The Pazant Brothers

Listen/Download – The Pazant Brothers – Toe Jam MP3

Listen/Download – The Pazant Brothers – Skunk Juice MP3

Greetings all.

The single you see before you today is one of those “Holy shit, look at those titles, how can I not buy this?” 45s.

I knew of the Pazant Brothers via their sought after work with the Beaufort Express, but hadn’t heard of either of these cuts (Toe Jam and Skunk Juice, from 1969) before.

At least that’s what I thought, until I gave the 45 a spin and the tune(s) sounded awfully familiar.

It took me a few minutes to arrange/assess the sounds coming off the record, bt it wasn’t long before I figured out what I was hearing were two ‘variations’ on Lionel Hampton’s mighty soul jazz banger, ‘Greasy Greens’.

I did a little digging and discovered a few things.

First off, ‘Greasy Greens’ wasn’t written by Hampton, but rather by Ed Bland, who happened to be the guy credited with both sides of the Pazant Brothers 45.

Second, I dug a bit more and found out that Eddie Pazant, the woodwind playing brother in the duo had been a member of Hampton’s band when he recorded ‘Greasy Greens’, both in the studio version on Glad Hamp in 1967 and the live version on the ‘Newport Uproar’ LP from 1968.

Alvin Pazant, the trumpeter had played with Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers.

While the OG of ‘Greasy Greens’ lives up to its title, the reworkings of the song as ‘Skunk Juice’ and ‘Toe Jam’ (seriously?) are funkier, slightly shambolic (featuring some wild guitar) and both feature a young sister shouting out the titles over the music.

The Pazant Brothers recorded a handful of 45s for GWP, RCA and Priscilla in the late 60s and early 70s, before waxing their album ‘Loose and Juicy’ (which featured some of the 45 tracks) for Vanguard in 1975, with production (and five compositions) by Ed Bland.

It is a great, funky 45, and I hope you dig it.

See you all next week.

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

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