Comments (4)

By Larry, July 15, 2010 5:53 pm

Wardell Quezerque – ‘The Creole Beethoven’

Listen/Download – Willie Harper – A Certain Girl

Greetings all.
Before we get started I should note that I heard the sad news this morning that one of my all time faves, Gene Ludwig,  – master of the Hammond organ –  has passed away. I wanted to put together a suitable tribute, so I’ll be pulling some records from the crates and digimatizing them for a tribute post on Monday. Please keep his wife Pattye in your thoughts.
The tune I bring you today is a cut by one of my favorite New Orleans singers.
Oddly enough, as obscure as he is, Willie Harper is one of the first NOLA vocalists I had in my crates, via the fairly common and extremely cool ‘But I Couldn’t’ on ALON records. This was the very first single released on Allen Toussaint and Joe Banashak’s ALON imprint and the flipside ‘A New Kind of Love’ was a local hit. He would go on to record five singles for ALON.
I don’t know anything about Harper’s life, but as a huge fan of both New Orleans music and Allen Toussaint his voice has been a familiar one for years.
Harper recorded on and off through the 60s, like many other singers, almost exclusively with Allen Toussaint. He recorded under his own name for ALON and Sansu (two 45s under his own name, ‘You You‘ and ‘Here Comes The Hurt‘) , and as one half (with Toussaint) of Willie and Allen (’I Don‘t Need No One‘) , as part of the Rubaiyats (the storming ‘Omar Khayyam’, also basically Willie and Allen) and as a backing singer on a number of Toussaint productions for Benny Spellman and Ernie K Doe.
Speaking of K Doe, it was he that first recorded Toussaint’s ‘A Certain Girl’ in 1961. It went on to be a British Invasion favorite, with covers by the Yardbirds, the Animals, the First Gear, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders and the Paramounts (featuring Gary Brooker and Robin Trower, later of Procol Harum).
Willie Harper recorded ‘A Certain Girl’ for Tou-Sea in 1968, and it’s turned into one of my favorite, purely soul sides out of the Crescent City.
I’ve always found the Tou-Sea (that’s Toussaint & Marshal Seahorn) label to be an interesting footnote in late 60s New Orleans music. As far as I can tell the label’s discography isn’t very lengthy*, and the releases I’ve come across are all on the grittier side. How they decided to place these particular sides (including 45s by Warren Lee, Harper and Gus ‘The Groove’ Lewis), I don’t know, but as Dan Phillips of the mighty Home of the Groove blog has noted, some of the Tou-Sea sides were not specifically Toussaint projects. Some of them, including today’s selection, were produced and arranged by none other than Wardell Quezerque (billed here as both ‘Big Q’ and ‘DC Wardell’.
It is a constant source of regret that I haven’t made a closer study of Quezerque’s production and arranging work (god knows my crates are filled with his work).
He was prolific, and probably, among the “Big Three’ in New Orleans – Toussaint, Eddie Bo and himself – the biggest hitmaker. He was the man behind NOLA records, and produced and arranged for just about anyone who was anyone in the Crescent City, hitting the charts with Professor Longhair, Earl King, Tami Lynn, Robert Parker, King Floyd and Jean Knight among many others. He also worked as a producer and arranger for many non-New Orleans artists like the Pointer Sisters, BB King, and Ruth Brown.
Harper’s version of the tune features a prominent horn section, with just a touch of that relaxed, New Orleans tempo. Harper is – as always – in fine voice (improvising new lyrics here and there) , backed by a female chorus.
It’s a great 45, and maybe proof that someone out there ought to collect the stuff that Harper recorded during the 60s (and early 70s) into a comp.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*I’ve seen listings for – but largely haven’t heard – releases on Tou-Sea by Mill Evans, Jay Roy, Ray Algere, Zilla Mayes and Johnny Green (Algere being the only one of those I’m familiar with)

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some great LA folk rock

Comments (6)

By Larry, July 13, 2010 4:18 pm

The Mighty Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley

Greetings all.
I hope that the middle of the week finds you all in a soul jazz kind of mood.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the course of the life of this blog discussing, compiling, exploring and above all digging soul jazz.
One of the elements of that discussion (though if I’m doing all the talking is it really a discussion?) is the issue of pure soul jazz, that being music that meets the definition of soul(ful) jazz, blending R&B, soul and or funk with a post-hard-bop base in a manner that creates something new that displays, yet transcends the listed ingredients.
There are a number of artists for whom soul jazz was a specialty, and of those, a few who created enduring ‘standards’ of the genre like Bobby Timmons, Freddie McCoy, Eddie Harris and the man who composed the tune I bring you (served four different ways) today, the mighty Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley.
Adderley composed and first recorded the tune ‘Sack O’Woe’ in 1960. Of the countless soul jazz songs that I have collected over the years, ‘Sack O’ Woe’ is probably my favorite. It is propulsive enough to be danceable (Adderley was great at stuff like that) , soulful, spare but not too spare, and a great launching point for soloists.
It’s one of those songs that when I find a new version I try to add it to my stack because in hands of almost any competent musician it releases something special, and every once in a while I like to post multiple versions of a great song so you can get a feeling for the breadth of sounds that covers of a classic can yield.
The four versions of the song I bring you today date from the 60s, 70s and 90s (?!?)

The Omega Men

Listen/Download – The Omega Men – Sack O’Woe (Live 1997)

My all-time favorite version is by a band of fairly modern vintage called the Omega Men. Featuring a number of veterans of the Pennsylvania end of the garage/mod revival (from the Cellar Dwellars and Stump Wizards) , the Omega Men, featuring the organ work of the sole non-male member of the band Susan Mackey, really set fire to Adderly’s classic. You can catch it on iTunes as part of a comp called ‘Rock Don’t Run Vol 3’, or you can track down their 1997 CD ‘The Spy Fi Sound of the Omega Men’. The version included here has been digimatized from a video of the band performing live in 1997. The fidelity is pretty good and the playing is first-rate. It isn’t much of a stretch to imagine the sound of the Omega Men as a close approximation of what you might have heard on-stage in the UK circa 1965, where the organ combos of masters like Georgie Fame, Brian Auger and Graham Bond were re-imagining the US soul jazz and R&B that gave them inspiration.

The Mar-Keys horn section (Packy Axton, right)

Listen/Download – The Mar-Keys – Sack O’Woe (1961)

As I said before, Adderley’s original dated from 1960. The Mar-Key’s smoking Memphis version is from a year later. It has that solid Stax sound and I really dig the organ solo. If my chronology is correct this also features a pre-MGs Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn on guitar and bass, as well as Packy Axton, later of the many mysterious incarnations of the Packers on sax. Note the horn intro that approximates the band’s only hit, ‘Last Night’.

The legendary Les McCann

Listen/Download – Les McCann – Sack O’Woe (1963)

The version by the equally mighty Les McCann is from 1963, and features McCann on piano and a fantastic guitar solo by Joe Pass. It’s by far the jazziest version of the tune here. Les McCann is a true giant of the soul jazz genre, having had bona fide hits (like ‘Compared to What’ with Eddie Harris) and can be counted on to give this classic a righteous reading.

Julian Tharpe

Listen/Download – Julian Tharpe – Sack O’Woe (197?)

The fourth and last version of ‘Sack O’ Woe’ is (as far as I can tell) and early-to-mid 70s recording by a Nashville cat named Julian Tharpe.
Tharpe was a Music City sessioner and touring player who often worked with guitar legend Jimmy Bryant and was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2008. His LP ‘Jet Age’ featured Tharpe playing a variety of styles, covering pop, rock, country and the soul jazz of ‘Sack O’ Woe’. I picked up this album specifically for the version of today’s selection, and it proved to be an interesting one.
I always dig hearing pedal steel guitar used outside of a strictly country context, especially on soul records like Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson’s ‘Soulshake’, which featured another Nashville steel legend, Pete Drake.
Tharpe’s version of ‘Sack O’Woe’ is very cool, and it’s worth it if only to hear the Adderley classic interpreted on such an unusual instrument.
I hope you dig all four versions, and if you’re not familiar with Cannonball Adderley’s work, start looking because he laid down decades of fantastic music in straight jazz and funky sessions.
See you on Friday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a remembrance of the late Tuli Kupferberg of the Fugs and some Canadian sunshine pop

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…

Comments (0)

By Larry, July 6, 2010 6:37 pm

Lyn Collins

Listen/Download – Lyn Collins – Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose

Greetings all.

Welcome to the middle of the first authentic, brain-baking, sweat-inducing heatwave of the summer of two-thousand-ten.
The Fourth of July festivities were an authentic pain in the ass. The fam and I have been heading down to Asbury Park for the fireworks for the last three years, on account of it’s been a very chill scene. Unfortunately/fortunately, the restoration of Asbury Park, which has made the town a very cool place to be has increased its appeal to the point where the 4th of July turned the city into a veritable mob scene with near-gridlock conditions, and the Funky16Corners-mobile and all that sailed upon her were forced out of Asbury Park, first to Ocean Grove (which was also packed to capacity) and then further south into Bradley Beach* until we located a parking space (my three-year-old son ‘Thanks for parking Daddy!!’) well over a mile away (maybe two) from the fireworks about 10 seconds before the fireworks commenced.
We were a long way from the boom-boom, but the rockets red glare was still visible and the kids dug it, so all things considered it was enough of a success to keep the peace (but also enough to let Mrs Corners and I know that we were going to have to retool the entire Independence Day experience next year).
That said, I couldn’t very well let the descent of the oppressive heat go by without whipping a little bit of volcanic funk on you as the accompanying soundtrack.
Hows about some Lyn Collins?
I thought you might like that…
Arguably the pinnacle of that rarified species known as James Brown’s Funky Divas, Miz Collins, aka the Female Preacher is best remembered as the woman responsible for the 1972 atomic explosion known as ‘Think (About It)’ one of the funkiest records ever recorded and the very heavily sampled source for the heart and soul of Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock’s ‘It Takes Two’, a 45 that I pack in my record box on the reg on account of it’s a funky killer all on its own.
The record I bring you today is something from a few years further down Lyn Collins discography, her 1974 cover of the Godfather’s 1969 hit, ‘Give It Or Turnit A Loose’. For some bizarre reason I was unaware of this record’s existence until recently, and when I heard it I was filled with an odd mixture of ‘DAMN this record’s hot’ and ‘Where has this been all my life?’ but more importantly ‘Where can I get myself a copy?, the answer to the last question being answered within a few weeks.
Aside from being Soul Brother Number One, Mr Dynamite, Mr Please Please Please and the Hardest Working Man In Show Business, James Brown was above all an astute judge of talent, packing his band with dead on the super heavy funk players, and his stable of performers with some of the finest female soul and funk singers to have ever graced this mortal coil. I mean, sure Lyn Collins was bad-ass, but when you step back and realize that she stood alongside voices like Vicki Anderson and Marva Whitney it’s an awful lot to take in.
Collins’ version of the tune is updated to the slightly smoother, certainly more synthesized 1974-era funk, but it still kicks ass in a BIG way. There’s all the crispness of your run of the mill James Brown production, as well as the complex, clockwork funk, but there’s something else at work, the heart of which is Lyn Collin’s mighty voice.
Collins had the ability to leap from a soulful growl to a jagged edged scream in no time at all, and she does so several times in the course of this record.
While there are synthesizers, and it was 1974, and I don’t doubt for a second that this record set any number of discotheques afire, there’s never any question that the music pouring from the grooves is anything but funk.
So, get up out of your seat, on your feet and start moving your ass. If you thought you were done sweating, you have another think coming brothers and sisters.
See you on Friday.

Peace

Larry

*Yes, I know these town names are meaningless to people outside of the area. Please bear with me…

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a look at one of my favorite pop bands

Comments (6)

By Larry, July 4, 2010 5:19 pm

The Many Faces of Arthur Conley

Listen/Download – Arthur Conley – Love Got Me

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you well.
The tune I bring you today was something of a nice surprise from an odd digging session last year.
I’d been tipped off to a store I’d never been to before, and went hoping that I’d be coming home with the proverbial butt-load of soul 45s, and perhaps and LP or two.
Well, I rolled up on the place and at first glance it had all the look of soul vinyl nirvana. Old store, small town, boxes of records on the sidewalk…you know the drill.
When I got inside it wa almost immediately apparent that what I was faced with was something else entirely.
There were very few 45s (of any variety, let alone soul/funk) and what appeared to be mountains of non-soul LPs lining the aisles which were roughly a foot wide. It was the kind of place that seemed like it might cave in at any moment, and thanks to the close quarters, the digging was somewhat difficult.
I did manage to score a couple of cool 45s (some of which have already appeared in this space), and a huge pile of cheap pop and rock LPs (all Iron Leg type stuff).
There was a soul/funk LP section, but it was by and large fairly common and uninteresting stuff.
With a few minor exceptions, one of which included today’s selection.
I’ve always felt oddly ambivalent toward Arthur Conley, and to be honest, I’m not sure why.
Though he might be orbiting in the vicinity of the one hit wonder galaxy (he actually had a couple), the hits he did have were fantastic. Who among you can stand up and say truthfully that their head hasn’t started bobbing and their feet moving when either ‘Sweet Soul Music’ or ‘Funky Street’ came on the radio?
But other than those two songs, and his participation on the Soul Clan’s ‘Soul Meeting’, I can’t say I’d ever heard anything else by Conley.
By all reports Conley had an odd, spotty and itinerant career, his intersection with Otis Redding having been it’s highlight. He recorded several 45s (for several labels), and a few Lps before relocating to Europe and changing his name in the 70s. He passed away in the Netherlands in 2003.
Anyway…one of the LPs I managed to grab that day was Conley’s ‘Shake Rattle and Roll’ album.
When I got the record home and got down to work digimatizing, I heard something very familiar. It took me a while to figure out where I’d heard ‘Love Got Me’ but when I did it was one of those smack yourself in the head moments when you realize that a song you’ve known and loved for years was in fact a cover, in this instance the coverers being the Inmates and the coveree, Mr Arthur Conley.
Back when I was in high school, and a big fan of the end of the new wave spectrum in which bands were stirring the embers of what would erupt a few years later as the garage/mod revival, one of the bands that I really dig was the Inmates. It was via the Inmates that I first heard songs originated by the Standells (Dirty Water), Jimmy McCracklin (The Walk) and thought it took me 30 years to realize it, Arthur Conley.
One of the really interesting things about Conley is, that despite his status as a kind of minor, peripheral figure in the annals of soul, he wrote a fair amount of his own material, ‘Love Got Me’ being one of his best. The song illustrates the fact that although Conley was far from a major stylist (and sitting in the shadow of Otis wasn’t helping him in that respect) he was capable of writing and performing some top notch soul material.
The ‘Shake Rattle and Roll’ album, which features a couple of excellent tracks like Conley’s own ‘Hand and Glove’ and the Penn/Oldham killer ‘Keep On Talking’ is available on a two-fer CD with ‘Sweet Soul Music’. Pick that up (along with a 45 of ‘Funky Street’) and you’ll pretty much have all the Arthur Conley you’ll ever need.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

PS The latest Funky16Corners Radio Show is up and ready for download (just click on the Radio Show tab in the header…)

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a look at one of my favorite pop bands

Comments (12)

By Larry, June 29, 2010 7:56 pm

Dolly Parton and her hair…

Listen/Download – Dolly Parton – Busy Signal

Greetings all.

I hope you’re all having a good week, and that you’ve taken the time to check out Tony C’s F16C Soul Club mix, on account of it’s a banger.

I think it’s safe to assume that many of you are already scraping your jaws off of the floor, having read the name of today’s artist, Dolly Parton.
Allow me to ‘splain…
[cliché] The 60s were a turbulent time [/cliché].
The above statement is true on many levels, and aside from the politics and social upheaval, musically things were going nuts. Take a look at a random Top 40 chart from any week between 1964 and 1968 and you are in for some real surprises.
The pop music scene of the mid 60s was incredibly diverse (maybe more diverse than at any other time) and within that diversity, where Frank Sinatra and Ed Ames bumped up against the Turtles and the Buffalo Springfield, there formed a vast, diffuse crucible of sorts where all of those crazy threads were – on occasion – woven together in very unusual ways.
Part of this weaving was deliberate, wherein some enterprising soul, perhaps used to doing things one way, decided to take a shot at another part of the market.
It was just such a shot that made today’s selection.
I can’t recall exactly where I first heard Dolly Parton’s ‘Busy Signal’, but I do remember being knocked flat on my ass when I did.
I doubt there are many among you who don’t already know who Miss Parton is, but I also doubt there are more than a few of you who had any idea that her discography harbored anything this interesting (outside of a country music context, natch…).
The world of ‘blue-eyed soul’ (which is kind of a bullshit term, since if a record is soulful there really ought not be a need to make note of the race of the performer, and yes I know I’ve used it here but when I get some extra time I’ll cook up something more appropriate, and yes your suggestions are welcome…) is generally the province of performers who were mainly, or at least peripherally performers of music in a soul, funk or R&B style. When you listen to folks like Billy Harner, Mitch Ryder, Steve Colt etc, what you hear is an artist devoted to recreating the sound of black music.
When you take a look at the long and distinguished discography of Dolly Parton, you generally see something else, that being a country singer.
I have no idea how she came to record ‘Busy Signal’, but the other name on the label, composer and producer Ray Stevens give us a clue or two.
Stevens, who had his first pop hit in 1962 with ’Ahab the Arab’ (his forte was novelty records) and his last in 1975 with ’Misty’ was, in addition to his own recording career, a busy songwriter, producer and session musician on the Nashville scene of the 1960s. He recorded with Brenda Lee, Brook Benton, the Blue Things, BJ Thomas and countless others in his many capacities.
The records he worked on, as well as his own recordings indicate that he was able to tap into a wide variety of styles, from rock’n’roll, to country, to pop.
‘Busy Signal’ is a perfect example of the fact that he was also conversant in soul.
The record opens – not surprisingly – the sound of a busy signal, created with human voices. Dolly drops in with the initial statement of the lyric, followed by a wonderful shift marked with the sound of a snare drum and a chorus of backing singers. While her voice is readily recognizable, the style she uses here travels in that grey area where girl group sounds cross over into soul, which of course could lead into another discussion of country music as “soul” music of another kind, and all the various and sundry intersections of the two, usually racially segregated styles in the actually segregated south. There’s certainly a book or two that could be written about the way white and black artists were exchanging (actively and passively) musical ideas and the countless amazing records that came out of that bubbling stew pot.
‘Busy Signal’ was released late in 1965, and as far as I can tell met with little success (though the flip side is fairly traditional, mid-60s Nashville country). Whether Steven’s was deliberately attempting a soul record, or just happened to toss the right ingredients into the pot at random, the world may never know.
Naturally, as if often the case with unusual, soulful records bouncing around the periphery of soul itself, ‘Busy Signal’ enjoys a certain level of popularity with the Northern Soul crowd over in the UK. It’s a record that can get fairly expensive, and one I chased for a long time (and was outbid on more than once). I can’t help but sense an element of kismet in the fact that when I did finally get myself a copy I grabbed it for less than three flimsy US dollars (my hands shaking pretty much from the time I won it to the moment my trusty mail carrier brought it to the house). It only got here this week, but I felt I had to move it right to the front of the queue. I hope you dig it as much as I do.
Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some mid 60s pop

Comments (5)

By Larry, June 20, 2010 4:21 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.86 – Elektrik

Playlist

I hope the new week finds you well.
I was just sitting here in the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center, when I realized that in all the new equipment/live mix/pledge drive hysteria, it had been something like three months since the last ‘regular’ Funky16Corners Radio mix, i.e. one with the drops and the accompanying zip file and the whole – as they used to say in the olden days – ‘shooting match’, and as a result, I felt that I should get my – as they still say today – shit together, dip into the digimatized stock and get something going.
So, I did.
Things being what they are, that being busy, both with the real world moves and the blog stuff, the old Funky16Corners mix schedule (as it was) has been stretched out somewhat. This has not however resulted in a lack of content, in fact the net result has been more music, with the Soul Club mixes (expect more of those from myself and guest selectors in the coming months) and the recent addition of archived/MP3 versions of the show I do weekly for Viva internet radio. As a result there’s probably more to listen to here than any sane person could digest, so dig in, slap some of the good stuff on your portable MP3 delivery device and stuff it in your ears (as time allows).
That said, I have whipped up a new mix, and I think you’ll dig it.
Funky16Corners Radio v.86 – Elektrik is both jazzy and funky, with lots of the good stuff you’ve come to expect as part of the Funky16Corners Radio experience, with a perfect vibe for a warm summer night.
Things get started with something that surprised even me, that being Stan Kenton’s funky, fusion-y take on Deodato’s reworking of Strauss’s ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’, cleverly titled ‘2002 Zarathustrevisited’ (Oh, Stan….), wherein the often overwrought master of heavily brassed West Coastery lets his sideburns grow in and hands the baton over to the younger cats in the band. Unlike similar sounds emitting from the Woody Herman organization, I have little faith that the man with his name on the bandstand had much to do with this one, and as a result, it is very groovy indeed.
Frank Wess works a very cool, vaguely trippy (heavily echoed) and somewhat funky sound with ‘Wessward Ho’. Alongside his most excellent flute work, there’s plenty of vibes, wah wah guitar and clavinet to being up the soulful quotient. If you can get your hands on a copy of the 1970 ‘Wess to Memphis’ album, do so, because unlike so many of his hard bop contemporaries, Wess was able to work very well in a more modern bag.
I’ve featured tracks by pianist Larry Willis in a couple of previous mixes, and for good reason too, since he was a master of a certain extra-hot, era-specific, electric piano sound. The tune ‘Out On the Coast’ take the soul jazz vibe and funks it up without drifting into the land of fusion. It’s serious enough to be jazz, but with enough get down in it to work as funk.
If you’re familiar with some of the more ethereal work of vibist Gary Burton you may find ‘Vibrafinger’ to be a somewhat jarring experience. Here, instead of the soothing chimes of the vibraphone, Burton offers up a heavily treated, electrified and distorted sound, accompanied by some heavy guitar and drums.
‘On This Site Shall Be Erected’ is an edited (by me) version of the first track on Gary McFarland’s concept album ‘America the Beautiful’. Thanks no doubt to the fact that he was co-owner of the label, his work for Skye Records is at times very far out, ranging from his soft and mellow vocalizing alongside his vibes, to heavier orchestral work, which, like this track, sometimes got funky. With guitar by Eric Gale and drums by Bernard Purdie, ‘On This Site Shall Be Erected’ moves from a brief avant garde section, directly into a few short minutes of big band funk.
Though you’re probably familiar with the Booker T and the MGs version of the movie theme ‘Hang’Em High’ (a Top 10 hit in 1968), you’ll probably dig Jimmy Smith’s long-form take on the tune from the ‘Black Smith’ album. You get to hear Jimmy work the Hammond alongside a piano (almost the whole time) and he does a predictably great job.
Next up is something a little spacey from the king of Chicago studio axemen, Mr. Phil Upchurch. ‘Elektrik Head’ from his 1969 LP ‘The Way I Feel’ sees Upchurch getting all up inside the echoplex, managing to be jazzy, soulful and passably psychedelic all at the same time.
Things mellow out a little bit – yet remain funky – with ‘Prairie Road’ by pianist Pete Jolly. A track from the largely improvised and wholly excellent ‘Seasons’ album, it features Jolly on the electric piano, and none other than Paul Humphrey on the drums. If you can score this on vinyl, good for you (it took me a while). If you can’t, grab it in reissue because it really has to be heard in its entirely. GREAT record.
Hampton Hawes was featured in the electric piano mix earlier this year. ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ is another fantastic cut from his 1972 ‘Universe’ album.
Neal Creque is another great, underrated musician and composer who is better known for his work as a sideman (with Mongo Santamaria among others) than for his solo work (probably because there’s not a lot of it…). ‘Jasmine’ is from his 1972 ‘Contrast’ album, and features some West Indian flavor mixed in with the funky jazz, sounding like a younger, hipper cousin to Sonny Rollins’ ‘St Thomas’.
Roy Meriwether recorded a fair amount of major label jazz sides, but it’s his private press stuff that is sweated the hardest by the collectors and beat diggers. His version of Eddie Harris’s ‘Mean Greens’ appeared on his Capitol LP ‘Soul Knight’. He takes the tune at a faster, more aggressive pace than Harris did on his OG.
This edition of the Funky16Corners Radio thang closes out with a very groovy track by the father of vocalese, Mr. Eddie Jefferson. I wish I could say I had a copy of the rare 45 of Jefferson’s version of Horace Silver’s ‘Psychedelic Sally’, but I’ll settle for the LP. Not very psychedelic, but quite funky, this sees Jefferson in a very modern bag.
I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll be back later in the week with something cool.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for a taste of epic art pop.

PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

Comments (4)

By Larry, June 13, 2010 4:00 pm

Mr. Ross Carnegie at work on the Hammond

Listen/Download – Ross Carnegie & Co. – Open Up Your Mind

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.
I spent Thursday, Friday and the rest of the godforsaken weekend dealing with yet another in a seemingly endless parade of kidney-related roadblocks. Long story short, one of the newer kidney stones (which weren’t supposed to be happening) became dislodged from its home in the “meat” of the kidney (as my doctor likes to call it) and scored itself an eagle, dropping directly into the ureter, which in accordance with Murphy’s Law, was too narrow to afford it egress. As a result, my doctor (always properly cautious) dragged me back into the surgi-center and reinserted a stent, so that my sole, remaining kidney would not fail.
How’s that for fun?
This all sounds a lot worse than it is. Aside from being a huge inconvenience (with the added risks of anesthesia), if the greatest minds of the urological/nephrological world could figure out why I’m still getting stones, and cause it to cease, there would be no problem at all.
Until then, I’m trapped in this bizarre loop where I go through another surgical procedure, only to discover another speed bump when I emerge on the other side.
That (and the fact that I had to take my sick three-year-old to the doctor) is why there was no Friday post.
But, all is – if not well – at least back to the status quo, so continue on I will.
The tune I bring you today is something of a slightly later vintage by a great producer of Hammond 45s, Mr. Ross Carnegie.
I first heard/heard of Mr. Carnegie via the legendary ‘Vital Organs’ comp which featured his song ‘Cool Dad’, as well as his visage on the cover.
Some years later, deep into my own Hammond obsession I scored a copy of ‘The Kid’ (as featured in Funky16Corners Radio v.48), also very groovy.
Anyhoo, the tune I bring you today falls somewhat later in Mr. Carnegie’s limited discography, bears no date but the sound in the grooves suggests to me a recording sometime in the early-to-mid 70s.
Ross Carnegie emigrated to New York from Canada as a young man to work as a jazz pianist. He ended up working not only on piano but mastering the Hammond organ as well, eventually leading his own band which featured a young Alphonse Mouzon on drums in the late 60s.
Later on, Carnegie became known (at least locally) as the pianist in the White Plains, NY Nordstroms department store.
Today’s selection, ‘Open Up Your Mind’, credited to Ross Carnegie and Co. , is a funky, semi-blaxplo experience with all manner of keyboards – analog and synthesized – horns, police whistles and chants (no doubt courtesy of the ‘& Co.’ of the title) of ‘Open up your mind’.
While there are elements that would later come to signify disco, this is most decidedly a non-disco affair (though Carnegie would later release the tune ‘F-Minor Disco’ on his El-Con label, using the same exact catalog number as ‘Open Up Your Mind’).
I hope you dig the tune, and, assuming I’m not hit by a bus or falling space junk, I’ll be back mid-week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a most sophisticated TV theme

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter

Comments (0)

By Larry, June 10, 2010 4:11 pm

Greetings all.

Thanks to some unexpected and decidedly unwelcome crap that just crowbarred itself into my life, I spent the time I’d usually be writing, digimatizing et al, behind the wheel of the Funky16Cornersmobile. As a result the regularly scheduled Friday posts – here and over at Iron Leg – will be preempted.
Fortunately, I have to turn in my Viva Radio shows a week in advance, so the Funky16Corners Radio Show will go off this Friday night at 9PM EST as scheduled.
It’s a good one this week – if I say so myself – with a collection of reggae soul that I think you’ll dig.
Make sure you tune in via the interwebs, and if you can’t, either pick up the stream at Viva afterward, or wait until Saturday and I’ll have the episode archived here for download.
I should be back on Monday.
Until then….

Peace

Larry

PS If you haven’t done so already,now might be a good time to catch up with the F16C Soul Club and archived F16C Radio Show mixes…

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psyche pop

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter

Comments (13)

By Larry, June 8, 2010 3:33 pm

Miss Gloria Jones

Listen/Download – Gloria Jones – Tainted Love

Listen/Download – Judy Street – What

Greetings all.

The middle of the week is here, so what better time for a couple of very tasty bits of Northern Soul (with a very interesting backstory)?
As someone who experienced the 80s firsthand, I have to admit that I don’t find nostalgia aimed in that direction all that entertaining, especially since so many of the nostalgic aren’t old enough to have weathered it the first time.
You see, alongside MTV, crazy haircuts and quirky new wave music, there was of course the reality of the Reagan era, during which the American right kicked open the door and let in the wide variety of religious and political pests that 30 years down the line have completely infested this country.
So, you’ll understand if I’m not in my garage slapping together a time machine so that I can take the ride all over again.
This is not to say that the music was all bad, since a lot of it was very good. The best of new wave was in essence high quality reworking of the 60s pop palette.
One of the biggest new wave hits, that has become a major musical symbol of the era, is Soft Cell’s 1981 hit ‘Tainted Love’.
I’ll even cop to digging it the first time around, years before I had any idea that it was a synthesized reworking of a Northern Soul anthem.
In fact, a few years on, during the whole mod/garage explosion of the mid-80s, when I was initially clued in to the fact that the song had originally been recorded by a singer named Gloria Jones, I was still a decade away from even the tiniest inkling about the existence of the Northern Soul movement.
As a result, I didn’t consider Soft Cell’s covering of ‘Tainted Love’ to have any more subtext that Phil Collins’ execrable mangling of the Supremes’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’.
Flash forward twenty-five odd years and yours truly is neck deep in the sounds of the Northern movement, with all manner of storming Wigan faves spilling out of my record boxes. I’m rambling around YouTube looking for videos of Northern Soul dancers (and of you haven’t seen them, you simply must on account of it’s a wild bag that they were/are in) and I happen upon a short documentary that featured lots of the acrobatic terpsichorian delights.
About six minutes into the video a song came on the soundtrack that knocked me on my ass with its propulsive tempo and pop hooks. A little bit of the Googling, and I discover that the record in question was called ‘What’ by a singer named Judy Street.
A little more exploration on the interwebs and I found myself a copy of same, since I wanted to give it a good home and hear it blasting over some of those big club speakers we all love so much.
Once I had my hands on the 45 (a 1977 era reissue, but more on that in a minute) I started digging into my reference books, and back on the web and I discovered something very interesting about ‘What’, that were I a bigger Soft Cell fan, or a resident of the UK, I might have already been aware of, that being that the group had their second UK hit with this very song, which, not at all coincidentally was also a huge Northern Soul anthem.
‘Hmmmmm…’ says I, realizing that I was going to have to dig a little bit further.
Two hits in a row by one of the great synth-pop acts of the 80s, both yanked from the Northern Soul canon was indeed a curious thing.
As it turns out, aside from the odd juxtaposition of styles, it wasn’t that curious at all.
But first, a little musical history.
Gloria Jones was still a teenager when she was discovered by songwriter/producer Ed Cobb (who also penned ‘Every Little Bit Hurts’ for Brenda Holloway) in 1964. The following year she recorded Cobb’s ‘Tainted Love’ for the Champion label.
Jones’ version of the song was – when I finally heard it – a real shocker, every bit as propulsive and soulful as the Soft Cell cover was wan, dissipated and blasé. It was immediately obvious how it had become a very popular spin on the dance floors in the North of England.
Jones went on to record a stack of 45s for Uptown and Minit in the 60s, eventually going on a European tour with the cast of ‘Hair’, where she met none other that former ace face converted into post-psychedelic mushroom gobbler Marc Bolan of T-Rex. She and Bolan fell in love and had a son, performing together until his untimely death in 1977, after which Jones returned to the US and recorded both as a solo and as a backing vocalist.
Jones was herself a songwriter, composing a number of songs for Motown artists, co-writing ‘If I Were Your Woman’ for Gladys Knight and the Pips.
There isn’t much information out there about Judy Street. Her original version of ‘What’ was recorded for HB Barnum’s LA-based Strider label in 1966 (I’ve never seen a picture of the original label), and promptly dropped off the face of the earth. Interestingly enough there was another (inferior) recording of ‘What’ by Melinda Marx (daughter of Groucho, seriously) on VeeJay. Come 1977, and Judy Street’s recording is a popular Northern Soul spin, so much so that John Anderson reissued it on his Grapevine label, where it went on to become the label’s biggest selling 45.
It was during this time period that a young lad named Marc Almond was (according to famed DJ Russ Winstanely) a habitue of the storied Wigan Casino, where he first heard, requested and danced to the records you see before you this fine day.
A few years later, he had the good creative sense to cut a small but significant segment of one scene and paste it on top of another, creating two pop hits (one huge, one not so much). Chances are while any number of soulies were poleaxed when they heard Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’ and ‘What’ on their radios (or saw them on Top of the Pops), the vast majority of the pop audience had little or no inkling of where these songs had come from, or that so many of their countrymen and women had been dancing to the original versions of these songs for years.
I don’t know about you, but I find this kind of cross-pollination to be very interesting, and the kind of thing that the post-modern, post-internet, post-everything else culture has all but erased. Would such a scenario be possible today, where McLuhan’s Global Village has rendered international communication and sharing of obscure facts but a mouse-click away? I doubt it.
Either way, I hope you dig the tunes and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psyche pop

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter

Comments (5)

By Larry, June 6, 2010 2:41 pm

Dr Feelgood & the Interns – Piano Red/Dr Feelgood (left), Roy Lee Johnson (3rd from right)

Listen/Download – Dr Feelgood & the Interns – Mr Moonlight

Greetings all.

Welcome back to the Funky16Corners blog.
I have to start by thanking those of you who contributed to the 2010 Pledge Drive.
While this wasn’t the best year, you’d have to be locked in a subterranean bunker somewhere to know that it REALLY hasn’t been a good year for a lot of people. That fact makes it all the more significant that some of you felt strongly enough about Funky16Corners to dig deep and send something our way.
I’ve never taken advertising on the blog (though it has been considered) for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, I don’t like the way it looks, and second, I don’t like the way it would change the feel of Funky16Corners.
In some ways – especially thanks to the response I’ve gotten over the years at fund-raising time – Funky16Corners has always been a collaborative effort. Those of you that stop by to partake in the discussion – often furthering it with new information and other leads – and those of you (more often than not some of the same people) who chip in during the pledge drive, are what keep the blog (and the blogger) going.
Despite the fact that blogging can often devolve into solipsism, I prefer it when it breaks through to a level where it really is a shared effort, not just with the music itself, but with the feeling of the music and the history behind it.
While I’m sure there are a lot of people who just stop by to click the links and collect the MP3s, there are a lot of folks, readers, collectors, fellow DJs and musicians who take the time to join in the conversation and make the blog something greater than the sum of its parts.
I’d like to take the time to thank all of you, because without you it wouldn’t really be worth the effort.

So, THANK YOU, VERY MUCH!

Consider this yet another new beginning, recharged for another year in the blog-o-mos-phere.
If you look up at the header, you’ll notice a couple of changes.
First, as promised the Funky16Corners Soul Club is up and running, with all the mixes that were up last week (and if you haven’t checked them all out, take the time to do so because they’re all excellent).
Second, following a number of requests, I’ve mixed down and archived the last several editions of the Funky16Corners Radio Show that I do for Viva internet radio. The shows date back to the end of April when I started doing the live mixes and the show moved to its Friday 9PM (EST) time slot. There are no playlists (I back announce every song) but there are short descriptions about what you can expect in each episode.
If you haven’t yet checked out the radio show, take the time to pull down a couple of episodes and check it out. I think you’ll like it.
Also, make sure you stop by Fleamarket Funk over the next few weeks. The Asbury Park 45 Sessions crew managed to record all the sets from the 5/28 session, and DJ Prestige will be posting them up over the coming weeks.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The tune I bring you today is an old fave that I only got my hands on (in 45 form) last year.
Something you might have picked up on over the years is that I am a regular hound when it comes to the original versions of songs covered and made famous during the 60s by (mainly) white singers, mostly associated with the British Invasion. This is mainly due to the fact that I came to much of the soul music I love via these covers when I was but a lad.

Today’s selection, ‘Mr Moonlight’ by Dr Feelgood and the Interns was covered by the biggest of them all, namely the Beatles (on the US LP “Beatles 65′).
Though my youthful Beatle-mania introduced me to the Fabs version when I was about 13, it wasn’t until decades later that I heard the OG. When I did I was blown away, especially when I began to dig a little.
As it turns out, ‘Mr Moonlight’ was penned (and sung) by Mr. Roy Lee Johnson, the performer of one of my all time fave 45s, 1966s ‘Boogaloo #3’. That, and the fact that ‘Dr Feelgood’ was a pseudonym for blues legend Piano Red (aka William Lee Perryman) who was 51 when this record was recorded. Perryman, who was playing and recording with Blind Willie McTell in the mid-1930s, spent years as both a musician and under the Dr Feelgood name, as a DJ in the Atlanta area.
It is in fact Perryman singing on the 45s A-side ‘Dr Feelgood’ which was a minor R&B hit.
It was the B-side, ‘Mr Moonlight’ which would – a few years later – put more than a few dollars in the pockets of Roy Lee Johnson.
One of those records that presents a perfect bridge between the harmony records of the 1950s and the soul of the 60s, ‘Mr Moonlight’ has a melody worthy of a Tin Pan Alley standard, and Johnson’s vocal is nothing less than epic.
This is one of those songs that I can’t help wailing along with when I play it in the car (or anywhere else I think I won’t get caught).
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some psyche pop

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter