{"id":4503,"date":"2013-12-22T12:26:11","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T17:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4503"},"modified":"2013-12-22T12:26:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-22T17:26:11","slug":"christmas-with-the-soulful-strings-and-dorothy-ashby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4503","title":{"rendered":"Christmas With the Soulful Strings (and Dorothy Ashby)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The LP (above), Miss Dorothy Ashby (below)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – The Soulful Strings – Jingle Bells<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Listen \/ Download – The Soulful Strings featuring Dorothy Ashby – Merry Christmas Baby<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NOTE: This year – as in years past – the run up to Christmas will be filled with re-postings of some of my (and your) fave soulful and funky holiday tunes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This gives you all a chance to catch up on some soulful Christmas jams, and gives me time to rest my blogging muscles and enjoy the holiday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ho Ho Ho!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally posted 12\/2007<\/strong>
\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

As I\u2019ve stated repeatedly in the past, I\u2019ve never been much of a holiday music collector. However, once in a while a personal obsession of mine also happens to have a Christmas record. In the case of Richard Evans<\/strong> <\/a>and the Soulful Strings<\/strong>, their 1968 LP \u2018The Magic of Christmas\u2019 is a real gem.<\/p>\n

The first tune I selected was the obvious choice (at least for me) because I can\u2019t think of another version of \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019 that opens up with an honest to goodness drum break. I\u2019m not sure who\u2019s laying it down here (though I’m guessing that it is in fact Morris Jennings Jr.<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The second selection is a lush, sublime reading of Charles Brown\u2019s<\/strong> classic \u2018Merry Christmas Baby\u2019 which features the brilliant Dorothy Ashby<\/strong> on harp. If you aren\u2019t familiar with Ashby \u2013 I included her \u2018Soul Vibrations\u2019 on my collab with DJ Prestige \u2018Beat Combination Pt2\u2019<\/strong> (check out the Flea Market Funk Mixes page<\/a>)\u2013 she was one of the few harpists who could actually play jazz on the instrument, and the three albums she recorded for Cadet between 1968 and 1970 (in collaboration with Evans) are brilliant.<\/p>\n

If your nerves are frayed (like mine) and the consumerist madness of the holiday season has you down, give this version of \u2018Merry Christmas Baby\u2019 a listen and all will (at least for a few minutes) be well, as it is positively sublime.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be taking the next week off to enjoy the holiday with my family and do a little visiting. I will most definitely be back with something for New Years Eve, so hang tight, enjoy your Christmas and I\u2019ll see you all soon.<<<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/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>
\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

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

\"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 LP (above), Miss Dorothy Ashby (below)   Listen\/Download – The Soulful Strings – Jingle Bells Listen \/ Download – The Soulful Strings featuring Dorothy Ashby – Merry Christmas Baby   NOTE: This year – as in years past – the run up to Christmas will be filled with re-postings of some of my (and […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[129,79,14,66,30,12,13],"tags":[180,166,165],"class_list":["post-4503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-funky16corners","category-christmas","category-funky16corners","category-instrumental","category-lp-tracks","category-soul","category-soul-jazz","tag-christmas","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul-jazz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1aD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503","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=4503"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4520,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503\/revisions\/4520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}