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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.

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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.

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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 (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 (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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, December 29, 2013 12:07 pm

The Knockouts, Bob D’Andrea at right (hugging gorilla…)

Listen/Download The Knockouts – Mo Jo (Got My Mo Jo Working) Pt1

Listen/Download The Knockouts – Mo Jo (Got My Mo Jo Working) Pt2

Greetings all

Every once in a while I find myself entranced by a record that despite coming from an artist/scene outside of the ‘traditional’ soul/funk orbit.

There are countless examples of performers taking a temporary detour down soul street. Granted, most of these folks were on some sort of parallel course, whether it be R&B, jazz, or even (in this particular case) doowop, but the records in question are often extraordinary.

As far as I can tell Bob D’Andrea and the Knockouts started out like many other Italian harmony groups in the New York area, working a ballad-heavy twist on late 50s/early 60s doowop.

There are traces of Dion and the Belmonts, but their ballad performances are not my cup of tea.

However, there are a few items in their discography (roughly 1959-1965) that suggest that the group had a taste for wilder stuff.

Their 1961 b-side ‘You Can Take My Girl’ is a much more raucous affair, with touches of actual R&B making their way into the mix, but even then, it barely prepares you for today’s selection.

Released in 1964, ‘Mo Jo (Got My Mo Jo Working)’ sounds like Joey Dee and the Starliters got their hands on some slightly poisonous hooch and went right out of their minds.

The arrangement runs at roughly 100 miles an hour, pushed along by bass, drums, handclaps and a churning combo organ, with a wild vocal by D’Andrea.

What little information I’ve been able to find on the group suggests that they were first and foremost a live band, working it out in the clubs along the Jersey Shore.

‘Mo Jo (Got My Mo Jo Working)’ sounds like 100 sweaty nights of whipping drunken revelers into a frenzy compressed into roughly five minutes (both sides, natch) of madness.

Someone in this band had a taste for the (musical) hard stuff and it comes through on this record.

I’ve done the math a hundred times, and no matter how I run the numbers, there’s no sane reason that this record should be as good as it is, but it is.

The Knockouts made an LP called ‘Go Ape With the Knockouts’ that included both sides of this 45 as well as a serviceable version of ‘I Got a Woman’.

Lead singer Bob D’Andrea still performs today in Atlantic City as part of the music/comedy duo of Andre and Cirell.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all 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, December 26, 2013 2:46 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.62 – Hot Pants!! Under the Covers with James Brown

Playlist

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, December 24, 2013 11:45 am

Ho Ho Hyeaahhh!

Listen/Download – James Brown – Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto

NOTE: This year – as in years past – the run up to Christmas will be filled with re-postings of some of my (and your) fave soulful and funky holiday tunes.

This gives you all a chance to catch up on some soulful Christmas jams, and gives me time to rest my blogging muscles and enjoy the holiday.

This track is especially apropos since we lost the Godfather of Soul on Christmas day back in 2006.

I’ll be back on Friday with some more James Brown-related treats!

Enjoy!

Originally Posted 12/18/11

Greetings all.

The time has come, as it does once a year for yours truly to let loose with the Ho Ho Hos and the jingle bells and what not on account of the fact that Christmas is approaching rapidly.

As has been mentioned here before, this is a multi-religious household, with myself representing the (extremely) lapsed-Catholic and my wife repping the Jewish and the Little Corners an interfaith bouillabaisse, their eyes and hearts filled to bursting with the childhood wonder of the season.

Which is really what it’s all about, at least from my vantage point, where what I want is no more or less than their happiness, and my wife’s good health.

You know that I’ve mentioned here (every single Christmas since this blog has been extant) that I have never been a prodigious collector of holiday music. Whether this has to do with my acceptance (almost at the DNA level) of the cheesy/classic seasonal sounds of my childhood, to the point where I can sit back and take some comfort in the sound of the voices of Andy Williams or Jim Nabors (and surprisingly enough, I can), or that seeing limited appeal/value in holiday music, I’d rather spend my money on reg’lar old soul and funk is in the end meaningless, since there always seems to be something cool dropping in from the margins to satisfy the Funky Kringle in us all.

I bring you today’s selection in particular because it is a favorite of bot myself and my wife, and naturally because it is a very groovy, upbeat and cheerful Christmas offering from Mr Please Please Please (HO HO HO?) himself, James Brown.

When I listen to ‘Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto’, I realize that what we get with this record is both funky and danceable, but also poignant, especially in these days where there’s a tent city of homeless families not 10 miles from my warm, toasty house, and Mr Brown was thinking of how this, the most precious of holidays for children especially, could be rough for the poorest among us, and we should remember that while we listen to this song.

We should also remember that James Brown, who gave us such a great Christmas song, left us on that very day five years ago.

So dig the tune (there’ll be many old faves dropping as the week progresses) and remember that not everyone has the wherewithal to have a groovy holiday.

So try to remember that even if you are (like me) not a religious person, that the Christmas season can just be about brotherhood in the general ‘Family of Man’ sense, which is cool too, especially when times are tough (which they are for so many).

See you on tomorrow.

Peace

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 (2)

By Larry, December 19, 2013 12:09 pm

Charles Brown

Listen/Download Charles Brown – Merry Christmas Baby (1970)

NOTE:  Don’t forget to tune into this year’s Funky16Corners Radio Show Christmas special. It airs on Friday night 12/2o at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you are out making merry at that hour, you can catch up by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

Enjoy!

Greetings all

As mentioned in our previous post, of Ike and Tina Turner KILLING ‘Merry Christmas Baby’, the original version was recorded by Charles Brown with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers in 1947.

The tune became a holiday standard, and was covered by many people (including Ike and Tina, Chuck Berry, Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs, Kenny Burrell and Bruce Springsteen).

Brown himself returned to the well frequently over the years, recording the song anew many times.

The version I bring you today is something I dug up this past summer on a record safari to the Finger Lakes region of New York.

When I saw it, I was unaware of Brown’s many rerecordings, and assumed it to simply be a later pressing of the tune.

When I finally got home and gave it a spin, it was immediately clear – via the wah-wah guitar – that what I was hearing was a recording of a much later vintage.

A little bit of research revealed that Brown had redone the tune for Jewel records (along with a new version of ‘Please Come Home For Christmas’) in 1970.

Though I haven’t been able to track down any session info (I really wish I knew who the guitarist was) I think it’s a safe assumption that it is Brown himself tickling the ivories.

His voice – in the words of Slim Gaillard, “mellow like a cello” – one of the finest/smoothest that ever was, was still in fine shape (and would remain so for many years) and the vibe is relaxed.

What amazes me about this song in particular is how flexible it is.

You can line up the versions that have appeared in this space – or on the Funky16Corners Radio Show – by Ike and Tina, Otis Redding and the Soulful Strings – next to Brown’s, and marvel at how different the song (a fairly simple blues) manages to sound in each interpretation.

I love to hear Charles Brown’s voice (right up there with Lou Rawls for pure listening pleasure) and he clearly dug this song.
I hope you do too.

See you next week with some more holiday soul!

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 15, 2013 12:57 pm

Ike and Tina

Listen/Download Ike and Tina Turner – Merry Christmas Baby

Greetings all

The first of our new, soulful Christmas tunes this year is my favorite recording of what is perhaps the greatest R&B-rooted holiday tune ever written.

‘Merry Christmas Baby’, composed by Johnny Moore and Lou Baxter, and first recorded in 1947 by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers with Charles Brown on vocals, has become a standard, re-recorded many times, in many styles in the decades since it was created.

If you haven’t heard Moore’s group, make sure you do a little digging. Much of their recorded work – with and without Brown – is available in reissue, and is worth your time. They were one of the truly great small groups working in the transitional years between jazz and R&B (in the style of the King Cole Trio, which featured Johnny Moore’s brother, Oscar on guitar).

The version of the song I bring you today is not only my fave ‘Merry Christmas Baby’, but may very well be my favorite holiday soul record.

Ike and Tina Turner released their version of the song in 1964 on the b-side of a cover of Jesse Hill’s New Orleans R&B classic ‘Ooh Poop A Doo’ (using the Turner’s spelling…).

The tune opens with a fanfare, and the Ikette’s wailing ‘Jingle all the way!’, before Tina, Ike and a drummer who sounds like he was playing with sledgehammers drop in like a ton of bricks.

The recording has a remarkable “live’ sound, with the horns and Ikettes dueling for first place all the way through and Miss Tina delivering 110%.

I recently saw a video of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue from the Big TNT Show, and it is a testament to the fact that they were as hot an act as was around in the mid-60s. Every single time the drummer hits that snare drum the whole band explodes, and they carry that vibe onto this 45.

Neither side of this record charted, but don’t let that fool you. This right here…this is the shit.

Ho Ho Ho

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, December 12, 2013 12:34 pm

The Fabulous Counts

Listen/Download The Fabulous Counts – Lunar Funk

Greetings all

It’s almost Friday, which is why I will remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show is on its way, taking to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 at the blog.

The Funky16Corners Radio Show Christmas Special will be dropping next Friday, 12/20 at the usual time, so make sure to pencil that into your datebooks! Also, the next two weeks will be devoted to Christmas music, with some old faves making their yearly appearances, as well as some new finds from this year which I think you’ll dig. _____________________________________________________________________________________

I thought we’d finish off the week with something funky.

I have long been a fan of the Fabulous Counts. Their 1969 hit ‘Jan Jan’ (just skirting the R&B Top 40) was one of the first funk 45s I heard (or owned) and I did my level best to amass all of their stuff as quickly as possible.

They recorded three excellent of 45s for Ollie McLaughlin’s Moira label (his Detroit labels Carla, Karen and Moira all named after his daughters) and an LP for the Cotillion label (produced by McLaughlin), all in 1969.

Led by organist Mose Davis, the Fabulous Counts laid down a jazzy style of funk that broke from the James Brown mold, with their sound much closer in spirit to a group like Kool and the Gang.

Today’s selection, ‘Lunar Funk’ was the flipside of their biggest hit, 1970’s ‘Get Down People’ (R&B #32, Pop #88).

Featuring fuzz bass, wah wah guitar by Leroy Emmanuel and some groovy clavinet by Davis, the tune is a fast moving number with a great horn section.

The group would eventually leave Moira for the Westbound label, recording one more 45 as the Fabulous Counts, before shortening their name to the Counts.

I hope you dig the track, 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 8, 2013 12:50 pm

Benny Gordon

Listen/Download Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers – What Is Soul?

Greetings all

I’ll assume that we’re all ready to launch ourselves into the new week, so I though I’d get things rolling with something upbeat and groovy.

If today’s selection sounds at all familiar, it might be because it is a cover of a Ben E. King tune, which was featured in this space early last year.

The original is cool not only because of Ben E’s great vocal, but is also sought after because of that sweet Bernard Purdie drum break at the beginning.

The version I bring you today is by an old Funky16Corners favorite, Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers.

As featured in this space (as well as in a couple of mixes over the years) Benny Gordon (and his cousin Sammy, of Hiphuggers fame) were perfect examples of the kind of hardworking, journeyman soul performers I love to feature here at the Corners.

They hailed from the Carolinas, but did most of their recording and performing up New York City way.

Their take on ‘What Is Soul’ was released in 1967 (a year after the OG), and while it features a small break (nothing compared the OG) what drew me in was Benny’s vocal.

The arrangement and production is a little more restrained than on the original, but Gordon’s lays down a passionate, soulful performance.

Gordon and the Soul Brothers laid down just about two dozen 45s (and two rare LPs) between 1964 and 1973 but never had any chart success.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all 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.