Comments (2)

By Larry, September 30, 2010 3:04 pm

Ekseption and their shiny silver sleeve…

Listen/Download – Ekseption – Ritual Fire Dance

Greetings all.

Please allow me to begin by making a simple statement of fact.

I am definitely getting too old for this shit.

Hooboy….

I piled myself and my records into the trusty Funky16Corners-mobile last Saturday morning, and set off (alone) for a whirlwind weekend of DJ-ing and digging in Washington, DC.

That was the easy part.

I had a grip of podcasts to keep me company on the trip and the drive down was uneventful (and quick). I rolled into the city by the early afternoon, meeting up with my buddy DJ Birdman and his lovely family (finally getting to meet Birdman Jr.!), followed by some digging (natch…whatup to Marshall and Mike) and then on to some delicious bar-b-que ribs.

That night Birdman and I did the late shift at Marvin where the crowd was predictably lively (with many predictable and unsuitable requests, but that’s how these things go). I recorded one of my sets (funk and disco), which I’ll be posting here sometime in the next few weeks.

The next morning, following an all too brief bit of sleep, we got up and rolled out to the DC Record Fair, where Birdman (and some other DC heads, whatup Neal and Nightkrawler) were running the show and had to get things set up. The U Street Music Hall was a very nice space, and the Record Fair produced some stellar results which will see the light of day well into the next year (or two) here on the blog.

I spun a set of uptempo Northern Soul at the Fair, which I did not record (left the recorder in the car…), but if you want a taste go back to the Northern set I did at Master Groove earlier this year (Funky16Corners Radio v.82 Groovin’ at the Go Go) which repeats about half of what I played on Sunday and you’ll get the idea. I’ll whip up an all-new Northern mix sometime in the not too distant future.

The folks at the Record Fair were very cool, especially the old school soulie right in front of the DJ booth (perhaps the most luxurious DJ booth I’ve ever been in, I felt spoiled) who requested the Just Brothers ‘Sliced Tomatoes’ about ten seconds after I’d already cued it up (it was kismet I tell you!), and it was very cool to meet up with some old friends and make first-person contact with a couple of interwebs acquaintances.

I have to say that DC is always a chill scene, with cool people and tons of great records to be had. The thought of restricting my digs to the DC area crossed my mind, but then I remembered what a degenerate record collector I am and realized that just wasn’t going to happen.

I rolled out of the Record Fair about an hour after I finished my set with a HUGE stack of vinyl, including more than a few longtime want list items (on 45 and LP). The only bummer being that I don’t have any pics, since I didn’t bring my camera, instead relying on my new phone, which I still haven’t learned to operate properly, rendering the few pictures I took tiny, low-res and unusable.

As is always the case, Igot lost on my way out of DC. It wasn’t too bad, but by the time I hit Baltimore I also hit the wall. My tired old carcass is not used to being treated like it’s 25 again, and I ran out of steam, forcing a pit stop at Starbucks where I loaded up on coffee and food and hit the road once again.

Unfortunately, as easy as my ride down to DC was, my ride home was plagued with difficulty, including an insane traffic jam in northern Maryland (understaffed toll booth related) and then another jam up in NJ which forced me to alter my route and take a time consuming detour.

This all followed by the fact that I had yet another medical procedure scheduled for Tuesday morning, and I’m sitting here at the laptop just about ready to go into hibernation.

I have something cool in the cooker for Monday morning (just waiting for all the pieces to arrive in the in-box) and after that I’m not sure what I’ll do, since I now have so much to choose from (in addition to everything else aging in the oaken barrels in the vinyl cellar).

I figured I’d close out the week with something I’ve wanted to post for a while now. Even though I’d digi-ma-tized it weeks (months?) ago, when I went to post it I discovered that I had neglected to photograph the label, but – as is always the case – when I was pulling records for the DC trip I put aside a number of records similarly afflicted, and I bring it to you now, better late than never.

I first posted something by the Dutch prog band Ekseption way back in 2007 when I included their version of the soul jazz classic ‘This Here’ in Funky16Corners Radio v.32. Some time after that, while engaged in a little e-digging, I discovered a 45 of yet another of their classical pastiches (something they did a lot), this time a version of Manuel de Falla’s ‘Ritual Fire Dance’ from his 1915 ballet ‘El Amor Brujo’.

I posted a couple of other jazz-funk reworkings of classical pieces a while back (with Deodato and Woody Herman covering Strauss and Copland), and while I’m not likely to make it a regular feature here at the Corners, the Ekseption 45 is so groovy I would be remiss were I not to share it with you.

I have to admit that I was not familiar with de Falla’s original piece when I first heard it (check out Artur Rubinstein playing it here, for comparison), but after hearing it in its original setting, it’s safe to say that aside from some heavy drums and organ (and giving it that Euro-swinger je ne sais quois), Ekseption don’t really stray too far from the source.

I don’t think I’d be telling tales out of school were I to suggest that this particular gem might get some of your modder types out onto the floor, with a little bit of that au-go-go flavour.

In other news, don’t forget to tune in Friday night at 9PM for this week’s all-new edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio. I assure you that the collection of funk, soul, jazz and rare groove that awaits you get your weekend off to a groovy start.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some puh-sike-a-dellia….

Comments (8)

By Larry, September 26, 2010 5:46 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.88 – Throbbing Organs

Playlist

You can check out this mix in the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive

This is being prepared in advance of my excursion to Washington, so any reporting on that trip will have to wait until later in the week.

Hopefully it was a gas and I found lots of groovy records.

That said, it’s been a while since the last organ mix (a live mix, back in January), and I can’t go very long without a Hammond infusion, so I figured it was time.

This mix is all over the map, with some hard driving R&B, soul, funk and even a little bit of soul jazz, but since we’re talking about the universe of the Hammond organ, that’s kind of how these things swing.

A couple of these tracks have seen the light of day here on Funky16Corners individually (none recently), but since two slices of bacon is always better than one, and organ records are the soulful and delicious equivalent of bacon in the musical food pyramid, it couldn’t possibly hurt to hear them again.

Anyhoo… this week might be a little light, since I’m one hundred and eleventy seven percent that I will be returning from DC exhausted, and then I have a little surgical type thingy on Tuesday which is sure to knock me on my ass for a few days, but it’s one of those ‘gotta do it when you gotta do it’ deals, so there.

I hope you dig the mix, and I’m sure I’ll make it back onto the scene by the end of the week (if not sooner).

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for a new psyche mix!

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (1)

By Larry, September 19, 2010 2:57 pm

The Masqueraders

Listen/Download – Masqueraders – I Don’t Want Nobody To Lead Me On

Listen/Download – Masqueraders – Love Peace and Understanding

Greetings all.

This is going to be a very busy week, with the real world moves mixed in with DJ gigs on Sunday in NYC (past) and next Sat and Sun in DC.

However, your intrepid blogger will not be stayed from the swift completion of his appointed rounds,
The two tunes I bring you today are by one of the more interesting soul groups that I’ve come across.
I first came to the Masqueraders in a rather roundabout way, after discovering that one of my favorite tunes on the Dynamics ‘First Landing’ album was in fact a cover of a Masqueraders tune.

This sent me a-Googling, and I discovered that the Masqueraders were the very definition of a journeyman soul group, having recorded for a wide variety of labels (under a few names) between the late 50s and the mid-70s, never having made a significant impact despite some very high quality records.

Finding out about the group via the Dynamics connection, I set out in search of their 45s, keeping their name filed in the back of my mind.

The basic framework of their story follows them from Texas, to Detroit, and then on to Memphis where they recorded a big chunk of their best stuff alongside the legendary Chips Moman and Tommy Cogbill (for a detailed look at their history check out these articles at The B-Side, Solid Hit Soul and SoulExpress).
Both of today’s tunes were recorded during their late-60s Memphis period, and were both written by the group.

‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Lead Me On’ (from 1967) was the Masqueraders tune I heard performed by the Dynamics. The tune was also covered by Rosey Grier (who also recorded for AGP) and a group called the Gentlemen Four. It’s a great piece of rough harmony soul, with some great guitar work. The Masqueraders’ version is (at least to my ears) far superior to the Dynamics (excellent) cover (I haven’t heard the other two versions).

1969’s ‘Love Peace and Understanding’ is a fantastic, upbeat number with era-specific lyrics that reinforces the group’s songwriting cred. Like ‘I’Don’t Want Nobody…’ it sounds like a rougher, groovier take on the Detroit group sound of the time, like a funkier, more aggressive Four Tops.

The Masqueraders hit the R&B charts a few times in the 60s, and again with a later version of the group in the 80s.

Many of their best 60s and 70s records are included in the comp ‘The Masqueraders Unmasked’.

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

Don’t forget, I’ll be heading down to Washington, DC for a weekend of fun. Saturday evening 9/25 I will be spinning at Marvin with my man DJ Birdman, bringing the finest in funk, soul and disco to perk up your ears and move your feet. The following day I will be spinning a set at the DC Record Fair. Fall by and say howdy if you’re in the area.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some pop-psyche goodness.

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 16, 2010 7:45 am

Andre Williams

Listen/Download – Andre Williams – Cadillac Jack

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and I am happy to say that the Funky16Corners obit page is closed (for now).
Losing both Diamond Joe and King Coleman in the same week was a colossal drag, so I figured I close things out with something a little, how do they say, bad-ass.

But first, some news.

Should you be in New York City this Sunday evening and have developed a taste for the funk 45s, might I suggest you fall by Fat Buddha (formerly known as Forbidden City) 212 Ave A as I and my records will be making our return to Master Groove alongside residents DJ Bluewater and M-Fasis. I’ll be spending the next few days rifling through my crates to select only the finest funk that can be delivered via seven-inch platter, and I hope you can make it out to hear some of them, and perhaps, should the spirit take you, get off your ass and shake a tailfeather.

In even more exciting news, my records and I will be piling into the Funky16Corners-mobile and heading down to Washington, DC for a weekend of fun. Saturday evening 9/25 I will be spinning at Marvin with my man DJ Birdman, bringing the finest in funk, soul and disco to perk up your ears and move your feet. The following day I will be spinning a set at the DC Record Fair, as well as spending money on records (who among you didn’t see that coming?), after which I will be dragging my exhausted ass back to New Jersey.

You should also be hip (if you aren’t already) to the Funky16Corners Radio Show which drops every Friday night at 9PM on Viva internet radio, and is then archived for download (as an MP3) at this very blog the following day. I have lots of groovy stuff in store, so you should be real nice and feed your iPod something healthy.

As I said a few graphs ago, I was in the mood for some funky bad-assery, so I dipped into the crates and whipped out a little number by Mr. Andre Williams.

I won’t go too deep into his history, which is long and convoluted, aside from letting you know that Mr. Williams, working in Detroit and Chicago had a hand in creating many, many great records during his day, including writing or co-writing tunes like ‘Shake a Tail Feather’ and ‘Twine Time’, and burning up the studios with his own brand of groove grease with tunes like ‘Bacon Fat’, ‘Jail Bait’, ‘Loose Juice’, ‘Rib Tips’ etc, and working behind the scenes on records like ‘Uhuru (African Twist)’ by Jomo and ‘Pig Snoots’ by the Natural Bridge Bunch. During the 50s and 6os he recorded for labels like Fortune, Avin, Sport, Ric-Tic, Checker, Chess Wingate and many more.

The tune I bring you today (from 1968) is a tale of a very heavy cat named ‘Cadillac Jack’ which is sung (narrated?) by Andre who gambles, fights and (of course) drives a big white Caddy, until he meets his end at the barrel of a gun, eventually trading his own Caddy for the long, black one from the funeral home.

As Mr Williams says, ‘He sure was a mack!’.

So was Andre, and despite hitting some very hard times a while back, he made a comeback and is still performing.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some pop-psyche goodness.

Comments (3)

By Larry, September 14, 2010 10:30 am

Carlton ‘King’ Coleman

Listen/Download – King Coleman – The Boo Boo Song Pt1

Listen/Download – King Coleman – Freedom

Greetings all.

Welcome to the second – and hopefully the last – installment in the latest string of ‘in memorium’ posts here at Funky16Corners.

I heard of the passing of the mighty Rev. Carlton ‘King’ Coleman literally minutes after I found out about Diamond Joe.

Though I can’t say that I know a lot about King Coleman, what I do know cements his position as one of the great R&B/soul journeymen of the 60s.

He worked as a disc jockey, emcee, and vocalist (he debuted as the vocalist on Nat Kendrick and the Swans ‘(Do the) Mashed Potatoes’) going on to record a series of dynamite 45s.

The greatest of these (at least in my humble opinion) is the positively, unfuckwithable ‘Boo Boo Song’, as powerful and raucous a slab of party power as has ever been committed to vinyl.

The King eventually found his way to the Lord and continued to record religious music that was still soulful and funky, eventually returning to his radio roots hosting a gospel program on WMBM in his native Florida.
I’m going to repost both King Coleman tracks that have appeared here previously, the aforementioned ‘Boo Boo Song’ and the much more serious ‘Freedom’.

Separated from the ‘Boo Boo Song’ by barely a year, ‘Freedom’ (released on Philadelphia’s storied Fairmount label) is a spoken-word civil rights anthem, and quite a departure for the man that spent the previous decade shimmying, hully gullying, and engaging in all manner of madness.

I’m also going to repost the write-up I did about the ‘Boo Boo Song’ back in 2006. It pretty much says all I want to say about that amazing record.

Peace
Larry

_____________________________________________________________________________

Originally posted April 2006

So it’s the middle of 1967, and you just rolled into your job at the local six million watt AM radio powerhouse. You pour yourself a disgusting cup of lukewarm coffee and grab a box of new 45s, to see what might make it onto the air. You work your way through all manner of budding psychedelia, sunshine pop and middle-of-the-road instrumentals, when you reach into the box and pull out something called ‘The Boo Boo Song Pts 1&2’ by a cat calling himself King Coleman. Though you are unfamiliar with the artist, you decide to give it a spin anyway, knowing that despite the suspect title, anything is possible. You unsleeve the record, place it on the turntable and absentmindedly apply needle to wax. The next few second are a blur. All you can remember is that following seemingly innocent opening, female singers chanting;

A hunting we will go A hunting we will go We will catch that fox and put him in a box And will not let him go!

You momentarily figure you have a childrens record on your hands. And then, something happens that causes you to spit out your coffee and jump from your chair like your pants were on fire. There, booming out of the speakers is something that sounds like a bug-eyed madman on a caffeine bender.

Boo bo boo bo boo boo boo bo bo bo bo Bay bay buh baybay bay buh buh bay bay Bo bo bo bo bo bo bo (etc etc…)*

It sounds like the kind of guy, that if a certified lunatic like Screaming Jay Hawkins saw King Coleman coming up the sidewalk, he’d pull the bone from his nose, avert his eyes and cross to the other side of the street, murmuring to himself, “Omigod, omigod, omigod. It’s that King Coleman…PUH-leeze don’t let him see me….”

Suffice to say, that as far as you were concerned, things only got worse. The wild babbling emanating from the grooves builds to a crescendo, a mess of corrupted nursery rhymes, nonsense syllables and wild wailing. You rake the needle across the record, pull it off the turntable and break it into little pieces, run into the next room and tell your secretary that if she ever lets ANYTHING like that through again she’s going to be looking for work. You of course are a tasteless bastard, and this little memory goes a long way toward explaining why you currently live under a highway overpass, grilling pigeons over a campfire.

Now if it were me back then (I’d be 5 years old), I’d have immediately requested several extra copies of ‘The Boo Boo Song’ so I’d have some spares ready as I wore them out. That’s just the kind of kid I was (and am). You see, I think King Coleman was one of the great geniuses of his day, erupting like a rhythm and blues volcano, wrecking the joint with all manner of Mashed Potatoes, Hully Gullys, Loo-key Doo-keys, Alley Rats (and Soulful Mice) and Booga-Lous.

Between 1959, when he moved from his work as an emcee and disk jockey into the world of R&B as the voice on Nat Kendrick & The Swans ‘(Do The) Mashed Potatoes Pts 1&2’ – and the late 60’s, Carlton ‘King’ Coleman laid down some of the butt-shakingest, eye-rollingest, high-stepping soul and funk 45s to ever roll down the pike. Every last one of them** is a guaranteed party starter. ‘The Boo Boo Song Pts 1&2’ is possibly the finest of them all, because it manages to rope in (barely) his explosive vocalizing, pairing it with some booming drums, blaring horns and organ, all of which make it a storming slice of soul evangelism – guaran-freaking-teed to peel off the wallflowers and send those already dancing into a sweaty trance. If you haven’t done so already, I would suggest most vociferously that when you play this track, you loosen your tie, turn the volume way up and let it wail. I would also recommend that if you have any small kids around, you play it for them too. I played it for my two-year old son, and he thought it was a hoot.

* Yeah, I know that isn’t an exact transcription, but if you think I’m going to spend a half an hour, restarting the song 50 times so I can accurately count all the BOBO’s and BAYBAY’s, you my friend have another think coming…

** The only exception – and a track that was omitted (for obvious reasons) from the Norton comp is the fascinating ‘Freedom’, which came out on Fairmount in 1965 or 66. It’s a mostly spoken word, civil rights anthem that is an extreme departure from the rest of his oeuvre. I’ll post it here sometime in the future

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a classic bit of Sunshine Pop

Comments (2)

By Larry, August 22, 2010 1:18 pm

Earl King

Listen/Download – Earl King – Tic Tac Toe

Greetings all.

I’m sitting here, and it’s early. No one (except the kids, natch) has had enough sleep, but it’s relatively quiet so I figured I’d better get some writing in before the day gets rolling.
The summer – bracketed by Memorial Day and Labor Day – is almost over, and that, surprisingly enough, is a good thing.

Labor Day is approaching, and with it comes the exodus of the tourists. This glorious occasion is followed by a month of great weather, a serious drop in traffic and crowds, and with it the gradual restoration of my peace of mind (which seems in constant danger of extinction).
The tune I bring you today is a kicking slice of New Orleans funk, with as solid a pedigree as these things ever have.

The artist in question is the mighty Earl King.

You do not know him?

I say ‘au contraire, mon frere!’, because while Earl King may not have had any big hits, he was directly or indirectly responsible for many great pieces of music, including Professor Longhair’s legendary ‘Big Chief’ (which King wrote and sang on), the blues/soul standards  ‘Come On’ (which Jimi Hendrix covered on ‘Electric Ladyland’) and ‘Trick Bag’, in addition to being an indispensable part of New Orleans music in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

One need only dip into their New Orleans crates (you can substitute theoretical boxes of New Orleans 45s if you don’t have real ones) and see how many great records were either recorded by King, or bear the mark of his pen and/or performance (often under his real name, Earl Johnson).

The tune I bring you today is one of the few vinyl remnants of a 1970 King session, helmed by no less a light than Allen Toussaint and backed by a certain local combo called the Meters. This conglomeration recorded an album’s worth of material, but since a satisfactory deal never materialized, all that ever saw the light of day at the time was a few 45s.
One of these, ‘Street Parade’ (on the hard-to-find Kansu label) was featured in this space back in ought-seven. As Mardi Gras tributes go, they don’t get much better (or funkier) than ‘Street Parade’.

‘Tic Tac Toe’ which hails from the same sessions is lyrically uninspiring (pretty much standard issue dance craze boilerplate) but King is in fine voice, and the backing band featuring most of the Meters (Dan Phillips at the mighty ‘Home of the Groove’ noted previously that Art Neville’s keyboards seem to be MIA) is tight.

There’s a great, repeated bass guitar riff that kind of pushes the rhythm, Zig Modeliste’s snappy drums, and a nice horn chart riding in the background.

Despite the uninspired lyrics, it’s always great to hear King’s voice, and in the end what you are supposed be doing with this record is dancing, not parsing the meaning of the words, so take it all as a very groovy whole, and shake your thing a little bit.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something mellow.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a Lennon/McCartney tune.

Comments (3)

By Larry, August 15, 2010 1:58 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.87 – Wind of Change

Playlist

You can check out this mix in the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive

How are the closing days of summer treating you?
I know we’ve got lots of good weather ahead, but it’s only a few weeks until the mass exodus of the tourists, when I will once again be able roam free amidst traffic that is just ‘bad’, not mind-bogglingly so.
The mix I bring you today is a continuation of a minor series of sorts, in which the Funky16Corners Radio thingy takes time out to focus on a specific instrument. We’ve already surveyed the vibes and the electric piano, and I’m sure that there are a few more such collections huddling in the crates awaiting release.
This time out we take a look (listen) to the much maligned, but very groovy sounds of the (mostly) jazz flute.
As I said when I wrote about the vibes, there are those among us for whom the sound of the flute is too ‘cool’, which naturally is why I dig it so much.
I love the sound of the flute in the hands of a great musician, and what you’re getting in this mix is 15 examples of that very thing.
Of course, not every single cut contains a virtuoso performance, on account of that would be boring and a few steps away from the prog sound of my teenage years that I have come to despise.
The vast majority of the players here (although one of them is anonymous) are at least tangentially connected to the world of jazz, with a few having crossed over into pop and rock and one (yes, you know the one…the one who’s name sent a shiver up your spine when you saw it, unfairly I might add) solidly camped out in rock and roll.
This one took a while to assemble, if only because a few of the artists in question have appeared in this space frequently (Koffman, Steig, Wess, Mann), their dulcet tones gracing other Funky16Corners Radio playlists.
Things get off to a serious start with Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s epic reading of Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. Kirk, a master on many wind instruments – often simultaneously – had a pronounced influence on two of the other players in this mix, namely Jeremy Steig and Ian Anderson (more on him later). His frequent use of ‘overblowing’, and vocalizing through the flute make him one of the most dynamic stylists the instrument has ever produced.
Paul Horn is best known for his pioneering new age recordings like ‘Inside’, but in the early to mid-60s he was still working a straight ahead jazz style. The Eastern-influenced ‘Paramahansa’ (which he re-recorded years later) appeared on his 1967 ‘Monday Monday’ LP, alongside a number of contemporary pop and rock covers. The tune sees Horn playing over a big band producing something that sounds like it’s from the soundtrack to a spy thriller.
Moe Koffman, who has been featured here a number of time is one of those cats that started out as a pretty ‘straight’ jazz player and as the 60s progressed he got further out. In addition to the flute Koffman was a proponent of the electrified saxophone (like Eddie Harris and Sonny Stitt) and he made some very cool, au go go flavored stuff during the era. His take on Bob Dorough and Ben Tucker’s “Coming Home Baby’ has a relaxed swing to it, sounding once again like something lifted from era-specific TV or movie soundtrack.
Bobbi Humphrey’s ‘Sad Bag’ has a mournful sound, with some very nice, reverbed flute.
David ‘Fathead’ Newman is better known for his sax playing, especially in his association with the mighty Ray Charles. I first heard ‘The 13th Floor’ on an early-90s comp called ‘Heavy Flute’, shortly after which I grabbed myself a copy of the 45. The tune originally appeared on Newman’s 1968 ‘Bigger and Better’ LP and is a great illustration of that fact that he certainly knew his way around the flute.
‘Teenage Chase’ is a Keith Mansfield penned cut from the KPM sound library album ‘Beat Incidental’. Like many of the cuts it was intended to be used as a ‘theme’, and so it is relatively short. I have no idea who the flute player us, but it sure as hell sounds like the same cat blowing on the Hawkshaw/Parker tune ‘Hot Pants’ (also a KPM selection).
Hubert Laws went on to great success with radio friendly R&B in the 70s with the CTI label, but in the mid-60s he was recording powerful soul jazz sessions for Atlantic. ‘Bloodshot’ is the opening track from his 1966 ‘Flute By Laws’ LP, and is driven by Laws’ flute, powerful brass and spot on Latin percussion.
Jerome Richardson is best known as a prolific studio musician, but he spent decades playing bop and soul jazz. His take on Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ is from his 1968 ‘Groove Merchant’ album, which features Richardson on a variety of wind instruments, including a few different kinds of flute (more than one on this track!). Aside from an odd, intermittent chime, this version of ‘Ode…’ is pretty cool, including some well placed harpsichord.
Like many of the players here, Joe Thomas doubled (tripled) on a variety of wind instruments. ‘Big Heart, Giant Soul’ from his 1970 Cobblestone album ‘Comin’ Home’ is indicative of the high quality of that funky soul jazz session. You get to hear Thomas (who also played in Rhoda Scott’s trio) vocalizing on what sounds like a Varitone (maybe attached to the flute), and then playing it straight. Thomas went on to record funkier stuff (even disco) in the 70s.
Ernie Fields’ ‘Watch Your Step’ is one of my favorite 45s, period. I’ve never been able to find out much about Fields, but ‘Watch Your Step’ is so high-concept, so soulful yet psychedelic and well-arranged, that you can only hope that he did more stuff like this.
If you were to put together a list of cats with serious jazz chops who spent most of their career trying to reach a mass audience (and sometimes succeeding) Herbie Mann would have to be at the top of the list. Mann started out working in a Latin bag, but went on to record a serious grip of soul jazz and even pop through the 60s and 70s. The title track of his 1971 ‘Push Push’ album shows that Mann was very comfortable in a funky bag (where he spent most of the early 70s), eventually having his biggest hit with 1975’s ‘Hijack’.
Jeremy Steig is beloved by crate diggers/beat heads for his track ‘Howling for Judy’ which was the main sample behind the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sure Shot’. Steig’s late 60s/early 70s stuff for Solid State and Blue Note is generally pretty far out, and skipping right along the border between funky and ‘out’. ‘Alias (ALi’as)’ (named for drummer Don Alias) features a wild performance by Steig over bass, drums and percussion., is from the same 1969 LP (‘Legwork’) as ‘Howling…’.
I’ve featured a number of very cool tunes from Frank Wess’s 1970 ‘Wess to Memphis’ LP on the Stax subsidiary Enterprise. Once again I must recommend this album highly, since it’s one of those great sessions where a jazz cat (Wess was well known as a tenor player as well as his work on the flute) really got into a more popular vibe with excellent results. The album, which includes a number of covers is well played and produced, and one I go back to frequently. He wails on his version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed Sealed and Delivered’.
I can’t remember where I first heard of Tim Weisberg’s ‘Streak-Out’, but I know I was surprised because it was the very same Weisberg who had a mid-70s chart hit alongside Dan Fogelberg! ‘Streak-Out’ from 1974 (which he apparently performed on the ‘Midnight Special’, so it must have been a minor hit) is a nice bit of funky rock, with a little bit of a break at the beginning.
This edition of Funky16Corners Radio closes out with what no doubt seems like the oddest of artists, Jethro Tull. All 1970s prog/hobbit-isms aside, when Tull got started in the late 60s they were a jazz inflected heavy blues band, not unlike Cream. The song presented here is, to bring things full circle, a Rahsaan Roland Kirk tune called ‘Serenade to a Cuckoo’. It was reportedly the first song Ian Anderson learned on the flute (Kirk being by far his strongest influence), and he and the band acquit themselves nicely.
I hope you dig this little survey, and I’ll be back later in the week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for some freakbeat supreme!

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (1)

By Larry, August 12, 2010 11:28 am

Woody Herman

Eumir Deodato

Listen/Download – Woody Herman and the Herd – Fanfare for the Common Man

Listen/Download – Deodato – Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)

Greetings all.
I hope week is coming to a satisfying close for you all.
My wife has to head out for a few days, and the spuds and myself are bumming, but since we plan to wreck the joint while she’s away, there is a (very) minor silver lining.
We’ll just see if three people can survive on corn chips, frankfurters and slurpees for five days.
If you haven’t already pulled down the ones and zeros for this weeks Funky16Corners Soul Club mix by my man Vincent the Soul Chef, do so now, on account of it’s full of the funk, and will – as the kids say – rock your world.
Also, don’t forget to tune in Friday night at 9PM for this week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show over at Viva internet radio. If you are not already hip/hep, you can click on the Radio Show link in the header and check out the fifteen (!?!) weekly shows that have already been mixed down and archived as MP3s for your listening pleasure.
Today’s post is one of those things that kind of fell together organically over the course of a few months, wherein I was holding something in storage, and then something else climbed over the transom and into the to-be-blogged folder that, how do they say, augmented the existing track in the stylistic and theoretical (figurative/symbolic) sense, and so they came together like beer and stout in a black and tan, blended ever so carefully so that once they pass over the lobes and into the brain the desired effect is one of jazzy, funky wonderfulness (and naturally, as is the style here at Funky16Corners, a tremendous run-on sentence).
Not too long ago one of my Friendface pals posted a video of the mighty Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd working it out on Aaron Copland’s 1942 masterpiece of 20th century classical music ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’. I dug the arrangement a LOT, so I went in search of the vinyl equivalent and found another live recording of a slightly later (I think) version of the Herd laying down the same arrangement at Montreaux.
Back in the olden days, when I was a long-haired, drum mangling stoner type, I had a copy of a certain Emerson, Lake and Palmer album that contained their version of the same piece of music. Having been brought up in a house full of classical music, but then stuffing my head with as much contemporary rock as possible, as well as being your standard teenaged rube, I thought that the ELP ‘Fanfare’ was of a deepness theretofore unheard, and blasted it at high volume many, many times until a seriously untrustworthy fellow bandmember (who, if memory serves was also a  pathological liar of singular talent) stole what was then a fairly expensive record (of course everything is expensive when you have no money).
In reflection, especially after hearing Woody Herman lay it down, the ELP version sounds like a meth-infused synthesizer orchestra trapped in an electrified mudslide. The Copland piece is both sublime and inspirational, and to hear it mangled so seems now to be something approaching a high crime.
Interestingly enough, Herman and his band were playing their Gary Anderson arrangement (recorded in 1974) of ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ a few years before ELP got their hands on it, and as you might have already assumed, the touch is considerably lighter, using funky subtlety to finesse the brassy strains of Copland’s piece where ELP drove through it with a steamroller.
In addition to a hot band – Herman, a master of the original big band era made some serious moves in the fusion era, still with a big band – you get to hear the master working it out on the soprano sax.
If you get your hands on a copy of the ‘Herd at Montreux’ album, you also get to hear them play the Richard Evans arrangement of ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’ and a very tasty version of Billy Cobham’s ‘Crosswind’ that I’ll feature here in the future.
The second track featured today is something I’m sure a lot of you will be familiar with since it was a substantial hit in 1972. That tune is Eumir Deodato’s epic arrangement of Richard Strauss’s 1896 ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’. Better known to one and all as the ‘2001’ music, Deodato’s take on the tune is in addition to being probably the biggest hit CTI ever had, a masterpiece of funky jazz.
Featuring Deodato on electric piano, Airto and Ray Barretto on percussion, Billy Cobham on drums, Stanley Clarke on bass and Jay Berliner on guitar, ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ goes on for nine minutes, and I’m here to tell you (though you should be able to hear it yourselves) that it never lags, never slips into fusion-y masturbation, never loses it’s kick.
The piece builds gradually, with a kind of amorphous tune-up, until the drums kick in at around 48 seconds, then the bass, guitar and of course Deodato’s electric piano (the heart and soul of the tune), followed by what has to be about the best known classical horn line in history, following the structure of the original until it settles down into a funky jam at around the two and a half minute mark. You know I love me some Fender Rhodes, and Deodato goes to town here. The coolest thing of all – and I hope you’ll agree – is that for what is basically a nine minute long jazz fusion interpretation of a piece of classical music (shades of Spinal Tap in Jazz Fantasy), ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ never gets cheesy or heavy handed, which is especially notable in an era when cheesy and heavy handed were the coin of the realm.
I hope you dig both of these cuts, and use them to get down with what the hipsters used to call ‘long hair’ music.
I’ll see you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

PS Make sure to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio Friday night at 9PM. Your ears will thank you.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a tribute to the late Chris Dedrick of Free Design.

Comments (1)

By Larry, August 3, 2010 7:05 pm

George Semper, from the cover of ‘Makin’ Waves’

Listen/Download – Love – That’s the Way It Is

Greetings all.
I come to you midweek with a somewhat mysterious 45.
I can’t even recall how or when I picked this one up, but my suspicions suggest to me that it was procured at a record show.
I think I pulled it out of a box of 45s because I recognized the label (I already had a Jimmy Reed 45 on RRG), but I’m sure I decided to buy it when I noticed that both sides were written, arranged and produced by George Semper.
If that name is not familiar, head over to the podcast archive and search for his name, which appears in no less than four different mixes in his capacity as a creator of Hammond grooves, which until I found this 45 was the only thing I knew about him.
Hammond heads will already be hip to his ‘Makin’ Waves’ LP, and the funky 45 version of ‘It’s Your Thing’ by the George Semper Rhythm Committee.
I’ll only go as far as to state that Semper was a West Coast cat, since I’ve seen references that base him in both San Diego and Oakland and have no way to be sure which one (or both) is the correct location.
The fact that the band was called Love – though it was immediately obvious that it was not the Arthur Lee organization – is unusual, since this 45 likely dates from the late 60s or very early 70s (or at least that’s the way it sounds to me) and the LA/Arthur Lee band was still a going concern, on a major label.
Of course they had their only hit in 1966, so it’s entirely possible they didn’t pop up on Semper’s radar, but the name of the band is a minor issue that only stands in the way of Google-based research.
The sound of ‘That’s the Way It Is’  is interesting and funky, with some electric piano and clavinet (no doubt provided by Semper), restrained strings and a cool lead vocal. I don’t really know who the singer is, and I’m reluctant to suggest that it’s George Semper, since all of his other work (that I’m aware of) is instrumental in nature.
As far as the provenance of the RRG label, it seems to have been a Wally Roker led imprint that existed for a brief time after the demise of the Canyon label. Roker was also involved in the Roker and Soul Clock labels around the same time. They released a handful of 45s by Jimmy Reed (then in his decline and trying all kinds of things to stay relevant) and at least one by Doris Duke and of course the Love 45.
As far as I can tell the RRG 45 was the first and last thing that this ‘Love’ recorded. That’s too bad since the tune is memorable and the record definitely had (unfulfilled) commercial potential.
I hope you dig it, and if you have any more info to fill in the blanks, please drop me a line.

Peace

Larry

NOTE: Thanks to commenter Piet who included a Popsike link to an issue of this same 45 on the Law-Ton label!

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some Chicago garage punk.

Comments (6)

By Larry, July 18, 2010 2:03 pm

The painting of Gene from the cover of ‘Organ Out Loud’ by Jack Lonshein

Gene Ludwig at the organ (Circa 1965)

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig -Sticks and Stones

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – The Vamp

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – Blues For Mr Fink

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – House of the Rising Sun

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – Comin’ Home Baby

Listen/Download – Gene Ludwig – Moanin’

Greetings all.
As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I got the very sad news last week that Hammond master Gene Ludwig had passed away at the age of 72.
If you’re one of the rare few that’s been on the Funky16Corners tip since the web zine days, you know I ride for the Hammond organ in a big way, from the greasiest R&B, to pure soul, soul jazz and funk, I have never been able to get enough of the Hammond sound.
Gene Ludwig was one of the last of what I would call the accepted past masters of the jazz organ. He was a contemporary of Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Dr Lonnie Smith, Seleno Clarke and pretty much everyone else that was part of the jazz organ explosion of the 50s and 60s.
What Gene was also a part of was the great – mostly unexplored – Pennsylvania organ tradition. One of the really interesting things I picked up out of years of collecting and researching Hammond records was how many great players hailed from the Keystone State (and not just Philly). The man that launched a thousand organ combos, the mighty Jimmy Smith as well as Jimmy McGriff, Charles Earland, Richie Varola, Greg Hatza, Papa John and Joey DeFrancesco, Shirley Scott and of course Gene Ludwig all got their start in the bars and nightclubs of Pennsylvania, in both the big cities and out in the hinterlands. Was it something in the water? An abundance of organs (or bars/lounges with organs in them)?
In his obit Gene was quoted as saying that he turned on to R&B (and organ players) by listening to Pittsburgh radio legend Porky Chedwick. Pittsburgh has a long history as a kind of isolated Shangri La for R&B and soul fans where any number of brilliant but obscure records are worshipped by the locals because they were circulated on the radio and at dances.
Whether this had anything to do with spawning organists, as opposed to just fans of the sound, I have no idea, but it is intriguing.
Gene Ludwig – a native of the wester PA town of Twin Rocks started out as a pianist, and had his ‘road to Damascus’ moment when he saw Jimmy Smith perform at a Pittsburgh club called the Hurricane in 1957.
Ludwig went on to have a 50 year career as one of the great proponents of the Hammond, recording locally as well as on national labels like Mainstream and Atlantic.
He was really what I would consider (at least for my taste) the consummate organist in that he approached the instrument from a jazz perspective (with serious chops to match) yet was not afraid to cut loose and burn on the keyboard, expanding into the realms of R&B and soul.
I’ve consumed a lot of virtual ink rambling on about this or that ultra-raw organ 45, but the best Hammond players, no matter how soulful or funky all came to the instrument from the jazz roots.
Gene Ludwig was old enough to hear the early rumblings of the Hammond sound from the jazz/jump/R&B nexus of cats like Wild Bill Davis, Bill Doggett and Milt Buckner, and mastered the instrument in the wake of the mid-50s scene when Jimmy Smith rewrote the book on jazz organ.
The ensuing expansion of the electronic organ, as both a performance platform and recorded instrument was wide ranging on both established jazz labels like Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside and Atlantic, but as my crates will attest, on countless tiny local labels eager for a piece of the action. It’s not at all hard to imagine walking into a bar in 1965, strolling up to the jukebox and seeing the organ stylings of a regional favorite among records from out of town.
Gene Ludwig was both a regional player (probably half of his discography is rooted locally) and an internationally known master of his instrument who headlined and worked as a sideman (replacing Don Patterson in Sony Stitt’s late 60s band).
Gene remained devoted to the Hammond, and a glimpse at his web site will reveal that he was playing, recording and above all staying relevant right up until his unexpected and tragic passing.
He was a musician of great taste with an ear for that perfect soul jazz vibe, yet was also conversant in standards (which any organist working the clubs in the 60s would have had to have been) and was by all accounts an unfailingly generous soul when it came to mentoring younger players.
Though I never got to meet Gene or his wife Pattye in person, I was lucky enough to correspond with them over the years (Gene had no bigger booster than Pattye), including an interview I did with the master back in 2005.

The Gene Ludwig Trio in the 1960s (above) and reunited in 2004 (below)

The tunes I bring you today represent a cross-section of the sound of Gene Ludwig through the 1960s. As far as I can tell all of these cuts feature his classic 60s-era trio which featured Randy Gelispie (or Gillespie, I’ve seen it spelled both ways) on drums and Jerry Byrd on guitar.
A few of these cuts have been featured here in the past, but they deserve to be heard again.
The first track is the Ludwig’s trio’s smoking version of the Henry Glover/Titus Turner classic ‘Sticks and Stones’, which appeared as a two-part 45 in 1963 (I’ve spliced the two parts together). The trio’s playing is spot on, relaxed yet generating a considerable amount of heat, and Gene is in rare form. I’ve heard there’s at least one other unissued side from that date, a version of ‘High Heel Sneakers’.
Next up is a track discussed here in the past, the brilliant ‘The Vamp’, which appeared as a 45 and on the LP ‘The Educated Sound of Gene Ludwig’ in 1965. If you haven’t heard ‘The Vamp’ strap yourself in because it’s a killer. Improvised in the studio by the trio, it featured Gene on the organ, Byrd on guitar and Gelispie on tambourine only. It has the feeling of an after-hours session gone wild, and is probably my favorite moment in Gene’s discography.
‘Blues For Mr. Fink’ and ‘House of the Rising Sun’ are both culled from an oddball 1960s compilation called ‘The Keyboards’ on the Time label, which features Gene Ludwig, and five other players performing in a wide variety of disparate styles. None of the album’s 20 tracks are attributed to anyone specific, but I knew of the Ludwig tracks from other sources (which is why I picked it up).
My suspicion has always been that all of the Gene Ludwig material on that record came from his time with the Mainstream label, since Bob Shad is credited with A&R on the jacket, and a few of the tracks also appear on the 1964 Mainstream LP ‘Organ Out Loud’.
The last two tracks appeared on what I would consider to be one of the great soul jazz organ sessions of the classic era, the aforementioned ‘Organ Out Loud’. Here Gene and the trio work it out on two classics of the genre (the LP also included wonderful versions of Cannonball Adderley’s ‘Sermonette’ and Horace Silver’s ‘The Preacher’), Bob Dorough and Ben Tucker’s ‘Comin’ Home Baby’ and Bobby Timmons’ ‘Moanin’.
‘Comin’ Home Baby’ is taken at a touch more relaxed pace than you usually hear, but the group keeps it moving and grooving, and Gene takes a wild solo.
‘Moanin’ on the other hand takes off like a rocket and never slows down. It’s the kind of performance that makes me want to step into the WABAC machine and hear the group in some smoky lounge. Gene’s fingers fly over the keys while the rhythm section provides a rock solid bottom.
If you ever get a chance to get your hands on any of his 60s albums or 45s (and there’s still a couple of things I have yet to track down) do yourself a favor and do it.
You still have the chance to hear his more recent recordings, which are uniformly excellent.
That all said, it’s so sad to have to talk about this great music in light of Gene’s passing.
He was a great musician, and by all accounts as solid a human being as has passed this way.
He will be missed.
My sincere condolences go out to his wife Pattye.
See you later in the week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some classic British Beat

Comments (5)

By Larry, July 11, 2010 1:58 pm

Today’s selection (above)
The mighty Fame Studio (below)
There’s soul between those bricks…

Listen/Download – The Inclines – Pressure Cooker Pt 1

Listen/Download – The Inclines – Pressure Cooker Pt2

Greetings all.
I hope the new week finds you all well.
The heat (in measure of actual temperature) has seen a decline. Unfortunately this was met with an incline in the humidity, so while it is not technically as hot as it was last week, it is just as uncomfortable, so, instead of catching fire when you step out of the house, you merely start to melt.
The 45 I bring you today is something that was initially passed on to me years ago by my man Haim, who had a spare copy of the 45, which although it was in rough condition, since it cost me exactly nothing I was (and still am) grateful, and placed it in the crates as what we record nerds refer to as a space-holder/keeper copy.
I dug ‘Pressure Cooker Pts 1&2’ by the Inclines, and kept my eyes peeled for an opportunity to upgrade.
Just such an opportunity was encountered at this year’s All-45 Show in Allentown.
I’d already pretty much emptied my wallet when I happened upon a dealer I did not know, and started digging in what soon turned out to be a box full of excellent funk and soul 45s.
There was only one problem…
Not a single one of these gems was priced, and there was no indicator anywhere on the table as to how much this fine gentleman might be asking for his stock.
This is rarely a good thing, since such discoveries are often met with a stock playlet, inevitably leading to my disappointment.
It kind of goes like this (with me trying to find a satisfying middle ground between looking like a rube and/or a shark):

Me: Um, how much for the 45s?
Dealer: Oh, let me take a look at those..hmmmmm…that’s a good one….so’s that…
Me: Oh, uh, I don’t know those…they looked cool.
Dealer: How about $200 for the lot?
Me: Gulp…

Aaaand scene!

(Magnify the discomfort in the above situation when LPs are involved)

However, once in a great while, an unpriced box of 45s is just what it seems, i.e. a random collection of stock that a dealer wants to move.
That was the deal this time, and I minted up on two faves (the Emperors ‘Mumble Shingaling’ and today’s selection) at the extremely beneficial price of two US dollars per, which was more than amenable. I took my records and skulked away.
Now I haven’t been able to nail down a whole lot of info on the Inclines. They seem to have released two 45s on Atco, one as the Inclines and one under the name of group member Tyrone McCollum.
They seem to have hailed from either northern Georgia or southern Tennessee, having recorded a few records for the Chattanooga based Gil label.
‘Pressure Cooker Pts 1&2’ was originally released on the Hawk label (I have no idea where that label was based but wouldn’t be surprised if it was from the same region).
Today’s selection was recorded at the storied Fame studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1969 and is a fantastic, mid-tempo slice of southern instrumental funk. The first part is dominated by the horns, with a repeated riff which drops out for a saxophone solo. The bass, drums and electric piano form a thick, muddy bottom that gives the relaxed, slightly jazzy tune a funky kick.
The flip side (make sure to download side 2) sees the keyboards come to the front, with the electric piano and organ both getting time to shine.
It’s a very cool record precisely because it’s so laid back. It has a kind of ‘nighttime’ vibe to it, not quite as spooky as a side like ‘Nickol Nickol’ by the Brothers of Hope, but moving in that direction.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some Canadian sunshine pop

Comments (4)

By Larry, July 8, 2010 8:28 pm

Clay Tyson

Listen/Download – Clay Tyson – If You See a Ring Around Your Bathtub (Baby You Know I’ve Left You Clean)

Greetings all.
I hope you’ve all avoided melting in the ungodly heat. I’m still solvent but on the verge of liquefaction should I spend more than my allotted time in the sun. Like my ancestors before me, I am a pale man, with white-blond hair and my love for sunshine is decidedly one-sided. My childhood is filled with repeated, drastic episodes of sunburn, only repeated in adulthood during simultaneous bouts of alcohol consumption (as in ‘Oh come on, a little sun never hurt anyone!’, except – of course – me, who spent the next week clutching a bottle of aloe and praying for death).
I fear that my Irish/Viking genes have been passed on to both of my sons, who look like Casper and any one of the ghostly trio. They cannot head to the beach without shirts, sunscreen and hats lest they burst into flames.
It’s that bad.
There was a very brief window, right after I moved into my first apartment (which was a block from the beach) where I spent time at the beach every day, rationing my time in the sun where I developed something like a mid tan, but decided that the discomfort of sand in my pants outweighed any ‘healthy glow’, so I never tried again.
That said, I sit here now, ensconced in conditioned air, tapping away at yon laptop in an effort to get the blogging done before I nod off.
Before I start, make sure to check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show this Friday night at 9PM EST at Viva internet radio. This week – as in all weeks – what you’ll be hearing is the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, brought to you in living, crackling color, harvested from original vinyl sources and mixed live for your delectation.
You should also fall by the Gentleman’s Guide to Midnite Cinema podcast to dig the filmic discussion, and to sample my inaugural contribution of a weekly, funky track (see episode #89).
Also, stop by Iron Leg where I go on at length in reflection about 25 years of zine (paper and web) production by yours truly.
The tune I bring you today is something I picked up a while back, mainly on the strength of the Identify label. For those of you that aren’t familiar, it was a James Brown-related imprint, and until I found this 45, the only one I’d ever seen in person was the A.A.B.B. 45 ‘Pick Up the Pieces One By One’, featured here many moons ago.
The disc was cheap (probably because of a noticeable edge warp, but since it was so unusual I decided to risk the dough and take it home.
Good thing too, because when I finally got to give it a spin, I realized that what I had was not only funky, but also funny, making it yet another entry in the soulful comedy sweepstakes (wherein I have a bunch of similar sides and ought to get down to making a mix).
The performer was a cat named Clay Tyson, who according to what little I’ve been able to find was a ‘chitlin circuit’ comic who hooked up with the Godfather of Soul and released a couple of 45s; one on King, and the one you see before you today (in addition to a number of other records on other labels).
When I was researching this record I happened upon a previous post over at the mighty Stepfather of Soul blog (and if you are not familiar, you should get…familiar that is) where my man Jason says that the King 45 (which I do not own) is pretty much the same two routines on the Identify disc, redone with different backing tracks.

What you get here with ‘If You See a Ring Around Your Bathtub…’ , is James, jiving alongside Mr. Tyson (with the JB’s I’ll assume) with a tight funk groove. Oddly enough, it’s pretty much like any James Brown record of a similar vintage, only you get a series of so-so jokes (which James seemed to think were HILARIOUS) instead of the HYEEAAHH!s and YOWW!s and whatnot. I’m not suggesting that this is as good as a James Brown or JBs 45 (though in a lot of ways, that’s what it is), but that the funk is right, tight and naturally, out of sight, and since the tune is co-credited to the mighty Fred ‘Trombonicus Rex’ Wesley, you know it’s a quality sound.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for thoughts about 25 years of DIY/zine work by yours truly…