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By Larry, March 7, 2013 12:28 pm

Jimmy Smith

Listen/Download Jimmy Smith – 8 Counts For Rita

Greetings all

Welcome to the end of the week.

As usual, I im;lore you to screw your ears on and haed over to Viva Radio, this and every Friday night at 9PM, where you might fill them up with the best in soul, funk, jazz and rare groove (all on vinyl) on the Funky16Corners Radio Show. If that is an inconvenient time, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast on iTunes, or grab yourself an MP3 from the archive right here at the blog.

It’s Hammond time again my friends (but then again, it’s ALWAYS Hammond time in my crib) and I have something extra tasty for you today.

Jimmy Smith’s ‘Unfinished Business’ is one of those albums that I used to see in crate diggers finds lists all the time, but never seemed to encounter whilst digging myself.

This was a conundrum of sorts, until I discovered that it had been sampled by the one and only DJ Shadow on the legendary ‘Number Song’ on ‘Endtroducing’, which leads me to believe that all available copies of an already (kinda) scarce LP were being Hoovered up by eager train(sample)spotters leaving nothing for those of us who also dig the music nestled around the samples (especially when it’s Mr. Smith and his Hammond).

That said, I found myself a copy in a most unusual location in the hinterlands/outback of upstate New York during an unexpected digging session (the best kind).

Now, I had picked up a 45 or two from Smith’s late-period time with the Mercury label, and had been decidedly underwhelmed.

This was of course the late 70s, not exactly the heyday of the funky organ, an era where the last remaining few Jurassic key-slingers were probably being urged to modernize their sound with the synthesizers and the modern soul-isms and what not.

However, realizing that this was a Jimmy Smith album I had never had my hands on, and because it was cheap, I decided to grab it and take it home.

Good thing too, since the tune you see before you today is – contrary to the 1978 date on the album – quite funky indeed, with an extended drum break coming at about 3:30 into the track.

It is groovy indeed, and proof that even in the peak disco years, a master could still find a way to work it out in an old(er) school stylee.

I hope you dig it, 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, February 26, 2013 1:06 pm

Cal Tjader

Listen/Download Cal Tjader – Evil Ways

Listen/Download Cal Tjader – You Keep Me Hangin’ On

Greetings all

Though you have most certainy seen his name and heard his music in this space many times before, like Jello, there is always room for Cal Tjader.

Tjader, master of the Latin vibes (does it get any better than ‘Soul Sauce’?) is one of those artists that is an automatic pick-up, as in I’m out in the field flipping through albums and I see see a Tjader LP that I don’t already have, it goes right onto the keeper stack.

At this point, there aren’t too many from his Verve era and after that I don’t have.

That said, a few years back I was down in DC and I managed to score two longtime Tjader wants, i.e. ‘Cal Tjader Plugs In’ (gotta have that groovy cover of the Banana Splits theme) and the disc you see before you today, entitled simply ‘Tjader’.

At first glance, Tjader’s Fantasy catalog can get a little confusing, since it bookends his time with Verve and the short-lived Skye era. You get all of the early, mambo grooves, and then some later, extremely rare groovy ish like his cover of ‘Gimme Shelter’ and the album from which we draw today’s selections.

The two cuts I bring you today are a very tasty version of the Willie Bobo (though known to most by Santana) tune ‘Evil Ways’ and a trippy excursion into the Supremes ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’.

‘Evil Ways’ is a smooth groover, with some organ and horns stating the theme, before Cal drops in with vibes, handclaps and timbales (a breakdown very much like the one in ‘Soul Sauce’) and goes to town. There’s also a nice organ solo.

‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ gets a pretty straight ahead dancefloor treatment, until about halfway in, when things suddenly fade out and then back in again with some far out synthesizer, back out again and then right back into the original groove. It’s an odd arrangement for Tjader, and a little late in the game in 1971 (as are some of the other covers on the album, including two Donovan songs), but I can’t complain.

It’s a strong album, and surprisingly hard to come by.

I hope you dig the sounds.

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, February 24, 2013 2:55 pm

Funky16Corners Presents: No Bad Trip – Black Wah-Wah 1969-1974

Magictones – Good Old Music (Westbound)
Doug Anderson – Hey Mama Here Comes the Preacher (Janus)
Earth Wind and Fire – Bad Tune (WB)
Bloodstone – Bo Diddley (London)
Bo Diddley – Pollution (Chess)
Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers – Searching for Soul Pt2 (Mutt)
Nat Turner Rebellion – Plastic People (DelValiant)
Fantastic Epics – Fun and Funk Pts 1&2 (Tories)
Jackson 5 – I’ll Bet You (Motown)
Eddie Bo and the Soul Finders – The Rubber Band Pt1 (Knight)
Young-Holt Unlimited – The Devil Made Me Do Dat (Cotillion)
Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela Pt2 (SS7)
Jimmie Preacher Ellis – I Gotta See My Baby (Round)
The Eight Minutes – Here’s Some Dances (Jay Pee)
Fugi – Mary Don’t Take Me On No Bad Trip Pts1&2 (Cadet)
E. Rodney Jones, Larry and the Hippies Band – Right On Right On (Sex machine) (Westbound)
Brothers of Hope – Nickol Nickol (Gamble)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Presents No Bad Trip – 109MB Mixed Mp3/256K

Greetings all.

The mix you see before you is another one of those jams that I previewed on Mixcloud for a while before whipping it on you here at the Corners.

Though you may recognize a couple of the tracks as things you’ve seen here in the past, No Bad Trip is one of those things that was bouncing around in my head for a good long time, taking form gradually,adding tracks here and there as I remembered something groovy that fit just right. It was revised and reworked a few times until I thought I had happened upon the perfect admixture.

The overall feel – as it were – is one of the time after psychedelia and all of its practical trappings – wah wah pedals, echoplex and freak flags of all varieties hoisted high – began to make their way into black music.

Though there were other people of color getting heavy at the time, much of this can be traced directly to the dayglo doorstep of Jimi Hendrix – with the Experience and Band of Gypsys – as well as Sly Stone,  Funkadelic, Norman Whitfield and any other artist during that time period liberally mixing psychedelics into their funk and vice versa.

This is really a story of “gates swinging both ways”, with all manner of “you got your funk in my rock”, “but you got your rock in my funk” going on, as well as an expression of the general eclecticism of the time, with African sounds making themselves heard with Joe Simon and Earth Wind and Fire, the evolution of Bo Diddley from old-school charger into fairly convincing new-style far outness and the explicit psyche out of Fugi.

As your physician I strongly recommend that you ingest this mix through headphones of some kind, so that you don’t miss any of the sonic goodness.

I hope you dig 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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 19, 2013 12:51 pm

Stanley Turrentine

Listen/Download Stanley Turrentine – Home Town

Greetings all

The tune I bring you today is something low key, yet very groovy indeed.

I tend to like my soul jazz with a slightly harder edge, yet every once in a while you get a class act like Stanley Turrentine, dipping his toe (or his saxophone) into the water just a little bit, sprinkling the fine compositional (and arranging) talents of Thad Jones with just a pinch of groove grease.

The tune in question ‘Home Town’ comes from Turrentine’s 1968 Blue Note LP ‘Always Something There’.

Though the album by and large is a little easy for my taste (they lay the strings on kind of heavy, and not in a good way), there are some cool covers and the horn arrangements are very nice in a purely jazz context.

The one marked exception, not quite anomalous but edging outside of the mellow bag just a touch, is ‘Home Town’.

Opening with some brass harmonies, the band (a tentet with Turrentine out in front) states the theme, before settling into the groove around the 1:15 mark where you get to hear Kenny Burrell on guitar and Bob Cranshaw on bass pushing the whole outfit forward.

Turrentine gets to lay down a great solo, and the rhythm section (including Hank Jones on piano and Mickey Roker on drums) really lay into it.

The overall sound reminds me of the kind of stuff that Quincy Jones was putting out around the same time.

I dig it, I hope you do too, 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, February 17, 2013 1:17 pm

Dig the groovy promo shot of Louis Chachere that I picked up a few years ago!

Listen/Download Louis Chachere – A Soulful Bag

Greetings all

I hope the day finds you well, and ready for some solid Hammond grooves.

Regular visitors to Funky16Corners as well as Hammond aficionados will already be familiar with the name Louis Chachere via his mighty slice of funky jazz, ‘The Hen’.

That 45 is just this side of brutal and unrelenting, packed not only with Chachere’s blazing organ, but also the guitar and drums, both of which (though the players are unknown to me) brilliant.

‘The Hen’ is both danceable and satisfying on a purely musical level, which is why it is sought after by DJs the world over.

I though for many years (erroneously as it turns out) that ‘The Hen’ was a one-off bit of genius, and that Chachere, having made his mark, vanished into the ether.

The fact is, that while his discography cannot in any way be described as extensive, what he did put his hands on was first rate.

In addition to his own recordings (which you see before you today), Chachere also produced the legendary ‘Remember Me’ b/w ‘Black Is Beautiful’ 45 by the Trinikas.

I first found out about ‘Soulful Bag’ b/w ‘Shout Down’ when it popped up in an auction years ago.

The thought of a Louis Chachere 45 that was not already inside my Hammond crates drove me nuts, so I followed the auction, tossed a little long green in that direction and within a week that very record was mine.

As far as I can tell, ‘Soulful Bag’ predates ‘The Hen’ (1968/1969) by a year or two. The only other 45 I’ve been able to track down on this label is a rockabilly 45 (Max Brown) from 1964 with a lower catalog number.

It was released on the Kansas City, MO label Central (two of the three 45 issues of ‘The Hen’ came out on other KC labels, MJC and Forte) and has an earlier, soulful but not yet funky sound.

There’s a definite groove going on, and while I haven’t been able to date it, my educated guess is that it sounds like a mid-60s release (and if anyone knows for sure, please do not hesitate to let me know).

Chachere opens strong, playing in unison with a sax, repeating the theme until he gets to open up a little on the organ. The sax player takes his turn, then the guitarist, then Chachere gets to solo extensively (at least as extensively as you can on a 45).

It’s got enough get up and go for the dancefloor, so if you’re lucky enough to find yourself a copy, don’t hesitate to whip it out at your next shindig.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you soon.

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 (4)

By Larry, January 22, 2013 4:13 pm

Rubin Mitchell

Listen/Download Rubin Mitchell – Loosen Up

Greetings all

The middle of the week is here, and so is our second groovy instro.

This is another one of those 45s that I happened upon when perusing a friend’s sale list.

Never heard if it before, but as soon as I played the clip, knew I wanted a copy.

The tune – ‘Loosen Up’ – is a titular, if not sonic response to Archie Bell and the Drells and the sounds within are every interesting indeed.

A close look at the label and a little digging provide some perspective as to why.

The first thing I noticed – after listening, of course – was the name ‘Curtis Ousley’ on the label. This was of course, the mighty King Curtis, whose publishing company Kilynn is given production credit. King Curtis co-wrote ‘Loosen Up’ and gets full credit for the flipside ‘Summer Dreams’.

The artist, Rubin Mitchell was an Albany, NY-area based lounge pianist who was described in a local paper at the time as having a repertoire that included “funky jazz, showcase numbers like ‘Sabre Dance’ and straight classical’. Once you give ‘Loosen Up’ a listen you begin to realize how telling that description is.

Mitchell – who recorded at least one private issue LP and two more for Capitol (I think this is a non-LP 45) sounds like a guy in the vein of Liberace, who made putting on a show of skill a crucial part of his act, with lots of speed and flourish.

That’s what you get here, sprinkled in liberally atop a soulful sounding rhythm section (dig that drum break at the beginning!) that may or may not include some Kingpins.

It’s not the kind of thing I’d spin for dancers, but it certainly is interesting to slip into your ears.

The flipside is a much mellower, bluesier number that sounds (unsurprisingly) like a cousin of ‘Soul Serenade’.

From what I’ve been able to discover about the rest of his catalog, my suspicion is that this single is a stylistic outlier.

I’m not sure what happened to Rubin Mitchell after his tenure with Capitol, but my suspicion is that it included a hotel lounge or two.

I hope you dig the cut, 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.

Comments (2)

By Larry, December 13, 2012 2:22 pm

Larry Coryell

Listen/Download Larry Coryell – Gypsy Queen (45 edit)

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show.

Coming to you this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, the Funky16Corners Radio Show brings you the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. If you can’t be there to dig the show at airtime, you can always pick up episodes by subscribing to it as a podcast via iTunes, or by grabbing a straight MP3 download here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a little something I picked up while out digging earlier this year.

I – like many of my generation – first became aware of the song ‘Gypsy Queen’ via the version by Santana, recorded for the ‘Abraxas’ album in 1970.

It was a few years on down the line that I was hepped to the original version by the master Gabor Szabo on his 1966 ‘Spellbinder’ album (you can hear that version by checking out Funky16Corners Radio v.24.5 in the archive).

I had no idea that Larry Coryell had recorded ‘Gypsy Queen’ until I happened upon the 45 you see before you today.

He waxed in in 1971 for his debut on Bob Thiele’s Flying Dutchman label, ‘Barefoot Boy’.

The LP version of the track runs over eleven minutes, with the 45 coming in at just under three minutes.

I have heard the LP edit, and unless you have a taste for extended jazz freakouts/solos, the 45 really delivers all you need to hear.

The band, with Coryell leading on guitar included Steve Marcus on soprano sax (heard a lot here) and Roy Haynes on drums, among others.

This truncated version of the tune encapsulates the crossover between jazz and late 60s rock that Coryell and Marcus were both a big part of.

Things are jazzy enough, with a fair amount of psychedelia mixed in and the band really does justice to Szabo’s OG.

I hope you dig it, 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 (0)

By Larry, December 9, 2012 3:32 pm

Funky16Corners @ Spindletop – Early Set 1/10/11

Playlist

Listen/Download 80MB/256kb Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

As you all know, I spend as much (or more) time listening to the mixes I put together for Funky16Corners than anyone.

This has everything to do with the fact that all of the content here on the blog has to pass my own “ear test” before you hear it, so the mixes/posts reflect what I’m digging at any given point.

Though – due to circumstances beyond my control -I haven’t played out in more than a year, 2011 was an especially cool/busy time in that respect.

Between stints at Master Groove and Spindletop, and guest spots at Subway Soul (all NYC), Wooly Bully and Sweet Exorcist (both in Mass) I had plenty of opportunities to spin vinyl for groovy people.

The Spindletop night (at Botanica) was an especially cool night (while it lasted) because I had an exceptional amount of freedom in the styles of music I could spin as well as providing an opportunity to play especially long sets.

Back in January of last year, I had a chance to play almost three full hours of soul jazz 45s, and I decided to get things started with a slow-to-midtempo set.

The results – which you see before you (again) – ended up being one of my favorite sets* of the last few years, and I’ve cued it up on the iPod several times since then.

I decided that I’d re-post it for those that might have missed it the first time out.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

*As mentioned when this was originally posted, the line-out on the house mixer was not functioning, so I spun and rerecorded this set live on my decks at home the following day.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

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, November 27, 2012 2:10 pm

Roy Ayers

Listen/Download Roy Ayers – Brother Louie

Greetings all

Welcome to that island in the middle of the week where we all gather to get our heads together, make it over the hump and start marching toward the weekend.

There’s not a lot to say about today’s selection that the music can’t say for itself.

Roy Ayers, master of the vibes (the instrument and the diffuse idea), who got his start playing hard bop/modal and moved onto to become one of the masters of funky sounds in the 70s, gets into the studio with some heavy friends and works it out on a song that had been a very big hit earlier that year (1973) for Stories.

Those of you that – like me – are old enough to remember that hit, well…remember it (from then).

The rest of you for whom it is instantly familiar surely picked up on it via Louie CK’s groovy show, wherein a version of it is used as the theme.

The Roy Ayers take on ‘Brother Louie’ is from his excellent ‘Virgo Red’ LP, and sees the master and his band taking the song, strapping a little funk to it (with lots of those good vibes, literal and figurative) and there you have it.

I dig it (and the whole album) a lot.

I hope you do too, 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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, November 22, 2012 1:58 pm

Kai Winding won’t you blow one time!

Listen/Download Kai Winding – Watermelon Man

Greetings all

The end of the week is near, so don’t forget to tune into the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot join us at airtime, you can pick up episodes by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes or picking up an MP3 download here at the blog.

The name Kai Winding was a very familiar one in my house when I was a kid.

My father is a huge jazz fan and had several ‘Jay and Kai’ albums (the duo of trombonists JJ Johnson and Kai Winding) in his collection.

It was only when I started collecting 45s in earnest – especially Mod soul/jazz – that I discovered that Mr Winding had waxed some very groovy stuff during the 60s.

The Danish-born Winding, who passed away at the age of 61 in 1983, recorded in a wide variety of settings from the 1940s (he played on Miles Davis’ ‘Birth of the Cool’ sessions) on until his death.

He recorded for the Verve label in the 60s, which is when he laid down the very tasty version of Herbie Hancock’s ‘Watermelon Man’.

Like many of his contemporaries, Winding experimented with adding all kinds of pop/R&B flavor into his records, and this is one of his best.

You get lots of that sonorous trombone, mixed in with some grovy combo organ and percussion that makes for a fusion of soul jazz and au-go-go flavors.

It has a discotheque vibe that I dig very much, and I hope you do too.

Get your groove shoes on, 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 (1)

By Larry, November 20, 2012 2:53 pm

The Les James Trio

Listen/Download The Les James Trio – Joe’s Thing

Greetings all

I hope the day finds you all well.

Ioften find myself running out of steam around the middle of the week.

You know how it is.

Truth be told, I have discovered that the remedy to such a lull is not – as might be expected – a solid and powerful boot in the ass, like you might require on a Friday to get you in gear for the weekend, but rather something subtly powerful.

Enough of a push to restore momentum, but nothing too sudden.

It is in furtherance of this idea that I have dipped into the crates and whipped out something that just might do the trick.

A while back, I was perusing the interwebs in search of some tasty vinyl to add to my record box, when I happened upon an auction for an unfamiliar, but very interesting looking record.

The disc in question was a mid-70s joint by a crew called the Les James Trio out of the Rocky Mountain metropolis of Denver, CO.

Now, I know that “Denver jazz’ doesn’t light any fire in your ears – unless you are a Paul Quinichette aficionado – but this auction came with a tantalizing soundclip.

So tantalizing in fact that I chased this record down like a lion after a juicy springbok, landed it and devoured it forthwith, if by “devour” it is meant to be understood as recording and digimatizing said record for the delectation of you good people.

There’s not much out there about Les James, other than a few links that suggest that he was something of a local institution in Denver, and the liner notes to the album which intimate that he might have hailed from Eastern Europe and made his way west, piano in tow.

The tune I bring you today – he one that made me covet the album so fiercely – is entitled ‘Joe’s Thing’, written by and named for James’ bassist Joe Lopez.

Much like the record that I brought you all on Monday, the things that happen on this record in regard to the alchemy of bass and drums is truly something to behold.

‘Joe’s Thing’ is in no way a “funk” record, but it is immediately obvious once the ones and zeros start to flow that is is monumentally funky, in a way guaranteed to make you sit up, notice, and groove, all at the same time.

Unlike so many self-released combos (Century was a famous “press your own”outfit out of California) the Les James Trio was actually a pretty tight unit. James was an excellent pianist, Lopez a shit-hot bassist and the drummer (listed only as Jo Jo) does his part admirably.

‘Joe’s Thing’ is a groover’s treasure because it starts out with a mighty riff, and then returns to the well a number of times, including a couple of phased drum breaks.

This is a banger – a subtle one – but a banger nonetheless.

You can send your thank you notes via the comments below.

NOTE: Speaking of which, the comment capcha system I was using died unexpectedly, so I replaced it with another one in which you – the commenter – gets to solve a simple math problem instead of squinting at an impossible to read “phrase”. Easy, educational, and best of all, spam-obliterating!

You’re most welcome.

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, November 15, 2012 12:21 pm

Johnny Hammond Smith and Reuben Wilson

Listen/Download Johnny Hammond Smith – NeverCan Say Goodbye
Listen/Download Reuben Wilson – NeverCan Say Goodbye

Greetings all

Welcome to the end of another week (or better yet, the beginning of a groovy weekend?).

The recent web-related crisis seems (keeping the old fingers crossed here) to have been averted for now, so steady on for now. I think I have some studying to do in the meantime.

Please to remember that the Funky16Corners Radio Show comes to you this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you are unable to join us for the party at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or fall by the blog on Saturday to pick yourselves up an MP3 download of the show (or any of the 120+ other shows available in the archive).

The song I bring you today – in two different versions – is by any measure of the word, one of my all time favorites.

Written by Clifton James, made a hit by the Jackson Five and Gloria Gaynor, ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ has become one of those songs that I can listen to be performed by just about anyone. I always pick up versions when I’m out digging and always stop and listen when it shoes up on the radio or in the iPod.

The recordings I offer you this fine day are layed down by two of the masters, Johnny Hammond Smith and Reuben Wilson.

Smith’s version, from his 1971 ‘Breakout’ album is largely a showcase for saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., who did some of the arrangement on the album. The rhythm section generally comps in the background, with some groovy guitar work (George Benson) and some nice, hard –hitting drums from Billy Cobham.

Reuben Wilson’s take on the tune is not only taken at a faster tempo, but with a little more Hammond in the mix, though the lead is once again taken by the sax (Ramon Morris).

Wilson is one of the great underrated Hammond cats. Most of his better stuff came fairly late in the game, at least as far as the soul jazz/funk thing is concerned. Though he was about the same age as many of his better known contemporaries, he started recording later than most.

His Blue Note sides are excellent, and his stuff on Groove Merchant (as heard here) is worth seeking out as well.

I hope these sounds help you get your weekend off to a mellow start, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.