Sunshine Star

Recorded live at the Jazzland club in Liège, Belgium in 1974, with the group comprising Jacques Pelzer, Micheline Pelzer on drums and vocals, Steve Houben on saxophone and flute, Ron Wilson on piano and vocals, Janot Buchem on bass, and Michel Graillier on percussion. Wilson, an American pianist who settled in Liège after military service, composed the entire album's repertoire including 'Sunshine Star'. Released on the Duchesne label — a classical music imprint run by Jacques Pelzer's brother-in-law — the track was a centrepiece of a privately pressed debut that blended jazz, soul, and funk in the Belgian jazz underground of the mid-1970s, a scene shaped by the Pelzer family's long presence in the Liège jazz world. The album captured an energetic live performance and stood apart from the mainstream European jazz of its era. The track gained wider recognition when it was included on Sdban Records' 2014 compilation Funky Chicken: Belgian Grooves From The 70s, an event that simultaneously relaunched 'Sunshine Star' into the rare-groove and crate-digging circuits and marked the founding of Sdban Records. A full reissue of the original album followed in 2025, accompanied by a limited-edition 7-inch reissuing a 1973 acoustic single version of the song.