Comments (0)

By Larry, January 23, 2014 2:08 pm

Mister Rufus Is Back!

Listen/Download Rufus Thomas – (Do The) Push and Pull Pt1

Listen/Download Rufus Thomas – (Do The) Push and Pull Pt2

Greetings all

The week is coming to a close, so it’s time to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will take to the airwaves of the interwebs Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 at the blog.

Since the weekend is approaching, and you may – like so many of us – wish to toss back a few cocktails and get your party on, how about something funky to help get you started?

Rufus Thomas was a very solid cat.

He was one of the cornerstones of the Stax organization, a successful Memphis DJ, as well as the being billed (justifiably) as the ‘World’s Oldest Teenager’.

He made some of the most energetic, hard hitting soul and funk sides of the 60s, and it always amazes me that he was well into middle age when he did so (54 when he laid down today’s selection!).

Though many of his best remembered tunes are your basic, dance craze numbers, Rufus never let that stop him from delivering an inspired performance and ‘(Do the) Push and Pull Pt1’ was no exception.

The groove, with the bass drum hitting like a punch in the nose, pushed along by the horns, bass guitar and a chugging clavinet, is funky indeed.

The record was an R&B Number One hit in 1970 (grazing the Pop Top 20), and I was shocked to discover that it was the only time Rufus ever topped the charts! Though he made it into the Top 5 five different times between his first hit in 1953 (‘Bear Cat’) and his last in 1976 (‘If There Were No Music’) ‘(Do the) Push and Pull Pt1’ was his only Number One.

It went on to be sampled by Eazy E and Jurassic Five among others.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, January 21, 2014 3:56 pm

Listen/Download Soul East – Funky Lady Pt1

Listen/Download Soul East – Funky Lady Pt2

Greetings all

The tune I bring you today is an almost complete mystery to me.

Before I scored a copy last year, I had heard of Soul East, and heard the tune ‘Funky Lady’ in a mix somewhere, but never really knew anything about the group.

Actually getting my hands on a copy of the record hasn’t done anything to improve that situation.

A quick look at the label shows that the band was barely credited (the speed of the disc and the catalog number are both in a bigger font).

It seems that the co-writer and producer, listed as ‘Bud Scott’ may in fact have been NY-based producer Buddy Scott who wrote and produced a number of records for Pat Lundy.

Whether or not Soul East were also working out of NY, or if they were anything more than a studio concoction, I cannot say.

What I can say with certainty is that ‘Funky Lady’ was released in 1969, and appears to be the only record released by the group.

The tune features chicken scratch lead guitar (cool leads on Part 1), some punchy horns and rolling piano underneath it all.

‘Funky Lady’ does not appear to have charted anywhere, but it is a very tasty, very funky side.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 20, 2014 4:29 pm

Martin Luther King

Listen/Download Chris Kenner – Memories of a King (Let Freedom Ring) Pt1

Greetings all

This is an extra special, unscheduled, surprise post, tied in with my chronic inability to be prepared for any special occasion on the calendar.

To be sure, this situation has improved over the years, as I’ve built up a massive store of music, pictures and information that make these things easier.

Unfortunately, my mind is – to borrow a phrase from the autobiography of the great Dave Van Ronk – like the attic of the Smithsonian, and sometimes no matter how special something is, it gets filed, misplaced or forgotten.

I mention this because I finally remembered – at the last possible minute, naturally – to dig out and digimatize the record you see before you today.

Back in 1968, not long after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Chris Kenner, his hitmaking days long behind him, wrote and waxed a tribute to the great civil rights leader.

Entitled ‘Memories of a King (Let Freedom Ring) Pts 1&2’, it is a departure for Kenner, best known for penning and recording some of the greatest R&B to come out of New Orleans in the 1960s, as well as laying down some of the most obviously inebriated records I’ve ever heard.

That said, ‘Memories of King’ is an earnest and heartfelt, and at times the tiniest bit funky, tribute to Dr. King.

While it’s nothing earth shattering, it is a little known/heard 45, and was the second to last 45 Kenner recorded before he was sent to jail later that year. It was the beginning of a downhill slide that ended in his premature death in 1976.

Give it a listen, and remember the work and life of the mighty Dr. King.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, January 19, 2014 11:47 am

Alvin Cash and the Registers

Listen/Download Alvin Cash and the Registers – No Deposit No Return

Greetings all

The new week is here, so I thought I’d dust off some of that good Chicago (via St Louis) instrumental soul to get you greased up and ready to roll.

Alvin Cash (nee Weeks) and the Crawlers/Registers had a string of hits for the Chicago labels Mar-V-Lus and Toddlin’ Town between 1965 and 1968.

Cash and his brothers – basically a dance act – emigrated to Chitown from St Louis and hit the charts early in 1965 with ‘Twin Time’.

Backed by the Registers, originally a St Louis band called the Nightlighters, Cash basically worked the same side of the “vocal” street as Jerry-O, i.e. he was more of an emcee/toaster/proto-rapper than a singer proper, spicing up several groovy instrumentals with largely spoken interjections.

The track I bring you today is – as my pockets often are – Cash-less, featuring the Registers, along with a bottle of pop, getting down.

The tune – ‘No Deposit No Return’ is credited to Joseph Delponto and Larry Nestor. I can’t find anything about Delponto, but Nestor was a Chicago-area keyboardist who had spent some time in the Buckinghams, and wrote and arranged for other Chicago artists like the Sharpees and Syl Johnson.

‘No Deposit No Return’, which opens with the sound of a bottle being uncapped (natch…) opens up into a grooving soul instro led by some soupy (Wurlitzer??) electric piano and saxophone, with enough punch for the dance floor.

Though this song didn’t chart, its flipside ‘Philly Freeze’ grazed the R&B Top 10 and the Pop Top 50 in 1966.

It is a head-nodder indeed, and I hope you dig it.

See you on Wednesday

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, January 16, 2014 12:08 pm

Miss Tina Britt

Listen/Download Tina Britt – Who Was That

Greetings all

The end of the week is nigh, so I will once again inform you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you have a previous engagement, you can always keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing and MP3 here at the blog.

The song I bring you today is the second and last hit that Tina Britt placed in the R&B charts.

Though she was fairly well-recorded – a half dozen 45s and an LP – there isn’t much information out there on Miss Tina.

I first found my way to her mighty voice via her powerful 1969 cover of Don Covay’s ‘Sookie Sookie’, a funky classic.

Britt, who first hit the charts with the Ashford/Simpson/Jo Armstead penned ‘The Real Thing’ in 1965 (also recorded by the Chiffons and Betty Everett), seems to have hailed from Florida. Her singing had a bluesy edge to it, displayed to fine effect on ‘Who Was That’.

An R&B Top 40 hit in November of 1968, is a funky blues, with some tasty guitar (perhaps composer James Peterson?) and a punchy drum/bass sound.

There’s an interview with Britt where she mentions that she really considered herself a blues singer, she didn’t like ‘The Real Thing’, and that Juggy Murray wasn’t forthcoming with the royalties for her hits.

Though I’m not sure when the interview was from, Britt mentions recording some new music, so be on the lookout for that.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

  _______________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 14, 2014 1:27 pm

The Flamingos circa 1967

Listen/Download The Flamingos – Heavy Hips

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of the week.

I have always been a big fan of groups that got their start in the doowop/R&B era, and managed to hang on through the classic soul era, and sometimes (as in the case of today’s artist) on into funk.

The Flamingos would be worth your time if all they had ever done was record the timeless and amazing 1959 recording of ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’, one of the greatest records ever made, in any genre, by anyone.

Led by brothers Jake and Zeke Carey, the Flamingos were on the charts fairly regularly between 1956 and 1960, then came back for more starting in 1966 with the soul classic ‘Boogaloo Party’.

The tune I bring you today is one of the last things they did before joining the oldies circuit.

‘Heavy Hips’ (written by Zeke Carey), released in 1975 is manages to be funny without getting (too) silly, taking a ribald tack.

Opening with the cry ‘Lawd! Sho must be Bonanza, because that sure is a whole lotta Ponderosa!’, the band (dig the bass, especially) kicks into a funky groove. The horn section is cool (the trombonist gets to fool around a little bit) and there’s a nice drum breakdown about halfway through.

The late-era Flamingos recorded a couple of LPs for the Ronze label, with ‘Heavy Hips’ also appearing on the ‘In Touch With You’ album, alongside (of course) ‘Bump Your Buns Off’.

Though most of the original members are gone (both Carey brothers having passed on in the 90s) there is still a version of the Flamingos performing, led by early member (and songwriter) Terry Johnson.

I hope you dig the cut, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, January 12, 2014 11:20 am

The Contours

Listen/Download The Contours – First I Look at the Purse

Listen/Download The J Geils Band – First I Look at the Purse

Greetings all

I hope the new week finds you all well.

The tune I bring you today is one of those soul tunes I knew and loved years before I started collecting 45s.

My record collecting/listening past is filled with a variety of landmarks, some which make complete sense (i.e. the shortest distance from point a to point b) and some a little bit more circuitous.

Back when I was a longhaired teenager who wanted little more out of life than to bash on my drums, listen to music and sleep (not necessarily in that order) I found myself – as was often the case – browsing the cut-out bins at the local Music Den.

Music Den was that fossil of a bygone age, a chain record store which could be found in various guises (depending on your region) in malls all over the country.

Aside from the local flea market, that was pretty much the only place I had to go to buy music, which was then records and cassettes.

Though I can’t be 100% positive, I suspect that I had little or no folding money on my person, but I was no doubt determined to bring some new music home with me.

What I found that day was one of a series of WEA cassette twofers. The massive, multi-label conglomerate was reissuing albums, two per tape, in budget cardboard slipcases (no fancy shmancy plastic cases here) by a variety of artists in their vast catalog.

If memory serves, over the course of a year I picked up more than a few of these, at least one by Joni Mitchell, and the second (the pertinent one for today’s post) by the J. Geils Band.

Those of you that weren’t there in the 70s may not think much of the Geils band as more than a relic of the album rock age, but those that know (especially as the band’s early years are concerned) will tell you that they were once something heavier indeed.

I’m not completely certain what the second album on that cassette was (though I think it might have been ‘Monkey Island’) but it was the first side of the tape that cracked open my ears a little bit wider.

The band’s self-titled debut – from 1970 – was a surprise indeed.

It sounded nothing like the stuff I’d heard by the band on the radio, sounding more like a fired up version of Chicago blues than anything.

The greasier, 1970 edition of the J. Geils Band

That album not only introduced me to a hotter side of the J. Geils Band, but also to Otis Rush (‘Homework’), John Lee Hooker (‘Serves You Right To Suffer’) Albert Collins (‘Sno Cone’) and most importantly, the Contours (I would learn later that lead singer Peter Wolf was an inveterate record collector and probably had a lot to do with the variety of sounds covered by the group).

It was the Geils Band cover of ‘First I Look At the Purse’ – which I wouldn’t have recognized as a cover if I hadn’t seen Smokey Robinson’s name on it – that really grabbed me.

The song had a solid groove, and the lyrics were hilarious.

In retrospect the J. Geils Band must have been quite a breath of fresh air in the hippified scene of 1970.

Flash forward about ten years, and I finally got to hear the original by the Contours and I dug it even more.

Though they are best known for their 1962 classic ‘Do You Love Me’, the Contours are for me (much like the Velvelettes) a Motown group that should have (and probably would have, given the opportunity) been much bigger.

The Contours original (it just missed the R&B Top 10 in the summer of 1965) is a fast moving (much faster than the Geils cover), soul-clapping killer, with the rhythm guitar and piano pounding in tandem and the drums (listen to the kick drum hits) punching through the mix.

The Contours would make it into the R&B Top 40 eight times between 1962 and 1967.

The J. Geils Band would end up in much poppier (and more successful) place than they started, with 80s hits like ‘Centerfold’.

It was a long way from Otis Rush, but sometimes that’s just how it is.

I hope you dig the track. And I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, January 10, 2014 11:54 am

Connie T Empress Set , Friars Club 01/07/14
Philly Dog Mar-Keys (Stax)
Soul Sister, Brown Sugar- Sam & Dave (Atlantic)
In The Basement Part 1- Etta James & Sugar Pie DeSanto )Cadet)
Hear Say-Soul Children (Stax)
A Dime A Dozen-Carla Thomas (Stax)
I Used To Cry Mercy, Mercy-Lamplighters (Gusto reissue)
Toe Hold-Wilson Pickett (Atlantic)(“David said he had no idea WP had ever done this! so I played it.“)
Soul Girl-Jeanne & The Darlings (Volt)
I Could Never Be Satisfied Pt 1 – Sir Mack Rice (ATCO)
Ya Ya-Tamiko Jones (A&M)
Snatchin’ Back-Calvin Arnold (Venture)
Love Bug Got A Bear Hug-Melvin Davis (Mala)
Let Me Be Your Boy-Wilson Pickett (Verve)
Formula of Love – William Bell (Stax)
Fall In Love With Me-Bettye Swann (Money)
Say You-The Monitors (V.I.P.)
Oh, I’ve Been Blessed-Bobby Taylor (V.I.P.)
Late Shadows-Nicki Lee (Dade)
You Can’t Miss What you Can’t Measure-Clarence Carter (Atlantic)
Love Bones-Johnny Taylor (Stax)
Loving Material-The Charmels (Volt)
I Found Out-The Astors (Stax)
Baby Make Your Own Sweet Music-The Bandwagon (Epic)
Do The Whoopie-SugarPie Di Santo (Brunswick)
I can Take Care of Myself – Gene Chandler (Constellation)
Sleep Good Tonight-Sam & Dave (Stax)

Listen/Download Connie T Empress’s Set: Friars Club NYC 01/07/14 78MB/256K Mixed MP3

Greetings all

I hope you all dug my account of this week’s amazing Friars Club experience with the legendary David Porter.

What I am privileged to bring you today is the complete set spun that night by the mighty Connie T Empress.

For the few of you that won’t know her name, Connie T Empress was one of the founders of the legendary Empire State Soul Club. Starting in 1987 and lasting well into the 90s, Connie, along with W. Lee and Jeff the Chef spun the finest in rare soul for audiences all over New York City.

The Empress feeling the groove!

Though I missed out on the ESSC experience, I was lucky enough to spin alongside Connie when she joined the ranks of the Asbury Park 45 Sessions back in 2007, spinning with our crew for a few years.

She is that rarest of soul DJ, in that she’s no mere trainspotter/collector, but rather a dyed in the wool fan who feels the music as much as the dancers on the floor (she’s usually moving and grooving behind the decks at the same time).

Her enthusiasm is obvious and contagious, and I always relish the opportunity to share the turntables with her. It never fails that I come away from one of her sets with a number of sides added to my want list, and this evening was no exception.

ESSC Reunion: Connie T Empress and W. Lee!

What you get here is a little over an hour of solid senders, engineered for the dance floor, all groovy.

A brief technical note; as I mentioned with my set, there were some problems with the mixer, with some bleed through from channel to channel, but certainly not enough to keep such a tasty set under wraps. Fortunately, Connie did not experience the drop-out I did during my set, so you get this mix in stereo!

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

Keep the faith

Larry

________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, January 8, 2014 12:42 pm

Funky16Corners Set, Friars Club 01/07/14
Sam and Dave – May I Baby (Stax)
Astors – Candy (Stax)
Booker T and the MGs – Boot-Leg (Stax)
Homer Banks – 60 Minutes of Your Love (Minit)
The Packers – Soul Time, Part1 (Tangerine)
Timmy Thomas – Whole Lotta Shaking Going On (Goldwax)
Willie Mitchell – That Driving Beat (Hi)
Ike and Tina Turner – Good Bye, So Long (Modern)
Ray Charles – I Don’t Need No Doctor (ABC/Paramount)
Tommy Tucker – Long Tall Shorty (Checker)
Jimmy Robins – I Can’t Please You (Jerhart)
Jimmy Hughes – Neighbor Neighbor (Fame)
Rodge Martin – Lovin’ Machine (Bragg)
Mickey Murray – Shout Bamalama (SSS Intl)
Sugar Pie DeSanto – Go Go Power (Checker)
Johnny Otis – Keep the Faith Pt1 (Eldo)
The Megatons – Shimmy Shimmy Walk Pt1 (Dodge)
Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers – I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor Now) (Like)

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Set: Friars Club NYC 01/07/14 78MB/256K Mixed MP3

Greetings all

I come to you today, completely exhausted but very happy.

Last night I had the very great pleasure of taking part in an evening honoring the mighty Memphis soul legend David Porter.

Organized by Keenan Popwell as part of the ongoing ‘Take My Tuesdays, Please’ series at the Friars Club in New York City, the Conversation with David Porter was a stellar evening indeed.

ESSC’s W.Lee Interviews the mighty David Porter

Popwell himself got things rolling on the turntables, followed by an hour long interview – conducted by Empire State Soul Club legend W. Lee – and then an audience Q&A session.

Keenan Popwell manning the decks

Following the discussion (during which I happened to be seated next to TV’s Paul Shaffer!), yours truly and the mighty Connie T Empress laid down a couple of hours of solid soul that had some of the New York area’s heaviest music heads shaking it on the dance floor.

Yours Truly, relaxing between selections…

Connie T Empress making with the wax!

The assembled multitudes and the ceremonial “cutting of the rug”!

Earlier in the evening the DJs had the opportunity to dine with Mr Porter and his family and friends in the Friars dining room.

It would be an understatement indeed to say that David Porter is the personification of the old sobriquet “gentleman and a scholar”.

He was warm, engaging and more than willing to entertain our collective music hound questions, sharing stories about his songs, colleagues like Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding (he considered both musical geniuses with a remarkable talent for “head arrangements”), Al Jackson Jr. (and his ability to find “the pocket”), the Stax studio and his most recent project, the music education charity, The Consortium MMT.

It was an honor to shake the hand of the man who co-wrote some of the greatest soul songs of all time, a privilege to ask him about the creation of some of them and a bonus to discover how humble and genuine a man he is.

I started my set on the mellower side with a couple of songwriting and production (in the case of Homer Banks, both) credits from Mr. Porter’s catalog, but quickly threw a little grease on the fire with some other Memphis faves and a grab bag of Southern soul and R&B faves from my record box*.

Despite the fact that there was record-breaking cold outside, it was a spectacular evening that few that were present will ever forget.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

*The mixer was misbehaving periodically, causing some drop-out in one channel,so I mixed my set down to mono

________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, January 5, 2014 11:14 am

Rex Garvin

Listen/Download Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers – I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)

Greetings all

I hate to get the week started on a sad note, but hang tight and I promise that I’ll bring things around at the end.

I was chilling the other night, scrolling through Facebook when I spotted a post by my man Agent45, noting that the mighty Rex Garvin had died.

If you have been following my comings and goings (ranting and raving) here over the years you will already know that I hold the music of Rex Garvin (and his Mighty Cravers) in the highest possible esteem, especially the sounds of one very special record.

As I sit here tapping away at the keyboard in the middle of my record room I am surrounded by many thousands of records, tens of thousands of songs, and I love many of those songs deeply, but there are a select few that are genuinely important to me.

Some of these are Rosetta Stones of a sort in that they unlocked doors for me, whether in a purely sonic sense, or providing a gateway into a particular artist or style.

Others are important in that they represent that rare, perfect intersection of composition, production and above all performance.

I have posited here in the past that the best records (in any genre) contain a certain magic, and that a DJ, with the proper amount of taste and practice understands how to release that power properly, mixing the right records together in such a way as to lift the feeling in a room. You release the joy, energy and rhythmic drive in a record and if things are just right and the people are feeling it you achieve, whether for a minute, or an hour, a kind of ecstasy.

There is joy in music, amplified by movement (not just dance) that is ancient and essential and resides in the spirit of every man, woman and child and one of the great tragedies is that we do not release ourselves into that state and partake in its elevating, restorative nature often enough.

When I pack my record box for a particular night, I select things according to the proscribed style and tempo (usually varying), sometimes adding in a “wild card” or two that can be inserted into the mix should the opportunity arise.

What I also include nestled securely in the deep end of the box, usually handled with protective equipment, are the killers.

These are the records that carry in their grooves that exceptional, often explosive power on which an entire set can pivot into another dimension.

A record like this must be used sparingly and with the utmost care.

Spun in the wrong place, at the wrong time – when the audience isn’t ready – its energy can be wasted, but released properly it can do remarkable things.

‘I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)’ by Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers is one such record.

It needs to be stated at this point that Rex and the Cravers were no one-shot wonders. Their 1960s recordings for a variety of labels (Epic, Okeh, Like, Atlantic, Tower) are packed with winners like ‘Emulsified’, ‘Sock It To Em JB’, ‘Queen of the Go Go’ and ‘Raw Funky’, but ‘I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)’ is in a class by itself.

Released in 1967, ‘I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)’ did not – as far as I can tell – chart anywhere, at any level, which, once you listen to the record, seems inexplicable.

Co-written by Garvin, saxophonist Clayton Dunn and drummer Pete Holman, it has an unrelenting tempo, pushed forward by the drums, bass and rhythm guitar, along with the occasional soul clapping and the wailing of a combo organ in the background.

Where the record really takes off, though, is in the vocal performance by Rex Garvin.

The influence of gospel music on soul is incalculable, but it isn’t always this obvious.

Here, Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers have taked the sound of the amen corner, packed it with TNT and sent it over a cliff.

Garvin isn’t merely singing, he’s preaching the gospel of soul, in a song that is quite literally about being carried away by the power of music.

He’s telling you that through the music he is compelled to launch himself out onto the dance floor, feeling the music in his soul, rising from his seat, clapping his hands as hard as he can. He is filled with the spirit (holy or otherwise) and he has to move.

Listen to this record and imagine everyone in choir robes, bouncing the call and response back and forth between Rex and the band.

I GOTTA GO NOW!

(GO AHEAD!)

OUT ON THE FLOOR NOW!

(GO AHEAD!)

SAID I GOTTA GO NOW!

(GO AHEAD!)

OUT ON THE FLOOR NOW!

HIT IT!

(HIT IT!)

DON’T QUIT IT!

This is the ecstatic religious experience secularized (or not, depending on what music means to you) and moved out into the club.

If this record doesn’t send shivers up and down your spine and out into your limbs I don’t know what to tell you.

This is the kind of record that soul music is all about, and the kind of record that moves me to the bottom of my soul.

It is that powerful, and in the 20 or so years since I first heard it, over countless listens has never lost an iota of its power for me.

No matter how many times I listen to it, or pull it from my box and place it on the slipmat in a club, it is always as amazing as the last.

Oddly enough, after almost 30 years, Rex Garvin put music behind him, calling it quits in 1985.

He eventually settled in Atlanta, where he passed away early in December at the age of 72.

I’ll be DJing this week, and I can assure you that I will have this record in my box, and I will spin in in the memory of the mighty Rex Garvin.

I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 2, 2014 1:13 pm

Young-Holt looking badass!

Listen/Download Young-Holt Unlimited – Mystical Man

Greetings all

The end of the week is near, so it is time to remind you to set the dial on your wireless set to bring in the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which airs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you are unable to join me at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes.

How about something mellow to close out the week?

The Young-Holt organization, Unlimited, LTD etc has been featured in this space many times over the years.

Isaac ‘Red’ Holt and Eldee Young, from their days as two thirds of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, on to their string of outstanding soul jazz LPs in the late 60s and early 70s, have long been favorites of mine.

Though they are known to most for their 1969 hit ‘Soulful Strut’ (which, oddly enough they are rumored to have not played on), they laid down a string of great albums and 45s for the Brunswick, Cotillion and Paula labels between 1966 and 1973 (with Holt carrying on as a solo for a while afterward).

The tune I bring you taday hails from their 1973 LP ‘Young-Holt Unlimited Plays Superfly’, and is a testament to the often unsung hero of the group, pianist Ken Chaney.

Chaney, who replaced Hysear Don Walker when the group changed from the Young-Holt Trio to Young-Holt Unlimited was the driving melodic force of the trio, as well as composing some excellent tunes.

Today’s selection is the meditative, soulful ‘Mystical Man’, the final track (and one of only two originals) on the ‘Plays Superfly’ album.

It is a great piece of spiritual, late-night jazz, with some very groovy electric piano, arco and pizzicato bass by Young and some very restrained drumming by Holt.

The album is one of their best, and worth the investment if you can locate a copy.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (5)

By Larry, December 31, 2013 1:56 pm

Miss Della Reese

 Listen/Download – Della Reese – It Was a Very Good Year MP3

NOTE: I had something else ready to go for today, but this morning someone posted Frank Sinatra’s version of ‘It Was a Very Good Year’ to mark the New Year, and I thought “Why not post the astoundingly good version by Miss Della Reese in the same spirit here at Funky16Corners!”

So that’s what I’m doing.

It has actually been a pretty good year here at base camp.

My wife’s health has continued to improve, the kids are healthy and happy, and I’m not doing too poorly myself. 

It already looks like 2014 will bring some opportunities to DJ, and of course the Funky16Corners blog and radio show will continue apace.

I hope all of you have had a good year,and if not, that 2014 has nothing but good things in store for you and yours.

That said, I’ll see you all on Friday.

Happy New Year!

Larry

Originally posted 3/27/11 

>>Greetings all.

How’s by you?

All is as well as can be expected on my end of the interwebs.

The weekend was relatively uneventful, and despite anything the calendar says, Spring has yet to arrive in any real way.

I should mention that I have a couple of very groovy DJ gigs in the pipe, details to follow soon.

I’m not going to be able to make it to the Allentown 45 show this year, but I don’t really mind.

The vinyl gods have been good to me these last few months, bringing in all manner of cool stuff, including a couple of longtime white whales, as well as a bunch of low priced, but uniformly excellent groovers.

I’ve also been edging up to the second big push in the reorganization of the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center, which always yields cool stuff from deep in the crates that had been unjustly neglected.

I just dug out a groovy Northern 45 last week that I had either forgotten about – or more likely – had not listened to closely the first time I found it. I like when stuff like that happens.

The tune I bring you today is one of the aforementioned white whales, which I chased like Ahab for a long time before finally landing it late last year.

When you mention the name Della Reese to folks, the reaction you get depends on generational variables.

Folks my parent’s age remember her career as a pop/jazz vocalist that produced a couple of big hits in the late 50s.

Younger folks will remember her mainly as a TV actress, on shows like ‘Touched By an Angel’.

Sit down with a couple of hip DJs, and you very well may hear tell of a lesser known, but truly interesting part of her career, when despite a lack of commercial success she managed to make some very soulful, very danceable records.

Back in the early days of the blog (2005) I featured one of these sides, Ms. Reese’s excellent take on Gene McDaniels’ soul jazz epic ‘Compared to What’, recorded for AVCO in 1969.

The tune I bring you today hails from 1966, and like that session was made with jazz trumpeter Bobby Bryant (search the F16C Podcast Archive for some of his groovier tracks) and his band.

The tune ‘It Was a Very Good Year’, was written in 1961 by Ervin Drake. It was originally recorded by the Kingston Trio, but the song will forever be identified with Frank Sinatra, who recorded – and had a hit with the song – in 1966.

The Sinatra version is a doleful lament, sung by an old man looking back on his life.

Della Reese’s version is a radical reworking of the song, both lyrically (she embellishes the verses) and stylistically. Arranged by Bryant, the song is recast as a funky, hard charging cri de coeur, less wistful than the musical equivalent of a fist in the air. Reese sings the song like someone who despite a colorful past, is looking forward to bigger and better things.

Her vocal is powerful, often sounding as if she was testing the limits of the recording equipment.

The band is on fire, with a pumping Hammond and remarkable drums. The recording has a very hot sound, and the snare and kick drum are – next to Della – the loudest things on the record.

This is one of those records that would have languished in obscurity, had it not been revived by DJs on the jazz dance scene in the UK. It has become increasingly popular with funk and soul DJs, and was reissued by the Jazzman label (with a live version on the B-side).

As far as I can tell, this version is not in print on CD and the 45 can be quite expensive, so unless you need one to play out, slip the ones and zeros on your pod-like-thingy and dig.<<

Keep the faith

Larry

  ______________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.