Search: disco not disco

Disco/Not Disco Pt3 – Cymande – Bra

By , February 11, 2010 6:57 pm

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Cymande

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Listen/Download – Cymande – Bra

Greetings all.
The end of the week is here, and so is the final installment in the ‘Disco/Not Disco’ series.
It’s been interesting – at least for me – in that this is something that I’d been wanting to do for a long time, and kept putting it off until I had enough time to give it the thought it deserved.
The original intent was to present a couple of what I considered to be representative tracks from David Mancuso’s Loft repertoire, so that those of you reading, who may not have heard of him before might go a little bit further and as they say, read up on your read ups. Check any and all of the books I mentioned: Tim Lawrence’s book “Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979”. Lawrence’s tome, along with Peter Shapiro’s ‘Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco’ (since retitled) and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ for a comprehensive history of club DJs, including Mancuso and his NY scene contemporaries.
The third and last song of the week is perhaps the most challenging of the three selections.
I’ve written about Cymande (a band I love a lot) in this space before.
Though they never rose to the prominence of either Booker T & the MGs or Eddie Kendricks, Cymande did hit the charts here in the US, twice in 1973. First with ‘The Message’, a Top 20 R&B hit, and then again (and for the last time) with today’s selection ‘Bra’ which hovered outside the R&B Top 50. They did make it onto the outer reaches of the Pop charts, but nothing significant, which is shame because they definitely had crossover potential.
Earlier I suggested that ‘Bra’ was the most challenging of this weeks selections. I don’t mean to suggest that it was in any way far out, but rather that its off-center groove, with stop time interplay between the percussion and the bass, with a less than ‘straight ahead’ rhythm. It’s not that I can’t imagine people getting down to ‘Bra’, but it’s definitely the kind of record that dancers might have to warm to, gradually, as opposed to a stereotypical floor-filler.
And therein lies the rub my friends, because that’s precisely the kind of chance that Mancuso would take, i.e. pulling an LP out of the crates and dropping a track – like ‘Bra’ – that while unquestionably danceable, is as valuable a listening experience as it is for dancing.
Co-written by guitarist Pat Patterson and bassist Steve Scipio, ‘Bra’ does open with rhythmically unusual riff – backed up by the song’s signature horn riff – but by the time the chorus comes in, the addition of a strong rhythm guitar propels the beat, rounding its sharp edges and settling into a more conventional groove. This is not to say that the tune loses any of its complexity, but rather, like any dozen James Brown records, the polyrythms are woven together so tightly that even someone with two left feet would be compelled to move.
The first time I had a chance to listen to Cymande’s three album discography in depth (via an old CD comp) what I got out of the experience – aside from lots of quality music – was the impression that despite the group’s marginal chart success, the listening public really missed the boat. The old saw is to indicate that an artist was ‘ahead of their time’ but in the case of Cymande I wouldn’t say that this was entirely true. This is how I described their music when writing about this track almost exactly three years ago:

“Their music was a sophisticated mixture of American soul and funk, African pop, Latin sounds, rock and all of the various and sundry intersections of those sounds. A close listen to their first LP is like a drive through Harlem in the early 70’s with your car windows down, letting snatches of Curtis Mayfield, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Santana and a thousand lesser groups (woven securely into the fabric, but essentially lost to the ages) drift through the windows and into your ears.
There are elements of early-70’s prog-cum-stoner rock guitar, hard drums, jazzy bass and horns as well as a bedrock of polyrhythmic percussion.”

If my approximation of their sound is accurate, the conclusion you would reach is that they were very much of their time, and looking back, it seems amazing to me that they weren’t more popular. There were plenty of black acts incorporating elements of rock music into their sound, and by and large, though there are Jamaican influences (which had been popping in and out of radio playlists for much of the previous decade), they never overpower the band’s funky groove. While it’s understandable that a pop audience might not get too far into their sound, I’m puzzled that they didn’t make more inroads with the more progressive rock audience.
That said, placed against the other tracks in this week’s series, it’s ot hard at all to see why ‘Bra’ was so popular at the Loft. Earlier this week one of the readers requested that I post a Mancuso set list, so I pulled out ‘Love Saves the Day’ an retyped the list below, which doesn’t seem to represent any one night, but rather an amalgam of Loft favorites for the years 1970 to 1973. There are a fair amount of what one might consider to be ‘obvious’ dance records (James Brown, Beginning of the End, Manu Dibango*), a couple of less obvious tunes for the trainspotters, including jazz rock like Traffic’s ‘Glad’ and Brian Auger and the Trinity’s version of Eddie Harris’ soul jazz classic ‘Listen Here’, the breakbeat fave ‘The Mexican’ by Babe Ruth, as well as unusual (likely transitional, mood pieces) like the Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’ and Exuma’s ‘Exuma the Obeah Man’. While there’s a fair amount of info out there listing individual records as ‘Loft favorites’ I was unable to find any specific playlists from the venue’s early 70s heyday.
Interestingly enough, Mancuso has kept some version of his Loft going (at a number of different locations) continuously (though with decreasing frequency) right on through the disco and house music eras. He still travels internationally, putting on Loft parties around the world.
If reading in-depth studies of dance music culture isn’t your bag, see if you can track down the 2003 documentary ‘Maestro’, that follows the development of New York DJ culture from Francis Grasso in the late 60s, all the way through to the end of the Paradise Garage (with Larry Levan) in 1987. It manages to touch on most of the major players, and there are lots of interviews with people that witnessed the development of DJ/club culture while it happened.
I hope that this week’s series has been enlightening (at least musically).
I’m going to see if a hot shower will soothe the muscles and tendons I wore down shoveling snow.
Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

The Loft – Selected Discography 1970 – 1973
From ‘Love Saves the Day’ by Tim Lawrence
Brian Auger & the Trinity – Listen Here
Babe Ruth – The Mexican
Barrabas – Wild Safari
Barrabas – Woman
The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun
Beginning of the End – Funky Nassau
Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot
James Brown – Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine Pt1&2
James Brown – Give It Up Or Turnit a Loose
Chakachas – Jungle Fever
Cymande – Bra
Manu Dibango – Soul Makossa
Equals – Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys
Exuma – Exuma the Obeah Man
Aretha Franklin – Ain’t No Way
Al Green – Love and Happiness
Willie Hutch – Brother’s Gonna Work It Out
Intruders – I’ll Always Love My Mama
JBs – Gimme Some More
Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need a Change of Mind
Morgana King – A Taste of Honey
Gladys Knight & the Pips – It’s Time To Go Now
Little Sister – You’re the One
Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up
Dorothy Morrison – Rain
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
O’Jays – Love Train
Olatunji – Drums of Passion
Osibisa – Survival
Edwin Starr – War
Traffic – Glad
Tribe – Koke
Troubadours du Roi Baudouin – Missa Luba
War – City, Country, City
War – The World Is a Ghetto

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*The story goes that it was the NY club DJs that made Manu Dibango’s ‘Soul Makossa’ a hit before it was widely available in the US, which explains the many covers/rip-offs of the tune that flooded the market before Atlantic released the song domestically

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Disco/Not Disco Pt2 – Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need A Change of Mind

By , February 9, 2010 5:47 pm

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Eddie Kendricks

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Listen/Download – Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need a Change of Mind

Greetings all.
As I write this, I still can’t feel the lower right side of my face, having spent the morning with the dentist and her assistant rummaging in my mouth like it was an old sofa and they’d lost a hundred dollar bill. I even got soup for lunch and STILL managed to bite my lip. Fortunately, the good doctor informs me that aside from an extraction, my dental worries for the year are at an end (until next year and the insurance starts paying again).
A look out the window at the foot or so of snow on the lawn is bad enough, but the weatherman is now forecasting another foot or so for tonight into tomorrow. Once again I ask, WTF? I don’t mind the weather as much as I’m terrified of venturing out onto the roads, alongside the large number of New Jersey residents who have no idea how to drive in the snow. Half of them are going way too slow, and the other half, cruising around in their gas sucking luxury behemoths are going way too fast, thus making the NJ highways – already a gauntlet of sorts – into a veritable death trap. With any luck, the wife and kids will have the day off, so we can stay home and sit beside the fire.
That said, it’s time to continue our week long tribute to David Mancuso and the records he played at the Loft.
Earlier this week, not long after I finished writing the post about Booker T & the MGs, it occurred to me that the vibe I got when reading about Mancuso, and his work as a DJ reminded me of a phrase I learned from a friend many years ago.
Back in the day, though (wisely) I never set foot on a surfboard, I became fascinated with the history of the sport – especially the big wave riders – and I had a couple of friends (thanks to living and working by the beach) who actually surfed. Now, the “waves” (quotes added for sarcasm) at the Jersey Shore rarely rise above a height considered safe for small children and old ladies (aside from those whipped up by the occasional Nor’Easter or hurricane). Despite this fact, no matter what time of year it is, if I take a ride along the beach –especially in the morning – there are surfers out there, making the best of what the ocean has to offer.
Why do I mention this? Because, (also) back in the day, my buddy Joe introduced me to the concept of the ‘soul surfer’. Obvious puns aside, what this refers to is an individual who is technically adept enough to compete with the big dogs, yet rides the waves solely for the sheer pleasure of it, making it into a spiritual endeavor. The more I thought about Mancuso, the Loft and the ideas he brought to the game (and how he inspired me) the more it occurred to me that it made sense to apply that term to Mancuso and those that follow(ed) in his footsteps.
I realize that there are all kinds of DJs out there, separated not only by genre, but also by their approach to spinning (though god knows the cats that actually use records are becoming an endangered species). Ideally, when you enter the DJ booth, your ultimate goal ought to be that the folks dancing, listening or both, have a good time. How good a time they have is dependent on a number of factors, the most important being the quality of the music, and the way you (the DJ) present it to the crowd.
The corner of the musical universe I tend to kick around in is generally concerned with soul and funk, of the vintage persuasion. The folks that come to hear and dance to this music are usually a mix of aficionados, i.e. your Mods and soulies that know their way around and are probably already acquainted with some of the rarer discs in my record box, and regular folks who just want to hear something they can dance to.
It probably goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that the vast majority of DJs in this field are – like myself – what our friends in the UK refer to as anoraks and trainspotters, i.e. detail-oriented obsessives with an eye turned to the rare an obscure. The duty of this type of DJ is to balance their own love for the obscure against the true quality of the records in question (on account of the rarity of a record often- not always – has an inverse relation to the quality), and to offer up a playlist that is interesting, but ultimately satisfying to the largest possible number of people. Finding this balance isn’t always easy. I’ve seen people with incredible record collections step up to the tables and drop one ultra-rare stinkbomb after another. I’ve also seen people with less impressive crates (but spectacular taste) light up a dancefloor with dollar bin wonders.
Today’s selection from the Loft, Eddie Kendricks’ mighty ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ is from the less-obscure end of the spectrum. The song appeared on Kendricks’ landmark 1972 LP ‘People Hold On’, and though it wasn’t a hit*, he was well known from his years in the Temptations, and had scored a chart hit with that album’s opening track ‘If You Let Me’. Like Monday’s tune ‘Melting Pot’, I first heard ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ as a 45 edit. Unlike ‘Melting Pot’, ‘Girl…’ made an impact on me, even in its shortened version.
Written by Motown legend Frank Wilson and Anita Poree (though the 45 credits it to Poree and ex-Radiant Leonard Caston, who co-wrote a number of other songs on ‘People Hold On’), ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ is the ultimate illustration of the ‘disco/not disco’ tag.
Eddie Kendricks is unquestionably one of the fathers of what came to be known as disco. The two years after ‘People Hold On’ saw him have big hits with two of the genre’s important early songs, ‘Keep On Truckin’ and ‘Boogie Down’. While ‘Girl…’ isn’t quite as explicitly “disco” as either of those tracks, all of the stylistic cues are present, albeit not fully formed. Like ‘Melting Pot’, ‘Girl…’ contains multitudes in its seven and a half minute span. Though it works wonders as a three and a half minute soul single, it passes over into the realm of dance floor epic in the album version.
The opening riff, with a simple piano riff over spare percussion – soon joined by snare drum and horn flourishes, opens up into a relatively slow (yet danceable) verse. It’s around the two and a half minute mark, with Kendricks repeated ‘What you say to that?’ refrain, that the tempo escalates, backed by a muscular rhythm guitar (right about where the 45 version fades out). Things change again around 3:45, where everything except the lead guitar and tambourine drop out, the band gradually coming back in (the piano and rhythm guitar are especially sweet here) until the drums come in strong at about 5:10. It’s at this point where the picture of ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ as dance floor epic comes into full focus. Unlike many 12” singles that would drop in the coming years, ‘Girl…’ is both song enough for the radio, and (in it’s LP form) long enough for the dancers.
Things change yet again at 5:55 – and again this must have been absolutely magical over the Loft’s sound system – as we’re left with just the congas and Kendrick’s falsetto, followed in short order by the band returning to full power by the end of the record (sounding – at this stage – several years ahead of its time).
Interestingly enough, as proto-disco goes, it’s another ‘People Hold On’ track, ‘Date With the Rain’ – another big hit in the clubs that failed to score on the radio – a remarkable (but tragically short, at 2:40) dance record, that more closely fits the mold. It is also available (but much rarer) on 45.
I hope you dig the track(s), and I’ll be back on Friday with another great record.

Peace

Larry

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*CORRECTION – I just dug out my Billboard R&B Chart book, and discovered that ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind Pt1’ (the 45 edit)  was in fact a Top 20 R&B hit.

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Disco/Not Disco Pt1 – Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot

By , February 7, 2010 6:24 pm

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Booker T and the MGs

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Listen/Download – Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot

Greetings all.
I hope that those of you located in the path of the big snowstorm are well, shoveled out and warm. Unlike the last time storm, during which my snowblower was locked in the tool shed, its get up and go having got up and went, the most crucial of snow battling machines was up and running this time, making for a much neater, much less labor intensive experience. There’s still a shit-stack of the white stuff surrounding the Funky16Corners compound, but ingress and egress are assured.
This week is another one of those Funky16Corners ‘theme’ extravaganzas, in which I dip into the vault and run a Sesame Street – ‘How are these things like one another’ – game on you, but provide you with the answers (or at least my version thereof).
Last year, one of my major reading experiences was Tim Lawrence’s book “Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979”. Lawrence’s tome, along with Peter Shapiro’s ‘Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco’ (since retitled) and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ when taken together form a de fact encyclopedia of modern DJ culture. All three are well written and deeply informative, but more than that, they introduce you to a couple of seminal personalities without whom DJ-ing (and dance music) would not exist as it does today.
Because of these three books, I came away with a deep and abiding respect (bordering on idolatry) for the work of David Mancuso. It was Mancuso (pictured above), who in 1970 threw the first dance party in his loft (which became The Loft), calling it Love Saves the Day (get it? Nudge, nudge say no more…). Though there were many other important figures in DJ culture (especially Francis Grasso who paved the way for Mancuso in New York City), for me, Mancuso rises above all others.
From the very first time I entered a DJ booth, I’ve endeavored to create an experience for the people on the dance floor turning solely on the gears of good music. Some of it was rare, some of it extremely common, but the idea was to drop the needle on something that the dancers would dig, and do my best to lift the room. Years later, when I became aware of Mancuso through the books listed above I realized that he was in many ways the ur-DJ.
If you’ve spun records for a crowd, you already know (or should) that nothing feels better than laying down some quality sounds and feeling the energy on the dance floor build, incrementally, layering record on top of record, shifting the tempo up (most of the time anyway) but always attempting to build on that increase with a parallel increase in the quality of the music coming out of the speakers. There’s something to be said for the idea that on a perfect night, a DJ is something akin to the ancient cats drumming around the fire, whipping their fellow tribesmen into a lather, drumming harder as they dance faster until the lot of them were participants in a musical hive mind of sorts, connected by the beat. When you’re spinning records, sometimes it only comes together for a couple of songs, sometimes not at all, but when it does there’s nothing better. Certainly the vast majority of people in a dance club are there first and foremost to have a good time, but there’s no reason in the best of all possible worlds that it can’t also be elevated to the spiritual level.
Before you can get to that specific place, a DJ has to do two fundamental things.
First and foremost, keep your ears (and your mind) open. The more you listen to, and the more time you spend among others that really know and seek out good music the larger your internal repertoire/reference library is going to be.
Second, and if you’ve spent any time following the going on here at Funky16Corners you probably picked up on this one: keep digging. The more time you spend actively seeking out new music in the field, the more likely it is that when the time comes to pull some heat out of your crates and drop it on the ones and twos that you’ll be making a good choice.
Certainly there’s the issue of taste, but even that can be improved with enough study.
That all said, what I came away from all three of those books knowing about David Mancuso, was that his tastes were expansive. A look at his playlists reveals that alongside many accepted classics (many of those placed in the canon by Mancuso and his contemporaries) there were a lot of – for lack of a better term – ‘unusual’ choices. Half a decade before guys like Kool Herc and Flash were cutting rock breaks in the Bronx, Mancuso was playing all manner of rock, jazz, world music and pop sounds at the Loft, alongside a healthy portion of what are now considered ‘consensus’ dance records.
Remember, we’re talking about an era where the large majority of genres that rule the dance club world today hadn’t yet been codified. ‘Disco’ was years away from common usage and 12” singles – with their dance floor specific extended versions – did not yet exist. Though there were some records on his playlists that are now considered part of the vanguard of what would come to be known as disco (especially some Eddie Kendricks jams, one of which will be featured later this week), Mancuso mixed in just about anything else that made sense in the context of his sets.
The Loft parties, though conceived on an intimate scale, were hugely influential, with regular attendees/devotees including Nicky Siano (the Gallery), Larry Levan (Paradise Garage) and Frankie Knuckles (the Warehouse, from which ‘house’ music got its name) all of whom went on to marks on dance music culture in their own ways.
The first track I’m going to bring you this week is a perfect (capsule) example of all that was great about the Loft. Oddly enough, the first time I heard Booker T and the MGs doing ‘Melting Pot’ it was on a 45, with the vast majority of its power stripped away. After reading about its place of honor at the Loft, I sought out the 1971 LP of the same name. I finally scored a copy when I was DJing down in DC last year. Once I got it home and had a chance to drop the needle on the LP version of the title song, it became obvious why Mancuso used it at the Loft.
‘Melting Pot’ is, inside of its eight minute playing time, a microcosm of an entire set. The song opens with rimshots by Al Jackson, but it’s Steve Cropper’s pulsing rhythm guitar that sets the pace. When Booker T’s organ and Jackson’s drums come in the groove is locked down. The band – one of the tightest of the classic soul era – only really works up a full head of steam at the three minute mark, which explains why the 45 lacks the punch of the LP version.
It’s important to note the atmosphere in which the ‘Melting Pot’ album was created. It was the last album by the classic MGs lineup. Booker T Jones was fed up with the new regime at Stax and was on the verge of leaving the group. He refused to record in Memphis, so the album was recorded on the road in NYC. The sound of the album is a serious departure from the band’s earlier work, revealing a more expansive, more progressive Booker T and the MGs. While tracks like ‘Chicken Pox’ – with the MGs channeling the Meters – show that they might not have been leading the pack anymore, a cut like ‘Melting Pot’ shows that had they stayed together, they might very well have moved to the front once again.
As I mentioned before, ‘Melting Pot’ is almost like a small, self-contained DJ set. The song has several distinct sections in which the MGs bring up the tempo gradually, hit a peak and then chill out, only to re-state the groove again and again, bringing the dancers along for the ride. Listen at around 4:15 where Jones and Duck Dunn fall back, leaving Jackson and Cropper to rebuild the song from the opening statement. Dunn drops back in with a repeated, almost circular bass line, and Jones solos over the top of it all. I can only imagine what Al Jackson’s punchy bass drum accents sounded like pouring out of the Loft’s sound system. While ‘Melting Pot’ is clearly not ‘disco’ as it came to be known, the second half of the song is definitely a prototype for extended dance mixes to come. The temptation, as the song fades out just past the eight minute mark, is to cue up a second copy and keep the groove going.
‘Melting Pot’ which was the last 45 by the classic Booker T and the MGs line up, and strangely enough the flip side is another drastically truncated long jam,’Kinda Easy Like’ which also runs over eight minutes on the LP. It grazed the Pop Top 40 and hit the R&B Top 20. Following the ‘Melting Pot’ album, Booker T Jones would leave the group and relocate to California where he would work with artists like Bill Withers. Cropper would also leave the fold, with Dunn and Jackson reconstituting the MGs with a new organist and guitarist.
All in all, ‘Melting Pot’ is – at least for those that haven’t heard it – a revelation, and a great way to start a week of Loft tracks.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

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F16C 2016 Allnighter/Pledge Drive – HeavySoulBrutha Dave B – Another 14@45RPM

By , June 8, 2016 12:28 pm

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“Another 14@45rpm For Funky16Corners”
HSB Intro…
Bobby Bland – Yield Not To Temptation (Duke)
James Brown – James Brown’s Boo-Ga-Loo (Smash)
King Floyd – Baby Let Me Kiss You (Chimneyville)
Otis Leavill – I’m So Jealous (Dakar)
Chairman Of The Board – Pay To The Piper (Invictus)
Dennis Landry – Miss Hard To Get (Soul Unlimited)
Marilynn Barbarin – Reborn (Bo-Sound via Soul Jazz Records)
“The Vinyl Experience”
Special Delivery – I Destroyed Your Love (Mainstream)
Tyrone Davis – Without You In My Life (Dakar)
Roscoe Robinson – What Color Is Love (Fame)
Paul Humphrey – Funky L.A. (Lizard)
Aretha Franklin – Respect (Atlantic)
The Bar-Kays – Soul Finger (Volt)
Marva Whitney – This Girls In Love With You (King)
“Honey, I Live Music…”

 

Listen/Download – HeavySoulBrutha – Another 14@45RPM for Funky16Corners 89MB Mixed MP3

 

Greetings all 

Welcome back to the Funky16Corners 2016 Allnighter/Pledge Drive.

Today I bring you a tasty new mix from my man the HeavySoulBrutha!

Dave has dipped into his crates for a sequel to his mix from last year.

I’ll let him tell you about it:

“It’s such an incredible honor to be a part of the 2016 Funky16Corners Pledge Drive. It’s only proper that my mix contains all 45’s, as this was the spot that I first landed on when I became fascinated by those 2 sided gems. It was visiting HERE that expanded my knowledge and vocabulary. It was visiting HERE caused me to very quickly start to filling up my “wants list.” It was visiting HERE that I connected with other like minded & superbly cool music lovers around the world. IT IS HERE that I continue to discover incredible music. I don’t know when or where Larry’s record collection ends, but I hope it never does!!!

This is my sequel to last year’s mix, appropriately titled, “Another…” I hope you DIG, and please hit the donate button and help support this fantastic place.

Peace and SOUL… DaveB. aka HeavySoulBrutha (www.mixcloud.com/HeavySoulBrutha)

Thanks, HSB!

Don’t forget to click the Paypal button and donate, and we’ll be back tomorrow with a new mix from DJ Bluewater!
___________________________




Your donations help to keep Funky16Corners up and running, with the blog, Funky16Corners Radio Show podcast and hundreds of hours of archived mixes.

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Everyone that donates will get the new 2016 Funky16Corners badge and bumpersticker, with which you can adorn the garment and flat surface of your choosing.

So pull down the ones and zeros, dig deep and Keep the Faith!

___________________________




Keep the faith

Larry

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The Great Disco/Northern Soul Crossover

By , November 9, 2014 3:45 pm

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The Brothers/Silvetti

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Listen/Download The Brothers – Are You Ready For This

Listen/Download Silvetti – Spring Rain

Greetings all

I hope you’re ready to get your groove on this week.

Having done a lot of reading about (and an exponential amount of listening to) the Northern Soul phenomenon over the last decade or so, something that I discovered – along with a grip of amazing music – is that the musical essence of that scene is not at as monolithic as you might think.

Surely there is a “Northern” sound, but if you dig into the annals, especially in the 1970s explosion in the UK, you discover that some of the DJs and the dancers had open minds (and ears).

Here in the US, where exposure to ‘Northern Soul’ is often tied directly to the mod/60s bag (hewing closer to the Manchester-based 60s scene at the Twisted Wheel, which was instrumental in the development of a rare soul scene in the UK), the idea of hearing a Philadelphia International side, or any other disco-identified sound, is all but blasphemous.

However, take a look at the playlists of many of the biggest Northern clubs in the 70s, and you alongside the ultra-rare Motown-influenced ish, you will also see records – then new – that many soul fans today would file off to the side as ‘disco’.

What a lot of people ignore (to their own peril) is that a much of the music associated with early disco culture is by any other name, soul music. Your anoraks/trainspotters/”experts”/killjoys will try to convince you that little after the end of the 60s is worth listening to, but like everyone else, they are wrong from time to time.

When they do that, they forget that Northern Soul was once a vibrant, living, breathing scene, and above all a dancer’s scene and if a record brought people out onto the floor, that’s all that mattered.

Today I bring you two examples of records that were created for disco dance floors and were absorbed into the Northern Soul scene.

The first, ‘Are You Ready For This’ by the Brothers is a solid, four on the floor dancer with the kind of sweeping, melodic string flourished that the soulies really dug.

The Brothers were a New York based studio creation, built around producer Warren Schatz and pianist Bhen Lanzaroni. Their 1975 LP ‘Disco-Soul’ was composed almost entirely of new versions of disco standards by groups like the Ohio Players (the LP features a very cool Hammond driven cover of ‘Fire’), Barry White, Disco Tex, Carol Douglas, and Gloria Gaynor, interspersed with originals by Lanzaroni and Schatz.

‘Are You Ready For This’ was released as a single in the US and the UK, and was picked up by UK DJs where it became a staple at clubs like the Blackpool Mecca (it also seems to have been a minor hit in New York City discos).

The second track I bring you today is ‘Spring Rain’ by Silvetti. Juan Fernando Silvetti Adorno, aka Bebu Silvetti, or just Silvetti, was an Argentinian composer/arranger/producer who had his biggest hit with ‘Spring Rain’ in 1977.

The record was a big hit in US and European discos, but was also brought into the Northern scene (to the consternation of many) by disco-friendly DJs like Ian Levine. Like ‘Are You Ready For This’, ‘Spring Rain’ has a strong beat, and wave upon wave of strings.

As time wore on, and new sounds became popular, and the idea of ‘soul music’ became more expansive – I hesitate to say ‘inclusive’ since there were/are many who would just as soon strangle you than hear a disco record – new terminology was adopted that allowed collectors and DJs to compartmentalize these records into their own genres, like ‘modern soul’, ‘deep funk’, ‘rare groove’ and ‘crossover’. Often times you’ll see announcements for allnighters and weekends in the UK and Europe where these tangential sounds will have separate rooms/dance floors devoted to them.

If you have an open mind policy (like we do here) it’s not at all hard to see the threads that link all of these categories, and to find your way back through their roots, stopping to savor the vast array of records that resist classification (often my favorite kind).

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

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).

 

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Programming note…

By , November 12, 2012 11:51 am

You may have noticed that the front page of the blog has a different look.

I have been having difficulties with my web space provider reporting excessive CPU usage for the blog.

I have discovered that WordPress apparently has some inherent issues/glitches that cause problems like this and I am scrambling to optimize the blog (the parts visible to you, the reader, and the parts only visible to me, the admin).

As a result, there will be fewer posts visible on the front page (not really an issue since all you need to do  to see more is click on the “older posts” link at the bottom of the page).

I have also removed an unnecessary graphics from the front page, including some of the icons in the links column. The text links themselves remain, but if you’re used to clicking on the graphics there may be a period of adjustment for you.

Other than than, the Funky16Corners experience should be seamless, for now.

This is an ongoing process, and my limitations working with code may force me to make radical readjustments sometime in the future.

I will try to keep you apprised of the changes in advance.

If anyone has any expertise with this specific problem, please let me know.

Thanks

Larry

The Pioneers – At the Discotheque

By , July 19, 2012 2:15 pm

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The Pioneers
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Listen/Download The Pioneers – At the Discotheque

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and so is your weekly dose of soul with the Funky16Corners Radio Show. Join us at 9PM this and every Friday night on Viva Radio or fall by the blog over the weekend to pick yourself up an MP3 of the broadcast.

The tune I bring you today was one of those happy, completely unexpected discoveries that make record collecting such a gas.

I had long been a fan of Chubby Checker’s 1964 soul classic ‘(At the) Discotheque’.

If you haven’t heard it, don’t let yourself be put off by the name Chubby Checker. Though he’s best known for earlier fair like ‘The Twist’ (and countless iterations thereof) the Chub-ster acquitted himself quite nicely during his later years, and ‘(At the) Discotheque’ is one of his best.

That said, imagine my surprise when years after first grabbing a copy of Monsieur Checker’s magnum opus, I should stumble upon a reggae cover of the song by one of the greatest Jamaican groups (who had been featured in this space before) the Pioneers.

Known to fans of rock steady for records like ‘Long Shot Kick De Bucket’ and ‘Let Your Yeah Be Yeah’ and to soul heads for their incredible cover of the Temptations ‘Papa Was a Rolling Stone’, the Pioneers laid down their cover of ‘(At the) Discoptheque’ in 1973.

As far as I can tell the Pioneers excellent version of the tune wasn’t a hit anywhere, though it was released in the Netherlands (which is where my copy originated).

It’s another very cool version of cool song, and here at Funky16Corners, that’s all we need.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

 


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).

Example

Example

 

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

David Mancuso 1944 – 2016

By , November 15, 2016 10:57 am

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Greetings all

Yesterday evening word started to get out that one of the true originators of DJ culture and founder of the Loft, David Mancuso had passed away at the age of 72.

Mancuso’s is a name that does not elicit a great deal of pop culture recognition these days, but if you are a DJ, student of the culture, or one of the people lucky enough to have experienced any of his NY-based Loft parties, in the 70s or beyond, it is one that demands respect.

To call David Mancuso a DJ is an acceptable shorthand (because in the most superficial way, that’s what he was) but a careful examination reveals that he was much more than that.

These days, if you call someone a DJ, it has a number of meanings, from the guy trying to get people to do the hokey pokey at a wedding, hardcore collectors/selectors in a wide variety of genres, and all the way up to the electronica selectors playing music for tens of thousands of people at a time around the world.

Mancuso has some tenuous connection to all of them, but was in essence something much deeper, closer to a musical conjurer/shaman than anything else.

He started The Loft in 1970 (though he had been doing something similar periodically since 1965) as a series of rent parties, based around his love of music and his devotion to presenting it via high end, audiophile sound. He used the music, the sound system, and a variety of environmental enhancements (up to and including drugs, it was no coincidence that the first part was called ‘Love Saves The Day’ – dig the initials).

That he did all of this in the days when the DJ equipment we take for granted existed only in primitive forms (if it existed at all), and that he presented it all through the gateway of his particular, expansive, inclusive (in all ways) sensibility is what made it special.

I first read about Mancuso in Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s essential tome ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ in 1999, and I was entranced by his ideas about what kind of music to put together, how to present it (he barely mixed his records, if ever), and especially the sounds on his playlists.

Today, it would be unthinkable for a club DJ to play records all the way through, and then not mixing/beatmatching. Mancuso would play long, dynamically diverse records, filled with highs and lows in energy and volume, emphasizing his belief in the power of the musis, as opposed to lashing himself to the shortened attention span of a crowd and pushing them along.

He played soul, funk (there wasn’t any real ‘disco’ to speak of when he started), rock, world music, sound effects, all assembled to create a mood and take a crowd into his embrace, lifting them up, and placing them down gently.

In an interview with Red Bull Music Academy, Mancuso described it thusly:

From the beginning, your parties were designed to bring people together.

I was very frustrated. A lot of times I wouldn’t enjoy things about going to certain places, from the soundsystem to the door policy. I was able to prevent that, and by having a certain way of doing things, we promoted social progress.

To this day, there’s no dress code. There’s no age control. You don’t have a liquor license. Once you have the different economical groups mixed together, the social progress starts to kick in. You have people from all walks of life coming together.

The music also had a lot of crossover. We had all kinds of music being played, from one end of spectrum to the other, and people found out that, “Hey, I like Led Zeppelin and I like James Brown.”

People just want to have a good time. They want to feel safe and have a good time. That’s always rule number one for a place, to be safe. But it’s more than not just doing things like overcrowding, it extends all the way down to protecting the ears.

After reading about Mancuso, and exploring the kinds of records he played (many of which were new to me), I always tried to emulate him. I rarely got to DJ the kind of nights he did, but even playing a straight up soul or funk night, I always try to take chances, and to grab a crowd and lift it like he did.

And really, any DJ, in any style or setting ought to carry that simple formula in the back of their mind.

The world is full of DJs that can hammer a crowd with a steady BPM and a list of guaranteed crowd pleasers, but having been on both sides of the DJ booth, I can attest to the fact that there is nothing better than being genuinely, pleasantly surprised by a DJ who simply focuses on good music, sequencing obscurities (high and low dollar), with classics and mixing in things from the margins of (or only peripherally related to) a genre in a way that fills you with joy and makes you want to get up and dance.

Because that, and only that, is what it should be all about.

If you want to go into a club and floss your record collection for the heads in the crowd, with no regard for whether or not they’re going to make anybody dance (or at least smile), then don’t call yourself a DJ.

I have been fortunate enough, over the years to have been given the opportunity to spin at gigs (especially the Asbury Park 45 Sessions) where I was allowed some degree of latitude in what I played, and I’m proud to say that I took chances whenever I could, always with the spirit of David Mancuso, and the Loft in air.

Today’s post is composed of a series from 2010 called ‘Disco Not Disco’, where I spent a week taking about Mancuso and exploring a couple of his signature records, by Booker T and the MGs, Eddie Kendricks, and Cymande.

I will return later in the week with a few more things, including a repost of a Mancuso-inspired mix from 2014, and a special edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show (dedicated to Mancuso and the Loft)  this Friday.

So read up on your read ups, pull down the ones and zeros, and remember that love does indeed save the day.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Booker T and the MGs

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Listen/Download – Booker T and the MGs – Melting Pot MP3

Greetings all.

This week is another one of those Funky16Corners ‘theme’ extravaganzas, in which I dip into the vault and run a Sesame Street – ‘How are these things like one another’ – game on you, but provide you with the answers (or at least my version thereof).

Last year, one of my major reading experiences was Tim Lawrence’s book “Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979”. Lawrence’s tome, along with Peter Shapiro’s ‘Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco’ (since retitled) and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ when taken together form a de fact encyclopedia of modern DJ culture. All three are well written and deeply informative, but more than that, they introduce you to a couple of seminal personalities without whom DJ-ing (and dance music) would not exist as it does today.

Because of these three books, I came away with a deep and abiding respect (bordering on idolatry) for the work of David Mancuso. It was Mancuso (pictured above), who in 1970 threw the first dance party in his loft (which became The Loft), calling it Love Saves the Day (get it? Nudge, nudge say no more…). Though there were many other important figures in DJ culture (especially Francis Grasso who paved the way for Mancuso in New York City), for me, Mancuso rises above all others.

From the very first time I entered a DJ booth, I’ve endeavored to create an experience for the people on the dance floor turning solely on the gears of good music. Some of it was rare, some of it extremely common, but the idea was to drop the needle on something that the dancers would dig, and do my best to lift the room. Years later, when I became aware of Mancuso through the books listed above I realized that he was in many ways the ur-DJ.

If you’ve spun records for a crowd, you already know (or should) that nothing feels better than laying down some quality sounds and feeling the energy on the dance floor build, incrementally, layering record on top of record, shifting the tempo up (most of the time anyway) but always attempting to build on that increase with a parallel increase in the quality of the music coming out of the speakers. There’s something to be said for the idea that on a perfect night, a DJ is something akin to the ancient cats drumming around the fire, whipping their fellow tribesmen into a lather, drumming harder as they dance faster until the lot of them were participants in a musical hive mind of sorts, connected by the beat. When you’re spinning records, sometimes it only comes together for a couple of songs, sometimes not at all, but when it does there’s nothing better.

Certainly the vast majority of people in a dance club are there first and foremost to have a good time, but there’s no reason in the best of all possible worlds that it can’t also be elevated to the spiritual level.

Before you can get to that specific place, a DJ has to do two fundamental things.

First and foremost, keep your ears (and your mind) open. The more you listen to, and the more time you spend among others that really know and seek out good music the larger your internal repertoire/reference library is going to be.

Second, and if you’ve spent any time following the going on here at Funky16Corners you probably picked up on this one: keep digging. The more time you spend actively seeking out new music in the field, the more likely it is that when the time comes to pull some heat out of your crates and drop it on the ones and twos that you’ll be making a good choice.

Certainly there’s the issue of taste, but even that can be improved with enough study.

That all said, what I came away from all three of those books knowing about David Mancuso, was that his tastes were expansive. A look at his playlists reveals that alongside many accepted classics (many of those placed in the canon by Mancuso and his contemporaries) there were a lot of – for lack of a better term – ‘unusual’ choices. Half a decade before guys like Kool Herc and Flash were cutting rock breaks in the Bronx, Mancuso was playing all manner of rock, jazz, world music and pop sounds at the Loft, alongside a healthy portion of what are now considered ‘consensus’ dance records.

Remember, we’re talking about an era where the large majority of genres that rule the dance club world today hadn’t yet been codified. ‘Disco’ was years away from common usage and 12” singles – with their dance floor specific extended versions – did not yet exist. Though there were some records on his playlists that are now considered part of the vanguard of what would come to be known as disco (especially some Eddie Kendricks jams, one of which will be featured later this week), Mancuso mixed in just about anything else that made sense in the context of his sets.
The Loft parties, though conceived on an intimate scale, were hugely influential, with regular attendees/devotees including Nicky Siano (the Gallery), Larry Levan (Paradise Garage) and Frankie Knuckles (the Warehouse, from which ‘house’ music got its name) all of whom went on to marks on dance music culture in their own ways.

The first track I’m going to bring you this week is a perfect (capsule) example of all that was great about the Loft. Oddly enough, the first time I heard Booker T and the MGs doing ‘Melting Pot’ it was on a 45, with the vast majority of its power stripped away. After reading about its place of honor at the Loft, I sought out the 1971 LP of the same name. I finally scored a copy when I was DJing down in DC last year. Once I got it home and had a chance to drop the needle on the LP version of the title song, it became obvious why Mancuso used it at the Loft.

‘Melting Pot’ is, inside of its eight minute playing time, a microcosm of an entire set. The song opens with rimshots by Al Jackson, but it’s Steve Cropper’s pulsing rhythm guitar that sets the pace. When Booker T’s organ and Jackson’s drums come in the groove is locked down. The band – one of the tightest of the classic soul era – only really works up a full head of steam at the three minute mark, which explains why the 45 lacks the punch of the LP version.

It’s important to note the atmosphere in which the ‘Melting Pot’ album was created. It was the last album by the classic MGs lineup. Booker T Jones was fed up with the new regime at Stax and was on the verge of leaving the group. He refused to record in Memphis, so the album was recorded on the road in NYC. The sound of the album is a serious departure from the band’s earlier work, revealing a more expansive, more progressive Booker T and the MGs. While tracks like ‘Chicken Pox’ – with the MGs channeling the Meters – show that they might not have been leading the pack anymore, a cut like ‘Melting Pot’ shows that had they stayed together, they might very well have moved to the front once again.

As I mentioned before, ‘Melting Pot’ is almost like a small, self-contained DJ set. The song has several distinct sections in which the MGs bring up the tempo gradually, hit a peak and then chill out, only to re-state the groove again and again, bringing the dancers along for the ride. Listen at around 4:15 where Jones and Duck Dunn fall back, leaving Jackson and Cropper to rebuild the song from the opening statement. Dunn drops back in with a repeated, almost circular bass line, and Jones solos over the top of it all. I can only imagine what Al Jackson’s punchy bass drum accents sounded like pouring out of the Loft’s sound system. While ‘Melting Pot’ is clearly not ‘disco’ as it came to be known, the second half of the song is definitely a prototype for extended dance mixes to come. The temptation, as the song fades out just past the eight minute mark, is to cue up a second copy and keep the groove going.

‘Melting Pot’ which was the last 45 by the classic Booker T and the MGs line up, and strangely enough the flip side is another drastically truncated long jam,’Kinda Easy Like’ which also runs over eight minutes on the LP. It grazed the Pop Top 40 and hit the R&B Top 20. Following the ‘Melting Pot’ album, Booker T Jones would leave the group and relocate to California where he would work with artists like Bill Withers.

Cropper would also leave the fold, with Dunn and Jackson reconstituting the MGs with a new organist and guitarist.

All in all, ‘Melting Pot’ is – at least for those that haven’t heard it – a revelation, and a great way to start a week of Loft tracks.
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Eddie Kendricks

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Listen/Download – Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need a Change of Mind MP3

Greetings all.
It’s time to continue our week long tribute to David Mancuso and the records he played at the Loft.

Earlier this week, not long after I finished writing the post about Booker T & the MGs, it occurred to me that the vibe I got when reading about Mancuso, and his work as a DJ reminded me of a phrase I learned from a friend many years ago.

Back in the day, though (wisely) I never set foot on a surfboard, I became fascinated with the history of the sport – especially the big wave riders – and I had a couple of friends (thanks to living and working by the beach) who actually surfed. Now, the “waves” (quotes added for sarcasm) at the Jersey Shore rarely rise above a height considered safe for small children and old ladies (aside from those whipped up by the occasional Nor’Easter or hurricane). Despite this fact, no matter what time of year it is, if I take a ride along the beach –especially in the morning – there are surfers out there, making the best of what the ocean has to offer.

Why do I mention this? Because, (also) back in the day, my buddy Joe introduced me to the concept of the ‘soul surfer’. Obvious puns aside, what this refers to is an individual who is technically adept enough to compete with the big dogs, yet rides the waves solely for the sheer pleasure of it, making it into a spiritual endeavor. The more I thought about Mancuso, the Loft and the ideas he brought to the game (and how he inspired me) the more it occurred to me that it made sense to apply that term to Mancuso and those that follow(ed) in his footsteps.
I realize that there are all kinds of DJs out there, separated not only by genre, but also by their approach to spinning (though god knows the cats that actually use records are becoming an endangered species). Ideally, when you enter the DJ booth, your ultimate goal ought to be that the folks dancing, listening or both, have a good time. How good a time they have is dependent on a number of factors, the most important being the quality of the music, and the way you (the DJ) present it to the crowd.

The corner of the musical universe I tend to kick around in is generally concerned with soul and funk, of the vintage persuasion. The folks that come to hear and dance to this music are usually a mix of aficionados, i.e. your Mods and soulies that know their way around and are probably already acquainted with some of the rarer discs in my record box, and regular folks who just want to hear something they can dance to.

It probably goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that the vast majority of DJs in this field are – like myself – what our friends in the UK refer to as anoraks and trainspotters, i.e. detail-oriented obsessives with an eye turned to the rare an obscure. The duty of this type of DJ is to balance their own love for the obscure against the true quality of the records in question (on account of the rarity of a record often- not always – has an inverse relation to the quality), and to offer up a playlist that is interesting, but ultimately satisfying to the largest possible number of people. Finding this balance isn’t always easy. I’ve seen people with incredible record collections step up to the tables and drop one ultra-rare stinkbomb after another. I’ve also seen people with less impressive crates (but spectacular taste) light up a dancefloor with dollar bin wonders.

Today’s selection from the Loft, Eddie Kendricks’ mighty ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ is from the less-obscure end of the spectrum. The song appeared on Kendricks’ landmark 1972 LP ‘People Hold On’ (the 45 version was a Top 20 R&B hit). Kendricks was well known from his years in the Temptations, and had scored a chart hit with that album’s opening track ‘If You Let Me’. Like Monday’s tune ‘Melting Pot’, I first heard ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ as a 45 edit. Unlike ‘Melting Pot’, ‘Girl…’ made an impact on me, even in its shortened version.

Written by Motown legend Frank Wilson and Anita Poree (though the 45 credits it to Poree and ex-Radiant Leonard Caston, who co-wrote a number of other songs on ‘People Hold On’), ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ is the ultimate illustration of the ‘disco/not disco’ tag.

Eddie Kendricks is unquestionably one of the fathers of what came to be known as disco. The two years after ‘People Hold On’ saw him have big hits with two of the genre’s important early songs, ‘Keep On Truckin’ and ‘Boogie Down’. While ‘Girl…’ isn’t quite as explicitly “disco” as either of those tracks, all of the stylistic cues are present, albeit not fully formed. Like ‘Melting Pot’, ‘Girl…’ contains multitudes in its seven and a half minute span. Though it works wonders as a three and a half minute soul single, it passes over into the realm of dance floor epic in the album version.

The opening riff, with a simple piano riff over spare percussion – soon joined by snare drum and horn flourishes, opens up into a relatively slow (yet danceable) verse. It’s around the two and a half minute mark, with Kendricks repeated ‘What you say to that?’ refrain, that the tempo escalates, backed by a muscular rhythm guitar (right about where the 45 version fades out). Things change again around 3:45, where everything except the lead guitar and tambourine drop out, the band gradually coming back in (the piano and rhythm guitar are especially sweet here) until the drums come in strong at about 5:10. It’s at this point where the picture of ‘Girl You Need a Change of Mind’ as dance floor epic comes into full focus. Unlike many 12” singles that would drop in the coming years, ‘Girl…’ is both song enough for the radio, and (in it’s LP form) long enough for the dancers.

Things change yet again at 5:55 – and again this must have been absolutely magical over the Loft’s sound system – as we’re left with just the congas and Kendrick’s falsetto, followed in short order by the band returning to full power by the end of the record (sounding – at this stage – several years ahead of its time).

Interestingly enough, as proto-disco goes, it’s another ‘People Hold On’ track, ‘Date With the Rain’ – another big hit in the clubs that failed to score on the radio – a remarkable (but tragically short, at 2:40) dance record, that more closely fits the mold. It is also available (but much rarer) on 45.
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Cymande

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Listen/Download – Cymande – Bra MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and so is the final installment in the ‘Disco/Not Disco’ series.
It’s been interesting – at least for me – in that this is something that I’d been wanting to do for a long time, and kept putting it off until I had enough time to give it the thought it deserved.
The original intent was to present a couple of what I considered to be representative tracks from David Mancuso’s Loft repertoire, so that those of you reading, who may not have heard of him before might go a little bit further and as they say, read up on your read ups. Check any and all of the books I mentioned: Tim Lawrence’s book “Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979”. Lawrence’s tome, along with Peter Shapiro’s ‘Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco’ (since retitled) and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ for a comprehensive history of club DJs, including Mancuso and his NY scene contemporaries.

The third and last song of the week is perhaps the most challenging of the three selections.

I’ve written about Cymande (a band I love a lot) in this space before.

Though they never rose to the prominence of either Booker T & the MGs or Eddie Kendricks, Cymande did hit the charts here in the US, twice in 1973. First with ‘The Message’, a Top 20 R&B hit, and then again (and for the last time) with today’s selection ‘Bra’ which hovered outside the R&B Top 50. They did make it onto the outer reaches of the Pop charts, but nothing significant, which is shame because they definitely had crossover potential.

Earlier I suggested that ‘Bra’ was the most challenging of this weeks selections. I don’t mean to suggest that it was in any way far out, but rather that its off-center groove, with stop time interplay between the percussion and the bass, with a less than ‘straight ahead’ rhythm. It’s not that I can’t imagine people getting down to ‘Bra’, but it’s definitely the kind of record that dancers might have to warm to, gradually, as opposed to a stereotypical floor-filler.

And therein lies the rub my friends, because that’s precisely the kind of chance that Mancuso would take, i.e. pulling an LP out of the crates and dropping a track – like ‘Bra’ – that while unquestionably danceable, is as valuable a listening experience as it is for dancing.

Co-written by guitarist Pat Patterson and bassist Steve Scipio, ‘Bra’ does open with rhythmically unusual riff – backed up by the song’s signature horn riff – but by the time the chorus comes in, the addition of a strong rhythm guitar propels the beat, rounding its sharp edges and settling into a more conventional groove. This is not to say that the tune loses any of its complexity, but rather, like any dozen James Brown records, the polyrythms are woven together so tightly that even someone with two left feet would be compelled to move.

The first time I had a chance to listen to Cymande’s three album discography in depth (via an old CD comp) what I got out of the experience – aside from lots of quality music – was the impression that despite the group’s marginal chart success, the listening public really missed the boat. The old saw is to indicate that an artist was ‘ahead of their time’ but in the case of Cymande I wouldn’t say that this was entirely true. This is how I described their music when writing about this track almost exactly three years ago:

“Their music was a sophisticated mixture of American soul and funk, African pop, Latin sounds, rock and all of the various and sundry intersections of those sounds. A close listen to their first LP is like a drive through Harlem in the early 70’s with your car windows down, letting snatches of Curtis Mayfield, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Santana and a thousand lesser groups (woven securely into the fabric, but essentially lost to the ages) drift through the windows and into your ears.
There are elements of early-70’s prog-cum-stoner rock guitar, hard drums, jazzy bass and horns as well as a bedrock of polyrhythmic percussion.”

If my approximation of their sound is accurate, the conclusion you would reach is that they were very much of their time, and looking back, it seems amazing to me that they weren’t more popular. There were plenty of black acts incorporating elements of rock music into their sound, and by and large, though there are Jamaican influences (which had been popping in and out of radio playlists for much of the previous decade), they never overpower the band’s funky groove. While it’s understandable that a pop audience might not get too far into their sound, I’m puzzled that they didn’t make more inroads with the more progressive rock audience.

That said, placed against the other tracks in this week’s series, it’s ot hard at all to see why ‘Bra’ was so popular at the Loft. Earlier this week one of the readers requested that I post a Mancuso set list, so I pulled out ‘Love Saves the Day’ an retyped the list below, which doesn’t seem to represent any one night, but rather an amalgam of Loft favorites for the years 1970 to 1973. There are a fair amount of what one might consider to be ‘obvious’ dance records (James Brown, Beginning of the End, Manu Dibango*), a couple of less obvious tunes for the trainspotters, including jazz rock like Traffic’s ‘Glad’ and Brian Auger and the Trinity’s version of Eddie Harris’ soul jazz classic ‘Listen Here’, the breakbeat fave ‘The Mexican’ by Babe Ruth, as well as unusual (likely transitional, mood pieces) like the Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’ and Exuma’s ‘Exuma the Obeah Man’. While there’s a fair amount of info out there listing individual records as ‘Loft favorites’ I was unable to find any specific playlists from the venue’s early 70s heyday.

Interestingly enough, Mancuso has kept some version of his Loft going (at a number of different locations) continuously (though with decreasing frequency) right on through the disco and house music eras. He still travels internationally, putting on Loft parties around the world.

If reading in-depth studies of dance music culture isn’t your bag, see if you can track down the 2003 documentary ‘Maestro’, that follows the development of New York DJ culture from Francis Grasso in the late 60s, all the way through to the end of the Paradise Garage (with Larry Levan) in 1987.

It manages to touch on most of the major players, and there are lots of interviews with people that witnessed the development of DJ/club culture while it happened.

The Loft – Selected Discography 1970 – 1973
From ‘Love Saves the Day’ by Tim Lawrence
Brian Auger & the Trinity – Listen Here
Babe Ruth – The Mexican
Barrabas – Wild Safari
Barrabas – Woman
The Beatles – Here Comes the Sun
Beginning of the End – Funky Nassau
Booker T & the MGs – Melting Pot
James Brown – Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine Pt1&2
James Brown – Give It Up Or Turnit a Loose
Chakachas – Jungle Fever
Cymande – Bra
Manu Dibango – Soul Makossa
Equals – Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys
Exuma – Exuma the Obeah Man
Aretha Franklin – Ain’t No Way
Al Green – Love and Happiness
Willie Hutch – Brother’s Gonna Work It Out
Intruders – I’ll Always Love My Mama
JBs – Gimme Some More
Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need a Change of Mind
Morgana King – A Taste of Honey
Gladys Knight & the Pips – It’s Time To Go Now
Little Sister – You’re the One
Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up
Dorothy Morrison – Rain
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
O’Jays – Love Train
Olatunji – Drums of Passion
Osibisa – Survival
Edwin Starr – War
Traffic – Glad
Tribe – Koke
Troubadours du Roi Baudouin – Missa Luba
War – City, Country, City
War – The World Is a Ghetto

F16C 2019 Pledge Drive – The History of MFasis

By , August 18, 2019 1:56 pm

Example

MFasis – Badbadnotgood

badbadnotgood-timewave zero
iron butterfly-‘get out my life’
nancy sinatra- ‘drummer man’
untitled
mokie jj & r.o.b.-‘you’re so real’
warm-‘my house’
philip mitchell-‘if we get caught, i don’t know you’
gil scott heron-‘the revolution will not be televised
five man electrical band-‘hello goodbye melinda’
baris manço-‘derule’
incredible bongo band-‘dueling drums’
barry de vorzon-‘theme from ‘the warriors’
heatwave-‘boogie nights
untitled japanese modern soul
sugarhill gang-‘summertime’

Listen/Download – MFasis – Badbadnotgood – 86MB Mixed MP3

__________________________________________________________
Example

M-Fasis – Summer Rocks
intro- ‘Bad words/Evil people’-Skin Valley (Stax),
‘Comment’-Les Mcann (Atlantic)
1- ‘Freedom’-Love Song (Good News)
2- ‘Summer in the City’-Quincy Jones (A&M)
3-‘Hook & Sling’-Eddie Bo (Scram)
4-‘Filthy McNasty’-Filthy McNasty (FM)
5-‘Hand Clapping Song’-Meters (Josie)
6-‘Minus/Plus’-Smith (Dunhill)
7-‘Bring It On Down To Me’-Bobby Franklin’s Insanity (Thomas)
8-‘Psychedelic Soul’-Chylds (Warner Bros.)
9-‘Don’t Mess With The Press’-Mick Paladin & The Power of the Press
10-‘When I’m a Kid’-Demis Roussos (MGM)
11-‘Bad’-Jimmy Castor Bunch (Kinetic)
12-‘Get Off the Streets Y’all’-Eric & The Vikings (Soulhawk)
13-‘Let’s Start 2 Dance Again’-Bohannon feat. Dr. Perri Johnson (Phase 2)
14-‘Evil Love’-Thee Midnighters (Chattahoochee)
15-‘Hey Joyce’-Lou Courtney (Popside)
16-‘Whatever You Do, Do It Good’-Gene Williams (Forte)
17-‘Mandolay’-La Flavor (Sweet City)
18-‘Hot Foxy Woman’-Six Feet Under (LeCam)
19-‘Ha Pasado Solo Un Mes’-Sylvana Di Lorenzo (RCA)
20-‘Affetmenseni’-Edip Akbayram Dostlar (Burçplakçilik)
21-‘Stones of Years’- Emerson Lake & Palmer (Atlantic)
22-‘Serengeti Bonus Beat’-The Whitefield Brothers (M. Whitefield)
23-‘Double Navaho’-Express Rising (Memphix)
24-‘Summer Sounds’-Sunshine Machine w/ Philadelphia Rhythm Section (Mascot)
25-outro

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: M-Fasis – Summer Rocks
___________________________________________________________________
Example

M-Fasis: ROUND TRIP TICKET: excursions into funk, soul, rock and back’…
1)Paul Revere- Beastie Boys ‘MCA R.I.P. (Def Jam)
2)Down in Black Bottom- Cannonball Adderley Quintet (Capitol)
3)Scuze Uz Y’all- Brenda & The Tabulations (Top and Bottom)
4)Mean Black Snake- J.W. Alexander (Thursh)
5)L.C. Funk- Lee Williams (Rapda)
6)Midnight Flower- The Four Tops (Dunhill)
7)Sweetback- Viola Wills (Supreme)
8)Ready or Not- Delfonics (Bell)
9)Mississippi Foxhole- Midnight Movers (Buddah)
10)You’re the Fool- Three Degrees (Roulette)
11)It’s Amazing- Johnny Taylor (Stax)
12)The Stretch- Detroit Sex Machines (Soul Track)
13)Synthetic Substitution- Melvin Bliss (Sunburst)
14)Too Hot To Hold- Tina Turner (Pompeii)
15)I’m Unconscious- Sugarcane Harris (Epic)
16)Down to the Nightclub- Tower of Power (Warner)
17)Wish you’d Never Been Born- Jodo (Decca)
18)Hard Times- Zoo (Riviera)
19)You Made Me a Believer- Ruby Andrews (Zodiac)
20)What Time It Is- General Crook (Down to Earth)
21)Light My Fire- Rhetta Hughes (Tetragrammaton)
22)El Paso County Jail- The Happenings (Jubilee)
23)And Then There Was…- Cozy Powell (RAK)
24)Utica Club Natural Carbonation Band- Natural Carbonation (RCA)
25)Vitamin C- Can (UA)
26)Keep Him- Barbara Mason (Artic)
27)You Can’t Blame Me- Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum… (Capsoul)
28)Fire and Rain- Ice (Cindri)
29)Un Sueno- Los Terricolas (Discolando)
30)Piu Nessuno Al Campo- Gli Uh! (Kansas)
31)All This- Barbara Jean English (Alithia)

Listen/Download M-Fasis – Round Trip Ticket
___________________________________________________________________________
Example

Kool & The Gang North, East, South, West

Rose Royce – Yo Yo

Hi Rhythm – Black Rock

John Phillip Soul – That Memphis Thing

Johnny Barfield & The Men Of S.O.U.L. – Soul Butter

The Nite-Liters – Afro Strut

The Insiders – Lonely Teardrops

Elephant’s Memory – Mongoose

Bobby Dixon – Woman You Made Me

Afrique – Hot Mud

Sammy Gordon & The Hiphuggers – Breezin’

Creative Source – You Can’t Hide Love

MotherLode – Hard Life

Mavin Holmes & The Uptights – Ooh Ooh The Dragon Pt. 1

The Third Guitar – Lovin’ Lies

Shade of Soul – I’ll Take The Hurt

Lou Rawls – When Love Goes Wrong

Buddy Lamp – Where Have You Been

Ollie Nightingale – It’s A Sad Thing

Dee Dee Warwick – Foolish Fool

Soul Generation – Super Fine

Billy Stewart – Cross My Heart

The Mardi Gras – If I Can’t Have You

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: M-Fasis – Finger Funk

__________________________________________________________________


Greetings all.

The Funky16Corners 2019 Allnighter/Pledge Drive continues!

In continuance of shaking things up a little, I’m going to be presenting compilations of the guest mixes that my favorite selectors have brought to the Pledge Drive/Allnighter over the years.

This week we have amazing mixes from my Asbury Park 45 Sessions buddy, M-Fasis.

M-Fasis has always been one of my favorite selectors. He’s always digging into those unexpected/neglected records for hot breaks and beats.

M-Fasis always brings the heat, so dig into his mixes.

I’ll be off next week, so I’ll be back with more on 9/1.

__________________________________________________________________

A Note on the 2019 Pledge Drive

The focus on using Patreon to raise money to pay the bills around here (paying for server space/bandwidth and broadcast fees) has proven to make a lot of sense, moreso than the previously used Paypal model.

If you dig any of the stuff I do here, any of the radio shows, or the mix archives, or even if you’re one of the few that still read the blog posts, please consider signing up for Patreon and making a small, recurring, monthly donation of a few dollars.

You can click on the link below.

It’s pretty simple, very safe and a great way to keep Funky16Corners up and running for another year.

So thanks in advance, and enjoy the tunes!

Keep the Faith

Larry

_____________________________________________________________

The pledging will continue this year with Patreon (click here or on the logo below to go to the Funky16Corners page) , where you will be able to spread your contributions out over the entire year, which will help cover the ongoing server/broadcast/hardware expenses. This year has seen the move to 100 percent live broadcasting (Mixlr.com/Funky16corners)  and continued hardware and software upgrades at Funky16Corners central, to keep the radio/podcasting experience as seamless and groovy as possible. So please dig deep so we can continue to do the same, and if you’re already a Patreon donor, please accept my heartfelt thanks!

Example

_____________________________________________________________________

I am also including a Paypal donation button (below) if you’d rather donate in a lump sum instead of the rolling donation in Patreon.





_______________________________________________

So, download and dig the mixes, keep digging the radio shows!

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep the faith

Larry

Example  

____________________________________________________________________________

PS Head over to Iron Leg when you have a minute!. <

F16C 2019 Pledge Drive – The History of Tony C

By , August 11, 2019 12:02 pm

 

Example

Tony C – On the Soul Side
Toussaint McCall Baby You Got it- Ronn
Cash McCall I’m In Danger Checker
Garnet Mimms Prove it– United Artists
Jackie Ross Dynamite Lovin’- Chess
Radiants Please Don’t leave me Chess
Mitty Collier Help Me- Chess
Patti Drew Sufferer- Capitol
Tina Britt Who Was That- Veep
Lord Luther Tough- Lusan
Billy Mack Too Much- Philips
Johnny Sayles The Concentration- Chi Town
Emanuel Lasky Don’t Lead Me On Baby- Thelma
The Sharpees Make Up Your Mind- One-derful
D C Ramblers Hangin’ In There- Keynote
Gunga Din Crabcakes- Valise
Sonny Shankle Just Enough- Watts Way
Thelma Jones Mr Fixit- Barry
Betty Everett Too Hot To Hold-Vee Jay
Danny White Miss Fine Fine Fine-Frisco
Willie Small How High Can You Fly-Jessica
Dee Dee Warwick House Of Gold-Mercury
Otis Clay Show Place-One-derful
Buddy Lamp My Tears-Double L
Jimmy Nelson Tell Me Who-Chess
Willie Mays If You Love Me- Duke
Harold Burrage I’ll Take One-M.Pac!
Big Jay Bush Dynamite-Redbug

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: Tony C – On the Soul Side

________________________________________________________________________________
Example

Tony C: Feeling Good F16C Pledge drive 2013
Jean Dushon-Feeling good-Cadet
Merced Blue Notes-Whole lotta nothing-Tri Phi
Junior Wells-I’m gonna cramp your style-Bright Star
The Marvels-Forget about that mess-Sensation
Buddy Ace-Baby please don’t go-Duke
Buddy Greco-Twistin’ to the blues-Coronet
JJ Barnes-Won’t you let me in-Rich
The Charmaines-I idolise you-Kent
Joe Simon-Troubles-Hush
The Young Holt Trio-Ain’t there something that money can’t buy-Brunswick
Sonny Raye-Whip it on me-Jetstream
Pearl Woods-Sippin’ sorrow-Charge
BB King-16 tons-Crown
Ricardo Ray-Nitty Gritty-Alegre
Jack Constanzo-Evil ways-Discomoda
Willie Bobo-Be’s that way-Tico
Charlie Palmieri-Uptight-Atlantic
Tito Ramos-Big T-Cotique
The Beginning Of The End-Come down baby-Alston
The Soul Creations-Funky jive-GES
Tommy Wills-KC drive-Juke
Spanky Wilson-You-Mothers
Big Ella-It takes a lot of loving-Lo Lo
Eddie Parker-I need a true love-Triple ‘B’ Records

Listen/Download Tony C: Feeling Good
________________________________________________________________________________
Example

Tony C – 45 Heaven
Queen City Soul Band-True Patron Of The Arts-Pow
Freddie Scott-I’ll Be Gone-Shout
Betty Everett-Too Hot To Hold-Veejay
Fred Hughes-I Keep Tryin’-Ex
Little Flint-Pain-Beast
Larry Williams-Boss Lovin’-Smash
Garnett Mimms-Prove It To Me-U.A
Gene Chandler-Mr Bigshot-Constellation
Otis Williams-Aint Gonna Walk Your Dog No More-Okeh
Wilson Pickett-Baby Call On Me-Double L
Moss Tolbert-Money In My Pocket-Veejay
Jimmy Ricks-Daddy Rollin’ Stone-Atco
Georgie Fame-Green Onions-Columbia
Solomon Burke-Peepin’-Atlantic
JJ Barnes-Wont You Let Me Know-Rich
Pearl Woods-Right Now-Charge
Jackie Wilson/Linda Hopkins-Say I do-Brunswick
Big Boy Myles-She’s So Fine-V.Tone
B.B.King-Heartbreaker-Bluesway
Peppermint Harris-Wait Until It Happens To You-Jewel
James Duncan-Too Hot To Hold-King
Anna King-Mamas Got A Bag Of Her Own-End
Little Oscar-Two Foot Drag-Toddlin Town
Seven Souls-Groove In-Venture
Patriza&Jimmy-Trust Your Child-ALA
Smokey Brooks-Spin Jig It-Now
Rodger Collins-Foxy Girls In Oakland-Galaxy
Al Reed-94/44/100 Pure Love-Axe
Roland Alphonso-Hip Hug Her-JJ
Eddie Holland-Gotta Have Your Love-Motown
Little Willie John-You’re Welcome To Try-V.R.C
Grady Tate-All Around The World-Skye

Listen/Download Tony C – 45 Heaven
___________________________________________________________________________
Example

F16C Soul Club Presents – Tony C: Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky

Playlist

Pyrahnna Sound-La Turbie Pyrahanienne-Sound
John Schroeder-Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag-Marble Arch
Bobby Hutcherson-Rain Every Thursday-Blue Note
Yusef Lateef-Bishop School-Atlantic
Jean King-The In Crowd-HBR
Ray Johnson-Funky Way-Inarts
Jackie Paine-Go Go Train-Jetstream
Betty Harris-Ride Your Pony-Sansu
Georgie Fame-Last Night-International
Lebron Bros-Proud Mary-Cotique
Bamboos of Jamaica-Hard to Handle-Hansa
Cher-For What It’s Worth-Atco
Mary Holmes-Soul Brother-Nassau
Jimmie Willis-Soul Power-ORR
Cliff Sabb-The Mule-Roulette
Pacers-Skeeter Dope-Alley
Soul Inheritors-Eleanor Rigby pt 2-Jerhart
The Packers-Pure Soul-Puresoul
Katie Webster-Hell or High Water-Goldband
Frank Howard & the Continentals-Do what You Wanna Do-Deluxe
Johnny Blue-Crazy Crazy-Friar
Nu Sound Express-Ain’t It Good Enough-Silver Dollar
Ray Weatherspoon-Stop Stuffin and Start Sho Nuffin-Satan

Listen/Download 59MB/128KB Mixed MP3

____________________________________________________________

Example

Tony C – Dance the Jerk!

Doc Bagby-Mr Hippy-Tifton
Merced Blue Notes-Rufus-Accent
Horace Bailey-Cool Monkey-Delene
Larry Williams-Strange-Sue
Barry’Barefoot’ Beefus-Barefoot Beefus-Loma
Tommy & The Charms-I know what you want-Hollywood
Nathaniel Kelly-Do the jerk-Jubilee
Jay Dee Bryant-Get it-Enjoy
The Pacers-You’ll never know-Razorback
The Magics-Lets Boogaloo-R.F.A
Lou Johnson-Rock me baby-Cotillion
Eddie Simpson-Stone Soul Sister-Back Beat
Vickie Anderson-I love you-Smash
Alder Ray Mathis-Take me baby-Jetstar
Jackie Thompson-Got to right the wrongs-Columbia
Lonette-Stop-M.S
Boogie Kings-Do em’ all-Pic
Charles Hodges-Charles Shingaling-Alto
Little Flint-Pain-Beast
Sammy Lee-It hurts me-Rampart
Jay Jordan-If it wasn’t for love-Verve
The Fantastic Four-Pinpoint it down-Soul
Lovemasters-Pushin and pull-Jacklyn
Timmie Williams-Competition-Bell
Big Maybelle-I can’t wait any longer-Rojac
Trudy Johnson-You’re no good-Capitol

Listen/Download – Tony C – Dance the Jerk! / 62MB Mixed MP3
___________________________________________________________________


Greetings all.

The Funky16Corners 2019 Allnighter/Pledge Drive continues!

In continuance of shaking things up a little, I’m going to be presenting compilations of the guest mixes that my favorite selectors have brought to the Pledge Drive/Allnighter over the years.

This week we have amazing mixes from my old friend and premium selector Tony Crampton (aka Tony C).

Tony was part of the Pledge Drive/Allnighter from the beginning and this post includes a couple of free-standing F16C Soul Club mixes from over the years.

Tony always brings the heat, so dig into his mixes and I’ll see you all next week.

__________________________________________________________________

A Note on the 2019 Pledge Drive

The focus on using Patreon to raise money to pay the bills around here (paying for server space/bandwidth and broadcast fees) has proven to make a lot of sense, moreso than the previously used Paypal model.

If you dig any of the stuff I do here, any of the radio shows, or the mix archives, or even if you’re one of the few that still read the blog posts, please consider signing up for Patreon and making a small, recurring, monthly donation of a few dollars.

You can click on the link below.

It’s pretty simple, very safe and a great way to keep Funky16Corners up and running for another year.

So thanks in advance, and enjoy the tunes!

Keep the Faith

Larry

_____________________________________________________________

The pledging will continue this year with Patreon (click here or on the logo below to go to the Funky16Corners page) , where you will be able to spread your contributions out over the entire year, which will help cover the ongoing server/broadcast/hardware expenses. This year has seen the move to 100 percent live broadcasting (Mixlr.com/Funky16corners)  and continued hardware and software upgrades at Funky16Corners central, to keep the radio/podcasting experience as seamless and groovy as possible. So please dig deep so we can continue to do the same, and if you’re already a Patreon donor, please accept my heartfelt thanks!

Example

_____________________________________________________________________

I am also including a Paypal donation button (below) if you’d rather donate in a lump sum instead of the rolling donation in Patreon.





_______________________________________________

So, download and dig the mixes, keep digging the radio shows!

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep the faith

Larry

Example  

____________________________________________________________________________

PS Head over to Iron Leg when you have a minute!. <

Funky16Corners 2019 Pledge Drive!

By , June 16, 2019 10:45 am

Example

Funky16Corners Presents: Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache
A Solid Hour of Soul For Dancers 

Isley Brothers – Got To Have You Back (Tamla)|
Bandwagon – Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache (Epic)
Teri Nelson Group – Love Is Getting Better (Kama Sutra)
Yvonne Fair – Just As Sure As You Play (You Will Pay) (Smash)
Little Richard – Whole Lotta Shaking Going On (Veejay)
Billy Graham and the Escalators – Ooh Poo Pah Doo (Atlantic)
Anna King- If You Don’t Think (Smash)
Jimmy Jones – Don’t You Just Know It (Parkway)
Bobby Whitlock – And I Love You (HIP)
Big Dee Irwin – Discotheque (Roulette)
Aldora Britton – Do It With Soul (Columbia)
Betty Everett – I Can’t Hear You No More (Veejay)
Monti Rock III – For Days and Days (Mercury)
Johnny Moore – A Dollar Ninety Eight (Wand)
Maxine Brown – Anything You Do Is Alright (Wand)
Jun Mayuzumi – Black Room (Capitol JP)
Spyder Turner – Dream Lover (MGM)
Sweet Inspirations – Just Walk In My Shoes (Atco)
Bobby Lester – Hang Up Your Hang Ups (Columbia)
Johnny Daye – I Need You (Stax)
Toni Lamarr  – If I Didn’t Love You (Buddah)
Capitols – We Got a Thing That’s In the Groove (Karen)
Delcords – Just a Little Misunderstanding (UP)
Joe E Young and the Toniks – Get That Feeling (Toast)
Alvin Cash and the Crawlers – Do It One More Time (the Twine) (Mar V Lus)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners: Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache – 114MB Mixed MP3

__________________________________________________________

Example

Funky16Corners Presents: Loose and Groovy
An Hour of Instrumental Wonderfullness Packed With Breaks!

Dizzy Gillespie – Stomped and Wasted (GWP)
Sonny Cox – Chocolate Candy (Bell)
Cal Tjader – The Tra La La Song (Skye)
George Shearing, the Quintet and the Amigos – Aquarius (MPS/BASF)
Gordon Staples and the String Thing – Get Down (Tamla)
Bob Dorough – A Taste of Honey (MMO)
Harry J All Stars – Spyrone (Harry J)
Impact of Brass – So Far So Good (Rare Earth)
Al Serafini his Electronic Sax and Orchestra – Lil Rosey (Audio Fidelity)
Willie Bobo – Grazing In the Grass (Verve)
Odell Brown and the Organizers – Day Tripper (Cadet)
Terumasa Hino Quintet – Snake Hip (Capitol JP)
Lou Garno Quintet – Chicken In the Basket (Giovannia)
Johnny Frigo Quartet – Dance of Love (Orion)
Richard Fudoli – Gwee (Date)
Soulful Strings – Zambezi (Cadet)
The Touch – Pick and Shovel (LeCasVer)
Soul Searchers – Think (Sussex)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners: Loose and Groovy – 87MB Mixed MP3

__________________________________________________________


Greetings all.

The Funky16Corners 2019 Allnighter/Pledge Drive is here!

Things are looking (much) different this year.

This is the 10th year of doing a pledge drive here at Funky16Corners, and the landscape, and (forgive the use of the word) ‘mission’ of Funky16Corners has evolved fairly drastically since the blog opened it’s doors nearly 15 years ago (not counting the webzine years).

The world of music blogging is not what it once was. The way people access music and information on the web is a whole different thing than it was when I started. Traffic is a small fraction of what it once was.

The main thrust of what I do here at Funky16Corners has also changed significantly.

Starting with single-song blog posts in the early days, moving on to DJ mixes, then the beginning of the Funky16Corners Radio Show (which is nearing the 500 episode mark!), then the various and sundry guest mixes, in and outside of the pledge drive context.

I have to begin by sending out my thanks to all of the amazing DJs that have been generous with their time and their records over the years, all of whom I am proud to have featured at Funky16Corners.

The last few years have seen my move into live radio broadcasts, with Funky16Corners Radio Show and Testify!, my show for WFMU’s Give the Drummer Radio appearing weekly, and the Iron Leg Radio Show (nearing 100 episodes) monthly.

As a result of the workload associated with this change, the frequency of blog posts has decreased to once a week.

This year I decided that I needed to take a break from the Allnighter/Summer of Soul format, if only to ease off of the workload associated with putting it all together (and maybe spend a little more time with the fam while they’re home for the summer).

In it’s place I have created two brand new, hour-long mixes.

The first, Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache is an hour of dancefloor soul, with a grip of new and recent arrivals in the Funky16Corners crates.

The second. Loose and Groovy is a collection of instrumentals, many of them funky, packed with breaks and loopable grooves for days.

The focus on using Patreon to raise money to pay the bills around here (paying for server space/bandwidth and broadcast fees) has proven to make a lot of sense, moreso than the previously used Paypal model.

If you dig any of the stuff I do here, any of the radio shows, or the mix archives, or even if you’re one of the few that still read the blog posts, please consider signing up for Patreon and making a small, recurring, monthly donation of a few dollars.

You can click on the link below.

It’s pretty simple, very safe and a great way to keep Funky16Corners up and running for another year.

So thanks in advance, and enjoy the tunes!

Keep the Faith

Larry

_____________________________________________________________

The pledging will continue this year with Patreon (click here or on the logo below to go to the Funky16Corners page) , where you will be able to spread your contributions out over the entire year, which will help cover the ongoing server/broadcast/hardware expenses. This year has seen the move to 100 percent live broadcasting (Mixlr.com/Funky16corners)  and continued hardware and software upgrades at Funky16Corners central, to keep the radio/podcasting experience as seamless and groovy as possible. So please dig deep so we can continue to do the same, and if you’re already a Patreon donor, please accept my heartfelt thanks!

Example

_____________________________________________________________________

I am also including a Paypal donation button (below) if you’d rather donate in a lump sum instead of the rolling donation in Patreon.





_______________________________________________

So, download and dig the mixes, keep digging the radio shows!

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep the faith

Larry

Example  

____________________________________________________________________________

PS Head over to Iron Leg when you have a minute!. <

Best of F16C – The Mad Lads – No Time Is Better Than Right Now

By , February 17, 2019 12:00 pm

ExampleThe Mad Lads

Example

Listen/Download – The Mad Lads -No Time Is Better Than Right Now MP3

Greetings all.

The tale of “sometimes a record just sneaks up and knocks you on your ass” is one as old as time (and one that has been told in this space many a time).

That said, it bears retelling with every new incident because, a. a new record is involved, and b. that feeling of discovery/gratitude is such a gas.

The record in question this fine day was brought to my attention by my man Tarik Thornton (a giant among collectors/selectors and a righteous dude in all other ways) who included it in his guest mix ‘To Russia With Love’, right here, last September.

The song was ‘No Time Is Better Than Right Now’ by the Mad Lads.

I can remember vividly my feelings the first time I heard this song, starting with the usual “Where has this been all my life?”, followed by “Where can I get my own copy?” and then “Holy shit, what a cool tune!”.

‘No Time Is Better Than Right Now’ – written by Stax bassist Allen Jones and produced by no less a light than drumming master Al Jackson, Jr. (who had quite a sideline producing artists like Albert King, The Bar-Kays and Johnny Taylor for Stax), is a remarkable mix of heavy beat (which presages the feel of New Jack Swing), brilliantly applied harmony vocals (the way the Mad Lads soar into falsetto during the chorus is a thing of beauty), horns and funky piano.

That this wondrous song languished on the B-side of a minor R&B hit (Whatever Hurts You) and was never included on one of the group’s albums is criminal.

I mean, what were the folks at Stax thinking? Surely 1967 was a banner year for the label, and sometimes even great records get lost in the shuffle, but honestly, ‘No Time Is Better Than Right Now’ is so different, so tuneful, so artfully arranged and produced, so joyful a representation of where Memphis soul was (and was going), its obscurity boggles the mind.

The Mad Lads were formed at Booker T Washington High School in Memphis by John Gary Williams, Julius E. Green, William Brown and Robert Phillips and recorded for Stax/Volt between 1964 and 1973.

This record features a different lineup of the group – Sam Nelson, Quincy Billups, Julius Green and Robert Phillips – that recorded when John Gary Williams was in the Army.

I have no idea who did the arrangement, though I would be shocked to discover that it was anyone but Jackson on the drums (that swinging, sock soul sound was like no other).

The group released more than a dozen 45s and three LPs during their first incarnation.

None of the group’s records are terribly expensive (though their debut 45, and their LPs, especially the second one can be pricey), with this one usually gettable for around 20-25 bucks.

It’s a killer 45, and I hope you dig it as much as I do.

Keep the faith

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Keep the faith

Larry

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