Jeanie Tracy (born November 18, 1960) – Low Down Dirty Rhythm (1979)

One of the first recordings to feature lead vocals from Sylvester's backup vocalist was the demo for this superb late-night disco sleaze jam, written by Patrick Cowley.

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Jeanie Tracy is a singer/songwriter best known for her work as one of Sylvester’s backing vocalists and her own career as a solo artist, with four #1 hits on the dance charts over the past few decades.

Born near Houston, Texas, her family soon moved to California and she was raised in Fresno. Tracy started singing with her church’s choir when she was only three years old. Her high school music teacher encouraged her to pursue a career as a singer.

In the mid-seventies, while Tracy was still a teenager, she recorded her first single for Marvin Holmes’ Oakland-based independent label Brown Door Records. Released in 1975, its A-side “Making New Friends” became a favorite on the UK’s rare groove and Northern Soul scenes, although the superb B-side “Trippin’ On The Sounds” was far funkier. For years, original copies of the record sold for $1,000 and up, but recent reissues have helped bring the price down.

It brought her to the attention of former Motown producer Harvey Fuqua, who introduced her to Sylvester James, the Bay Area artist he had signed to a solo deal with Berkeley-based Fantasy Records in 1977. She first performed with him as a backing vocalist for a live show at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera on March 11, 1979. She sang alongside his regular backup singers Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes, who Tracy already knew. The concert was recorded for Sylvester’s live album Living Proof (1979). She subsequently sang backup for him in numerous live shows and studio projects.

See our earlier post on Sylvester for more on his musical career and their collaborations.

Also in 1979, Tracy contributed vocals to a demo by Sylvester’s keyboardist Patrick Cowley. The hypnotic late-night sleaze jam “Low Down Dirty Rhythm” would later be recorded by former Labelle singer Sarah Dash. Tracy’s version remained largely unheard and forgotten until it was released in 2022 as part of Malebox. This latest collection of unreleased Cowley tracks was dug up, curated, and issued by Dark Entries Records, the label that has kept Sylvester and Patrick Cowley’s legacies alive for new generations.

In 1981, Tracy, Sylvester, and Fuqua co-wrote Sylvester’s laid-back disco funk jam “Give It Up (Don’t Make Me Wait),” which featured her backing vocals and became a Larry Levan favorite at the Paradise Garage. That same year, Tracy sang backup on the phenomenally funky jam “Magic Number” (1981) by Herbie Hancock, featuring Sylvester on lead vocals.

Sylvester returned the favor for all Tracy’s backup work by singing backing vocals on her own debut solo LP Me And You, released on Fantasy in 1982.

Its fantastic opening cut “Sing Your Own Song” was co-produced by Fuqua and Louis Small. The demo version that Jeanie originally recorded was released as a 12” extended version in 1984, co-produced by the song’s composer Michael Finden along with Sylvester’s guitarist James “Tip” Wirrick and Patrick Cowley. It was one of Cowley’s final productions before his death from AIDS on November 12, 1982.

When Sylvester fell ill with AIDS himself in the late eighties, Jeanie became his caregiver. “He called me his alter ego and protégé,” she recalled in a 2010 interview. On the day Patti LaBelle came to visit him for the last time in the fall of 1988, Tracy told her to “just go in and give him the latest dirt. Don’t cry until you’re out of his sight.” Two months after he died on December 16, 1988, Tracy gave LaBelle a little gold pocketbook that had been Sylvester’s, which she still carries to this day.

Happy 63rd Birthday to the great Jeanie Tracy.

Further info:

“Jeanie Tracy gets into the spirit of gospel,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 2010.

"Jeanie Tracy," interview, Disco-Disco.com, 2010.

“You Are My Friend: The Day Patti LaBelle Visited Sylvester,” Gran Varones, December 18, 2019.

"The mighty voice of Jeanie Tracy," interview/tribute video, Soulful Voices YouTube channel, July 8, 2020.

#disco #funk #HiNRG #Sylvester #JeanieTracy