Deep Groove Encyclopedia - Constellation Orchestra

Constellation Orchestra

constellation.jpg (11494 bytes)

Click below for a Constellation Orchestra sample:

One of the hundreds of disco "groups" that were really the brainchild of session musicians and producers trying to get a hit, we can thank Moses Dillard and Jesse Boyce for the Constellation Orchestra. Dillard and Boyce had been members of the Dynamic Showmen, a soul band dating back to the 1960s. In the disco arena, they also produced "Feed the Flame" by Lorraine Johnson and "Come On Dance" as the Saturday Night Band, both on Prelude. Presumably because they had been having such good luck on Prelude, they went ahead and did a full-length LP with a gang of anonymous studio vocalists and musicians, coming up with the name Constellation Orchestra. Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind were popular at the time, so I guess space-oriented names were in style.

"Perfect Love Affair" did the business in the clubs but like most studio concoctions, nothing else charted and Dillard and Boyce moved on to other projects.

Constellation Orchestra's Deepest Groove

Perfect Love Affair (Prelude, 1978)
You wouldn't guess it from listening to this album, but Dillard and Boyce were veteran soul musicians, having been discovered by the likes of Otis Redding. It's their strong melodic sense they developed playing the soul circuit that keeps the music funky despite the Euro flourishes.