Comments (0)

By Larry, August 18, 2015 11:33 am

Brother Jack McDuff and David Newman

Listen/Download – Brother Jack McDuff Quintet feat. David Newman – But It’s Alright MP3

Greetings all.

I thought we’d get over the hump this week with some of that Hammond organ goodness bubbling up from my crates.

Brother Jack McDuff is one of the true greats of the classic era of soul jazz Hammond (mid-50s to early 70s). He is joined on today’s selection by legendary reedman David ‘Fathead’ Newman, with whom he recorded the 1968 LP ‘Double Barrelled Soul’.

Their version of JJ Jackson’s 1966 hit ‘But It’s Alright’ is – if not a complete deconstruction – a slightly avant garde approach to a familiar soul hit, with just enough edge to catch your ear, but not so much as to leave you shaking your head.

Opening with an odd organ fillagree, the fray is soon joined by the horn section, laying down an unusual, Thelonious Monk-esque riff, over which Brother Jack solos with confidence.

When the song starts out, it might take a new listener a second or two to wrap your ears around what’s going on, but once you do, there’s a funky drive shaft that keeps things moving forward.

While I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this enters Larry Young territory, there is some of that kind of thing at work here, which makes the record work as jazz, as well as a mod jazz groover.

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

See you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_______________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, August 11, 2015 10:49 am

Listen/Download – Slim Willis Band – I Say That MP3

Greetings all.

I have to start things out by sending out a big (HUGE) thank you to my man Kris Holmes, through whom I first encountered today’s monster of a 45.

Back when Kris was doing his weekly radio thing on Radio Ponsonby in NZ, he dropped this heater one night and it went directly onto my want list.

As it turns out, most of the available info on the 45 comes to us via Kris’s ‘Greenville and Beyond’ project, in which he tracks the various and sundry threads passing into, through and beyond a group of Mississippi-based labels.

Interestingly enough, though this 45, The Slim Willis Band ‘I Say That’ bears a Mississippi address, it was boiled up in Chitown.

‘I Say That’ is one of those records that is both amazing, and confounding at the same time.

Ostensibly a blues side, yet undeniably funk as well, it brings with it a kind of brilliant, sui generis production that makes you wonder why it isn’t much better known.

What ‘I Say That’ sounds like, is a conglomeration of 60s garage band, Southside electric blues, and then an extra helping of Southside-electric-blues-UK-ripoff, a la Led Zeppelin, cooked long and slow in a cauldron in the back of a tin-roof shack somewhere.

The way the bass and drums throb relentlessly, and the Little Walter-on-LSD echoed harp dancing around in the mix ricochet off of each other (not to mention the sax-o-mo-phone) is a thing to behold.

It’s one of those records that sounds like a genre unto itself, which it ought to be, but instead it’s the sole purvey of 45 collector types like you and me, which is fine, too.

As far as I can tell, this is of an early 70s vintage. Willis recorded singles for a variety of labels, and you can probably grab yourself a copy of this one in the $40.00 range (results may vary..).

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, May 17, 2015 11:26 am

I see Inez and Charlie, but where’s the band?

Greetings all.

Here’s a gasser for you all.

A while back I was perusing Kliph Nesteroff’s showbiz blog, and noticed that he had posted a bunch of album covers.

My curiousity was piqued when I spied an album I’d never seen before, by Inez and Charlie Foxx’s Swingin’ Mockin’ Band.

There are a number of LPs and 45s from the classic soul era wherein singing stars allowed their bands to move to the front of the stage, most notably the JBs, The Iceman’s Band (Jerry Butler), Lloyd Price’s band (featuring James Booker) and many others.

What really grabbed my attention, though, was the presence of a tune entitled ‘Shimmy’ listed on that LP jacket.

“No…” I thought, “It couldn’t possibly be a cover of the Toussaint McCall song, could it?”

Well, after a bit of rooting around (this is after all a very scarce LP), I discovered that it was indeed another version of the mighty organ instro, so I set out in search of a copy.

This took a little more effort than I expected, and I ended up taking a chance on a poorly graded (yet well-priced) copy.

When the record finally dropped through the mail slot, and after some cleaning, and picking out a skip here and there, I am very happy to report that it was worth all the effort (and then some).

As far as I can tell, judging by the covers included on the album, it was recorded sometime in 1968 or 1969. No personnel are listed, but I’m guessing at the very least it includes Charlie Foxx on guitar.

The record includes covers of tunes by Otis Redding, Archie Bell and the Drells, Hugh Masekela, The Moon People, the Fame Gang, and right there in the middle of side one, Toussaint McCall’s ‘Shimmy’.

The Mockin’ Band’s version of ‘Shimmy’ is – if not as heavy as the OG, but then what is? – right, tight and outasite, with some sharp, percussive organ playing, guitar, drums and horns. As far as I can tell it’s the only cover of ‘Shimmy’ that was ever recorded.

Though the album is like hen’s teeth, you ought to be able to find the only 45 released from it, the excellent ‘Speed Ticket’ fairly easily.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, April 19, 2015 10:39 am

The Souljers (above), The Mixtures (below)

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

Today’s selection is a bit of mystery record.

Not that we don’t know who it is – that would be the Souljers (aka the Soul-Jers) – but that the story attached to the group is composed of little more than loose ends.

What we do know is this, the song ‘Chinese Checkers’ was originally recorded by none other than Booker T and the MGs in 1963 and appeared as the flipside to ‘Plum Nellie’.

The Souljers version of the song was released on the legendary East LA Rampart label in 1966.

As to who the Souljers/Soul-Jers were, I think the cats in the picture above are Delbert Franklin and Phil Tucker, who recorded the ‘Soul-Jers’ 45 ‘Gonna Be a Big Man’ and ‘Crazy Little Things’, which is a soul vocal.

If you do a little digging, it appears that the Souljers ‘Chinese Checkers’ is in fact a re-release of the Mixtures (another Rampart/East LA group) 1963 recording of the song from a few years earlier. In fact, both ‘Chinese Checkers’ and its b-side ‘Poochum’ appeared on two different Mixtures 45s on the Linda label!

Even weirder, is the fact that the label of the Souljers 45 indicates that both tracks were from an album called ‘Move Over Ramsey’, which never appears to have been issued.

How the Mixtures tracks ended up being reissued on Rampart as the Souljers is something of a mystery, though their Linda 45s are listed as Faro productions, and Faro and Rampart were both owned by impresario Eddie Davis, and Delbert Franklin appears to have been a member of both groups as the sax player.

That said, ‘Chinese Checkers’ is a groovy track, following the mellow electric piano groove of the original, and adding in some vocal interjections and handclaps, giving it that ‘live in the studio’ feel.

I hope you dig it, and if you have any info to add that will help unravel the mystery, please let me know.

See you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, April 7, 2015 4:08 pm

Area Code 615

Listen/Download – Area Code 615 – Stone Fox Chase

Greetings all.

As I was strolling through the back woods of the mirrors of my memory of the alleys of my mind (otherwise known as the to-be-blogged folder on the hard drive) I decided to drop something a little different today.

Area Code 615 was an aggregation of Nashville session heavies that got together and recorded two albums in 1969 and 1970.

Though their albums are both worth picking up for their groovy mixture country, rock and a little bit of soul, they were met with commercial indifference at the time of release.

Fortunately for the group, their legacy was cemented when today’s selection, ‘Stone Fox Chase’ became the theme for the UK music show ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’, and was later sampled by Mantronix and Royal House.

The sample-age has everything to do with the wild drums and percussion on the track, which is – for a large part of its playing time – basically a duel between various drums and Charlie McCoy’s harmonica. There’s a wicked breakdown, with congas, drum set and cowbell at around 46 seconds that is positively hypnotic, and then another, featuring kalimba and what sound like a table at 1:42 that is equally groovy.

Thanks in large part to ‘Stone Fox Chase’, the ‘Trip In the Country’ LP is a tough pull, not crazy expensive, but hard to find. Their first (self-titled) LP is also pretty cool.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, April 2, 2015 10:19 am

The Les James Trio

Listen/Download The Les James Trio – Joe’s Thing

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, and I should remind you all the the Funky16Corners Radio Show comes to you each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 out of the archive right here at the blog.

The fam and I are doing some Spring-breaking, so here’s something from the archives to keep you ears warm until Monday – Larry

_________________________________________________

Originally posted November, 2012

I often find myself running out of steam by the end of the week.

You know how it is.

Truth be told, I have discovered that the remedy to such a lull is not – as might be expected – a solid and powerful boot in the ass,  but rather something subtly powerful.

Enough of a push to restore momentum, but nothing too sudden.

It is in furtherance of this idea that I have dipped into the crates and whipped out something that just might do the trick.

A while back, I was perusing the interwebs in search of some tasty vinyl to add to my record box, when I happened upon an auction for an unfamiliar, but very interesting looking record.

The disc in question was a mid-70s joint by a crew called the Les James Trio out of the Rocky Mountain metropolis of Denver, CO.

Now, I know that “Denver jazz’ doesn’t light any fire in your ears – unless you are a Paul Quinichette aficionado – but this auction came with a tantalizing soundclip.

So tantalizing in fact that I chased this record down like a lion after a juicy springbok, landed it and devoured it forthwith, if by “devour” it is meant to be understood as recording and digimatizing said record for the delectation of you good people.

There’s not much out there about Les James, other than a few links that suggest that he was something of a local institution in Denver, and the liner notes to the album which intimate that he might have hailed from Eastern Europe and made his way west, piano in tow.

The tune I bring you today – he one that made me covet the album so fiercely – is entitled ‘Joe’s Thing’, written by and named for James’ bassist Joe Lopez.

Much like the record that I brought you all on Monday, the things that happen on this record in regard to the alchemy of bass and drums is truly something to behold.

‘Joe’s Thing’ is in no way a “funk” record, but it is immediately obvious once the ones and zeros start to flow that is is monumentally funky, in a way guaranteed to make you sit up, notice, and groove, all at the same time.

Unlike so many self-released combos (Century was a famous “press your own”outfit out of California) the Les James Trio was actually a pretty tight unit. James was an excellent pianist, Lopez a shit-hot bassist and the drummer (listed only as Jo Jo) does his part admirably.

‘Joe’s Thing’ is a groover’s treasure because it starts out with a mighty riff, and then returns to the well a number of times, including a couple of phased drum breaks.

This is a banger – a subtle one – but a banger nonetheless.

You can send your thank you notes via the comments below.

You’re most welcome.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 31, 2015 11:08 am

Tarik Thornton – Scattered, Covered, Smothered and Diced

Ahmad Jamal – M*A*S*H Theme
Art Jerry Miller- Finger Lickin’ Good
Odell Brown & The Organizers – The Look Of Love
James Brown- Spinning Wheel
Lena Horne – Rocky Raccoon
Lonnie Smith- Move Your Hand- Part 1
Joe Williams & The Jazz Orchestra – Get Out My Life Woman
Brother Jack McDuff- Theme From The Electric Surfboard
Bobbi Humphrey- Harlem River Drive
Gene Ammons- Jungle Strut
Charlie Earland- Sing a Simple Song
Billy Cobham- Crosswind
Walter Wolfman Washington & Solar System – Good & Juicy
(Bonus Cut) Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band of New Orleans – Tuba Fats & Drums

Listen/Download – Tarik Thornton – Scattered, Covered, Smothered and Diced 46MB/Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

This is a very fortuitous week indeed, since thanks to a communique from my man Tarik Thornton (veteran of many Funky16Corners pledge drives and guest spots) we have the second brand new mix of the week!

If you have sunk your ears into any of his previous mixes, you know that Tarik has deep crates and excellent taste, and both are on display in ‘Scattered, Covered, Smothered and Diced’. Here you get just about 40 minutes of very tasty soul jazz and jazz funk, well mixed and served up hot.

I’m digging this one for the second time as I write this, and I think you’ll be giving it repeated plays as well.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 12, 2015 12:43 pm

Blue Mitchell

Listen/Download – Blue Mitchell – H.N.I.C. Pt2

Greetings all.

The end of the week is nigh, so I will remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the shimmering airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night on Viva Radio. If you cannot lend your ears at airtime, you can subscribe to the show as podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device through the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

Closing out the week with something funky seemed like a good idea, so I bring you Blue Mitchell and ‘H.N.I.C. Pt1’.
Mitchell was, like the subject of Wednesday’s post, Yusef Lateef, a jazz veteran, coming up in hard bop with Cannonball Adderley and Horace Silver, and moving on to his own dates by the 1960s.

Like many of his ilk, Mitchell found himself at the end of the 1960s finding his way into a soulful bag. Many jazzers did this to varying levels of success, depending in large part on their affinity with and dedication to the material in question.

What is particularly interesting about today’s selection, is that it comes from a two-LP run that Mitchell had in 1968 and 1969 where he was working with Monk Higgins and Dee Ervin.

I haven’t been able to find out how this particular team came together, but the intersection of straight jazz with two figures closely identified with 60s soul is an interesting one.

The two albums, 1968s ‘Collision In Black’ and 1969s ‘Bantu Village’ (where this track originated) were composed almost entirely by Higgins and Ervin.. The dates appear to have been recorded in California, and are an interesting is somewhat mysterious chapter in Higgins’ and Ervin’s stories.

‘H.N.I.C. Pt1’ is also interesting because it is yet another iteration/variation of the Isley Brothers’ ‘It’s Your Thing’, a huge (and very influential) hit in 1969.

Featuring Mitchell and Bobby Bryant on trumpet, Paul Humphrey on drums, Wilton Felder on bass and Freddy Robinson on guitar, ‘H.N.I.C. Pt1’ manages to balance the jazz and funk nicely, with a fine solo by Mitchell.

I dig it (I need to score a copy of the LP), and I hope you do too.

See you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 10, 2015 11:58 am

Yusef Lateef

Greetings all.

How about we ease ourselves over the hump with some sweet, sublimely funky jazz?

Yusef Lateef is one of the giants of bop/post-bop eras of jazz, starting with Dizzy Gillespie in 1949 and playing well into his 80s, only passing away in 2013 at the age of 93.

He was a master of many wind instruments, mainly the tenor sax and the flute, but also on oboe and bassoon, as well as working a number of African and Eastern instruments into his music.

‘Nubian Lady’ was recorded in 1971 for his album ‘The Gentle Giant’, with Lateef on flute, Kenny Barron (who composed the song) on piano (with Ray Bryant on electric piano), and Albert Heath on drums among others.

It has a slow, mellow groove, but the drums manage to assert themselves nicely, giving the track a nice, funky feel.

Lateef’s flute states the main theme, and then returns to solo.

Y’all know I’m a huge fan of the flute in jazz and soul, and this is one of those records that you just want to kind of lay back and let it wash over you.

Listening to ‘Nubian Lady’ it sounds like the kind of record that must have been chopped and looped by someone, but as far as I can tell it has yet to be sampled.

It is a tasty groove indeed, and I hope you dig it.
See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 17, 2015 1:54 pm

Leon Haywood

Greetings all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 8, 2015 1:16 pm

Mickey Lee Lane

Greetings all.

I thought we’d get the week started with something unusual.

If you are a mod soul fan, you may already be hip to Mickey Lee Lane’s epic 1965 single ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’, covered the following year in the UK by the Action on the flipside of their cover of the Marvelettes ‘I’ll Keep Holding On’. It was via 1980s reissued of the Action that most of us found our way to Mickey Lee Lane in the first place.

That said, maybe ten years ago someone (I wish I could remember who) told me that there had been an instrumental version of ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’ issued in the late 60s, and that it had some level of popularity on the UK soul scene.

I eventually found out that the record in question had been issued as ‘Tracks To Your Mind’ by the ‘Sounds of Lane’ in 1968 on the Cobblestone label.

As you’ll hear whne you pull down the ones and zeros, ‘Tracks To Your Mind’ is not a straight instrumental dub of ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’, but rather is augmented by echoed guitar and tack piano. The effect is vaguely psychedelic, but as the track’s popularity on dance floors will attest, the propulsive kick of the original is intact.

The record’s release history is strange, including two released on Cobblestone, one a double-a-sided promo, then an appearance on the b-side of a pop 45 by a singer named George McCannon (the copy I have), then at least two bootleg pressings from the 1970s (and another in the 00’s).

The 45 can be quite expensive (though if you wait long enough – like I did – you can find yourself a bargain).

Mickey Lee Lane went on to work as a recording engineer, and passed away in 2011.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, January 27, 2015 1:32 pm

The Loading Zone

Greetings all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.