Lo-Flo Records will release “When,” a previously unheard recording featuring pop and soul singer Mel Carter, on September 25. Composer Jane McNealy wrote the song around 1968 or 1969 while living at the Hollywood Studio Club.
Harold Battiste Jr. discovered the composition while reviewing McNealy’s catalog in the early 1970s and brought it to Carter. The singer learned it before meeting McNealy, and the three captured an informal performance on Battiste’s home tape recorder after only a short rehearsal.
McNealy later added Rhodes piano in a studio, while Battiste contributed flute, guitar and bass. A planned second session never happened, leaving the intimate home recording in McNealy’s archive for more than five decades.
The release preserves an unplanned collaboration among three figures with deep ties to American soul, jazz and pop. Carter is best known for the 1965 hit “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me,” while Battiste’s career included work with Sam Cooke, Sonny & Cher, Dr. John and Lee Dorsey.
McNealy’s catalog stretches across jazz, R&B, pop, musical theater, film and television. She founded Lo-Flo Records to restore and share decades of sheet music, tapes, scripts and unfinished pieces, turning a private archive into an active label.
“When” can be pre-saved here.
