{"id":4789,"date":"2014-05-27T12:08:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T17:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4789"},"modified":"2014-05-27T12:08:11","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T17:08:11","slug":"mr-jim-and-the-rhythm-machine-mrs-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4789","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Jim and the Rhythm Machine – Mrs. Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Jimmy Wisner, tickling the ivories<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download Mr. Jim and the Rhythm Machine – Mrs. Robinson <\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

The tune I bring you today is a very groovy bit of swinging soul jazz, with an interesting pedigree.<\/p>\n

If you are a casual music fan, I wouldn’t expect the name Jimmy Wisner<\/strong> to raise any eyebrows.<\/p>\n

However, if \u2013 like me \u2013 you are one of those obsessives that peruse the label of every record that comes into your possession, then Wisner\u2019s name should be a familiar one indeed.<\/p>\n

Based out of Philadelpia \u2013 thus his presence on so many local records \u2013 Wisner was a pianist, composer, arranger and producer for a very wide variety of artists during the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n

He was also a successful recording artist, though he rarely used his own name.<\/p>\n

His first success came with the reworked version of Edvard Grieg\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Piano Concerto in A Minor\u2019, released as \u2018Asia Minor\u2019 under the artist name of<\/a> \u2018Kokomo\u2019<\/a>,<\/strong> which was a hit in 1961. Wisner released the record under a pseudonym so as not to compromise his career as a jazz pianist.<\/p>\n

He also recorded the Northern Soul sleeper \u2018Choppin\u2019 Around\u2019 <\/a>(itself another classical adaptation, this time of a Chopin<\/strong> piece, thus the pun in the title) under his own name in 1966.<\/p>\n

When I first happened upon the version of \u2018Mrs. Robinson\u2019 you see before you today, recorded as Mr. Jim and the Rhythm Machine<\/strong>, my first impression was that it was a successful attempt at hopping onto the Ramsey Lewis<\/strong> train and taking it for a ride.<\/p>\n

Basically a piano trio record, with some very tasteful strings added in the background, the Mr. Jim version of the Simon and Garfunkel<\/strong> tune is a solid swinger, which I wouldn’t hesitate to whip on the dancers.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, this predates the version by Booker T and the MGs<\/strong> (a Top 40 R&B hit) by a year and was competing for airtime with covers by Chet Atkins<\/strong> and bandleader Don Costa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as I can tell it didn\u2019t chart anywhere, which is a shame because it\u2019s quite good, but Wisner had so much on his plate (he was just about to take over A&R at Columbia Records) I think he probably just kept on rolling.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the cut, and I\u2019ll see you all on Friday.<\/p>\n

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

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

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

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

Jimmy Wisner, tickling the ivories Listen\/Download Mr. Jim and the Rhythm Machine – Mrs. Robinson Greetings all The tune I bring you today is a very groovy bit of swinging soul jazz, with an interesting pedigree. If you are a casual music fan, I wouldn’t expect the name Jimmy Wisner to raise any eyebrows. However, […]<\/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":[58,14,66,19,12,18,13],"tags":[166,165],"class_list":["post-4789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-funky16corners","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-soul","category-soul-45","category-soul-jazz","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul-jazz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1ff","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789","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=4789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4828,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions\/4828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}