As songwriters, the prolific Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson created some of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s biggest Motown hits; later, they erected the pillars of Diana Ross’s solo repertoire. While their output as performers has had less mainstream endurance, its impact was felt deeply on the R&B charts and disco floors, where, by the mid-to-late ’70s, their lushly arranged style of sophisticated soul was the sound. Rhino’s new two-disc A&S collection gathers tracks from their Warner Bros. period. (Later hits, like “Solid,” were cut for Capitol.) Earlier tracks are ho-hum compared to later gems like “Found a Cure,” “It Seems to Hang On,” “Love Don’t Make It Right,” and the instrumental “Bourgié Bourgié,” which the duo later turned into a vocal hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips. The main man down low is Francisco Centeno, who Nick and Valerie recruited as a teenager. Centeno is one bad dude, but what’s really fascinating is to hear how his mastery of the disco-funk idiom developed along with Ashford & Simpson’s.
—Bill Leigh