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By Larry, February 17, 2015 1:54 pm

Leon Haywood

Greetings all.

Today’s selection is an early side by a guy that I find very interesting, indeed.

Most casual soul fans will be aware of Leon Haywood via his biggest early hit, the sweet soul of ‘It’s Got To Be Mellow’, and R&B Top 20 hit in the summer of 1967.

However, do a little digging, and a little b-side flipping, and before you know it you’ve discovered that Mr Haywood had something of a double life going on.

In addition to be an excellent singer, Leon Haywood knew his way around a keyboard (mainly organ).

His very first 45 was a blazing organ instro version of Percy Mayfield’s ‘A River’s Invitation’, and many of his early 45s sport instrumental b-sides.

Haywood was also the organist of record (as it were) on the Packers 1965 ‘Hole In the Wall’, one of those soul records that had an influence far beyond it’s chart success would suggest. Keep your eyes peeled in this space for a mix I’ve been working on involving various and sundry Packers/Hole In the Wall variations, rip-offs and homages, or which there were many (and many of which featured Mr Haywood).

That said, his early sides for the Fat Fish label feature Haywood on vocals, organ and piano, which is where we come to today’s selection, ‘Skate A While’. Released in 1966, ‘Skate a While’ is the 45-only vocal take of the the LP track ‘The Fat Fish’, which – unsurprisingly – falls quite neatly in line with the ‘Hole In the Wall’ stylistic continuum, if you will. You get Leon laying down an excellent,soulful vocal over a tight band, led by his piano, the only bummer being that the whole thing clocks in at just 1:52!

It’s a great bit of classic-era soul party, and I hope you dig it as much as I do.

Have a great weekend, 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.

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By Larry, January 27, 2015 1:32 pm

The Loading Zone

Greetings all.

What better way to slide through the middle of the week than with some of that funky, head-nodding goodness?

I have made mention of the Loading Zone previously, in relation to the singing of its one-time vocalist Linda Tillery, aka Sweet Linda Divine.

The group formed in the mid-60s, then recruited Tillery, recording an album for RCA before the singer left to go solo.

The Loading Zone’s sound, if they can truly be said to have had one, was an odd mixture of soul, jazz and rock, which doesn’t sound all that complicated, but instead of blending the three strains into a single admixture, they kind of rode it like a sliding scale, moving from one sound to another.

That they did this in 1960s San Francisco (or just in the 60s) explains how they got signed to a major label.

Everybody was experimenting with stylistic blends, and where a band these days might be accused of aimlessness, in the earliest days of progressive (in the truest sense of the word) rock, this was the mark of versatility.

I’m of the school that leans toward the latter characterization, and sees it as a net positive. You have to remember that in 1967, rock was barely a decade old, yet in incubators like San Francisco, Los Angeles and London, (ostensibly) rock musicians were dipping into all kinds of sounds and redefining what that style meant.

There’s hardly a better example of this than the closing track from the Loading Zone LP, ‘Can I Dedicate’.

Sounding at times like Horace Silver and the Holding Company, ‘Can I Dedicate’ (later sampled by the Souls of Mischief for ‘Live and Let Live’) is a nine-plus minute exercise in jazzy, stoned funk. Listening to it today it sounds like something stitched together using soul jazz samples and looped drums, waiting for someone to drop a verse or two on top of it.

There are traces of hard bop, woven around a hypnotic, rolling bass line, tight drums, and the out of the blue, a Fillmore West-style guitar solo (followed, naturally, by a jazz trombone solo…).

It is heavy, wonderful stuff, and one of those tracks I find myself going back to a digging all the time.

I hope you dig it 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.

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By Larry, January 13, 2015 10:39 am

Greetings all.

The middle of the week is upon us, so I thought I’d smooth us all over the hump with some tasty library/sample source sounds.

I don’t recall when I became aware of guitarist Clive Hicks’ ‘Look Hear’, but when I did it immediately lit up multiple pleasure centers in the brain.

The first thing – is that ‘Look Hear’ is the sample source for one ofmy favorite hip hop joints, ‘What’s Golden’ by Jurassic 5 from their 2002 LP ‘Power In Numbers’. There’s something special about hearing a sample well-flipped, that also manages to stand on its own.

‘Look Hear’ is such a sample.

I haven’t been able to track down much info on Clive Hicks, other than that he was a UK-based studio guitarist who recorded a number of sessions for the KPM and Bruton library music houses, as well as sessions for the likes of Elton John.

‘Look Hear’ was released in 1973 on KPM 1121/Fusion, alongside pieces by Brian Bennett and Alan Hawkshaw among others.

The tune seems to be aiming for Zep-like heaviness, but also manages to work in some of that band’s underlying funk as well.

The guitar takes the lead but this one is all about the organ and the drums.

It is a very groovy one indeed. 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 (4)

By Larry, December 11, 2014 1:03 pm

Marvin Gaye and Grover Washington, Jr.

Listen/Download – Grover Washington, Jr. – Trouble Man

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and so I must remond you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t dig the show at airtime, you can subscribe to it as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device through the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

Also, make sure to stop by next week. The Christmas soul posts start on Monday, and the Funky16Corners Radio Show Christmas Special drops next Friday!

The tunes I bring you today are two versions (OG and cover) from one of the more interesting chapters in the career of the mighty Marvin Gaye.

We featured one of the mighty Marvin’s early classics here some weeks ago, and today we take a look at classic (though underplayed/underappreciated) mid-period ish.

When 1972 rolled around, Marvin had just layed ‘What’s Going On’ on the world.

How would he follow one of the greatest albums of all time?

Gaye took a step back, and decided to compose the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film ‘Trouble Man’.

He was in good company, alongside other soul stars, like Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield, who had done stellar work on the soundtrack tip.

Gaye’s soundtrack for ‘Trouble Man’ was smooth and atmospheric, perfect for late nights.

The title track of the album was a substantial hit, making it to #4 R&B and #7 Pop in December of 1972.

‘Trouble Man’ has a slow, jazzy groove, with falsetto vocals by Gaye and instrumental backing from a mixture of Funk Brothers and West Coast players.

The following year, Grover Washington, Jr.  recorded his two-part ‘Soul Box’ project, in which he layed down extended versions of ‘Trouble Man’ and the Temptations’Masterpiece’, with a host of CTI stalwarts like Bob James, Ron Carter and Idris Muhammad.

Washington’s version of ‘Trouble Man’ isn’t much of a departure from the original, with the exception of Creed Taylor’s horn and woodwind production fleshing out the sound a bit. There’s also a very nice organ solo by Richard Tee around the five-minute mark.

What is exceptional is the fact that Washington has almost 16 minutes in which to stretch and expand upon Gaye’s theme. If you dig the CTI sound (and you know I do) that is a very groovy thing indeed.

So, turn the lights down low, pour yourself a drink, let these two play back-to-back, and slide yourself into the 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, December 7, 2014 1:17 pm

King Curtis

Greetings all.

The new week is upons us, and I thought we’d get things started with something hot.

A few years ago I was out digging at a local fall-back spot (I say fall-back because although it is a record store, it rarely has anything good, but sometimes you just gotta get your dig on) and I happened upon a slightly beat, quite old (at least as old as I am) King Curtis album.

King Curtis was one of the most important soul players of the 1960s, as a bandleader, and as one of the most prolific sidemen in the Atlantic studios.

His albums – especially the Atlantic stuff – are plentiful and usually inexpensive, and always worth picking up when you find them.

The album in question predated his own signing with Atlantic (though he had already been all over the Coasters Atco 45s), and was recorded for Bobby Robinson’s Enjoy label in 1962.

Recorded with the Noble Knights (then composed of Ernie Hayes (organ), Billy Butler (guitar), Jimmy Lewis (bass) and Ray Lucas (drums), the LP is composed of instrumentals, with five of its eleven tracks featuring ‘Twist’ in the title.

Unlike a lot of twist cash-in sets, King Curtis had a shit-hot band, displayed to great effect on today’s selection, a cover of Ray Charles’ classic ‘What’d I Say’.

Led by Billy Butler’s guitar, the band sets off at top speed, tearing into the tune.

Oddly enough, as far as I can tell, King Curtis himself does not appear on this track at all.

The title track of the LP, ‘Soul Twist’ was a #1 R&B hit in 1962.

These sessions – which also include a stellar version of ‘Sack’o’Woe’ – have been reissued on CD.

I hope you dig the track, 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, November 20, 2014 12:24 pm

Gabor Szabo and Bobby Womack

Listen/Download – Gabor Szabo and Bobby Womack – Breezin’ MP3

Listen/Downoad – Sammy Gordon and the Hiphuggers – Breezin’ MP3

Greetings all

The end of the week is here,and so I must remind you to tune into the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio, Friday night at 9PM. If you can’t dig in at airtime, make sure to subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes (or anywhere else you get your Pods handled) or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

Today’s selections can be filed in the ‘roots of familiar songs’ section of your brain.

If you’re over 40 (or otherwise well-listened) I suspect that you already know George Benson’s 1976 hit ‘Breezin’’, which in addition to regular airplay seemed for the longest time to be the background instro of choice on all kinds of TV shows. It was, in many ways, the ultimate, smooth jazz instro of its time.

What I didn’t know until many years after its initial release, was that the song ‘Breezin’ had deep, and very interesting roots.

Back in 1970, in the midst of his long, itinerant and occasionally very successful career, Bobby Womack ended up in the studio with Gabor Szabo.

Womack provided half the songs, and much of the rhythm guitar on Szabo’s 1971 LP ‘High Contrast’*.

One of those songs – used as the LPs opening track – was ‘Breezin’.

The Szabo/Womack version is mellow, but sports a nice, fat bottom as well, and some tasty soloing from the always dependable Gabor (a big fave hereabouts).

The second version of the song you’ll hear today (which I originally posted when Bobby passed away, back in June) came into my crates in a kind of roundabout way.

I already had a couple of 45s by Sammy Gordon and the Hiphuggers in my crates when I found their version of ‘Breezin’ (previously featured here when Mr Womack passed away) about five years ago.

The thing is, I didn’t know it was the famous song until I got it home, picking it up simply because it was Sammy.

The SG and the HH version of ‘Breezin’ (from 1972) is by far my fave,and I suspect it’ll be yours as well.

The drums and bass are heavy, and the intro is as tasty a piece of head-nodding funk as you’re likely to turn up.

The overall vibe maintains the sweetness of the melody, but those drums keep punching through the mix.

It’s a killer 45, and despite a couple of price spikes in the past, not too hard to come by these days.

I hope you dig the compare/contrast action, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 *Interestingly, Womack is listed as a co-leader on the LP and 45 labels, but not on the album cover

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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, November 18, 2014 1:57 pm

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Greetings all.

I’m dipping back into the archives today for another favorite mix of mine.

I put together ‘Beneath the Planet of Funky16Corners’ back in 2007 for the Souled On on blog.

As you’ll see once you pull down the ones and zeros, I was in a pensive mood at the time, and while things are soulful and occasionally funky, they also fall on the quieter side of the spectrum, best listened to mellowed out with the lights down low.

This was always a fave of mine (i.e. one that I listen to on my own time, frequently) not only because I dig its component parts so much, but also because they fell together pretty nicely as well.

So dig it, and I’ll be back on Friday with something cool.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, November 11, 2014 2:01 pm

The Tams

Listen/Download The Tams – Trouble Maker

Greetings all

How about we cross the great divide here in the middle of the week with some tasty, uptempo southern soul?

The mighty Tams are one of those groups that I knew about long before I heard a note of their music.

It was only in the last five or six years that I started to pick up their records, around the same time that I began to dig into the Joe South (whose songs the Tams recorded) discography.

The song I bring you today is a great 1968 track that was released as a single, and also included on their 1969 LP ‘Portrait of the Tams’.

‘Trouble Maker’ was written, like many of the Tams’ biggest hits – like ‘What Kind of Fool’, ‘Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me’ and ‘Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy’ – by Ray Whitley.

Whitley was part of a group of Atlanta-area songwriters associated with publisher Bill Lowery, like the aforementioned South, and JR Cobb who had their songs taken into the charts by artists like the Tams, Billy Joe Royal, Tommy Roe and others.

Whitely  wrote seven of the twelve songs on ‘Portrait of the Tams’, with one each by South,Cobb and Ralph Flynn, and a cover of ‘Hey Jude’.

‘Trouble Maker’ is a fast moving tune with great lead guitar (maybe Joe South?), a typically wonderful lead vocal by Joe Pope and a flashy horn section.

If you haven’t investigated the sounds of the Tams, you really ought to do so. They recorded a lot of amazing music during their career, and none of it is going to make you dig too deep into your wallet, so get to steppin’.

Sadly, Whitley fell into hard times later in his life, living for a time in a homeless shelter, before passing away in 2013.

I hope you dig the tune, 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 (2)

By Larry, November 9, 2014 3:45 pm

The Brothers/Silvetti

Listen/Download The Brothers – Are You Ready For This

Listen/Download Silvetti – Spring Rain

Greetings all

I hope you’re ready to get your groove on this week.

Having done a lot of reading about (and an exponential amount of listening to) the Northern Soul phenomenon over the last decade or so, something that I discovered – along with a grip of amazing music – is that the musical essence of that scene is not at as monolithic as you might think.

Surely there is a “Northern” sound, but if you dig into the annals, especially in the 1970s explosion in the UK, you discover that some of the DJs and the dancers had open minds (and ears).

Here in the US, where exposure to ‘Northern Soul’ is often tied directly to the mod/60s bag (hewing closer to the Manchester-based 60s scene at the Twisted Wheel, which was instrumental in the development of a rare soul scene in the UK), the idea of hearing a Philadelphia International side, or any other disco-identified sound, is all but blasphemous.

However, take a look at the playlists of many of the biggest Northern clubs in the 70s, and you alongside the ultra-rare Motown-influenced ish, you will also see records – then new – that many soul fans today would file off to the side as ‘disco’.

What a lot of people ignore (to their own peril) is that a much of the music associated with early disco culture is by any other name, soul music. Your anoraks/trainspotters/”experts”/killjoys will try to convince you that little after the end of the 60s is worth listening to, but like everyone else, they are wrong from time to time.

When they do that, they forget that Northern Soul was once a vibrant, living, breathing scene, and above all a dancer’s scene and if a record brought people out onto the floor, that’s all that mattered.

Today I bring you two examples of records that were created for disco dance floors and were absorbed into the Northern Soul scene.

The first, ‘Are You Ready For This’ by the Brothers is a solid, four on the floor dancer with the kind of sweeping, melodic string flourished that the soulies really dug.

The Brothers were a New York based studio creation, built around producer Warren Schatz and pianist Bhen Lanzaroni. Their 1975 LP ‘Disco-Soul’ was composed almost entirely of new versions of disco standards by groups like the Ohio Players (the LP features a very cool Hammond driven cover of ‘Fire’), Barry White, Disco Tex, Carol Douglas, and Gloria Gaynor, interspersed with originals by Lanzaroni and Schatz.

‘Are You Ready For This’ was released as a single in the US and the UK, and was picked up by UK DJs where it became a staple at clubs like the Blackpool Mecca (it also seems to have been a minor hit in New York City discos).

The second track I bring you today is ‘Spring Rain’ by Silvetti. Juan Fernando Silvetti Adorno, aka Bebu Silvetti, or just Silvetti, was an Argentinian composer/arranger/producer who had his biggest hit with ‘Spring Rain’ in 1977.

The record was a big hit in US and European discos, but was also brought into the Northern scene (to the consternation of many) by disco-friendly DJs like Ian Levine. Like ‘Are You Ready For This’, ‘Spring Rain’ has a strong beat, and wave upon wave of strings.

As time wore on, and new sounds became popular, and the idea of ‘soul music’ became more expansive – I hesitate to say ‘inclusive’ since there were/are many who would just as soon strangle you than hear a disco record – new terminology was adopted that allowed collectors and DJs to compartmentalize these records into their own genres, like ‘modern soul’, ‘deep funk’, ‘rare groove’ and ‘crossover’. Often times you’ll see announcements for allnighters and weekends in the UK and Europe where these tangential sounds will have separate rooms/dance floors devoted to them.

If you have an open mind policy (like we do here) it’s not at all hard to see the threads that link all of these categories, and to find your way back through their roots, stopping to savor the vast array of records that resist classification (often my favorite kind).

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 (4)

By Larry, November 3, 2014 12:27 pm

Bill Cosby – Hikky Burr (Uni)
Eddie Bo – Hook and Sling Pt1 (Scram)
The Meters – Cardova (Josie)
James Brown – Hot Pants Pt1 (People)
Mickey and the Soul Generation – Iron Leg (Maxwell)
Steve Colt – Dynamite (Big Beat)
Bobby Byrd – I Know You Got Soul (King)
Willis Wooten – Your Love is Indescribably Delicious (Virtue)
Village Callers – Hector (Rampart)
Lou Courtney – Hey Joyce (Popside)
Buena Vistas – Kick Back (Marquee)
Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers – Searching for Soul Pt1 (Mutt)
Lee Moses – Reach Out I’ll Be There (Musicor)
Laura Lee – Crumbs Off the Table (Hot Wax)
Lyn Collins (The Female Preacher) – Think (About It) (People)
BW Souls – Marvin’s Groove (Round)
Chuck Carbo – Can I Be Your Squeeze (Canyon)
Eddie Bo and Inez Cheatham – Lover and a Friend (Capitol)
David Batiste and the Gladiators – Funky Soul Pt1 (Instant)
Lou Courtney – Hot Butter’n’All (Hurdy Gurdy)
Richards People – Yo Yo (Tuba)
Interpretations – Blow Your Mind (Jubilee)
Gene Chandler – In My Body’s House (Checker)

Listen/Download Funky16Corners 10th Anniversary Pt2 – Funk

Greetings all

Welcome to day two of the Funky16Corners 10th Anniversary celebration.

Today’s mix is composed of my favorite funk 45s from my crates.

Though the roots of my soul fandom lie in southern soul, it was the funk 45 boom that got me moving with the web zine and the blog.

There’s something about the heat and the syncopation that come with a really heavy funk 45 that always gets me moving.

Aside from the inventor, James Brown, the man whose music had a lot to do with my love of funk (and was my gateway into the sounds of New Orleans) was the late, great Eddie Bo.

There are no less than five New Orleans 45s in the mix – three of them Eddie Bo or Bo-adjacent– and one need only map out the records in this set to see where my passions were over the last 15 years or so.

New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles, the sounds of America’s cities in the late 60s and early 70s, always stacked to the rafters with drums, drums and more drums.

There are some records in this mix (and in all of the mixes this week) that I would rank among the greatest funk of all time, including the Meters ‘Cardova’, Lou Courtney’s ‘Hot Butter’n’All’, James Brown’s ‘Hot Pants’ and Laura Lee’s “Crumbs Off the Table’ among them.

As I said in Monday’s post, you may not agree with all of my selections, and by no means are these mixes supposed to represent any definitive list of the ‘best’ that’s out there, but rather my personal favorites.

So put on your hot pants and slide out onto the dance floor.

__________________________________________________________________________

Also, I had some groovy anniversary bumper stickers made, and they’re free to anyone that sends a self-addressed #10 envelope. I’ll cover the postage.

Send your sticker requests to:
Funky16Corners c/o Grogan
80 New Brunswick Ave
Brick, NJ 08724 USA

__________________________________________________________________________

I’ll see you tomorrow.

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, October 19, 2014 11:09 am

Lena Horne

Listen/Download Lena Horne – Mother Time

Listen/Download Lena Horne – Nature’s Baby

Greetings all

As I was wandering through the dark, dusty back alleys of the Funky16Corners sounds warehouse, I took the time to stop and leaf through the ‘special’ file.

This is where I keep especially intriguing stuff, perhaps outside the direct/mainstream funk/soul ‘thing’, yet of particular interest to those with a more open mindset (and ears).

One of my specific areas of interest, is the intersection of performers from areas other than funk and soul with those sounds.

This includes all kinds of jazz and pop performers associated with an earlier era, making their bid for contemporary success.

My crates are peppered liberally with big band cats like Woody Herman, Buddy Rich and Stan Kenton walking the funky side of the street.

Less prominent, but just as groovy, are vocalists attempting to make the same leap.

Today’s selections come from that latter camp, brought to you by the silky pipes of the legendary Lena Horne.

Horne, who’s career stretched from the 30s to the 90s, was mainly a jazz leaning nightclub singer, but worked in many settings, from big bands to Broadway.

I had no idea she had ever wandered into a funkier landscape until a few years back when someone posted the 45 of the song ‘Feels So Good’.

Coming from her 1971 LP ‘Nature’s Baby’, the tune is smooth and funky.

I tried to cop the 45, but when I was unable to track down a copy, I grabbed the LP (much cheaper).

I’m glad I did, because when it fell through the mail slot, I discovered that it included a pair of very cool Gene McDaniels covers, which as far as I can tell were never recorded elsewhere.

The first of these is the fantastic ‘Mother Time’. This is the kind of deep, slyly funky stuff that McDaniels was so good at, and Horne sounds at home with the material. The band, mostly NY session heavyweights lays down a tasty groove.

The second track, ‘Nature’s Baby’ isn’t quite as funky, but features a great lyric and a sublime backing track (I really dig the strings).

The rest of the album, composed almost entirely of contemporary cover material (Leon Russell, Nilsson, Elton John, Paul McCartney) is worth hearing as an example of a great singer putting her stamp on a younger generation’s sounds.

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, October 16, 2014 12:37 pm

Merit Hemmingson at the Hammond

Listen/Download Merit Hemmingson – Pata Pata

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, so I will take this opportunity to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot join me at airtime, there are a variety of ways to keep yourself apprised of the soulful goodness, including subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes (or any other podcast handling program), in the TuneIn app, or as an MP3 here at the blog.

Today’s selection is one from the Hammond Internationale file.

You all know how much I dig the Hammond organ, and that I’m always in search of new (to me) organ 45s and LPs for the crates.

I knew of Merit Hemmingson for years before I was able to put my hands on one of her records.

She was a Swedish pianist who switched to Hammond in the 1960s, and recorded a couple of albums of soul jazzy grooves before switching over to new agey treatments of Swedish folk songs (no, really.).

I dig both of the albums that I have, but the track I bring you today stands out above all others.

‘Pata Pata’ was originally a hit for Miriam Makeba in 1967 (Top 10 Pop and R&B), and was covered by many jazz and pop artists over the next couple of years.

The version you’re hearing today was recorded by Hemmingson in 1968 on the ‘Merit Hemmingson Plays..’ LP.

Including a variety of pop and jazz covers, the LP features an all-Swedish band, with the exception of American conguero Sabu Martinez.

It is Martinez’ percussion and vocals that make Hemmingson’s version of ‘Pata Pata’ so groovy.

Opening with a lazy sounding organ, the peace is interrupted by Martinez and the band chanting, followed by his congas, and then the drums.

Then the guitarist comes in with a riff that sounds like it was lifted from the Spencer Davis Group’s ‘I’m a Man’.

Once Hemmingson’s organ comes in the song regains some of it’s bright, poppy feel, but thanks to the percussion a sharper edge remains through the arrangement.

It’s really unusual, and unlike pretty much everything else on the album.

If you’re a Hammond (or au-go-go) fan, Hemmingson’s first two LPs, ‘Plays…’ and ‘Discotheque Dance a Go Go’ are definitely worth picking up.

I hope you dig the tune, 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.