{"id":2009,"date":"2011-11-13T15:36:59","date_gmt":"2011-11-13T20:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=2009"},"modified":"2012-02-21T15:12:38","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T20:12:38","slug":"covering-marvin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2009","title":{"rendered":"Covering Marvin"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Reuben Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

Grover Washington Jr. <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download – Reuben Wilson – Inner City Blues <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Grover Washington Jr. – Inner City Blues <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/del><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Grover Washington Jr. – Mercy Mercy Me <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

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

Here\u2019s simultaneously hoping that you all are well and telling you that things are progressing as well as can be expected in our corner of the world.<\/p>\n

My incredibly brave<\/em> wife is standing tall despite chemo beating her like a rented mule.<\/p>\n

These are hard times (a la Curtis Mayfield, Gene Chandler<\/strong> and Baby Huey<\/strong>) for her to endure treatment and for us to watch her do it.<\/p>\n

It is alternately inspiring and disheartening, since the process reveals her ever deeper well of resilience, but also a seemingly endless supply of physical and psychological pain for her to deal with.<\/p>\n

But, deal with it she does.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My thanks go out to the doctors and nurses who are helping her (and all of us<\/em>) through this experience, as well as all the good folks who have sent messages of hope and prayer.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never had a huge amount of faith in humanity, but this experience \u2013 no matter how harrowing on its face<\/em> \u2013 has also exposed our family to an extraordinary show of kindness and generosity from family and friends.<\/p>\n

If there is an upside to this, that is it and it is humbling.<\/p>\n

My (our) thanks to all of you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I can\u2019t guarantee more than one post a week while all of this is going on, I figure it behooves me to ensure that it brings with it a healthy dose of sounds, on which you can focus your aural ruminations until the next time I can get it together.<\/p>\n

While I was combing the wilds of my hard drive, I happened upon a Reuben Wilson<\/strong> album, with an especially Hammond-groovy take on Marvin Gaye\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Inner City Blues\u2019 from his (Reuben\u2019s) 1972 \u2018The Sweet Life\u2019 LP.<\/p>\n

As I was giving it a listen, it occurred to me that I had other cool covers of\u00a0 cuts from \u2018What\u2019s Going On\u2019 in storage \u2013 of a similar vintage \u2013 and that I ought to pair them up in the dual causes of thematic consistency and general good music-ness.<\/p>\n

I doubt that anyone reading this will dispute the greatness of Marvin\u2019s 1971 epic, considered by many to be his greatest work, and one of the single finest soul LPs ever recorded.<\/p>\n

It was a significant hit for Gaye, and it\u2019s influence was far reaching, generating many cover versions across the soul, funk and jazz spectrums.<\/p>\n

The first track I bring you today is the aforementioned Reuben Wilson take on \u2018Inner City Blues\u2019 (see Funky16Corners Radio v.24.5<\/strong> <\/a>for a very nice cover of this tune by Brian Auger<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Wilson is one of my favorite jazz funk organists of the classic era, never flashy but always stylish and on point. While he doesn\u2019t always get the shine that some of his better known contemporaries do, his work with the Wildare Express<\/strong> (on Brunswick) and solo sides for Blue Note and Groove Merchant are essential.<\/p>\n

His take on \u2018Inner City Blues\u2019 grooves hard, with some very nice soloing on the Hammond and tight, funky backing by his group.<\/p>\n

The second and third cuts in this post are from an artist that continually shows up in surprising places.<\/p>\n

Grover Washington Jr<\/strong> is a cat that I only knew from his big hits, and always assumed to have sprung up, fully formed as one of the standard bearers of smooth, R&B inflected jazz.<\/p>\n

However, it was during my obsessive Hammond digging that I discovered that he had played with the Mark 3 Trio<\/strong>, and had done time in Philly area combos with none other than the mighty Charles Earland<\/strong> also recording as a sideman for other Prestige artists like Boogaloo Joe Jones,<\/strong> and Leon Spencer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few years back someone hepped me to his first solo album \u2018Inner City Blues\u2019, recorded for the Kudu label in 1971.<\/p>\n

Backed by a serious group of sidemen, including Idris Muhammad, Ron Carter, Eric Gale, Bob James<\/strong> and Richard Tee<\/strong>, Washington displayed a tougher side of his sound.<\/p>\n

I was surprised when I discovered how much work he did as a sideman for organists like Johnny Hammond Smith<\/strong> and Dr Lonnie Smith<\/strong> (were they giving everyone named Smith a Hammond organ??<\/em>), as I was to discover how much I dug this album.<\/p>\n

I was initially going to post only his lyrical, mellow cover of \u2018Mercy Mercy Me\u2019, but as I was writing this post I was listening to the album and decided that I had to include the title cut from the album as well.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s version of \u2018Inner City Blues\u2019 features some wild guitar as well as some very cool sax work by the man himself that I rougher than just about anything I\u2019ve ever heard him play.<\/p>\n

And really, could anyone possibly not dig the opportunity to hear two very cool versions of a song like this?<\/p>\n

I thought not.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, dig the Marvin worship and if I\u2019m not back before Friday, remember that the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> will be back Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio<\/strong><\/a>, and then posted as an MP3 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith and I\u2019ll see you when I see you.<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/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 too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reuben Wilson   Grover Washington Jr.   Listen\/Download – Reuben Wilson – Inner City Blues Listen\/Download – Grover Washington Jr. – Inner City Blues Listen\/Download – Grover Washington Jr. – Mercy Mercy Me Greetings all. Here\u2019s simultaneously hoping that you all are well and telling you that things are progressing as well as can be […]<\/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":[58,46,11,14,55,68,66,49,30,64,12,13],"tags":[163,166,167,164,165],"class_list":["post-2009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-digging","category-funk","category-funky16corners","category-funky16cornersviva-internet-radio","category-hammond-grooves","category-instrumental","category-jazz-funk","category-lp-tracks","category-rb","category-soul","category-soul-jazz","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-funky16corners-radio","tag-soul","tag-soul-jazz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-wp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009","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=2009"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2014,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions\/2014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}