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By Larry, September 9, 2010 5:42 pm

Listen/Download – Charles Hodges – Daddy Love Pt1

Listen/Download – Charles Hodges – Daddy Love Pt2

Greetings all.

The end of the week has finally arrived and I couldn’t be more pleased, since the several days preceding sucked out loud.

I was sick/recovering, and the new family schedule – an arcane and improbably complicated web of appointments, school buses and the like – has started and is proving to be a little more challenging than I had anticipated.

Fortunately, the schools hereabout closed for Rosh Hoshanah, giving the wife and kids a day off, so we took advantage of it and went to the zoo.

The record I bring you to you today (both sides) is something that kind of hung around in the catacombs of my want list (also arcane and improbably complicated) for many years.

If the title sounds familiar, it’s because another version of this very song appeared as a part of Funky16Corners Radio v.6 more than four (?!?) years ago, sung by a female artist named Gi Gi, about whom I have never discovered a single fact.

I mention her distaff nature only because the version I present to you today is sung by a male, who just happens to be the author of the song, producer and arranger of both records (I’d say ‘versions’ but they both appear to employ mostly the same backing track) and released it on his own Sweet label, Mr. Charles Hodges.

The song in question ‘(They Call Me) Daddy Love Pts 1&2’ is a fast moving, horn driven funk 45 that is worth grabbing in both versions, since neither of them is particularly expensive, and they are just about guaranteed to get even the squares out of their chairs and onto the floor making like Soul Train Line vets.

The basic structure is very – how do they say – James Brown-y, in that what your getting is layers of guitar, drums, bass and horns, all ticking along like clockwork (I really dig the guitar on this one). The vocals, by Mr. Hodges are groovy indeed. According to the man Sir Shambling Hodges was New York based and recorded as a vocalist for a number of labels including Philips, Genuine, and Calla between 1964 and 1973.

After you pull down the ones and zeros on ‘Daddy Love’ make sure you check out the song clips that Sir Shambling has posted, which taken together reveal Hodges to have had Pickett-ian aspirations. He may not have risen to the level of the Wicked one (for that matter, who did?) but he acquits himself nicely.

Now, to the very important differences between the Gi Gi and Charles Hodges 45.

As I mentioned before, they use the same backing track, but Hodges adds on a couple of important layers that bear mentioning, including an improved horn chart (I’d say new, but my suspicion is that the two versions were roughly contemporary, with the Hodges 45 bearing a 1973 date) and an increasingly orgasmic chorus of backing ‘vocals’.

As early 70s funk 45s go, this may not get the uber-deep hipster collectorinos to wet their pants, but it’s good, funky, and of course good’n’funky, which means you will certainly dig listening to it, and were you to slip it under the needle at your next funk 45 and potato chip soiree, the attendees would be compelled to dance.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some moody garage psyche

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By Larry, September 6, 2010 10:40 am

Rufus and Chaka Khan.

Listen/Download – Rufus – Once You Get Started

Greetings all.

I hope that those of you in the path of the hurricane survived.

Up here it was a bust, which is a good thing since I didn’t fancy picking the contents of the back porch out of the surrounding trees and the neighbor’s yard.

We just got some heavy rain, a little bit of wind and not much else.

Fortunately, as is often forecast but rarely comes to fruition, the storm pushed the heat wave out of the way and ushered in some nice weather for my birthday.

Things are getting back to (post-summer) normal around here, with school coming back into the picture, and the possibility of some DJ work on the horizon (which is always a groovy thing).

I have recently scored a couple of very nice 45s, so before long I predict you will either be seeing them here on the blog, or hearing them in some bar or other, spun fresh on the decks.

The tune I bring you today is a blast from my past, in that I remember very clearly when this particular song came blaring from the speakers of my AM radio.

The first time I heard Rufus was in 1973, via their first big hit (given to them by no less a light than the mighty Stevie Wonder) ‘Tell Me Something Good’.

I have a clear recollection of seeing Rufus – if memory serves as part of someone’s TV special, maybe Bob Hope?? – performing the song live from Central Park (I think, it’s been 37 years…) and my parents reacting negatively to Chaka Khan’s orgasmic vocalisations in the chorus of the song.

I, of course, thought it was a riot.

Anyway, that song, and today’s selection fall right around the time that the band founded as Ask Rufus, then rechristened Rufus, was morphing into Rufus featuring Chaka Khan.

The Chicago-area band, which got its start with ex-members of the American Breed recorded an unreleased album for Epic with vocalist Paulette McWilliams, before Chaka Khan (aka Yvette Williams) who had sung with a post-Baby Huey version of the Babysitters, joined the group.

‘Once You Get Started’, from the 1974 ‘Rufusized’ LP was a Top 40 hit in the Spring of 1975.

It’s a great example of the kind of jazzy funk that was moving folks on the (just) pre-disco dance floors of the time.

I’d argue that ‘Once You Get Started’ is – like last week’s ‘Machine Gun’ by the Commodores – still firmly in the ‘funk’ camp, despite the presence of disco/fonk signifiers on its fringes. I have no doubt that were this dropped in a disco, during an otherwise disco set, that ‘Once You Get Started’ would pull the folks onto the dance floor, but I think this would have been as true in 1970 as in 1977 (even though it came out in 74/75, are you confused yet??).

I’m not even sure that this is an argument worth having, unless you’re a vinyl-sick record nerd, but since so many of us here (myself especially) fall into that category, we’re gonna have it.

Ultimately it’s probably immaterial, since good music is good music, and ‘Once You Get Started’ is good music.
Chaka would record with the band on and off into the early 80s before going solo and hitting the charts on her own in 1984 with her epic cover of Prince’s ‘I Feel For You’, which featured harmonica by none other than Stevie Wonder!

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a classic instrumental

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By Larry, September 2, 2010 3:30 pm

Not Freddie Scott…

Listen/Download – Freddie Scott and the Seven Steps – The Thing

Greetings all.

The end of a very busy week has arrived and I feel the need for the freeing vibe of a soulful slab of of wax.

The kids (and the wife, a teacher) have returned to school and the routine hereabouts has been upended once again, with our vast and confusing network of appointments, comings and goings having to be reshuffled for a new season, which, since it only involves about two dozen people is predictably, what the great sages of our time have come to call a clusterfuck.

It’ll all probably settle down in a week or two, but right now my brain is mush.

The tune I bring you today is another hot Florida soul 45 from the mighty Freddie (Freddy) Scott.

Last we heard from Mr. Scott was a little over a year ago, when he and his Four Steps let us have it with the ‘Same Ole Beat’.

At the time, I mentioned that one should not confuse Freddy Scott (drummer and bandleader from Florida) with Freddie Scott, soul singer who recorded for Shout and Colpix among other labels.

Then, while out digging I happened upon the 45 you see before you today, and discovered that Florida Freddy, but a few catalog numbers down the line was rechristened ‘Freddie’, nailed three more Steps onto his band and confused matters all by himself.

Variable spelling aside, I have no doubt at all that this is the Florida-based cat (for a variety of fairly obvious reasons).

As I mentioned, today’s selection ‘The Thing’ is only two catalog numbers further along from ‘Same Ole Beat’, and a quick listen to the song would seem to indicate that the extra Steps were employed in the horn section.

‘The Thing’ is a mid-tempo dancer with enough grease to get he kids sliding on the dance floor, and a refrain that sounds like a not so distant cousin to the soul jazz standard ‘Coming Home Baby’.

If you get a minute you should head over and check out Iron Leg Digital Trip #32, where I included the flipside of this very 45, a swinging organ instro version of Tom Jones’ ‘It’s Not Unusual’ as part of that au go go flavored mix.

So crack open a cold beer, sink your fist into a bowl of chips and stuff you ears full of ‘The Thing’.

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

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for mid-60s LA garage punk

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By Larry, August 29, 2010 3:22 pm

Ray Barretto

Listen/Download – Ray Barretto – A Deeper Shade of Soul

Greetings all.

I hope everything’s groovy at your specific GPS location, and anywhere else you choose to roam.

Summer is winding down, slowly, and while the weather is still warm (some might say hot) the days of summery freedom are also coming to an end, with the wife and kids headed back to school, and the rhythm of life changing once again.

To present a brief ‘state of the Corners’ address, things are mainly cool hereabouts. The Funky16Corners Radio Show has developed into something more satisfying (at least for me, hopefully for you all too) over the summer, and I’m having a lot of fun doing it.

The DJing opportunities around here have, for a variety of reasons (some that I am not privy to), all but vanished, but I will be heading down to DC again toward the end of September to spin with my man DJ Birdman (more details to follow soon), so hopefully I’ll be able to touch base with some of the Capitol City heads who have always been so cool.

Other than that, things should continue on a steady course, with new mixes (regular old Funky16Corners and Soul Club) coming, as well as a steady stream of funk, soul, jazz and rare groove to soothe your troubled mind (and mine too, if I’m lucky).

The tune I bring you today is something I came to in a roundabout way.

The first time I had any inkling of Ray Barretto’s ‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ was back in 1989, when I heard it sampled by the Dutch group Urban Dance Squad in their song of the same name. Of course even though I knew it was probably a sample, I had no idea who it was, and pretty much left it at that.

Flash forward a few years and my buddy Haim lends me the CD reissue of  Barretto’s 1968 ‘Acid’ album, and I’m listening to it (wishing I had an OG) and all of a sudden ‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ comes pouring into my ears and I’m all WTF?!? and the lightbulb goes on over my head, and then (of course) blows up.

Now these many years later, and I’m all hip to Ray Barretto and all of that good mid-to-late 60s Latin soul and funk, and while I had a couple of his 45s and LPs, an OG of ‘Acid’ (possibly THE essential Latin soul LP) had still eluded me.

Well, another one of those Asbury Lanes garage sales rolled around, and it was a particularly rewarding one, and I’ve just about run my way through all my ready cash, and then some dude I’ve never seen before sets up a table full of LPs, and before I know it me and about a half dozen other heads are pulling all kinds of OG Latin LPs out of his crates. As I mentioned, I was just about tapped out, and when I discovered that these LPs (while affordable) were not cheap I had to put back a couple of very nice things, including an OG Lat-Teens LP, but I walked away with a nice, clean copy of ‘Acid’.

While I still dig the Urban Dance Squad tune (it has a kind of stoney groove that I like) there’s just no comparison with Barretto’s original.

‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ is an absolutely perfect slice of soulful boogaloo, with prominent piano, percussion (natch…) and a horn chart that digs into ‘Knock On Wood’ for inspiration. The arrangements were handled by none other than Harvey Averne, so you know it’s good.

‘Acid’ was Barretto’s first LP for Fania, following his earlier chart success (on labels like Tico and UA) with tunes like 1963’s ‘El Watusi’.

If you haven’t heard ‘Acid’ (which also includes ‘Soul Drummers’, ‘Mercy Mercy Baby’, and ‘Teacher of Love’ among others) you should grab yourself a reissue (or an OG if you can find it) since it’s a great album from start to finish.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back in the middle of the week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a cool Nilsson cover.

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By Larry, August 26, 2010 4:37 pm

The Commodores

Listen/Download – The Commodores – Machine Gun

Greetings all.

The week is at an end, and if I’m lucky, by the time you’re reading this the fam and I will be away on the vacay, as it were (thus I’m canning and vacuum sealing this one a few days in advance).
I meant to drop this one a while back, since I picked up the 45 last year when I was spinning with DJ Birdman down in DC. Unfortunately, which is often the case around here as my mind deteriorates more rapidly each day, I neglected to take a picture of the 45, then I filed it away in the giant heaving mass of vinyl that sits behind me while I type this. However, recently, while I was pulling some records for to be digimatized, I happened upon the Commodores Greatest Hits LP, so in essence what you’re hearing is the 45, what you’re seeing is the LP, but since it’s all the Commodores, you’ll have to bear with me.
I have to admit that I wrote the Commodores off for years, thanks in large part to the lame, middle of the road and largely un-soulful solo career of Lionel Richie.
No matter that ‘Brick House’, the official funk song of elderly relatives (which they all dance to at weddings), is actually quite good, it all blended together for me into one big, unpleasant heap.
My bad.
Years back, I’m sitting there watching the movie ‘Boogie Nights’, and all of a sudden a very groovy song comes on the soundtrack in a discotheque scene, and I’m all ‘What’s that?” and then the credits rolled around and I was all “The Commodores, eh?” and therein lies a minor re-evaulation thereof.
That, and the fact that a cursory listen will set your ears a-tingling when you recognize the sample from the Beastie Boys ‘Hey Ladies’ pop in.
All that aside, ‘Machine Gun’ is a badass number packed end to end with enough clavinet to blow your mind, some very tasty wah-wah guitar and – if I might – not a single note of Lionel Richie’s melodious voice to screw things up.
The Commodores came together in the late 60s at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and signed to Motown releasing their first album (also titled ‘Machine Gun’) in 1974. The title track (written by guitarist Milan Williams) was a hit in 1975, and despite the presence of synthesizers (or maybe because of it) ‘Machine Gun’ manages to be solidly funky, and eminently danceable (without being stereotypically disco-ey, though it was clearly a hit on the dance floor).
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some groovy mid-60s pop.

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By Larry, August 22, 2010 1:18 pm

Earl King

Listen/Download – Earl King – Tic Tac Toe

Greetings all.

I’m sitting here, and it’s early. No one (except the kids, natch) has had enough sleep, but it’s relatively quiet so I figured I’d better get some writing in before the day gets rolling.
The summer – bracketed by Memorial Day and Labor Day – is almost over, and that, surprisingly enough, is a good thing.

Labor Day is approaching, and with it comes the exodus of the tourists. This glorious occasion is followed by a month of great weather, a serious drop in traffic and crowds, and with it the gradual restoration of my peace of mind (which seems in constant danger of extinction).
The tune I bring you today is a kicking slice of New Orleans funk, with as solid a pedigree as these things ever have.

The artist in question is the mighty Earl King.

You do not know him?

I say ‘au contraire, mon frere!’, because while Earl King may not have had any big hits, he was directly or indirectly responsible for many great pieces of music, including Professor Longhair’s legendary ‘Big Chief’ (which King wrote and sang on), the blues/soul standards  ‘Come On’ (which Jimi Hendrix covered on ‘Electric Ladyland’) and ‘Trick Bag’, in addition to being an indispensable part of New Orleans music in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

One need only dip into their New Orleans crates (you can substitute theoretical boxes of New Orleans 45s if you don’t have real ones) and see how many great records were either recorded by King, or bear the mark of his pen and/or performance (often under his real name, Earl Johnson).

The tune I bring you today is one of the few vinyl remnants of a 1970 King session, helmed by no less a light than Allen Toussaint and backed by a certain local combo called the Meters. This conglomeration recorded an album’s worth of material, but since a satisfactory deal never materialized, all that ever saw the light of day at the time was a few 45s.
One of these, ‘Street Parade’ (on the hard-to-find Kansu label) was featured in this space back in ought-seven. As Mardi Gras tributes go, they don’t get much better (or funkier) than ‘Street Parade’.

‘Tic Tac Toe’ which hails from the same sessions is lyrically uninspiring (pretty much standard issue dance craze boilerplate) but King is in fine voice, and the backing band featuring most of the Meters (Dan Phillips at the mighty ‘Home of the Groove’ noted previously that Art Neville’s keyboards seem to be MIA) is tight.

There’s a great, repeated bass guitar riff that kind of pushes the rhythm, Zig Modeliste’s snappy drums, and a nice horn chart riding in the background.

Despite the uninspired lyrics, it’s always great to hear King’s voice, and in the end what you are supposed be doing with this record is dancing, not parsing the meaning of the words, so take it all as a very groovy whole, and shake your thing a little bit.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something mellow.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a Lennon/McCartney tune.

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By Larry, August 19, 2010 6:44 pm

Ivan Joseph Jones aka Boogaloo Joe

Listen/Download – Boogaloo Joe Jones – Right On

Greetings all.
I hope everyone has had themselves a nice Funky16Corners Radio kind of week, filled with the dulcet, flute-y tones of this weeks mix.

I was going to double down on the flute-stravaganza and post a funky flute 45, but I couldn’t find the label pic, so it’ll have to keep.

Instead, may I request that you all get your hot pants on and your get-down shoes zipped up, because the track I’m going to whip on you today requires both.

I don’t suspect that those among you not enrolled in the crate digging or jazz collecting fraternities know the name Ivan ‘Boogaloo Joe’ Jones (how could you forget a name like that if you had?) but once you pull down the ones and zeroes on this one you shant soon forget it.

One might assume that he attached the ‘Boogaloo’ to his extremely common name merely to separate himself from the drummers Papa Jo and Philly Joe (both prominent Joneses) and that’s probably true to an extent, but if anyone ever deserved to be referred to as ‘Boogaloo’-anything, Ivan Joseph Jones was the man.

‘Right On’, one of my favorite Prestige jazz funk 45s (and they are legion) is as close to an all-star session as you’ll find with these things, plus you get that bad-ass, iconic Prestige blue-label 45 to stare at.

It’d be all groovy gravy if it was just Boogaloo Joe burning it up on the gee-tar, but you also get Charlie Earland on the Hammond, Pretty Purdie socking the shit out of his drums, Rusty Bryant on the sax and Jimmy Lewis on the bass.

And you REALLY have to dig the guitar. Boogaloo Joe winds his way in and out of the rhythm like a Ferrari on a race course.

All star-power aside, ‘Right On’ is an ass-whooper of the first order, with the head nod, and the hip slip, and all the rest of the involuntary anatomical expressions that go along with records that are this funky.

Funky, right, tight and outta sight, with enough chops for the jazzers and enough groove for the dancers, ‘Right On’ is a frequent flier in my DJ box, and though it’s a little on the crackly side (I tried to diminish the sound of sizzling bacon fat  as much as I could), this record is so hot you forget about it pretty quickly, unless you’re some kind of Hi-Fi hobbit nestled in the shire alongside a million dollars worth of audio equipment, in which case this isn’t for you anyway, so go have an herbal tea and come back when you’re feeling funky.

I know you’ll dig it, so do so, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

PS Make sure to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio Friday night at 9PM. Your ears will thank you.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some hippie rock with a Native American twist.

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By Larry, August 15, 2010 1:58 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.87 – Wind of Change

Playlist

You can check out this mix in the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive

How are the closing days of summer treating you?
I know we’ve got lots of good weather ahead, but it’s only a few weeks until the mass exodus of the tourists, when I will once again be able roam free amidst traffic that is just ‘bad’, not mind-bogglingly so.
The mix I bring you today is a continuation of a minor series of sorts, in which the Funky16Corners Radio thingy takes time out to focus on a specific instrument. We’ve already surveyed the vibes and the electric piano, and I’m sure that there are a few more such collections huddling in the crates awaiting release.
This time out we take a look (listen) to the much maligned, but very groovy sounds of the (mostly) jazz flute.
As I said when I wrote about the vibes, there are those among us for whom the sound of the flute is too ‘cool’, which naturally is why I dig it so much.
I love the sound of the flute in the hands of a great musician, and what you’re getting in this mix is 15 examples of that very thing.
Of course, not every single cut contains a virtuoso performance, on account of that would be boring and a few steps away from the prog sound of my teenage years that I have come to despise.
The vast majority of the players here (although one of them is anonymous) are at least tangentially connected to the world of jazz, with a few having crossed over into pop and rock and one (yes, you know the one…the one who’s name sent a shiver up your spine when you saw it, unfairly I might add) solidly camped out in rock and roll.
This one took a while to assemble, if only because a few of the artists in question have appeared in this space frequently (Koffman, Steig, Wess, Mann), their dulcet tones gracing other Funky16Corners Radio playlists.
Things get off to a serious start with Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s epic reading of Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. Kirk, a master on many wind instruments – often simultaneously – had a pronounced influence on two of the other players in this mix, namely Jeremy Steig and Ian Anderson (more on him later). His frequent use of ‘overblowing’, and vocalizing through the flute make him one of the most dynamic stylists the instrument has ever produced.
Paul Horn is best known for his pioneering new age recordings like ‘Inside’, but in the early to mid-60s he was still working a straight ahead jazz style. The Eastern-influenced ‘Paramahansa’ (which he re-recorded years later) appeared on his 1967 ‘Monday Monday’ LP, alongside a number of contemporary pop and rock covers. The tune sees Horn playing over a big band producing something that sounds like it’s from the soundtrack to a spy thriller.
Moe Koffman, who has been featured here a number of time is one of those cats that started out as a pretty ‘straight’ jazz player and as the 60s progressed he got further out. In addition to the flute Koffman was a proponent of the electrified saxophone (like Eddie Harris and Sonny Stitt) and he made some very cool, au go go flavored stuff during the era. His take on Bob Dorough and Ben Tucker’s “Coming Home Baby’ has a relaxed swing to it, sounding once again like something lifted from era-specific TV or movie soundtrack.
Bobbi Humphrey’s ‘Sad Bag’ has a mournful sound, with some very nice, reverbed flute.
David ‘Fathead’ Newman is better known for his sax playing, especially in his association with the mighty Ray Charles. I first heard ‘The 13th Floor’ on an early-90s comp called ‘Heavy Flute’, shortly after which I grabbed myself a copy of the 45. The tune originally appeared on Newman’s 1968 ‘Bigger and Better’ LP and is a great illustration of that fact that he certainly knew his way around the flute.
‘Teenage Chase’ is a Keith Mansfield penned cut from the KPM sound library album ‘Beat Incidental’. Like many of the cuts it was intended to be used as a ‘theme’, and so it is relatively short. I have no idea who the flute player us, but it sure as hell sounds like the same cat blowing on the Hawkshaw/Parker tune ‘Hot Pants’ (also a KPM selection).
Hubert Laws went on to great success with radio friendly R&B in the 70s with the CTI label, but in the mid-60s he was recording powerful soul jazz sessions for Atlantic. ‘Bloodshot’ is the opening track from his 1966 ‘Flute By Laws’ LP, and is driven by Laws’ flute, powerful brass and spot on Latin percussion.
Jerome Richardson is best known as a prolific studio musician, but he spent decades playing bop and soul jazz. His take on Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ is from his 1968 ‘Groove Merchant’ album, which features Richardson on a variety of wind instruments, including a few different kinds of flute (more than one on this track!). Aside from an odd, intermittent chime, this version of ‘Ode…’ is pretty cool, including some well placed harpsichord.
Like many of the players here, Joe Thomas doubled (tripled) on a variety of wind instruments. ‘Big Heart, Giant Soul’ from his 1970 Cobblestone album ‘Comin’ Home’ is indicative of the high quality of that funky soul jazz session. You get to hear Thomas (who also played in Rhoda Scott’s trio) vocalizing on what sounds like a Varitone (maybe attached to the flute), and then playing it straight. Thomas went on to record funkier stuff (even disco) in the 70s.
Ernie Fields’ ‘Watch Your Step’ is one of my favorite 45s, period. I’ve never been able to find out much about Fields, but ‘Watch Your Step’ is so high-concept, so soulful yet psychedelic and well-arranged, that you can only hope that he did more stuff like this.
If you were to put together a list of cats with serious jazz chops who spent most of their career trying to reach a mass audience (and sometimes succeeding) Herbie Mann would have to be at the top of the list. Mann started out working in a Latin bag, but went on to record a serious grip of soul jazz and even pop through the 60s and 70s. The title track of his 1971 ‘Push Push’ album shows that Mann was very comfortable in a funky bag (where he spent most of the early 70s), eventually having his biggest hit with 1975’s ‘Hijack’.
Jeremy Steig is beloved by crate diggers/beat heads for his track ‘Howling for Judy’ which was the main sample behind the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sure Shot’. Steig’s late 60s/early 70s stuff for Solid State and Blue Note is generally pretty far out, and skipping right along the border between funky and ‘out’. ‘Alias (ALi’as)’ (named for drummer Don Alias) features a wild performance by Steig over bass, drums and percussion., is from the same 1969 LP (‘Legwork’) as ‘Howling…’.
I’ve featured a number of very cool tunes from Frank Wess’s 1970 ‘Wess to Memphis’ LP on the Stax subsidiary Enterprise. Once again I must recommend this album highly, since it’s one of those great sessions where a jazz cat (Wess was well known as a tenor player as well as his work on the flute) really got into a more popular vibe with excellent results. The album, which includes a number of covers is well played and produced, and one I go back to frequently. He wails on his version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed Sealed and Delivered’.
I can’t remember where I first heard of Tim Weisberg’s ‘Streak-Out’, but I know I was surprised because it was the very same Weisberg who had a mid-70s chart hit alongside Dan Fogelberg! ‘Streak-Out’ from 1974 (which he apparently performed on the ‘Midnight Special’, so it must have been a minor hit) is a nice bit of funky rock, with a little bit of a break at the beginning.
This edition of Funky16Corners Radio closes out with what no doubt seems like the oddest of artists, Jethro Tull. All 1970s prog/hobbit-isms aside, when Tull got started in the late 60s they were a jazz inflected heavy blues band, not unlike Cream. The song presented here is, to bring things full circle, a Rahsaan Roland Kirk tune called ‘Serenade to a Cuckoo’. It was reportedly the first song Ian Anderson learned on the flute (Kirk being by far his strongest influence), and he and the band acquit themselves nicely.
I hope you dig this little survey, and I’ll be back later in the week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for some freakbeat supreme!

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

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By Larry, August 12, 2010 11:28 am

Woody Herman

Eumir Deodato

Listen/Download – Woody Herman and the Herd – Fanfare for the Common Man

Listen/Download – Deodato – Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)

Greetings all.
I hope week is coming to a satisfying close for you all.
My wife has to head out for a few days, and the spuds and myself are bumming, but since we plan to wreck the joint while she’s away, there is a (very) minor silver lining.
We’ll just see if three people can survive on corn chips, frankfurters and slurpees for five days.
If you haven’t already pulled down the ones and zeros for this weeks Funky16Corners Soul Club mix by my man Vincent the Soul Chef, do so now, on account of it’s full of the funk, and will – as the kids say – rock your world.
Also, don’t forget to tune in Friday night at 9PM for this week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show over at Viva internet radio. If you are not already hip/hep, you can click on the Radio Show link in the header and check out the fifteen (!?!) weekly shows that have already been mixed down and archived as MP3s for your listening pleasure.
Today’s post is one of those things that kind of fell together organically over the course of a few months, wherein I was holding something in storage, and then something else climbed over the transom and into the to-be-blogged folder that, how do they say, augmented the existing track in the stylistic and theoretical (figurative/symbolic) sense, and so they came together like beer and stout in a black and tan, blended ever so carefully so that once they pass over the lobes and into the brain the desired effect is one of jazzy, funky wonderfulness (and naturally, as is the style here at Funky16Corners, a tremendous run-on sentence).
Not too long ago one of my Friendface pals posted a video of the mighty Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd working it out on Aaron Copland’s 1942 masterpiece of 20th century classical music ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’. I dug the arrangement a LOT, so I went in search of the vinyl equivalent and found another live recording of a slightly later (I think) version of the Herd laying down the same arrangement at Montreaux.
Back in the olden days, when I was a long-haired, drum mangling stoner type, I had a copy of a certain Emerson, Lake and Palmer album that contained their version of the same piece of music. Having been brought up in a house full of classical music, but then stuffing my head with as much contemporary rock as possible, as well as being your standard teenaged rube, I thought that the ELP ‘Fanfare’ was of a deepness theretofore unheard, and blasted it at high volume many, many times until a seriously untrustworthy fellow bandmember (who, if memory serves was also a  pathological liar of singular talent) stole what was then a fairly expensive record (of course everything is expensive when you have no money).
In reflection, especially after hearing Woody Herman lay it down, the ELP version sounds like a meth-infused synthesizer orchestra trapped in an electrified mudslide. The Copland piece is both sublime and inspirational, and to hear it mangled so seems now to be something approaching a high crime.
Interestingly enough, Herman and his band were playing their Gary Anderson arrangement (recorded in 1974) of ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ a few years before ELP got their hands on it, and as you might have already assumed, the touch is considerably lighter, using funky subtlety to finesse the brassy strains of Copland’s piece where ELP drove through it with a steamroller.
In addition to a hot band – Herman, a master of the original big band era made some serious moves in the fusion era, still with a big band – you get to hear the master working it out on the soprano sax.
If you get your hands on a copy of the ‘Herd at Montreux’ album, you also get to hear them play the Richard Evans arrangement of ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’ and a very tasty version of Billy Cobham’s ‘Crosswind’ that I’ll feature here in the future.
The second track featured today is something I’m sure a lot of you will be familiar with since it was a substantial hit in 1972. That tune is Eumir Deodato’s epic arrangement of Richard Strauss’s 1896 ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’. Better known to one and all as the ‘2001’ music, Deodato’s take on the tune is in addition to being probably the biggest hit CTI ever had, a masterpiece of funky jazz.
Featuring Deodato on electric piano, Airto and Ray Barretto on percussion, Billy Cobham on drums, Stanley Clarke on bass and Jay Berliner on guitar, ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ goes on for nine minutes, and I’m here to tell you (though you should be able to hear it yourselves) that it never lags, never slips into fusion-y masturbation, never loses it’s kick.
The piece builds gradually, with a kind of amorphous tune-up, until the drums kick in at around 48 seconds, then the bass, guitar and of course Deodato’s electric piano (the heart and soul of the tune), followed by what has to be about the best known classical horn line in history, following the structure of the original until it settles down into a funky jam at around the two and a half minute mark. You know I love me some Fender Rhodes, and Deodato goes to town here. The coolest thing of all – and I hope you’ll agree – is that for what is basically a nine minute long jazz fusion interpretation of a piece of classical music (shades of Spinal Tap in Jazz Fantasy), ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ never gets cheesy or heavy handed, which is especially notable in an era when cheesy and heavy handed were the coin of the realm.
I hope you dig both of these cuts, and use them to get down with what the hipsters used to call ‘long hair’ music.
I’ll see you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

PS Make sure to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio Friday night at 9PM. Your ears will thank you.

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for a tribute to the late Chris Dedrick of Free Design.

Comments (5)

By Larry, August 8, 2010 3:18 pm

F16C Soul Club Presents – Vincent the Soul Chef – I Learned It By Watching You

Playlist

You can check out this mix in the Funky16Corners Soul Club Archive

I hope the new week finds you all well.
The mix you see before you is the newest installment in the groovy juggernaut known as the Funky16Corners Soul Club.

The name of the mixer should be familiar to fans of soul and funk blogging, that being the mighty Vincent the Soul Chef of Fufu Stew. I’ve known Vincent for a few years now, and can tell you from personal experience that he knows his shit, can handle a couple of turntables with the best of them, and has exquisite taste in music (which when you get down to it is really the bedrock).

What the Soul Chef has cooked up for us is over an hour of tasty funk  – a bouillabaisse if you will – composed of breaks, beats, thumping bass, wah wah guitar and vocals, with ingredients foraged in New Jersey, DC, San Fran, Memphis, New Orleans, Chitown and many points in between.

Vincent uses only the freshest funk, prepared with skill and whisked to your table so you might fill up on the good stuff.

I’ve given this one a couple of spins, and I’m sure you’ll dig it.

So fix yourself a plate, and make sure to head over to Fufu Stew.

See you later in the week.

Peace

Larry

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PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for something unexpected.

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Comments (1)

By Larry, August 3, 2010 7:05 pm

George Semper, from the cover of ‘Makin’ Waves’

Listen/Download – Love – That’s the Way It Is

Greetings all.
I come to you midweek with a somewhat mysterious 45.
I can’t even recall how or when I picked this one up, but my suspicions suggest to me that it was procured at a record show.
I think I pulled it out of a box of 45s because I recognized the label (I already had a Jimmy Reed 45 on RRG), but I’m sure I decided to buy it when I noticed that both sides were written, arranged and produced by George Semper.
If that name is not familiar, head over to the podcast archive and search for his name, which appears in no less than four different mixes in his capacity as a creator of Hammond grooves, which until I found this 45 was the only thing I knew about him.
Hammond heads will already be hip to his ‘Makin’ Waves’ LP, and the funky 45 version of ‘It’s Your Thing’ by the George Semper Rhythm Committee.
I’ll only go as far as to state that Semper was a West Coast cat, since I’ve seen references that base him in both San Diego and Oakland and have no way to be sure which one (or both) is the correct location.
The fact that the band was called Love – though it was immediately obvious that it was not the Arthur Lee organization – is unusual, since this 45 likely dates from the late 60s or very early 70s (or at least that’s the way it sounds to me) and the LA/Arthur Lee band was still a going concern, on a major label.
Of course they had their only hit in 1966, so it’s entirely possible they didn’t pop up on Semper’s radar, but the name of the band is a minor issue that only stands in the way of Google-based research.
The sound of ‘That’s the Way It Is’  is interesting and funky, with some electric piano and clavinet (no doubt provided by Semper), restrained strings and a cool lead vocal. I don’t really know who the singer is, and I’m reluctant to suggest that it’s George Semper, since all of his other work (that I’m aware of) is instrumental in nature.
As far as the provenance of the RRG label, it seems to have been a Wally Roker led imprint that existed for a brief time after the demise of the Canyon label. Roker was also involved in the Roker and Soul Clock labels around the same time. They released a handful of 45s by Jimmy Reed (then in his decline and trying all kinds of things to stay relevant) and at least one by Doris Duke and of course the Love 45.
As far as I can tell the RRG 45 was the first and last thing that this ‘Love’ recorded. That’s too bad since the tune is memorable and the record definitely had (unfulfilled) commercial potential.
I hope you dig it, and if you have any more info to fill in the blanks, please drop me a line.

Peace

Larry

NOTE: Thanks to commenter Piet who included a Popsike link to an issue of this same 45 on the Law-Ton label!

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some Chicago garage punk.

Comments (4)

By Larry, July 29, 2010 4:30 pm

Whatcha smokin’ George??

Listen/Download – The Magictones – Good Old Music

Greetings all.
The end of the week is here, and I just finished reading the autobiography of the mighty Grandmaster Flash, and I have breaks on my mind.
It might have something to do with the sad passing of Melvin Bliss, which has the Purdie break from ‘Synthetic Substitution’ running through my head in a loop, or reading how Flash and Kool Herc were cutting breaks way back when in the old school, or maybe because as an ex-drummer myself, I have those sounds ricocheting around my skull pretty much all the time.
Either way, there’s something undeniably magical about the isolated sounds of snares, rack toms and kick drums (and the occasional cymbal) whipped together in a syncopated stew that is really the heart and soul of funk, that secret ingredient that makes your head turn and your backbone slip and your eyes roll back in your head as you are compelled to say ‘UNH!’, the break – especially a really good one (on account of I have probably twice as many sloppy, poorly thought out breaks in my crates as I do the tight ones) is a mighty powerful thing.

So, how about a mighty powerful break?

One of my favorite breaks for years was the one that starts out the Parliaments’ 1968 ‘Good Old Music’. Snappy, powerful and tasteful (but not wasteful), the ‘Good Old Music’ break was not only groovy all by its lonesome, but led into a whole big pile of psychedelic funk that had even the most restrained among us taking off their clothes and running out onto the front lawn to hoist the freak flag.

So, many years, and many records later I get hepped to the fact that there’s another Detroit-based, Clinton-produced version of the song by a group called the Magictones (from 1970), and I am assured that I need to hear it.

Now the OG is so good, I wasn’t exactly filled with anticipation that the cover was going to be anything special…until…yes, until I heard the break.

Holy fucking nutballs.

The break that opens the Magcitones’ version of ‘Good Old Music’ is about nineteen seconds of rock solid, laid back, ass-kick, seasoned with just a pinch of snapped fingers (with a couple of mumbled bits of encouragement) that is an absolute game changer. It goes on well past the pint when any sane person would expect the band to fall in, which is one of the reasons it rules.

When you go back in history, and take into account the greatest breaks of all, especially primordial, almost prehistoric jawns like Clyde Stubblefield’s break in James Brown’s ‘Cold Sweat’, you’re talking less about aggressive power, than you are about restraint and swing. This is not the sound of a hammer, but more the feeling of a series of deftly rendered brush strokes, engineered to make your head nod, while you try figure out if what you’re digging more are the drum hits or the space in between them.

The Magictones version of the song is not the same backing track as the Parliaments, though I’d venture a guess as to say that it’s almost definitely the same band (listen to the guitars and keys). The really cool thing is that the Magictones dial back the tempo just a hair, making the whole enterprise a little bit heavier, a little bit hippier, spreading it out like a swimming pool filled with molasses, into which you are invited to take a dive, off of the high board (in slow motion for the duration of the break) and into the funky goo, where you will proceed to roll, slowly, for just about three minutes and fifty seconds.

I mean honest to jumping Jiminy Jeebus, this is one motherfucking funky record in every possible sense of the word, and if you can get your bearings back after being knocked on your ass by those drums, you will surely have them unsettled in short order by the Magictones and what is undoubtedly a gang of Funkadelics getting down behind them.

I dare you not to listen to this over and over again, restarting the break in a loop, and them laying back and letting the whole thing wash over you a few times. How a record this good isn’t a major part of the funk 45 canon (on account of funk records don’t have to be fast, just funky) is an almost unspeakable omission, and I suggest that all you DJs out there that don’t already have one go out there and dig one up so that you can whip it on the people, wherein they will also be blown away and you will be hoisted upon their shoulders and paraded around the room, hands filled with free beer, like the god that you are.

Seriously.

Don’t forget to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show this Friday night over yonder at Viva Radio, 9PM EST for more of the good stuff you all know and love.

See you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some pop-psyche from an unexpected source.