{"id":338,"date":"2010-03-02T17:01:08","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T22:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=338"},"modified":"2014-04-30T09:13:13","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T14:13:13","slug":"hammond-week-2010-2-lonnie-smith-standmama-wailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=338","title":{"rendered":"Hammond Week 2010 #2 – Lonnie Smith – Stand\/Mama Wailer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Lonnie Smith makes with the smokestack lightning…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download -Lonnie Smith – Stand<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download -Lonnie Smith – Mama Wailer <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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

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\u2019s interfering with my ability to pack in a good night\u2019s sleep, which is something I live for. If I don\u2019t get my six hours in, I am a seriously crabby bastard, unfit to walk among the general population. I guess it\u2019s fair to say that in the grand scheme of things I\u2019m doing well. At least I don\u2019t have the flu, and the wife and kids are healthy, so the Funky16Corners<\/strong> compound hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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

But, before I do that, I should mention that I will be returning to Master Groove @ Forbidden City<\/strong>, 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<\/strong> and M-Fasis<\/strong>. I haven\u2019t decided what kind of set I\u2019ll be dropping this time, but I assure you that no matter what, it\u2019ll be worth hearing.
\nIt is in that spirit that I bring you something extra nice this fine day. If you thought that Monday\u2019s nine-minute burner from Rhoda Scott<\/strong> was long-form, wait until you stuff your ears full of seventeen minutes worth of the mighty Lonnie Smith.<\/strong>
\nThe 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.
\nThe track I bring you today is from his 1971 Kudu set \u2018Mama Wailer\u2019. 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.
\nSly and the Family Stone<\/strong> hit the charts with the original version of \u2018Stand\u2019 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<\/strong> and Grover Washington Jr.<\/strong> 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\u2019s version of \u2018Stand\u2019 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\u2019s possible that you\u2019ve forgotten what song you were listening to in the first place.
\nThough I often sing the praises of the power of a three-minute 45, there\u2019s 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\u2019t get how, or why someone would play for that long, i.e. what could they say in ten minutes that couldn\u2019t 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.
\nThat day is here.<\/em>
\nWhen you settle in and warm your ears up for a track as long as Lonnie Smith\u2019s reading of \u2018Stand\u2019, it\u2019s 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\u2019s selection, you get a little of that, mixed in with a little of a freer feel. Smith\u2019s cover of \u2018Stand\u2019 manages to do this, and \u2013 in the spirit of the original \u2013 edging over into a rockish vibe as well. No matter how jazzy, there\u2019s no denying that things get a little psychedelic in the second half of the record.
\nIf that\u2019s too far out for even you adventurous types, I\u2019m also including \u2013 as a bonus track of sorts – the title track of the LP. \u2018Mama Wailer\u2019 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\u2019s a much easier to digest portion.
\nI hope you dig both tracks, and I\u2019ll be back on Friday with some more of the good stuff.<\/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

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some interesting Millennium covers<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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 […]<\/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":[14,39,19,30,12],"tags":[163,166,27,164,165],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky16corners","category-hammond-organ-week","category-jazz","category-lp-tracks","category-soul","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-hammond-organ","tag-soul","tag-soul-jazz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-5s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","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=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4766,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/4766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}