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By Larry, November 25, 2015 4:02 pm

Mmmmmmmm!

Greetings all!

This collection of food-related mixes first dropped here on Thanksgiving 2011.

I’m going to get in some intensive family time this weekend, so I’ll offer these sounds to hold you over until Monday.

There’s even a turkey song!

Don’t forget to dig into the Funky16Corners Radio Show podcast, dropping this Friday (subscribe in iTunes, listen on TuneIn) , and then keep your ears open for the first Funky16Corners Radio Show on SoulGuyRadio.com coming next week!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, have a great weekend with your friends and family, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 
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Funky16Corners Radio v.3 – Soul Food (That’s What I Like) Pt1

Track listing

Brother Jack McDuff – Hot Barbecue (Prestige)

 Soul Runners – Chittlin’ Salad Pt1 (MoSoul)

Lionel Hampton – Greasy Greens (GladHamp)

Albert Collins – Cookin’ Catfish (20th Century)

Andre Williams – Rib Tips (Avin)

Maurice Simon & The Pie Men – Sweet Potato Gravy (Carnival)

Mel Brown – Chicken Fat (Impulse)

Lonnie Youngblood – Soul Food (That’s What I Like) (Fairmount)

Prime Mates – Hot Tamales (Sansu)

Just Brothers – Sliced Tomatoes (Music Merchant)

Leon Haywood – Cornbread and Buttermilk (Decca)

Bobby Rush – Chicken Heads (Galaxy)

Booker T & The MGs – Jelly Bread (Stax)

Gentleman June Gardner – Mustard Greens (Blue Rock)

West Siders – Candy Yams (Infinity)

Hank Jacobs – Monkey Hips and Rice (Sue)

George Semper – Collard Greens (Imperial)

Billy Clark & His Orchestra – Hot Gravy (Dynamo)

Listen Download Mixed MP3

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Funky16Corners Radio v.9 – Soul Food Pt2

Playlist

1. Simtec Simmons – Tea Box (Maurci)

2. Johnny Barfield & The Men of S.O.U.L. – Soul Butter (SSS Intl)

3. Ronnie Woods – Sugar Pt2 (Everest)

4. Stan Hunter & Sonny Fortune – Corn Flakes (Prestige)

5. Fabulous Counts – Scrambled Eggs (Moira)

6. Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band – Spreadin Honey (Keymen)

7. Freddie Roach – Brown Sugar (Blue Note)

8. Albert Collins – Sno Cone Pt1 (TCF Hall)

9. Chuck Edwards – Chuck Roast (Rene)

10. Willie Mitchell – Mashed Potatoes (Hi)

11. Booker T & The MGs – Red Beans & Rice (Atlantic)

12. Righteous Brothers Band – Green Onions (Verve)

13. George Semper – Hog Maws & Collard Greens (Imperial)

14. Lee Dorsey – Candy Yam (Amy)

15. Roosevelt Fountain & his Pens of Rhythm – Red Pepper Pt1 (Prince Adams)

16. Bad Boys – Black Olives (Paula)

17. Willie Bobo – Spanish Grease (Verve)

18. American Group – Enchilada Soul (AGP)

DOWNLOAD – 39.3 MB Mixed MP3

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Funky16Corners Radio v.60 – Finger Lickin’ Good!

Funky16Corners Radio v.60 – Finger Lickin’ Good!

Playlist

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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.

Comments (0)

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.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 21, 2013 11:07 am

Lou Bond

Listen/Download Lou Bond – That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be

Listen/Download Lou Bond – To the Establishment

Greetings all

This is the end of another week, so it is – as always – time to remind you to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show. It airs this and every Friday night at 9pm on Viva Radio, and can be subscribed to as a podcast in iTunes or picked up as an MP3 here at the blog.

I was saddened the other day when word came down the line that Lou Bond had passed away.

Bond (born Ronald Edward Lewis) , who in his short career laid down just two 45s and one amazing LP is less a “cult” artist than an unjustly/tragically forgotten one.

Bond recorded two very cool 45s in 1966 and 1967 while in Chicago (rooming with none other than Sidney Barnes!), the groovy midtempo ‘What Have I Done’ for Fontana and the uptempo Northern flavored ‘You Shake Me Up’ for Brainstorm.

He recorded his only LP, the self-titled ‘Lou Bond’ for the short-lived Stax subsidiary We Produce in 1974.

‘Lou Bond’, which was reissued by Light In the Attic in 2010 (there was a brief digital reissued by Stax prior to that) is a truly remarkable piece of work.

Record collectors/music hounds are constantly bombarded with “lost” albums and rediscoveries that – following the flavor of the month pattern – are often less interesting than they first appear.

‘Lou Bond’ is a rare and powerful exception to that rule.

I first heard about the record years ago when it was popping up with regularity in ‘finds’ lists on a message board I used to frequent.

I finally got my hands on a copy of the album back in 2007 and had my mind blown.

Though he was unmistakably a soul singer, one need only look at the pictures of Bond on his album cover to get the message that he was in other bags as well.

Bond was starting off in a soul groove, but also mixing jazz, folk and contemporary pop into his sound.

‘Lou Bond’ draws from a wide range of influences, most notably Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes, but also a variety of early 70s singer songwriters (soul and non).

It’s important to note that among the album’s six tracks, three of them were written or co-written by Bond, the other three being covers of songs by Bill Withers, Carly Simon and Jimmy Webb.

The album moves effortlessly between intimate moments and lush orchestration, with Bond touching on love, the environment and politics.

The two tracks I bring you today are my favorites from the album.

I’ve always found Carly Simon’s ‘That’s the Way I Always Heard It Should Be’ to be one of the most haunting and uniquely dark singles of the early 70s. Bond’s take on it rinses out some of the darkness, replacing it with a hopeful tone (due in large part to a short, spoken prelude).

The eleven-minute-plus ‘To the Establishment’ bears the influence of Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’, with Bond taking things in a looser, free-form direction that might almost be described as a hippie vibe.

Both tracks are solid stylistic indicators of the sounds that can be found on the rest of the album.

The big mystery in relation to Bond has always been two-fold.

First, how did Stax/We Produce decide to let an unknown commodity like Bond stretch out like he did, with the backing of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra?

Second, why didn’t an album this good make a bigger impression?

The answer to the first question may very well be that this was 1974, and record companies were still taking chances like that all the time. Bond was prodigiously talented, and it’s not hard to imagine someone hearing Bond singing his (and others) songs and handing him a blank check.

The answer to the second question probably has something to do with the impending collapse of Stax.

Bond was already on one of the most sparsely populated Stax sub-labels. We Produce only released albums by three artists – the Temprees, Ernie Hines and Bond, releasing a 45 by one additional artist – Lee Sain (who brought Bond to the attention of Stax), at a time when when the mothership was spreading itself mighty thin.

As far as I can tell ‘Lou Bond’ was poorly promoted/distributed, and Bond himself had to contend with the fact that the concept of a black singer/songwriter (outside of the accepted funk/soul mold) was not an easy fit in the musical landscape of the time.

The sad fact is that after his one LP, Bond never recorded again.

His music was sampled a number of times (by Outkast and Prodigy among others), and the Light In the Attic reissue brought his amazing talent back into the light of day.

If you get the chance, check out the nearly hour-long interview (audio) with Bond posted at the Light In the Attic web site.

You can still get the Light In the Attic reissue (with bonus tracks) on iTunes. If you dig what you’re hearing here today, I assure you that you’ll like the rest just as much.

I hope you dig it, 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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 31, 2013 1:17 pm

Roger and the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
Professor Longhair – Big Chief Pt2 (Watch)
Bobby Marchan – Shake Your Tambourine (Cameo/Parkway)
Diamond Joe – Gossip Gossip (Sansu)
Eddie Bo – Hook and Sling Pt1 (Scram)
Lee Dorsey – Four Corners Pt1 (Amy)
Dixie Cups – Two Way Poc A Way (ABC)
Earl King – Street Parade (Kansu)
Meters – Cardova (Josie)
David Batiste and the Gladiators – Funky Soul Pt2 (Instant)
Bobby Williams – Boogaloo Mardi Gras Pt2 (Capitol)
Curly Moore – Sophisticated Cissy (Instant)
Ernie K Doe – Here Come the Girls (Janus)
Larry Darnell – Son of a Son of a Slave (Instant)
Explosions – Hip Drop Pt1 (Gold Cup)
Rubaiyats – Omar Khayyam (Sansu)
Warren Lee – Funky Belly (Wand)
Willie Tee – Sweet Thing (Gatur)
Danny White – Natural Soul Brother (SSS Intl)
Lee Dorsey – Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further (Polydor)
Oliver Morgan – Roll Call (Seven B)
Eddie Bo – Can You Handle It (Bo Sound)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Presents Boogaloo Mardi Gras! – 85MB Mixed Mp3/192K

Greetings all.

I hope you all are well.

I should start by reminding you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will air (as it does every week) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime you can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes or grab yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

The mix you see before you is something I put together last year to commemorate Mardi Gras, and in a rare show of foresight on my part I got it up and ready to go on time this year.

It is packed with old faves including some stellar Mardi Gras-specific numbers with which you can second line to your heart’s content.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back with some more groovy stuff 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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 20, 2012 2:00 pm

Joe Simon

Listen/Download Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela (High Life) Pt1

Listen/Download Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela (High Life) Pt2

Greetings all

The end of the week is within our grasp, which means that the Funky16Corners Radio Show (brought to you every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio) is nigh. Perk up your ears, dial up the old crystal set and drop by for the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from vinyl. If you cannot join me at the time of broadcast you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 download over at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a real gasser, hepped to me by my friend Don Waller, who sent it along on Facebook as a birthday wish.

Though I certainly knew of Joe Simon, I had no idea that there were any records released under the ‘Joe Simon Band’ name, and certainly nothing as crazy as today’s selection.

‘Oon-Guela (High Life) Pts 1&2’ was released in 1969, and it is like nothing else in the Joe Simon catalog.

What you get here is an amped up take on the Afro funk sound, with lots of hard-edged, funky guitar, percussion (there’s either a kalimba or something trying to sound like one running under the whole record) and bass that almost crosses over into psychedelic territory a few times.

This really is an unusual record, especially considering when it came out (not a whole lot of Afro anything, aside from Hugh Masekela) and that it was released in association with Joe Simon.

Simon had a long string of R&B and Pop hits from 1965 to 1981, hitting R&B #1 a few times (including once in 1969 with his version of the country standard ‘The Choking Kind’, which fell only a few catalog numbers below this very record).

‘Oon Guela (High Life)’ is waaay out of (sonic) character for Simon which leads one to wonder, what – in fact – would be the dealio.

I have not been able to discover that fact, and am currently happy just to groove on the sound of the record.

It is both groovy, and anomalous.

If anyone has anything to add, please do so in the comments.

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).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, April 19, 2012 5:01 pm

Miss Lyn Collins

Listen/Download Lyn Collins – We Want To Parrty, Parrty, Parrty

Greetings all.

Welcome once again to Funky16Corners.

I should start by letting you know that the Funky16Corners Radio Show train continues forward unabated, and can be boarded this Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. As always, if you can’t be there in person you can always fall by the blog over the weekend to pick yourselves up an MP3 of the show (or of any of the more than 100 past episodes stored in the archive).

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In other news, though circumstances prevent me from participating this time out, I do want to let you know that the HPRS will be open again on 4/21, Record Store Day. This will be the 6th anniversary of the HPRS collective and I can assure you that there is plenty of excellent vinyl to be had.  The sale runs from 11-5 at 960 Green Street in Iselin, NJ (not too far off of Rt1). There will be another guest dealer (bringing 45s!) so if you’re in the area and vinyl is something you dig, make sure you stop by.

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You all know me, and how wherever possible I like to end the week on an up note with the kind of sounds that might convince you and your mates to slip on your dancing shoes, let loose with the juice and get down a bit.

Miss Lyn Collins – like so many members of the James Brown galaxy of stars – has been featured in this space before.

She had one of the more powerful voices of JB’s divas, and very rarely left the recording studio without laying down something heavy.

Today’s selection is the party (or more appropriately PAARTY) side of a very excellent two-sided killer on the People label from 1973 (the flip being a fantastic ballad that I simply must feature here sometime soon).

‘We Want to Parrty Parrty Parrty’ is marked not only by one of Miss Collins’ patented intros (she wasn’t called the Female Preacher for nothing) but a very tasty, heavy electric piano groove. The JBs line up for some of that razor sharp wah wah guitar, high stepping drums and perfectly arranged horns.

Things are a little bit slower than some of her better known 45s, but they are also without a doubt funky, extremely danceable and filled with head nodding goodness.

Interestingly, the rhythm track was recycled as the b-side of a JBs 45 (retitled ‘Crossover’) on Polydor in 1977.

So pull down the ones and zeros, slap this one on your pod-thingy and let’er rip.

Your party guests will thank you.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, April 5, 2012 4:24 pm

Bobby Byrd

Listen/Download Bobby Byrd – Back From the Dead

Greetings all.

The end of another week is here, and so is your weekly helping of soulful goodness in the form of the Funky16Corners Radio Show. We take to the airwaves of the interwebs this – and every – Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at the time of broadcast you can always fall by the blog and grab the show (or any of the previous 100 episodes) in MP3 form.

The tune I bring you today comes from late in the career of one of my favorite funky singers, Mr Bobby Byrd.

Though he is best known as a part of the James Brown galaxy of stars, Byrd recorded today’s selection under the auspices of Henry Stone’s Florida-based TK label.

Byrd recorded some of the finest non-James Brown JB-related 45s of the 60s and early 70s.

Among them was the epic, hard charging and undeniably ass-kicking ‘I Know You Got Soul’ (later flipped and reworked by no less than Eric B and Rakim) ‘Hot Pants – I’m Coming, I’m Coming’ as well as all manner of right-hand-man-isms alongside the Godfather himself (‘What you g’on play now? Bobby I don’t know, by whatsoever I play it’s got to be funky!).

Byrd was an original member of the Famous Flames, a pianist and a great, rough-edged singer.

It’s almost impossible to separate Bobby Byrd from the mighty James Brown, but that that’s what happened in 1973 when Byrd left the fold and went out on his own.

He recorded for a few different labels before ending up on the TK subsidiary International Brothers in 1974.

‘Back From the Dead’, co-written and produced by none other than Clarence Reid is a slightly slicker confection than folk used to his King sides might expect. It is a little jarring to hear Byrd working outside of the familiar James Brown aural landscape, but he works well with the proto-disco of the TK crew.

You also get to hear Bobby drop gems like

‘Like a vampire from a horror movie, girl you gave me something groovy!’
‘Brought me back from the dead!’

Whether or not the title of the song was supposed to be prophetic is tough to say. Byrd either entered or orbited near the Top 40 more than half a dozen times during the James Brown years. After leaving his last two charting singles (of which ‘Back From the Dead’ was the final one) hit #82 and #57 respectively.

Bobby Byrd (who was married to another JB stalwart, Vicki Anderson) passed away not long after Brown in September of 2007.

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

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, March 22, 2012 3:11 pm

The Fatback Band

Listen/Download Fatback Band – (Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop

Greetings all.

I hope you all find yourselves in a groovy place (literal, figurative or both).

It is – as always – time to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the interwebs this Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t join us at airtime, make sure to fall by the blog and pick yourself up an MP3 of the show (or dip into the extensive Radio Show archives with almost 100 past episodes).

I was wandering around inside my iPod the other night and fell upon a couple of rather hypnotic grooves, one provided by the Krautrockers Neu, and the other one you see before you today, as laid (very heavily) into the groove by the mighty Fatback Band.

Though I knew their name, they first entered my ears via my man DJ Prestige who whipped ‘I’m Going To See My Baby’ on me back in the day during our collaborative mix Beat Combination Pts 1&2.

If that is a record with which you lack familiarity, might I suggest you grab said mix.

That said, I became hip to Fatback’s Perception stuff, but it was only last year, whilts down in DC that my man DJ Birdman delivered unto me a stack of funky records, some of which I’d asked he grab in his travels, and some he just laid on me because he is the very personification of a righteous dude, who never lets me visit without sending me away with some new sounds.

The Fatback record he gave me that day was 1975’s ‘Raising Hell’.

I’d heard of (but not heard) a couple of the tracks therein, but once I dropped the needle, the one that really stuck with me was today’s selection ‘(Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop’.

Fatback were one of those bands that straddled the funk and disco eras with ease, providing some transitional grease for those so inclined to take that particular trip.

They are memorable because they managed to keep the funk burning while spreading things out enough that the bellbottomed, wide lapelled folk would follow them out onto the disco dance floor.

‘(Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop’ (which grazed the R&B Top 40) has one of the pumping-est bass lines you’re ever likely to hear, as well as some of that delicious clavinet partisans of 70s funk know and love.

The lyrics – as they are – are fairly dance floor chant-y, and the groove is as much late night drive through the city as they are bump it on the dance floor, thus the previous description as hypnotic.

You can feel free to swing your ass about, or just nod your head, depending on your situation/locale.

Either way you will be compelled to move.

I hope you dig the cut as much as I do, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, March 8, 2012 5:14 pm

Playlist

Jenny Misty – Nature Boy- Breakout
Earnest Jackson – Funky Blackman (Stone)
Bill Withers – Kissing My Love (Sussex)
Talmadge Armstrong – You’ve Got So Much Feeling (In Your Love) (Love Records)
Sir Wales Wallace- Whatever you Want (Innovations 2)
Big John Hamilton – Just Seeing You Again (Minaret)
Alex Williams & The Mustangs – Thrill Aint Gone ( Jewel)
Ernest Johnson – Old Man Blues (Steph and Lee)
Rickey Calloway – Paid My Dues Part. 1 (Super Records)
Fabulous Counts – Rhythm Changes (Westbound)
Jimmie (The Shiek) Green – Let Yourself Go (Stringer)
Stage Three- Don’t Ever Go Home (Zelia)
Wisdom – Nefertiti (Adelia)

Listen/Download -The Wiz – Mixed by Tarik Thornton – 48MB Mixed Mp3/160K

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here and I have a very special treat for you all.

But first – as is always the custom – I simply must remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be blowing up the intertubes this Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. Or, should you be unable to attend at the time of broadcast, you can always drop by this very spot to grab yourselves an MP3 of this (or any of the previous ninety-some) week’s show.

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Also, I don’t usually do a whole ot of plugs here, but I got word that the BBC is doing an hour-long radio documentary on one of my all-time faves, the mighty Wilson Pickett, featuring interviews with folks like Bobby Womack, Steve Cropper, Bobby Eli, Willie Schofield, Eddie Floyd, Sir Mack Rice, Rick Hall, and Spooner Oldham and the whole thing is narrated by none other than Roger Daltrey.

It will be broadcast on BBC2 (for you good folks in the UK) on Monday March 12th at 10pm and will also be available on their listen again feature on their website for the following 7 days.

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Now, back to the treats.

If you are a regular attendee of the festivities here at the Funky16Corners you will already be familiar with the mixing/digging prowess of my man Tarik Thornton.

Tarik has contributed to both of the previous Funky16Corners Soul Club Allnighters, as well as dropping one of his live sets from the Hip Drop.

Tarik is a very solid cat and it should go without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that I hold his musical taste in high esteem.

The mix he brings us today is his latest excursion, this in a down-to-mid-tempo style, entitled ‘The Wiz’.

I’m always down to listen to any of Tarik’s mixes, but this one is extra groovy.

Despite my obvious love for hard charging bangers (funk and/or soul) I have a highly developed taste for the somewhat more laid back side of funk (see ‘Easy Mover’ just added to the Guest Mix Archive), in the “it doesn’t have to crack you over the head to bring the funk” school of thought.

That is the vibe of ‘The Wiz’ with some stuff straight out of the old school, some of slightly later – how the kids say “modern soul’ bag – and some very tasty breaks as well.

He doesn’t belabor the point either, bringing the whole thing in at around a tight 40 minutes.

Give this one a spin with the lights down low.

I know you’ll dig it.

See you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (4)

By Larry, February 28, 2012 1:59 pm

Adriano Celentano enjoys a snake and some poison for lunch.

Listen/Download -Adriano Celentano – L’Unica Chance

Greetings all.

I should begin today by saying that things around here have gotten especially hairy these last few weeks.

My interweb/tech travails will already be old news, and I’m happy to say that thanks to pushing my already rattled brain to the breaking point, we should be back on a fairly solid footing. We’re not at 100% yet, but getting closer every day.

On the home front, the treatment regimen for my wife seems to be headed in a new, slightly more convoluted direction. The part of this that affects us here – aside from my own ability to function under practical and emotional stress – is that the upcoming treatments are likely to occur at a remote location, some 90 minutes away from home, necessitating a great deal of travel.

I only mention this because there may soon come a day when the posting schedule at Funky16Corners is curtailed while we take care of more important things.

So that’s where that’s at…

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One of the great by products of Facebook is that I get to experience the excellent musical taste of many of my friends (many of whom are also DJs/collectors and/or bloggers).

One day last year one of these friends (I wish I could remember who) posted a clip of a black and white Italian TV show from the 70s that featured Lola Falana (hubba hubba) and a cat by the name of Adriano Celentano.

I had no idea who Celentano was (though he looked like the kind of guy that would play an early 70s TV mobster), nor was I aware that Lola had herself a whole second career in Italy as a TV personality.

So, Lola and Adriano start off in a comedic sketch of sorts (I don’t speak Italian, but the audience was laughing) then all of a sudden a very funky bass line starts and their dancing and lip-synching to a very funky track.

I initially assumed that this was someone else’s tune that they were dancing to, but after a littler research discovered that it was in fact Celentano’s record, and that it was called ‘L’Unica Chance’.

Of course I wanted my own copy, but assumed that I’d never find one here in the US, and previous interactions with the Italian post office did not bode well for an international purchase.

Fortunately for me I ended up finding a copy at a shockingly low price (and in wonderful condition) from a seller here in the US.

Celentano – as it turns out – was a huge star in Italy, recording music since the 50s in a wide variety of styles.

He was also a successful film and TV actor and director.

I have no idea how something as groovy as ‘L’Unica Chance’ got made, but I’m glad that it did.

Released in 1973, it features that fat, funky bass, some very cool wah-wah guitar and organ.

I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (7)

By Larry, February 24, 2012 1:00 pm

Greetings all.

This is just a brief update to let you all know where things are at.

First, remember that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs tonight at 9PM at Viva Radio.

If you can’t be there at airtime you can always come by here over the weekend to pick up an MP3 of the broadcast.

It does bear mentioning that tonight’s show is the first since the technical specifications for assembling the show have changed. Due to Viva Radio’s requirements about tagging the songs used in the broadcast, I have had to make serious changes in the way the show is put together for broadcast.

Normally I would create the show in chunks of 15 minutes or less (according to Viva’s server requirements) and upload them to the server, basically dividing the broadcast into separate segments of music and spoken word. This would allow me to EQ the individual tracks and mix them together with bumpers and drops for a fairly seamless delivery.

I would then mix all the segments together into the single, downloadable MP3s that you see in the radio show archive here at the blog.

Now, I have to upload the songs to their server individually, with the bumpers and drops mixed into my spoken passages, which means that the normal, audible flow of the show will be changed somewhat, with some variations in the volume and breaks present where there were none previously.

This won’t make a huge amount of difference in what you hear at broadcast (and almost none at all in the download) but I take pride in what I present to you and I’m not 100% thrilled in the way it works now.

I have heard suggestions that I create the show in a program like Garage Band and then break it into pieces and tag the pieces separately, but I have neither the money to buy new software, nor the time to do it that way. I currently use Acid to mix the segments and rip to MP3, and if the capability for such a process is in there, I am not currently aware of it.

I’ll keep working on a solution so that I can meet Viva’s requirements and still bring you the kind of show that you’re used to hearing.

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In regard to the changes in the blog that have transpired this week, the situation is thus…

The server provider that I use apparently sent out a message last year about the end of the subdomain I was using and I missed seeing it in the flood of solicitations that they send out.

The deadline for the changeover came due this week with only 72 hours notice this week and I had to get things done in short order.

If I was a little more internet savvy, this process might have been easier, but I’m not, so it wasn’t and for some people the blog dropped off the face of the interwebs with little or no notice.

It was still “here” but was in actuality “somewhere else” (the “new” here) and I could definitely have done a better job getting that news out.

As it stands I have notified all of the blogs in my blogroll, as well as all the members of the Funky16Corners Facebook group (about 1400 folks) as well as the Twitter followers (around 700 folks, many probably duplicated from the Facebook numbers) as well as readers of a couple of message boards I frequent.

The good news is that alot of the incoming links to the blog have been updated.

The bad news is that the search engines still haven’t found the blog and webzine, at least not at the levels previous to this week.

The good news is, as a result, the spambots haven’t re-found me yet either, which means that I have temporarily been spared the trouble of deleting the thousands of pieces of spam that hit the blog on a weekly basis.

The bad news is that a lot of people still think the blog has vanished (which sucks).

All I can ask is that if you have the ability to somehow spread the word about the change of address (to Funky16Corners.com) please do so, knowing that you have my gratitude (and big ups to those that have already done so).

This has been – thanks to stress about my wife’s treatment and all of this blog-related bullshit – a very, very stressful week, so please bear with me as I get things straightened out.

Otherwise, have a great weekend and I’ll be back with some new stuff on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, January 19, 2012 2:42 pm

Listen/Download -Jimmy Castor Bunch – Prelude/It’s Just Begun

Listen/Download -Jimmy Castor Bunch – LTD (Life Truth & Death)

Greetings all.

I hope that you’re all still with us following the black-out yesterday, and that you took the time to educate yourselves on the importance of a SOPA/PIPA blackout.

If something like that gets written into law, the days of music blogs (as you know them) let alone the vast majority of what you read/enjoy on the internet will be over.

Also, a while back someone in Canada sent a request for a Funky16Corners sticker, and the envelope got lost in the maelstrom of our house. Please resend the request and I’ll send the sticker along with something extra.

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This has been an especially tiring and emotionally draining week.

Things on the health front are status quo, and remain optimistic.

It’s just that the cumulative effects of what has been a radical change/redirection in our lives is always daunting and sometimes, especially when physical and emotional fatigue start to catch up with you, difficult to deal with, at least as the future is concerned.

We are extraordinarily lucky that we have family and friends that we can depend on in times of crisis.

If we did not, an already difficult time would be a logistical nightmare.

If you know someone that is dealing with cancer, or any other major health crisis, take the time to extend your hand, whether it involves offering a ride somewhere, or watching the kids for a day, or even cooking a meal.

Every act of kindness makes a difference.

As I said, we are very, very lucky. Not everyone is as fortunate.

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That said, speaking strictly in the realm of soul and funk, this has been another really bad week, with the passing of not only Jimmy Castor (to whom we pay tribute today) but also the legendary Johnny Otis (on whom I have a post planned for Monday).

I know that I just put up the Benny Gordon post this morning, but I didn’t want to wait to put up some Jimmy Castor, so here you go.

Jimmy Castor had one of the most interesting careers in soul and funk, having started in doo-wop (he went to school with Frankie Lymon and later replaced him in the teenagers), moved on to Latin soul and boogaloo and then on to funk and disco in the 70s.

I first heard Jimmy Castor when I was but a wee lad of 10, when my next-door neighbor (oddly, also named Larry) and I thought that ‘Troglodyte’ was the funniest thing we’d ever heard. There was something about the name “Bertha Butt” that had us rolling on the floor.

It was years later when I got into soul that I heard ‘Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Callin’ You’ and ‘Ham Hocks Espanol’*, but I had no idea how deep a cat Jimmy Castor was until a few years ago.

The fam and I were down in DC doing our tourist thang and I managed to snap off a few minutes of time to dig for vinyl.

I stopped into my favorite DC wax repository, Som Records, and while I was browsing the stock, my man Neal (the proprietor) whipped a record on the in-store turntable and in the course of a few short minutes I was all “What’s that?” and discovered that the sounds that were blowing my mind were none other than those you see before you today.

I knew of ‘It’s Just Begun’ as a heavily sampled classic, but never actually got around to picking myself up a copy of the record. In that I was undoubtedly remiss, and the situation was remedied forthwith.

If all you ever heard before was ‘Troglodyte’ or even ‘Hey Leroy’, which in its own way was a solid dose of comedy, the sophisticated orchestral opening to the LP version of ‘It’s Just Begun’, or the stylistic mix of ‘LTD’ could come as quite a surprise.

The LP “It’s Just Begun’ shows that Castor was much deeper than any novelty might indicate.

Where he started with a base of solid, early-70s funk, your also getting bits of Hendrixian psychedelia, and a rocked up take on his earlier Latin sounds.

Castor went on to place a number of records into the R&B (and occasionally pop) charts well into the 80s.
He will be missed.

I hope you dig the tunes, and make sure you check out the Funky16Corners Radio Show, Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, or pick up the MP3 here at the blog over the weekend.

Peace

Larry

*If mid-60s boogaloo is your bag, make sure you check out Castor’s Smash records material, which is excellent.

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.