In 2008 BBE released Al Kent's debut album, "Better Days" by the Million Dollar Orchestra (fans will be pleased to know the follow up is currently being written, and Al's building up the strength to start the recording process again). The CD, and expensive, non-profitable, limited edition double vinyl in gatefold sleeve were well received by disco heads and music reviewers alike.
Read the BBE blurb, reviews and liner notes:

Al Kent was born in Scotland. His father was an avid record collector and had a cabinet full of them. And Whisky. Everything from Abba and Elvis to the Glitter Band and Buddy Holly was in there. What a load of shit they were.
In 1976 Al ran away from home to live in New York. Here, at the age of 8 he started attending the Loft and hanging out with Nicky Siano and a whole bunch of cool New York DJs with Italian names. In 1978 he was arrested for possession of PCP while guesting at Better Days with Tee Scott and deported back to Glasgow, where his dad was now getting into a bit more David Essex. He was shit too.
So Al opened his own club in Glasgow, based on his experiences in New York. With his pocket money he flew Richard Long over to kit it out and had Walter Gibbons DJ at the opening party.
Since then he's bought lots of records, done the deejaying in lots of places, and recorded an orchestra too.
For the full story of The Million Dollar Orchestra see the biography, in short the album was recorded in the traditional way, mostly one take, in an analogue studio. The Sound is rich , lush, string laden, beautiful disco music, full of joy with phenomenal musicianship. It is Al Kent's biography told in Music.
Al is currently working with Lynn from Ebonycuts on a time machine. This project should be completed soon, at which point the two will travel back in time and buy lots of records.
"Al Kent has managed to recreate the modern soul meets backstreet disco sound he loves with amazing authenticity." - Joey Negro

Here's some reviews we found online...

Once in a blue, I sit down to review a CD or LP to that perks my ears within first four bars, and like I just downed a quad espresso, I get real charged and quickly start flipping through every track, and reading online to find out more. The Million Dollar Orchestra's "Better Days" has that effect. By the look of the cover, I thought it was another 70's rare disco groove band (which I also would've loved) but the music sounded so crisp and new. It just couldn't be old! I was immediately confused - aren't Escort and Chin Chin the only new disco bands? Alas, the liner notes explain it all. Turns out that the founder is Al Kent, who like so many producers, got tired of chopping disco loops for house tracks. Starting in 2005, the liners detail his 2 year journey of luck and destiny to form his band to finally make some disco that's authentic. So in 2007, with a full backing band 18 musicians deep, The Million Dollar Orchestra is hitting the block with first 8 track album. The chemistry is like super glue and the whole band is on fire with the timeless spirit of that good late '70's disco. I really can't pick my five favorites here, so here's a sampler: "Don'tcha Wanna Get Down(1)," "Get It Boy(2)," "Rock Freak Boogie(3)," "Feel The Music(4)," "Makin' Love(5)." Hats off for something I can enjoy all year. Highly recommended.

turntablelab.com

Like BBE labelmate and former Torontonian Robert Strauss, Glasgow's Al Kent has a fantastic feel for the warmth and richness of disco. Clearly influenced by string-laden recordings from mid '70s New York, the producer once worked with loops and samples, but now leads The Million Dollar Orchestra through one of the most magical modern takes on disco these ears have heard. Joyful from start to finish.

eyeweekly.com

Al Kent presents his Million Dollar Orchestra and shows us how to step back to those heady disco days in style! Eight ghetto style tracks that could easily have slipped out of some unseen blackploitation movie with their funky basslines, strings, percussion, melodies and atmospheres (not forgetting the lyrics also).

djvox.com

Sick and tired of cut and paste re-edits and hollow sounding Disco-House records, Scottish disco lord Al Kent decided to take matters into his own hands. He put together a real 'orchestra' to create dancefloor bound music that is full of retro charm and genuine musicianship. Following in the tradition of 70s outfits like Salsoul's musical troupe, Kent's modest outfit features horns, strings and singers and records delightful discoid ditties in an analogue studio. Efforts on this album such as the heart-warming "Dontcha Wanna Get Down", risque "Rock Freak Boogie" and smile-inducing "Feel The Music" really hit home. This is New Disco, albeit with one ear stuck firmly in the past.

hearingisbelieving

Better days, indeed -- as the set takes us back to our favorite club sounds of the late 70s -- thanks to careful crafting from maestro Al Kent! The album's got a solid, soulful approach that's totally great -- a return to a time when making dance music involved a full range of instrumentation -- from tightly snapping drums and bumping bass, to fuller jazzy horns, and even a bit of strings! Al Kent brings them all together wonderfully -- and manages to make a sound here that's really quite authentic -- a batch of grooves that easily feel like they've been lifted from a stack of rare club 12" singles, and which hardly feel contemporary at all. There's a bit of vocals on the set from time to time -- mostly in a soulful chorus mode -- but overall, the style's more focused on the instrumentation, and often built around some really wicked basslines that recall the funkiest rhythms from the P&P; scene. A treasure throughout -- and one of the few contemporary club sets we can recommend to any digger of older disco -- with tracks that include "Get It Boy", "Canal Street Bus Stop", "Rock Freak Boogie", "Keep On Doin Whatcha Doin", "Feel The Music", "Funky Funky Beat", and "Makin Love".

Dustygroove

Al Kent just changed the game.
At some point in 2005 Al Kent became bored of chopping up disco samples, and decided it was time to start making new dance records again, from scratch. Inspired by the likes of Crown Heights Affair, Walter Gibbons, MFSB, and Peter Brown, Al Kent has just completed putting together one of the most impressive orchestral disco LPs of any era. However in my opinion this should not be looked at as a retro affair, or an attempt to relive the sounds of the 70s. Instead, this should be looked at as an artist's return to creating original and inspirational dance music, the kind that influenced us all for decades to come.
Al chose to avoid the uninspired and formulaic route of looping up two to four bars of old disco records, to be layered over tinny mpc2000 drum machines void of soul and life (AKA the death rattle of House music). He instead chose to make new and original compositions, vibrant with live musicianship & brilliant arrangements, and in doing so he proved that if we indeed want to return to these high standards dance music once achieved, we can reach these milestones again decades later, even on a working man's budget.
Early on Al Kent had a modest start with the LP, looking only for some musicians to aid him with a slightly less orchestral, yet ambitious LP. But as luck would have it, each talented musician he recorded on the LP introduced him to yet another equally talented musician, which led to another. Before Al knew it, he had full string and horn sections playing on his LP, and let's not forget the Gospel choir on vocal duty either. With the aid of his friends, Al's modest project grew to become a fully orchestrated disco affair, which at one point was mixing down songs with 44 tracks of strings alone!!!
The studio was an equally important choice when it came to developing and shaping the sound of the LP. Rather than record his new LP through a USB device on a digital drive, Al instead chose to work with engineer Marco Rea in his analogue throughout studio. Without the use of pro-tools, and with additional session musicians being added on all the time, after two years of hard work the LP is finally ready, and will be in the shops mid January.
I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of the LP (although he forgot to send me half of the LP!), and let me tell you, unlike even some of the most classic disco LPs from the golden era, The Million Dollar Orchestra has straight heaters from beginning to end. All killer, no filler. Rock Freak Boogie, Funky Funky Beat, Keep On Doin Whatcha Doin, and Makin' Love make up sides 3 & 4 of this double LP, and I've been listening to these non-stop. Each tune could deserve its own 12". I've heard sides 1 & 2 on the recent ebony cuts mix-tape, and the break on Canal Street Bus Stop is the kind that only disco dreams are made of.
The love, time, care and attention to detail that went into the birth of this LP is immediately evident. This LP is timeless, and can sit side by side with the purest disco efforts of the 70s, right next to the dance tunes of today and still stand out as something special. This LP would have made Walter proud, and will sit in our record boxes for years to come. Let's hope Al can inspire a whole new generation of producers to write original compositions, and put the effort into making truly live music made with musicians, for dancers all over the world. I understand House music was really only disco music on a budget, but maybe we need to start investing a little more $ into our budgets (RIP Godfather of Disco Mel Cheren), with equal parts love, originality and dedication, and then maybe we can truly achieve something this special again.
You need to purchase this LP ASAP, because then maybe Al can break even on this venture. And if he does, than maybe just maybe we'll be luck enough to see more artists like Al invest this much time, money and energy into equally special projects that will ultimately enrich our lives, and we can create more magical moments on the dance floor. Check out www.milliondollardisco.com for more info, and the BBE website if you would like to purchase the vinyl, cd or even MP3s. Also make sure to check out www.ebonycuts.com for some samples of MDO tunes in the mix!
PS I forgot to mention there are retarded funky drum breaks all over this LP that will light a fire under even the most flacid of dancefloors! Aaaahhhh, the magic of live drummers!

LoveOnTheRun

Psychedelic Disco Madness from Germany [sic] coming to you live like Charles Earland on an 8 tracked BBE album. Mainly instrumental with leading bass lines and minimal vocal overtones in the right places, it's laidened with the underground dubs of a mid to late seventies deja vu. If you, like me, hear Juggy Murray Jones, El Coco, Patrick Adams, Dinasaur L, Atmosfear, Powerline, The Brothers, Mass Production and a touch of Francine McGhee influences throughout, we are reading off the same page. For me, amongst this quality collection "Dontcha Wanna Get Down" is the ultimate bullet from this magnum album.

Soulsurvivor

And here's the sleevenotes from the actual album...

Sometime in 2005 Al Kent got bored with chopping up disco loops to bosh over house drums, and even more bored with the deluge of pointless disco re-edits flooding the shops. He decided to try taking his music making efforts a step further, using samples from his over-sized record collection and possibly a couple of musicians to create something that sounded like the music he loved, something authentically disco.

So he knocked up some rhythm tracks using drums and percussion sampled from some old disco records and set about looking for musicians to jazz things up a bit... Keyboard wizard Raymond Harris added some nice Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Clavinet parts, plus guide basslines played on a synth. But synth basslines just wouldn't work, so a real live bass player had to be found...

Enter Stephen Westwater. Having never played disco before, Stephen confidently set up his bass and got ready to play... until he heard some of the records Al wanted to emulate, quickly packed up and went home to practice. But, a week later he was back, and this time he was on fire. Over the next couple of weeks he played over the eight backing tracks, and Al set to work editing it all together.

Sometimes it's a small world - it turned out that five minutes away from Al lived a great guitarist, and a true disco head - Kevin McShane. Needless to say he was instantly asked to contribute.

After hearing the work in progress Mark Robb, founder of Glasgow's legendary Buff Club asked about the possibility of a live show at the upcoming Glasgow Jazz Festival. This meant finding a full band to perform the tracks. Thankfully Al had met a couple of sax players (twin brothers Colin and Alan Train - two of the most talented multi-instrumentalists on earth) and a couple of percussionists (Gary Kainth and Ryan Buchanan), and Mark knew of a great drummer, Jim Gash. So the bones of the band were there.

Sadly, Raymond was involved in his own gigs at the Festival, so a replacement keyboard player had to be found. After a quick audition over a bottle of whisky it was obvious Charlie Milne was the man for the job.

Rehearsals began, and it was quickly decided vocalists would be a good idea, and so the Glasgow Gospel Choir provided four girls perfect for the job. Colin and Alan brought along Douglas West and his trumpet, and the band was complete.

The gig was by all accounts amazing. Not bad after only eight rehearsals, with only about two of them attended by the whole band. But the choice of musicians proved to be a winning combination.

So now there was a band. It would be stupid to go back to the samples and Al had no choice but to start from scratch, using the tracks as demos for the band to learn... Back to the rehearsal rooms.

Recording a band through a USB device in Al's spare room probably wouldn't have worked out too well so a meeting was set up with Marco Rea, who turned out to be the perfect engineer for the project. The plan now was to record properly without the aid of Pro-tools, and his Barn Studio is analogue throughout. Add the fact that within five minutes of hearing some disco records Marco was explaining exactly how to get the sound required, it was definitely the place to record.

So, ten days were booked to record the band and mix eight tracks.

Hahahahahaha.... TEN DAYS!!

The recording itself was plain sailing, with everything being done in pretty much one take. But extra sessions were being added all the time: The horn section grew to a four piece with the addition of Chris Pugh on trombone, Liza Marie O'Hagan flew in to add her vocals, synth parts were added and it turned out that those Train twins could also write and arrange strings. So they did. And they brought Sarah Wilson, Graham McGeoch, Ruaridh Campbell and Nicola West with them to play. Then editing took on a life of its own!

And so they mixed the biggest sessions either Marco or Al had ever worked on, (Some songs had 44 tracks of strings alone!) and, almost two years on, the project is complete. Hopefully it sounds like what was planned...

The Million Dollar Orchestra are:
Jim Gash: Drums , Stephen Westwater: Bass , Kevin Mcshane: Guitar , Charlie Milne: Keys , Colin Train: Alto Sax, Keys , Alan Train: Tenor Sax , Douglas West: Trumpet , Chris Pugh: Trombone , Sarah Wilson: Violin , Graham Mcgeoch: Violin , Ruaridh Campbell: Viola , Nicola West: Cello , Gary Kainth: Percussion , Ryan Buchanan: Percussion , Liza Marie O'Hagan: Vocals , Susie Palmer: Vocals , Jane McLaughlin: Vocals , Shona Luke: Vocals
A MILLION DOLLAR DISCO PRODUCTION