Funky16Corners

Shades of Joy – Flute In a Quarry

By Larry, August 18, 2011 1:15 pm

Shades of Joy from the cover of their 1969 album

~~Listen/Download – Shades of Joy – Flute In a Quarry (45 Edit)~~

Greetings all.

We’ve all packed away another week on the calendar, and I for one feel that it was well spent.

This has been a fairly (heh…fairly…) busy summer hereabouts, but a lot of the busy has been the good and productive kind, so I can’t really complain.

Since it is the end of the week, I should remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be back this Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, with the funk, the soul, the jazz and the rare groove for your ears, your head and your heart, and if you can’t be huddled by the wireless set at airtime you can always pull down the ones and zeros of its convenient MP3 form over the weekend.

The tune I bring you today is something a little different with an interesting back story.

I don’t recall where I first heard of the Shades of Joy, but I do recall that it had something to do with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s epic cult film, ‘El Topo’.

While I have never seen ‘El Topo’ in the proper way (i.e. with a box of popcorn and my undivided attention) I did get to watch it play in a loop (and DJ in front of it) during a particularly memorable Asbury Park 45 Sessions.

It’s a crazy flick, and ironically, I did not actually hear any of it that night.

I say ironically since the 45 I bring you today is in fact a sampling (a 45 edit bringing you just under three minutes of a seven minute plus album track*) of that very soundtrack.

The group Shades of Joy was a SanFran Bay Area fixture in the late 60s and early 70s. Their leader, saxophonist Martin Fierro arranged the music that Jodorowsky composed for ‘El Topo’ and the Shades of Joy (augmented by other Bay heads like Frank Morin of the Sir Douglas Quintet** and keyboardist Howard Wales***) played.

The Shades of Joy had recorded a full LP for the Fontana label in 1969 (‘El Topo’ came out in 1970) but it appears that they recorded the soundtrack without their singer Millie Foster.

‘Flute In A Quarry’ is a very cool, somewhat progressive slice of funky, Latin-influenced jazz rock (dig the percussion). Considering the Bay Area roots, the temptation is to make a Santana reference, but the sound here is funkier and jazzier (and less Latin) than Carlos et al. In fact, Fierro’s tenor sax work is very edgy and light years beyond what you might expect from similarly shaped horn bands of the era.

The LP was produced by Jimi Hendrix producer Alan Douglas, and someone going by the name of Doris Dynamite (sounds like an R. Crumb creation).

It’s a cool tune, and I hope you dig it.

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

Peace

Larry

*The full length version from the ‘El Topo’ soundtrack included longer “mellow” sections and an extended guitar solo
**I’ve seen references that indicate that Fierro also played with the SDQ
***Wales was the man behind A.B. Skhyy and the in demand 45 ‘Huxley’s Howl’

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.