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By Larry, June 22, 2014 1:49 pm

Funky16Corners: The New Breed
Homer Banks – A Lot of Love (Minit)
Robert Parker – Secret Service (Makes Me Nervous) (Nola)
Clyde McPhatter – A Shot of Rhythm and Blues (Amy)
Delores Hall – Good Lovin’ Man (Keymen)
Dusty Springfield – Can I Get a Witness (Philips)
Fabulous Emotions – Number One Fool (Tamboo)
JJ Barnes – Real Humdinger (Ric Tic)
Jackie Wilson – I’ve Lost You (Brunswick)
Linda Jones – You Can’t Take It (Loma)
Marvelettes – Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead (Tamla)
Madeline Bell – Picture Me Gone (Philips)
Ron Moody and the Centaurs – The New Breed (Columbia)
Al Greene and the Soul Mates – Don’t Leave Me (Hot Line Music Journal)
Betty Harris – Mean Man (Sansu)
Theresa Lindsey – I’ll Bet You (Golden World)
Vibrations – Soul a Go Go (Okeh)
Bobby Sockers – Sock It To Me Bobby (RCA)
Jimmy Holiday – Love Me One More Time (Diplomacy)
The Soul Finders – Sweet Soul Music (Camden)
The Monitors – Number One In Your Heart (VIP)
Glories – (I Love You Babe But) Give Me My Freedom (Date)
Mamie Galore – It Ain’t Necessary (St Lawrence)
ZZ Hill – Don’t Make Promises (Kent)
Soul Brothers Six – Thank You Baby For Loving Me (Atlantic)

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: Funky16Corners: The New Breed!

NOTE: Today’s mix is the final entry in the Funky16Corners 2014 Allnighter/Pledge Drive, and as is always the case, it’s yours truly, the proprietor batting clean-up.

Funky16Corners: The New Breed represents the best dance floor soul that has dropped into my record box in the last several months.

There are some real killers here, and you will certainly see many of them (and their stories) featured on the blog in the coming year.

Once again, I’d like to thank all the selectors for their mixes, and all of you readers/listeners for coming by to check it out, and helping to keep Funky16Corners up and running!

I’ll be back on Wednesday with the regular stuff, so stay tuned!

Larry

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Contest!

Anyone that donates today to the Allnighter/Pledge Drive will (in addition to getting the badge and stickers) be entered into a random drawing for a copy of the Fantastic Voyage 2-CD collection ‘Soul City Los Angeles’, a compilation of West Coast soul from labels like Arvee, Alladin, Liberty, Imperial, Ebb and SAR!
This is the final drawing for the Funky16Corners 2014 Allnighter/Pledge Drive!

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The winner of the Fantastic Voyage ‘Youths Boogie’ 2-CD comp is Rebecca Pang!
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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, many of whom have participated in the Allnighter before, as well as a couple of great new contributors.

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, 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 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

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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 3, 2014 11:11 am

The Esquires

Listen/Download The Esquires – Things Won’t Be The Same

Greetings all

Hey kids!
The Funky16Corners 2014 Allnighter/Pledge Drive arrives this Friday!
This year is going to be an exceptional one, with a slight change in format. There are so many groovy mixes this year, instead of posting them all at once, I’ll be posting up a new mix every single day, starting this Friday 6/6, with the final mix coming two weeks later on Friday 6/20.
This year will feature mixes by Tarik Thornton, DJ Prestige, M-Fasis, Tony C, Kris Holmes, DJ Prime Mundo, Fundefy, new selectors HeavySoulBrutha Dave B and Vincent the Soul Chef, and two new mixes by yours truly, Funky16Corners.
There are some heavy, heavy mixes this year, which I think you’ll dig.
So get ready, dig today’s selection, and I’ll see you all on Friday.
Larry
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Welcome to the mid-week thing.

I have to start this post by sending out thanks to my man Jeff Ash at the stellar ‘AM Then FM’ blog, who was kind enough to pass this album onto me, replacing my own long-lost copy.

The Esquires are best known to most soul fans for their 1967 hit ‘Get On Up’, which made it to R&B #3 and just grazed the Pop Top 10.

Formed in Milwaukee, WI, the Esquires got their start in the late 1950s and their line-up evolved until settling in with Gilbert Moorer, Alvis Moorer, Sam Pace, and Shawn Taylor.

When I got my hands on their album, I started needle-dropping to see what LP cuts I had missed the first time around, and was blown away by the cut ‘Things Won’t Be the Same’.

A fantastic piece of mid-tempo harmony, ‘Things Won’t Be The Same’ is one of those records that probably should have been released as a single.

The really interesting this is, it was, but not by the Esquires.

As it turns out, the original release of ‘Things Won’t Be the Same’ was in 1965, on Chicago’s storied Constellation label by singer Mill Evans (Millard Edwards), produced by the Esquires mentor, Bill ‘Bunky’ Sheppard.

At some point, Evans was absorbed into the Esquires (he sings bass on ‘Get On Up’), and his original recording of ‘Things Won’t Be the Same’ was included on the ‘Get On Up and Get Away’ album!

For some reason (no doubt financial) the writing credits on the 45 and the LP are different (see Keith Rylatt’s excellent post about the record at his Groovesville, USA blog (companion piece to his indispensable book of the same name).

The Esquires went on to have a string of hits going on into the mid-70s.

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 (0)

By Larry, June 1, 2014 3:25 pm

Clockwise from top left, Thor Baldursson, Tom Moulton, the Salsoul Orchestra

Listen/Download Salsoul Orchestra – Burning Spear

Listen/Download Salsoul Orchestra – Zambesi

Greetings all

The Funky16Corners 2014 Allnighter and Pledge Drive is arriving Friday, June 6th!

We have a stellar line up of selectors contributing mixes this year, and the mixes are killer.

The format will be slightly different this year, with a new mix being added each weekday from June 6 to June 20.

All donors this year will receive the new 2014 Funky16Corners badge (see the left side of the banner, above), as well as stickers from the archive (while they last). There will also be prizes every day (drawn at random) including CDs and 45s from Cultures of Soul, CDs from Light in the Attic and more!

It’s sure to be a gas, so stay tuned for more details in the coming week.

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Today I thought we’d take a trip back to the waning days of the disco revolution for a very interesting bit of crossover.

A while back I was listening to the Studio 54 channel on Sirius/XM and heard a very cool dance track, ‘212 N. 12th’ by the Salsoul Orchestra.

I set to Googling, and was shocked to discover that the album that spawned that song also included not one but two Soulful Strings covers!

I set out in search of my own copy (which didn’t take long or cost much).

As it turns out, the LP in question, 1979’s ‘Street Sense’ was an important transitional album for the Salsoul Orchestra.

Most of the group’s driving forces, most importantly Vince Montana, had left, and were replaced (for this album only) by uber-producer/mixmaster Tom Moulton and musician Thor Baldursson.

Baldursson was an Icelandic keyboardist, arranger and composer who had worked with Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer, Loleatta Holloway and Grace Jones among others.

Moulton and Baldursson went into the studio with a radically different line-up, with most of the Philly all-stars (with the noted exception of drummer Earl Young) gone.

The LP is composed of two Baldursson/Moulton originals (including ‘212 N. 12th’), the two Soulful Strings songs, a cover of the Jefferson Airplane’s ‘Somebody To Love’ (?!?) and tune by Silvetti.

The two Soulful Strings tunes lend themselves to the disco sound quite well.

‘Burning Spear’, without a doubt the best known Soulful Strings/Richard Evans tune had become something of a soul/soul jazz standard in the 60s. The Salsoul take on the tune features a pounding dance beat, pulsing strings and lots of keyboards. The late-70s-specific synth sounds haven’t worn well, but the arrangement and mix are top shelf Moulton.

‘Zambesi’ (co-written by Evans and Donny Hathaway) has long been one of my favorite Soulful Strings tunes. First appearing on the 1969 ‘String Fever’ LP (a lost classic deserving of reissue/reappraisal), the slinky funk of the original translates well into a disco treatment. The counterpoint between the bass and the string section is preserved from the original and there’s a very nice acoustic piano breakdown about halfway through the song.

This appears to have been Baldursson’s sole outing with Salsoul. Disco was on the decline and despite its quality, the album did not make it onto the charts.

As I said before, the LP is neither expensive nor hard to find, but if digital is your thing, you can pick it up cheaply in iTunes.

I hope you dig the sounds and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, May 20, 2014 10:52 am

Billy Cobham

Listen/Download Billy Cobham – Crosswind

Greetings all

I hope the middle of the week finds you well.

Back in the day when I was but a longhaired troglodyte learning to beat my drum set into submission, the name Billy Cobham seemed to pop up a lot.

Cobham was one of the preeminent jazz rock/fusion drummers of the 60s/70s/80s (and beyond) and his impressive flash made a dent in the heads of those of us that had an adolescent obsession with technique and speed.

This is not to suggest that was all Cobham had going for him, but rather that it was all kids like me were paying attention to.

Cobham, who had been born in Panama, got his start working with hard bop and soul jazz outfits like those of Horace Silver and Shirley Scott, before coming to prominence in Miles Davis’s electric bands of the early 70s.

Later on (much later), as a collector of and listener to things funky, I began to see (and hear) the drummers (and bands) of the fusion/funky jazz era in a new light.

Someone –I don’t recall who – hepped me to the 45 of the track you see before you today, 1974’s ‘Crosswind’, and I dug it.

I eventually got my hands on the LP (still haven’t copped the 45) of the same-ish (the album is called ‘Crosswinds’) and discovered that there was a lot to like.

The funky ‘Crosswind’ is presented at 45-length, and features some groovy electric piano by George Duke and some wild guitar by John Abercrombie.

The overall sound manages to catch fusion when it was still funky and had yet to descend into a swamp of masturbatory soloing.

Interestingly, ‘Crosswind’ was also recorded in an excellent version by one of Woody Herman’s mid-70s bands (featured in this space back in 2012).

You can pick up the LP Crosswinds in reissue.

I hope you dig the track, 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 (9)

By Larry, May 15, 2014 11:41 am

Aretha Franklin

Listen/Download Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)

NOTE: Our web host has been experiencing major tech problems since yesterday (5/14). This caused Funky16Corners to be offline completely for several hours last night and this morning.

Though the site is currently up there is no ETA on full restoration of services, so the possibility of another outage is still there.

Please bear with me and hopefully everything will be ok soon.

Thanks

Larry

Greetings all

The end of the week is nigh, so I will take this opportunity to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show hits the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 in the archive here at the blog.

I should also let you know that the Funky16Corners 2014 Allnighter and Pledge Drive will be arriving in a few weeks. Once again we’ll have a stellar line up of DJs and mixes, including many of the regulars from past Allnighters and some new blood as well. I’m getting a new Funky16Corners badge made for donors, and there will be some prize giveaways as well. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more details coming soon!

I recently had the opportunity to check out the ‘Muscle Shoals’ documentary. I had missed it in the theaters, thought I’d catch it on Netflix, but lo and behold it popped up on PBS a few weeks back.

I’d heard a lot about the film – some good, some bad – but so much of the music I love was created in those environs I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check it out.

There were parts of the film that were genuinely moving, and there was a lot of exciting music, but by the time the movie was over, and I’d survived the idiotic rambling of Bono (can we have some kind of a moratorium on his pontificating in documentaries?), I was left oddly unsatisfied.

The film seems based on a kind of ‘producer as auteur’ approach, focusing on Rick Hall, which is all well and good until you discover that it is to the detriment of the musicians that worked for him and were largely responsible for anything you might consider a Muscle Shoals sound.

I found the fact that Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and the Swampers were left floating in Hall’s wake galling.

That, and the fact that my recent reading of Joel Selvin’s ‘Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues’ and Robert Gordon’s ‘Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion’ had done nothing but lower my already poor opinion of Jerry Wexler (a prominent voice in the history of Muscle Shoals, and the film) gnawed at me through the viewing.

That, and the fact that the later part of the film spends too much time focusing on the birth of Southern rock ended up leaving me cold.

This is not to say that the film is without merit, nor would I suggest you avoid it (there’s too much good stuff in there to dismiss it outright).

What I would do, is suggest that you go out and get yourself a copy of Peter Guralnick’s indispensable ‘Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom’, which is not only the finest book I’ve ever read about Southern soul (or soul music in general), but would serve as an important companion piece to ‘Muscle Shoals’.

Guralnick’s book spends a decent amount of time explaining how these white musicians, especially Penn and Oldham, got to the point where they were so important to the creation of some of the finest rhythm and blues and soul music of the classic era.

The same can be said about Gordon’s tome, though in that case specifically about the same phenomenon at Stax in Memphis.

That all said, one of my favorite moments in the film concerned Wexler taking Aretha Franklin down to Muscle Shoals. Franklin had recorded several albums for Columbia following her transition from gospel to secular music.

She left that label for Atlantic in 1967 and Wexler, who had already had success recording Wilson Pickett at Muscle Shoals, thought that Franklin would flourish in the same environment.

He had no idea.

The album she recorded there (and also at Atlantic’s NYC studio) – her first for Atlantic – was both an artistic and commercial breakthrough.

‘I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You’ provided Aretha with dynamite material (the LP included her epic reading of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’, her reworking of Ray Sharpe’s ‘Help Me’ as ‘Save Me’) and a remarkably sympatico backing group.

The tune I bring you today was one of two big hits for Franklin written by Ronnie Shannon (the second being ‘Baby I Love You’).

One of the pivotal scenes in ‘Muscle Shoals’ describes the recording of ‘I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)’. Franklin and the band had apparently been struggling to find the right vibe, until Spooner Oldham sat down at the electric piano and whipped out the riff that opens the record.

If you need proof that the essence of an entire sound can be distilled into one particular moment, one need only listen to the slow rolling piano riff at the beginning of this record. Oldham’s piano, paired with the bass drum, snare and closed hi-hat is pure soul, with one foot firmly in the amen corner.

When Aretha comes in – pure perfection – followed by the organ (very subtle) and eventually the acoustic piano and the horn section shifting gears, what you’re hearing is pure brilliance.

Though it’s less than three minutes long, the combination of the artful layering of the instruments, coupled with Franklin’s powerful, authoritative reading of the lyric gives ‘I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)’ an epic depth that places it among the finest recordings of the classic soul era.

So dig it, educate yourself (or someone who needs it) with a good music book (and maybe a movie) 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 (1)

By Larry, May 6, 2014 12:04 pm

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1965
(L-R) Bloomfield, Butterfield, Lay, Bishop, Arnold (not pictured, Mark Naftalin)

Listen/Download The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – Born In Chicago

Listen/Download The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – Get Out of My Life Woman

Greetings all

The middle of the week is here, so I thought I’d whip something a little unusual (for here, anyway) into your ears.
Those of you past a certain age will likely be familiar with the name Paul Butterfield.

Butterfield – harp player and vocalist – was one of the movers and shakers of the blues scene in the 1960s.

The band he led – unsurprisingly going by the name The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – was hot as hell, as well as serving as an incubator for talent, incubating  guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop.

Formed in 1964 in Chicago with Mike Bloomfield (both he and Butterfield were Chitown natives) and University of Chicago student Bishop, local heavies Sam Lay (on drums) and Jerome Arnold (brother of Billy Boy Arnold on bass) and later adding Mark Naftalin on keyboards, the Butterfield Blues Band had a sound that was rooted firmly in electric Chicago blues.

What made it stand out – aside from an embarrassment of riches in the talent department – was a willingness to experiment with rock and jazz styles and interesting cover material.

The first tune featured today – ‘Born In Chicago’, written by Nick Gravenites who would later join Bloomfield and Buddy Miles in the Electric Flag– was the lead-off track from the groups self-titled 1965 debut. It is a wailing slice of rocking blues, featuring blazing harp solos by Butterfield and wailing leads by Bloomfield.

The second track is a cover of Lee Dorsey’s ‘Get Out of My Life Woman’, from the group’s second LP, ‘East-West’ from 1966. Unlike most covers of the tune, the Butterfield Blues Band dispenses with the opening drum break. They take the tune a slightly more brisk pace than the original, adding in some tasty piano work by Naftalin.

‘East-West’ also includes a very groovy version of the Monkees ‘Mary Mary’.

Though the original lineup was all but gone by 1967’s ‘The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw’, the BBB continued to meld blues and R&B and kept rolling on into the 1970s.

They played at Woodstock (with none other than David Sanborn on sax) but were not included in the original film (there are clips of the band playing the festival).

That all said, you can find all of the BBB’s best stuff in digital reissue, and copies of their stuff turns up frequently in used bins (those first three LPs are all worth grabbing).

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you 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, April 22, 2014 11:20 am

Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton

Listen/Download Big Mama Thornton – Wade In the Water

UPDATE: I just found out that Cultures of Soul has just reissued ‘Wade In the Water’ on 45 as part of the Andy Smith’s Jam Up Twist box set. It’s a great collection (put together by a great DJ) and a fantastic way to get this burner – among others – on 45.

Greetings all

The middle of the week is here and so in service of defeating the doldrums, I bring you something guaranteed to melt your face, and/or make your hair stand on end.

I do not recall where I first heard Big Mama Thornton’s epic reading of ‘Wade In the Water’ but I do remember being knocked back on my heels.

I have already mentioned in this space that the song in question is a big favorite of mine, and as such I like to pick up new versions wherever I find them.

What is most interesting is the fact that ‘Wade In the Water’ is at its base a gospel song with roots in the underground railroad.

Though is has been rerecorded in a number of non-gospel settings, most of those (or at least the ones I’m familiar with) were usually instrumental (though the rock version by Clover is a marked exception).

The version you see before you today, by Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton takes the song, strips it down to a skeletal framework (tossing the ‘gospel’ out the window) and rebuilds it as something else entirely.

Most people know of Big Mama Thornton for her original recordings of ‘Hound Dog’ (later done by Elvis) and ‘Ball and Chain’ (turned into a showcase by Janis Joplin).

Thornton. A singer, harp player and drummer had been recording blues and R&B since the early 1950s.

By the mid-1960s she had relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, and started recording for Arhoolie records.

She recorded ‘Wade In the Water’ in 1968, and it was released as a 45 (rare and expensive) but also released on the compilation ‘Ball and Chain’ (released in 1968 and 1974 and much less expensive).

Her version burns rubber like a top fuel dragster (one friend has referred to it as ‘the punk rock version’) and just gets faster and harder as it goes on. Big Mama wails, and the guitar solo by Bee Houston is killer.

It’s hard to listen to a record this elemental and singularly powerful without wondering why it wasn’t a hit.

The likely explanation is that it was a record ‘out of time’. It is light years heavier than most rock music from the time, and I can’t imagine what it must have sounded like to the blues fest crowds that she was playing to at the time.

It’s a lot closer to the MC5 than it is to Muddy Waters.

This, in addition to the fact that lyrically, Thornton divorces the song completely from its gospel roots, choosing instead to rebuild the lyrics as a loose, bluesy riff serving only to deliver her remarkable voice. It’s as if someone harnessed a hurricane and pressed it into the grooves of a record.

Heavy, heavy stuff.

I hope you dig it as much as I do.

See you 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 15, 2014 7:19 pm

Nina Simone – Seeline Woman (Philips) / Dorothy Morrison – Rain (Elektra) / Paul Jones – Not Before Time (Bell) / Titanic – Sultana (Epic) / Candido – Jingo (Salsoul) / Doc Severinson – Footprints of the Giant (edit) (Command) / Dixie Cups – Two Way Poc A Way (ABC) / Area Code 615 – Stone Fox Chase (Polydor) / Quartette Tres Bien – Boss Tres Bien (Decca) / Booker T and the MGs – Melting Pot (Stax) / The Peddlers – Impressions Pt1 (Philips) / Sly Stone – Rock Dirge (Woodcock) / Fatback – Going To See My Baby (Perception) / Brother Jack McDuff – Hunk of Funk (Blue Note) / Manu Dibango – New Bell (Atlantic)

Listen/Download Funky16Corners Presents: The Sound of the Drum

Greetings all

As promised on Monday, I come to you midweek with yet another new mix.

This one was created at the behest of my man Studebaker Hawk, and first appeared on his Acapulco Nights radio show on WMUA-FM, 91.1 in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This is another one of those mixes that was percolating for a long time, coming to life the first time I heard Nina Simone’s ‘Seeline Woman’ and then moving ahead when I found the Paul Jones b-side you hear in the mix.

I should also mention – though some of the deeper heads will pick up on it when they see the set list – that this mix owes a big debt to one of the pioneers of DJ/dance culture, David Mancuso.

It was Mancuso’s deep and far ranging tastes that brought all kinds of unusual and unexpected records onto the dance floor of his legendary Loft parties, some of which are included in this mix.

It’s called ‘The Sound of the Drum’ because that’s the thread connecting all of these records, whether it’s the insistent beat of hand drumming, the snap of a master on the traps (dig that Quartette Tres Bien!), or just a wicked break.

So slap on your headphones and dig in.

See you 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 (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 (0)

By Larry, March 23, 2014 12:15 pm

Zulema Cusseaux

Listen/Download Zulema – Telling the World Goodbye

Greetings all

I’m coming out of the weekend feeling a touch somnolent, so I thought I’d whip out something funky to get the motor running, as it were.

Zulema Cusseaux may not be well-remembered today, but in the early 70s she was making some fine music.

Hailing from Tampa, FLA, she was part of a local group, the Lovelies that was discovered by Van McCoy and renamed Faith Hope and Charity.

That group had two hits in 1970 – So Much Love (#14 R&B) and Baby Don’t Take Your Love (#36 R&B) – before Zulema left the group (which would continue to have hits into the late 70s) to go solo.

She signed to the Sussex label, recording her first solo LP ‘Zulema’ in 1972.

Today’s selection ‘Telling the World Goodbye’ (from her second LP ‘Ms. Z’) was her first solo hit, making it just inside the R&B Hot 100 in 1973.

Produced by Bobby Taylor, ‘Telling the World Goodbye’ is a funky number recorded with a who’s who of West coast studio heads.

The tune has that very groovy, funk on the way to disco feel that was coming to prominence around that time (note the presence of Eddie Kendricks collaborator Leonard Caston on piano), making it a treat for the feet as well as the ears.

Zulema would chart three more times between 1973 and 1979, recording one more LP for Sussex, three for RCA and one for LeJoint before the end of the 70s.

She would eventually leave the music business to lead the band in her church, passing away in 2013 at the age of 66.

I hope you dig the tune, 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.