The Igg Band – Ultra/Sound

Kalita are excited to announce the first ever reissue of student medical group the IgG Band’s highly sought-after 1980 soul, funk and disco grail ‘Ultra/Sound’. Originally privately released in a small run on bandmember Clifford Becker’s Infusion Records imprint, the album has since become a treasured prize of but a handful of diehard collectors and DJs as a result of both its scarcity and quality. Now, in partnership with the band, Kalita shine a light on the album for the first time in over forty years, accompanied by never-before-seen archival photos and extensive interview-based liner notes.

Formed in March 1979 out of a young group of musically talented students at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee, the IgG Band was, as leader Clifford Becker recalls, first created ‘to play music to please ourselves and friends, and as an outlet to the ever pending and growing pressure of our medical education’. However, by 1980 the IgG Band had developed enough original material that they were ready to put their music to wax, and ‘Ultra/Sound’ was recorded at Hilltop Recording Studios in Nashville, with each band member contributing their part separately when their busy medical schedules allowed.

Each song on the record was notably written mostly by only one band member – ‘IgG Theme’, ‘I Still Want You’ and ‘Daydreaming’ by Kendal Foster, ‘Another Love Gone’ and ‘When I Think of You’ by Solomon Pollard, ‘Funky Music’ by Murray Riggins and ‘Infusion’ by Kermit White. As Murray explains, ‘initially every band member had the opportunity to contribute original songs and from there we collaborated to make each song better’.

The record was released at the close of 1980, manufactured and distributed by the band themselves. The album was a local success, and the band sold out within a short space of time, with most copies sold to family, friends and Meharry College students. However, at the end of their studies at Meharry the band went their separate ways. Their educational qualifications required that they partake in internships, and these were at different hospitals in different states. As Murray divulges, ‘each of us chose our own path and to live our own separate lives. We have stayed in contact periodically over the years, but we have never been able to get together and play music because of our medical practice time constraints’. We hope therefore that this much-needed re-release of ‘Ultra/Sound’ helps to keep the IgG Band’s musical legacy alive and showcases their musical quality to the world once again.

Published by Kalita Music Publishing