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By Larry, May 24, 2015 11:30 am

On Top Records head honcho Calvin Carter

Greetings all.

I thought that since Spring has finally sprung, we ought to start the week with some stylish, sweet, Chicago soul.

It bears mentioning that I first heard ‘Wait a Minute’ by the Newday on a Gap commercial.

Yes, you read that right.

I was watching TV, and all of a sudden my ears perked up when I heard a very groovy tune flowing from the box.

I headed right over to the Google machine, where it was soon revealed to me that the song in question was ‘Wait a Minute’ by the Newday, and that it found its way into a Gap ad via a recent reissue by the good folks in the Numero Group.

The record was initially released in 1972 on the short-lived On Top label. On Top was started by Calvin Carter (one of the founders of the Vee Jay label) and its brief discography includes releases by the Newday, and none other than Bobby Rush.

‘Wait a Minute’ features a wonderful arrangement by Tom Tom, aka Tom Washington, the Chicago arranger responsible for such incredible records as ‘Get On Up’ by the Esquires, ‘In My Body’s House’ by Gene Chandler, ‘Shing A Ling’ by Cicero Blake, and ‘Turn Back the Hands of Time’ by Tyrone Davis.

Though I haven’t been able to find any information on the Newday (this appears to have been their only 45), ‘Wait a Minute’ is a wonderful performance, with dueling tenor and falsetto vocals, and fantastic, slightly funky band.

One can only imagine how successful this record might have been if released/pushed by a major label.

Instead, it languished in obscurity for over 30 years, and now it’s being used to sell jeans.

Crazy world we live in.

I hope you dig the tune, 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, May 7, 2015 11:35 am

Tyrone Davis

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and so then is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which comes to you each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is one that was hiding in plain sight in my record room for years, before it finally found it’s way into my ears (and onto the blog).

Tyrone Davis is best know for a two-decade long string of R&B hits, that began in 1968 with ‘Can I Change My Mind’.

I picked up a copy of that very album severeal years back, and dug it right away.

It contained a couple of hits, a couple of contemporary covers and some originals.

Among those covers was a version of Eddie Floyd’s 1966 R&B #1 ‘Knock On Wood’.

I suspect that my missing it the first time around had everything to do with the fact that Davis’s version is a radical reworking of the tune, taking an upbeat soul dancer and turning it (very nicely indeed) into a pleading ballad.

I rediscovered the tune about a month ago when I pulled the album out for a spin, and didn’t recognize the song right away.

The re-imagining of the song is so thorough and so convincing that you almost have to put the original out of your head to dig it.

Davis does a fantastic job with the song (I’d love to know who’s playing the guitar, which is excellent), and it really ought to be better known.

I hope you dig it, too, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

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, March 31, 2015 11:08 am

Tarik Thornton – Scattered, Covered, Smothered and Diced

Ahmad Jamal – M*A*S*H Theme
Art Jerry Miller- Finger Lickin’ Good
Odell Brown & The Organizers – The Look Of Love
James Brown- Spinning Wheel
Lena Horne – Rocky Raccoon
Lonnie Smith- Move Your Hand- Part 1
Joe Williams & The Jazz Orchestra – Get Out My Life Woman
Brother Jack McDuff- Theme From The Electric Surfboard
Bobbi Humphrey- Harlem River Drive
Gene Ammons- Jungle Strut
Charlie Earland- Sing a Simple Song
Billy Cobham- Crosswind
Walter Wolfman Washington & Solar System – Good & Juicy
(Bonus Cut) Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band of New Orleans – Tuba Fats & Drums

Listen/Download – Tarik Thornton – Scattered, Covered, Smothered and Diced 46MB/Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

This is a very fortuitous week indeed, since thanks to a communique from my man Tarik Thornton (veteran of many Funky16Corners pledge drives and guest spots) we have the second brand new mix of the week!

If you have sunk your ears into any of his previous mixes, you know that Tarik has deep crates and excellent taste, and both are on display in ‘Scattered, Covered, Smothered and Diced’. Here you get just about 40 minutes of very tasty soul jazz and jazz funk, well mixed and served up hot.

I’m digging this one for the second time as I write this, and I think you’ll be giving it repeated plays as well.

I hope you dig it, 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, March 24, 2015 10:57 am

The Sharpees

Greetings all.

One of the great truisms of soul music, is that even though not all roads lead to Chicago, many of the best ones do.

Though over the years I set out to collect regional sounds, especially New Orleans and Philadelphia, later in the game I discovered that when I wasn’t looking, my Chitown crate had swollen considerably.

The groovy thing is, that even taking into consideration the volume of high-quality Chicago soul sides I already know/own, there are tons more, and new stuff I’m discovering all the time.

One of the Chicago groups I came to fairly late in the game is the Sharpees.

Formed in the early 60s as part of Benny Sharp’s revue, the Sharpees, which included (at various times) Stacy Johnson, Herbert Reeves, Benny Sharp, Horise O’Toole and Guy Vernon, laid down a great string of 45s for One-Derful in 1965 and 1966.

Cuts like ‘Do the 45’ , ‘Tired of Being Lonely’ and today’s selection, ‘I’ve Got a Secret’.

The Sharpees had the good fortune to benefit from the songwriting talents of the great Eddie Silvers (of Eddie and the Dehavelons) who wrote or co-wrote several of their best sides.

The group had the benefit of alternating leads, with a raspy baritone competing with a high, stylish tenor, and lots of that classy Chicago soul feel.

‘I’ve Got a Secret’ is a great dancer, which opens with a heavy drum hit, followed by a propulsive bass which is countered by xylophone accents. The lead and the group harmonies are top notch.

The Sharpees 45s are consistently excellent, and since none of them are that expensive (with the Northern fave ‘Tired of Being Lonely’, their biggest hit topping out at around 40 bucks) you have no excuse not to file your own copies.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 10, 2015 1:02 pm

Cash McCall

Greetings all.

I hope the middle of the week finds you well.

One of the most important aspects of record research, or at least in assembling enough information to connect the musical dots (as it were) – is reading the label.

This certainly sounds like obvious advice, but there’s reading, and then there’s READING (confused yet??).

What I’m trying to say is that a cursory glance at most 45 labels will give up obvious clues, i.e. label name/logo, address, artist etc, all important. That said, sometimes you have to drill down another level or two, and if you really want to understand a scene, you need to familiarize yourself with the songwriters, producers, arrangers and even publishers, under both their given names, and any pseudonyms they might use, the last item being especially important in the often shambolic world of 60s R&B, soul and funk.

These were not only the days of shady label owners glomming onto artists publishing, but also performers working in and out of contract, doing their best to make as much money as possible, sometimes moonlighting where they ought not, assigning copyright to names other than their own (see Allen Toussaint aka Naomi Neville) or maybe tossing a little something something to a radio cat to get their record on the air.

Having been collecting Chicago soul for many years, I started to see certain names repeated on 45s by various artists on all kinds of labels. Two of the names I saw a lot, were those of Milton Bland (aka Monk Higgins) and today’s artist, Maurice Dollison (aka Cash McCall).

Those names (together, apart, real and/or alias) appear on countless Chitown 45s as writers, producers, arrangers and performers.

Maurice Dollison emigrated to Chicago from Missouri and spent some time playing alongside Otis Clay.

Today’s selection, ‘Earth Worm Pt1’ was his debut 45 (recorded under his real name) in 1963, co-written with none other than Monk Higgins.

‘Earth Worm Pt1&2’ is a gritty, mid-tempo slice of Chicago dance party R&B, with some nice guitar bubbling underneath (and soloing as as well), and cool percussion. It’s not hard to imagine a gym full of kids getting down to a number like this.

Dollison/McCall went on to record a string of soul 45s through the 60s, eventually moving almost entirely into a blues sound.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, December 31, 2014 12:10 pm

Miss Della Reese

Listen/Download – Della Reese – It Was a Very Good Year

Originally posted in 2011…

Note: It was indeed a very good year. Funky16Corners celebrated its 10th anniversary, the music kept flowing and all was well.

I thought it would be cool to repost this banger to ring in the New Year.

I hope you all had an excellent 2014, and I look forward to more music in the coming year.

Happy New Year!

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 25, 2014 1:08 pm

Mamie Galore and Dee Irwin

Greetings all.

The end of the week is upon us, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which drops each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. This week’s show features the Best of 2014 (Part two to follow next week). If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab yourself and MP3 here at the blog.

Today’s selection is yet another chapter in the ever unfolding saga of Dee Irwin.

The more of his records that I track down (whether billed as Big Dee Irwin, Dee Ervin, or Dee Erwin), the more I understand that he was both an excellent singer, and songwriter.

The record I bring you today, ‘All I Want For Christmas is Your Love’ was the b-side of the first of three duet 45s that Irwin would record with Mamie Galore for the Imperial label in 1968 and 1969.

Recorded with Monk Higgins in Chicago (and written by Higgins as well), ‘All I Want For Christmas Is Your Love’ is a slow, mellow tune, with solid vocals by both Irwin and Galore, and a nice arrangement by Higgins (listen hard for the lead guitar and the backing vocals, both subtle but excellent).

Both Irwin and Galore are singers that deserve to be better known. They both have impressive discographies (albeit spread over a number of 45s), both worked as both vocalist and songwriter, but neither ever really broke through to a wider audience.

‘All I Want For Christmas Is Your Love’ is the perfect soundtrack to that mellow, post-presents chill time, so dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

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 16, 2014 10:22 am

Minnie Riperton

Greetings all.

Our soulful Christmas grooves continue today with a very nice piece of Chicago soul.

The Gems recorded a handful of 45s for the Chess label between 1963 and 1965.

Asa group, they are of particular interest for including in their midst the mighty Minnie Riperton.

The group started out (and initially signed to Chess) as the Lovettes, changing their name to the Gems in 1963.

They recorded one 45 before original lead singer Vandine Harris left the group and was replaced by Riperton.

‘Love For Christmas’ is a particularly groovy tune, and 45, since the flipside ‘All Of It’ is basically a non-holiday recasting of the same song.

Featuring a very nice lead by Minnie, and great harmonies by the group, ‘Love For Christmas’ manages to tread the line between straight soul and holiday novelty (jingle bells and whatnot) quite nicely.

After leaving the Gems, Riperton recorded two 45s for Chess under the name Andrea Davis, before moving on to join Charles Stepney’s progressive experiment, the Rotary Connection, alongside Sidney Barnes, and recording a half-dozen albums between 1967 and 1971 (and then on to her own solo career).

It is a groovy 45, and not at all expensive, so go out and grab one for your own record box.

I’ll see you 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, December 9, 2014 11:21 am

Sam Cooke

Listen/Download – Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come

Greetings all.

I hope the new day finds you well.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but in case I haven’t, here’s something…

As a more than casual student of the interconnected nature of the Tao, and someone who has experienced the (extremely) odd coincidence now and again, the way that my life intersects with certain records often causes me to take note.

Many a time, have I been in search of a particular disc for a long time, then I get a sudden urge to look again, and there it is.

The same kind of thing often happens when I write up a record (or get ready to do so) and then I discover that some important event tied to that record (birthday, death, anniversary etc) is coming up at the same time.

I had been trying to get my hands on Sam Cooke’s final LP ‘Shake’ (specifically to get the LP-only track ‘Yeah Man’) for some time. Considering the popularity of Cooke, and the fact that the album contained no less than three hits, it surprised me how scarce a record it was, and how hard it would be to get a copy at a reasonable price.

So this fall, when I had all but given up trying, I scored a copy of the ‘Shake’ 45, and then a few weeks later  a copy of the LP verily fell in my lap (sometimes – to paraphrase my man DJ Prestige –  it less me finding the record, than the record finding me).

Last week I sat down to digimatize the discs, and what should pop up on my radar but the fact that the 50th anniversary of Cooke’s death (12/11/64) was about a week away.

Cooke has been – thanks entirely to his untimely passing – at the top of the list of transitional (and hugely influential) figures of soul music.

This is not to say that he never made any ‘pure’ soul, because the tracks above will testify to that, but rather that the bulk of his post-gospel career was divided pretty evenly between R&B, pop music and crooning.

Cooke was a brilliant singer and songwriter, and there are all indications that he would (like Jackie Wilson, an artist who’s career paralleled his) have entered the soul ‘mainstream’ had he lived, but sadly, we’ll never know.

Today’s 45, which was released about a month before the ‘Shake’ LP (it was already charting within a few weeks of his killing) was a substantial hit, both sides making it into the R&B Top 10 by the end of January 1965.

It is a study in contrasts, with ‘Shake’, a hard driving (and influential) soul number, backed with the epic civil rights ballad ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’.

‘Shake’, later covered by Otis Redding and the Small Faces among others, features some surprisingly raw rhythm guitar (Bobby Womack) running through its middle, surrounded by booming horns and solid percussion. It was recorded at Cooke’s last session, less than a month before his death.

‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ is one of those records that has an eerie depth to it. It hearkens back to Cooke’s gospel roots, but despite the title, it has never seemed to me like a hopeful song. It has the ring of inevitable resolution about it, but only as viewed through great amounts of struggle and pain.

Cooke sang the song on the Tonight Show in February of 1964 (the performance has since been lost) and never performed the song live again.

Listening to ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’, it now seems inevitable that a song and performance so powerful would be seen as a landmark of sorts.

That it was released almost simultaneously with his death has cemented that status.

So toast the memory of the mighty Sam Cooke,  dig the sounds, and I’ll see you 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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, December 4, 2014 3:14 pm

Dee Dee Warwick

Greetings all.

The end of the week is upon us, so it’s time once again to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be hitting the airwaves of the interwebs, this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

Today’s selection is another one (like Wednesday’s tune) of those tracks that made it into my ears via a British Invasion singer first.

A while back I managed to put my hands on a copy of Chris Farlowe’s ‘The Art of Chris Farlowe’ LP.

Farlowe, first with his band the Thunderbirds, and later on as the vocalist of Colosseum, was one of the really interesting UK singers that never made a serious dent here in the US.

A singularly unusual looking and sounding cat, Farlowe had excellent taste in R&B and soul, and ‘The Art of Chris Farlowe’ is packed with covers of artists like the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin, Darrell Banks, Garnet Mimms, and Dee Dee Warwick.

I fell in love with the song ‘We’re Doing Fine’ and with a little digging discovered that it had originally been recorded by Dee Dee Warwick in 1965 for the Blue Rock label.

Written by Horace Ott, the song starts off deceptively quietly, with Warwick eventually joining the acoustic guitar that opens the record.

By the time the band kicks in – brass, strings and electric guitar (arranged by Ott, produced by Ed Townsend) – what you get is a powerful, melodically sophisticated soul 45.

‘We’re Doing Fine’ was Dee Dee Warwick’s first hit, making into the R&B Top 30 in August of 1965. She would continue to score hits into the mid-70s.

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

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.

Comments (2)

By Larry, November 25, 2014 11:27 am

Listen/Download – The Salem Travelers – Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

Listen/Download – The Staple Singers – For What It’s Worth

Listen/Download – George Perkins and the Silver Stars – Crying In the Streets
Greetings all

I’ve got nothing but sounds today…

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, October 30, 2014 12:49 pm

Johnny Sayles and Clea Bradford

Listen/Download – Johnny Sayles – My Love’s a Monster – MP3

Listen/Download – Clea Bradford – My Love’s a Monster – MP3

_____________________________________________________________________

Greetings all.

Time to close out the week.

First, I’d like to suggest that since this Friday is Halloween, you all huddle around the wireless set with your cider and popcorn balls and dig this years Funky16Corners Radio Show Halloween Special, which hits the airwaves of the interwebs at 9PM on Viva Radio. There’ll be lots of groovy, spooky things to hear. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, check it out on your mobile device in the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 here in the archive.

I’m digging into the archive for today’s tracks, both of which have appeared in this space before (2006/2009).

What you’re getting is two very groovy, completely different songs that share the same title: ‘My Love’s a Monster’. Both of them hail from Chicago, with the Johnny Sayles number (arranged by Monk Higgins) coming from 1965, and the Clea Bradford (produced, arranged and co-written by no less a light than Richard Evans) in 1968.

They are both outstanding in their own way, with Johnny Sayles getting a touch more Halloween-y with his intro, but Miss Bradford getting a little funkier in her outing, which reminds me a lot of Marlena Shaw’s work with Mr Evans.

Both are yet more evidence that when it came to making soul 45s, the great city of Chicago was near the top of the list.

I hope you dig the sounds and get a chance to check out the Halloween show.

See you on Monday.

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.