![]() ![]() Kenny Gamble: It would have been great if they had music in the schools. And I was playing the piano really good by age 10 anyway. My piano teacher told my mom the lessons were a waste of money. Leon Huff: My mom did have me take some formal lessons to learn the basics. ![]() And I was brought up very classically oriented, from the harp to the French horn. Thom Bell, arranger, Philadelphia International Records producer of the Spinners, the Stylistics and the Delfonics: My mother made me learn piano. My mother played for church, and I gravitated to the piano at a very young age. Leon Huff, co-founder, Philadelphia International Records: Let me put it this way - when my mother conceived me in Camden, New Jersey, there was an upright piano waiting for me in the living room. Kenny Gamble, co-founder, Philadelphia International Records: I grew up at 15th and Christian. Here, 50 years after the formation of PIR, and with a series of boxed sets and reissues on the way, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, with friends and collaborators from Thom Bell to John Oates to Patti LaBelle, look back on the legendary sound. This music and the message captured Philadelphia so perfectly that the songs resonate today just as much as they did back then. The music, dubbed the Sound of Philadelphia, was played by an intensely talented pool of session musicians and orchestra players known as MFSB, which stood for “Mother Father Sister Brother.” But it wasn’t just about a sound. Jones” and “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” or dance hits like “Back Stabbers” or “TSOP” (a.k.a. No matter where you were in the country, you couldn’t avoid their songs in the 1970s - love ballads such as “Me and Mrs. In 1971, a lyrically gifted singer-songwriter from South Philly and a classically trained pianist from Camden launched Philadelphia International Records (PIR), a Black-owned hitmaking label that would write for and produce world-famous acts including the O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass and the Jacksons. Photograph by Charlie Gillett Collection/Redferns/Getty Images Leon Huff (left) and Kenny Gamble in 1970, in the early days of their legendary partnership. ![]()
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