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By Larry, April 21, 2013 2:58 pm

Vince Montana

Listen/Download The Volcanos – Storm Warning

Listen/Download The Ethics – Think About Tomorrow

Listen/Download Georgie Woods – Potato Salad Pt1

Listen/Download Brothers of Hope – Nickol Nickol

Listen/Download The Family – Family Affair

Listen/Download Montana Sextet – Heavy Vibes

Listen/Download Montana Sextet – Heavy Vibes (Club Mix)

Greetings all

It was with great sadness that I heard last week of the passing of the mighty Vincent Montana Jr.

Unless you’re a Philly soul or disco head, that name might not be familiar, but the music he helped to make over a career that lasted more than 50 years most certainly is.

Montana, known first and formost as a vibraphonist, but also a busy arranger and percussionist was one of the most important instrumentalists in the history of Philadelphia soul and funk.

Though he got his start backing local artists like Frankie Avalon, Montana went on to be one of the core members of the Philly “house band” that would become better known as MFSB.

His vibes stand out on countless Philly soul records from the mid-60s on, and his arrangers credit appeared on many of those record’s labels.

Montana’s work is all over various and sundry smaller local labels (and recorded under various band names) as well as just about every major Philadelphia International session.

Montana was also key in the formation of the Salsoul Orchestra, and through the disco era recorded with his own groups the Montana Sextet and Goody Goody.

The tracks I’ve selected really just scratch the surface of Montana’s catalog, but all touch on some important point.

The first is one of the greatest 60s soul 45s to come out of Philadelphia, and the first place I ever noticed Vince Montana coming through the mix as a sideman. ‘Storm Warning’ by the Volcanos is beloved by fans of classic soul, and Vince Montana’s vibes have a lot to do with that. Vibes are – at least to my ears – one of the key sonic elements in Northern Soul, along with the baritone sax, and Montana’s playing on ‘Storm Warning’ manages to keep driving the song forward while adding bright accents.

The Ethics are another great Philly vocal group. ‘Think About Tomorrow’, arranged by Montana, was a local hit in 1968. Give this one a couple of close listens and dig how Montana uses the strings, horns and vibes to frame the rhythm section. It’s an exquisite example of the kind of classy record that would come to represent the Philly sound.

Georgie Woods “The Guy With the Goods’ was a Philadelphia radio legend, who decided in the late 60s (like so many of his radio brethren around the country) to dip his toe into the world of recording. ‘Potato Salad’ – also arranged by Vince Montana – is an ‘adaptation’ of vibraphone legend Lionel Hampton’s ‘Greasy Greens’. You not only get to hear Woods laying down his rap, but also plenty of Montana’s vibes working their way through the mix.

The players that would form the core of MFSB would make records under a number of different names in the late 60s and early 70s. If you collect funk 45s, you’ve heard bands like the Interpretations, Hidden Cost, Daley’s Diggers, the Alliance, the Electric Indian and many more, all basically played by the same set of brilliant musicians, including Vince Montana.

My favorite of these pseudonymous 45s is ‘Nickol Nickol’ by the Brothers of Hope. One of the great, mid-tempo funk 45s of all time, ‘Nickol Nickol’ features Montana’s vibes throughout, but especially at the end where he lays down the ‘Eleanor Rigby’ quote in the run-off groove. This one was slept on for a long time, but the price has gone up considerably in the last few years.

The Family – Family Affair, acetate and North Bay 45

Though I’m not featuring any MFSB ‘proper’ in this post, the Family’s cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s ‘Family Affair’, which was first released on the North Bay label, is basically an edited version of the track that would appear on the first MFSB LP.

Vince Montana was – for most fo his career – a ‘background’ player, working behind the scenes, but in 1982 he had a dance hit in the US and the UK with the track ‘Heavy Vibes’. ‘Heavy Vibes’ is a sophisticated, jazzy/funky bit of disco, with plenty of vibes (naturally…). Here you get to check out both the edit and the extended club mix – both worth hearing.

Vince Montana was a master, and though he was more involved than most, he was a very solid example of the importance of the unseen/unheralded musicians that provide the backing for the music we love. People will do lip service to the house bands of labels like Stax, ensembles like the Funk Brothers or the Muscle Shoals group, but only the people with their heads (and ears) deep in the game know who the individual components of those outfits were, and that’s a shame.

The next time you hear the vibes ring through one of those great Philly records, elbow the cat next to you and say ‘That’s Vince Montana.’

I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, December 2, 2012 3:51 pm

Eddie Kendricks

Listen/Download Eddie Kendricks – Son of Sagittarius

Greetings all

Welcome to another week here at the Corners…

The tune I bring you today is something very groovy from one of the greats of 70s soul (as a solo, that is), Mr. Eddie Kendricks.

After helping to create the sound of the Temptations in the 60s, Kendricks departed for a solo career in the early 70s.

He was hugely successful, both artistically, and chart-wise.

1973’s ‘Boogie Down’ LP brought him his second #1 record with the title cut (#2 Pop) and continued his association with the late Frank Wilson. It was the songwriting team of Wilson, Leonard Caston and Anita Poree (with Wilson and Caston producing) that worked with Kendricks to create his influential and ahead-of-its-time disco funk sound, starting with 1972’s ‘People….Hold On’ LP.

It would be an understatement to say that Kendricks broke through in a big way. I was a 10 year old suburban white kid when he started his run of solo hits and they are still favorites of mine, drilled deeply into my brain.

Oddly though, I have no recollection of today’s selection, which was Top 5 R&B and Top 30 Pop in the Spring of 1974.

That’s too bad, because ‘Song of Sagittarius’ is a fantastic bit of dance floor magic.

My first instinct would be to classify it as ‘mid-tempo’ but there’s something in the throbbing bass drum, and the way the arrangement fluctuates between a smoother feel and slightly rougher funk that makes it feel more propulsive.

Plus, you get to listen to one of the greatest falsetto’s in the history of soul for almost four minutes, so there’s that too.

I hope you dig it (and dance to it) and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, September 18, 2012 1:00 pm

Odyssey (Lillian Lopez, left)

Listen/Download Odyssey – Going Back To My Roots

Listen/Download Odyssey – Roots Suite (Ajomora/Going Back To My Roots/Baba Awa)

Greetings all

I hope the middle of the week finds you all well.

I had something else in the on deck circle, ready to go for today, but then I fell victim once again to my relentless need to read, and stumbled upon the news that Lillian Lopez, the singer of the group Odyssey had passed away at the age of 76.

Odyssey, best known for their 1977 disco classic ‘Native New Yorker’ (Top 10 R&B, Top 20 Pop) had a number of hits between then and 1982.

Lopez started a group with her sisters Louise and Carmen which became Odyssey in the mid 70s after Carmen left and was replaced by singer Tony Lopez. Lopez was with the group for their first LP (and hits) and was replaced by William McEachern by the time they recorded their second record.

The tune I bring you today is a great example of why you should always keep your ears (and options) open.

I have made mention many times in this space of how lucky I am to have had (and continue to have) a wide variety of musical “mentors”, i.e. fellow collectors and musicians who have always been generous with their time and their taste, turning me on to new sounds all the time.

One of these good people is my man DJ Birdman down in DC, a long time friend who has been a significant influence (and source) for me when it comes to dance music, specifically disco and post-1980 soul.

Birdman has always been very open about sharing his digging spots with me when I roll through DC, as well as always passing records on to me that he thinks I should hear.

Last year, when the fam and I were down in out nation’s capitol, we had ourselves a nice visit with Birdman and his family, after which he handed me a stack of vinyl, some of which I’d asked him to grab for me, and others that he was giving me to check out.

Not one to ever object to horizon-widening (especially when it comes to music) I expressed my gratitude, packed the wax in the ride and lead-footed it back to Jersey so that I might sample the goods.

One of the records in the stack is the disc you see before you today.

It was Birdman who had first hipped me to Lamont Dozier’s OG of ‘Going Back to My Roots’ and it was he that introduced me to the most excellent cover by Odyssey.

I think it’s safe to say that left to my own devices, I may very well have passed this record by.

While I knew of ‘Native New Yorker’ – and you know I dig disco – it’s not the kind of disc I’d pick up unless I was looking to stash it with my DJ stuff,  amongst my “wedding records”.

I was completely ignorant of the wider reach of Odyssey’s catalog and was pleasantly surprised when I had a chance to drop the needle on today’s selection.

Originally recorded by songwriting legend Dozier in 1977, ‘Going Back To My Roots’ was given a somewhat smoother interpretation by Odyssey. Though Dozier’s (fairly rare and sought after) OG is a 9-minute-plus epic, it failed to make it onto the charts whereas Odyssey scored in both the US and the UK.

The Odyssey version of the song is – at least in my opinion – more consistently danceable than the original, even in its extended ‘Roots Suite’ version.

Lillian Lopez continued to tour with a version of Odyssey until 2000, when she retired from the stage.

I hope you dig the tunes and I’ll be back on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, August 23, 2012 4:31 pm

Funky16Corners – Honey Trippin’
BT Express – Express (Scepter)
Louie Ramirez – Do It Any Way You Wanna (Cotique)
Cymande – Anthracite (Janus)
Virtue Orchestra – High Horse IV (Virtue)
Mystic Moods – Honey Trippin’ (Soundbird)
KC and the Sunshine Band – Let It Go (TK)
Instant Funk – Philly Jump (TSOP)
Jay Berliner – Getting the Message (Mainstream)
Love Child’s Afro Cuban Blues Band – Love and Death in G and A (Roulette)
Gene Faith – Lowdown Melody (Virtue)
Doc Severinson – Soul Makossa (RCA)
Soul Searchers – Boogie Up the Nation Pt2 (Polydor)
Philly Sound – Waitin’ For the Rain (Phil LA of Soul)
Mongo Santamaria – What You Don’t Know (Vaya)
Philadelphia Society – 100 South of Broad Street (American)
Larry Page Orchestra – Erotic Soul (London)
Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Virgo Red (Polydor)
Barrett Strong – Stand Up and Cheer For the Preacher (INST) (Epic)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Rewind: Honey Trippin’ – 110MB Mixed Mp3

Greetings all.

It’s time for the final installment in Funky16Corners Rewind week.

But first, I should remind you that this (and every) Friday night at 9PM, the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs on Viva Radio. If you can’t hang at broadcast time, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, where the weekly episode will pop up on Saturday, or grab a download here at the blog.

The final rewind mix this week is another personal fave of mine.

‘Honey Trippin’ is an hour of disco, disco funk, funky disco and all permutations thereof.

There are some old, familiar faces, some more obscure selections, and hopefully a couple of surprising left turns.

I hope you dig it, thank you for your indulgence in this week of recycling, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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).

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, May 17, 2012 12:52 pm

Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder

Listen/Download Donna Summer – I Feel Love 12″ Edit

Greetings all.

I should start be reminding you all that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. We have a very special tribute to the Ladies of Soul lined up for you, so I hope you’ll fall by and open up your ears. You can always come by the blog over the weekend and pick yourself up an MP3 of the broadcast, or any of the more than 100 previous episodes in the archive.

This has been an incredibly brutal week as far as losses to the world of soul, funk and now disco, with the news of the passing of the great Donna Summer.

Summer, who died after a battle with cancer at the age of 63 was a huge part of disco, and later the world of pop soul.

The song I bring you today is by far one of my favorite disco records, but was really much, much more than that.

I’ve gone on the record at length of my long and somewhat rocky history with the sounds and culture of disco, from my callow youth (when it was all going down) right on through to my more mature appraisal in recent years.

Back in the day, there were a lot of records now thought of as disco that I loved – and many that I did not – but few have such a solid place in the pleasure centers of my memory as the tune I bring you today, ‘I Feel Love’.

When Donna Summer first entered my ears in 1975 with ‘Love To Love You Baby’ I was smitten, but I think it would be fair to say that it had as much to do with the erotic nature of the song and its effects on my adolescent mind as anything else.

However, two years later when Summer’s collaboration with Giorgio Moroder ‘I Feel Love’ came pulsing out of my radio* my mind was good and truly blown.

The song, which managed to hit the Top 10 on the R&B and Pop charts, was a remarkable bit of visionary dance floor artistry that would anticipate a lot of what was to come in dance music of all stripes over the next decade.

It’s always interesting to listen to the evolution of the synthesizer, from its roots in experimental music, on through novelty, psychedelia and on into dance music.

That its users struggled to imbue it with real musicality is without question.

That Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte managed to win that fight and create something remarkable is also – once you’ve slapped on the headphones and poured this concoction into your brain – a certainty.

Listening to ‘I Feel Love’ 35 years later, even after High Energy, House, and synth pop, it still sounds new and innovative.

A lot of this has to do with Summer’s remarkable voice, the element that managed to take the mechanical pulse of the synthesizers into the human realm.

The mix I bring you today clocks in at just a hair over eight minutes, but there was also a 15 minute mega-mix of the song and it’s not hard to imagine a disco full of chemically altered party people moving with the beat for the whole record, eventually collapsing into a blissful heap.

This is the record about which Brian Eno is reported to have raved –

“I have heard the sound of the future. ‘This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.”

Donna Summer went on to have a huge career in the 80s, crossing over heavily into the pop market with a much more conventional sound (which can still be heard on oldies radio, and at weddings wherever they happen).

Nothing she did, though, hits me like this.

The song was later covered by Bronski Beat (with Marc Almond) in a very cool version.

I hope you dig it.

Lets all hope for a better week next week.

Keep the faith

Larry

*I wore out the 45 I bought back then and upgraded to this 12″ a few years ago

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).

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.