Comments (4)

By Larry, March 24, 2011 9:31 am

Listen to him Lucy. He know’s what he’s talking about.

Listen/Download – F16C Soul Club Presents – Spindletop New Breed 76MB/256K Mixed MP3

Jimmy Hannah & the Dynamics – Leaving Here (Seafair/Bolo)
Frank Frost – My Back Scratcher (Jewel)
Bobby Powell – Why Am I Treated So Bad (Whit)
Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm – The New Breed Pt1 (Sue)
Richard Berry & the Pharaohs – Louie Louie (Flip)
Roy Thompson – Sookie Sookie (Okeh)
Mighty Hannibal – Jerkin’ the Dog (Shurfine)
Bobby Parker – Watch Your Step (V Tone)
Gene Waiters – Shake and Shingaling Pt1 (Fairmount)
Roger & the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
Scatman Crothers – Golly! Zonk! It’s Scatman (HBR)
Derek Martin – Daddy Rollin’ Stone (Crackerjack)
King Coleman – Boo Boo Song Pt2 (King)
Billy Preston – Let the Music Play (Capitol)
Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto – In the Basement Pt1 (Chess)
Dottie Cambridge – He’s About a Mover (MGM)
Freddie Scott – Pow City! (Marlin)

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and I am in dire need of some form of stress relief, whether it’s extended, uninterrupted sleep, intoxication of some sort or just deep, silent meditation.

It’s not that this week has been extraordinarily rough, ‘cause it hasn’t, but rather some combination of not enough sleep (DJ-ing two hours away on a Monday night will do that), a cold (and/or the onset of seasonal allergies) and the normal slate of irritants, have all combined to do a number on my head.

That said, I’m going to take a tip from the Sims Twins and let a little soul music ‘Soothe Me’.

First, I’ll remind you that this Friday night at 9PM the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to Viva Radio with another hour of the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all straight from my crates to your ears. As always you can either tune in on the interwebs, or come by here over the weekend to pick up the show in its easy to use MP3 form. Either way, the sounds are equally excellent.

I had a gas on Monday spinning at Spindletop, and managed once again to capture the goings on with my handheld digital recorder, so that I might share some of it with you good folks.

I went through the musical fruits (no beans…) of the evening and carved out two sets of grooves, one of which I’ll whip on you today, the second which I’ll drop at the end of next week.

This time out I dipped into the crates and whipped out the best in hard-charging, soul party action, from gritty R&B, tough dance floor soul, right on to early funk.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating, that one of the prime reasons I love to DJ in a bar or club is the opportunity to hear really amazing records pumping out of a great big set of speakers. You can set the Mighty Hannibal loose in your earbuds, but it’s just not as cool as hearing him unwind his turban with ‘Jerkin’ the Dog’ shaking a room full of people like a minor earthquake.

Every single one of the records in these mixes is perfect for such an environment. I’d go as far as to say that gathered together like this, they might be too powerful for a Friday or Saturday, yet pack just enough musical TNT to set things off on a Monday.

If I was you, I’d pull down the ones and zeros, hit the liquor store, invite over some friends, roll back the carpet and turn up the stereo and do like Mr. Waiters says:

Jump back honey and let the New Breed by!

See you on Monday

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some Laurel Canyon cool from Mama Cass.

Comments (3)

By Larry, March 17, 2011 1:11 pm

The Ohio Players

Listen/Download -Ohio Players – Find Someone To Love

Greetings all.

I hope you’re all ready to shed the week and slip on into the weekend.

Before we wrap things up, I’d like to remind you that I’ll be back in NYC spinning the 45s with soul this coming Monday at Spindletop @ Botanica. It’s a very groovy scene and I assure that I only bring 100% USDA certified soul 45s, guaranteed to move your feet, and under the proper circumstances, strengthen your pimp hand.

You should also tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio, this Friday night at 9PM for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from vinyl sources. As always, if you are otherwise occupied at the time of broadcast, you can always fall by the blog over the weekend and pick up the show in convenient MP3 form.

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo), in regard to the April 2nd walk. The whole Funky16Corners gang will be walking in support of autism services, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

Now, about the funk…

The tune I bring you today is a bit of instrumental genius from the early days of the mighty Ohio Players.

With a lineage that goes back to 1959 (when the group came together as the Ohio Untouchables), on into their mid-decade rebirth as the Ohio Players, after which they worked in New York as the house band for Compass Records (releasing two singles for the label in 1967 and 1968).

They were working with producer Johnny Brantley’s Vidalia productions when they hooked up (for one album) with Capitol Records.

The tune I bring you today comes from that partnership.

Interestingly, their recording from this period, for both Compass and Capitol had been recirculated on the exploit/ripoff label Trip/Upfront as the album ‘First Impressions’, which is where I first heard ‘Find Someone To Love’. Their Capitol LP, ‘Observations In Time’ isn’t incredibly rare, or expensive (copies go for between 40 and 100 bucks) but it doesn’t show up that often.

The group’s vocal material from this period has always reminded me of the Parliaments stuff from the mid-60s, with a slightly more raucous edge.

‘Find Someone To Love’ features Sugarfoot Bonner’s wobbly, deeply funky guitar prominently, as well as hard hitting drums, droning organ and the band’s horn section. It’s a much deeper, grittier groove than the flashy, fonky stuff they’d hit the charts with a few years later.

Not exactly the Love Rollercoaster, more like the funhouse on the way there.

I dig it a lot, and I hope you do too.

See you on Monday (either here or in NYC).

Peace

Larry

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some insane surf instros.

Comments (5)

By Larry, March 10, 2011 11:12 am

The Eyes of Blue

Listen/Download – The Eyes of Blue

Greetings all.

The end of a very long week is here, and despite pounding out more than my quota of words and such, I’m still ready and raring to go.

But first this update from the Funky16Corners newsroom…

This Friday night at 9PM the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns once again to Viva Radio, with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all brought to you with the hot wax squeezed through the digital meat grinder and transplanted onto the throbbing airwaves of the interwebs. This week we have more of the groovy gravy you have come to know and love, including some cool new arrivals.

As always, if you are otherwise occupied during our normal time slot, you can always fall by the blog over the weekend to collect your very own MP3 copy of this week’s show that you may insert onto the pod-like thingy of your choice.

Oh, and this…

I mentioned that I’m all fired up, and the record I bring you today is the reason why.

I can say with some certainty that the Eyes of Blue version of ‘Heart Trouble’ made its way into my ears some time during the mighty mod days of the mid-80s, courtesy of the tape-making mania of my man Mr Luther. From that moment it was lodged in my brain like the thorn in the foot of Androcles lion, nagging at me for decades until the day when a copy this very 45 and yours truly finally intersected.

I had copies of the song on tape, and then CD, but as any DJ worth their wax will tell you, when a record really knocks you out, until you have a copy in your box to whip on the groovers (which I will be doing when I return to Spindletop on 3/21), nothing else matters.

As I said, the song blew my mind but got even better when I found out that the song in question had originally been recorded by the Parliaments.

In fact, the Parliaments version is the rarest of their 45s, pulling in a few hundred smackers when it shows up.

The original version by Mr. Clinton and his pals was released on Detroit’s storied Golden World imprint in 1966. Written by George Clinton and Sidney Barnes, the original version (which can be heard here) is not only one of the group’s finest songs, but a certified Motor City soul classic. The lyrics would resurface years later in the Funkadelic song “You Can’t Miss What You Can’t Measure”.

That said, the Parliaments never got its due, and remains as obscure as it is good.

Which begs the question where did the Eyes of Blue, the pride of Neath, Wales get their hands on it?

While Northern Soul hadn’t really happened yet, there was certainly a soul scene in the UK, and it seems entirely possible that the Eyes of Blue heard the song in any number of clubs, or even played on the radio.

Ultimately, what matters is that they not only met the Parliaments on their own musical turf, and I would go as far as to say bested them when they waxed the tune for Deram in 1967*.

How do I arrive at this somewhat controversial conclusion?

Well, there are a couple of reasons, first and foremost being that the Eyes of Blue (ironic name for what might be termed blue-eyed soul, a subgenre we will henceforth refer to as – in the words of reader George Macklin – “equal opportunity soul”) version of ‘Heart Trouble’ is without any question one of the two or three finest mod soul covers ever recorded, up there alongside numbers like the Action’s epic version of the Radiants ‘Baby You’ve Got It’ and the Artwoods take on Solomon Burke’s ‘Keep Looking’.

It has a sonic power that the original lacks, and a fantastic vocal by Gary Pickford Hopkins sounding like a rougher-edged Paul Jones.

The Eyes of Blue version record is every bit as danceable as the Parliaments and then some.

Where the original has a more complex vocal mix – with female backing singers and a powerful male bass vocal – as well as strings (a role taken in the Eyes of Blue version by piano), the cover builds its power in an entirely different way. The beat is constructed on powerful snare drum hits, which are the mimicked by the tambourine, piano chords and pumping bass guitar.

Whenever you run into a cover of a soul tune by a white band, there are always perceived issues of authenticity, with ‘perceived’ being the operative term.

Our friends in the UK had a serious jones for US soul and R&B, and there were tons of such covers recorded with widely varying levels of success. When I tell you that I first fell in love with the song ‘Our Love Is In the Pocket’ when I heard the version by Amen Corner, I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you while it’s groovy in its own way it doesn’t really stack up favorably with the versions by Darrell Banks or JJ Barnes and the same could be said for the Alan Bown Set’s cover of Edwin Starr’s ‘Headline News’.

However, every once in a while you get the perfect pairing of band and song that manages to transcend a soul original, and this is one of those times.

Oddly, the Eyes of Blue, which got its start as an R&B/soul band, recorded one more 45 for Deram, the excellent ‘Supermarket Full of Cans’ before signing with Mercury and morphing into a much heavier, prog/psych concern, with members of the band ending up in groups like Man, Gentle Giant and Wild Turkey.

I hope you dig this one as much as I do, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*What you see before you is a US issue of the 45. Go to this 2004 article in the Funky16Corners web zine for a gander at the UK pressing.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some interesting late 60s pop.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 3, 2011 10:15 am

The Gene Ludwig Trio

Listen/Download – The Gene Ludwig Trio – Mr Fink Pt1

Listen/Download – The Gene Ludwig Trio – Mr Fink Pt2

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your end, and that my ramblings this week haven’t put you off your soul.

In programming notes, I will remind you now that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the intertubes this Friday night at 9PM at Viva Radio, where the elite meet to beat the heat. I have lots of classics lined up for you this week, as well as something new and groovy, so make sure to tune in, or fall by this very blog over the weekend to pick yourself up an MP3 copy of the show to dig on your computer or the iPod like device of your choice.

It was last summer that we got the sad news that the mighty Gene Ludwig had passed on suddenly at the age of 72.

You all know that I practically bathe in Hammond organ sounds on a daily basis, and Mr Ludwig created some fine examples of that genre during his five decade career.

He was first and foremost a jazz player – with the chops to back up that designation – but he also soaked his fingers in groove grease as well, laying down some particularly groovy soul jazz.

Gene was also, and this is the most important thing, artistically vital until the day he left us, playing live and recording at the top of his game.

Today’s post is – as is sometimes the case – a celebration of the old, as well as the new.

The record you see above, is one of my favorite two-siders in Gene’s discography, 1962s ‘Mr Fink Pts 1&2’ on Pittsburgh’s LaVere label.

Recorded with the classic Gene Ludwig Trio, with Gene on Hammond, Jerry Byrd on guitar and Randy Gillespie on drums, ‘Mr. Fink’ amounts to a skoshi under six minutes of the finest, smoky tavern Hammond wailing, soulful burning that anyone has ever packed onto two sides of a tiny vinyl record.

Aside from the epic ‘The Vamp’, this is by far my favorite of Gene’s 45s for both its elemental fire, and as a showcase for his keyboard skills. If you’re a stone Hammond junkie – like me – there’s something exceptional about hearing a master’s fingers fly over the keyboard, really making that huge hunk of wood and wires sing, and it doesn’t get much better than ‘Mr Fink’.

What I’m really here to rap about though is the fact that Gene Ludwig laid down one of the finest albums of his career just before he passed, and it has just been released.

The CD ‘Love Notes of Cole Porter’, recorded with a very tight quartet (with two different drummers) is without exaggeration, up there with the finest organ jazz of the classic era. A collection of the finest love songs to flow from the pen of the legendary Cole Porter, many classics of what the cliché machine has designated the ‘Great American Songbook’, ‘Love Notes…’ sees (hears) Gene and his band, Mark Strickland on guitar, Lou Stellute on tenor and Thomas Wendt and Billy Kuhn alternating on drums (all very good), working in the classic Prestige/Blue Note style, and when I say that I’m not just blowing smoke.

The late 50s and 1960s saw a lot of different varieties of practitioners recording on the Hammond organ, from purely soul/R&B based cats working it out on now rare 45s (like Louis Chachere, RD Stokes and Leo Valentine), post-bop visionaries like Larry Young, and the cats running in the mainstream like Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff and Groove Holmes, all of whom were widely recorded with widely varied results.

During the early part of his career, Gene Ludwig didn’t have the opportunity to record as frequently as many of those that I would consider his peers. Whether or not the consistently high quality of what he did record was merely a matter of conservation, i.e. never having been pressured to create more accessible/less inspiring records, or because all he had in him to create was pure class (I lean toward the latter) his legacy is smaller, and dare I say better.

That his final album reinforces that assessment is worth noting.

‘Love Notes of Cole Porter’ is every bit the equal of the best, swinging bop and soul organ sessions of the instrument’s (and Gene’s) golden era.

‘Love Notes of Cole Porter’ is also a gift to remind us that age need not be an impediment to a musicians growth. People do a lot of lip service to concepts like ‘maturity’ and ‘experience’, but listening to Gene wail and swing on this session one is treated to the sound of 70 years of technical prowess, seasoned by good taste and above all soul.

Another great thing about ‘Love Notes…’ is that alongside of well known material like ‘Night and Day’, ‘You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To’ and ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’, bona fide standards, covered hundreds of times by all manner of instrumentalists and singers, Gene works out on less familiar, but also exceptional numbers from Porter’s catalog like ‘I Love You’ and ‘Dream Dancing’.

This is serious, wonderfully played jazz and a fitting final statement from one of the great practitioners of the art.

You can pick up ‘Love Notes of Cole Porter’ directly from Big O Records, or over at CD Baby, where you can get it as a CD or as an MP3 download. You can hear samples of the album at both sites. It’s also available at iTunes, but make sure you search by the title, as a search of ‘Gene Ludwig’ only returns his older albums.

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

Peace

Larry

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some fuzzed out, crunching garage punk.

Comments (3)

By Larry, February 25, 2011 11:02 am

Spindletop Northern Soul Pt4

Jackie Lee – The Shotgun and the Duck (Mirwood)
Judy Street – What (Grapevine)
Rodge Martin – Loving Machine (Bragg)
Olympics – Mine Exclusively (Mirwood)
JJ Barnes – Day Tripper (Ric Tic)
Bonnie and Lee – The Way I Feel About You (Fairmount)
Marvin Gaye – Baby Don’t Do It (Tamla)
Pieces of Eight – Come Back Baby (A&M)
Liberty Belles – Shing A Ling Time (Shout)
Tommy & Cleve – Boogaloo Baby (Checker)
Guitar Ray – Patty Cake Shake (Hot Line)
Gloria Jones – Tainted Love (Champion)
Jean Wells – With My Love and What You Got (Calla)

Listen/Download -F16C Spindletop Northern Soul Pt4 – 59MB Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

The week is coming to a close, and so is our little experiment.

I behooves me to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns tonight at 9PM at Viva Radio. Make sure you tune in for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove. If you can’t, make sure to stop by the blog over the weekend to  pick up the MP3 version of the show.

When you whip four separate Northern Soul mixes* on the blog on four consecutive days, you risk being accused of overkill.

That my friends is a risk I am ready and willing to take.

You see – and I don’t think I’ve discussed this before, at least in this way – Northern Soul, or at least much of the music that meets the sonic criteria to be considered part of the genre, is some of the most dynamic, exciting and above all accessible ‘soul’ music.

Though there are the occasional fringe records that fall inside the Northern bailiwick that manage to be danceable yet ultimately soul-less, they are the exception to the rule.

To lay it out in the simplest way possible, Northern Soul was mostly (important word, that) imitation Motown, or at least music that strove to imitate those labels that arose alongside of Motown in the world of stylish urban soul. By this I mean labels like Okeh, Brunswick, Mirwood, Harthon, Fairmount, Chess, Calla and any number of smaller Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles labels (or points anywhere else on the musical map) where records with pounding beats, pop hooks and soulful vocals were being made.

When I was rapping with my man Perry Lane, I mentioned that my wife, a woman of exceptional taste but who would not normally be described as a soul fan, really digs the Northern sound. This is relevant because I’d say that most hardcore soul fans approach records with an agenda, whether it’s because a given 45 is cemented in a stylistic canon, coveted because of its rarity, or connected to a label, artist or other focal point.

When someone who is not a record collector finds themselves drawn to a genre that they wouldn’t identify, the chances are that they do so simply because they like the way it sounds. The music rises up from the grooves, through the stylus and the speakers and finds its way into the pleasure centers of their brain, and whatever part of the central nervous system that causes involuntary movement in the feet (tapping), hips (swaying) and head (nodding).

A lot of the Northern Soul records that I have either hit me retroactively (i.e. I grabbed them because I was collecting a certain group, label or region) or because I heard them first (by the original artist on a comp) or second (via a cover by groups like the Action, Artwoods, Timebox etc) hand but as I became acquainted with the genre and found my way into the canon I began to seek out records because of that and the new stuff coalesced with the things I already had and I discovered a sound or genre rising from the depths of my crates.

I realize that my attachment to this music comes at some distance, and that much of what made the movement exciting – the whole of Northern Soul culture in the UK – is part of the past, there’s something rewarding (as there is when you spin any collection of music that ought to be better known than it is for people eager to listen, and dance) about gathering these sounds and whipping them on people.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating, any DJ worth their salt carries with them the power packed in the grooves of records, and when you spin the right records at the right time, in the right sequence you release that power and pass it on to the people listening, and all that matters then is that good music that they may not have heard before is hitting those pleasure centers I mentioned a few graphs ago, and it is translated into smiles and movement and if you’re lucky someone picks up on it and wants to seek it out on their own and an obscure, 45 year old record, filled with talent and passion lives another day.

Because keeping the sound alive – keeping the faith – is what it (and this blog) is all about.

I hope you dig it, pull down the ones and zeros on this fourth installment and move, groove and feel it.

I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

* All recorded live on 2/21/11 at Spindletop @ Botanica in NYC

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for an unusual cover of one of the greatest records of the 60s.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 17, 2011 4:04 pm

Tony Clarke

Listen/Download – Tony Clarke – The Entertainer

Greetings all.

I sit here tapping away on the laptop at the end of yet another busy week (I suppose I should get suspicious when things aren’t busy).

I figured since the previous post was so heated, it behooved me to cool things down.

But first, the bid-ness must be taken care of.

I should remind you that I’ll be returning to Spindletop at Botanica this coming Monday evening (2/21) , at 10PM for an evening of soul on 45. I’m thinking of taking a Northern Soul tack this time, so if stylish 60s dancers are a bag you’re in, fall by, grab yourself a cocktail and groove to the sounds.

Speaking of groovy sounds, this Friday night at 9PM I’ll be doing me regular thing, that being the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio. Tune in for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove all on vinyl, and all engineered to please the ear. If you can’t be there at 9PM, you can always come by the blog over the weekend and pick up the show as a downloadable MP3 which you can stuff into the iPod or iPod-esque device of your choice.

Now, as I mentioned, the tune I bring you today is something a little smoother, a tiny bit mellower and of course, soulful to ease you into the weekend.

Though I knew the name Tony Clarke, I didn’t actually hear (or own) any of his records until I picked up today’s selection in a huge lot of 45s (which I bought to get something else, making this one what the hipsters of yore would refer to as ‘gravy’).

When I pulled ‘The Entertainer’ out of the box, I took one look and didn’t have much hope that it would be playable, since a cursory glance would indicate that at some time it had duct tape attached to it (I can’t imagine why).

Fortunately, as you’ll hear, it cleaned up pretty well.

Clarke was a NY born, Detroit raised singer who recorded a number of 45s for Chess between 1964 and 1968.

Among these was ‘The Entertainer’, a Top 40 hit in 1965, and  1967 ‘s ‘Landslide’ which would become a Northern Soul classic.

Though it’s not the stormer that ‘Landslide’ is, ‘The Entertainer’ has a certain laid-back, Chicago sound to it that is smooth yet still danceable.

It opens with drums and organ, and a riff inspired by George Gershwin’s ‘I Got Plenty O’Nothin’ (from ‘Porgy and Bess’) as well as some classy guitar work. The arrangement by Phil Wright, including some tasteful horns, is especially nice.

Sadly, Clarke would be killed in a domestic incident in 1970. He was only 26.

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

Peace

Larry

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some prime UK psyche/prog.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 3, 2011 2:52 pm

Gene Ammons

Listen/Download – Gene Ammons – Son of a Preacher Man

Greetings all.

The end of the week is upon us, and so I must pause here to share a few important programming notes.

First, I was supposed to do a guest spot at the After the Laughter Soul Club at Lulu’s in Greenpoint this Friday night, but received word on Wednesday that the gig was cancelled. I was really looking forward to this one (had some especially hot 45s ready to go) but sometimes these things happen.

I’ll make sure to let you all know when it gets rescheduled.

Of course, you can always tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva radio, this Friday at 9PM, where I will be spinning lots of great sounds, including some cool new acquisitions and some old favorites, followed of course by the posting of the show in MP3/Podcast form at the blog over the weekend.

That all said, how about some jazz funk?

I grabbed this 45 as part of a two-fer deal with a buddy of mine, and ended up getting them both for nothing in return for a previous, record related good deed on my part. I hadn’t heard this particular 45 before, but since I knew Gene Ammons, and am constitutionally incapable of passing by a cover of ‘Son of a Preacher Man’, I grabbed it.

Good thing too.

The other 45 (the one I knew) is a groover, and will be featured in this space soon enough, but this is one I needed to share with you as soon as possible.

There is, at least in the world of jazz and jazz-related, a long tradition of covering songs in what we shall call a unique manner. This often has something to do with advanced concepts of harmony and music theory, since we’re dealing not with back alley guitar smashers, but rather a somewhat more elevated class of instrument wranglers who made their mark applying sophisticated musical concepts to the popular song.

This is sometimes displayed in subtle shifts in key where a song is rebuilt on a new frame and is still kind of floating in the background for those with more sophisticated (or receptive) ears (any of the headier bop or post bop sounds) , and other times shows up as the end result of free-wheeling jamming, wherein the musicians allow themselves to be swept up in and carried away by the creative currents.

I would suggest that Gene Ammons version of ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ is a little bit of both.

Recorded in 1970 for his Prestige LP ‘Brother Jug’ (his first after a long stretch in prison), with support from organist Sonny Phillips, guitarist Billy Butler and drummer Bernard Purdie (among others), Ammon’s take on ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ is, until late in the side, barely recognizable as said song.

It is undeniably funky, with the tight drums, and the wah wah, and the overall groove, but if you showed up expecting any taste of the famous Dusty Springfield hit, you would have to listen long and hard, with exceptionally wide open ears, and it’s not until almost two minutes into the song that Ammons states the familiar theme, and even then it’s a little bit off the track.

This is not meant as a criticism of Ammons or the 45, since he was one of the great tenor players of his day, and the 45 is certainly tasty, but rather a caveat for those expecting something a little bit closer to the original source.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psychedelia.

Comments (4)

By Larry, January 27, 2011 2:42 pm

Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto

Listen/Download – Etta James and Sugar Pie DeSanto – In the Basement Pt1

Greetings all.

The end of the week is finally here, and in one of the great feats of meteorologic redundancy, we are once again buried in snow.

Were I a resident of the Arctic I would have nothing to complain about, but this is New Jersey, where we are supposedly exempt from this kind of foolishness.

There’s not a damn thing we can do about it either, which is why I’m bitching.

This is the part of the week-ending post where I remind you all to fall by this week’s Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio, where I’ll be whipping Part 2 of the Northern Soul Dance Party on your ears. Remember, if you can’t listen Friday at 9PM, you can always stop by the blog over the weekend and pick up the show in MP3 form.

However, like the postal service, neither rain, nor sleet, snow, ice globs the size of baseballs or falling space junk can keep me from my appointed rounds, so here I am.

In the spirit of priming the engine for the weekend, so that the festivities can get off on the good foot, I dug down into the crates and pulled out a certified soul party burner.

We recently heard the sad news that the mighty (and I mean that in every sense of the word) Miss Etta James is ailing once again. Hers has been a long, troubled but musically amazing life, straddling the eras of R&B, soul and funk.

She had the skills to sing (now) standards like ‘At Last’, dance floor killers like ‘Something’s Got a Hold On Me’ and ‘Payback’ , the Muscle Shoals heat of ‘Tell Mama’ right on through solid funk like ‘Tighten Up Your Own Thing’.

The tune I bring you today is what is considered to be a genuinely legendary Mod soul side, and has the extra added power of a dynamite duet partner, Miss Sugar Pie DeSanto.

Released on Cadet in 1966, ‘In the Basement’ is just under two and a half minutes of white hot, hand clapping, foot sliding, hip swinging soul power with two truly great voices trading lines.

What you have here – in a sane world – would be elevated to the level of National Soul Anthem, on account of this is really what it’s all about. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of spinning hot 45s for a groovy crowd, or cut a rug to some laying it down, you have some of the musical DNA of this record running through your veins.

Ohh, now tell me where can you party, child, all night long?
In the basement, down in the basement, yeah.
Oh where can you go when your money gets low?
In the basement, whoa down in the basement
And if a storm is taking place, you can jam and still be safe
In the basement, down in the basement, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Where can you dance to any music you choose?
In the basement, whoa down in the basement
Oh, you got the comforts of home, a nightclub too.
In the basement, whoa down in the basement.
There’s no cover charge or fee and the food and drinks are free,
In the basement, down in the basement

This is, as they say, the shit, and then some. What Friday nights are all about.

As a matter of fact, I can guarantee you that when I take to the decks next week at the After the Laughter Soul Club at Lulus in Greenpoint, I will have this 45 in my box, and when the moment is right, when the crowd has consumed just the right combination of greasy soul, cold beer and good times, I will whip this onto the decks and push the whole affair to the next level.

Solid.

Have yourselves a great weekend, and I’ll be back on Monday with a funky mix.

Peace

Larry

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some classic 1965 LA garage folk.

Comments (7)

By Larry, January 20, 2011 3:48 pm

Listen/Download – The Impacts – Thunder Chicken

NOTE: If you downloaded the file in the first half hour or so after I published this post, you got a shortened version of the track that cuts off about 15 seconds too soon. I have since uploaded a new file that should be OK.

Greetings all.

How’s about some smoking, hard charging soul jazz to close out the week?

First, might I remind you that this Friday night at 9PM the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be back on Viva Radio with another hour of the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on vinyl.

I can’t tell you much about today’s selection, other than it kicks a boatload of ass.

I picked the Impacts ‘Thunder Chicken’ 45 (gotta love that title) years ago during an attempt to complete the Marmaduke discography.

A Philadelphia-based imprint started by Len Barry and Bernie Binnick, Marmaduke was originally home to the Electric Indian (before a move to UA) and a few much more obscure bands like the Hidden Cost, Norma and the Heartaches, Race Street Chinatown Band and Daley’s Diggers.

The only thing I’ve been able to track down about the Impacts is that they seem to have been the backing band on a number of Philly 45s for artists like Rocky Brown, Monica and Herb Johnson on the Toxsan label.

None of those recordings would indicate that that had a killer like ‘Thunder Chicken’ in their repertoire.

I can’t say for sure, but it seems to me that like many other musicians working in the soul recording studios of America’s cities in the 60s, the Impacts may have been frustrated jazzers churning out pop, soul and funk to get a paycheck.

Listening to the raging ‘Thunder Chicken’, with its unison jazz guitar and saxophone leads, swinging drums and hand claps, you get a picture of a Saturday night party in a smoky Philly bar.

The flipside, ‘Brown Finger’ (?!?!) is a much slower, laid back affair with none of the fire of ‘Thunder Chicken’.

A brilliant, but obscure record that needs to be heard.

So there you go.

Have a great weekend!

Peace

Larry

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some obscure, New England garage pop.

Comments (9)

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)

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

Make sure to drop by Iron Leg

PS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (3)

By Larry, January 6, 2011 3:18 pm

Miss Lorna Bennett

Listen/Download – Lorna Bennett – Breakfast In Bed

Greetings all.

I hope that you’re all weathering the weather (there’s got to be a better way to phrase that) better than I am. This cold is kicking my ass. The first few hours of the day should be spent wrapped securely in a warm blanket, easing into a mellow state of awake-ness, instead of rolling out of the sack and into 20 degree temperatures in the space of 45 minutes, which is what I did this morning.

Fortunately, after getting the little Corners on the bus, and running various and sundry errands I have returned to my desk, deep inside the well-heated, secure Funky16Corners command center.

Before we get started, I should remind you that this Friday night at 9PM – as is always the case – the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be taking to the airwaves, this week with an upbeat, hard-charging Northern Soul special guaranteed to get you out on the floor. Make sure to fall by Viva Radio, or if plans preclude timely listening, hit the blog on Saturday to pick up an MP3 of the show, which you may listen to at your leisure.

I will remind you once again that I’ll be taking part in the Spindletop night with DJ Perry Lane next Monday night (1/10) , beginning at 10PM at Botanica, 47 East Houston Street (between Mulberry and Mott) in New York City. There will be many shades of organ grooviness, as well as vibes, snappy drums and what not.

Now that I’ve wasted space complaining about the cold,  what better time for a little bit of island soul?

I have to admit, although I featured the Baby Washington version of ‘Breakfast In Bed’ in this space back in 2006, the first time I ever heard the song was via the 1988 cover version by UB40 and Chrissie Hynde.

At the time it was getting some airplay on the local alternative station, as well as on MTV. I dug the tune a lot, and eventually picked up a radio station promo CD single (no doubt liberated from the aforementioned local station and resold), which I still have banging around somewhere.

I was unaware that the song was a cover until I saw the writing credit for Eddie Hinton and Donnie Fritts, and even then I had no idea who did the original version.
What I wouldn’t discover until many years later, was that the UB40/Hynde version was in its way a cover of a cover (cover once removed??).

The song was written by Hinton and Fritts for Dusty Springfield’s 1969 ‘Dusty in Memphis’ album. Shortly after that, Baby Washington recorded her own – in my opinion, superior – version of the song (eventually released on Cotillion)*.

Oddly enough, for such a finely crafted piece of Southern soul neither Springfield nor Washington’s version of the song met with any chart success.

Flash forward to 1972, when a young Jamaican singer named Lorna Bennett recorded her own version for the Harry J label.

Produced by Geoffrey Chung, Bennett’s version of the tune was a #1 hit in Jamaica, also garnering a substantial amount of airplay in the UK (which is likely where the boys in UB40 heard it first).

Though Bennett’s version of ‘Breakfast In Bed’ lacks the dynamic shifts and drama of the Springfield and Washington recordings, it does have a certain pleasant, laid back vibe (repeated in the UB40/Hynde version) that locks in with the reggae beat.

Bennett went on to have a few more Jamaican hits (including a cover of the Dixie Cups’ ‘Chapel of Love’) before retiring to practice law in 1974. She returned to performing in 2001.

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

Peace

Larry

*There were also early covers by Carmen McRae (1970) and Shirley Bassey (1971)

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a garage cover of a soul classic

Comments (9)

By Larry, December 26, 2010 1:23 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.91 – Year End Soul!

Playlist

Listen/Download 800MB/256kb Mixed MP3

I hope that everyone is grooving on the good will and brother – and sister – hood of the holiday season.

Obviously not everyone celebrates Christmas, but we can all soak up the peace and goodwill that floats in the ether this time of year.

This has been a big year for Funky16Corners.

The first quarter saw the move off of the free WordPress platform onto our own server space, which – despite any technical limitations yours truly might be encumbered with – worked like a charm.

This May saw the ‘opening’ of the Funky16Corners Soul Club series of live DJ sets, with contributions from lots of groovy people, as well as number of my own sets from various and sundry DJ gigs.

Thanks go out to all of you who once again contributed to the yearly Pledge Drive, which kept the Funky16Corners empire solvent for another calendar year. Your continued generosity makes me glad that I started the blog six years ago. In fact, it just occurred to me as I write this that I neglected to mark the sixth anniversary of the blog this past November.

Such is the chaos of my daily life that I neglected to remember, let alone mark the occasion.

Another groovy milestone that we marked in 2010 was the rebirth/re-engineering of the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio. The folks at Viva were nice enough to bump me into a better time slot, and I responded by changing the way I do the show, hopefully for the better. We continue to broadcast every Friday night at 9PM, followed by uploading the show every Saturday so that you fine people can pull down the ones and zeros and append each week’s broadcast to the MP3 delivery device of your choosing.

On the DJ front, I’ve been up to New York City (and will be again on January, 10 2011, watch this space for details), down to Washington, DC (thanks to the mighty DJ Birdman for facilitating the journey). Hopefully 2011 will provide more opportunities for me to pack up my record box and hit the road, and (if all goes well) maybe even the return of the Asbury Park 45 Sessions.

The New Year will also see the return of our sister blog, Iron Leg, where we’re in a 60s pop/garage/psyche bag. Real world commitments caused me to put the blog on hiatus a few months back, but I’ve decided to bring it back – albeit with an abbreviated posting schedule – in 2011. I’ll be posting a year end wrap-up mix today, and regular posts will recommence next week.

So, once again, allow me to say thanks to all of you for stopping by and engaging in our ongoing conversation about music and how it moves us.

Since the fam and I will be out and about visiting family, I’ll be dropping the mix you see before you and taking the rest of the week off.

I’ve gathered the best of the upbeat and funky tracks from the past year and whipped them into a nice little party mix that you can play during your New Years Eve festivities (or whenever you need a lift).

There are lots of faves, plenty of funky rhythms with which to set loose your caboose, and enough grooves to grease your way past Father Time and into 2011.

I hope you dig it, and that you all have a safe and healthy rest of the year.

Peace

Larry

NOTE: There’s no accompanying zip file with this mix, since all of the tracks included have appeared here individually this past year.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook