Comments (3)

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 (25)

By Larry, October 28, 2010 9:14 am

Funky16Corners Radio v.89 – Things Got To Get Better (Get Together)

Playlist

Funky16Corners Radio v.89 – Things Got to Get Better (Get Together)

As first hinted at, then promised, and finally warned about (for those of you who are diametrically opposed politically), Funky16Corners Radio v.89 – Things Got To Get Better (Get Together), aka the ‘election mix’ has finally arrived, been posted at the top of the blog, where it will remain until the election is over.

I know I normally run Halloween themed posts this time of year, but we have real things to be scared about.
There is a Halloween set in this week’s Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio (Friday night at 9PM) so you can get your fix there.

As far as I can recall, I haven’t approached the readers of the Funky16Corners blog with anything sociopolitical since the ‘Two From the Stonewall Jukebox’ post back in July of 2009, and before that the posts about the Presidential election of 2008.

Though I think most of you have some idea of my political orientation, it’s not a frequent subject here, because ultimately Funky16Corners is about music.

However (big however coming here)…

We are currently in the midst of a very dark time, not just in the US, but worldwide.

The rise of the ultra-right and the ensuing anti-immigrant, anti-gay and ultimately anti-intellectual wave that is poised to wash away decades of important social gains in this country is the single most important issue at hand.

Having grown up in the 1970s, I find the idea that this great country would ever descend again into a maelstrom of religious lunacy, open hatred of immigrants and homosexuals, demonization of organized labor (especially teachers) and hateful, empty Rand-ian ‘libertarianism’ is beyond insane.

The economy is in terrible shape, and is unlikely to get better any time soon, and those that have been able to return to work often find that the salaries are lower and the benefits non-existent.

How have some of our countrymen reacted to these challenges?

Not well.

An increasingly angry minority, funded by the mega-rich have become a political force, eager to build fences (literal and figurative) to keep those they consider ‘undesirable’ from participating fully in our democracy.

The rise of these deeply ignorant ‘patriots’ (they love to wrap themselves in the flag, unable to embrace its true meaning), marching alongside religious ideologues and plutocrats has woven together a rancid fabric, its warp and weft rife with xenophobia, racism, class warfare, homophobia and various and sundry fringe hatreds.

You may step back and see these negative forces as smaller, separate issues, but the truth is that they are all part of the same, ugly reaction.

When the going got tough, the right got nasty.

Those institutions tasked with keeping us informed have collapsed under the collective weight of corruption by and collusion with those that have the most to gain by a population ignorant of the truth.

I still have a basic faith in the goodness of the human race, but it is being sorely tested.

I want my children to grow up in a world where they are indifferent to the color of a person’s skin, the language they speak or their sexual preference, but we are surrounded by those that would deny them that future.

This includes people of supposed deep religious faith who forget that their own freedom to worship and express the tenets of their faith includes the freedom of others to find their own path. These are the people who continually fight to deny gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans their civil rights.

These are the people who want to rewrite the textbooks in our schools to cleanse them of science and fill them with creationism and revisionist (racial and political) history.

This also includes a lot of people, many of them radicalized after the attacks of 9/11, who have turned against American citizens of Muslim faith, and stoked fears (alongside similarly radicalized anti-Muslim forces in Europe and Scandinavia) of all Muslims, as well as immigrants in general.

These are the people who allowed 30 years of Republican propaganda to turn them against organized labor, while simultaneously building an obscene faith in big business that allowed massive deregulation and tax cuts, as well a cheering our way into two insane wars.

This is the same big business that – thanks to a bizarre Supreme Court decision – is now allowed to flood the political system with piles of cash (anonymously) to attack those that would put a stop to our slow (but seemingly inevitable) march to plutarchy.

Please don’t mistake this as an endorsement of President Obama specifically, or the Democrats in general.
Despite promises to the contrary, the President has continued to fight the right of gays to serve in the military, and has stated that he opposes the idea of gay marriage.

Many of those that serve with the (D) next to their name have also thrown their lot in with the ‘whatever big business wants’ crowd as well.

There may be something “trickling down” onto the middle class and the poor, but it’s not money.

However (another big one here), the alternative is people like Joe Miller in Alaska, Sharon Angle in Nevada, the execrable Rand Paul in Kentucky, deeply ignorant Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Ken Buck in Colorado, Marco Rubio in Florida and countless others who have embraced the insane ideas of the radical right.
These people are only the larger public face of this movement.

While they run for national office, their foot soldiers are poised to fill seats in state legislatures, county and local office, and worst of all, school boards.

There are those that would have you believe that the system is utterly broken, and that an appropriate response is not to vote at all.

This is insane.

Is there any among you that really think that the way to right a staggering democracy is to withdraw from it?
Not only should every one of you exercise your right to vote, but you should do what you can to convince your family and friends that they should as well, because one thing the forces of the radical right do, religious or otherwise, is vote.

These are the people that are counting on apathy to help them get their hooks into the government where they can start to punch holes in the Constitution they ironically wave like a battle flag.

So what does this have to do with Funky16Corners?

Like the mighty James Brown says:

People, people we got to get over before we go under!

Tell’em Godfather!

The majority of the soul and funk music we celebrate here was created during a time when the forces of the right were attempting to tighten the screws of the status quo, while the forces of peace, racial equality and sexual liberation were battling in the streets (and the ballot box) to upend it and seize their rights.

Soul and funk are the sounds of struggle and liberation. Not every number here has an explicit political/social message, but the music of black America, created in the 60s and 70s in its core rarely says anything else.
Funky16Corners Radio v.89 is an attempt to string some of the more powerful musical statements of the time together, along with spoken intervals by important thinkers.

Things get off to a depressing, yet wholly realistic start, but work their way up through anger, defiance and ultimately (hopefully) triumph.

Not every number here carries an explicit message, but taken together they make an important statement.
The voices heard between the songs include some very well known (civil rights figures like Dr Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson), and some lesser known (Dorothy Day*), and in a few cases dreadfully misunderstood and demonized (Saul Alinsky**, Noam Chomsky), but their words all have in common is their relevance to the world we live in today.

I’m not saying that things are going to be fixed if the opponents of democracy are defeated in this election (since many of them clearly won’t be), but rather (to borrow an old saw) the journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step, and stepping into the voting booth and making yourself heard is that step.

Far too many Americans take a pass on that important responsibility, and if they continue to do so, they’ll have no one to thank but themselves when the world around them gets worse.

So, once again in the words of James Brown:

Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved.

Educate yourself.

Educate others.

Don’t allow hatred and disinformation to go unchallenged.

Don’t be afraid.

Peace

Larry

*Dorothy Day is an especially important figure in the history of social justice and charity. If her name is unfamiliar, dig a little deeper and read about this great woman.

**Saul Alinsky has been demonized by the right to the point where his name has become a kind of shorthand (with just the tiniest bit of anti-semitism attached to it) for leftist subversion. I doubt most of the people that throw his name around as an epithet have read anything about him. His voice – like most of those in this mix – was an important one in the struggle to transfer power from the haves to the have nots (which goes a long way to explaining why those that shill for the mega-rich hate him so). If all you’ve ever heard about him are bad things, do yourself a favor and read up on his life (outside of right wing web sites).

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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 (3)

By Larry, September 9, 2010 5:42 pm

Listen/Download – Charles Hodges – Daddy Love Pt1

Listen/Download – Charles Hodges – Daddy Love Pt2

Greetings all.

The end of the week has finally arrived and I couldn’t be more pleased, since the several days preceding sucked out loud.

I was sick/recovering, and the new family schedule – an arcane and improbably complicated web of appointments, school buses and the like – has started and is proving to be a little more challenging than I had anticipated.

Fortunately, the schools hereabout closed for Rosh Hoshanah, giving the wife and kids a day off, so we took advantage of it and went to the zoo.

The record I bring you to you today (both sides) is something that kind of hung around in the catacombs of my want list (also arcane and improbably complicated) for many years.

If the title sounds familiar, it’s because another version of this very song appeared as a part of Funky16Corners Radio v.6 more than four (?!?) years ago, sung by a female artist named Gi Gi, about whom I have never discovered a single fact.

I mention her distaff nature only because the version I present to you today is sung by a male, who just happens to be the author of the song, producer and arranger of both records (I’d say ‘versions’ but they both appear to employ mostly the same backing track) and released it on his own Sweet label, Mr. Charles Hodges.

The song in question ‘(They Call Me) Daddy Love Pts 1&2’ is a fast moving, horn driven funk 45 that is worth grabbing in both versions, since neither of them is particularly expensive, and they are just about guaranteed to get even the squares out of their chairs and onto the floor making like Soul Train Line vets.

The basic structure is very – how do they say – James Brown-y, in that what your getting is layers of guitar, drums, bass and horns, all ticking along like clockwork (I really dig the guitar on this one). The vocals, by Mr. Hodges are groovy indeed. According to the man Sir Shambling Hodges was New York based and recorded as a vocalist for a number of labels including Philips, Genuine, and Calla between 1964 and 1973.

After you pull down the ones and zeros on ‘Daddy Love’ make sure you check out the song clips that Sir Shambling has posted, which taken together reveal Hodges to have had Pickett-ian aspirations. He may not have risen to the level of the Wicked one (for that matter, who did?) but he acquits himself nicely.

Now, to the very important differences between the Gi Gi and Charles Hodges 45.

As I mentioned before, they use the same backing track, but Hodges adds on a couple of important layers that bear mentioning, including an improved horn chart (I’d say new, but my suspicion is that the two versions were roughly contemporary, with the Hodges 45 bearing a 1973 date) and an increasingly orgasmic chorus of backing ‘vocals’.

As early 70s funk 45s go, this may not get the uber-deep hipster collectorinos to wet their pants, but it’s good, funky, and of course good’n’funky, which means you will certainly dig listening to it, and were you to slip it under the needle at your next funk 45 and potato chip soiree, the attendees would be compelled to dance.

I hope you dig it, 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 moody garage psyche

Comments (1)

By Larry, August 24, 2010 5:28 pm

Howard Roberts

Jackie Cain and Roy Kral

Listen/Download – Howard Roberts – Crystal Illusions

Listen/Download – Jackie & Roy – Crystal Illusions

Greetings all.

When I left you on Monday, I promised that I would return with something mellow.

Back in the day, when I was falling in love with the sounds of Tropicalia, I happened upon a reissue CD of an album by a singer who’s name was familiar, but who’s music I’d never actually heard.
That man was Edu Lobo, and the album was ‘Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo’.

This is not to say that Lobo was part of the Tropicalia movement, but rather that I was seeking out any and all Brazilian music from the late 60s and early 70s in the hopes that I would discover sounds of a similarly progressive bent that mixed Brazilian music with contemporary pop from other points of the musical landscape.

It was this search that led to to Edu Lobo, and folks like Dom Salvador and Tamba 4.

‘Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo’ was recorded in the United States (in 1970) with a number of Brazilian musicians (including several members of Brasil 66), and includes rerecorded versions of a number of songs that had appeared (generally sung in Portuguese) on Lobo’s ‘Cantiga de Longe’ LP (which has also been reissued).

Lobo’s sound at the time was an updated take on MPB, which was already a mixture of traditional Brazilian music and other Western pop and rock styles. Lobo also whipped jazz into the mix, though you kind of get into a chicken/egg situation when it comes to jazz and Brazilian music at the time in that it’s not always clear whether what your hearing is the influence of Brazil on jazz or vice versa.

I was completely captivated by the ‘Sergio Mendes Presents…’ album, and it quickly became a favorite. Among the many great songs on that album (which I’ve never been able to score an original copy of) is the sublime ‘Crystal Illusions’.

I haven’t been able to nail down when ‘Crystal Illusions’ was first recorded, but there are a number of versions from 1969 and 1970, including those by Brasil 66 (who’s singer Lani Hall is credited with co-writing the song) and jazz saxophonist Paul Desmond, who’s ‘From the Hot Afternoon’ album is composed entirely of covers of songs by Lobo and Milton Nascimento.

That said, the tune was clearly getting around.

The first of the two versions of ‘Crystal Illusions’ I bring you today is from guitarist Howard Roberts’ 1970 album ‘Spinning Wheel’. I grabbed this record following the diggers credo of ‘never pass up a version of either ‘Spinning Wheel’ or ‘Get Out Of My Life Woman’ because of the possibility of drums’, and was pleasantly surprised when I found the version of today’s selection.

Featuring a young band that included Dave Grusin on keys, John Guerin on drums (nice drums on this one) and Tom Scott on sax, Roberts’ version of the song applies some sharper edges than the song is usually played with. It is unlike anything else on the album and is a real gem.

The second take on the song is from a 1980 album by hip singers Jackie Cain and Roy Kral.

Though Jackie and Roy go back to the big band era (where they recorded as part of Charlie Ventura’s band) through the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s they perfected a light, swinging style touching on wide ranging sounds like Bob Dorough, Mark Murphy and Lambert Hendricks and Ross, that while something of an acquired taste (there‘s a supper club/cabaret feel to some of their work), I happen to dig a lot.

Their take on ‘Crystal Illusions’ comes from their ‘Star Sounds’ album, which was devoted largely to the sounds of Brazil. You get a little more of a feel for Lobo’s delicately crafted melody in the Jackie and Roy version. The arrangement may be a little ‘light’ for some of you, but it’s all about the song.

Both ‘Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo’ and ‘Cantiga de Longe’ can be obtained via iTunes. If you want either of the versions presented here today (in solid, vinyl form), you’re going to have to start digging, since I don’t think either one has been reissued.

I hope you like the tunes, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for a Lennon/McCartney tune.

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By Larry, August 15, 2010 1:58 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.87 – Wind of Change

Playlist

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

How are the closing days of summer treating you?
I know we’ve got lots of good weather ahead, but it’s only a few weeks until the mass exodus of the tourists, when I will once again be able roam free amidst traffic that is just ‘bad’, not mind-bogglingly so.
The mix I bring you today is a continuation of a minor series of sorts, in which the Funky16Corners Radio thingy takes time out to focus on a specific instrument. We’ve already surveyed the vibes and the electric piano, and I’m sure that there are a few more such collections huddling in the crates awaiting release.
This time out we take a look (listen) to the much maligned, but very groovy sounds of the (mostly) jazz flute.
As I said when I wrote about the vibes, there are those among us for whom the sound of the flute is too ‘cool’, which naturally is why I dig it so much.
I love the sound of the flute in the hands of a great musician, and what you’re getting in this mix is 15 examples of that very thing.
Of course, not every single cut contains a virtuoso performance, on account of that would be boring and a few steps away from the prog sound of my teenage years that I have come to despise.
The vast majority of the players here (although one of them is anonymous) are at least tangentially connected to the world of jazz, with a few having crossed over into pop and rock and one (yes, you know the one…the one who’s name sent a shiver up your spine when you saw it, unfairly I might add) solidly camped out in rock and roll.
This one took a while to assemble, if only because a few of the artists in question have appeared in this space frequently (Koffman, Steig, Wess, Mann), their dulcet tones gracing other Funky16Corners Radio playlists.
Things get off to a serious start with Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s epic reading of Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. Kirk, a master on many wind instruments – often simultaneously – had a pronounced influence on two of the other players in this mix, namely Jeremy Steig and Ian Anderson (more on him later). His frequent use of ‘overblowing’, and vocalizing through the flute make him one of the most dynamic stylists the instrument has ever produced.
Paul Horn is best known for his pioneering new age recordings like ‘Inside’, but in the early to mid-60s he was still working a straight ahead jazz style. The Eastern-influenced ‘Paramahansa’ (which he re-recorded years later) appeared on his 1967 ‘Monday Monday’ LP, alongside a number of contemporary pop and rock covers. The tune sees Horn playing over a big band producing something that sounds like it’s from the soundtrack to a spy thriller.
Moe Koffman, who has been featured here a number of time is one of those cats that started out as a pretty ‘straight’ jazz player and as the 60s progressed he got further out. In addition to the flute Koffman was a proponent of the electrified saxophone (like Eddie Harris and Sonny Stitt) and he made some very cool, au go go flavored stuff during the era. His take on Bob Dorough and Ben Tucker’s “Coming Home Baby’ has a relaxed swing to it, sounding once again like something lifted from era-specific TV or movie soundtrack.
Bobbi Humphrey’s ‘Sad Bag’ has a mournful sound, with some very nice, reverbed flute.
David ‘Fathead’ Newman is better known for his sax playing, especially in his association with the mighty Ray Charles. I first heard ‘The 13th Floor’ on an early-90s comp called ‘Heavy Flute’, shortly after which I grabbed myself a copy of the 45. The tune originally appeared on Newman’s 1968 ‘Bigger and Better’ LP and is a great illustration of that fact that he certainly knew his way around the flute.
‘Teenage Chase’ is a Keith Mansfield penned cut from the KPM sound library album ‘Beat Incidental’. Like many of the cuts it was intended to be used as a ‘theme’, and so it is relatively short. I have no idea who the flute player us, but it sure as hell sounds like the same cat blowing on the Hawkshaw/Parker tune ‘Hot Pants’ (also a KPM selection).
Hubert Laws went on to great success with radio friendly R&B in the 70s with the CTI label, but in the mid-60s he was recording powerful soul jazz sessions for Atlantic. ‘Bloodshot’ is the opening track from his 1966 ‘Flute By Laws’ LP, and is driven by Laws’ flute, powerful brass and spot on Latin percussion.
Jerome Richardson is best known as a prolific studio musician, but he spent decades playing bop and soul jazz. His take on Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ is from his 1968 ‘Groove Merchant’ album, which features Richardson on a variety of wind instruments, including a few different kinds of flute (more than one on this track!). Aside from an odd, intermittent chime, this version of ‘Ode…’ is pretty cool, including some well placed harpsichord.
Like many of the players here, Joe Thomas doubled (tripled) on a variety of wind instruments. ‘Big Heart, Giant Soul’ from his 1970 Cobblestone album ‘Comin’ Home’ is indicative of the high quality of that funky soul jazz session. You get to hear Thomas (who also played in Rhoda Scott’s trio) vocalizing on what sounds like a Varitone (maybe attached to the flute), and then playing it straight. Thomas went on to record funkier stuff (even disco) in the 70s.
Ernie Fields’ ‘Watch Your Step’ is one of my favorite 45s, period. I’ve never been able to find out much about Fields, but ‘Watch Your Step’ is so high-concept, so soulful yet psychedelic and well-arranged, that you can only hope that he did more stuff like this.
If you were to put together a list of cats with serious jazz chops who spent most of their career trying to reach a mass audience (and sometimes succeeding) Herbie Mann would have to be at the top of the list. Mann started out working in a Latin bag, but went on to record a serious grip of soul jazz and even pop through the 60s and 70s. The title track of his 1971 ‘Push Push’ album shows that Mann was very comfortable in a funky bag (where he spent most of the early 70s), eventually having his biggest hit with 1975’s ‘Hijack’.
Jeremy Steig is beloved by crate diggers/beat heads for his track ‘Howling for Judy’ which was the main sample behind the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sure Shot’. Steig’s late 60s/early 70s stuff for Solid State and Blue Note is generally pretty far out, and skipping right along the border between funky and ‘out’. ‘Alias (ALi’as)’ (named for drummer Don Alias) features a wild performance by Steig over bass, drums and percussion., is from the same 1969 LP (‘Legwork’) as ‘Howling…’.
I’ve featured a number of very cool tunes from Frank Wess’s 1970 ‘Wess to Memphis’ LP on the Stax subsidiary Enterprise. Once again I must recommend this album highly, since it’s one of those great sessions where a jazz cat (Wess was well known as a tenor player as well as his work on the flute) really got into a more popular vibe with excellent results. The album, which includes a number of covers is well played and produced, and one I go back to frequently. He wails on his version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed Sealed and Delivered’.
I can’t remember where I first heard of Tim Weisberg’s ‘Streak-Out’, but I know I was surprised because it was the very same Weisberg who had a mid-70s chart hit alongside Dan Fogelberg! ‘Streak-Out’ from 1974 (which he apparently performed on the ‘Midnight Special’, so it must have been a minor hit) is a nice bit of funky rock, with a little bit of a break at the beginning.
This edition of Funky16Corners Radio closes out with what no doubt seems like the oddest of artists, Jethro Tull. All 1970s prog/hobbit-isms aside, when Tull got started in the late 60s they were a jazz inflected heavy blues band, not unlike Cream. The song presented here is, to bring things full circle, a Rahsaan Roland Kirk tune called ‘Serenade to a Cuckoo’. It was reportedly the first song Ian Anderson learned on the flute (Kirk being by far his strongest influence), and he and the band acquit themselves nicely.
I hope you dig this little survey, and I’ll be back later in the week.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, August 12, 2010 11:28 am

Woody Herman

Eumir Deodato

Listen/Download – Woody Herman and the Herd – Fanfare for the Common Man

Listen/Download – Deodato – Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)

Greetings all.
I hope week is coming to a satisfying close for you all.
My wife has to head out for a few days, and the spuds and myself are bumming, but since we plan to wreck the joint while she’s away, there is a (very) minor silver lining.
We’ll just see if three people can survive on corn chips, frankfurters and slurpees for five days.
If you haven’t already pulled down the ones and zeros for this weeks Funky16Corners Soul Club mix by my man Vincent the Soul Chef, do so now, on account of it’s full of the funk, and will – as the kids say – rock your world.
Also, don’t forget to tune in Friday night at 9PM for this week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show over at Viva internet radio. If you are not already hip/hep, you can click on the Radio Show link in the header and check out the fifteen (!?!) weekly shows that have already been mixed down and archived as MP3s for your listening pleasure.
Today’s post is one of those things that kind of fell together organically over the course of a few months, wherein I was holding something in storage, and then something else climbed over the transom and into the to-be-blogged folder that, how do they say, augmented the existing track in the stylistic and theoretical (figurative/symbolic) sense, and so they came together like beer and stout in a black and tan, blended ever so carefully so that once they pass over the lobes and into the brain the desired effect is one of jazzy, funky wonderfulness (and naturally, as is the style here at Funky16Corners, a tremendous run-on sentence).
Not too long ago one of my Friendface pals posted a video of the mighty Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd working it out on Aaron Copland’s 1942 masterpiece of 20th century classical music ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’. I dug the arrangement a LOT, so I went in search of the vinyl equivalent and found another live recording of a slightly later (I think) version of the Herd laying down the same arrangement at Montreaux.
Back in the olden days, when I was a long-haired, drum mangling stoner type, I had a copy of a certain Emerson, Lake and Palmer album that contained their version of the same piece of music. Having been brought up in a house full of classical music, but then stuffing my head with as much contemporary rock as possible, as well as being your standard teenaged rube, I thought that the ELP ‘Fanfare’ was of a deepness theretofore unheard, and blasted it at high volume many, many times until a seriously untrustworthy fellow bandmember (who, if memory serves was also a  pathological liar of singular talent) stole what was then a fairly expensive record (of course everything is expensive when you have no money).
In reflection, especially after hearing Woody Herman lay it down, the ELP version sounds like a meth-infused synthesizer orchestra trapped in an electrified mudslide. The Copland piece is both sublime and inspirational, and to hear it mangled so seems now to be something approaching a high crime.
Interestingly enough, Herman and his band were playing their Gary Anderson arrangement (recorded in 1974) of ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ a few years before ELP got their hands on it, and as you might have already assumed, the touch is considerably lighter, using funky subtlety to finesse the brassy strains of Copland’s piece where ELP drove through it with a steamroller.
In addition to a hot band – Herman, a master of the original big band era made some serious moves in the fusion era, still with a big band – you get to hear the master working it out on the soprano sax.
If you get your hands on a copy of the ‘Herd at Montreux’ album, you also get to hear them play the Richard Evans arrangement of ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’ and a very tasty version of Billy Cobham’s ‘Crosswind’ that I’ll feature here in the future.
The second track featured today is something I’m sure a lot of you will be familiar with since it was a substantial hit in 1972. That tune is Eumir Deodato’s epic arrangement of Richard Strauss’s 1896 ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’. Better known to one and all as the ‘2001’ music, Deodato’s take on the tune is in addition to being probably the biggest hit CTI ever had, a masterpiece of funky jazz.
Featuring Deodato on electric piano, Airto and Ray Barretto on percussion, Billy Cobham on drums, Stanley Clarke on bass and Jay Berliner on guitar, ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ goes on for nine minutes, and I’m here to tell you (though you should be able to hear it yourselves) that it never lags, never slips into fusion-y masturbation, never loses it’s kick.
The piece builds gradually, with a kind of amorphous tune-up, until the drums kick in at around 48 seconds, then the bass, guitar and of course Deodato’s electric piano (the heart and soul of the tune), followed by what has to be about the best known classical horn line in history, following the structure of the original until it settles down into a funky jam at around the two and a half minute mark. You know I love me some Fender Rhodes, and Deodato goes to town here. The coolest thing of all – and I hope you’ll agree – is that for what is basically a nine minute long jazz fusion interpretation of a piece of classical music (shades of Spinal Tap in Jazz Fantasy), ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ never gets cheesy or heavy handed, which is especially notable in an era when cheesy and heavy handed were the coin of the realm.
I hope you dig both of these cuts, and use them to get down with what the hipsters used to call ‘long hair’ music.
I’ll see you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

PS Make sure to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio Friday night at 9PM. Your ears will thank you.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a tribute to the late Chris Dedrick of Free Design.

Comments (5)

By Larry, August 8, 2010 3:18 pm

F16C Soul Club Presents – Vincent the Soul Chef – I Learned It By Watching You

Playlist

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

I hope the new week finds you all well.
The mix you see before you is the newest installment in the groovy juggernaut known as the Funky16Corners Soul Club.

The name of the mixer should be familiar to fans of soul and funk blogging, that being the mighty Vincent the Soul Chef of Fufu Stew. I’ve known Vincent for a few years now, and can tell you from personal experience that he knows his shit, can handle a couple of turntables with the best of them, and has exquisite taste in music (which when you get down to it is really the bedrock).

What the Soul Chef has cooked up for us is over an hour of tasty funk  – a bouillabaisse if you will – composed of breaks, beats, thumping bass, wah wah guitar and vocals, with ingredients foraged in New Jersey, DC, San Fran, Memphis, New Orleans, Chitown and many points in between.

Vincent uses only the freshest funk, prepared with skill and whisked to your table so you might fill up on the good stuff.

I’ve given this one a couple of spins, and I’m sure you’ll dig it.

So fix yourself a plate, and make sure to head over to Fufu Stew.

See you later in the week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for something unexpected.

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By Larry, August 5, 2010 4:33 pm

Junior Murvin

Listen/Download – Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves

Greetings all.
How’s things on your end of the tin can and string device we know as the interwebs?
I’m feeling – in the words of the mighty Slim Gaillard – mellow as a cello, so I figured I’d dip into the reggae box and whip something a tasty on you.

Way back in the olden days, when things were different (and they were, I assure you) a band called the Clash appeared on the scene, and as was my style of the time, I missed the boat.

The only guys I knew in school who dug the band were a couple of prize maroons, whose previous band worship was devoted to KISS (another band I couldn’t stand when I was in high school), and since they were knee deep in their suburban misunderstanding of ‘punk’ as it was, I trusted them not a whit.

My loss…

Anyhoo, a few years later, having been hipped to heavier sounds than the power pop that I thrived on by some cats whose taste I trusted implicitly, I gave the Clash a second chance, and thanks in large part to their reggae stylings, started to dig them, especially an energetic little number called ‘Police and Thieves’.
A few more years down the pike, another, hipper friend informed me that the song I dug was in fact a cover, and the original was by a dude named Junior Murvin.

As soon as I heard the original ‘Police and Thieves’ my mind was good and truly blown.

Where the Clash sounded like a heard of goons hurtling down a rutted street in a rusty city bus, Junior Murvin, ably assisted by the mighty Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, delivered the cautionary tale of the legal yin and yang of street violence on a puffy cloud bank of ganja smoke.

I’ve gone into some detail in this space about my indoctrination into the world of Jamaican music, but one of things I don’t remember discussing, and this is relevant to many other ethnic sounds, is how one must in effect season their ears before some music can be fully appreciated.

Reggae is huge in that respect.

The first Jamaican sounds I heard, weren’t really from the island at all, but rather ska revival records from the US and the UK, which were generally delivered at a breakneck pace. The first time I picked up a copy of ’20 Reggae Classics’ it was like I was a strap-hanger in a subway that suddenly slammed on the brakes. The radical adjustment in tempo, not to mention hearing lyrics delivered in real Jamaican accents and patois was quite literally jarring.

Eventually, I found myself grooving on the real stuff, and while I still dug the Two Tone sound, I now preferred the originals.

Thanks to yet another hip dude, I found my way from ska directly to dub, which made the transition to pure reggae a lot easier, so when I finally heard Junior Murvin singing his original recording of ‘Police and Thieves’ it sounded ‘right’, if you know what I mean, and the Clash, despite all their good intentions, did not.

If you ever get the chance, grab the Lee Perry ‘Arkology’ boxed set that came out a while back, which – in addition to just packing a very substantial helping of his genius – also contains several versions of the ‘Police and Thieves’ riddim, some more dubbed out than others (including the flip side of this 45 ‘Soldier and Police War’ with toasting by Jah Lion).

No matter how groovy the riddim, the real feature here is the vocal by Murvin, who comes on like a Jamaican incarnation of Eddie Kendricks.

Murvin’s original, released in 1976 was a hit in both Jamaica and the UK (there’s a video out there somewhere of Murvin singing the tune on English TV). The Clash followed with their cover a year later, and though they rev it up a notch or two (or six or seven), they also strip away many, many layers of subtlety. Murvin wades into the song gently and his version is a lament, whereas the Clash stomp through the tune with a raised fist.
Reportedly, when Junior Murvin heard the Clash version, he said ‘They have destroyed Jah work!’

The liner notes to ‘Arkology’ include this passage about the creation of ‘Police and Thieves’:

“The vibe of Black Ark studio is like people gather ‘round, everyday it start like ten o’clock in the mornin’, a kerosene pan is on the fire bubblin’ with some dumplin’, an’ some dread over there pickin’ some ackee an’ ting. Everybody throw in a little much to buy whatever we need. A guy might be out there with his guitar, chantin’ and Scratch is inside smokin’ a spliff, tunin’ in to that guy, who doesn’t even know that Scratch is tunin’ in to him. All of a sudden Scratch jus’ come out an’ say ‘Come inside here’. He search an’ find a riddim an’ say: “I hear dat, an’ I hear it on dis riddim!’ That’s how we did ‘Police and Thieves’, Junior Murvin. He was jus’ playin’ it and Scratch immediately came out an’ say ‘Here’s a riddim, let’s do it!’ an’ he do it an’ that’s it.
We were jus’ messin’ around with lyrics and the melody. Scratch say ‘Sounds good.’ He come out an’ decided to record it right away. It was out on the street in a couple of days. That’s the vibe we had at Black Ark – you didn’t have to say tomorrow or nex’ week, you go right now, you sound good, let’s go. It was fun days.” – Max Romeo

Jah work, indeed!

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

PS Make sure to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio Friday night at 9PM. Your ears will thank you.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psychey bluesy garagey stuff.

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By Larry, August 1, 2010 3:37 pm

Ralfi Pagan

Listen/Download – Ralfi Pagan – Make It With You

Greetings all.
I hope everyone had themselves a sweet summer weekend.
Things were low key hereabouts, with my youngest son celebrating his fourth birthday, for which he got (and I assembled this morning) and old-school tricycle.
Right now, the sky is beginning to lighten after a torrential downpour, and Scooby Doo is on in the background, while my cup of iced coffee sweats next to the laptop…in other words, Sunday.
The tune I bring you today is another one of those records that I knew of for many, many years before I actually heard it, or owned a copy.
I am a big fan of Latin soul, especially mid-60s boogaloo, but every once in a while I get wind of something a little later in the game, maybe a little mellower, and it hits all the right pleasure centers in the brain (and then some), and Ralfi Pagan’s 1971 cover of ‘Make It With You’ is one of those records.
Pagan was a Bronx-born vocalist who recorded for Fania between 1969 and his untimely death in 1978*.
He specialized in ballads, delivered in a voice that sounded like a cross between Little Anthony and Smokey Robinson.
His version of Bread’s ‘Make It With You’, which was a Top 40 R&B hit in 1971 made Pagan a star with the Chicano audience, where the record remains something of a lowrider classic.
Though only three and a half minutes in length, ‘Make It With You’ manages to work as a minor epic. First and foremost is the arrangement (by Johnny Pacheco), which starts off sounding like an outtake from a Neil Young session, melts (with an odd key change) into a perfect bit of sweet soul.
Now, at the risk of sounding like a rube, I’ve always had a soft spot (how appropriate) for Bread’s early singles. David Gates had a real knack for crafting solid melodies. Unfortunately, he also had a real talent for matching them up with era-appropriate lyrics, thick with post-hippie, California sentimentality, always delivered with a completely straight face, which is probably why they were so successful.
Despite what any brigade of hipster douchebags might think, nobody was appreciating Bread, or the Carpenters ironically back when they first came out.
People loved those records because they took the earnest, heart-on-sleeve-ery of a Hallmark card and wrapped it up in just enough long hair and denim to make it palatable for “the kids”.
Ralfi Pagan took ‘Make It With You’ – which was Bread’s first hit (their only #1) in a long string of chart records that lasted until 1977 – and recast it, ever so slightly, arresting the tempo and delivering the lyrics in a soulful falsetto, that takes the ‘first wedding dance’ feel of the original and moves it into a back seat make out session.
The interesting thing is that the only real indicators that this is a ‘Latin’ record (aside from the Fania label** and its popularity with Latino audiences) is the very end of the record when Pagan starts singing in Spanish (echoed by the backing vocalists).
It’s a great record, and definitely worth a couple of close listens.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

PS This week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show is now available for download. Just click on the Radio Show tab in the header.

*Pagan was killed while on tour in South America

**This record was also issued on Wand

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for some Chicago garage punk.