Jeff Afdem and the Springfield Flute – Watermelon Man
Jeff Afdem
Listen/Download Jeff Afdem and the Springfield Flute – Watermelon Man
Greetings all
The end of the week is here, so I will take this opportunity to invite you all to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen in on the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 download here at the blog.
I should also let you know that the 10th Anniversary of the Funky16Corners blog is coming up in two weeks. That’s right, ten years in, so I’m working on some special mixes to mark the occasion, so keep you eyes and ears peeled for those.
Today’s selection is a very groovy cover of a very familiar song from a very unusual place.
If you follow the comings and goings over at my other blog, Iron Leg, where I travel the roads of (mostly) 60s pop, psych and garage sounds, you may have noticed that I have a special place in my heart (and my crates) for the Pacific Northwest Sound (PNW).
This includes all kinds of stuff, but especially bands like the Sonics, Wailers, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Don and the Goodtimes, and the Springfield Rifle.
Jeff Afdem was a flute and sax player in a number of PNW bands, including Jimmy Hanna and the Dynamics (who did a killer version of ‘Leaving Here’), and the last band on the list above, the Springfield Rifle.
I happened upon Afdem’s version of ‘Watermelon Man’ quite by accident, which searching for 45s on the storied Jerden label.
I spotted the cover, figured it was worth a try, and was not disappointed.
The song was a non-LP 45* released around the same time as Afdem’s 1969 LP ‘Jeff Afdem and the Springfield Flute’ which included a number of pop covers, as well as a couple of soul jazz groovers like ‘Florence of Arabia’ (also covered by Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band).
Afdem’s version of ‘Watermelon Man’ gets off to a great start with booming bass, latin percussion and piano, before the flute comes in to solo. He takes the tune at a brisk tempo making this one great for the dance floor.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.
Keep the faith
Larry
*Though it looks like it was included on a 1977 re-issue of the album
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