Gonzalez was a British musical group that played funk, jazz, and disco music.

Career

Gonzalez was a large ensemble that could include up to 30 members at any one time, with a constantly changing line-up of players. Their core early membership consisted of saxophonists Mick Eve, Chris Mercer, and Geoffrey "Bud" Beadle, keyboardist Roy Davies, and guitarist Gordon Hunte; collectively, their previous credits included Georgie Fame's Blue Flames, Juicy Lucy, John Mayall, Keef Hartley, and The Night-Timers, amongst others.

Formed in 1971, their early music is funkier, but by the late 1970s, they found an audience among disco enthusiasts with the Gloria Jones penned, "I Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet" (U.S. #26), in 1978. A remix of the song reached #7 on the U.S. Club Play chart and #15 in the UK Singles Chart. Material from Gonzalez' first two albums was later reissued on CD, both by See for Miles and Soul Brother.

The band's third album, Shipwrecked, appeared in 1977, and was produced by Jones. Jones also produced their follow-up, 1979's Move It to the Music, by which time Eve and Hunte were gone; the single "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" was an unsuccessful attempt to duplicate the wide appeal of "Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet".

Follow-up singles were not successful, and the group lost its major label status in 1980. Thereafter, they appearded on the record labels PRT and Tooti Fruiti, but called it quits in 1986 after their keyboardist Roy Davies died.

Discography

• Gonzalez (EMI, 1974)
• Our Only Weapon Is Our Music (Capitol Records, 1975)
• Shipwrecked (Capitol, 1977)
• Haven't Stopped Dancin' (Capitol, 1979; reissue of Shipwrecked) US #67
• Move it to the Music (Capitol, 1979)
• Watch Your Step (Capitol, 1980)

References

External links

• Gonzalez at Allmusic.com