{"id":3337,"date":"2012-11-20T14:53:33","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T19:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=3337"},"modified":"2013-02-14T11:41:02","modified_gmt":"2013-02-14T16:41:02","slug":"les-james-trio-joes-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=3337","title":{"rendered":"Les James Trio – Joe’s Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"
\n <\/strong>\"Example\"
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\nThe Les James Trio<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download The Les James Trio – Joe’s Thing<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

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

I hope the day finds you all well.<\/p>\n

Ioften find myself running out of steam around the middle of the week.<\/p>\n

You know how it is.<\/em><\/p>\n

Truth be told, I have discovered that the remedy to such a lull is not \u2013 as might be expected \u2013 a solid and powerful boot in the ass, like you might require on a Friday to get you in gear for the weekend, but rather something subtly powerful.<\/p>\n

Enough of a push to restore momentum, but nothing too sudden.<\/p>\n

It is in furtherance of this idea that I have dipped into the crates and whipped out something that just might do the trick.<\/p>\n

A while back, I was perusing the interwebs in search of some tasty vinyl to add to my record box, when I happened upon an auction for an unfamiliar, but very interesting looking record.<\/p>\n

The disc in question was a mid-70s joint by a crew called the Les James Trio<\/strong> out of the Rocky Mountain metropolis of Denver, CO.<\/p>\n

Now, I know that \u201cDenver jazz\u2019 doesn\u2019t light any fire in your ears \u2013 unless you are a Paul Quinichette<\/strong> aficionado \u2013 but this auction came with a tantalizing soundclip.<\/p>\n

So tantalizing in fact that I chased this record down like a lion after a juicy springbok, landed it and devoured it forthwith, if by \u201cdevour\u201d it is meant to be understood as recording and digimatizing said record for the delectation of you good people.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much out there about Les James, other than a few links that suggest that he was something of a local institution in Denver, and the liner notes to the album which intimate that he might have hailed from Eastern Europe and made his way west, piano in tow.<\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today \u2013 he one that made me covet the album so fiercely \u2013 is entitled \u2018Joe\u2019s Thing\u2019, written by and named for James\u2019 bassist Joe Lopez.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much like the record that I brought you all on Monday, the things that happen on this record in regard to the alchemy of bass and drums is truly something to behold.<\/p>\n

\u2018Joe\u2019s Thing\u2019 is in no way a \u201cfunk\u201d record, but it is immediately obvious once the ones and zeros start to flow that is is monumentally funky, in a way guaranteed to make you sit up, notice, and groove, all at the same time.<\/p>\n

Unlike so many self-released combos (Century was a famous \u201cpress your own\u201doutfit out of California) the Les James Trio was actually a pretty tight unit. James was an excellent pianist, Lopez a shit-hot bassist and the drummer (listed only as Jo Jo<\/strong>) does his part admirably.<\/p>\n

\u2018Joe\u2019s Thing\u2019 is a groover\u2019s treasure because it starts out with a mighty riff, and then returns to the well a number of times, including a couple of phased drum breaks.<\/p>\n

This is a banger \u2013 a subtle one \u2013 but a banger nonetheless.<\/p>\n

You can send your thank you notes via the comments below.<\/p>\n

NOTE: Speaking of which, the comment capcha system I was using died unexpectedly, so I replaced it with another one in which you – the commenter – gets to solve a simple math problem instead of squinting at an impossible to read “phrase”. Easy, educational, and best of all, spam-obliterating!<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re most welcome.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\nAlso, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

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

The Les James Trio Listen\/Download The Les James Trio – Joe’s Thing Greetings all I hope the day finds you all well. Ioften find myself running out of steam around the middle of the week. You know how it is. Truth be told, I have discovered that the remedy to such a lull is not […]<\/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":[11,14,49,30,85,13],"tags":[163,166,165],"class_list":["post-3337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funk","category-funky16corners","category-jazz-funk","category-lp-tracks","category-piano","category-soul-jazz","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul-jazz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-RP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337","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=3337"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3601,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions\/3601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}