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By Larry, January 16, 2011 1:42 pm

Willis ‘Gator Tail’ Jackson

Listen/Download – Willis ‘Gator Tail’ Jackson – Bow Legged Daddy

Greetings all.

I don’t know about how things are where you reside, but I am good and freaking sick of snow. We got clobbered right after Christmas with 34 inches, and got almost another foot the other night. The landscape around here is getting crazy, with the rivers of snow, edged with piles of dirty snow (up against even dirtier snow), which just get dirtier every single day. I keep hoping for a thaw, but I know when that comes it’s just going to uncover stuff that needs to be fixed or cleaned up.

No fun…

That said, I still have my records to keep me warm!

The tune I bring you today is something that I acquired passively, i.e. as part of a big lot of 45s. I originally made the purchase to get one particular single (a psyche thing I’d been after for years) and managed to get about 200 other records in the deal.

Aside from the whole thing being packed in what appeared to be shredded newspaper (which I was cleaning up for a couple of weeks afterward) there were about two dozen keepers in the bunch, bringing the per-record cost (after junking most of them) to about 50 cents per, which is not bad at all when you consider that the record I bought the lot for was worth about three times what I paid for the whole thing.

It was a nice grab bag, with some groovy 60s pop, a couple of cool soul 45s, and a few funky things as well, which included today’s selection.

When I pulled out a 45 by Willis ‘Gator Tail’ Jackson my interest was piqued, Jackson – a tenor saxophonist – was one of the OG soul jazzers, having recorded a string of dates for Prestige, Verve and even Muse in the 70s.

The second point of interest on the 45 was that it was on Paul Winley Records.

Winley was a New York based label owner who issued a bunch of doo wop and early rock in the 50s and early 60s, before moving into funk and soul in the early 70s, and then on into the early days of hip hop.

This 45 features vocal and instrumental versions of the song ‘Bow Legged Daddy’, the vocal credited to Paul’s daughter Ann Winley (uninspired) and the instro (which we feature today) to Willis ‘Gator Tail’ Jackson.

Though the tune seems to have it’s roots in standard R&B/blues, it’s a shuffle, laid down in a funky style with some groovy organ.

The interesting thing seems to be that this may very well be the group otherwise known as the Harlem Underground Band.

Sometime in the early-to-mid 70s Winley recorded a session that was rumored to include George Benson, Willis Jackson, Ann Winley, Dave ‘Baby’ Cortez and/or Reuben Wilson on organ and released the session under the name ‘Harlem Underground Band’. That album included the track ‘Smoking Cheeba Cheeba’ which went on to have its break harvested for a number of rap records.

That session was issued under a few different names/covers, one clearly meant to capitalize on the success of Benson, whose picture was displayed prominently on the cover of the later version. Benson had recorded with Jackson years earlier. There’s also a record on the Upfront label (a notorious recycler/re-labeler of sessions) that appears to be the same group (if not the same exact session).

I can’t say for sure if this is the exact same group, but since Winley and Jackson were part of the original recording, and the organist on this session sounds like he has some chops, I wouldn’t be surprised.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, January 13, 2011 4:37 pm

Funky16Corners @ Spindletop – Early Set 1/10/11

Playlist

Listen/Download 80MB/256kb Mixed MP3

The end of another week is upon us, and as promised I have recreated part of my three-hours worth of soul jazz from this past Monday’s Spindletop night at Botanica in NYC.

When I was pulling 45s to bring with me last week I started to build my set and decided that I’d get things started with a slower, moodier set than I normally do, kind of easing my way onto the burning Hammond groovers.

What I ended up with was a very interesting mix of soul jazz, soul instros and even laid back funk, all of which seemed to stick together when all was said and done.

I mentioned on Wednesday that we were unable to get a signal out of the mixer to my digital recorder, so I had to re-record this selection on my decks at home. I was originally thinking of re-recording the whole night, but then I realized that I’d played no less than 60 45s and I just didn’t have the time to do it.

I enjoy presenting the live mixes here at the blog, so hopefully next time I hit Botanica we’ll have figured the problem out.

At the request of a number of people who were at the gig, I have included the entire set list below.

The mix features some old faves and some stuff that hasn’t been heard in this space before. As I mentioned above, it’s a mellow affair, so pour yourself a snifter of brandy (or a mug of cocoa, whichever), dim the lights, sit back and let the sounds flow gently into your ears.

If you’re close to the interwebs this Friday at 9PM, make sure to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio. This week we have an hour of funky 45s from New Orleans to get the party started. The show will of course be archived and ready to download at the blog over the weekend.

I’ll be back next week with more of the funk and soul you love.

Have a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

The rest of the evening’s music:
Harry J All Stars – Liquidator (Harry J)
Winston Wright – Heads or Tails (Green Door)
Gary McFarland – Fried Bananas (Verve)
Cal Tjader – Moneypenny (Skye)
Dave Davani Four – The Jupe (Capitol)
Sonny Knight Quartette – Let’s Get It On Pt1 (Aura)
Odell Brown and the Organizers – No More Water In the Well (Cadet)
Freddie Roach – One Track Mind (Prestige)
Merl Saunders – Soul Groving (Galaxy)
Alan Price Set – Iechyd Da (Decca)
Hank Marr – White House Party (Wingate)
Georgie Fame – El Bandido (Imperial)
Brown Brothers of Soul – Cholo (Specialty)
Mel Brown – Chicken Fat (Impulse)
Federalmen – Soul Serenade (Steady)
Freddy McCoy – Funk Drops (Prestige)
Afro Blues Quintet Plus One – La La La La La (Mira)
Benny Poole – Pearl Baby Pearl (Solid Hit)
Cha Cha Hogan – Grit Gitter (Soulville)
Perry and the Harmonics – Do the Monkey With James (Mercury)
Gentelman June Gardner – It’s Gonna Rain (Emarcy)

Lionel Hampton – Greasy Greens (Glad Hamp)
Fabulous Counts – Jan Jan (Moira)
Boogaloo Joe Jones – Right On (Prestige)
Fred Ramirez – Hold On I’m Coming (WB)
Dee Felice Trio – There Was a Time (Bethlehem)
Louis Chachere – The Hen Pt1 (Paula)
Toussaint McCall – Shimmy (Ronn)
Lou Garno Trio – Chicken In The Basket (Giovanni)
Albert Collins – Cookin’ Catfish (20th Century Fox)
Andre Brasseur – The Duck (Palette)
Memphis Black – Why Don’t You Play the Organ Man (Ascot)
Cal Tjader – Soul Sauce (Verve)
Soulful Strings – Burning Spear (Cadet)
Keith Mansfield – Boogaloo (Epic)
Mohawks – The Champ (Philips)
Wynder K Frog – I’m a Man (UA)
Goldie & the Gingerbreads – The Skip (Decca)
Tony Newman – Soul Thing (Parrot)
John Philip Soul and His Stone Marching Band – That Memphis Thing (Pepper)
La Bert Ellis – Batman Theme (A&M)
James Brown – Shhhhhhhh For a Little While (King)
The Impacts – Thunder Chicken (Marmaduke)
Dave Baby Cortez – Getting’ To the Point (Chess)
RD Stokes – My Sandra’s Jump (II Bros)

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By Larry, January 11, 2011 3:56 pm

Quincy Jones

Listen/Download – Quincy Jones – Money Runner

Greetings all.

The middle of the week is here, and while I should be exhausted, I am oddly energized. I suspect a serious crash is on the way, but I’m gonna keep plowing ahead until it arrives.

You see, I was out last night spinning 45s at Spindletop @ Botanica in NYC and did not arrive home until well past my normal hour for commencement of slumber. However, since I got to spin 45s for nearly three straight hours to a very groovy and appreciative crowd (special thanks to the Funky16Corners readers who came by!) and I had a blast.

Botanica is very cool spot (home base for no less than the mighty Mr Finewine!), and my man Perry Lane has a very cool thing going with Spindletop.

I’ve rattled on in this space a few times about how I like stepping outside of my DJ comfort zone to stretch a little, and last night was the perfect opportunity. Spindletop is all about Hammond grooves and soul/Mod jazz with just a touch of international flavour, and I spent a lot of time and care pulling records and formulating my sets.

The only downer of the night was that we were unable to negotiate a line out of the mixer to my digital recorder, so I was unable to do a live recording. However, as I type this I am spinning the identical stuff and mixing it live here in the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center so that you can check it out.

Right now I plan on doing only the early set, which was a mellow affair, which I’ll drop on Friday, along with a full set list of the night (60 45s!).

I’ll be back in NYC on February 4th at After the Laughter Soul Club at Lulus, 113 Franklin St in Greenpoint (Brooklyn) and I’ll be returning to Spindletop February 21st, so if you like what you hear, head on over.

When we last discussed the mighty Quincy Jones, it was almost a year ago and his groovy theme to the Ironside TV show.

The tune I bring you today is another theme, but sees Le Q jumping from the small screen to the silver one.

The tune in question, ‘Money Runner’ appeared in the 1971 film ‘$’ (often listed, for obvious reasons as ‘DOLLAR$’).

‘Money Runner’ was released as a 45 in 1972 and actually hit the charts, working its way into the R&B Top 50 and hovering just outside of the same listing on the Pop side of things.

The only other tune I’ve heard from the soundtrack is Little Richard’s ‘Money Is’*, which is cool, on account of it’s Mr. Penniman, but if you want something funky, ‘Money Runner’ is the way to go.

The soundtrack album features a grip of West Coast jazz/studio cats, but the group also included Billy Preston, Paul Humphrey and David T Walker, so it probably wouldn’t be much of a stretch to attribute some of the funk quotient herein to them.

‘Money Runner’ starts out fast, with what sounds like clavinet and guitar, then electric piano and more guitar (of the wah wah persuasion) before the clavinet moves out in front for most of the song. It sounds like a more aggressive cousin to Isaac Hayes ‘Theme From Shaft’ (especially the guitar interludes), but goes off in an odd and especially interesting direction in the last minute of the record, with a shift in tempo, the addition of an ominous chorus, and eventually a bizarre shattering sound.

The tune was covered later the same year by the John Schroeder Orchestra.

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

Peace

Larry

*There’s another version of this 45 with the Little Richard tune on the A-side

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By Larry, December 12, 2010 11:57 am

Mr Roy Ayers

Listen/Download – Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Everybody Loves the Sunshine

Greetings all.

I come to you following a long, busy weekend that included the beginning of a massive, long awaited 45RPM reorganization.

The project started with 10 new, much sturdier record boxes than I had been using, since my 45s are a serious investment and deserve to be treated well so that they remain in decent condition. It was almost immediately apparent that 10 boxes were not nearly enough to do the trick, but they did provide a solid start, allowing me to get my DJing genres sorted and boxed.

In the process I unearthed a grip of excellent stuff that I’d been neglecting for a long time, which I set aside to be recorded for presentation on the blog and on the Funky16Corners Radio Show.

Speaking of the radio show, this Friday’s episode will be special, all Philly funk 45 excursion that I think you’ll dig. Next Friday – Christmas Eve – will see the arrival of the first Christmas edition of the radio show, featuring some old faves as well as some groovy new stuff.

I’ll also be featuring some Christmas 45s on the blog next week, so stay tuned for that.

Today we’re going to engage in a little bit of creative visualization.

As I sit here writing this, I can hear the wind howling outside and sheets of rain lashing the windows. We’re coming off a sever cold snap, and according to the news this morning, on our way into another one. Our friends in the UK are just getting over terrible winter storms, and folks  in the Midwest are in the process of getting dumped on in their first blizzard of the season.

Whether or not we have crossed the official seasonal dividing line, winter is most definitely upon us.

What we’re going to do is work a little Roy Ayers Ubiquity into the mix.

I came to Ayers R&B/jazz funk period fairly late in the game.

I was a big fan of his work as a straight jazz artist. One of my earliest jazz LP finds many years ago was a copy of a superb album that Ayers recorded backing pianist Jack Wilson. That, and his work in the 60s as vibraphonist* in Herbie Mann’s band, then his early solo work for Atlantic were always in heavy rotation here at the Funky16Corners crib.

Later on, as I started to explore the world of samples, breaks and beats, the Roy Ayers Ubiquity started to pop up everywhere.

Following his stint with Mann, Ayers formed Ubiquity in 1970 and spent the next decade moving from jazz funk, into R&B and disco. The band didn’t have much in the way of chart success (aside from an R&B Top 20 hit with ‘Running Away’ in 1977), but the music they made would create a wellspring for hip hop producers.

Today’s selection, ‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine’ has itself been sampled more than a dozen times.
But we’re not here today to talk about deconstruction.

We’re here to introduce a little warmth into your life.

Pull down the ones and zeros, and let the sound of summer wash over you.

‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine’ is about digging your feet into the hot sand at the beach, or watching the waves of heat rise off of a tar roof in the city. It’s about – as they say in the song – bees and things and flowers – and watching condensation roll down the outside of a cold glass.

It’s a deceptively simple, but extremely powerful song that  forces you to stop what you’re doing, slow down and step inside of the vibe.

So slap on the headphones (or lay down between the speakers), close your eyes and feel the music.

Everybody does love the sunshine, and if mother nature is being stingy, you can always use the power of the mind (and Roy Ayers) to bring it back for a few minutes.

See you on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

*Oddly enough Ayers doesn’t play the vibes on this track, sticking with keyboards

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By Larry, December 9, 2010 2:46 pm

Isaac Redd Holt & Eldee Young

Listen/Download – Young-Holt Unlimited – Horoscope

Greetings all.

I hope the end of the week finds you well.

It’s been a busy one hereabouts, with the kids, and the errands and Hanukkah ending and Christmas coming and jeebus knows what else going on.

This is the part of Friday’s post where I pause for my regularly scheduled reminder that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be airing, as is the custom, Friday night at 9PM. There will be some old favorites, a couple of new arrivals and some groovy stuff out of the archives, so if you have your ears pointed at the interwebs this Friday night, make sure to point the browser of your choice at Viva Radio and tune in. If you are otherwise occupied, you can always come by the blog over the weekend and pull down the ones and zeros, since every single episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show is promptly digimatized and posted at the blog after it airs.

I thought I had the whole week planned out, but when I sat down to write today’s post, I had a change of heart, and went back into the to-be-blogged folder to see what tickled my fancy. After some deliberation, I saw that I had no less than three very groovy tracks from the Young-Holt organization waiting to go, all funky, all very groovy.

This of course opened up a whole new can of worms, since I didn’t want to post all three at the same time. Despite all stories to the contrary, the Funky16Corners record vault is not six stories deep with an endless supply of vinyl, and things need to be parceled out gradually.

I gave the matter some consideration, and settled upon the 45 you see before you today, Young-Holt Unlimited’s ‘Horoscope’.

I don’t recall where I came across this disc, or where I first heard it.

It’s entirely possible that I bought it sight unheard, since I’ve come to the conclusion that Young-Holt are verily the gift that keeps on giving. They were not only prolific, but their catalog – like the many petals of the lotus – unfolds to reveal more and more funky 45s at every turn.

Here you have two journeyman jazz cats – pianist Eldee Young and drummer Isaac Redd Holt – who made their bones with the mighty Ramsey Lewis, with the 1965 hit ‘The In Crowd’ (currently being used in TV ads in furtherance of the execrable Ashton Kutcher industry). They parlayed it into their own career, eventually hitting the charts with one of the best loved soul instrumentals of the 60s, ‘Soulful Strut’ (ironically, a record they are rumored not to have actually played on).

Over the course of the next decade they would go on to release ten albums (for Brunswick, Cotillion and Paula) and over a dozen singles, all taking the concept of soul jazz and flipping the formula. The music they would create would prove to be commercial (if not commercially successful) while still substantial, formulaic without being boring and much more soulful than that of a lot of their similarly labeled contemporaries.

I always find it odd that for a group that was obviously selling a lot of records, Young-Holt Unlimited didn’t really have much in the way of chart success. ‘Soulful Strut’ was a Pop and R&B hit in 1968, but they would only hit the R&B chart two other times, earlier in 1968 with ‘Wack Wack’ and barely scraping the Top 50 with ‘Just a Melody’ n 1969.

Yet the more I dig, especially into their later Cotillion and Paula periods (1970 to 1975) the more quality stuff I discover.

Today’s selection hails from 1969, at the very end of their time with the Brunswick label, just before their move to Cotillion.

‘Horoscope’ features funky piano and bright horns, and a shouted run (credited, hysterically as ‘Narration by Isaac Holt’) through the zodiac, hitting on all the signs, ex.Virgo (‘The virgin! Ha ha, you gotta be kidding!’), as well as timely references to the Age of Aquarius and Hair (“and NO CLOTHES!!”).

The tune was written by Young, Holt and their pianist at the time, Ken Chaney (who replaced Hysear Don Walker when the group morphed from the Young Holt Trio into Young Holt Unlimited).

They’ve appeared here a bunch of times, with individual tracks and in mixes, as long as I keep digging their stuff they’ll continue to do so.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, December 7, 2010 2:03 pm

The Oneness of Juju

Listen/Download – Oneness of Juju – African Rhythms Pt1
Listen/Download – Oneness of Juju – African Rhythms Pt2

Greetings all.
I don’t know about where you folks live, but things got awfully cold, awfully quickly around here.

It’s nothing like the weird snow-fucking that our friends in the UK are getting, but cold enough that I have to make sure the little corners are all bundled up when they trot out the door, and I might add, at the point where I am contemplating putting the fireplace into use.

I’m also perched by the mailbox waiting for a couple of exceptional vinyl acquisitions to arrive, one of them taking its sweet time (apparently) swimming here from the EU. I was lucky enough to grab a couple of longtime want list items at reasonable prices, so as soon as they fall through the mail slot, and I get them digimatized, you’ll see them here and hear them on the Funky16Corners Radio Show.

Speaking of seemingly unobtainable items, allow me to take you back a little over a year to March of 2009, when my man DJ Prestige and I packed up the Funky16Corners-mobile and headed down to DC and RVA to do our DJ thing, and naturally get in some out of town digging.

While we were in DC, the mighty DJ Birdman took us to a couple of sweet spots, one of which yielded two copies of the 1975 LP by Oneness of Juju (one each for Prestige and Birdman). I was pissed I hadn’t found it first (who wouldn’t be?), but happy to see my buddies make such a good score.

Flash forward a bit to my next trip down to DC in July of last year where I did a couple of gigs with Birdman (including an allnighter at Marvin), around which were scheduled even more digs. Part of our trip involved a run down to Richmond, which included a stop at the storied Plan 9 record store.

As expected, there was a veritable sea of vinyl to be perused, but I had been instructed to inquire of the man behind the counter whether or not he might have some of the “good stuff” held off to the side.

Now, as any seasoned digger will tell you, not every record store is likely to have a box or two of special stuff set aside, and among those that do, some of the special stuff isn’t all that special, it’s just expensive.

So, having already grabbed an armload of 45s and LPs, I asked to see the good stuff, and spent the next half hour or so checking it out on the store turntable.

Though there was a lot of interesting stuff, not much of it was grabbing me, until I got to the bottom of the stack and saw something that set my Spidey sense a-tingling, that being a 45 of the Oneness of Juju performing ‘African Rhythms’.

I had heard, and dug this tune on a CD comp of Afro-funk a few years before, and knew the band had a Richmond connection, but I don’t think I expected a copy of the 45 to fall into my sweaty hands.

After a bit of haggling (which didn’t amount to much, since I’m such a shitty haggler) I added the 45* to my keeper stack and took it home.

The group has it’s roots in mid-60s New York City, where saxophonist Plunky Nkabinde (aka J. Plunky Branch), a native of Richmond, VA went to college, met bassist/singer Ken Shabala and formed a band called the Soul Syndicate.

In the late 60s, the pair moved to San Francisco and joined Ndikho Xaba (one of many South African expatrites who came to the US to make music in the 60s) in the group Ndikho and the Natives.

Two years later, along with vibist Lon Moshe they left and formed the avant garde group Juju.

Over the next few years Juju recorded a few albums of Afro jazz (one for Strata East), eventually moving to Richmond, VA in 1974.

The group reconstituted, physically (with personnel changes) and artistically (with a much funkier vibe) and was rechristened as the Oneness of Juju. They became a big draw in and around Washington, DC, playing with many of the big local acts, as well as touring artists.

The Oneness of Juju recorded their eponymous LP (on the Black Fire label), which included ‘African Rhythms’ in 1975, and featuring their new vocalist Lady Eka-Ete.

The 45 edit of ‘African Rhythms’ opens with a tight breakbeat** (courtesy of another Richmond native, Ronnie Toler). The bass, guitar and saxophone weave in and out of the percussion before that band starts to chant the title of the song.

Over the course of more than seven minutes, you get a real taste of the unique combination of sounds that the Oneness of Juju could produce. Not only do you get a tune with enough contemporary funk energy to get people out onto the dance floor, but there is also the jazz edge the band brought with them from their previous incarnation.

The next 30 years saw the group become a free-flowing entity, morphing in both personnel and style, always led by Plunky, who in addition to performing also taught music in public schools and at the university level, as well as traveling to Africa. They recorded as Plunky and Oneness, as well as providing backing on Plunky’s numerous solo recordings.

They really represent a remarkable bit of musical history (which can be read in much greater detail at their web site) that would probably make an incredible book.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

*Despite its visually pristine condition, the 45 has some background noise which is especially obvious during the beginning and end of each side. My apologies for the crackle…

**The record was sampled by Quasimoto among others

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By Larry, November 7, 2010 3:55 pm

Ken Munson

Listen/Download – Ken Munson – Fly Robin Fly Pt1

Listen/Download – Ken Munson – Fly Robin Fly Pt2

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

The tune I bring you today is something I tracked down in my seemingly never ending search for funky flute forty-fives (never have to look far for alliteration…).

Ken Munson has appeared in this space a few times, with tracks from his modestly named 1973 ‘Super Flute’ LP.

Despite trying, I have never been able to track down anything but circumstantial evidence that would illuminate the history of Mr. Munson.

The two non-LP 45s I have seem to indicate that he worked in the New York metropolitan area, but other than that, not much comes up.

If you recall Funky16Corners Radio v.87- Wind of Change, you’ll already know I dig the sound of the flute, especially when utilized in a jazz or funk setting. This is certainly an acquired tast, but it should already be obvious that I have acquired it.

Today’s selection is a cover of the 1975 hit by the Silver Convention. The Munich, Germany based disco group (basically producers Silvester Levay and Michael Kunze) had hits with both ‘Fly Robin Fly’ and ‘Get Up and Boogie’, both of which have a certain, oddly laid back (I say oddly because these were dance records) feel that is at once very ‘70s’, and also a little bit disconcerting. Perhaps they were tapping into some kind of Quaalude consciousness, but one expects a certain amount of propulsion in a record intended for the dancefloor.

Ken Munson remedies this by pushing up the tempo a little bit, as well as dialing up the funk just a tad. The addition of brass that doubles the flute leads, as well as some groovy electric piano (I’d love to know who the pianist is) and guitar add some soul jazz flavor as well.

Make sure you stick around for Part 2, since there’s a cool flute/drum breakdown where Munson really tears it up.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

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Comments (7)

By Larry, October 9, 2010 12:49 pm

John…

and Antoine…

Listen/Download – Fats Domino – Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey

Greetings all.

This is a previously unplanned post, but that’s just the way we roll here, since one must allow themselves to be guided by inspirado, or something like that.

This weekend marks what would have been the 70th birthday of John Lennon.

I have gone into my deep and abiding love for the Beatles in this space before (and over at Iron Leg), but something I haven’t discussed is my growing ambivalence about Mr. Lennon.

I would not have discussed it at all were I not spurred on to introspection about this specific subject by various and sundry celebrations of the aforementioned occasion in every conceivable nook and cranny of the media, but especially the postings of my many Facebook friends, many of whom have exceptional taste in music.

The Beatles were the first music that I truly loved and connected with, and for a few years in the time when I was passing from childhood into adolescence they were pretty much all I listened to with any regularity (other than the jazz and classical music that was played by my father).

The walls of my room were plastered with clippings about the Beatles that I had collected from newspapers and magazines, as well as posters and ephemera like the inserts from the ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album.

This is all said only to indicate that the Beatles – as musicians, cultural avatars and people – and the music they made meant, and mean a great deal to me.

However, over the many, many years (I turned 48 this year) I have read a great deal about them, their impact on the culture and the way they created their records, and my impressions of the four Beatles have evolved considerably for a wide variety of reasons.

Back when I was younger, obsessed with rock’n’roll and with all the signifiers of “authenticity” that go along with it when you’re young and full of a wide variety of things, from beans, to piss and vinegar, and what in retrospect – if you’re being honest – something that is clearly shit, I followed the script that said that McCartney was the sellout, Lennon the rebel, Ringo the good natured post-Fabs hitmaker and Harrison the incorruptible mystic.

This had a lot to do with my brain being young, soft and unable (or unwilling) to process anything more complex than a handful of cliches.

That said, as I aged, and read more, I came to understand that the Beatles were much more complex and human that I was willing to allow them to be when I first fell in love with them and the wondrous sounds that they made.

Unfortunately, this evolution softened my appraisal of McCartney (no mean feat) and poked a number of holes in how I saw Lennon.

I’ll let you read up on your own, but I came to the end of this long reappraisal not liking John Lennon all that much.

What I’ve come to discover over the last few weeks of thought and discussion is that this is ultimately my own problem, and should be rightfully separated from his music.

That and the fact that while he wasn’t a saint, he wasn’t a complete asshole either.

John Lennon was a human being, just like the rest of us.

A prodigiously talented (and flawed) human being, but a human being nonetheless, who was never comfortable with the idolatry of many of his fans, and at the end of the day, he was also a Beatle, and responsible for some of the finest music of the last half of the previous century.

And when I say music, I don’t mean the Beatles recordings exclusively, but also their songs as interpreted by others.

Funky16Corners, while always a kind of free-flowing deal – as far as musical style goes – has always found it’s way back to a focus on funk, soul and jazz, and it was by way of that short list that I’ve paid my own sort of tribute to the Beatles and their music over the last five years.

I did so by compiling six mixes (se below) of funk, soul and jazz Beatles covers (one’s a shorter one, but I like it anyway), all of which I’ve pulled out of the Podcast Archive to repost today.

I’ve also included a cover of ‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey’ that I picked up after all of these mixes were assembled.

The version here is by the mighty Fats Domino. It was recorded in 1970 (I picked it up on an old Warner/Reprise sampler) and John Lennon was reportedly pleased to have one of his songs covered by one of his own idols.

Fats does a very nice version of the song, which is groovy, and brings things full circle since he was the stylistic inspiration for ‘Lady Madonna’.

I hope you dig it, and that – have you not already partaken (partooken???) that you dig into these mixes.

The day when Lennon would have turned 70 (!?!?) is a big deal, and since we only have two Beatles left, it’s worth celebrating.

There’s lots of groovy stuff.

See you later.

Peace

Larry

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Funky16Corners Radio v.28 – Rubber Souled Pt1

Funky16Corners Radio v.28 – Rubber Souled Pt1

Playlist
Billy Preston – Eight Days a Week (Exodus)
Music Company – TheWord (Mirwood)
Bunny Sigler – Yesterday (Parkway)
Stevie Wonder – We Can Work It Out (Tamla)
Vontastics – Day Tripper (St Lawrence)
Chris Clark – Got To Get You Into My Life (Motown)
El Chicano – Eleanor Rigby (Kapp)
Junior Parker – Tomorrow Never Knows (Capitol)
Bill Cosby – Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (WB)
Soulful Strings – Within You Without You (Cadet)
Bud Shank – I Am the Walrus (World Pacific)
Soulful Strings – Hello Goodbye (Cadet)
Soulful Strings – The Inner Light (Cadet)

Listen/ Download 37MB Mixed MP3
Download 37MB Zip File

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Funky16Corners Radio v.29 – Rubber Souled Pt2

Playlist
Ramsey Lewis – Mother Natures Son (Cadet)
Bobby Bryant – Happiness Is a Warm Gun (Pacific Jazz)
Orchestra Harlow – Larry’s Complaint (Me & My Monkey) (Fania)
Ramsey Lewis – Back In the USSR (Cadet)
Chubby Checker – Back In the USSR (Buddah)
Groove Holmes & Ernie Watts – Come Together (Pacific Jazz)
Jazz Crusaders – Golden Slumbers (Chisa)
Gene Ammons – Something (Prestige)
Ike & Tina Turner – Get Back (UA)
Shirley Scott – Get Back (Atlantic)
Mohawks – Let It Be (Supreme)

Listen/ Download 37.5MB Mixed MP3
Download 37.5MB Zip File

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Funky16Corners Radio v.30 – Rubber Souled Pt3

Playlist
Overton Berry Trio – Hey Jude (Jaro)
Freddy McCoy – Hey Jude (Cobblestone)
Jimmy Caravan – Hey Jude (Vault)
Clarence Wheeler & the Enforcers – Hey Jude (Atlantic)
Fabulous Counts – Hey Jude (Cotillion)
Wilson Pickett – Hey Jude (Atlantic)

Listen/ Download 25MB Mixed MP3
Download 25MB Zip File

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Funky16Corners Radio v.54 – Come Together

Funky16Corners Radio v.54 – Come Together

Playlist

Funky16Corners Radio v.74 – Day Tripping

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 30, 2010 3:04 pm

Ekseption and their shiny silver sleeve…

Listen/Download – Ekseption – Ritual Fire Dance

Greetings all.

Please allow me to begin by making a simple statement of fact.

I am definitely getting too old for this shit.

Hooboy….

I piled myself and my records into the trusty Funky16Corners-mobile last Saturday morning, and set off (alone) for a whirlwind weekend of DJ-ing and digging in Washington, DC.

That was the easy part.

I had a grip of podcasts to keep me company on the trip and the drive down was uneventful (and quick). I rolled into the city by the early afternoon, meeting up with my buddy DJ Birdman and his lovely family (finally getting to meet Birdman Jr.!), followed by some digging (natch…whatup to Marshall and Mike) and then on to some delicious bar-b-que ribs.

That night Birdman and I did the late shift at Marvin where the crowd was predictably lively (with many predictable and unsuitable requests, but that’s how these things go). I recorded one of my sets (funk and disco), which I’ll be posting here sometime in the next few weeks.

The next morning, following an all too brief bit of sleep, we got up and rolled out to the DC Record Fair, where Birdman (and some other DC heads, whatup Neal and Nightkrawler) were running the show and had to get things set up. The U Street Music Hall was a very nice space, and the Record Fair produced some stellar results which will see the light of day well into the next year (or two) here on the blog.

I spun a set of uptempo Northern Soul at the Fair, which I did not record (left the recorder in the car…), but if you want a taste go back to the Northern set I did at Master Groove earlier this year (Funky16Corners Radio v.82 Groovin’ at the Go Go) which repeats about half of what I played on Sunday and you’ll get the idea. I’ll whip up an all-new Northern mix sometime in the not too distant future.

The folks at the Record Fair were very cool, especially the old school soulie right in front of the DJ booth (perhaps the most luxurious DJ booth I’ve ever been in, I felt spoiled) who requested the Just Brothers ‘Sliced Tomatoes’ about ten seconds after I’d already cued it up (it was kismet I tell you!), and it was very cool to meet up with some old friends and make first-person contact with a couple of interwebs acquaintances.

I have to say that DC is always a chill scene, with cool people and tons of great records to be had. The thought of restricting my digs to the DC area crossed my mind, but then I remembered what a degenerate record collector I am and realized that just wasn’t going to happen.

I rolled out of the Record Fair about an hour after I finished my set with a HUGE stack of vinyl, including more than a few longtime want list items (on 45 and LP). The only bummer being that I don’t have any pics, since I didn’t bring my camera, instead relying on my new phone, which I still haven’t learned to operate properly, rendering the few pictures I took tiny, low-res and unusable.

As is always the case, Igot lost on my way out of DC. It wasn’t too bad, but by the time I hit Baltimore I also hit the wall. My tired old carcass is not used to being treated like it’s 25 again, and I ran out of steam, forcing a pit stop at Starbucks where I loaded up on coffee and food and hit the road once again.

Unfortunately, as easy as my ride down to DC was, my ride home was plagued with difficulty, including an insane traffic jam in northern Maryland (understaffed toll booth related) and then another jam up in NJ which forced me to alter my route and take a time consuming detour.

This all followed by the fact that I had yet another medical procedure scheduled for Tuesday morning, and I’m sitting here at the laptop just about ready to go into hibernation.

I have something cool in the cooker for Monday morning (just waiting for all the pieces to arrive in the in-box) and after that I’m not sure what I’ll do, since I now have so much to choose from (in addition to everything else aging in the oaken barrels in the vinyl cellar).

I figured I’d close out the week with something I’ve wanted to post for a while now. Even though I’d digi-ma-tized it weeks (months?) ago, when I went to post it I discovered that I had neglected to photograph the label, but – as is always the case – when I was pulling records for the DC trip I put aside a number of records similarly afflicted, and I bring it to you now, better late than never.

I first posted something by the Dutch prog band Ekseption way back in 2007 when I included their version of the soul jazz classic ‘This Here’ in Funky16Corners Radio v.32. Some time after that, while engaged in a little e-digging, I discovered a 45 of yet another of their classical pastiches (something they did a lot), this time a version of Manuel de Falla’s ‘Ritual Fire Dance’ from his 1915 ballet ‘El Amor Brujo’.

I posted a couple of other jazz-funk reworkings of classical pieces a while back (with Deodato and Woody Herman covering Strauss and Copland), and while I’m not likely to make it a regular feature here at the Corners, the Ekseption 45 is so groovy I would be remiss were I not to share it with you.

I have to admit that I was not familiar with de Falla’s original piece when I first heard it (check out Artur Rubinstein playing it here, for comparison), but after hearing it in its original setting, it’s safe to say that aside from some heavy drums and organ (and giving it that Euro-swinger je ne sais quois), Ekseption don’t really stray too far from the source.

I don’t think I’d be telling tales out of school were I to suggest that this particular gem might get some of your modder types out onto the floor, with a little bit of that au-go-go flavour.

In other news, don’t forget to tune in Friday night at 9PM for this week’s all-new edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio. I assure you that the collection of funk, soul, jazz and rare groove that awaits you get your weekend off to a groovy start.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some puh-sike-a-dellia….

Comments (8)

By Larry, September 26, 2010 5:46 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.88 – Throbbing Organs

Playlist

You can check out this mix in the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive

This is being prepared in advance of my excursion to Washington, so any reporting on that trip will have to wait until later in the week.

Hopefully it was a gas and I found lots of groovy records.

That said, it’s been a while since the last organ mix (a live mix, back in January), and I can’t go very long without a Hammond infusion, so I figured it was time.

This mix is all over the map, with some hard driving R&B, soul, funk and even a little bit of soul jazz, but since we’re talking about the universe of the Hammond organ, that’s kind of how these things swing.

A couple of these tracks have seen the light of day here on Funky16Corners individually (none recently), but since two slices of bacon is always better than one, and organ records are the soulful and delicious equivalent of bacon in the musical food pyramid, it couldn’t possibly hurt to hear them again.

Anyhoo… this week might be a little light, since I’m one hundred and eleventy seven percent that I will be returning from DC exhausted, and then I have a little surgical type thingy on Tuesday which is sure to knock me on my ass for a few days, but it’s one of those ‘gotta do it when you gotta do it’ deals, so there.

I hope you dig the mix, and I’m sure I’ll make it back onto the scene by the end of the week (if not sooner).

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for a new psyche mix!

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 21, 2010 10:15 am

F16C Soul Club Presents – Funky16Corners Live at Master Groove 9/19/10

Playlist

You can check out this mix in the Funky16Corners Soul Club Archive

The middle of the week, and I’m up to my ass in hungry alligators, with the real world crap and preparing for my excursion to our nation’s capitol, during which I will address congress on my solutions to all the big problems currently driving us crazy (or at least those members of congress willing to come down to Marvin on Saturday night, or the DC Record Fair on Sunday and extract said solutions from within the grooves of various funk, soul and disco records).

Since I am so occupied, I figured I’d whip out my massive custodian’s key ring and open up the Funky16Corners Soul Club so that you might check out my set from this past Sunday night at Master Groove.

DJ Bluewater has things back up and running at Fat Buddha (formerly Forbidden City, same place, same great food, but now with a swanky DJ booth for the likes of me to spin the records) with the mighty M-Fasis at his side and a stellar line up of guest selectors and their 45s every Sunday night (212 Ave A NYC). You should fall by some time, grab a pork bun, dumpling or other delicious morsel and fill your ears up with the good stuff.

This set includes some old faves, a grip of newer stuff that will soon be appearing in this space with the trenchant analysis you’ve come to know and love, and a couple of things from deep in the crates.

There are a couple of inelegant segues, but that’s the way it happens when your DJ is checking his phone when he ought to be hovering over the mixer. As always we present these unvarnished turntable exercises in the form a single MP3, without the zip file that accompanies the regular Funky16Corners mixes.

I hope you dig it, and hopefully I’ll be back on Friday with a little something to hold you for the weekend.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (2)

By Larry, August 31, 2010 5:17 pm

Joe Zawinul

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

Greetings all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a cool Nilsson cover.