Jay Berliner – Stickball
Jay Berliner
Listen/Download Jay Berliner – Stickball
Greetings all
I hope everyone is ready to start the week feeling fine and funky.
The track I bring you today is something that has been marinating in my crates for a few years now.
I grabbed a copy of Jay Berliner’s ‘Bananas Are Not Created Equal’ a while back after a friend turned me on to the track you see before you today, ‘Stickball’.
I knew Berliner’s name – he is a prolific studio guitarist with a very long and prestigious resume, including stints with Charles Mingus and Van Morrison (Astral Weeks) – but had no idea he had ever done anything this funky.
Recorded in 1972, under the aegis of arranger Wade Marcus (who also wrote this tune) ‘Bananas…’ featured Berliner and a group of studio heavies working it out on a number of contemporary covers (Temptations, Al Green, Bill Withers) and a couple of excellent, funky originals.
‘Stickball’ opens with Ray Barretto’s congas and Berliner’s guitar, then joined by Cornell Dupree on electric sitar and Paul Griffin on clavinet.
The tune has a thick, jazz-funk groove, with some hot soloing (naturally) by Berliner.
The rest of the album is definitely worth checking out if you happen to find a copy out in the field.
I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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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).
Themocracy
So nasty! What a great track.
Just reading in Mojo about what apparently is a quite different “Stickball,” by Tony Bruno, from the ’70s. It’s described as an underground hit that was “the rudest record in rock.” One take, ad-libbed, set to a borrowed backing track, it’s said to be a rap that starts out as a memory of a childhood stickball game and builds to “an over-the-top lascivious fantasy.” “P. Vert” is credited as the writer. So there’s that.