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By Larry, April 27, 2010 5:18 pm

Listen/Download -The Uptights – You Git’s None of This

Greetings all.

I come to you in-midweek with a very cool 45 I picked up at the Allentown, all-45 show.
I was flipping through a couple of boxes of records at the table of a dealer that I’ve been seeing at Allentown for years, who usually brings a less expensive, but always interesting selection to the show.
It was the Skye label that caught my eye first. Skye was owned/operated by heavies like Cal Tjader, Gary McFarland and Gabor Szabo, and over the years I’ve always tried to grab their stuff whenever I came across it in the field. Aside from the three principals listed above, Skye released albums by Lena Horne, Armando Peraza, Grady Tate, and the psyche pop of Wendy and Bonnie (among others).
Even if the Skye name meant nothing to me, I very well would have picked up the record in question, on account of what crate digger worth their salt could in good conscience pass up something called ‘You Git’s None of This’ by a group called the Uptights?
I couldn’t.*
I got the record out to the car, and discovered not a funk 45, but rather a powerful southern soul ballad with a fantastic lead vocal. There’s some gospel piano, subtle electric piano accents, horns and backing vocals that sound like the Sweet Inspirations. It has the sound of something written in the Memphis/Muscle Shoals style, but clearly recorded in either New York or Los Angeles.
But guess what?
I can find out NOTHING about the Uptights.
There is a Skye discography that dates the session to 1970, but nothing else. There are so few 45-only artists on the label (all of the other Skye 45s I’ve found are LP tracks) that you have to wonder not only who the Uptights were, but how they ended up on Skye.
Were they backup singers for a bigger artist’s session who impressed someone at the label? A nightclub act that someone saw and brought to Skye?
I just don’t know.
The publishing info on the label doesn’t turn up anything either. There are dozens of ‘Poindexters’ in the BMI database, but no first initials listed on the label.
The song itself (trying multiple variations in the spelling) fails to bring up any hits either.
I’m stumped, which sucks since I love this record and wish I could find the back-story, but it would appear that this isn’t going to happen today.
As always, I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll be back on Friday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

*UPDATE – BIG thanks to my Facebook friend Joe Cristando who suggested to me that the vocalist on this 45 may in fact be Doris Duke, who recorded another 45 with a group called the Uptights (“Shy Guy”) in 1967. Sure sounds like her to me!

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By Larry, April 25, 2010 12:29 pm

The Master: Norman Whitfield

Listen/Download -Norman Whitfield and Rose Royce – Water

Listen/Download -Norman Whitfield and Rose Royce – Sunrise

Greetings all.

I hope you’re all well, and ready to dig into something interesting.
A few weeks back on Record Store Day, I headed in Asbury Park to see my man DJ Prestige lay down an in-store set at Hold Fast. I grabbed some cool looking LPs on the cheap, one of which was the soundtrack to ‘Car Wash’. It certainly seemed like it was worth it, if only for the title track by Rose Royce.
Well, I get home and hook up the turntable for a marathon digi-ma-tizing session, and soon discovered that the ‘Car Wash’ OST was a much deeper beat that I could have imagined.
The album credits the compositions, production and arrangement all to the mighty Norman Whitfield, and the playing to the band Rose Royce (who Whitfield found when they were backing Edwin Starr).
Anyway, while needle dropping my way through the two LPs, I discovered a couple of really cool instrumentals, both clearly the work of the man who created several psyched out/atmospheric epics when he was working at Motown.
What really struck me was how much of the sound of these two songs, though recorded in 1976, linked back to Whitfield’s 1970 era productions, blending them with a touch of blaxploitation soundtrack feel. I haven’t seen ‘Car Wash’ in years, but these tracks, ‘Water’ and ‘Sunrise’ make me want to check it out to see how they were used in the film.
The first of these ‘Water’ is really more of a short vamp/theme stretched out for three and a half minutes, which is kind of what you’d expect to hear as background in a motion picture. There are some vocals in the beginning, but they’re no more prominent that the repeated bass, piano and guitar lines that run almost constantly through the piece, interrupted only by a short string drop (which at times is reminiscent of ‘Papa Was a Rolling Stone’) and the occasional harp flourish (same there). Things do pick up a little at about the two minute mark, with the addition of some funky bass, but settle right back into the groove before long.
The real treat here is the almost eleven minute epic ‘Sunrise’. The tune starts out with someone working a ride cymbal like a gong, and then the unusual (incongruous) sound of a trumpet running a scale, quickly breaking out into something that would have sounded perfect behind Shaft as he stalked an evildoer through the back alleys of some urban hellhole.
Whitfield builds the song, layer by layer, with the bass, strings, tight, snapping drums, guitar, and then electric piano and horns. There are in fact two different electric pianos, alternating between a lighter, tinkling riff, and a one playing a much more wide open, molasses thick chord. The use of hand drums as accents, as well as occasional bursts of wah-wah guitar drop in like carefully placed exclamation points.
It’s a very tasty jam, and the arrangement/production by Whitfield is next level. There’s no doubt in my mind that ‘Sunrise’ would have fit in perfectly (with lyrics added of course) on any of the early 70s Temptations LPs.
The sad thing is, that Whitfield – in my eyes nothing less than a soulful visionary – after the early 90s backed away from the console, not doing much of anything in his final years. It’s not like he didn’t have a remarkable body of work behind him already, especially his mid-60s to early 70s Motown sessions as songwriter, producer and arranger, but you can’t help but wonder what he might have done with some of the nu-soul crowd.
That said, I hope you dig the tracks, and I’ll be back later in the week with something cool.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 22, 2010 8:21 pm

Listen/Download -Hank Herb – Ali Funky Thing Pt1

Listen/Download -Hank Herb – Ali Funky Thing Pt2

Greetings all.

I hope that the end of the week finds you well.
Me, not so much… I have been assailed by a bug that has left me feverish and singularly unmotivated. Had I not experience the tiniest bit of improvement as the day wore on, I wouldn’t be posting at all. But you know how I am, neither rain, nor sleet or whatever…

I’ll start with a bit of news, that bring that the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio just got a prime timeslot upgrade, and will now be airing Friday evenings at 9PM EST. I’ve been doing this show for a while now, but got bumped out of my original slot and into a severely crappy one. That has now been remedied, and there will be some changes in the offing. Thanks to the completion of the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center, all of my shows at Viva (starting with next week 4/30) will be recorded and mixed live on the old ones and twos. I have yet to work out getting the spoken parts done that way (right now I record them after I’m done) but I will try to figure it out.
So, if you’re hanging at home (or god forbid, the office) at 9PM on Friday, tune us in over the interwebs for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove.
The tune I bring you today is a bit of a mystery. I can’t honestly remember where I picked this 45 up (though I’m certain it was an E-dig), I do remember getting it home and scratching my head a bit.
The record in question is ‘Ali, Funky Thing Pts 1&2’ by Hank Herb. The record is also (quite clearly to anyone that’s heard the OG) ‘Al, Funky Thing’ by Chuck Cornish (sampled by Cypress Hill). Why this was pressed and credited to the pseudonymous Mr. Herb (they still give songwriting credit to Chuck Cornish, and it’s on the ‘Chuck’ label), I have no earthly idea. I’m sure I thought I was getting some obscure cover version (of an already obscure song) when in fact I was getting the same exact record on a different label.
I don’t know much about Chuck Cornish. He was from New Orleans, and he only recorded a handful of 45s. One of these, the laid back but funky ‘Blue Eye Brother and Soul Get Along’ was featured in this space a few years ago and is a fave.
‘Ali, Funky Thing’ is as you might expect, a funky tribute to the boxing great, with some fantastic twangy guitar and a great horn section. Other than that, as Gertrude Stein once said of her childhood home, ‘There’s no there there’. If anyone has any more info, as to Cornish, or why this was issued in the form you see before you today, please drop me a line.
I’m going to bed.
Have a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 18, 2010 4:30 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.85 – Open For Business

Playlist

Listen/Download 90MB/256KB Mixed MP3

Welcome back to the ongoing saga of the Funky16Corners blog, its author, a huge, ever-pulsing mountain of records and his efforts to rein it all in and make some sense of it (both physically and philosophically).
I spent the first part of the weekend checking out the mighty DJ Prestige doing an in-store set at Hold Fast in Asbury Park, while also (of course) picking up a handful of LPs to celebrate Record Store Day. Pres brought the heat (as expected) and then the fam and I headed out for some of those good Long Branch hot dogs and a couple of other errands, followed by some serious work in the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Podcasting Nerve Center.
The renovation is almost done, with some fine tuning remaining here and there, with the disposal of much trash yet to be completed (I suspect a trip or two to the town dump maybe in order). After undoing a veritable Gordian knot of old-school computer equipment (as well as moving/storing a huge amount of data, most of it blog-related, onto a new 1TB drive), it’ll all have to be reconfigured over the next few days. I have my work cut out for me, but things are going to be so much easier when I’m done that it’ll be more than worth it.
This early and unexpected edition of the Funky16Corners Radio thing is evidence of said project, and a small bit of celebration that it is in fact coming to fruition. The first thing I did (after getting the room somewhat organized) was the installation of the home DJ setup (see above). This had been both a long time coming, and extremely satisfying when it was finished.
Following a few days of getting all my sonic ducks in a row (cableing, knob-turning, equalizing and whatnot), I hooked up the digital recorder, grabbed my road cases and pulled out a small stack of 45s and mixed them live, on the spot.
Aside from a certain, unifying feel (funk, soul and funky soul, natch), I didn’t concentrate all that much on pre-selection of the tunes herein. I grabbed something interesting to kick things off, and as that record rotated, I pulled a handful of others out of the box, picked one (or two, or three, depending on how deep a handful fate was dealing me) that I thought might fit, cued it up on the second turntable and repeated the process until a little over forty-five minutes later the needle on the last record hit the run-off groove. Not unlike how I do it when I’m spinning at the Asbury Park 45 Sessions or any other live date. It’s one of those things where you hope you’ve stocked your record box properly, and you let inspirado take you by the hand and lead where it will.
There are a lot of old faves here, as well as a couple of tracks that will return to be blogged on their own in the not too distant future. As has been the policy with ‘live’ mixes, there is no accompanying zip file, but remember that this is not going to be the ongoing F16Radio format. Think of it as a special bonus to stuff into your ears on Monday.
I hope you dig the mix, and I’ll be back later in the week with something groovy.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 15, 2010 4:26 pm

Le ‘Q’ on the cover of Smackwater Jack

Listen/Download -Quincy Jones – Ironside

Greetings all.

What is being up with you?
The ongoing Funky16Corners Record Vault project took a great leap forward yesterday with the new DJ set-up (improvements to which were financed by my slot machine winnings over vacation*) going on line. The rig was cobbled together using some donated speakers (thanks Cenzo), an old amp/tuner, my existing “good” turntable, and augmented with the new turntable and mixer. I expect that I’ll be spending some time hobbling around the old learning curve, but before long I should be cranking out some more ‘live’ mixes, as well as putting a somewhat sharper edge on my turntable skills.
In other, also important news, I’m getting upgraded to a nicer time-slot over at Viva Internet Radio, so as of next week (April 23) the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be airing at 9PM on Friday nights. This is a very groovy development, and I cab assure that with the addition of the home DJ thingy I’ll be laying down some live mixes, so fall by.
That said, the tune I bring you today is something I definitely plan on dropping in an upcoming set, Quincy Jones’s 1971 reading of the ‘Ironside’ theme.
For those of you too young to remember, ‘Ironside’ was a hit TV show (premiering in 1967) that featured Raymond Burr as a paraplegic, San Francisco police detective who went around solving crimes from the back of a specially engineered van (certainly no more ludicrous than much of what you’ll see spilling from the idiot box these days). The very groovy theme was penned by none other than the mighty Quincy Jones
The version you’re hearing this fine day appeared on Jones’s 1971 LP ‘Smackwater Jack’. I can’t say with one hundred percent certainty, but I suspect that like the version of ‘Hikky Burr’ on the same album, this take on the ‘Ironside’ theme was also re-recorded/embellished for that LP.
The whole affair manages to encapsulate a jazzy soundtrack feel, with some funky bass (Chuck Rainey), electric piano (Bob James), flute (Hubert Laws) and soprano sax (Jerome Richardson), taking the original theme and stretching it out for some solos. Jones manages to bring on the heavy brass without drowning out the rhythm section. This version starts out (like the TV theme) with something (synthesizer, I assume) imitating a police siren, with the Fender Rhodes bubbling underneath until the flute comes in to state the theme. There’s some groovy wah-wah guitar running in the background, and until the trumpet solo comes in, the feel is as much jazz rock as it is jazz. Aside from the impressive names listed above, the session was a who’s who of jazz and studio heavies, with Jones sharing producing duties with Phil Ramone and bass legend Ray Brown.
Very solid indeed.
I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

*Only significant in that as a general rule I don’t gamble (no moral objection, I just like to spend my money on records). If you see me at the track, it’s because I like horsies. I hit the jackpot (as it was) playing the penny slots. That’s right – pennies. 30,000 of them…

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By Larry, April 13, 2010 4:51 pm

Larry Birdsong

Listen/Download -Larry Birdsong – Fairly Well

Greetings all.

I don’t know about you (since only a some of you reside in the same general geographic sphere as yours truly) but this grey, cold(er) weather is bringing me down. I know I always complain about being beat – like a rented mule – but that’s pretty much part and parcel of having two little kids.
That, and the fact that I got word yesterday that Master Groove is going on hiatus for an unspecified length of time. I was really digging bringing my records into NYC to spin at Forbidden City, and knowing that a semi-regular gig is going off the rails is a first class drag. So FEH to that, and let’s all keep our fingers crossed that whatever screwed the deal gets unscrewed and when it does we can all meet up in the City for some funk 45s, dumplings and cold beer.
That out of the way, what better way to turn the heat up (at least temporarily) than with a tasty bit of southern funk?
Though I knew his name, until I saw the flipside of today’s selection featured over at Queen City Crates, I hadn’t heard the music of Mr. Larry Birdsong.
Based in Nashville, alongside folks like Johnny Jones and the King Casuals and Frank Howard and the Commanders, Birdsong mixed R&B, blues, soul and funk on records that he recorded for labels like Excello, Champion, Cherokee, Sur-Speed and Ref-O-Ree from the mid-50s into the 70s, eventually finding himself in Gospel in the 80s.
Birdsong recorded three 45s for Ref-O-Ree in 1969. Today’s selection, ‘Fairly Well’ appeared as the b-side to the second of those records, ‘Digging Your Potatoes’. While ‘Digging…’ is the wilder, more upbeat side of the record (you can hear it a QCC by clicking the link above) , ‘Fairly Well’ has lots to offer as well.
I really dig the way Birdsong’s gospel-inflected vocals wail over the top of the deep, funky track. The drums are tight, the organ just this side of churchy, and the backing vocals have one foot in the amen corner and the other in the footlights. Things start out on a socially conscious tip before dipping onto the dance floor with namechecks for the Popcorn, the Cissy Strut, the ‘James Brown’, and in a supremely confident move, Larry raps that you ain’t seen nothin’ yet until you’ve seen him do the ‘Larry Birdsong’.
In a soulful hat trick, that’s right, up tight, and (of course) out of sight.
I hope you dig the record, and I’ll be back on Friday with something groovy.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 11, 2010 3:02 pm

Listen/Download -James Coit – Black Power

Greetings all.

Welcome once again to the beginning of what should be another stellar week at the Funky16Corners blog.
The weekend was a busy one, with operations commencing on the restructuring of the Funky16Corners Record Vault. Many records were moved, much junk was taken out to the trash cans and I went back to the drawing board to try and figure out how to consolidate the computer equipment (some of which is going to be retired) and construct a surface on which to install my DJ setup.
Since the closest I’ve ever come to being a carpenter is owning a Carpenter’s record, this may prove more daunting than it sounds. I suspect that whatever I manage to put together will be both sturdy, and incredibly unattractive, but since it will be covered from end to end by turntables, a mixer and a couple of big speakers, I’m allowing myself a certain amount of aesthetic leeway.
I’ll probably get it figured out this week (the first in a long time that isn’t packed with appointments and such), so I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
The tune I bring you today is another one of those that has proven especially resistant when it comes to digging up facts.
‘Black Power’ by James Coit was something I picked up from a friend last year after hearing a short but extremely intriguing sound clip. When I finally got to give both sides of the record a thorough listening to, I was more than pleased with my purchase.
Aside from the music, the first thing I noticed was that it appeared that the record (or at least the label, Phoof) was from Long Island, NY, affixed with the snappy slogan: “Featuring the Bayport Echo Sound of Long Island”.
Both sides of the record are excellent in their own way. ‘Black Power’ opens with catchy, fast moving guitar riff, followed by some heavy drums and sharp horns. Mr Coit drops in with a rough and ready, Eddie Floyd-esque vocal. The lyrics are – if not exactly as militant as the title might suggest – certainly topical and powerful, and might be even more so if the composition thereof weren’t credited to someone named ‘Mike Szymanski’.
The flip side, ‘Phillandrine’ is a mid-tempo, melodic number with a very catchy chorus and an incongruous, psychedelic interlude.
One of the very few things I was able to find out about ‘Black Power’ is that it enjoyed a period of popularity on the Northern Soul scene (Wigan Casino specifically) in the late 70s. It is a storming dancer, but not at all what one would consider a stereotypical ‘Northern’ side.
Other than that (and the fact that it appears to have been bootlegged/reissued a few times for the UK market) my searching has yielded nothing. If you know anything else about Messrs Coit or Szymanski, Phoof records or the Bayport Echo Sound of Long Island, please drop me a line.
I’ll be back on Wednesday with some more soul.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 8, 2010 5:24 pm

Funky16Corners After Dark Pt2 – Mixed for Delirious Sunrise

Playlist

Intro

Listen/Download 134MB/256KB Mixed MP3

No Zip File

As promised I have returned with the second hour of the show I put together for the Delirious Sunrise program.
Once again, it is firmly packed with heavy, yet oddly laid back sounds, including a large number of personal favorites.
It’s the end of the week, and I’m just about exhausted (mentally and physically) so I can’t recall – even after a couple of surveys – what in this mix has or has not appeared in this space already (a lot of it clearly has).
That said, I hope you dig it (and that you pulled down the ones and zeros for the first half as well, if you haven’t, make sure you, on account of it’s very groovy, very moody and the perfect complement to the second half, which is this…).
In other – mercifully brief – news, the long planned renovation of the Funky16Corners Record Vault is about to commence, including installation (fina-f*cking-ly) of a home DJ set up. I mentioned last week that I came home from vacation with some ill gotten gains, squeezed out of the slot machines in Connecticut, which I promptly rolled over and invested in a second turntable and a mixer. As soon as I get a bunch of stuff boxed up, hundreds of LPs off of the floor and into a wall unit of some kind (I hope I don’t have to go back to Ikea), and build a surface on which to set up the equipment (as well as some speakers) you can expect a new era of live mixes here, and I can spend some time working on my (admittedly rudimentary) turntable skills.
I will also be returning to Master Groove @ Forbidden City (Ave A between 13th and 14th in NYC) on Wednesday April 21st for some more of the good stuff spread over the turntables at the speed of 45 revolutions per minute. If you are in the area and are so inclined, pencil the date in your planner and fall by. It’d be great to see you, and since things are getting warmer every day it might make for a nice night in the city.
So, until I return on Monday with some funk, have yourself a great weekend and dig the sounds.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 6, 2010 5:29 pm

Funky16Corners After Dark Pt1 – Mixed for Delirious Sunrise

Playlist

Listen/Download 138MB/256KB Mixed MP3

No Zip File

The mix you see before you today (the second part of which will be posted on Friday) is the first hour of the show I put together for the Delirious Sunrise show on WLUW.
Considering that the show airs from 4AM to 6AM, I wanted to whip up a downtempo blend, at times funky, but in that twilight, laid back, noir-ish way that characterizes those few, quiet hours before the dawn.
Though many of the tracks included in these two hours have appeared in this space before (whether as part of a Funky16Corners Radio mix or individually) the assemblage thereof is new, and if I say so myself, pretty tasty, at least as laid out for the time in question.
I’ve gone into my deep and abiding love for my iPod in this space (and over at Iron Leg) several times in the past. Though I could be considered a ‘late adapter’, to say that the last few years have seen the iPod become an integral part of my daily (and nightly) routine would be a drastic understatement.
My daily life – thanks to a variety of factors – can be fairly hectic, sometime rising to the level of brain-scrambling, and those few, precious hours after the kids have taken to their beds (those not devoted to working on the blogs) are often spent wandering around in one or both (I have one devoted to video) of the old MP3 delivery devices.
Aside from the occasional stint in the automobile, most of my intensive listening – the time when I dig particularly deeply into a record – is done right before passing out for the night.
With the lights out and the earbuds in place, I can elevate the volume, and jump wildly from song to song, genre to genre until I latch onto something that grabs my ears in a special way, drills down into my psyche, and eventually finds its way into this space, alongside my ruminations. It’s really the only time of day where things get quiet enough (within and without) to approach music the way that it deserves.
It kind of takes me back to the days when I’d go to sleep every night with the radio next to my pillow, listening to everything from music stations to weird (at least the early 70s version of ‘weird’) talk radio, to the local ABC TV affiliate with a signal that could be heard at the very bottom of the FM dial.
After I get to the point where I’m too tired to go on any more, I pick something meditative, running the gamut from Nick Drake, to Mississippi John Hurt, Thelonious Monk, Ravi Shankar, or Kraftwerk or whatever, turn over and surrender myself to sleep.
Thanks to the fact that I’ve always had a hard time getting to sleep (less so these days, for obvious reasons), and staying there, I always go to sleep listening to something – music or spoken word – and often put things on when I wake up during the night so that I can get back to sleep.
Though I have no idea about the science of the matter, I have always found that having music playing while I sleep helps me dream (or at least have more interesting dreams), and has enough of a soothing effect so that when sleep is interrupted (hitting the pleasure centers of the brain and masking background noise) it can be reestablished.
I’m not completely sure that everyone will take this as an endorsement, but for the last few weeks, these two mixes (I have them linked together in a playlist) have been the soundtrack to my nights. There are a lot of deep records over the course of these two hours, and I find no matter where I hit the mix timewise, I always get a little bit of that ‘Oh, cool…’ feeling, and my overactive brain downshifts a little and all is once again well.
Whether or not you (the listener) decides to employ it in the same way, or as a calming (yet oddly stimulating) companion to your waking hours, I hope you find that I have selected them well, and that you dig them too.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, April 5, 2010 9:48 am

Greetings all.

If you’re up in the early morning hours, or – even better- if you reside on the other side of the Atlantic and see the sun long before we do, you might want to tune in to WLUW (Loyola University/Chicago) (locally on the wireless, elsewhere over the interwebs) for the Delirious Sunrise program at 4AM CST (5AM Eastern Daylight Time, make adjustments for your own time zone).
I’ve put together a two-hour mix of crepuscular wonderfulness for my man Arvo who broadcasts all night long on WLUW this Tuesday. It will be archived at Posterity Playlists and then posted in this very space later this week. All you night owls, insomniacs and speed freaks make sure to twist the dials (or the browser of your choice) and check it out.

Peace

Larry

Comments (1)

By Larry, April 4, 2010 12:38 pm

Greetings all.

As promised, today marks the very first time I’ve hosted a guest post, i.e. a piece written by someone other than me. Not too long ago Eric from Record Racks suggested a post swap (you can see the post I did for Record Racks here) and naturally, I was amenable.

Eric chose to put together a review of the recent Now Again reissue of the rare LP by Virginia’s Equatics.

I hope you dig it, and make sure to head over to check out what’s going down at Record Racks.

In other news, I’ve put together a two-hour mix, in a ‘late night’ stylee for my man Arvo at the Delirious Sunrise program on WLUW at Loyola University that will air this Tuesday, April 6 from 4 to 6AM. It will be archived at Posterity Playlists and then eventually posted in this very space. Make sure to check it out.

Peace

Larry

The Equatics

Listen/Download -The Equatics – Santana Pt2
From Doin It!!! (Now Again, 2010)

By Eric Luecking of Record Racks

I remember playing in the school band throughout middle school and part of high school, and never do I recall us sounding as sweet and professional as the likes of Kashmere Stage Band out of Houston, Texas; The Diplomatics out of Indianapolis, Indiana; or this group, The Equatics, out of Hampton, Virginia. These bands give studio musicians a run for their money and make 99% of the rest of local school bands sound like they just picked up an instrument, which may be true for many.

Whether or not these groups were as proficient with their musical chops due to fewer distractions (the internet), the product of an era where there was a focus on true musicianship (face it, it’s mostly lost these days on up-and-comers), a greater commitment to in-school music programs (prior to the big dollars athletics now bring in), or just a collision of a mishmash of factors that culminated in the same place at the same time is a topic that could be vigorously debated. But that’s a different discussion for another day.

Band members Carlton Savage, Benjamin Crawford, Wayne Jones, Calvin Billups, Renon Sumpter, Daniel Slade, Alvin Paige, Leo Davis, and Crawford’s coach Frank Johnson stirred some mean soul stew with their only album. It’s unclear how many copies were pressed, but we do know that it was funded by Pepsi after the kids won two separate contests sponsored by Pepsi, one of which was to write a jingle for the company to be aired locally.

“Doin It!!!” features a few covers including their take on the Isaac Hayes classic “Walk On By” and another on their state’s neighbor’s prodigal son Bill Withers “Ain’t No Sunshine.” These covers stand strong as the band refuses to wilt under the pressure of performing songs that were wildly popular at the time and have since become staples of the songbook of America. Even on the remake of Brenda And The Tabulations’ “The Touch Of You,” which isn’t as strongly revered in musical history books, they breathe a touch of fresh air in replacing vocals, including the doo wop backdrops, with a jazz leaning trumpet lead.

Showcasing their skills even further is “Santana,” divided into two parts, and questionably separated by the previously mentioned Tabulations remake. Each part has musical sections that are either the same riff or a very close interpretation of it, but both smoke with a fury. Led by an upfront rhythm guitar that doesn’t try to overpower you with your typical leading solo guitar shtick, it’s cemented with aggressive bass plucking by Crawford. You even get a short solo on organ at no extra charge.

Their original material is just as fascinating, much of it as pleading balladry. “Coach” had a lifelong dream of a singing career that never materialized before or after this set, but you get a sense of satisfaction listening to him aspiring to attain his dreams. Even if this album would have had greater distribution and amassed an audience of talent scouts, he still may not have garnered much attention from the music industry. That’s not to say his vocals on the rhetorical “Where Is Love?” are bad (they aren’t), but merely to say he was competent enough to carry out the task. After all, failing to reach the stars isn’t really failure at all when you consider that most people’s dreams never even leave the ground.

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Comments (0)

By Larry, April 2, 2010 9:45 pm

Greetings all.
Just a programming note to let you know that this Monday will bring the heretofore unprecedented appearance of a guest post (i.e. one not written by yours truly) from my man Eric over at Record Racks.
I will be reciprocating at his fine blog as well.
Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you then.

Peace

Larry