{"id":1139,"date":"2010-12-14T14:51:33","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T19:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2012-09-22T11:56:57","modified_gmt":"2012-09-22T16:56:57","slug":"calender-hypertension-pts-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=1139","title":{"rendered":"Calender – Hypertension Pts 1&2"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Calender <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Calender – Hypertension Pt1 <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
\nListen\/Download – Calender – Hypertension Pt2 <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Greetings all. <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today is a little bit of stylish, late period New Jersey funk.<\/p>\n

Back about a year or so ago, when I pulled this 45 out of a box at a record show, I grabbed it because the label was familiar (and from NJ).<\/p>\n

I\u2019d never heard of the group, but I figured (as I often do) that all signs pointed to \u2018cool\u2019, and the price was right, so I took it home.<\/p>\n

When I finally got a chance to put it on the turntable I was pleased.<\/p>\n

Though the group, Calender<\/strong>, was a complete mystery, the song \u2018Hypertension Pts 1&2\u2019 turned out to be an extremely cool number from the era when funk was on a speeding train to Disco City.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that the tune itself is actually disco, but that it comes from a period where the artists and producers were clearly less interested in crafting a short, one-sided 45 statement than they were in stretching things out so that the dancers might have some time to get down.<\/p>\n

Since the group name and song title led only to various sites concerned with high blood pressure, I decided to search on some of the names on the label, which turned up some interesting info.<\/p>\n

The tune was written and produced by Paul Kyser,<\/strong> a Jersey City, NJ based record man who had his biggest successes with Jimmy Briscoe and the Little Beavers<\/strong>, a teenaged funk band from Baltimore, MD who had a number of hits in the mid-70s.<\/p>\n

Kyser had his own label, Kyser Records in the 60s, recording Robby Lawson<\/strong> among others. He also worked with the Soul Generation, Super Disco Band<\/strong>, and Rhyze <\/strong>(formerly known as the Nu Sound Express<\/strong>, who recorded two excellent funk 45s for Silver Dollar), who had a minor hit with the tune \u2018Just How Sweet Is Your Love\u2019 in 1980.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hypertension\u2019 is a great slice of sophisticated, string laden funk in the style of B.T. Express<\/strong>. There\u2019s more than enough real musicianship in the grooves, but enough grooves in the playing to get people out on the dance floor. The production and arrangement by Kyser is perfect; smooth but never slick. There are bits of synthesizer here and there, but they never overpower the band. Make sure to stick around for Part 2, which features some great flute work.<\/p>\n

The group included two sets of brothers, John<\/strong> and Michael Barbee<\/strong> and Gerry<\/strong> and Hurley Fair,<\/strong> as well as Stanley Haygood, William Jones<\/strong> and Donna Ahjuder<\/strong>, and recorded this 45 (in 1975) and an LP called \u2018It\u2019s a Monster\u2019 for Pi Kapp in 1976 with all songs either written or co-written by the group, Kyser and his frequent writing partner Leon Stuckey.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope you dig it, and I\u2019ll be back on Friday.<\/p>\n

Peace<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calender Listen\/Download – Calender – Hypertension Pt1 Listen\/Download – Calender – Hypertension Pt2   Greetings all. The tune I bring you today is a little bit of stylish, late period New Jersey funk. Back about a year or so ago, when I pulled this 45 out of a box at a record show, I grabbed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,11,17,14,64,12,18],"tags":[163,166,164],"class_list":["post-1139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disconot-disco","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-rb","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-in","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3687,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/3687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}