Philadelphia soul — the sound of Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International, cut at Sigma Sound by the house band MFSB: the O'Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes ("The Love I Lost"), "TSOP". Strings and horns on top, but the engine is drummer Earl Young, bassist Ronnie Baker and guitarist Norman Harris.
How it sits: Young's kick on all four beats, snare on 2 and 4, closed hat on the beats and an open hat on every "and" — the "tss" that disco borrowed wholesale a year or two later. A shaker fills in the sixteenths. Baker's bass plays root, pickup, third, fifth, a melodic step through each chord. The piano comps a lush Cmaj7–Am7–Dm7–G7 (I–vi–ii–V): octave roots in the left hand, a held chord on the beat and a push on the "and" of 2; Harris's guitar chops the backbeat with a light upstroke after it.
Listen for the open hat breathing on the off-beats against the four kicks.
Practice: play the hat alone — close on the beat, open on the "and" — until it swings without swinging. Compare disco-octaves.