James Rivers

Listen/Download – James Rivers – Fonky Flute

Greetings all.

The end of another week is upon us, and so I must remind you all that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be hitting the airwaves of the interwebs this Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. This week we have Part 2 of our international excursion, with stops in Africa, the West Indies and the UK, so make sure to stop by and dig it. If you are unable to do so, but still wish to hear the show you can fall by here and pick up the ones and zeros on Saturday when I post the show as an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a groovy one that I’ve been holding out of the spotlight for a while (though it did drop in a mix about four years ago).

The artist in question, James Rivers is a cat that I’ve been following ever since I started to get deep into the sounds of New Orleans.

Rivers was a multi-instrumentalist (equally adept on sax and flute) who recorded a number of excellent 45s under his own name for labels like Instant, Eight Ball, Kon-Ti and J.B.’s, as well as at least one album. He was also a busy sideman in the studios of New Orleans, working for cats like Eddie Bo.

Rivers recorded several 45s for Lionel Worthy’s Kon-Ti label in the late 60s and early 70s (see Dan Phillips article on Rivers’ Kon-Ti sides at the always excellent Home of the Groove) and the catalog number seems to place today’s selection in the vicinity of 1969 or 1970.

I picked up my copy of ‘Fonky Flute’ in an auction years ago, and have never seen another copy since then (which is why I’ve never had the opportunity to ‘mint up’).

The record starts out innocently enough, with a pleasant melody being stated by the band (organ, piano, drums and bass) and River’s flute lead.

The flute soloing begins to get gradually more intense, until about the 1:30 mark at which point Rivers goes absolutely batshit with the overblowing and the vocalizing, eventually closing out the passage with a whistle (?!?), in the Rahsaan Roland Kirk stylee.

The song then pops back into the groove, with Rivers getting just a little bit crazy again before the run out groove.

You know I’m a huge jazz flute fan, and the first time I heard this record I just about flipped my wig.

Rivers was a versatile instrumentalist – which is probably made him such a popular studio hand – and this can be seen in his own recordings. He was capable of playing blues, jazz, New Orleans second line parade sounds, soul and funk.

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

 

Peace

Larry

 

 

 

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2 Responses to “James Rivers – Fonky Flute”

1. Maxwell says:

   December 15, 2011 at 1:55 pm

   Phenomenal track. I like that overblown-breath flute work if it is done well, and Rivers locks back into the groove after messing around. Brilliant. Thank you.

2. Holly says:

   December 21, 2011 at 1:20 pm

   Very cool! Thank you, and Merry Christmas!