Sunbear
Sunbear

Sunbear only released one outing during their short-lived career, the self-titled release “Sunbear” for Don Cornelius and Dick Griffey’s Soul Train records, melding together Disco, Jazz-Funk and Soul and drawing heavily upon influences such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power and El Chicano. Principally comprised by founding members Sun (Arnie Oliver a.k.a Ahaguna G. Sun) on drums, percussion, fender rhodes and clavinet—and Bear (Werner Schuchner) on electric and acoustic guitars,  bass, fender rhodes and percussion—the little known group recorded their sole release in Los Angeles in 1977, featuring the likes of Oscar Brashear on trumpet, Ernie Watts on saxes and flute and George Bohanon on trombone. Both multi instrumentalists and songwriters, Sun and Bear notched up recording credits with the likes of the Whispers, Hi Inergy, Carrie Lucas and Maze after the dissolution of Sunbear, Schuchner eventually reimagining his original composition “Fantasy” for the Whispers which became a well known ballad on the Imagination album. In later years, the popularity of the album has increased with the track Let Love Flow For Peace becoming an identifiable hit in the Rare-Groove scene and certainly a champion on cooler dance floors, a languid stepper with funky, loosely-thumped bass work and wonky synthlines adjecently wobbling to acoustic piano and guitar arrangements, the entire track scattered with celestial chimes all the while.