James Brown’s bandleader, Fred Wesley, married Gwen, one of Honey & the Bees. His reminiscences of the group made up the liner notes of their Jamie/Guyden CD, Dynamite. This is an excerpt of Fred’s revealing portrait of the group and backstage life on the James Brown Show:
Their talents were so complimentary to each other. Nadine Felder (Honey) was usually the lead singer on par with all of the great 70s R&B singers. The staging of the shows was a group effort, with each member contributing ideas on choreography and presentation. The costumes were designed and made by Jean Davis. I say usually because at all times any aspect of the presentation would be initiated or developed by any one or all of the members. It was a group effort and no one was more dedicated that another.
The fact that they all respected each other and each other's talents and tolerated each other personalities made Honey & the Bees the most dynamic, the most exciting group of young ladies that I have ever seen, and I have seen and worked with them all, from Patti La Belle and the Blue Bells to The Shirelles.
The collection of recordings on this CD represents some of the early work of writers, producers, musicians and arrangers who later became rich and famous with the renowned Philly International music dynasty of the 70s and 80s.
Musicians, Ron Baker, Earl Young, Bobby Eli and the late, Norman Harris were the Rhythm
section on most of these tracks. Leon Huff, himself played on some of the
tracks.
Great writers like Allen Felder and Thom Bell contributed materiel. Most of
the tracks were recorded at the, then developing, later, state-of-the -art
studio, Sigma Sound. All of the recordings are first-rate and top quality,
unfortunately, just slightly before Gamble and Huff - Philly International
exploded upon the music scene
