Getting to know the Young Disciples

My latest CHRISTMAS PRESENT arrived in the mail the other day -- the NUMERO GROUP compilation CD, "ECCENTRIC SOUL: THE YOUNG DISCIPLES."
I have been listening to it steadily for days.
It shares the music created when a man named ALLAN MERRY decided to add music to the curriculum at the SOUTH END NEIGHBORHOOD OPPORTUNITY CENTER in embattled EAST ST. LOUIS, ILL., during the latter 1960s and early 1970s.
Merry offered music as an alternative to drugs and gangs, and the result was called the YOUNG DISCIPLES, a funk-soul-jazz collective that gave its first concert in October 1967, then began to issue a clutch of now-forgotten -- but mostly fabulous -- R&B singles.
Released on the YoDi, Gateway, and Merry labels, the songs sometimes sound like do-it-yourself Motown. Other songs, such as "Country Loving Country Style" by Young Disciple Bobby McNutt, are down-and-dirty funk numbers that make me want to hit the "repeat" button on the CD player.
By 1972, the Young Disciple collective had run out of steam. During their brief existence, however, they showed that East St. Louis could shine when given the chance.