Duke Payne – The Bottom b/w Reaction
Artee Duke Payne (left) and Curtis Prince (top) with Odell Brown and the Organizers
Listen/Download Duke Payne – The Bottom
Listen/Download Duke Payne – Reaction
Greetings all
Welcome to the midweek festivities.
I thought it might be a good time to dip into the pantry and bring out something on a groovy soul jazz tip.
It was a while back, whilst doing some of what the record hounds refer to as “e-digging” that I happened upon a 45 that piqued my interest.
The name Duke Payne rang a bell, and after racking my brain for a few minutes I recalled that I was used to hearing it with the name ‘Artee’ in front of it, as in Artee Duke Payne, saxophonist with Odell Brown and the Organizers.
I did a little bit of research, discovered that ‘M and M’ was in fact a Chicago-based imprint, and then (once the record fell through the mail slot) saw the name ‘C. Prince’ (as in Odell Brown’s drummer Curtis Prince) credited as the writer on today’s selection and the cipher was complete.
The record, which dates to sometime in the late 60s, is sought after for the slightly funky bagpipe feature ‘The Bottom’ on the A-side. That track features Payne working it out on the bagpipe – much less irritating than you might think – with vibes and some far out wah-wah guitar.
If you dig into the catalog of Odell Brown and the Organizers, it’s Duke Payne, sometimes treading the border between in and out that gave the group its edge.
Though the late 60s saw a lot of jazzers getting loose and trippy, the results were rarely this cool.
The flipside, ‘Reaction’ is a brilliant bit of soul jazz, with electric saxophone, vibes, organ (doesn’t sound like Odell Brown to me, but who knows?) and guitar, all cranking double time in a groovy modal bag.
The M&M label started out in the mid-50s, releasing all manner of R&B, blues and jazz and seems to have continued at least until the early 80s.
I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Friday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!
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Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
Chicago Soul, Digging, Funky16Corners, Jazz, Jazz funk, Soul Jazz
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Themocracy
I love to hear musicians experimenting with uncommon instrumentation. This would have been around the same time The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” was inspiring The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” with exotic, trippy instrumentation, so its very interesting to hear how this kind of exoticism in instrumentation played out across the spectrum (including jazz/soul) Mr. Payne really goes full on Pharoah Sanders/Sun Ra mode in his solo there! Good god!
If you get a chance, check out the tribute mix I put together when Odell Brown passed away: https://funky16corners.com/?p=1622
Artee Duke Payne always added an experimental edge to those records as well.
Not quite as far out as this 45 but very cool nonetheless .
I love that Reaction tune,
I knew I heard it before,
of course it was the radio show.
that 45 goes for $75 on ebay, I couldn’t find a digital version anywhere else.
you did it again Larry!
thanks!
Glad you like it Ray. I got really lucky with this one. I had no idea it was usually pricey, and bid on it due to the Odell Brown connection, ended up grabbing it fairly cheap.