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By Larry, May 16, 2017 1:02 pm

Keith Mansfield (left) and Alan Hawkshaw

Listen/Download – Keith Mansfield and His Orchestra – Soul Confusion MP3

Greetings all.

Before we get started, just a reminder about some important news.

Starting this Wednesday, 5/17 from 10PM to 12, and every Wednesday going forward at that time I will be doing a new weekly show on the WFMU Give the Drummer Radio stream called Testify! This show (which had a couple of dry runs elsewhere, earlier on) will see yours truly in a more free-form bag, taking the worlds of Funky16Corners and Iron Leg and mashing them together, with soul, rock, funk, pop, garage, psyche, R&B, Now Sound, jazz and anything else I think sounds good. The show will originate live from the Funky16Corners Subterranean Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Vault, and will be archived thereafter.

So if your ears are free Wednesday night, turn them toward WFMU.org, click on the Give The Drummer stream and dig what it is that I am putting down.
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The track I bring you today is an old favorite, the flipside of which (the amazing ‘Boogaloo’ appeared in the eareliest incarnation of the blog 12 years ago!).

I have no idea why I waited so long to serve up the flip, but here it is.

Keith Mansfield was one of the great library masters on the UK scene, recording a grip of stuff for the storied KPM label as well as a number of mainstream releases under his own name.

Today’s selection has kind of an odd history.

‘Soul Confusion’ is a 45-only track, and was only released in the for you see today here in the US on an Epic promo.

In the UK the (same) track was billed under the name ‘Sugar with the Keith Mansfield Orchestra (Sugar being the vocalist, Sugar Simone who does not appear on the track) under a different title altogether, ‘11AM Tuesday Morning Taxi’ on CBS/UK. I have no idea why.

The other side of the US 45, ‘Boogaloo’ had appeared the year before on the excellent ‘All You Need Is Keith Mansfield’ LP, alongside the very groovy, breakbeat version of Mansfield’s oft covered ‘Soul Thing’.

‘Soul Confusion’, featuring (naturally) Hammond master Alan Hakshaw, is a funky, brassy groover with great rhythm guitar trading lines with the organ and hard hitting drums. There is a small drum break as well.

The 45 has gone up in price considerably since I found my copy (in the field, and on the cheap, luckily). Decent copies pull in between 75 and 100 dollars.

You can still get the LP (but no ‘Soul Confusion’, though the RPM/Retrodisc reissue from 2008 includes the track) at a much more reasonable price.

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

And, while you’re at it, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, July 6, 2014 12:23 pm

Charles Fox (2nd from left) with co-writer Norman Gimbel,
Lily Tomlin, Roberta Flack and Isaac Hayes

Listen/Download Bob’s Band – Score

Greetings all

Here’s a very groovy one for you to start the week.

Groovy, and somewhat sonically deceptive, if you have your ears attuned to the library.

If memory serves I grabbed this 45 while digging through the interwebs for Hammond sounds.

When I first heard a clip of the song, the first thing that went through my head was ‘UK Library’.

‘Score’ has all the hallmarks of late 60s/early 70’s UK library composers like Alan Hawkshaw and Alan Moorhouse, with it’s groovy, fast moving organ and drums action.

Once I got my hands on the 45, the first thing I noticed was that the song was composed by Charles Fox.

If you don’t know, Fox, who got his start arranging for Latin bandleaders in New York, was a major hitmaking composer of the 70s, writing/co-writing songs like Robert Flack’s ‘Killing Me Softly’, ‘I Got a Name’ by Jim Croce and the themes to tons of sitcoms and game shows.

Fox was also writing incidental music for the NFL and ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which is where ‘Score’ comes in.

Composed as the theme music for ‘Monday Night Football’* in 1972, ‘Score’ was produced by Bob Israel (the ‘Bob’ in ‘Bob’s Band’ no doubt…) the man in charge of the company Score Productions, which was an American ‘library’ music house.

Formed in 1963 to compose TV themes and background music, Score (where Fox had worked) created original music for new programs, game shows, TV movies and sitcoms, and is still active today.

The funky ‘Score’ was used as the theme to ‘Monday Night Football’ from 1972 to 1975.

It is very groovy indeed, and one of my favorite recent finds.

I hope you dig it too.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Coincidentally, one of the best known pieces of Monday Night Football music  – Johnny Pearson’s ‘HeavyAction’ was from the KPM Library in the UK.

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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.

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By Larry, November 19, 2013 12:44 pm

Listen/Download Gulf Stream – Sophisticated Soul

Greetings all

The day of the hump is upon us, and I have something groovy lined up for you.

I’m a big fan of the UK library sound, especially where it intersects with the Hammond.

Today’s selection popped into my ears whilst I was casting my net on the interwebs.

I had never heard of Gulf Stream, nor the tune ‘Sophisticated Soul’ but I liked what heard, so I pulled the trigger.

As it turns out, Gulf Stream was (as far as I can tell) a one-off project for UK library maestro Alan Moorhouse.

Moorhouse was a trumpeter, composer and arranger who collaborated with no less a light than the mighty Keith Mansfield and put together his own stuff for the KPM music library.

The track I bring you today is the very groovy ‘Gulf Stream’, released on the Paramount label (at least here in the US) in 1969.

‘Sophisticated Soul’ is a reworking/rebuilding of the track ‘Boss Man’ that Moorhouse composed and arranged for KPM around the same time (you can find it on iTunes on ‘The Big Beat Volume Two’).

The track opens with an acoustic guitar riff, before the drums and organ (wish I knew who that was) come in. You get a very groovy organ solo starting around the :52 second mark, with the guitar joining in soon after.

The tune has the feel of a piece of soundtrack music, reminding me of a slightly more laid back version of the kind of stuff Barry Gray was writing for Gerry and Sylvia Anderson shows like ‘UFO’.

Paramount Records had – at that time – a strange catalog, packed with middle of the road singers past their sell-by date, easy listening stuff, a grip of pop and rock bands that were never heard from again, and the occasional gem.

As far as I can tell this is the only release under the Gulf Stream name.

Moorhouse continued to write and record for KPM, as well as releasing his own albums of mood music in the UK.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.