers and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees KENNY GAMBLE and LEON HUFF are giving fans an earlier, intimate look at the budding megastar they deeply loved and mentored for 35 years through a newly discovered home movie filmed while producing the Jacksons at the famed Sigma Sound recording studio here in the mid-‘70s.
The Jacksons recorded their first two post-Motown albums — The Jacksons and Going Places — in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia International Records (PIR) production crew. With Michael paying close attention to the production and songwriting techniques of the men who brought Philadelphia soul music (“The Sound of Philadelphia”) to “people all over the world” and studying them to help create what would be his own mega-platinum recording career. Several hit songs came out of those production efforts, including “Enjoy Yourself,” the Jacksons’ first platinum single, and “Let Me Show You the Way to Go.” Those albums, previously only available on vinyl, were re-issued recently by Sony Music on CD and digital download formats.
The home movie — available for viewing starting tomorrow, made during a recording break by house producer Dexter Wansel, captures a candid moment with the Jacksons, still giddy from visiting Muhammad Ali at his training camp with the PIR team the day before.
