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By Larry, September 21, 2014 11:20 am

Eddie Harris and Les McCann

Listen/Download Les McCann and Eddie Harris – Carry On Brothers

Greetings all

That said, there must have been something in the air in 1971, since Les McCann and Eddie Harris’s ‘Second Movement’ LP is jam packed with funky jams.

The tune I selected for your delectation this fine day is the mighty ‘Carry On Brother’.

There was a time in the late 60s/early 70s when McCann and Harris were the public face of soul jazz, thanks 100% to their 1969 smash LP ‘Swiss Movement’ and the classic ‘Compared to What’.

Both McCann and Harris had recorded plenty of top-shelf soul jazz during the 60s, and their coming together as a duo was everything it could have been and more.

With McCann working the keys and singing (not too shabby, by the way) and Harris working the Varitone electric sax (not everyone’s cup of tea, but one of my favorite sounds), the duo combined songwriting chops (and excellent taste in covers) with razor sharp playing.

‘Carry On Brother’ (written by McCann) opens with congas, electric guitar and McCann whooping, before he lays into the song’s socially conscious message.

The groove stated, things get a little bit far out, with some fantastic, wordless vocals by Cissy Houston and Judy Clay, and a hot band of NYC sessioners (Cornell Dupree, Jerry Jemmott and Pretty Purdie among them) working overtime.

If you get a chance to pick up a copy of ‘Second Movement’, do so, since you also get the excellent ‘Shorty Rides Again’.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, July 31, 2014 11:58 am

Idris lays into the traps…

Listen/Download Idris Muhammad – Express Yourself

Listen/Download Idris Muhammad – Super Bad

Listen/Download Leon Spencer – Message From the Meters

Listen/Download Lou Donaldson – Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky From Now On

Listen/Download Lonnie Smith – See Saw

Listen/Download Melvin Sparks – Thank You Pt1

Listen/Download Melvin Sparks – Thank You Pt2

Listen/Download Bob James – Nautilus

Greetings all

I logged on to the interwebs last night only to be greeted by rumors of the passing of the mighty Idris Muhammad.

It wasn’t long before the rumors were confirmed by this obituary out of his home port of New Orleans.

Idris Muhammad was born Leo Morris in New Orleans in 1939.

He was childhood friends with the Neville brothers, and one of his first gigs was playing on Fats Domino’s 1956 smash ‘Blueberry Hill’ (he also played on the seminal Crescent City track, the Hawketts ‘Mardi Gras Mambo’).

Muhammad left New Orleans in the mid-60s and headed north to make his bones as a jazz drummer.

He soon became a fixture on a seemingly endless succession of heavy New York soul jazz dates, playing alongside a wide variety of organists, guitarists and others (dig the discography in his Wikipedia entry), eventually leading his own dates for Prestige starting in 1970.

Idris has appeared here at Funky16Corners many times over the years, both as leader and sideman.

His drumming style was steeped in the New Orleans second line, and was deeply funky, both in the wayback Ninth Ward way and also in the post-James Brown get down.

I’m posting a wide variety of tracks blessed with his beats, but that mixture of Big Easy and Good Foot was never more obvious than  in  the solo in his cover of Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band’s ‘Express Yourself, the opening track’ from his 1970 debut as a leader ‘Black Rhythm Revolution’. Listening to it is hearing a very groovy bunch of uptown jazzers suddenly morphing into a high-stepping, umbrella-waving parade.

It is bad-ass.

I’m including the flipside of that 45, his cover of JB’s ‘Super Bad’ (bringing it all back around, as it were) as well as a grip of sessions from the late 60s/early 70s that feature Muhammad. It’s worth noting that two of the best tracks hail from NOLA, Lou Donaldson covering Lee Dorsey and Leon Spencer, the Meters.

The last track, Bob James’ epic – heavily sampled, see below* –  1974 track ‘Nautilus’, in which Muhammad lays out one of the smoothest/tastiest breaks ever.

Idris Muhammad went on to play with a host of jazz greats, spending may years working with Ahmad Jamal, before retiring to his home town in 2011.

He was a master of the skins, who carried the beat in his heart and soul.

He will be missed.

See you on Monday

Keep the faith

Larry

     *Songs that sample ‘Nautilus’ (from the-breaks.com)

     A Tribe Called Quest’s “Clap Your Hands”
     Alkaholiks’s “Daaam!”
     All Natural’s “Think Again”
     Basement Khemist’s “Correct Technique”
     Camp Lo’s “Black Nostaljack”
     Chubb Rock’s “Keep it Street”
     DJ Food’s “Spiral Dub”
     DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince’s “Jazzy’s Groove”
     Dream Warriors’s “Voyage Through the Multiverse”
     EPMD’s “Brothers on My Jock”
     Eric B and Rakim’s “Follow the Leader”
     Eric B and Rakim’s “Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em”
     Freestylers’s “Warning”
     Geto Boys’s “Snitches”
     Ghostface Killah’s “Daytona 500”
     Group Home’s “Inna Citi Life”
     Ice T’s “?”
     JCD and the Dawg lb’s “Over Pussy”
     Jeru’s “My Mind Spray”
     Joe Budden’s “Yo, Yo, Yo”
     Jungle Brothers’s “Book of Rhyme Pages”
     K-Solo’s “Everybody Knows Me”
     Keith Murray’s “The Rhyme”
     King Sun’s “Big Shots”
     Kruder & Dorfmeister’s “Original Bedroom Rockers”
     Large Professor ft Pete Rock’s “The Rap World”
     Leaders of the New School’s “Show Me a Hero”
     Lord Shafiyq’s “My Mic is on Fire”
     Lyrical Prophecy’s “You Can’t Swing This”
     Main Source’s “Live at the Barbecue”
     Mary J. Blige’s “Just Mary”
     Mary J. Blige ft Nas & DMX’s “Sincerity”
     Mekon’s “Phatty’s Lunch Box”
     Mike Zoot’s “Scene”
     Naughty by Nature’s “Cruddy Clique”
     Nice & Smooth’s “No Delayin’”
     Onyx’s “Black Vagina Finda”
     Onyx’s “Throw Ya Gunz”
     Organized Konfusion’s “Stray Bullet”
     Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s “Take You There”
     Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s “The Sun Won’t Come Out”
     Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s “What’s Next on the Menu?”
     Poison Clan’s “Paper Chase”
     Poor Righteous Teachers’s “Word is Bond”
     Project M’s “The Place to Be”
     Public Enemy’s “Anti-N*gger Machine”
     Puff Daddy ft Busta Rhymes and Notorious BIG’s “Victory”
     Queen Mother Rage’s “Slippin’ into Darkness”
     Red Myers’s “Shoplifter”
     Run-DMC’s “Beats to the Rhyme”
     Run-DMC’s “Groove to the Sound”
     Salt-N-Pepa’s “Doper than Dope”
     Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story”
     Soul II Soul’s “Jazzie’s Groove”
     Tame One’s “Torture Chamber”
     The Roots ft Mos Def’s “Double Trouble”
     Threat’s “Bust One Fa Me”
     Tim Dog’s “Bronx Nigga”
     Tim Dog’s “I’ll Wax Anybody”
     Tim Dog’s “Low Down Nigg*”
     Ultramagnetic MCs’s “Ced Gee (Delta Force One)”
     Ultramagnetic MCs’s “Moe Love on the One & Two”
     Ultramagnetic MCs’s “Raise it Up”

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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 (3)

By Larry, July 27, 2014 1:41 pm

Wilbert Longmire

Listen/Download Wilbert Longmire – Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose

Greetings all

I hope the new week finds you well.

I’ve had Wilbert Longmire’s name bouncing around in my head (along with his guitar stylings) since I picked up a Pacific Jazz loss-leader comp years ago.

Always a big fan of jazzers working the funky side of the street, the late 60s jazz scene was practically overflowing with goodies.

Even a hardass like Buddy Rich felt the need to accessorize (along with some flares and a paisley ascot) and keep his book fresh with tunes like ‘Chameleon’.

I had included a Longmire track (his take on ‘Scarborough Fair’) on an older mix, so when I put my hands on his 1969 LP ‘Revolution’, I handed over some folding money and took it home.

Good thing, too, since that LP included the very groovy track you see before you, a cover of James Brown’s ‘Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose’.

The session, which featured heavies like Cal Green, Leon Spencer, Jr and Paul Humphrey (as well as a couple of omnipresent Crusaders) is tasty indeed, seasoning some straight ahead funk with jazzy horns.

There’s a moment (at around 1:23) where a wave of trombones comes in and kind of fills your ears to overflowing ( I highly recommend the use of a headphones).

Longmire is in top form, and Larry Gales bass is next level.

The rest of the album is more jazz than funk, but if you can get it for less than twenty bucks, it’s worth it for this cut alone (at least I think so…).

So, dig it, 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 (1)

By Larry, July 15, 2014 12:10 pm

Joe Williams

Listen/Download Joe Williams and the Jazz Orchestra – Get Out of My Life

Greetings all

I thought I’d whip something as smooth and delicious as a snifter of cognac on you this fine day.

Years ago I remember watching a documentary in which someone was talking about Burt Bacharach, and remarking on how when he arranged a song, they were so important to the structure of a number, that the elements of the arrangement often remained in plce when the song was covered.

Such is the case with renditions of Lee Dorsey’s (written by the mighty Allen Toussaint) 1966 hit (R&B Top 5, Pop Top50) hit ‘Get Out of My Life, Woman’.

No matter who decided to cover it, from rock bands like the Leaves/Q65, soul artists like Solomon Burke/Wilmer and the Dukes, to jazzers like Jimmy Smith and George Semper, you always seem to get that funky, loping, New Orleans drum figure kicking open the door at the beginning.

The version I bring you today is very groovy, and in the words of Slim Gaillard, mellow as a cello.

Performed by legendary jazz singer Joe Williams, backed by the Thad Jones big band, ‘Get Out of My Life’ (‘Woman’ symbolically, our of his life, and the title) was recorded in 1966 for the Solid State label.

Taken at a relaxed, yet solid pace, with an outstanding vocal by Williams, the recording also features (at around six seconds in) one of the tastiest, choppable/loopable bits of sound ever laid down.

So tasty, that it was sampled more than a dozen times* by cats like Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Doug E Fresh and Pete Nice, which is why when copies turn up, they change hands for a few dollars more than your average Solid State 45.

As soul jazz 45s go, it’s one of those biscuits that you can just put on repeat and soak in it like a tub of warm water.

I hope you dig it (I know I do).

Keep the faith

Larry

 *Songs that sampled Joe Williams ‘Get Out of My Life’:
    Big Daddy Kane’s “Very Special”
     Biz Markie’s “Funk is Back”
     Double XX Posse’s “Ruffneck”
     Doug E Fresh’s “Bounce”
     Funkdoobiest’s “I’m Shittin’ on ‘Em”
     Jill Scott’s “Brotha”
     Kool G Rap’s “Ill Street Blues”
     Main Source’s “How My Man Went Down in the Game”
     Pete Nice’s “Outta My Way Baby”
     Queen Latifah’s “Latifah’s Had it up 2 Here”
     Shabazz the Disciple’s “Party with a Tec”
     Skoolbeats’s “Outta My Way”
     UMC’s “Woman Be Out”

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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, July 3, 2014 11:30 am

Johnny Lytle

Listen/Download Johnny Lytle – Done It Again

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, which means that it’s time to fire up the wireless and twist the knobs so that the dulcet tones of the Funky16Corners Radio Show flow from your speakers. This and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio I endeavor to bring you the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove – all on original vinyl. You can also subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

I have discussed my love for the sound of the vibraphone in this space many times before (and demonstrated it as well, see Funky16Corners Radio v.79 – Positive Vibrations). It’s just one of those instruments I could listen to all day long, and then some.

One of my favorite – lesser known (to some, anyway) players is the great Johnny Lytle.

Though he may be best known in soul jazz circles for his 1964 classic ‘The Village Caller’, I first encountered Lytle’s music via a couple of 45s he recorded for Detroit’s Tuba label.

Lytle was as adept on the vibes as he was the xylophone (which he often switched to on his records) and was, like my favorite Freddie McCoy, a master of the soul jazz sound.

The tune I bring you today is the title track from his 1967 Pacific Jazz LP ‘Done It Again’.

‘Done It Again’ swings from the get go, with a healthy dose of Latin flavor (Don Alias on the congas).

Lytle opens the song on the vibes, then solos on the xylophone.

‘Done It Again’ is a fast mover, with enough heat for the dance floor (you can also pick it up on a 45 if you so desire).

I hope you dig the sounds, 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 (3)

By Larry, June 5, 2014 11:51 am

Funky16Corners Presents: Walking In Space

Quincy Jones – Walking In Space (A&M)
Wes Montgomery – Up and At It (A&M)
Deodato – September 13 (CTI)
Lonnie Smith – Stand (Edit) (Kudu)
Grover Washington Jr – Masterpiece (Kudu)
Gabor Szabo – Rambler (CTI)
Johnny Hammond Smith – Big Sur Suite (Kudu)
Milt Jackson – People Make the World Go Round (CTI)
Bob James – Nautilus (CTI)

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: Walking In Space

NOTE: This – the first of two mixes I put together for this year’s Allnighter is a tribute to the sounds that Creed Taylor produced (usually engineered by Rudy Van Gelder) for A&M, CTI and Kudu in the late 60s and 70s. 

I’m a huge fan of the entire CTI aesthetic, from the amazing sounds (listen to the drums, brass and strings)  to the classic album covers. It’s no mystery why so much of the CTI catalog has been sampled over the years, and many of those sample sources are in this mix.

This one was a real labor of love, and I’ve given it a grip of listens since I recorded it.

I hope you dig it, too.

See you on Monday with a new mix from Kris Holmes!

– Larry

Greetings all

Welcome to the 2014 edition of the Funky16Corners Allnighter/Pledge Drive.

This is the ninth annual Pledge Drive, and the fifth Allnighter.

If you haven’t experienced the Allnighter/Pledge Drive, it can be explained as thus: once a year, the Funky16Corners Blog, your home for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove vinyl for almost 10 years comes to you with hand outstretched, asking for donations to offset the operating expenses of the web site.

The Funky16Corners ‘operation’ (as it is) included the Funky16Corners and Iron Leg blogs, the mix archives for both (containing well over 200 mixes), and the Funky16Corners Radio Show/Podcast (another 200+ files available for download, or through subscription in iTunes).

The money raised during the pledge drive goes to pay for the server space and fees associated with hosting the whole megillah.

As has been attested to many times in the past, Funky16Corners has humble beginnings, starting out on the old (free) Blogger service, moving to WordPress, and then to self-hosted WordPress. The move to paid hosting was necessitated by increased bandwidth usage, as well as the need for a place to store all the mixes (and eventually the radio show episodes).

The Allnighter/Pledge Drive is a once-yearly occurrence, in which yours truly, and some of the finest selectors out there whip up new mixes for your delectation.

In past years, I have posted all of the mixes in a single post, and left it up for a week.

This year, the quality and quantity of the mixes spurred me on to try something a little different, i.e. posting a new mix each weekday for a period of just over two weeks. This way, each selector gets their moment in the spotlight, and the mixes get spaced out so that the listeners don’t suffer from mix-fatigue.

Each day, you’ll get a fantastic mix (there really are some amazing ones this year) from one of my favorite DJs, most of whom have participated in the Allnighter before, as well as a great new contributor.

So, if you dig what we do here at Funky16Corners, click on the Paypal link and toss some cash into the barrel.

Contributors will receive a 2014 Allnighter badge (see below), as well as some stickers from the archive (as long as they last).

This year I will also be drawing the names of contributors at random for groovy swag, including CDs and 45s from Cultures of Soul and LugnutBrand Records, and CDs from Light in the Attic and Secret Stash.

So, dig the sounds for the next couple of weeks, and make sure you stop back on a daily basis to pick up new mixes and contribute for a chance to win some cool stuff.

Thanks, and as always,

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, May 27, 2014 12:08 pm

Jimmy Wisner, tickling the ivories

Listen/Download Mr. Jim and the Rhythm Machine – Mrs. Robinson

Greetings all

The tune I bring you today is a very groovy bit of swinging soul jazz, with an interesting pedigree.

If you are a casual music fan, I wouldn’t expect the name Jimmy Wisner to raise any eyebrows.

However, if – like me – you are one of those obsessives that peruse the label of every record that comes into your possession, then Wisner’s name should be a familiar one indeed.

Based out of Philadelpia – thus his presence on so many local records – Wisner was a pianist, composer, arranger and producer for a very wide variety of artists during the 1960s and 1970s.

He was also a successful recording artist, though he rarely used his own name.

His first success came with the reworked version of Edvard Grieg’s ‘Piano Concerto in A Minor’, released as ‘Asia Minor’ under the artist name of ‘Kokomo’, which was a hit in 1961. Wisner released the record under a pseudonym so as not to compromise his career as a jazz pianist.

He also recorded the Northern Soul sleeper ‘Choppin’ Around’ (itself another classical adaptation, this time of a Chopin piece, thus the pun in the title) under his own name in 1966.

When I first happened upon the version of ‘Mrs. Robinson’ you see before you today, recorded as Mr. Jim and the Rhythm Machine, my first impression was that it was a successful attempt at hopping onto the Ramsey Lewis train and taking it for a ride.

Basically a piano trio record, with some very tasteful strings added in the background, the Mr. Jim version of the Simon and Garfunkel tune is a solid swinger, which I wouldn’t hesitate to whip on the dancers.

Interestingly, this predates the version by Booker T and the MGs (a Top 40 R&B hit) by a year and was competing for airtime with covers by Chet Atkins and bandleader Don Costa.

As far as I can tell it didn’t chart anywhere, which is a shame because it’s quite good, but Wisner had so much on his plate (he was just about to take over A&R at Columbia Records) I think he probably just kept on rolling.

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

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, April 17, 2014 2:53 pm

Joe Zawinul

Listen/Download – Joe Zawinul – The Soul of a Village (45 Edit)

Greetings all.

The track you see before you today first appeared here at Funky16Corners back in August of 2010.

It is a very groovy one, indeed, and I thought it would fit in nicely beside both the mixes I posted this week.

Don’t forget to check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, or subscribe to it as podcast in iTunes.

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The middle of the week is here, and I may be tired, my nerves may be frayed, my brain may want to shut off, but I have a craving for some of that deep, deep stuff, so here we go.

The record I lay before you today is something I first heard during a long ago Asbury Park 45 Sessions, with my man Vincent the Soul Chef working the wheels du steel.

As I’ve said here many times before, the 45 Sessions are without fail, a DJs paradise, with the selectors slipping 45s under the needle that have the heads running up to the turntables to see what’s going on.

This blog has seen many, MANY sides that I first heard at the Lanes, and of we ever get it back up to speed, this will surely continue.

Anyway, when Vincent pulled this one out of his record box, and I heard the laid back but funky drums, and the electric piano (you know I love me some electric piano), and the spooky strings, my spidey sense started tingling, and when I found out that the music I was hearing had been created by none other than Joe Zawinul, I set out to find a copy of my own.

This took a little longer than I expected, and while I was waiting I pulled down the entire album from which it originated – ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’ – and was surprised to discover that there wasn’t much on that album that resembled the 45 I had heard (though the flip side of this 45, an edit of the track ‘Lord Lord Lord’ has a decided gospel edge).

For those of you to whom the term ‘Third Stream’ doesn’t ring any bells, I’ll tell you that it was affixed to classically influenced jazz in the 50s and 60s by folks like John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. There’s a lot of string-based action on ‘Rise and Fall..’ but the overall effect is much more jazz than classical.

Zawinul (and the name should be very familiar) was the Austrian born pianist who made his mark in Cannonball Adderley’s band (Zawinul composed ‘Mercy Mercy Mercy’ and ‘Country Preacher’ among others) , moving on to work with Miles Davis (on ‘In a Silent Way’), and then eventually as one of the founding members of Weather Report.

‘Rise of the Third Stream’ was recorded in 1968 and was only Zawinul’s second solo effort in 10 years. It came a year before his work on ‘In a Silent Way’, and echoes of ‘Soul of a Village’ can be heard in his work with Davis.

Though the 45 lists the piece as only ‘Soul of a Village’, the music you’re hearing is actually an edited version of ‘Soul of a Village Pt2’, having been preceded on the album by just over two minutes of prepared piano and strings droning in an approximation of an Indian raga.

The 45 version of ‘Soul of a Village’ has such a perfect, self-contained vibe that I’m torn as to whether you need to hear both parts. The album is overall a much more challenging listening experience than the 45, but if serious jazz is your bag, I’d suggest you seek it out.

That said, the 45 version of ‘Soul of a Village’ (roughly one and a half minutes shorter than the Pt2 on the LP) is a slice of groove perfection. It opens (again) with the drone, before Zawinul comes in with the electric piano, followed by funky drums (either Roy McCurdy or Freddie Waits), Jimmy Owens’ muted trumpet, and even more strings, and the really groovy thing is that the string section actually swings along with the drums.

The tune was written (like almost every track on the album, save one) by saxophonist/arranger William Fischer, who as far as I can tell was first and foremost a classical composer/musician, and as a result ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’ must be considered a  collaborative work between Fischer and Zawinul (a prolific composer in his own right).

This is serious ‘head’ music, in that it both spins around the inside of the cranium for full, mystical effect, but also compels the head to nod with the rhythm. I wouldn’t go as far as to suggest that anyone not sufficiently intoxicated might get up to dance, but it’s not entirely out of the question.

A truly unique and captivating record, and I hope you dig it.

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 (3)

By Larry, April 13, 2014 3:41 pm

The Mothership,now boarding…

Parliament/Intro
Afro-Samurai
Dick Hyman – Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose
Capt Sisko
Jimi Hendrix – 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
Morpheus/1
Scientist – The Dark Secret of the Box
Morpheus/2
Dorothy Ashby – Soul Vibrations
Gene Harris – Don’t Call Me Ni**er Whitey
The Brother From Another Planet
Phil Upchurch – Elektrik
Lando Calrissian
Electrostats – 21st Century Kenya
Mace Windu
Isaac Redd Holt Unlimited – Listen to the Drums
Darth Vader
Roots Radics Band – Son of Darth Vader
Mr Spock/Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Brother Jack McDuff – Moon Rappin’ (Edit)
Lt Uhura
Rotary Connection – Tales of Brave Ulysses
Danger Mouse/Murs/Free Design – To a Black Boy
Shuggie Otis – Pling!
EddieHarris feat Blind Willie Johnson – Dark Were the Silver Cycles (F16C Mash)
Sun Ra

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: The Mothership Mix

Greetings all

Welcome to the new week.

I have something very groovy for you today.

A while back, one of my favorite Facebook-made acquaintances, the author Bill Campbell told me that he was assembling an anthology of afrofuturistic stories, and was thinking about using a mix as part of the Indiegogo campaign.

That anthology, ‘Mothership: Tales From Afrofuturism and Beyond’ is very, very cool, and I would suggest you avail yourself of a copy either in paper, or digital form. Make sure to check out the Rosarium Publishing web site as well.

Always looking for an interesting challenge, I offered my services in furtherance of that goal, and Bill said yes.

The mix you see before you is one of those that I had rolling around the back alleys of my mind for a long time before I actually stated pulling out records, digging for drops etc.

The concept of afrofuturism is especially intriguing, and the thought of finding its application in musical form really got me thinking.

There are musicians included in this mix that worked the conceptual side of things rather directly, like Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton, and some that worked their way into the groove stylistically (Eddie Harris, Shuggie Otis) and others that just created a specific piece of music that seemed destined for inclusion in the mix (Dick Hyman’s epic reworking of JB for instance).

I was trying to create a vibe – which is what you ought to be doing with a mix, anyway – but in this instance, it was far removed from the dance floor and drilled deep inside the head (via the ears, naturally).

This is definitely one for the headphones, trippy, often deep, sometimes weird and in several spots traveling outside the known boundaries of the Funky16Corners universe.

I’m proud to have been given the opportunity to work with Bill, and very happy with the mix.

I hope you dig it too.

I’ll be back later in the week with another brand new mix.

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 (2)

By Larry, March 27, 2014 11:48 am

Carlos Malcolm (right) at work in the studio

Listen/Download Carlos Malcolm – Don’t Walk

Greetings all

The week is coming to a close once again, so I will take this opportunity to remind 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 are unable to join me at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes or by grabbing an MP3 at the blog.

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Before we get started today, I should mention that Funky16Corners turns up (#73) in the Style of Sound list of the Top 100 Most Influential Music Blogs.

This is very groovy indeed (nice to know, as always, that someone is out there digging what I do), but also cause for a few thoughts about music blogging over the long haul.

Funky16Corners will reach its 10th anniversary this November, and things – as they often do on the interwebs – have changed drastically during that time.

By any measure, the ‘boom’ days of music blogging have passed. Traffic has slacked off considerably since the heady days of the mid-to-late aughts when blogs seemed to be appearing (and dropping away) at a remarkable rate.

I don’t know what the actual stats are, but from personal experience I can say that most blogs don’t last very long at all, few getting past the first few posts, and those that do closing down over time, either  due to lack of interest from the blogger or their audience.

Many of the best remembered music blogs have gone the way of the dodo, though if you take a stroll through my blogroll there are still lots of great ones out there, like Fleamarket Funk, Soul Sides (which appears adjacent to F16C in the list), The B-Side, AM, Then FM and Home of the Groove.

When I look at the Style of Sound list, there are only a half dozen or so names I recognize, which I think says a lot about how much the blogging landscape has changed since I got involved in 2004.

That said, check out the list, and click around. You might discover something cool.

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Today’s selection is another one of those reminders that it always pays to register the important facts, and use them to dig a little deeper when you can.

As a funk fan (with a minor in the Jamaican variety thereof) I was already familiar with the name Carlos Malcolm.

‘Straight Out of the Ghetto’, by Malcolm and his band the Fireburners (oddly enough, also recorded for an American label, Ahmad Jamal’s AJP imprint) is a killer bit of funk.

What I did not know, until I spied an LP on a friend’s sale list, was that Malcolm had been recording well before that tune, with a very interesting history indeed.

Born in Panama to Jamaican parents, Malcolm spent time in both of those countries growing up, eventually becoming a successful bandleader in Jamaica during the 50s and 60s.

He had recorded ska in Jamaica, but came to New York in the late 60s to record for the Roulette label.

The album he recorde for Roulette, 1968’s ‘Don’t Walk: Dance’ is an interesting mix of sounds, including jazz, latin, and as you’ll hear in today’s selection, a bit of boogaloo.

The album’s title (sort of) track, ‘Don’t Walk’ is an outstanding example of the kind of mixture Malcolm was working with at the time. It sounds like a Latinized variation on Lee Morgan’s ‘Sidewinder’, mixing percussion (vibes and drums) with waves of horns, with the trombones (Malcolm’s instrument) and trumpets playing a call and response game.

The whole thing has a very groovy mid-60s discotheque feel, danceable, but with some juice for your ears as well.

Malcolm, who spent a fair amount of time living and working (not always as a musician) here in the US, left music for a time (working in publishing) but returned to it in the 1990s.

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 (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

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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 (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

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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.