Taana Gardner: Taana Gardner, CD

Taana Gardner was born in Newark, New Jersey and as a precocious young girl always knew she wanted to sing and perform. Influenced initially by her mother (who played piano in the Gardner home), and grandmother (who was an opera singer) Taana wrote several plays from the tender age of 11 and first appeared on stage as an actress in one of her own plays. One of her plays even went on to be performed at the Lincoln Center and The Apollo.

 

BBR favourite Dionne Warwick and also the great Tina Turner (amongst others) inspired Taana in terms of her singing aspirations and in 1978 the brother of Kenton Nix turned him on to Taana and suggested her for the project he was working on with West End records. When Taana arrived for her first ever studio session there was another group using the studio who, after hearing Taana sing, invited her to contribute vocals to one of their tracks. That group was Kid Creole and the Coconuts recording the album ‘Spooks In Space’ under the name Aural Exciters for the US market, on which Taana became the lead vocalist. A classic case of right place, right time.

 

TAANA GARDNER, was the product of the West End records sessions with producer Kenton Nix which she had been initially lined up for. Nix had been championed to the label by legendary DJ Larry Levan who had already been spinning an instrumental version of Work That Body in his Paradise Garage sets. ‘Work That Body’ (Disco #10) became a big club hit…. So Nix recorded more tracks with Taana including ‘When You Touch Me’ (Disco #10), included on this album, and what has become West End’s biggest ever hit, ‘Heartbeat’, (R&B #10) the classic mid-tempo groover worshipped by Larry Levan, two versions of which are represented on this release amongst the many bonus tracks.

 

BBR is very proud to bring you TAANA GARDNER, completely re-mastered and repackaged complete with extensive liner notes and extended bonus content.

TAANA GARDNER is a must have for all Soul and Disco fans out there!