Comments (6)

By Larry, September 27, 2011 10:10 am

The Originator: Babatunde Olatunji

Carlos Santana, wailing at Woodstock

Candido Camero on the congas…

Listen/Download – Michael Olatunji – Gin-Go-Lo-Ba

Listen/Download – Santana – Jin-Go-Lo-Bah (Jingo)

Listen/Download – Candido – Jingo

Greetings all.

I have something very special indeed for your ears this fine day.

Early last year I ran a series of posts under the ‘Disco/Not Disco’ banner celebrating the sounds played by pioneering DJ David Mancuso at his legendary Loft parties in NYC in the early 70s.

Mancuso had become something of an idol/guiding force for me, in so far as I have tried to emulate his DJing ethos as it were during my own sets.

He was a trailblazing record wrangler because he always kept one specific thing in mind, that being the dance and played anything that kept things moving. His Loft sets were filled with unusual sounds, including in his sets music from the worlds of rock, soul, funk, world music and anywhere else he could find the groove.

The Loft predated and strongly influenced the ‘disco’ scene and Mancuso’s eclecticism was carried out into the clubs by the other DJs that attended and had their minds blown at his parties.

One of the records that was a cornerstone of his sets, and has on its own a very interesting history, was a cut by the name of ‘Gin-Go-Lo-Ba’ by Michael ‘Babatunde’ Olatunji.

Olatunji was a Nigerian drummer and educator who emigrated to the United States as a student to attend Morehouse College.

He eventually moved to New York City to attend NYU where he put together his own percussion group and drew the attention of two especially influential figures, the mighty John Coltrane and record impresario John Hammond.

Olatunji recorded the LP ‘Drums of Passion’ in 1960, which included the track ‘Gin-Go-Lo-Bah’*, as well as the less influential (but also important) ‘Akiwawa’.

I first heard of Olatunji back in 1990 when I read Mickey Hart’s remarkable book ‘Drumming at the Edge of Magic: A Journey into the Spirit of Percussion’** which led me to Olatunji’s 1988 recording ‘Drums of Passion: The Invocation’. It was many years later when I first read about David Mancuso that I made the Loft connection.

Mancuso would make the Olatunji version of the song a cornerstone of his Loft sets for obvious reasons. It has a driving rhythmic force and the accompanying chanting that would no doubt grab and shake any mass of dancers, and would also mix well with any number of more ‘conventional’ dance records.

It was at the end of the 1960s that Carlos Santana and his band would adapt and record the tune under the title ‘Jingo’ (which is the version that most people have heard). I’m including that version (the 45 edit at least) here for reference, and because it kicks all kinds of ass. Interestingly, the Santana 45 uses an approximation of the Olatunji title, though the album (and subsequent 45 releases) truncates it to ‘Jingo’. It’s amazing to listen to how a pack of electrified (in all senses), racially integrated hippies get deep inside the rhythm and blow it up.

A full decade after the Santana recording, the song would be resurrected yet again by another fixture of Mancuso’s Loft sets, Cuban conguero Candido (born Candido Camero), also under the title ‘Jingo’.

Candido’s version of the song takes the African percussion and chant of the original and recasts it inside an electric/disco setting and despite the fact that the edges may have been smoothed a little, the cut loses none of its propulsive power. Even after almost two decades, the song was still dance floor gold.

The mix here is the 45 edit, which clocks in at only 3:17. I wish I had a copy of the 12”, which goes for almost six more minutes.

‘Jingo’ was later redone for the dancefloors yet again in 1987 by Jellybean.

Babatunde Olatunji passed away in 2003 after a lifetime of teaching, social activism, and above all, drumming.

I hope you dig the tune (and maybe dance a little) , and the drums and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

*Oddly, the catalog number of the Olatunji 45 suggests that it was released sometime in 1967, long after the LP released but before the Santana cover

** If you have any interest at all in the power of drums and rhythm and the way they can propel human consciousness through the dance ritual I recommend Hart’s book highly.

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, September 25, 2011 3:15 pm

The Four Tops, featuring Levi Stubbs and his bad-ass tam’o’shanter…

Listen/Download – The Four Tops – Turn On the Light of Your Love

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

The tune I bring you today was the fruit of a trip to a recently discovered digging spot this summer.

The way things are going these days, finding a new place to look for actual, vinyl records is always a welcome surprise.

Now, you know I’m a big fan of the Four Tops (they were last seen in this space back in May), considering Levi Stubbs to be one of the greatest voices of the classic soul era.

However, until recently my vinyl stock had only included material from their Motown era.

The Four Tops were among the contingent that opted not to follow Motown on the label’s move to Los Angeles in 1972.

They moved to ABC-Dunhill, and hit gold almost immediately.

Their first album for the label, ‘Keeper of the Castle’ yielded a couple of hits, including the smash ‘Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got)’.

So, I’m out digging and I happen upon a copy of said album, and while I’ve heard ‘Ain’t No Woman…’ more than enough times (including when it was repurposed as a lottery ad) I had also heard that ‘Keeper of the Castle’ displayed a funkier side of the Tops, so I threw it on the keeper pile and took it home.

When I finally got to needle-dropping, I discovered that the rumors of funk were indeed true, but especially so with the tune I bring you today ‘Turn On the Light of Your Love’.

Opening with some tastefully rendered synthesizer, which is soon joined by wah wah guitar and drums, the Tops fall in with the chorus before the full band kicks in.

Levi, Lawrence, Duke and Obie are in rare form, and the band – featuring a bunch of west coast heavies like Larry Carlton and Paul Humphreys – come correct.

The horn section is especially cool.

The Four Tops would remain a chart fixture through the 70s, leaving ABC for Casablanca in 1980 and having another R&B#1 in 1981 with “When She Was My Girl”.

They would find their way back to Motown a few years later.

I hope you dig the cut, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 22, 2011 11:20 am

The Platters

Listen/Download – The Platters – Shing-a-Ling-a-Loo

Greetings all.

The weekend is almost here, and I don’t know about you, but I am in a groovy place (geographic and spiritual).

I should remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also pick it up as an MP3 right here at the blog over the weekend.

Like soulful records by blues cats, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for classic-era soul by R&B performers that you would normally file in an earlier era.

I’ve posted sides before by groups like the Rivingtons, Flamingos, and Little Anthony and the Imperials, and a few times previous, by today’s performers, the Platters.

One of the great hitmaking vocal groups of the doowop era, the Platters had their last big hit in 1960.

Their producer/songwriter Buck Ram carried the group on into the mid-60s, where, reconstituted (Herb Reed being the only original Platter) they recorded a couple of (excellent) albums and some 45s for the Musicor label between 1965 and 1971.

It was during this period that they waxed some brilliant Northern Soul floor fillers like ‘With This Ring’, ‘Sweet Sweet Loving’, ‘Washed Ashore (On a Lonely Island In the Sea)’ and ‘Get a Hold of Yourself’.

Today’s selection ‘Shing-a-Ling-a-Loo’’ was included on the group’s 1967 LP ‘Going Back to Detroit’. It is by no means a dense arrangement, basically a rhythm section augmented by saxophone, with the group’s vocals providing most of the rhythmic punch.

I always find it surprising that a group with this much name recognition, and material this strong was unable to make much of a dent on the charts (‘With This Ring’ was their only Top 40 hit during this time), but then I remember that it was 1966 and 1967, the charts were densely packed with quality, and lots of performers found themselves making brilliant (and unjustly ignored) records.

That said, this stuff isn’t very expensive or hard to find, so get yourself some and whip it on your pals at your next soiree.

I hope you dig it and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, September 20, 2011 12:10 pm

T-Bone Walker

Listen/Download – T-Bone Walker – She’s a Hit

Greetings all.

Here we all are, burrowed deep inside the week, so far in fact that we can neither turn around nor be entirely sure we’ll find our way out.

What better time for some gritty Texas blues with soul?

The name T-Bone Walker should be a familiar one, by which I am not suggesting that you do know who he is, but rather that you should, on account of he is justly legendary in the lineage of the electric blues.

Born in 1910 (as Aaron Thibeaux Walker in Linden, TX) he made his first record in 1929 for Columbia, billed as ‘Oak Cliff T-Bone’.

It was in the early 1940s, after spending the previous 15 or so years as a working musician (crossing paths with both Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charlie Christian) , and experimenting with electric guitars that T-Bone returned to wax and, in the words of the great philosophers, blew that shit wide open.

The T-Bone Walker of the 40s and 50s was in many ways the very model of the modern blues guitarist (though his sound was much more sophisticated than that, incorporating R&B and jazz) , that being a singing soloist. Walker wrote and recorded the original of one of the genre’s greatest classics, ‘Stormy Monday’, as well as groundbreaking instrumentals like ‘T-Bone Shuffle’. One of the first great lead guitar soloists, Walker was also a showman supreme, introducing sounds and stage moves that would emerge years later in the repertoire of none other than Chuck Berry, and via osmosis, one James Marshall Hendrix.

That said, by the 1960s, T-Bone was in the very same boat of many of the players of his era that being one full of holes and in immediate danger of sinking into the unforgiving brine of obscurity.

We’ve addressed the issue of blues performers stirring some soul and funk into their cauldrons, and T-Bone Walker was no exception.

By the mid-60s he had intersected with Huey P Meaux, and recorded at least an album’s worth of material, and two singles for the Crazy Cajun’s Jetstream label.

The tune I bring you today, ‘She’s a Hit’ (written by Meaux) was released in 1966 and sees Walker with his feet still planted firmly in the blues, yet managing to soul things up just enough. The song wouldn’t sound out of place coming out of Doug Sahm’s mouth at around the same time, and it manages to give T-Bone a little of the 1966 appeal without tossing out his past like so much moldy bread.

The flip, ‘T-Bone’s Back’ is a much more conventional blues shuffle.

I hope you dig the sounds, and if you have a taste for the blues, and don’t know T-Bone’s classic material, get yourself out and find some, as I can assure you that you will not regret it.

See you on Friday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 18, 2011 1:56 pm

.

Sweetwater

Listen/Download – Sweetwater – Compared to What

Greetings all.

The new week is here, and so am I (for what it’s worth).

There quite a chill in the air, and taking the little Corners out to the bus is getting to be a brisk undertaking.

I need to adjust my brain so that I begin to appreciate the onset of fall, which is a season that I usually dig quite a bit, but I’m having an especially hard time letting go of summer this year.

Not sure why that is, but as is often the case, if I feed my ears enough groovy music, all paths will be clearer, roads smoothed, thoughts more productive and positive.

That said I had a great time this past Saturday DJ-ing at the JT Foundation for Autism Awareness 5K Run in Pt. Pleasant Beach, NJ.

This was by far the earliest (first record went under the needle at 7:30am) and chilliest (temps hovering in the mid-50s) DJ gig I’ve ever done, but the high spirits of all the people gathered to raise money and awareness of autism more than made up for the hour.

There were lots of familiar faces from the local autism community, and the setting (right by the water) couldn’t have been nicer.

I even got the now familiar “You actually spin vinyl?” comments which seem to pop up every single time I DJ outside of a club setting. It’s a little strange to hear, but it is a bracing reminder of how deep and insular the world of record collecting is. Each time this happens, without fail, there’s a brief moment of “Who’s crazy? Me or them?” followed immediately by the realization that it is  – without question –  me.

The whole Funky16Corners fam was there as yours truly dropped a wide variety of funk, soul and disco classics for about three hours.

Yours truly (not all sixteen corners visible) selecting something cool.

The crowd as seen from my perch in the band shell.

Cueing up a little Stevie Wonder to take the chill out of the air.

So, let’s get the week started with what Slim Gaillard would refer to as a very mellow groove.

If you have in fact heard of Sweetwater, it might very well be as one of the little known artists to have graced the stage at Woodstock.

They released a couple of albums for Reprise in the late 60s and early 70s before their lead singer Nancy Nevins was badly injured in a car accident and forced out of the lineup.

I’m tempted to describe Sweetwater as an archetypal hippy band, but the reality was that in everything except the broadest sense the only thing most of the bands of the era had in common (aside from an interesting fashion sense) was their diversity in all things.

Sweetwater was integrated, both racially and musically, with a sound that exemplified the melting pot aesthetic, a little rock, a little soul, some baroque touches all served up with a garnish of freak scene freedom.

Naturally, across the musical spectrum, this tie-dyed bouillabaisse wasn’t always entirely successful or coherent, but that is almost always the case when a lot of free thinkers decide to get loose, and thankfully when their fusions were successful, they were often exceptional.

Gene McDaniel’s epic testament ‘Compared to What’ is one of those soul jazz evergreens (like Cannonball Adderley’s ‘Sack’O’Woe’) that managed to expand beyond its original bailiwick into the world of rock.

Sweetwater manage to keep the built-in groove of the song, but ease off the gas a little, creating a very groovy, somewhat restrained, yet still soulful feel. The basic groove is constructed with bass, drums and electric piano, with the flute and cello (yes, cello) weaving in and out of things tastefully.

This is also one of those records where I’m shocked no one has chopped or looped either the bass or flute lines, both ripe for the audio harvest.

I hope you dig it.

Make sure you stop over at Iron Leg and pull down the ones and zeros on the fifth episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

See you on Wednesday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 15, 2011 2:09 pm

(Clockwise from the top) Sarah, Patti, Nona & Cindy

Listen/Download – Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles – Always Something There To Remind Me

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and I have dipped into the archive to pull out a supreme bit of soul singing for you all to savor.

But first, I should remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. You can also pick it up as an MP3 right here at the blog over the weekend.

It’s been a few years since the mighty voice of Patti LaBelle graced this page.

LaBelle has always been an exceptionally powerful singer, but with the exception of some of the funky LaBelle (group) stuff, it is this writer’s opinion that her superior instrument was never put to better use than the time she and the Bluebelles were recording for Atlantic (1965-1970).

Today’s selection is an epic reading of the Bacharach/David classic, ‘There’s Always Something There To Remind Me’.
Famous in disparate versions, my personal fave was always the original recording by Lou Johnson, but as a fan of the UK Beat era, I always dug Sandie Shaw’s as well.

I think once you’ve heard the LaBelle version (recorded in 1966) all others will fade into the background.

Produced by Bob Finiz and Richie Rome (two names that show up on a lot of Philly records) the cut is a study in dynamics, opening quietly and then literally exploding in the chorus, eventually downshifting (but not quite all the way) in the following verses.

While I think it’s safe to say that nobody (sane) is going to try to dance to this one (I really dig the rhythmic change-up at the ‘Always be a part of me’ section at the end of the chorus), it’s fantastic to listen to.

Finiz and Rome (the arrangement isn’t credited) have built themselves their very own section of the Wall of Sound, except they managed to leave just enough space between the layers (Cake of Sound?) so that individual elements – lead vocal, backing voices, drums, strings, horns – all get to be heard properly.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

And don’t forget…

______________________________________________________________________________

Don’t forget that I’ll be spinning some tunes during the annual Point Pleasant Lions Seafood 5K and 1 Mile FUN Run/Walk on this Saturday, September 17th in Pt Pleasant Beach, NJ. The run benefits the JT Foundation for Autism Awareness and runs right before the Seafood Fest (which starts at 10AM). I’ll be spinning all of the funk soul and disco you’d expect, so if you’re in the area, come on down and run, sit and watch people run while listening to music, or get your groove on before hunting down some delicious seafood. It’s a great cause and there’ll be good music, good people and good food, so what else do you need to know?

____________________________________________________________________________________

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, September 13, 2011 11:16 am

The mighty Swamp Dogg astride Sparky the Funky Rat

Listen/Download – Swamp Dogg – Sal-A-Faster

Greetings all.

How’s by you?

I’m still not reconciled to the loss of summer, and while we still have a little taste of it to savor here at the shore, it has been an especially brisk week. It’s like Labor Day happened and someone threw a switch somewhere, sucking all the “hot” out of the air.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not done sweating yet, so how about something hot and sassy for the middle of the week?

Swamp Dogg is one of those cats who’s name I’ve known forever, but who’s music had evaded me almost completely.

The first time I heard one of his songs it was via a cover version of ‘Total Destruction To Your Mind’ by Eric Ambel of the Del-Lords, which got some airplay on our local alternative station about 20 years ago.

Dogg, who hailed from southern Virginia, recorded for years under his given name, Jerry Williams (and as Little Jerry Williams) for a wide variety of labels through the 60s, including Calla, Loma and Musicor before mutating into Swamp Dogg at the end of the decade.

As Swamp Dogg he recorded for the Canyon label, and wrote songs with another Virginia Tidewater native, Gary US Bonds, for artists like Doris Duke (and Swamp Dogg himself).

Today’s selection, the wild and somewhat incomprehensible ‘Sal-A-Faster’ has a serious New Orleans vibe (with no real connection to the region other than any of the Crescent City zeitgeist that might have taken root in Swamp Dogg’s fevered brain).

The magical substance of the title is recommended for the self, the disobedient wife and the dog that has fits, and the rabbit “that only sits”. Whether ‘sal-a-faster’ is a relation to the contents of a trick bag, or just something that Swamp Dogg pull out of, um, thin air, remains a mystery.

What is not mysterious is the groove of the record, which is, without question, heavy.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

______________________________________________________________________________

Don’t forget that I’ll be spinning some tunes during the annual Point Pleasant Lions Seafood 5K and 1 Mile FUN Run/Walk on Saturday, September 17th in Pt Pleasant Beach, NJ. The run benefits the JT Foundation for Autism Awareness and runs right before the Seafood Fest (which starts at 10AM). I’ll be spinning all of the funk soul and disco you’d expect, so if you’re in the area, come on down and run, sit and watch people run while listening to music, or get your groove on before hunting down some delicious seafood. It’s a great cause and there’ll be good music, good people and good food, so what else do you need to know?

____________________________________________________________________________________

I hope you dig the tunes, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, September 11, 2011 10:46 am

Listen/Download – Natural Gas – Live and Learn

Listen/Download – Natural Gas – Rameses 1

Greetings all.

I hope everyone had themselves a groovy weekend and took the time to check out the Wardell Quezergue-related sounds. I also hope you took the time to paddle out into the wilds of the intertubes in search of a little more of his story (and history). He was an important figure in the sound of New Orleans and deserves to be remembered (and the music he made, heard).

So, now that the new week is here, how about some of the funky, jazzy horn rock sound??

I picked up the sole LP by the Canadian band Natural Gas a few years back when it popped up on a sale list with an intriguing description (probably something along the lines of ‘funky horn rock’) and an equally intriguing price tag. I’d never heard of the band, but all signs pointed to “BUY”, so I did, and when it came through the mail slot onto the turntable I knew that I’d done a groovy thing.

Natural Gas (could they have selected a more un-Google-icious name?) hailed – as mentioned – from north of the border and put out their only album in 1970 on the Firebird label.

Though I can’t tell you much about the band itself (one of their tracks, a cover of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ already appeared here in F16C Radio v.74 ‘Day Tripping’), it has roots (via singer George Olliver) in the prime of Canadian 60s rock, first with the Rogues, and then in the much more successful soul-rock outfit Mandala.

Olliver left Mandala in 1969 to for Natural Gas.

If I were to describe the Natural Gas sound, I’d say a slightly more progressive take on the horn-rock vibe of the time (led of course by Blood Sweat and Tears, which was helmed by David Clayton Thomas who for a brief time had been in the Rogues with Olliver).

That the sound was verily omnipresent for a few years should be evident to anyone with a passing acquaintance with the era, with bands that were first and foremost a horn driven thang, with the BS&Ts, Chicagos, as well many soulful or jazz-inspired rock bands of the day (like Melting Pot) packing a horn section.

There is of course the question of fusion, but it’s probably more accurate (at least as I see it) to assign pre-existing jazzers attempting (with varying degrees of success) to rockify their sound with that term, where most of what I’m talking about could loosely be called jazz rock.

Much of what fell under the jazz rock sound is in retrospect often guilty of musical overreaching, with musicians who’s hearts might have been in the right place but who’s chops and or ears were not up to the task, making for cluttered, sometime clumsy attempts at jazz which were simultaneously overcooked versions of rock.

Naturally, it was the late 60s and early 70s and hordes of drugged out kids with their feet in the mud couldn’t have cared less as long as they could keep grooving, and now, forty years on, a lot of that stuff doesn’t hold up well as either jazz or rock.

That said, I find that despite their undeserved obscurity, Natural Gas were actually pretty good, with enough compositional and technical wherewithal to create music that was sonically interesting and – it bears mentioning – rarely overbearing.

The two tracks I bring you this fine day exhibit two sides of the band.

The first, ‘Live and Learn’ is a slightly funky excursion featuring Olliver’s vocals running in and out of a tight instrumental backing. The band is tight, and the horn charts are tasteful, with the two sections of the group actually working together cooperatively (not always the case with these things). Olliver was a good singer, generally free of the sloppy, white soulboy-isms of many of his contemporaries. I’ll have to dig out a Mandala 45 and post it so you can get a taste for his earlier work.

The second cut, the instrumental ‘Rameses 1’ starts out as a Hammond groover, evolving into a more expansive jazz tableau, featuring some cool guitar. There are whispers of UK prog around the edges, but the organ drops out and the piano comes in (around the 2:00 mark) before it really unfolds too much. The remaining six minutes is split between contemplative piano, swinging, small-group action, and then a gradual return of the horn section.

It is – especially for the time – a work of remarkable good taste and subtlety, the band never straying outside the boundaries of their instrumental (or compositional) prowess.

The album ought to be better known.

George Olliver still performs and records today.

______________________________________________________________________________

Don’t forget that I’ll be spinning some tunes during the annual Point Pleasant Lions Seafood 5K and 1 Mile FUN Run/Walk on Saturday, September 17th in Pt Pleasant Beach, NJ. The run benefits the JT Foundation for Autism Awareness and runs right before the Seafood Fest (which starts at 10AM). I’ll be spinning all of the funk soul and disco you’d expect, so if you’re in the area, come on down and run, sit and watch people run while listening to music, or get your groove on before hunting down some delicious seafood. It’s a great cause and there’ll be good music, good people and good food, so what else do you need to know?

____________________________________________________________________________________

I hope you dig the tunes, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (5)

By Larry, September 9, 2011 10:38 am

Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival

Listen – Otis Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival – 1967

Set List”: Shake – Respect – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Try a Little Tenderness

This is a little impromptu re-post of a piece I did back in 2008 on the mighty Otis Redding, greatest of all soul singers. It’s Mr Redding’s birthday, so here (again) is his Monterey Pop set in its entirety.
Dig it.
Larry

Greetings all.

I hope the end of the week – as it nears – finds you well.

The “selection” I bring you today is something a little different than I ordinarily offer in this space, in that it is composed of an entire LP side, which is itself an entire live set* by one of the greatest soul artists of all time, the mighty Otis Redding.

I’ve mentioned several times in this space that my ‘Road to Damascus’ moment as a fan of soul music was the day I flipped over the Jimi Hendrix Experience ‘Live at Monterey’ LP and played the album side I have posted today.

That day – sometime around 1976 or ’77 – was a landmark in my musical growth because although I was aware of soul and funk music in as much as its existence was reflected in the playlists of Top 40 radio of the early 70s, I had never been an active consumer thereof, i.e. I let the soul come to me, but never went looking for it.

It’s likely that I wasn’t paying close attention to the album, at least not at first, as I didn’t have much of an idea who Otis Redding was, outside of ‘Dock of the Bay’. It was that day, as the sounds of one of the greatest live sets ever recorded by any artist poured from my Montgomery Ward console stereo (next to my bed, the biggest piece of furniture in my small room), that a fundamental part of how my mind processed music – in as much as it processed the effects of sound along with my heart and soul – was changed forever.

I can’t remember the first time I actually saw ‘Monterey Pop’ on TV, though it was probably either on the Late Show or on the local PBS station, but when I did it quickly became my favorite musical documentary, in large part because of the inclusion of an excerpt from this very set.

It wasn’t until last year, when my lovely wife bought me the Criterion Collection issue of ‘Monterey Pop’ – which included an entire disc of previously unissued performances, as well as the two mini-documentaries ‘Jimi Plays Monterey!’ and ‘Shake! Otis at Monterey’ that I finally saw the film of Redding’s entire set from June 17th, 1967.

It was the final set, of the second night of the Monterey Pop Festival, and as the story goes, the festival had gone past the agreed upon curfew by the time Otis reached the stage.

Backed by Booker T & the MGs (who had just played a short set of their own), as well as the Mar-Keys (actually the Memphis Horns with the addition of Floyd Newman), and following an introduction by Tommy Smothers, Otis stormed the stage and ripped into Sam Cooke’s ‘Shake’. Despite a solid, day-long line up of rock, pop and jazz acts, at that late hour the crowd could not have possibly been prepared for the power that Redding brought onto the stage.

By the time Otis finished the tune he was gasping for breath, as he introduced his own ‘Respect’ – with a bit of understatement – as ‘…a song that a girl took away from me.’ He takes the tune at a brisk pace with pounding support from the band.

As he finishes ‘Respect’ he takes a moment to rap to what he refers to as ‘The Love Crowd’, before he launches into one of the single greatest soul performances ever recorded.

Two years before Monterey, Redding and Jerry Butler sat down in a Buffalo, NY hotel room and composed what would become (later that year) one of Redding’s biggest hits, ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’. Redding’s reading of the tune is an absolute masterpiece of dynamics, building and release of tension and pure soul. It’s not hard to deduce from his demeanor that by this point in the set that Otis knew that he had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

He delivers his greatest song as a high-wire act balancing tasteful restraint with roof-raising soul pleading.

Whenever I listen to this (a performance that never fails to bring a tear to my eye) I wonder if Otis and Butler knew when they were writing this song how perfect a showstopper it would become. The verses open with those classic, slow-dance, R&B guitar triplets, moving to an explosion each time the second part of the verse begins.

There’s a version of ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ on the ‘Otis Redding Live In Europe’ LP where, if you listen very closely, you can hear Redding – as an aside, almost completely off mike – say ‘Oh my God!’ just before he launches into the line ‘There were times… It’s almost as if he had to muster every bit of power in his voice to deliver the line, rocketing the level of emotion in the performance to a point that few performers could ever dream of approaching and the truly amazing thing is that he’s able to do it over, and over again until the final section of the song where he’s rolling out the

‘GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY’s

and the ‘I CAN’T STOP NOW’s

and ‘I’M DOWN ON MY KNEES’

and ‘I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART’

and the band is vamping under him with the horns growing in intensity, and before you know it – because you almost expect, or at least wish that he would go on all night – the song is over and the band tears into ‘Satisfaction’, and the audience, still dizzy from the previous number rides along with them until Otis takes the tempo down, and you can hear the audience clapping along, and then the band picks up speed again almost crashing at the end of the song.

It’s at this point that Otis Redding proves once and for all (as if there were any doubts left) how much of a master performer he was. Taking a song written and first performed in 1932, Redding builds ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ into a soulful tour de force. The tempo of the tune building almost imperceptibly at first, with the band laying down the sparest of backings, but before you know it the whole shebang is bearing down like a freight train and Otis is wailing about

‘GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA NOW NOW NOW TENDERNESS A LITTLE TENDERNESS YEAH YEAH TENDERNESS YOU GOTTA GOTTA TENDERNESS!!!’

and Steve Cropper is weaving in and out of the mix and you can sense Otis whipping the audience around like a sweaty handkerchief while he loses himself in the ecstasy of the performance.

This is true greatness, on a level that very, very few performers, in any kind of music were ever able to achieve, and as the few remaining documents will attest to, it was greatness that Otis Redding was able to deliver on a regular basis.

The Monterey Pop Festival was filled with monumental, career making performances, but no one, not Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, NO ONE, came within 100 miles of delivering the way Otis Redding delivered that night.

He wouldn’t have many opportunities to do it again, because a few days short of six months later, Otis Redding was dead.

Sad.
I hope you dig the sounds.
Have a great weekend.

Peace
Larry

*Believe it or not, this entire – legendary – set lasts less that 20 minutes!

Comments (3)

By Larry, September 7, 2011 4:00 pm

The Mighty Wardell Quezergue

Listen/Download – Earl King – Trick Bag (Imperial)

Listen/Download – Professor Longhair – Big Chief Pt2 (Watch)

Listen/Download – Marie Boubarere – I’m Going Home (NOLA)

Listen/Download – Robert Parker – Everybody’s Hip Huggin'(NOLA)

Listen/Download – Willie Tee – Walking Up a One Way Street (Atlantic)

Listen/Download – Willie Harper – A Certain Girl (Tou-Sea)

Greetings all.

I hope that everyone is in a groovy place nearing the end of the week.

It behooves me to remind you all (as it always does) that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be hitting the airwaves of the interwebs this Friday evening at 9PM at Viva Radio. This week we have an interesting one, with half the show devoted to the funky side of disco, and the other half to the sounds of classic-era soul. I know you’ll dig it, and if you can’t bet there to hear it, you can always drop by on Saturday to pick up the show in MP3 form here at the blog.

Also, if you have yet to check out the DJ Forty Fivan mix from earlier this week, please do so. It is excellent and really worth your time.

It was with great sadness that I heard the news this week of the passing of one of the last giants of New Orleans soul, Mr. Wardell Quezergue.

Working mostly as an arranger (but also in the producers and composers chairs) Wardell was instrumental (pun fully intended) in grafting the New Orleans sound onto the brains of the listening public. It has been said that he created every record he touched from the ground up, applying his talents to best fit the song, and the individual artist, giving his catalog a tremendous amount of stylistic breadth.

Known as the ‘Creole Beethoven’, WQ (his last name was often misspelled – at times by yours truly –  as Quezerque) was born in 1930. He served as a musician in military bands during the Korean War, and rejoined Dave Bartholomew’s band upon his return to the Crescent City.

He really started to make his mark in the early 60s, with his work on classic 45s by Earl King (‘Trick Bag’ is included above) and the formation of the storied NOLA label where he would arrange some of the finest R&B, soul and funk to come out of the city in the 1960s.

His first big hit was Robert Parker’s ‘Barefootin’ in 1965 (he arranged all of Parker’s sides for the label), still one of the biggest hits to come out of New Orleans.

His biggest success however would come half a decade later with his work for the Chimneyville/Malaco labels and huge hits like King Floyd’s ‘Groove Me’ and Jean Knight’s ‘Mr Big Stuff’ – both recorded on the same day in 1970 – and Dorothy Moore’s ‘Misty Blue’ in 1976.

The tunes included here are a random sampling of Wardell Quezergue’s work that I’ve covered here at Funky16Corners over the years, whether as individual tracks, or in various and sundry mixes. I’ve tried not to duplicate what I’ve seen in other tributes (make sure to check out Soul Sides).

I mentioned Earl King’s ‘Trick Bag’, but I’ve also included Part Two of Professor Longhair’s 1964 landmark ‘Big Chief’, which was written by King and features his vocal.

There are also two tracks from WQ’s extensive NOLA discography, including Marie Boubarere’s Eddie Bo-penned ‘I’m Going Home’ (a live session) from 1967, and Robert Parker’s funky ‘Everybody’s Hip Huggin’ from 1968.

One of the more interesting, and testimony to WQ’s considerable talent as an arranger (dig the way the trumpets and the saxes play off of each other in the horn chart), is Willie Tee’s ‘Walking Up a One Way Street’.

The last track is one that appeared here last summer, and remains one of my favorite Quezergue-related sides, especially since he produced and arranged it. The record in question is Willie Harper’s version of Ernie K Doe’s (written by Allen Toussaint) ‘A Certain Girl’.

Unlike most covers of the tune, Harper and Quezergue take the song at a slow, New Orleans roll, in one of the great examples of bridging the old-school NOLA feel and then contemporary (1968) soul music. It’s also interesting because it has WQ producing an artist who had worked almost exclusively with Toussaint, on one of Toussaint’s labels, as he also did with Warren Lee’s ‘Underdog Backstreet’, also on Tou-Sea.

I’ve never gotten the whole story on why Toussaint seemed to loosen the reins a bit during this period, but the records that came out of it (including another WQ production/arrangement with Gus ‘The Groove’ Lewis’s ‘Let the Groove Move You’) were consistently excellent.

Unfortunately Wardell Quezergue was stricken in his later years by poor physical health, as well as the being victimized by the  destruction of forces natural (Hurricane Katrina) and otherwise (the record industry).

He will always be remembered by fans of the New Orleans sound as one of its greatest geniuses.

He will be missed.

______________________________________________________________________________

Don’t forget that I’ll be spinning some tunes during the annual Point Pleasant Lions Seafood 5K and 1 Mile FUN Run/Walk on Saturday, September 17th in Pt Pleasant Beach, NJ. The run benefits the JT Foundation for Autism Awareness and runs right before the Seafood Fest (which starts at 10AM). I’ll be spinning all of the funk soul and disco you’d expect, so if you’re in the area, come on down and run, sit and watch people run while listening to music, or get your groove on before hunting down some delicious seafood. It’s a great cause and there’ll be good music, good people and good food, so what else do you need to know?

____________________________________________________________________________________

See you on Monday

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 4, 2011 12:00 pm

Set List

Motherhood – Soul Town
Scorpio & His People – The Unforgiven
Bobby Reed – The Time is Right For Love
Eddie & Ernie – Bullets Don’t Have Eyes
TSU Toronadoes – Got To Get Through To You
Four Sonics – Easier Said Than Done
Tony Clarke – Ghetto Man
Total Experience – Contradiction
Honey B’s – What Love Can Do
Black Velvet – An Earthquake’s Coming
Honey Ltd – Silk n Honey
Mighty Lovers – Ain’t Gonna Run No More
Rosetta Hightower – A Little More Line
Rose Williams – Whatever makes My baby Feel Good
Curtis the Brothers – You Make Everything Better
Eddie Bo – Getting to the Middle
Explosions – Garden of Four Trees
Fellows – Let’s Make it Last
Summits – Sleepwalking
Fabulous Souls – Take Me
Waymond Hall – What Will Tomorrow Bring
The Arcades – There’s Got to Be a Loser
Connie Tanzell – Don’t Knock Me
Stone Coal White – Free

Listen/Download – DJ Forty Fivan – Forty Fivan Vol4 131MB/320K Mixed MP3

Greetings all.

Happy Labor Day to those of you here in the US, where we honor the work of the American worker and the labor movement (though lately it’s looking more like a wake).

This also marks the end of the summer vacation season, which here at the shore is something of a mixed blessing, since my wife and kids have to return to school, but we also get to experience the phenomenon of ‘local summer’ during which we experience the fair weather and outdoor recreation largely free of the tourist horde.

Late last week one of my longtime fellow Soulstrut-ters, DJ Forty Fivan contacted me about the possibility of running his latest mix, the extremely groovy and very heavy ‘FortyFivan Vol 4’ as part of the Funky16Corners Soul Club guest mix series.

I’d already had a preview of the mix and thought this a capital idea, so here you have it.

What you get is a stellar mix with just under and hour of rare and ultra-rare funk and soul goodness.

Believe me when I tell you that this one exudes heat in a big way, and I know you’ll dig it.

Here’s Forty Fivan’s bio.

Forty Fivan, formerly known as DJ Ferrari, is one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s premier rare groove DJs and vinyl collectors creatively spinning the best and rarest funk and soul records from around the world. Highly regarded for his deep and diverse record collection, Forty Fivan has played shows all around the world including exotic locations like Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro. Never one to compromise in taste, Forty Fivan remains a trusted selector amongst those with a discerning ear for proper soul music.

When not scouring the globe for obscure vinyl, Forty Fivan, real name Ivan Dwyer, remains beyond busy in the fast paced Silicon Valley technology world as both the Head of Digital Publishing for ACCESS (www.access-company.com), a global provider of advanced software solutions for connected devices, and the CEO & Founder of Maravil (www.maravil.com), a creative technology and services provider working with independent musicians and record labels to create personalized mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad.

So go on, pull down the ones and zeros and dig the sounds.

I’ll be back on Thursday with something cool.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, August 31, 2011 6:16 pm

The Royalettes

Listen/Download – The Royalettes – Out of Sight Out of Mind

Greetings all.

I have returned unexpectedly to bring some news, as well as some music.

I just learned that I’ll be spinning some tunes during the annual Point Pleasant Lions Seafood 5K and 1 Mile FUN Run/Walk on Saturday, September 17th in Pt Pleasant Beach, NJ. The run benefits the JT Foundation for Autism Awareness and runs right before the Seafood Fest (which starts at 10AM). I’ll be spinning all of the funk soul and disco you’d expect, so if you’re in the area, come on down and run, sit and watch people run while listening to music, or get your groove on before hunting down some delicious seafood. It’s a great cause and there’ll be good music, good people and good food, so what else do you need to know?

As mentioned last Monday (before we were knocked on our asses by the deaths of Jerry Leiber and Nick Ashford) , with the sweet, soulful reggae of Ken Boothe and his take on the Royalettes ‘It’s Gonna Take a Miracle’I was reminded that I had the most excellent flip side of that very Royalettes record sitting in the to-be-blogged vault, ready and raring to go.

I don’t recall where I first heard ‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’, but I suspect it was via a friend’s Facebook post, and I knew as soon as I heard it that I had to have a copy for my record box.

We last discussed the Royalettes in this space roughly two years ago, right after I scored myself a copy of their brilliant cover of Barbara Banks’ ‘River of Tears’ (1967).

‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’ came out in 1965 on the flipside of the group’s biggest hit, the Teddy Randazzo-penned ‘It’s Gonna Take a Miracle’. The record hit the R&B Top 40 and just missed the Pop Top 40 (#41?!?).

The Royalettes hailed from Baltimore, MD, and recorded their earliest 45s for Chancellor and Warner Brothers before signing with MGM where they had a run of two LPs and nine 45s.

While ‘It’s Gonna Take a Miracle’ is a soul ballad classic, ‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’ is a powerful, fast-moving dance floor killer with a slightly dark edge to it.

The group trades off call and response vocals, over a forceful rhythm track, punctuated with a rumbling horn section (the trombones are nuts) and a sharp guitar solo.

If you have the opportunity, slap on the headphones and crank up the volume. There’s a crazy rhythm guitar track scratching around underneath all the power that’s really interesting.

It’s not unusual to have a ballad backed with an upbeat dancer, but is exceedingly rare to have both sides rise to such a high level of quality.

The Royalettes would have one more minor hit in 1965, and would eventually part ways with MGM in 1966, moving on to Roulette for that one last, incredible single (‘River of Tears’ you can hear the Royalettes version in the mix F16C Soul Club Presents – Funky16Corners Live at Master Groove 9/19/10 ).

There are a couple of comps of their stuff out there, one exclusively MGM material, as well as a singles comp that appears to include the indispensible ‘River of Tears’.

I hope you dig the tunes, and I’ll be back on Monday with a most excellent guest mix that I know you’ll all dig!

Make sure to tune into Friday’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show over at Viva Radio, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.