Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers – Searching For Soul Pts 1&2
Listen/Download – Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers – Searching For Soul Pt1
Listen/Download -Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers – Searching For Soul Pt2
Greetings all.
The end of the week is upon us and I don’t know about you kids, but my head is in a deep funk place right about now, so hows about some’o that (deep funk, that is)??
First – there’s always a ‘first’, isn’t there – it behooves me, as proprietor of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, to remind you all that if it’s Friday (and it almost is) it’s time for my latest excursion into the ether. This week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva radio (Friday’s at 9PM) is an all distaff affair with the finest in funk and soul as interpreted by the ladies. There’s lots of fine sounds, from lots of fine ladies, so make sure to fall by and fill your ears up with some of the good stuff.
That out of the way, now is being the time for the aforementioned deep funk.
Back in the olden days, where I was first being introduced to the niceties of old school funk via the UK ‘Sound of Funk’ comps, the songs that blew my mind immediately (on Volume One if memory serves) were ‘Iron Leg’ by Mickey and the Soul Generation, and ‘Hector’ by the Village Callers, both still huge favorites and mainstays of my record box.
There were several burners on that comp, but one in particular evaded me for a long time, so much so that it was pushed into the recessed of my fevered mind, where it would be pried loose many years later when the mighty DJ Prestige dropped the needle on it at an edition of the late, lamented Asbury Park 45 Sessions.
That record was ‘Searching for Soul’ by Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers.
Naturally, once it got it’s hooks into me, I set out in search of my own copy.
Of course, as soon as I did I discovered (not at all surprisingly) that this was not a cheap record (unless you’re lucky enough to spend a lot of your vinyl digging time in and around Detroit).
As is often the case, I looked and looked, was outbid a number of times, and then, like a bolt out of the blue, on a day when I had a big fat wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket, I opened up a record box of the dealers “good stuff” at a records show, and BING, BANG, BOOM, as if placed there by the benevolent hand of the gods was a mint copy of this very record, along with a nice fat stack of other items from the old want list.
I will not deceive you my friends, this record did not come cheap (though a lot of it’s box-mates did, softening the blow somewhat) but I think once you pull down the ones and zeros and stuff it into your ears, you too – if infected by the vinyl disease – will want to get one of these for your very own.
The info on Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers is – as they say – slim pickings, but the few scraps drifting in the breeze are indeed interesting.
‘Searching for Soul Pts 1&2’ (gotta include part two on account of the heavy git-tar) was released on Inkster, Michigan’s (suburb of the Motor City, home to the Marvelettes) Mutt label circa 1970.
Owned and operated by Nate Dorr (a bail bondsman by trade), the Mutt imprint released a variety of Detroit-area sounds, including soul by The Two Fellows, The Majjestees and Carol Jones (the two radically different versions of the sought after ‘Don’t Destroy Me’), garage punk by the Ruins*, rock by the Dale Jones Trio and of course the unspeakably deep funk of Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers.
‘Searching for Soul’ is, aside from being a remarkably heavy, ass-kicking slab of funk, works on a number of levels.
First and foremost, there’s that break. Sweet Mother Macree that’s some wild shit right there, from the slick, opening hi-hat, to the extremely ‘hot’ bass drum and snare, both of which can be heard ringing after the sticks hit.
Then there’s that wobble-legged guitar, which bears the mark of an axe-man who might have heard a few Meters 45s in his time.
But it’s all rendered (temporarily) meaningless when the bass falls in.
The Mutt 45s that I’ve heard all have a certain, how do they say, raw sound, but it doesn’t ever get any raw-er than the bass guitar on ‘Searching for Soul’ which when it first comes in sounds like every mike in the studio was pointed at the bass amp.
It THUNDERS, so much so that raising the volume above a certain point would likely put your speakers at risk.
This is, without any doubt, the kind of record, were you asked to define ‘deep funk’ for an uninitiated listener, that you could slap on the turntable, drop the needle and sit back and watch as their mind was good and truly boggled.
You also get the extra added bonus of a dual sax attack, which kicks things up a notch about two thirds of the way through side one.
When you flip the platter over, side two sees the band re-stating the break, ladling on a little bit of heavy, wah-wah guitar, and a tasty sax-o-mo-phone solo, including a very groovy moment when the guitar starts to feed back a little and the sax starts to mimic it and things get just a little bit psychedelic.
Interestingly, at the time that Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers were rattling the walls of any number of Detroit area clubs, there was a duo recording for Motown’s Rare Earth subsidiary by the name of Stoney and Meatloaf (yes, that Meat Loaf). When they went on the road they took Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers with them as their backing band.
Small world, indeed.
Solid.
Have a great weekend.
Peace
Larry
NOTE: If this record sounds eerily familiar, it was sampled a few years back for the Beyonce cut ‘Suga Mama’.
*Check out the detailed story of the Ruins at the fantastic Garage Hangover site which includes an anecdote about Dorr saving the day by using his day job to get a truckload of impounded equipment released so a gig might continue.
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Themocracy
killer record.
Late, lamented Asbury Park 45 Sessions? So no more sessions down there in Asbury?
Hey Randy
I haven’t heard a thing about the AP45 Sessions in months. I just assumed it wasn’t happening again.
I know it was getting hard for Prestige to get the lanes to committ to a date, and he’s been busy with his new night in BK.
Larry
DJ Shortkut cuts up a couple copies of this to kick off the “Around the World in 14 DJ’s” bonus DVD that comes with the Shadow/Cut Chemist “Product Placement” DVD. Thanks for posting Larry, love it!
I’d love to see that Steve, this 45 being extremely ‘cut-worthy’.
You check it out on youtube Larry…cut in from Maceo’s “Southwick.”
Very cool! Thanks for the link!
It is a mighty record! Keeps eluding me though!
Hey! That track by jake wade is my uncle who by the way is still alive and we’ll. if you’re interested in an interview with jake please contact me at given email.