Charles Stepney - Daddy's Diddies

“Daddy’s Diddies” is another homemade gem from the treasure trove of creative compositional seedlings left behind by late legend Charles Stepney. Working alone, Stepney composed and recorded the song on 4-track tape in the storied red carpet basement of his home on the Southside of Chicago, sometime in the early 1970s. On "Daddy's Diddies," Stepney overdubs Rhodes piano, drum machine, and a wordless chorus of his own vocals, “prefiguring Bobby McFerrin’s successful experiments in vocal overdubbing by some years” according to Chicago culture historian Ayana Contreras. It’s a joyful song that Stepney's daughter Eibur says she listens to as a way to “hear her father.” In the early 2010s, Eibur and her sisters Charlene and Chanté included "Daddy's Diddies" on an ultra-limited CD-R that they released on their own DIY label, The Charles Stepney Masters. International Anthem is proud to share the first worldwide release of this beautiful music.