{"id":298,"date":"2010-02-14T15:55:32","date_gmt":"2010-02-14T20:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=298"},"modified":"2015-02-04T08:22:14","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T13:22:14","slug":"funky16corners-radio-v-81-the-piano-electrified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=298","title":{"rendered":"Funky16Corners Radio v.81 – The Piano Electrified"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Funky16Corners Radio v.81 – The Piano Electrified<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Eddie Harris \u2013 Listen Here (Atlantic)
\nHerbie Hancock \u2013 Fat Albert Rotunda (WB)
\nArt Jerry Miller \u2013 Finger Lickin\u2019 Good (Enterprise)
\nPete Jolly \u2013 Prairie Road (A&M)
\nMose Allison \u2013 Meadows (Atlantic)
\nLonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes \u2013 Voodoo Woman (Flying Dutchman)
\nHampton Hawes \u2013 J.B.\u2019s Mind (Prestige)
\nBob James \u2013 Nautilus (CTI)
\nLarry Willis \u2013 153rd St Theme (Groove Merchant)
\nNeal Creque \u2013 D Train (Cobblestone)
\nDeodato \u2013 September 13 (CTI)
\nLes McCann and Eddie Harris \u2013 Shorty Rides Again (Atlantic)
\nRamsey Lewis \u2013 Living For the City (CBS)<\/strong> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n<\/strong><\/div>\n

To hear this mix, head over to the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast Archive<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n


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

I hope reentry into the seven day cycle finds you all well.
\nI have just about recovered from all the snow-related exertion, and if we get another storm anytime soon I\u2019m going to hunt down Mother Nature and kick her in the ass.
\nIt is in the spirit of relaxation (though not too relaxed<\/em>) that I bring you another in the recently mounted series of instrumental focus mixes, this time out a very tasty hour-long (plus) excursion into the world of the electric piano.
\nThe electric piano \u2013 specifically the Fender Rhodes, though there are a couple of different brands\/models represented here \u2013 is, like the vibes in F16Rv.79<\/strong>, one of my all time favorite sounds. Say what you want about the structure\/genre of any kind of music, but when you boil it down, there\u2019s something about the way a specific instrument sounds, whether it\u2019s the vibes, electric piano, string bass, oud, flute, what have you, that gets deep inside my head and drills down into my pleasure centers on a primal, vibrational level, to the point where an immersive exercise like the one you see before you is the only prescription.
\nThis has a lot to do with growing up around the piano. My Pop<\/strong> plays, and it was his second job for all of my childhood. If my love of music has a specific source, it\u2019s because I grew up with a pianist\/singer in the house. Whether it was on the out of tune upright at my Grandma\u2019s house, the baby grand he entertained on at my wedding, or the electric keyboard he has now, my Dad has always instilled the value of a good (great) song in all of his children (which is why most of them play instruments).
\nI\u2019ve been wanting to get down to working on this particular mix for a long time, but it was only in the last couple of weeks that I set foot in the record room \u2013 which is starting to outgrow its current location \u2013 and set to digging out the prime electric piano specimens in my crates.
\nWhile there is a funky edge to the majority of the selections herein, there are a couple of mellower things where you really get to hear the dreamy, chiming side of the instrument.
\nThings get underway with a song that is both a certifiable soul jazz standard, but also an oddity of sorts. Eddie Harris<\/strong>, who appears twice in this mix, but just once on the piano, is best known as a sax man, primarily as the number one proponent of another favorite sound of mine, that being the Varitone electric saxophone. The 1966 album \u2018Mean Greens\u2019, from which \u2018Listen Here\u2019 originates, is unusual because it includes an entire side on which Harris puts down the sax and works it out on electric piano and organ. Though Harris wasn\u2019t giving any of the past masters of the keyboard anything to worry about, he acquits himself nicely on \u2018Listen Here\u2019, building a nice groove against a percussion base.
\nHerbie Hancock<\/strong> lays down a serious groove on the title track from 1969\u2019s \u2018Fat Albert Rotunda\u2019. Featuring Hancock and a band of serious jazz heads (like Joe Henderson<\/strong> and Albert \u2018Tootie\u2019 Heath<\/strong>) \u2018Fat Albert Rotunda\u2019 (the song and the album) is a landmark of sorts, with the pianist settling into the funk for the first time.
\nArt Jerry Miller<\/strong> is one of those cats where I wish I could get more than a few, tantalizing clues about his story. He was Memphis-based, wrote for an played with Willie Mitchell<\/strong>, and recorded one very groovy album for the Stax subsidiary Enterprise Records in 1969. \u2018Finger Lickin\u2019 Good\u2019 is a classic of the three o\u2019clock in the morning mood, and sounds like a distant cousin of King Curtis<\/strong>\u2019 \u2018Soul Serenade\u2019.
\nPete Jolly<\/strong> was a serious West Coast jazz pianist and studio musician who recorded steadily from the 50s to the 90s. \u2018Prairie Road\u2019 is a cut from his 1970 album \u2018Seasons\u2019, which was improvised and recorded in a single four-hour session. The album is sought out for the sample on \u2018Plummer Park\u2019, but I\u2019m here to tell you that in addition to \u2018Prairie Road\u2019 \u2013 which is included here \u2013 you really need to get your hands on the entire album (in OG or reissue) because it is one sweet listen.
\nMose Allison<\/strong> has long been a favorite of mine, but it wasn\u2019t until last summer, when I was down in DC digging, that DJ Birdman<\/strong> hepped me to the album \u2018Western Man\u2019, the only one on which the mighty Mose ever played the electric piano. I finally found myself a copy last month, and it\u2019s both amazing, and a little bit sad that Allison didn\u2019t spend more time working in a similar groove. The mellow tune \u2018Meadows\u2019 is included here.
\nI remember a time when I didn\u2019t know that Lonnie Smith<\/strong> (the Hammond cat) and Lonnie Liston Smith <\/strong>were two different people. It wasn\u2019t until I picked up a couple of his early 70s Flying Dutchman albums that I got hip. Lonnie Liston Smith was a busy sideman (with Miles Davis<\/strong> among others) who broke off in the early 70s to make his own brand of spiritual fusion. \u2018Voodoo Woman\u2019 is from his 1974 \u2018Expansion\u2019 album, and while it gets off to a funky start, it quickly settles into a late night, quiet storm groove.
\nHampton Hawes<\/strong> first made his mark as a hard bop pianist in 1950s Los Angeles. By the early 70s he had moved on to electric piano, and a funkier sound. \u2018J.B.\u2019s Mind\u2019 is from his 1972 album \u2018Universe\u2019, and manages to whip a little bit of funk into the mix, alongside some serious jazz sounds from Oscar Brashear<\/strong> and Harold Land<\/strong>.
\nBob James<\/strong> is known to most people as the man behind the theme to \u2018Taxi\u2019, but ask any crate digger, and they\u2019ll let you in on the breakbeats that make his early 70s albums on CTI\/Tappan Zee favorites. The most prominent of these comes toward the end of the tune included in this mix, \u2018Nautilus\u2019 from 1974\u2019s \u2018One\u2019 album (break courtesy of Idris Muhammad<\/strong>).
\nLarry Willis<\/strong> is a journeyman jazz keyboardist who has played in a wide variety of settings since the 60s (including an early 70s stint in Blood Sweat and Tears<\/strong>!). \u2018153rd St Theme\u2019 is a cut from his 1973 Groove Merchant album \u2018Inner Crisis\u2019.
\nNeal Creque<\/strong> has appeared in this space before, in his capacity as sideman for both Grant Green<\/strong> (he wrote Green\u2019s epic \u2018Cease the Bombing\u2019) and Mongo Santamaria<\/strong>. He was a versatile keyboardist, working on both piano and organ. His 1972 \u2018Contrast\u2019 LP for Cobblestone is a lost classic, with funk, jazz and just a touch of his roots in the Virgin Islands. \u2018D Train\u2019 is one of the funkier numbers on the album.
\nEumir Deodato,<\/strong> one of Brazil\u2019s most successful musical exports is responsible for the biggest hit CTI records ever had, his reworking of \u2018Also Sprach Zarathustra\u2019 aka \u20182001\u2019 which was a Top 10 hit around the world in 1973. The heavily sampled \u2018September 13\u2019 is another cut from the \u2018Prelude\u2019 album.
\nLes McCann<\/strong> and Eddie Harris were both jazz veterans when they hit the charts with their live, 1969 recording of Gene McDaniel\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Compared To What\u2019 which appeared on the \u2018Swiss Movement\u2019 LP. They reunited in 1971 for the album \u2018Second Movement\u2019, which featured the tune included in this mix, the funky, oft sampled \u2018Shorty Rides Again\u2019.
\nNo mix focusing on the electric piano would be complete without a contribution from the mighty Ramsey Lewis.<\/strong> Lewis verily wrote the book on soul jazz piano in the 60s, and carrid on making huge contributions to jazz funk in the 70s. His 1974 \u2018Sun Goddess\u2019 album was one of his biggest hits, and in addition to his regular trio members (including Cadet house drummer Morris Jennings<\/strong>), the album also featured contributions from several members of Earth Wind and Fire<\/strong>. We close out this edition of the Funky16Corners Radio thang with his extremely cool cover of Stevie Wonder\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Living For the City\u2019.
\nI hope you dig the mix, and I\u2019ll be back later in the week.
\nAlso, if you’re in or around NYC this Wednesday, I’ll be back spinning with DJ Bluewater<\/strong> and M-Fasis <\/strong>at Master Groove @ Forbidden City<\/strong>, Ave A between 13th and 14th Sts. If I can get my shit (and records) together it’ll be an all Northern Soul set, so fall by if you’re in the area (things get underway at 10PM).<\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

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

 <\/p>\n

PPS – Make sure to fall by Iron Leg for an Easy Zombies cover.
\n
\n<\/strong><\/a>PPPS Make sure to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Funky16Corners Radio v.81 – The Piano Electrified Playlist Eddie Harris \u2013 Listen Here (Atlantic) Herbie Hancock \u2013 Fat Albert Rotunda (WB) Art Jerry Miller \u2013 Finger Lickin\u2019 Good (Enterprise) Pete Jolly \u2013 Prairie Road (A&M) Mose Allison \u2013 Meadows (Atlantic) Lonnie Liston Smith & the Cosmic Echoes \u2013 Voodoo Woman (Flying Dutchman) Hampton Hawes \u2013 […]<\/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":[20,15,19,30,35],"tags":[36,163,166,167,164,165],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dj-gigs","category-funky16corners-radio","category-jazz","category-lp-tracks","category-podcast","tag-electric-piano","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-4O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","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=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5400,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/5400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}