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By Larry, March 28, 2010 4:12 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.84 – Moving Between Dimensions

Playlist

Listen/Download 123MB/256KB Mixed MP3

Listen/Download 90MB Zip File

The new week is here, and as previously planned, I’m posting this new edition of the Funky16Corners Radio thang from the road, since the fam and I are on vacation.
I figured I could do a couple of regular-sized posts from wherever we are, but it occurred to me that since I had a few mixes worth of tracks stockpiled for just such an occasion, that I ought to put a mix together for the week and be done with it.
That said, Funky16Corners Radio v.84 – Moving Between Dimensions is another one of those funky, jazzy things that I like to assemble every once in a while, on account of that’s how I roll. Things are generally upbeat, but there are a couple of detours into the spiritual realm, ever so slightly far out but still melodic and groovy.
Things get up to speed quickly with a track by the mighty Blackbyrds. The ‘Blackbyrds Theme’ is one of the funkier tracks from their 1974 ‘Flying Start’ LP. Dig that tasty break.
Roy Meriwether made an appearance in this space not too long ago. He was one of the preeminent (if not the best known) soul jazz pianists of the 60s and 70s, recording first for major labels and then waxing a couple of private press dates (including the ultra-rare ‘Nubian Lady’). ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free’ is from his ‘Jesus Christ Superstar Goes Jazz’ LP and starts out mellow, eventually picking up a nice funky pace.
Vibist Mike Mainieri got his start playing fairly straight-ahead jazz (he even played with Paul Whiteman?!?) but by the late 60s was getting further out, working an early fusion vibe. His 1968 session ‘Journey Through an Electric Tube’ (no doubt a reference to the vibes themselves) features mellow grooves (like ‘The Bush’) and sidemen like Jeremy Steig and Chuck Rainey.
I’m a huge fan of jazz flute (as you’ll see in an upcoming mix) and Frank Wess was one of the greats. Alongside players like Sam Most, Buddy Collette and the mighty Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Wess (who like those instrumentalists played a number of wind instruments) started out playing modern jazz, ending up signed to the Stax subsidiary Enterprise where he recorded 1970’s ‘Wess To Memphis’. An excellent, forward thinking session, ‘Wess to Memphis’ has plenty of soulful moments while managing to maintain a jazz edge. ‘Underhog’ features some very nice, echoey flute work.
Eddie Jefferson was one of the early masters of vocalese, laying down vocals over some of the most famous jazz melodies of the day. His reworking of Miles Davis’s ‘So What’, from his 1969 Prestige session ‘Body and Soul’ may not be terribly funky (like a few of the album’s other cuts) but it is one of his finest performances.
Pianist Gene Harris is best known for his decade (plus) long work with the Three Sounds. ‘Feeling Me Feeling You’ is from his 1974 solo album ‘Astral Signals’.
Another recent Funky16Corners post featured the great Hammond player Dr Lonnie Smith. ‘Hola Muneca’ is another track from the 1971 ‘Mama Wailer’ album, which featured a who’s who of the CTI/Kudu stable, including Grover Washington Jr., Airto, Billy Cobham and Ron Carter.
Bobby Hutcherson is one of the great vibraphonists to record for the Blue Note label in the 60s and 70s. In addition to several amazing sessions as a leader, Hutcherson was also a very busy sideman on many of the label’s sessions. ‘Print Tie’ is a track from his 1970 ‘San Franscisco’ LP, which he recorded with sax legend Harold Land.
I mentioned both flute jazz in general, and Jeremy Steig specifically, above. Steig – famous among the crate diggers of the world for ‘Howling For Judy’ (sampled by the Beastie Boys) – recorded a number of albums for Blue Note and Solid State in the late 60s and early 70s, all along the same lines, i.e. vaguely funky, infused with far out hippiosity and tip-toeing just along the edge of “out”. ‘Rational Nonsense’ was on the 1969 LP ‘This is Jeremy Steig’.
Pianist Larry Willis appeared on Funky16Corners Radio v.81 with ‘153rd St Theme’. The funky – yet mellow – electric piano feature ‘Journey’s End’ is from the same album.
Eddie Harris made some of the finest soul jazz of the 60s and 70s during his tenure at Atlantic Records. Both alone, and with Les McCann he went a long way to defining the sound, and with his electrified saxophone, paving the way for the onrush of fusion. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the ‘Silver Cycles’ album, do so with haste, since it includes ‘Smoke Signals’. Funky, spacey and soulful, it’s a landmark recording.
It is with a tip of the hat to the jazzy rock cats, that I bring you Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll with ‘Road to Cairo’. Though they have often been placed amongst the UK freak set, Auger, with his jazz organ chops, and Driscoll, the soulful diva in a caftan made some amazing music in the late 60s, from pure soul jazz, to funky soul to borderline psychedelia.
This edition of the Funky16Corners Radio podcast closes out with a very cool cover, saxophonist Lou Donaldson (backed by no less than Charles Earland on the Hammond, Idris Muhammad on the skins and Melvin Sparks on the guitar) doing his thing with Lee Dorsey’s ‘Everything I Do (Gohn Be Funky From Now On).
I hope you dig the mix, and I’ll be back next week with some more of the good stuff.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 25, 2010 4:22 pm

Winston Samuels (left) with Desmond Dekker (center)

Listen/Download -Winston Samuels and the Clintones – Let’s Get It On

Greetings all.

NOTE: In relation to comments on the previous post: If by some chance, you happen to be the world’s most bad-ass reggae collector and find yourself, how shall we say, underwhelmed by this selection, please keep it to yourself.

Thanks – The Mgmt.

Friday is here, and I for one couldn’t be happier. I’m tired (but not sick, thank jeebus), and while my allergies seem to be at bay, I’ve done too much this week, and expect to have to do more before it’s through.
I’ve put together four hours of new mixes, one each for Funky16Corners and Iron Leg (since I’ll be on vacation next week) and a special two-hour radio show that will be dropping early in April (more details to follow).
As a result, my brain isn’t functioning at peak levels (time for an upgrade?), and I’m in dire need of a nap; A really long, quiet, peaceful nap with a soft blankie and a soulful lullaby or two until I drift off to the land of nod.
I’ll try to get this entry typed up and posted before I succumb to slumber, but I can’t make any guarantees, so if it suddenly drifts off into gibberish, you’ll know why.
The tune I bring you today keeps us rooted in the Caribbean, moving northward to Jamaica.
This is one I grabbed last week at the Allentown record show, one of the last 45s I purchased before leaving for home. I was making one last circuit to see what I’d missed, and spied a box marked ‘Jamaican’. It was fairly small, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a look.
It didn’t.
In addition to the very groovy tune I bring you today, I also scored a longtime want (the Heptones ‘Book of Rules’) taking both home for less than a fiver.
Today’s selection is by an artist that I’d never heard of (thought it turns out that I had in fact heard him) before, but the fact that it was both cheap, and a Marvin Gaye cover (and you know I love me some soulful reggae) made me snap it up.
When I got out to the car and had a chance to give it a spin, I knew I’d made a wise investment.
Winston Samuels (recording here with the Clintones) spent the better part of the 1960s recording ska and rock steady 45s for a variety of labels working with producer Lindon Pottinger, before joining Desmond Dekker and the Aces in 1967. Samuels recorded with, but did not tour with the Aces, reportedly saying that he was unable to fly out of Jamaica because “Rastas did not fly on iron birds”.
I haven’t been able to date Samuel’s cover of Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’, but I would have to assume that it was from 1973 or later, since that’s when the OG hit the charts.
Samuel lays down an excellent vocal over a tasty reggae backing, with some nice organ, sounding like it was written to be recorded in the reggae stylee.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Monday (posting from the road) with a new edition of Funky16Corners Radio.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 23, 2010 5:22 pm

Listen/Download -The Gemini Brass – Rock the Boat

Greetings all.

The tune I bring you today is something I picked up a long time ago at one of the Asbury Lanes Garage/Record sales. I’d been wanting to blog it for a while, and had it digimatized, but every time I wanted to write about it I realized that I had forgotten to photograph the label, after which I promised myself that I’d dig it out, and then – as is often the case – promptly forgot about the matter, sending it right back to the bottom of the heap.
It’s just like that sometimes.
Fortunately, my brain is like a sweater fresh out of the dryer, i.e. full of static and as a result covered with the stray socks and lint of memory. When I sit down to go through the crates, whether to work up a new mix, or pull some 45s for a live DJ set, the fragments of memory often shake loose as I see a record in passing, and I create a whole separate pile of stuff, filed under ‘things I need to record’, ‘things I need to photograph’ and more often than not ‘records I thought were lost for good’ (with today’s selection falling into the last two categories).
The record in question is ‘Rock the Boat’ by the Gemini Brass.
A cover of the 1974 Top 20 hit by the Hues Corporation, this 45 sent up all kinds of red flags when I pulled it out of the box.
Weird label I’d never seen before: CHECK
Cover of a funk and/or soul tune: CHECK
Indication that said record is from a foreign country: CHECK
Possible to procure said record for less than a dollar: CHECK
When I got the record home and gave it a spin I was pleasantly surprised. It starts at an absolutely speeding tempo with all kinds of percussion and shouts from the band before the horns and some kind of cheesy combo organ fall in to state the theme. There are vocals, but they don’t really take the lead, serving more as accents to the instrumental track (it’s almost as the lead vocal had been removed, leaving the backing vocalists by themselves). The whole thing is kind of frantic
The little I’ve been able to discover about the Gemini Brass indicates that they were a working brass band from the Caribbean island of Trinidad. They recorded several 45s and at least two albums (the latter of which appears to have been recorded/released in Canada), playing both traditional calypso as well as covers of contemporary funk/soul material. A couple of their tracks have been comped, with their version of the African Music Machine’s ‘Black Water Gold’ appearing on Kon and Amir and DJ Muro’s ‘Kings of Diggin’, and ‘You Don’t Love Me’ on the Strut comp ‘Calypsoul ‘70’.
The issue of ‘Rock the Boat’ presented here is the Trinidadian OG, and the record was also released in the US on the Brooklyn-based Calypso label Charlies.
The Gemini Brass version of ‘Rock the Boat’ is frantic to the point where only the most athletic (or most intoxicated) folks on the dance floor would be able to keep up, but the record is so infectious I can imagine most people at least giving it a try.
I hope you dig the cut, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 21, 2010 5:30 pm

Listen/Download -Willie Smith – I Got a New Thing

Listen/Download -Cliff Driver’s Infernal Machine – I Got a New Thing (inst)

Greetings all.

I hope everyone (in a geographically appropriate radius) is enjoying the prematurely ‘spring-y’ weather. Not all that far removed from what seemed like an eternal wall of snow, we’ve been grooving on 70 degree-plus weather the last few days. Sure it’s still chilly in the early morning and after the sun goes down, but since I tend to remain indoors during those hours, I don’t mind all that much.
I took advantage of the wonderful weather to drive two hours in my car and stand around in a warehouse for two and a half hours more digging at the legendary all-45/78 record show in Allentown, PA. This has become – over the years I’ve been traveling to Allentown for record-related purposes –  quite the Pavlovian exercise, with yours truly enduring a painfully monotonous drive so that I might, like a hamster eager for num-nums, be rewarded at the end by stacks of vinyl.
Today was an especially nice trip, mainly because I scored a heap of nice stuff (split about 50/50 between soul/funk and rock/pop) and got to meet up with some groovy people.
As I was driving out to the show, I was giving some thought s to what I’d write about the experience, deciding in advance that I’d take it upon myself to counter the stereotype of record shows as a freak parade of basement dwelling, vinyl hungry Morlocks, crawling to the surface so that they might once again drag records back to their lair.
As I stood on the steps of the ‘mall’ where the show is held, waiting for the doors to open, scanning my fellow attendees, I thought that I would be unable to follow through on my hypothesis. Fortunately, once I got inside, to the actual record show, the ‘sampling’ evened out somewhat, providing much needed balance and my faith in humanity (or the dark little corner of it inhabited by record collectors) was restored.
Sure, the crowd was close to 99.9 percent male, and, thanks to the unpleasantly close quarters in which one is forced to dig, almost as smelly, but when afforded a moment to step back and soak in the scene, I realized that what I was looking at was a cross section of the ‘serious’ digger community, writ large. The age range stretched from teenagers to folks that remember what the Korean War was like (firsthand). There were doowoppers, Beatle-haircut guys (split evenly between actual “butcher-cover” grippers and garage punkers), serious (like extra-continental) out of towners from the UK and Japan, your hippity-hoppers, your blues 78 cats, soul and funk diggers, serious DJs (I had a chance to say hi to two of New York’s heaviest, Mr. Finewine and Mr. Robinson) and tons of non-descript minglers, providing the caulk binding the stylistic tiles in the room.
Something else I saw, at least on the ‘meta’ level was hundreds of hardcore music lovers. There was almost as much conversation – with old friends and new catching up and trading stories – as there was actual digging.
There’s nothing quite like moving around a tightly packed record convention – especially one like the all-45/78 show, which tends to pull in the heavy hitters – and watching the faces of people extracting a long-sought 45 from a stack of thousands, or wading through a pile of prospects with a portable turntable.
When I go to a show like this, I tend to work the middle ground, avoiding the huge, disheveled piles of randomly packed 45s, as well as the boxes where there isn’t a record to be found selling for less than one hundred dollars.
When you survey a show like this, you realize that there are people working all over the financial spectrum. You tend to hear stories about pre-show horse trading (sometimes back at the hotel the night before, sometimes – as I saw this time – out of the back seats of cars in the parking lot), and as I said before, there’s everything from heaps of cheap filler to boxes of ultra-rare gold, literally something for everyone.
No matter how much cultural snobbery there is, from both outside of and within the scene, the bottom line is that what you feel on your way out of a show like this is an atmosphere thick with satisfaction. Some of the people clutching a prized white whale that they’d been chasing (and saving for) for years, some with piles of things new to them that will provide hours of sonic exploration, and some (like me, for instance) with a little of both.
I can’t say that I scored any grails this time out (most of my remaining heavy wants are far outside my financial reach), but I did grab a couple of things from my want list, as well as a number of interesting things that I’d never heard before, which I’ll record, listen (and re-listen) to in the coming weeks and research as much as I can, eventually presenting them to you on one of the blogs.
Since I’m not done digimatizing the new stuff, the track I bring you this fine day is something I grabbed last year.
The 45 in question, ‘I Got a New Thing’ by Willie Smith, with an instrumental version on the flip credited to Cliff Driver’s Infernal Machine, is a rough and ready, bluesy funk 45. Featuring a tough, soulful vocal (Mr. Smith I presume?) and some fantastic guitar work (straight ahead, and wah-wah-i-fied), ‘I Got a New Thing’ is a serious, meat and potatoes slice of funk.
This is the kind of funk 45 that could really be used as an all-purpose stand in for the entire genre.
It’s funky (naturally).
Passably, but not slavishly James Brown-y (‘James Brown. Of All the James Browns in the world, you’re the James Brown-iest‘*).
Packed with all the proper signifiers, i.e. heavy drums, chank guitar, organ, brass punctuation and soul shouts.
And, at least in this case, largely anonymous.
Aside from the New York City address on the label (which, considering the concentration of the record biz in NYC – at least back in the day –means nothing at all) I can’t tell you much about the record in question.
The instro dub on the flip, is pretty much a straight lift of the bed from the vocal version, with a honking sax-o-ma-phone solo running around where the voice used to be. I think I prefer the vocal version, but the instrumental side is nothing to sniff at.
I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something groovy.

Peace

Larry

*Apologies to Charles Schulz

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By Larry, March 18, 2010 3:58 pm

Buffalo Springfield

Percy Sledge

King Curtis

Listen/Download -Percy Sledge – Kind Woman

Listen/Download -King Curtis – For What It’s Worth

Greetings all.

I hope that the end of the week finds you all well.
I seem to have found temporary respite from the seasonal onslaught of pollen, which at times feels like someone is following me around tightening a vise on my head. I suspect that the damp weather amplified the problem, but pretty much all I can do is take allergy medicine and hope that it goes away.
The tunes I bring you today are soulful covers of my all time favorite US 60s band (Tied with Arthur Lee and Love), the Buffalo Springfield.
Known to most as the group that spawned Stephen Stills and Neil Young, the Buffalo Springfield were much more than that, creating in the their short, tumultuous existence an amazing, often sublime fusion of rock, country and psychedelic sounds.
Their biggest (only) hit was 1967s ode to the Sunset Strip riots, ‘For What It’s Worth’ which was covered many times, most memorably by the Staple Singers and sampled by Public Enemy for ‘He Got Game’ (on which Stills re-recorded the chorus).
My love for the Buffalo Springfield has been a deep and abiding one. I bought my first BS record when I was 13 and still listen to the group on a fairly regular basis. The unfortunate thing is that their discography, even when augmented with unreleased material, is still quite brief, spanning only three albums, which make sit all the cooler when I come across an interesting cover of one of their songs.
I’ve always seen them as the classic ‘iceberg band’, in that what is visible above the surface is but a tiny fraction of their output. To the vast majority of people all they are is ‘For What It’s Worth’. To a small percentage of people they are known for what the members went on to do, and the tiniest percentage imaginable actually have a real idea of the depth and breadth of their work.
Last year I was out digging for 45s when I pulled a Percy Sledge single from a box and noticed the title ‘Kind Woman’.
‘No..’ I thought. ‘It couldn’t be.’
But, it was.
What was it? A cover of the very last song, on the very last album by the Buffalo Springfield; ‘Last Time Around’.
Written by Richie Furay , ‘Kind Woman’ is one of the more country-ish tunes in the band’s catalogue. Furay would go on to re-record the song solo, and with the band he would found after leaving the Springfield, Poco.
I couldn’t wait to get the record home and hear it. I was curious how Sledge would interpret the tune, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Sledge takes the country feel of the original and shifts it over into soul ballad territory, taking the verse at a reserved tempo and exploding during the chorus. There’s some great piano running underneath, as well as a nicely subdued horn arrangement.
The second track I bring you today is by the mighty King Curtis. His version of the Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’ comes from his 1967 ‘King Size Soul’ album (which also included ‘Memphis Soul Stew’). This version is taking at a relaxed pace, with lush strings, the King’s sax and some great vibrato guitar that ties it to the original. It has a great ‘late night’ feel that makes me want to play it back to back with Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode to Billie Joe’.
I hope you dig the tunes, and I’ll be back on Monday with some funk.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 14, 2010 2:26 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.83 – Really Together!
Recorded live at Master Groove @ Forbidden City 3/10/10

Playlist

Comments (1)

By Larry, March 11, 2010 4:53 pm

Junior Wells

Listen/Download -Junior Wells – You’re Tuff Enough

Greetings all.

Friday is here, and I’m happy to say that last night’s Master Groove @ Forbidden City was an unqualified gas.
There was a nice crowd and as is always the case, the hot sounds were flying fast and furious.
This time out I got my shit together and recorded my set, which I’ll be posting on Monday.
Since I am currently sleep deprived (and have a day’s worth of errands ahead of me) I’ll be uncharacteristically brief.
If you’re a fan of Chicago blues, the name Junior Wells should be a (very) familiar one. In a career that spanned more than four decades, Wells, as both a harp master and a vocalist laid down lots of very tasty music. His collaborations with the mighty Buddy Guy are legendary and have rightly secured him a place of honor in the blues pantheon.
However, like many of his contemporaries (Guy included) Junior Wells dabbled (with more success than many) on the soul and funk side of things. Today’s selection is one of his finest efforts from that side of the stylistic street.
Last year, on my Massachusetts digs, I happened upon a hippie-ish record store in a back alley of an ivy encrusted college town. To my delight, their bins were filled with all kinds of groovy 60s pop and rock LP, and in addition to some stuff I hadn’t heard of, I pulled a couple of longtime wants as well.
Toward the end of my time in the store I noticed a small bin of 45s on the side, and while it didn’t look all that promising, I’ve learned through experience that only a fool passes up a  stack of unexplored 45s. Good thing too, since the first handful of singles I picked up yielded the song your hearing today.
A subsidiary of Chicago-based Mercury Records, Blue Rock had a discography that stretched from 1964 to 1969 and was home to all kinds of groovy soul, funk and blues sides. Junior Wells recorded four singles for the label in 1968 and 1969, the first of which was the slamming ‘You’re Tuff Enough’.
While I wouldn’t say that ‘You’re Tuff Enough’ crosses the line into funk territory, I wouldn’t hesitate to drop it into a funky DJ set. It’s a searing bit of powerful sock soul, with a great vocal by Wells and a kick-ass arrangement (by none other than the mighty Charles Stepney!).
Certainly the best two dollars I’ve ever spent in Massachusetts.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back with that live set on Monday.
Have a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 9, 2010 5:03 pm

Mr. Willie Tee

Listen/Download – Willie Tee – Sweet Thing

Greetings all.
I hope that the middle of the week find you all well, especially those of you within driving distance of the Big Apple. I’ll be spinning tonight (Wednesday 3/10) at Master Groove @Forbidden City, and it’d be great to meet up with some more of you good people. I have a very special, downtempo Mod Soul set line up, which I think you’ll dig. The beer will be cold, the food is excellent, and of course the vinyl (spinning at 45RPM) will be worth the trip. I hope to see you there.

A few weeks back, when I dropped the Northern Soul mix, I made mention of the fact that one of the best records in that mix (the Four Larks ‘Groovin’ at the Go Go’), which was a long time white whale of mine eventually made it’s way into my crates via a very cool, and extremely generous reader who found a mint copy of the record and sent it to me. Today’s selection arrived at the Funky16Corners record vault in much the same way.
Late last year, my man Tarik (who’ll also be spinning tonight at Botanica alongside the mighty Mr. Finewine) connected with me via the interwebs to tell me about some digging he’d been doing down in New Orleans. Naturally I was jealous, but also glad to hear that someone was excavating vinyl in the Crescent City. Not long after we’d chatted, a package arrived in the mail, and in addition to some cool stuff for the little Corners, Tarik sent me some very cool 45s, my favorite of which is today’s selection.
If you’re a fan of New Orleans soul and funk, the name Willie Tee (nee Turbinton) ought to be a familiar one. In addition to mid-60s records under his own name for NOLA and Atlantic (1965s ‘Walking Up a One Way Street’ is a big fave with the soulies), Willie went on to form the Gaturs* with his brother Earl, and made some of the best instrumental funk 45s to come out of New Orleans in the early 70s. He was also an accomplished jazz musician.
In the years before and after the Gaturs, Tee made a number of excellent records for a variety of local (Hot Line, Bonatemp, Gatur) and national (Atco, UA, Capitol) labels, up until his untimely passing in 2007.
Today’s selection, ‘Sweet Thing’ was released on the Gatur label in 1973. It’s one of Willie Tee’s funkiest outings, with a real, slick uptown sound that sounds like it could have been pulled from a blaxploitation soundtrack. Not only do you get Willie’s fine vocals and funky electric piano, but there are layers of wah-wah guitar and classy strings. I also dig the mix of drum set and hand drums. The last time I dropped this at the Asbury Park 45 Sessions it had a couple of the other DJs running up to the turntables to see what it was.
Yet another great funk 45 from the Big Easy.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Friday

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 7, 2010 7:00 pm

The Eight Minutes

Listen/Download – The Eight Minutes – Here’s Some Dances

Greetings all.
I hope everyone enjoyed Hammond Week 2010, and you’re good and ready to slip inside a couple of nice funk 45s.
Before we get going I have a programming note, that being my return to Master Groove @ Forbidden City this Wednesday for some more of that good funk and soul spun at forty-five revolutions per minute. As always, I’ll be joining DJ Bluewater and M-Fasis, and if you’re going to be in the area (that being New York City, on Avenue A between 13th and 14th Streets) you should fall by, grab some cold beer and perhaps a steamed dumpling or two and soak up the sounds.

As I said, this week we’ll be getting down to a couple of excellent funk 45s, all recent acquisitions. Consider it a middle course of sorts, cleansing the palate from the Hammond grooves of the previous week and in preparation of what will hopefully be another live mix from the decks at Forbidden City.
The first of the weeks 45s is something I grabbed off of a set sale list last year after a short sample convinced me that to do otherwise would be foolish. Good thing to, since ‘Here’s Some Dances’ by the Eight Minutes is a groover.
The Eight Minutes were what collector types now refer to as a ‘kiddie band’, i.e. their ranks were composed entirely of children and adolescents. While it would be tempting to see these acts as a reaction to the success of the Jackson Five, keep in mind that a lot of this stuff predates the successes of the brothers from Gary, Indiana. The Five Stairsteps were charting with their Windy C sides as early as 1966 and the Eight Minutes (also from the Chicago area) released their first single in 1968.
The Eight Minutes, composed of children from the Goggins (Hank, Ricky and Ronald) and Sudduth (Hedda, David and Wendel) families originally came together in 1967 as the Soul Impacts. They changed their name and started recording as the Eight Minutes (after adding Juwanna Glover and Carl Monroe, i.e. Minutes seven and eight) and released their first 45 on the S.I.M. label in 1968 (which included ‘Here’s Some Dances’) , and then signed with the Jay Pee label. They recorded four singles for Jay Pee, the third of which includes a re-recording of ‘Here’s Some Dances’. They eventually went on to record an album and a couple of 45s for the Perception label before breaking up in the early 70s.
‘Here’s Some Dances’ is an especially groovy side, working the time tested dance craze angle (with shout outs to the Push and Pull among other steps). The vibe has a rocked up, somewhat psychedelic edge to it, with some tasty wah wah guitar and wailing organ (as well as a drum break) that sounds as if the kids had been listening to Sly and the Family Stone.
The Jay Pee version of ‘Here’s Some Dances’ was comped a few years back by the good people at the Numero Group on “Home Schooled: The ABC’s of Kid Soul”.
It’s a very cool side, and I hope you dig it.
I’ll be back on Wednesday with something from New Orleans.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, March 4, 2010 4:38 pm

Gene and his porkpie hat contemplating the Hammond

Listen/Download -Gene Ludwig – The Vamp

Listen/Download -Gene Ludwig – Well You Needn’t

Greetings all.

I hope the end of the week finds you well. I, on the other hand fell backwards through the front door of my house yesterday, landing flat on my back in a pile of toys. While my sons thought this was hilarious (I’m sure I would too if I’d observed it happening to someone else), I sit here feeling much like someone who fell backwards into a pile of toys, i.e. sore. I’m trying not to dwell on how much my own stupidity contributed to this accident. To do so would only make my back hurt more than it does.
I’ve decided to close out Hammond Week 2010 with an old favorite by one of the true masters of the instrument, Mr. Gene Ludwig.
I was lucky enough to interview Mr. Ludwig a few years back, and when you get a second you should pop on over to the old Funky16Corners web zine to read up on the read ups.
The tune I bring you today is the very first Gene Ludwig record I ever heard, courtesy of my man Haim. Back in the day, when he still lived on this side of the country, Haim – aware of my Hammond addiction –  had a record that he simply had to play for me, and that record was ‘The Vamp’.
You all know what a nut I am for organ records, and as soon as the needle hit the wax on the Travis 45 of ‘The Vamp’ my hair pretty much stood on end. A fantastic showcase for Ludwig’s keyboard skills, ‘The Vamp’ is also something much more.
There, in its two minutes and thirty six seconds resides a perfect encapsulation of the meaning of soul jazz. Featuring Ludwig on the organ, Jerry Byrd on guitar and Randy Gillespie leaving his drums for a turn on the tambourine, ‘The Vamp’ (so named since it was basically built on a riff in the studio) moves at a fairly brisk pace, yet, thanks to the absence of the full drum set, manages to generate an air of relaxed cool.
The tune opens with Ludwig’s fingers flying all over the keys, with short, rhythmic chops by Byrd as Gillespie pulls his tambourine out of the amen corner and goes to town. It’s at the minute mark that the organ and guitar switch places, with Gene comping on the organ as the guitarist solos at length until Ludwig comes back in to restate the main theme just before the fade out.
There, in well under three minutes resides pure, 1965, smokey night club, jukebox perfection. Back in 2007 I included ‘The Vamp’ (recorded from the 45, this somewhat cleaner version coming from the LP ‘The Educated Sound of Gene Ludwig’) in Funky16Corners Radio v.24.5 ‘Old School Hammond’, but since not everyone that follows the blog was around back then, and more importantly, it’s such an amazing record, I figured that I ought to bring it back for this year’s week long celebration of the instrument.
I’m also including – from the same album – Gene’s take on my idol Thelonious Monk’s (in his time, a survivor over the long haul, much like Mr. Ludwig) ‘Well You Needn’t’. It gives you a chance to hear the master’s jazz chops as he and the group dig in for six and a half minutes of pure, listening pleasure.
I’m happy to say that Gene Ludwig – 73 years young – is still working it out on the Hammond in 2010, with a full slate of dates. Make sure you check out his website for samples of his (excellent) recent recordings, as well as videos* some recent performances.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s selections, and I’ll be back next week with some funk.
Have a great weekend.

Peace

Larry

*There’s a great version of Gene and his group playing one of my favorite soul jazz standards, Percy Mayfield’s ‘River’s Invitation’

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By Larry, March 2, 2010 5:01 pm

Lonnie Smith makes with the smokestack lightning…

Listen/Download -Lonnie Smith – Stand

Listen/Download -Lonnie Smith – Mama Wailer

Greetings all.

I hope the middle of the week finds you better than me, at least in regard to your general health and well being. I am currently afflicted with some kind of upper respiratory infection that has rendered my throat sore, my body weak and slightly feverish and my general outlook on life at least temporarily grim. I know that this too shall pass, but it’s interfering with my ability to pack in a good night’s sleep, which is something I live for. If I don’t get my six hours in, I am a seriously crabby bastard, unfit to walk among the general population. I guess it’s fair to say that in the grand scheme of things I’m doing well. At least I don’t have the flu, and the wife and kids are healthy, so the Funky16Corners compound hasn’t gone into epidemic lockdown (yet) so I shall cease my grousing and do what I have been told I do best, which is lay some groovy sounds at your doorstep, stand back and feel the love.

But, before I do that, I should mention that I will be returning to Master Groove @ Forbidden City, Wednesday the next, that being March the 10th for another evening of funk and soul spun at 45 revolutions per minute, along with DJ Bluewater and M-Fasis. I haven’t decided what kind of set I’ll be dropping this time, but I assure you that no matter what, it’ll be worth hearing.
It is in that spirit that I bring you something extra nice this fine day. If you thought that Monday’s nine-minute burner from Rhoda Scott was long-form, wait until you stuff your ears full of seventeen minutes worth of the mighty Lonnie Smith.
The good Doctor (as he has been known for many a year), be-turbaned and masterful upon the Hammond, has laid down a mountain of grooves since he made his first album in 1967. Combining serious jazz chops with an ability to work soul and funk grooves, Smith is one of my favorites.
The track I bring you today is from his 1971 Kudu set ‘Mama Wailer’. I heard this record for the first time last year and when I did I set out to secure myself a copy post haste. While the whole album is worth hearing, the tracks I bring you today stand head and shoulders above the rest.
Sly and the Family Stone hit the charts with the original version of ‘Stand’ in 1969. One of their finest records, it was a perfect blend of funky soul and an era-specific, uplifting message. When Dr. Smith got his hands on the cut, he and his band (Ron Carter, Billy Cobham and Grover Washington Jr. among others) took the feeling of the original for the basic framework and then stepped off the edge of the world into a whole new, extremely far out place, located somewhere on the corner of Out and Psychedelic. The really interesting thing about Smith’s version of ‘Stand’ is that he steps outside of a standard presentation, flies off into the ether and never really comes back to earth. Things just get freakier and freakier, and the theme is never actually restated. By the time you get to the run of groove (the track occupies and entire LP side) it’s possible that you’ve forgotten what song you were listening to in the first place.
Though I often sing the praises of the power of a three-minute 45, there’s something to be said for musicians taking the time to stretch. Years back I was having a discussion with someone that should have known better, who was expressing his befuddlement about a jazz record (something fairly conventional, if memory serves) wherein most of the tracks sailed well past the eight-to-ten minute mark. He didn’t get how, or why someone would play for that long, i.e. what could they say in ten minutes that couldn’t be said just as well in three. At the time, I whipped out the eye-roll to beat all eye-rolls and tried to explain, but words failed me, and in the spirit of comity I decided to back off and fight again another day.
That day is here.
When you settle in and warm your ears up for a track as long as Lonnie Smith’s reading of ‘Stand’, it’s a whole different thing from getting the short, sharp blast of a 45. Though the form had been abused many a time by pretentious rockers (and jazzers of the same ilk), the longer track, when done well is a thing of beauty. Sometimes you get the standard modern jazz reading, with statement/restatement of the theme followed by each member of the band (piano, horns, bass, drums etc.) soloing in turn. Other times, like in today’s selection, you get a little of that, mixed in with a little of a freer feel. Smith’s cover of ‘Stand’ manages to do this, and – in the spirit of the original – edging over into a rockish vibe as well. No matter how jazzy, there’s no denying that things get a little psychedelic in the second half of the record.
If that’s too far out for even you adventurous types, I’m also including – as a bonus track of sorts – the title track of the LP. ‘Mama Wailer’ has a nice Latin groove, moving along at a very groovy pace. The Hammond takes a back seat, with Smith working mostly on clavinet and at just over six minutes, it’s a much easier to digest portion.
I hope you dig both tracks, and I’ll be back on Friday with some more of the good stuff.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, February 28, 2010 6:39 pm

Miss Rhoda Scott

Listen/Download -Rhoda Scott Trio – Sha Bazz

Greetings all.

As I sit here, just having come in from dragging an overloaded garbage can through the slush to its appointed spot (in another pile of slush), in the hopes that the garbage man will grace us with his presence so we don’t have to resort to an unfortunate system of indoor composting and burning garbage in the fireplace, I am temporarily chilled to the bone. Though we were spared the threatened snow disaster, it’s cold like the devil’s underpants out there. This winter has gone from bad to worse, and we now have several strata of dirty snow covering another layer of frozen mud in our front yard. The winter wonderland has morphed into a post-apocalyptic wasteland in a few short months, and we, the helpless observers are reduced to huddling by the fire, praying for spring.
It is in that spirit, and the knowledge that many of you are so afflicted, that I attempt to warm the surrounding environment with an entire week of Hammond organ burners.
Before I get started, I’d like to send out good wishes and congratulations to DJ Birdman and his lovely wife, who are the proud parents of a bouncing baby boy! If I know one thing for sure, in addition to parents that love him, that kid will grow up in a house full of good music (much like my own children).
The last time I did this, a little over a year ago, I figured it would become an ongoing series. I didn’t know it’d take me an entire year to get back to it.
The good thing it, that in the ensuing time I have amassed quite a stack of heaters to choose from, so much so that picking only three of them proved to be a daunting task.
The tune I bring you today is a fairly recent acquisition, the result of a chance sighting on a set sale list.
One of my favorite Hammond 45s is ‘Hey Hey Hey’ by the Rhoda Scott Trio. Picked up years ago while digging, its deep in the club, party time spirit never fails to give me a lift. In the years since I found that 45, I’ve always kept my eyes peeled for other stuff by Miss Scott, and was thwarted until I found the album featuring today’s selection.
Rhoda Scott, a native of my home state of New Jersey is one of the leading lights of that very exclusive sorority of female Hammond organists, along with Shirley Scott (no relation) and Bu Pleasant. She got her start playing in and around New York and New Jersey, before relocating to France in the mid-1960s (where she continues to play today).
The tune I bring you today ‘Sha Bazz’ is from her 1963 LP ‘The Rhoda Scott Trio Live!!! at the Key Club’. I bought this album pretty much blind, mainly on the strength of the fact that it was on the same label as ‘Hey Hey Hey’. I had no idea – until I started to do some research – that Tru-Sound was in fact a subsidiary of the Prestige label.
When the record fell through the mail slot, and I had the opportunity to drop the needle on the wax, I was in a word (or two), blown away.
Scott’s trio at the time consisted of multi-instrumentalist Joe Thomas (who has appeared in the space before on his main axe, the flute) and drummer Bill Elliot. ‘Live at the Key Club’ is evidence that they were wholly capable of kicking ass.
‘Sha Bazz’, which starts out with a mix of drums and chanting quickly evolves into a showcase for Scott’s mastery of the Hammond, building into a nine-minute plus crash course on the power of the instrument. ‘Sha Bazz’ is pure heat, with Scott’s organ in overdrive and extended solos by Thomas and Elliot.
I know I’ve made this allusion before (and I probably will again) but it sounds like Scott is straining the ability of the board (or the tape) to contain the sound coming out of the Hammond. You listen to this record and imagine some unsuspecting person strolling into the club, seeing the petite woman at the organ, ordering some old school cocktail (Rusty Nail anyone?) and then, before you know what happened it’s all KA-BLAMMM! And your hair is all mussed, and your glasses are on crooked and your drink is all over your pants and you look like one of those astronauts in a rocket sled with your face all peeled back and your eyes all bugged out.

Know what I’m saying???
It’s records like this that make me wish I could step into the Wa-Bac machine (props to Mr Peabody and Sherman) and go back to any number of inner city bars in the 60s where players like Rhoda Scott were burning the joint up with small groups like this, perfectly bridging the gap between jazz, rhythm and blues and the oncoming freight train known as soul. The really groovy thing – especially for organ nuts like myself – is that Shirley Scott was (and is) adept at running bass lines on the Hammond’s foot pedals, making the trio sound like a much larger group.
I remember reading an interview with Jimmy Smith more than 20 years ago (maybe in Musician?) where he basically said, if you weren’t able to work those bass pedals, you weren’t really playing the Hammond. If you want to hear a great example of this – albeit in a much rawer context – check out Toussaint McCall’s ‘Shimmy’. There, in a 45 that is all but exploding with sound, you have only an organist and a drummer, where once again the organist is doing the work of two, operating the top and bottom ends of the Hammond. That’s musicianship.
Heavy stuff indeed, baby.
Dig it and I’ll be back on Wednesday with more of the same.

Peace

Larry

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