Comments (3)

By Larry, June 18, 2013 11:26 am

Mose Allison, chilling in his far out chair, in the woods…

Listen/Download Mose Allison – The Seventh Son

Listen/Download Mose Allison – Young Man (Blues)

Listen/Download Mose Allison – I’m Not Talking

Greetings all

Have you heard about Mose?

Allison, that is…aka the Sage of Tippo…aka the smoothest badass to ever prop himself up at a piano and lay it down.

If you – like me – has made a study of the roots of rock, especially the British Invasion, or just surveyed the history of coolness, then you have certainly crossed paths with the mighty Mose.

Mose Allison has the kind of voice/manner that immediately brings to mind the black-and-white, beatnik cool of the 1950s. Jack Kerouac’s America, in which one was free to roam the highways and back roads of this great country, partaking in, and becoming part of the great tableaux, digging and being dug in equal measures.

Mose Allison – born and raised in Mississippi – sat himself down at the piano and made his first record in 1957, and hasn’t stopped being one of the coolest of cats since then.

I don’t think I heard Mose until I was all but drowning in the British beat/R&B thing, up to and including the sounds of Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, which is important because if Mose Allison had never recorded a note, old Clive Powell would likely disappear from the face of the earth.

The first time I heard Mose, an overloaded socket in theback of my brain threw sparks and I realized how much Georgie idolized and emulated him, as well as all of the Brits who looked to him as a songwriter and interpreter of songs.

It was Mose that wrote ‘Parchman Farm’ (John Mayall and everyone else with a blues fetish), ‘Young Man Blues’ (the Who) and ‘I’m Not Talking’ (the Yardbirds) among many others, and laid down what I would consider to be the definitive interpretation of Willie Dixon’s ‘Seventh Son’.

I’m including the last three tunes here today, so that you might head out and dig for your own stack of Mose Allison records, that you can whip out and impress the ladies at your next soiree.

Both ‘Young Man Blues’ and ‘The Seventh Son’ hail from Allison’s landmark 1963 ‘Mose Allison Sings’ LP for Prestige.

‘Young Man Blues’ – clocking in at less than a minute and a half – is a laid back meditation, barely a whisper compared to the angry box of TNT that the Who detonated on ‘Live at Leeds’.

Mose’s take on ‘The Seventh Son’ is a masterpiece of relaxed, swinging Zen, every note perfectly placed, a wonder. He takes the Mississippi hoodoo boasts of the OG and delivers them in a matter-of-fact way that puts the text in boldface.

‘I’m Not Talking’, from 1964’s ‘The Word From Mose’ on Atlantic, is once again, the placid, almost dehumidified-it’s-so-dry foundation on which the mighty Yardbirds built a souped-up, nitro-fueled funny car with which they blew the doors off of the ‘For Your Love’ album in 1965.

The grooviest thing of all is that for all of the influence he pushed out, Mose himself was always more like a shadow, hanging back, just being, than anyone who took their marching orders from his records. He spent the last 50-plus years making music of high quality, crossing the border back and forth between the blues and jazz, always being more himself than anything else and that was all he ever needed to be.

If you’re not hip to Mose, get there.

That is all.

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 11, 2013 12:02 pm

The mighty Dells, Marvin Junior at the top.

Listen/Download The Dells – Stay In My Corner (LP)

Listen/Download The Dells – There Is (45)

Greetings all

The world of soul was saddened last week to hear of the passing (on May 29) of the mighty Marvin Junior of the Dells.

I have to admit that for many years I was largely ignorant of the breadth of the Dells catalog.

The groups remarkable 1968 hit ‘There Is’ knocked me on my ass when I first heard it as a kid, even though I thought I was listening to the Four Tops.

I eventually figured out the truth, grabbed myself a copy of the 45 and always dug inserting its explosive power (especially that conga break)  into DJ sets.

Other than that, and a couple of their obvious bigger hits (like the 1969 version of ‘Oh What a Night’) I knew little of their vast discography (they were together, with the original line up for over 50 years!).

It wasn’t until I grabbed a copy of the ‘There Is’ LP that I had my mind blown by their epic ballad ‘Stay In My Corner’.

I first had to grapple with the fact that I already knew (and loved) the song, as done in a more uptempo version by the Hesitations.

That, and the fact that the track is over six minutes long, practically unheard at the time outside of the rock world.

Written by Wade Flemons, Barrett Strong and Bobby Miller (the latter producing the album with arrangements by the great Charles Stepney),’Stay In My Corner’ was first recorded by the Dells in 1965 for VeeJay. That version – which grazed the R&B Top 20 – was not only much shorter (2:17) but sung with a different rhythmic pulse.

The 1968 recording, which topped the R&B charts and made the Pop Top 10, was, on both the LP and the 45, a six-plus minute epic and a master class in soul singing.

The Dells had their first hit (the original version of ‘Oh What a Nite’) in 1956, and the traces of that earlier era of R&B harmony are evident throughout ‘Stay In My Corner’.

The first time I listened to the song, the opening struck me as almost schmaltzy, but any hesitations I had disappeared as soon as Marvin Junior started singing.

Though the basic drive train of the song is an almost standard ‘late night soul ballad’ thing, what the Dells do with it over those six minutes is truly remarkable.

The song takes a couple of unusual melodic turns, which the group takes full advantage of, shifting the tone subtly but powerfully.

There’s a section around the 2:40 mark where they harmonize on the word ‘stay’ that just about shoots through your ears like a bolt of lightning.

As I mentioned before, the Dells brought bits and pieces of old school, streetcorner singing into the later soul era, and there are a number of times where Johnny Carter’s falsetto breaks out in (for 1968) unusual, and very cool ways.

The most amazing part of the record, comes at just after the five-minute mark, where Marvin Junior stretches out the word ‘baby’, holding the note for well over 15 seconds, in a move that in the hands of lesser singer would seem pretentious or operatic. Yet Junior’s voice was a remarkable, soulful instrument and you never get the impression that there’s a second of it that he doesn’t feel in the deepest part of his soul. I get choked up every time I hear that section of the song. It boggles the mind and reminds me why music is as close as I get to a religion these days.

‘Stay In My Corner’ is the kind of record you need to sit down with, slap on the headphones and really get inside of with repeated listens.

It’s that good.

The Dells were an amazing group, and Marvin Junior a mighty singer.

He will be missed.

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, June 4, 2013 3:14 pm

Listen/Download Brother to Brother – Leavin’ Me

Greetings all

The tune I bring you today is the result of one of those loose limbed digging expeditions in which nothing of obvous consequence presents itself, so you start following leads where you find them, take a chance or two and go home with a bag full of interesting possibilities.

I grabbed Brother to Brother’s ‘Let Your Mind Be Free’ on such a day on the strength of their name, which I associated with their cover of Gil Scott Heron’s ‘The Bottle’ (retitled as ‘In the Bottle’), a Top 10 R&B hit in 1974.

The group, then including Michael Burton, Yogi Horton, Billy Jones and Frankie Prescott had relocated from St Louis, MO to NJ, where they hooked up with Sylvia Robinson’s Turbo records.

By the time Brother to Brother released ‘Let Your Mind Be Free’ in 1976, Billy Jones was the only remaining member of the group that had recorded ‘In the Bottle’.

The album is a solid example of mid-70s funk, well into the ‘YOWWWW’ zone, but not so much so that you wouldn’t dig it.

Though my heart still remains with the rougher edged, late 60s/early 70s funk, I find myself digging later stuff like this (and even later stuff like Zapp and Roger) the more I hear it.

There came a point where funk bands started to level out and extend the groove a bit, some so far that they were essentially making disco (though that could be an especially blurry line, see BT Express).

Brother to Brother still fall on the funky side of the wall, with an ear turned to late-period Sly and Parliament/Funkadelic (though not nearly as far out), making sounds that were melodic, yet still had something of a thump to them.

It would still be a few years before things mellowed out too far, and most of these type of bands would be overtaken (and pushed into obsolescence) by the rap revolution.

As it is, this kind of stuff isn’t too hard to find, especially if you find yourself at flea markets or garage sales now and then.

I hope you dig it 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, April 25, 2013 11:16 am

Bob Theile, Steve Allen and Oliver Nelson

Listen/Download Steve Allen/Oliver Nelson – Son of Preacher Man

Greetings all

The end of the week is coming up fast, which means that the Funky16Corners Radio Show is too. You can tune in this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, or subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 at the blog.

Now,I hope that those of you old enough to remember who Steve Allen was are still here. Any familiarity with the late funnyman might have been enough to scare you away, but I assure that once you pull down the ones and zeros, you’ll be happy you stayed.

Steve Allen was a funny dude, in many ways the precursor to guys like David Letterman.

He was also an accomplished songwriter and musician.

Along with arranger Oliver Nelson (who can probably be credited with any musical power herein), Allen recorded three volumes of ‘Soulful Brass’ LPs for Bob Theile’s Flying Dutchman label, with the initial volume being the first LP released by the label.

I sought out ‘Soulful Brass Volume 2’ because I’d heard that it contained a groovy version of ‘California Soul’ (which it did) but was also very pleased to see that it also included covers of ‘Soulful Strut’ and today’s selection, ‘Son of a Preacher Man’.

Allen’s main contribution to the efforts here seem to be a combination of (mostly) name recognition and the occasional electric piano solo.

‘Son of a Preacher Man’ is an excellent, funky, brass-driven take on the Dusty Springfield hit, with hard-hitting drums by Jim Gordon, funky bass by Max Bennett and guitar by David Cohen.

The brass arrangements by Nelson are – of course – top notch.

The combined results make this the only Steve Allen record you ever need to buy.

I hope you dig it, and that you have a great weekend.

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 (0)

By Larry, April 18, 2013 11:19 am

Brenda and the Tabulations

Listen/Download Brenda and the Tabulations – God Only Knows

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, so I will once again remind you to spin the dial on your wireless sets to Viva Radio, this and every Friday night at 9PM so that you might dig the Funky16Corners Radio Show. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 at the blog.

The tune I bring you todayis yet another one of those “right under my nose” surprises that I unearthed in the Funky16Corners record vault.

I was digging around, looking for something else (naturally) when I happened upon Brenda and the Tabulations 1967 LP “Dry Your Eyes’.

It occurred to me that I had wanted to record ‘The Wash’, which had oddly enough turned up in a TV advert in the last few months, but while I was looking over the jacket I realized (perhaps for the first time) that the group had also recorded a cover version of the Beach Boys ‘God Only Knows’.

I flipped the disc onto the turntable, gave it a spin and realized that it was not only excellent but would make a much more interesting entry here at the blog, so I recorded it.

Originally recorded for the Beach Boys legendary 1966 LP ’Pet Sounds’, ‘God Only Knows’ is widely regarded (here as well) as one of the finest songs that Brian Wilson (with Tony Asher)every wrote.

There aren’t a great many soul versions of Beach Boys tunes – though Freddy McCoy’s soul jazz take on ‘Pet Sounds’ is transcendant – so when I saw that Brenda and the Tabulations had recorded it my interest was piqued.

The group had only come together and recorded for the first time in 1966, havin their first major hit, ‘Dry Your Eyes’ (Top 10 R&B/Top 20 Pop) in early 1967.

They went on to have 17 R&B chart hits over the next ten years, moving from Dionn records to Top & Bottom, Epic and Chocolate City.

Their version of ‘God Only Knows’ is a fairly reverent take, opening (like the original) with French horns, strings and a lovely lead vocal by Brenda Payton. The band does kick up the tempo a bit, and there are some really unusual – vaguely trippy – backing vocals.

It’s an unusual, and excellent version of a very well known song.

I hope you all 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 (0)

By Larry, April 4, 2013 11:34 am

Ingfried Hoffman aka Memphis Black aka The Memphis Soul Band

Listen/Download Memphis Soul Band – That’s Me Boy

Listen/Download Memphis Soul Band – Mrs Robinson

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, and that means it’s Funky16Corners Radio Show time again. We take to the airwaves of the interwebs every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If your ears aren’t available then, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 out of the archive here at the blog.

The tracks I bring you today are yet another example of the pseudonymous work of Teutonic Hammond wrangler Ingfried Hoffman.

You have already sampled his work when I posted ‘Why Don’t You Play the Organ Man’ by Memphis Black a few years ago.

Hoffman, who worked in the band of saxophonist Klaus Doldinger before creating the Memphis Black persona (one 45 and an LP under that name) recorded the tunes you see before you today under the name of the Memphis Soul Band in 1969.

Working again – as he did as Memphis Black – with expat guitarist/vocalist Joe Quick, Hoffman laid down some very groovy covers of contemporary soul material, as well as two originals in the same basic style.

Hoffman went on to record a number of library titles, and the Memphis Soul Band sides bear the same, hard charging, au go go vibe as much of the UK-based material in the same vein, such as the Mohawks (or any Hawkshaw related jams) or the New London Rhythm and Blues Band.

The first cut, ‘That’s Me Boy’ opens with a spoken intro by Quick, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense no matter how many times I listen/re-listen to it. That said, once Hoffman drops in the band kicks into a very cool groove (the horns are especially nice).

The second cut, a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’ hews pretty closely to the Booker T and the MGs take on the song but kicks up the tempo a notch. This is one of those tracks that seems purpose built for the Mod dance floor.

If you desire to place any of Hoffman’s vinyl in your own crates, the Memphis Soul Band LP is probably the most affordable option running 30 or 40 bucks in good shape. The Memphis Black 45 on Ascot is much harder to grab, hovering in the$100 range, with the German issued Memphis Black LP (on Sunset) grabbing $50 more than that (though it has been reissued).

I hope you dig the tunes, 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 (5)

By Larry, March 21, 2013 11:42 am

Funky16Corners Presents: Soul Version

Jackie Mittoo – Hip Hug (Coxsone) – Booker T & The MGs
Gaylettes – Son of a Preacherman (Steady) – Dusty Springfield
Dobby Dobson – Don’t Make Me Over (Pama Supreme) – Dionne Warwicke
Federalman – Soul Serenade (Steady) – King Curtis
Ken Boothe – Gonna Take a Miracle/Version (Hulk) – Royalettes
Winston Wright – Heads or Tails (Green Door) – Booker T & the MGs
Lorna Bennett – Breakfast In Bed (Harry J) – Dusty Springfield
Byron Lee – Who Done It (Dynamic) – Monk Higgins
Pioneers – Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Trojan) – Temptations
Horace Andy – Show and Tell (Money Disc) – Al Wilson
Pat Rhoden – Living For the City (Attack) – Stevie Wonder
Byron Lee – Shaft (Dynamic) – Isaac Hayes
Winston Samuels and the Cintones – Let’s Get It On (Clintone) – Marvin Gaye
Byron Lee – Hot Reggay (Dynamic) – James Brown
Shark Wilson and the Basement Heaters – Make It Reggay(version) (Ashanti) – James Brown
Pat Rhoden – Boogie On Reggae Woman (Horse) – Stevie Wonder
Alton Ellis – La La Means I Love You (Mr Tipsy) – Delfonics
Tomorrows Children – Sister Big Stuff (London) – Jean Knight

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Presents Soul Version – 109MB Mixed MP3/256K

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your side of the universe, and that you’re all ready for the weekend.

Don’t forget that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at the time of broadcast, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 (or two, or 100) out of the archive here at the blog.

The fam and I are taking some time off to chill in the coming weeks (which will be filled with specially selected reposts of some of my fave tunes from the archives) so I figured I’d leave you with something special until I’m back behind the keyboard again.

The mix you see before you is the fruit of what I like to call one of my “special boxes”.

The Funky16Corners record vault is lined, floor to ceiling (in some places) with crates of LPs and boxes of 45s, and sprinkled liberally with a grip of those old-timey, pasteboard, 45 carrying cases.

As pretty much any collector does, I grab those cases wherever I find them, first and foremost because they’re cool looking, but because – and I’m pretty sure you figured this out already – I’ve got lots and lots of 45s that need a place to stay.

I mentioned the “boxes” before, those being the purpose-made 45 storage boxes that hold over 100 discs each. There are lots of those.

However, my collection has its niches, certain sub-genres, not collected as aggressively as others (for a variety of reasons, though usually boiled down to issues of availability), and many of these niches get packed away in those smaller boxes.

There’s one for disco 45s, one for rockabilly/instro 45s, and the one that gave up today’s sounds, the reggae and ska 45s.

I’ve been a huge fan of ska and reggae since I was in high school, when the Two-Tone revival was in full swing and I was led by bands like the Specials to investigate the first-wave of ska, going back to the mid-60s.

It would be fair to say that the bulk of the ska and reggae in my hands is on CD, especially old comps and the later (excellent) Trojan mini-box sets.

However, I’m always on the lookout for Jamaican vinyl, often seeking out favorite records (some of which – Winston Wright, Pioneers, Shark Wilson – are in this mix) and grabbing cool stuff whenever I encounter it in the field.

As the contents of this mix show, I’m a big fan of reggae covers of American soul tunes, of which there are many.

The groovy  thing – and something I’ve discussed in this space before – is that despite the stylistic delineation, what you’re hearing is still demonstrably soul music (albeit with a reggae beat).

The influence of American R&B and soul on Jamaican music is undeniable, with many powerhouse AM radio stations, in cities like New Orleans and Miami sending out American pop to the islands.

What you hear isn’t mere “coverage”, if you will, but rather some truly great singers like Ken Boothe and Alton Ellis, and instrumentalists like Winston Wright, Jackie Mittoo and Byron Lee, interpreting some of the finest material available at the time.

Soul Version is composed of just about an hour of my favorites, running (like my personal tastes) from sweet soul, to organ instrumentals, to funk and just a touch of dub.

Many of these records have appeared here at Funky16Corners over the years, either by themselves or in mixes.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

PS I just realized I took a picture of the wrong Pioneers 45…sorry ’bout that.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

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, March 3, 2013 11:51 am

The Magnificent Men

Listen/Download The Magnificent Men – Peace of Mind

Listen/Download The Magnificent Men – Just Walk In My Shoes

Greetings all

The tracks I bring you today are a perfect example of how you can hear about a group, circle them warily for years – suspecting lameness – and then finally giving in and discovering how wrong you really were.

I do not recall when I first heard of the Magnificent Men, but I suspect that I saw one of their albums while digging in the NJ/PA area, where their vinyl is plentiful.

Back in the day, what I saw was a bunch of straight-looking white dudes recording soul music, something which set off my (poorly calibrated) bullshit detector, and in the absence of a portable turntable, remained dollar-bin flotsam and jetsam.

Then – as these things often go – a few years back someone whose taste I trust posted a track by the group, and my large ears finally unfurled to the goodness of the Magnificent Men.

Had I dug a little bit, I would have realized that the Magnificent Men, formed as the Del-Chords, hailed from the unlikely soul music hotbed of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (the Emperors, Intentions, the Soulville label).

Led by vocalist Dave Bupp, the Magnificent Men were a lot more than your run of the mill “R&B-influenced” white band of which there were so many at the time.

They were first and foremost self-contained, i.e. vocalists/musicians capable of writing and performing their own (excellent) material.

They played many of the best known black venues of the day (including the Uptown in Philly and the Apollo in NYC).

Between 1966 and 1970 (by which time their sound had changed considerably) the Magnificent Men recorded three albums for Capitol and one for Mercury.

The first two, ‘The Magnificent Men’ and ‘The Magnificent Men: Live’ are the ones to look out for.

The tracks I bring you today come from that first, self-titled LP.

The first track, the original ‘Peace of Mind’ is one of the great blue-eyed soul tracks of the 60s, a great harmony showcase for the group.

Dave Bupp has said that ‘Peace of Mind’ was written with Walter Jackson in mind. Considering how evocative the record is of the Carl Davis/Okeh sound, this makes a tremendous amount of sense.

Though ‘Peace of Mind’ wasn’t a hit, its high quality is testified to by the number of cover versions of the tune. There are versions by Skip Jackson (on Capitol), Jerry Butler (Mercury), The Players (Minit), and the Royal Five (Arctic) – all of which can be heard on Youtube.

The second song – ‘Just Walk In My Shoes’ – was a recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1966 and is rightly hailed as a classic of dance floor soul.

Written by sisters Kay and Helen Lewis – two jazz/pop singers who also wrote tunes for Marvin Gaye, the Miracles and Edwin Starr, as well as recording a pair of their own 45s for the VIP label – ‘Just Walk In My Shoes’ is delivered with a lot of verve by the Magnificent Men, and I think it stands up well next to the original.

Oddly enough, as well-remembered as the Magnificent Men are (especially amongst soul fans), they seem to have made their mark mostly as a live act. Their chart impact was minimal, and almost exclusively in the mid-Atlantic region. They never hit the R&B charts (at least nationally).

They had the good fortune to have had their album arranged/conducted by Horace Ott and Sonny Sanders, and I think their music holds up remarkably well.

All of the Magnificent Men albums can be picked up on iTunes, and – if you’re digging in the Northeast, anyway, most of their vinyl is fairly easy to come by.

I hope you dig the tunes 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, February 26, 2013 1:06 pm

Cal Tjader

Listen/Download Cal Tjader – Evil Ways

Listen/Download Cal Tjader – You Keep Me Hangin’ On

Greetings all

Though you have most certainy seen his name and heard his music in this space many times before, like Jello, there is always room for Cal Tjader.

Tjader, master of the Latin vibes (does it get any better than ‘Soul Sauce’?) is one of those artists that is an automatic pick-up, as in I’m out in the field flipping through albums and I see see a Tjader LP that I don’t already have, it goes right onto the keeper stack.

At this point, there aren’t too many from his Verve era and after that I don’t have.

That said, a few years back I was down in DC and I managed to score two longtime Tjader wants, i.e. ‘Cal Tjader Plugs In’ (gotta have that groovy cover of the Banana Splits theme) and the disc you see before you today, entitled simply ‘Tjader’.

At first glance, Tjader’s Fantasy catalog can get a little confusing, since it bookends his time with Verve and the short-lived Skye era. You get all of the early, mambo grooves, and then some later, extremely rare groovy ish like his cover of ‘Gimme Shelter’ and the album from which we draw today’s selections.

The two cuts I bring you today are a very tasty version of the Willie Bobo (though known to most by Santana) tune ‘Evil Ways’ and a trippy excursion into the Supremes ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’.

‘Evil Ways’ is a smooth groover, with some organ and horns stating the theme, before Cal drops in with vibes, handclaps and timbales (a breakdown very much like the one in ‘Soul Sauce’) and goes to town. There’s also a nice organ solo.

‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ gets a pretty straight ahead dancefloor treatment, until about halfway in, when things suddenly fade out and then back in again with some far out synthesizer, back out again and then right back into the original groove. It’s an odd arrangement for Tjader, and a little late in the game in 1971 (as are some of the other covers on the album, including two Donovan songs), but I can’t complain.

It’s a strong album, and surprisingly hard to come by.

I hope you dig the sounds.

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, February 24, 2013 2:55 pm

Funky16Corners Presents: No Bad Trip – Black Wah-Wah 1969-1974

Magictones – Good Old Music (Westbound)
Doug Anderson – Hey Mama Here Comes the Preacher (Janus)
Earth Wind and Fire – Bad Tune (WB)
Bloodstone – Bo Diddley (London)
Bo Diddley – Pollution (Chess)
Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers – Searching for Soul Pt2 (Mutt)
Nat Turner Rebellion – Plastic People (DelValiant)
Fantastic Epics – Fun and Funk Pts 1&2 (Tories)
Jackson 5 – I’ll Bet You (Motown)
Eddie Bo and the Soul Finders – The Rubber Band Pt1 (Knight)
Young-Holt Unlimited – The Devil Made Me Do Dat (Cotillion)
Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela Pt2 (SS7)
Jimmie Preacher Ellis – I Gotta See My Baby (Round)
The Eight Minutes – Here’s Some Dances (Jay Pee)
Fugi – Mary Don’t Take Me On No Bad Trip Pts1&2 (Cadet)
E. Rodney Jones, Larry and the Hippies Band – Right On Right On (Sex machine) (Westbound)
Brothers of Hope – Nickol Nickol (Gamble)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Presents No Bad Trip – 109MB Mixed Mp3/256K

Greetings all.

The mix you see before you is another one of those jams that I previewed on Mixcloud for a while before whipping it on you here at the Corners.

Though you may recognize a couple of the tracks as things you’ve seen here in the past, No Bad Trip is one of those things that was bouncing around in my head for a good long time, taking form gradually,adding tracks here and there as I remembered something groovy that fit just right. It was revised and reworked a few times until I thought I had happened upon the perfect admixture.

The overall feel – as it were – is one of the time after psychedelia and all of its practical trappings – wah wah pedals, echoplex and freak flags of all varieties hoisted high – began to make their way into black music.

Though there were other people of color getting heavy at the time, much of this can be traced directly to the dayglo doorstep of Jimi Hendrix – with the Experience and Band of Gypsys – as well as Sly Stone,  Funkadelic, Norman Whitfield and any other artist during that time period liberally mixing psychedelics into their funk and vice versa.

This is really a story of “gates swinging both ways”, with all manner of “you got your funk in my rock”, “but you got your rock in my funk” going on, as well as an expression of the general eclecticism of the time, with African sounds making themselves heard with Joe Simon and Earth Wind and Fire, the evolution of Bo Diddley from old-school charger into fairly convincing new-style far outness and the explicit psyche out of Fugi.

As your physician I strongly recommend that you ingest this mix through headphones of some kind, so that you don’t miss any of the sonic goodness.

I hope you 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 (2)

By Larry, February 21, 2013 11:07 am

Lou Bond

Listen/Download Lou Bond – That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be

Listen/Download Lou Bond – To the Establishment

Greetings all

This is the end of another week, so it is – as always – time to remind you to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show. It airs this and every Friday night at 9pm on Viva Radio, and can be subscribed to as a podcast in iTunes or picked up as an MP3 here at the blog.

I was saddened the other day when word came down the line that Lou Bond had passed away.

Bond (born Ronald Edward Lewis) , who in his short career laid down just two 45s and one amazing LP is less a “cult” artist than an unjustly/tragically forgotten one.

Bond recorded two very cool 45s in 1966 and 1967 while in Chicago (rooming with none other than Sidney Barnes!), the groovy midtempo ‘What Have I Done’ for Fontana and the uptempo Northern flavored ‘You Shake Me Up’ for Brainstorm.

He recorded his only LP, the self-titled ‘Lou Bond’ for the short-lived Stax subsidiary We Produce in 1974.

‘Lou Bond’, which was reissued by Light In the Attic in 2010 (there was a brief digital reissued by Stax prior to that) is a truly remarkable piece of work.

Record collectors/music hounds are constantly bombarded with “lost” albums and rediscoveries that – following the flavor of the month pattern – are often less interesting than they first appear.

‘Lou Bond’ is a rare and powerful exception to that rule.

I first heard about the record years ago when it was popping up with regularity in ‘finds’ lists on a message board I used to frequent.

I finally got my hands on a copy of the album back in 2007 and had my mind blown.

Though he was unmistakably a soul singer, one need only look at the pictures of Bond on his album cover to get the message that he was in other bags as well.

Bond was starting off in a soul groove, but also mixing jazz, folk and contemporary pop into his sound.

‘Lou Bond’ draws from a wide range of influences, most notably Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes, but also a variety of early 70s singer songwriters (soul and non).

It’s important to note that among the album’s six tracks, three of them were written or co-written by Bond, the other three being covers of songs by Bill Withers, Carly Simon and Jimmy Webb.

The album moves effortlessly between intimate moments and lush orchestration, with Bond touching on love, the environment and politics.

The two tracks I bring you today are my favorites from the album.

I’ve always found Carly Simon’s ‘That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be’ to be one of the most haunting and uniquely dark singles of the early 70s. Bond’s take on it rinses out some of the darkness, replacing it with a hopeful tone (due in large part to a short, spoken prelude).

The eleven-minute-plus ‘To the Establishment’ bears the influence of Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’, with Bond taking things in a looser, free-form direction that might almost be described as a hippie vibe.

Both tracks are solid stylistic indicators of the sounds that can be found on the rest of the album.

The big mystery in relation to Bond has always been two-fold.

First, how did Stax/We Produce decide to let an unknown commodity like Bond stretch out like he did, with the backing of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra?

Second, why didn’t an album this good make a bigger impression?

The answer to the first question may very well be that this was 1974, and record companies were still taking chances like that all the time. Bond was prodigiously talented, and it’s not hard to imagine someone hearing Bond singing his (and others) songs and handing him a blank check.

The answer to the second question probably has something to do with the impending collapse of Stax.

Bond was already on one of the most sparsely populated Stax sub-labels. We Produce only released albums by three artists – the Temprees, Ernie Hines and Bond, releasing a 45 by one additional artist – Lee Sain (who brought Bond to the attention of Stax), at a time when when the mothership was spreading itself mighty thin.

As far as I can tell ‘Lou Bond’ was poorly promoted/distributed, and Bond himself had to contend with the fact that the concept of a black singer/songwriter (outside of the accepted funk/soul mold) was not an easy fit in the musical landscape of the time.

The sad fact is that after his one LP, Bond never recorded again.

His music was sampled a number of times (by Outkast and Prodigy among others), and the Light In the Attic reissue brought his amazing talent back into the light of day.

If you get the chance, check out the nearly hour-long interview (audio) with Bond posted at the Light In the Attic web site.

You can still get the Light In the Attic reissue (with bonus tracks) on iTunes. If you dig what you’re hearing here today, I assure you that you’ll like the rest just as much.

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 (1)

By Larry, February 19, 2013 12:51 pm

Stanley Turrentine

Listen/Download Stanley Turrentine – Home Town

Greetings all

The tune I bring you today is something low key, yet very groovy indeed.

I tend to like my soul jazz with a slightly harder edge, yet every once in a while you get a class act like Stanley Turrentine, dipping his toe (or his saxophone) into the water just a little bit, sprinkling the fine compositional (and arranging) talents of Thad Jones with just a pinch of groove grease.

The tune in question ‘Home Town’ comes from Turrentine’s 1968 Blue Note LP ‘Always Something There’.

Though the album by and large is a little easy for my taste (they lay the strings on kind of heavy, and not in a good way), there are some cool covers and the horn arrangements are very nice in a purely jazz context.

The one marked exception, not quite anomalous but edging outside of the mellow bag just a touch, is ‘Home Town’.

Opening with some brass harmonies, the band (a tentet with Turrentine out in front) states the theme, before settling into the groove around the 1:15 mark where you get to hear Kenny Burrell on guitar and Bob Cranshaw on bass pushing the whole outfit forward.

Turrentine gets to lay down a great solo, and the rhythm section (including Hank Jones on piano and Mickey Roker on drums) really lay into it.

The overall sound reminds me of the kind of stuff that Quincy Jones was putting out around the same time.

I dig it, I hope you do too, 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.