Esquerita aka the Magnificent Malochi
Listen/Download – The Magnificent Malochi – Mama Your Daddy’s Come Home MP3
Listen/Download – The Magnificent Malochi – As Time Goes By MP3
Greetings all.
I will begin, as I always do on Friday by reminding you to twist the dials of your Radiola to tune in the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which drops each and every Friday with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl.
This week’s show is a very special (and special format) tribute to David Mancuso, so make sure to subscribe in iTunes, or listen on TuneIn, Stitcher, Mixcloud or grab and MP3 right here at Funky16Corners.com
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Billy and Miriam in their natural environment
(photo by Eilon Paz from the mighty Dust & Grooves book) and Kicks (inset)
This has been an exceptionally harsh week for music fans, losing Leon Russell, Leonard Cohen, Mose Allison, and Norton/Kicks co-founder Billy Miller, who passed away after a heartbreaking battle with diabetes and cancer.
It pains me to have to write these memorials, but if you what I do you kind of have to. We pay tribute to our fallen heroes in the hopes that by putting it out into the universe, someone, somewhere will come to know them, or know them better.
While I wouldn’t say that I knew Billy very well, he was a presence in my life for close to 30 years, and via the work he and his wife Miriam Linna did in the greatest zine that ever was, Kicks, he was a huge influence on my writing, musical/cultural sensibilities and continuous devotion to the DIY cause.
Back in the early 80s, when I was first discovering music in the realms of garage punk, rockabilly and R&B, fanzines were a major part of that discovery, and none was more important than Kicks.
Billy and Miriam created a road map to the forgotten wildmen and women of music and pop culture, infusing a trainspotter’s knack for arcana with a healthy dose of humor and boundless enthusiasm.
Though it should be clear to anyone that hits up either of my blogs or podcasts that this kind of stuff runs through my veins, back in the 80s that love was multiplied exponentially because it was infused with the excitement that comes from discovery and insatiable appetite for same.
Kicks was a bible for my friends and I, and as I started my own zines – which I have been doing on and off, on paper and on the interwebs for 32 years now – the style that Billy and Miriam created was a consistent touchstone. If you ever see me lapsing into the patois of a an early 60s overnight hepcat DJ (which I often do) that is 150% Kicks right there.
They were coolness personified, and a constant reminder that no matter how deep, or obsessed I would get about some things, I was never within a thousand miles of their level of devotion, knowledge or their reach when talking about it.
I only knew Billy in passing, having spoken to him briefly (and shared a bill once when our bands played together) a number of times over the years (including once, a million years ago in the Court Tavern where I broached the subject of what was – in retrospect – some painfully obvious rockabilly 45 that I had found, and Billy was kind enough to humor me, saying “Oh yeah, that’s a rare one.” without rolling his eyes), but because we connected on Facebook, and had a large number of mutual friends, I followed the progress of his illness, always hoping that he would turn a corner, level off and spend another 25 years filling the world with great music.
Sadly that turn never came, and he went on to join the departed heroes he sang the praises of in the great beyond.
Via Kicks and Norton, I was exposed to countless artists that I had never heard of (Hasil Adkins, Ronnie Dawson, and thanks to them the name Groovey Joe Poovey has been bouncing around in my brain for 30 years) and filled in the blanks of others that I knew but not well (especially Bobby Fuller and Andre Williams). But of the musicians that they championed and introduced to me, none looms larger than Esquerita.
Esquerita, aka Eskew Reeder was not only musically explosive/flamboyant, but visually as well, demonstrated by the fact that he became a kind of pictorial mascot for Kicks and Billy and Miriam’s monumental record/books label Norton (especially after their brush with destruction in Hurricane Sandy).
The connection is so deep for me, that I am unable to see a picture of Esquerita or play one of his records without thinking of Kicks/Norton.
The record I offer up today as a sort of New Orleans second line tribute to Billy (on the day of his homegoing) is an unusual, one-off (further) pseudonymous 45 by Esquerita, released under the name The Magnificent Malochi* (in a Kicks-ian coincidence, sounding like an old school, UHF-TV wrestler) in 1968, recorded in Los Angeles with Mac Rebennack and Harold Battiste (you can hear more about it in Funky16Corners Radio Show Episode #336, the New Orleans/LA Connection).
The first side, ‘Mama Your Daddy’s Come Home’ (written oddly enough by James Weatherly of the sunshine pop group the Gordian Knot?!?) is a stomping, gospel infused soul shouter.
The flipside is a deep, deep cover of the old standard ‘As Time Goes By’ (long associated with Dooley Wilson’s performance as Sam in the film ‘Casablanca’), which is delivered in an unforgettable style by Esquerita, sounding like he’d taken over the choir loft in a church for a little inebriated fun.
And what better way to pay tribute to a man that made it his life’s work to turn the world on to records like this?
So pull down the ones and zeros, and raise a glass tonight in honor of one of the great musical forces of late 20th (and 21st) century America. Send his wife and friends your sympathy, and know that he made the world a infinitely wilder, more fun, more musical place.
Adios, Billy.
See you on Monday
Keep the faith
Larry
- PS Thanks to my man Tarik Thornton for introducing me to the Magnificent Malochi 45
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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.
PS Head over to Iron Leg too.
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