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By Larry, September 2, 2010 3:30 pm

Not Freddie Scott…

Listen/Download – Freddie Scott and the Seven Steps – The Thing

Greetings all.

The end of a very busy week has arrived and I feel the need for the freeing vibe of a soulful slab of of wax.

The kids (and the wife, a teacher) have returned to school and the routine hereabouts has been upended once again, with our vast and confusing network of appointments, comings and goings having to be reshuffled for a new season, which, since it only involves about two dozen people is predictably, what the great sages of our time have come to call a clusterfuck.

It’ll all probably settle down in a week or two, but right now my brain is mush.

The tune I bring you today is another hot Florida soul 45 from the mighty Freddie (Freddy) Scott.

Last we heard from Mr. Scott was a little over a year ago, when he and his Four Steps let us have it with the ‘Same Ole Beat’.

At the time, I mentioned that one should not confuse Freddy Scott (drummer and bandleader from Florida) with Freddie Scott, soul singer who recorded for Shout and Colpix among other labels.

Then, while out digging I happened upon the 45 you see before you today, and discovered that Florida Freddy, but a few catalog numbers down the line was rechristened ‘Freddie’, nailed three more Steps onto his band and confused matters all by himself.

Variable spelling aside, I have no doubt at all that this is the Florida-based cat (for a variety of fairly obvious reasons).

As I mentioned, today’s selection ‘The Thing’ is only two catalog numbers further along from ‘Same Ole Beat’, and a quick listen to the song would seem to indicate that the extra Steps were employed in the horn section.

‘The Thing’ is a mid-tempo dancer with enough grease to get he kids sliding on the dance floor, and a refrain that sounds like a not so distant cousin to the soul jazz standard ‘Coming Home Baby’.

If you get a minute you should head over and check out Iron Leg Digital Trip #32, where I included the flipside of this very 45, a swinging organ instro version of Tom Jones’ ‘It’s Not Unusual’ as part of that au go go flavored mix.

So crack open a cold beer, sink your fist into a bowl of chips and stuff you ears full of ‘The Thing’.

I hope you dig it and I’ll see you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for mid-60s LA garage punk

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By Larry, August 31, 2010 5:17 pm

Joe Zawinul

Listen/Download – Joe Zawinul – Soul of a Village (45 edit)

Greetings all.

The middle of the week is here, and I may be tired, my nerves may be frayed, my brain may want to shut off, but I have a craving for some of that deep, deep stuff, so here we go.

The record I lay before you today is something I first heard during a long ago Asbury Park 45 Sessions, with my man Vincent the Soul Chef working the wheels du steel.

As I’ve said here many times before, the 45 Sessions are without fail, a DJs paradise, with the selectors slipping 45s under the needle that have the heads running up to the turntables to see what’s going on.

This blog has seen many, MANY sides that I first heard at the Lanes, and of we ever get it back up to speed, this will surely continue.

Anyway, when Vincent pulled this one out of his record box, and I heard the laid back but funky drums, and the electric piano (you know I love me some electric piano), and the spooky strings, my spidey sense started tingling, and when I found out that the music I was hearing had been created by none other than Joe Zawinul, I set out to find a copy of my own.

This took a little longer than I expected, and while I was waiting I pulled down the entire album from which it originated – ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’ – and was surprised to discover that there wasn’t much on that album that resembled the 45 I had heard (though the flip side of this 45, an edit of the track ‘Lord Lord Lord’ has a decided gospel edge).

For those of you to whom the term ‘Third Stream’ doesn’t ring any bells, I’ll tell you that it was affixed to classically influenced jazz in the 50s and 60s by folks like John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. There’s a lot of string-based action on ‘Rise and Fall..’ but the overall effect is much more jazz than classical.

Zawinul (and the name should be very familiar) was the Austrian born pianist who made his mark in Cannonball Adderley’s band (Zawinul composed ‘Mercy Mercy Mercy’ and ‘Country Preacher’ among others) , moving on to work with Miles Davis (on ‘In a Silent Way’), and then eventually as one of the founding members of Weather Report.

‘Rise of the Third Stream’ was recorded in 1968 and was only Zawinul’s second solo effort in 10 years. It came a year before his work on ‘In a Silent Way’, and echoes of ‘Soul of a Village’ can be heard in his work with Davis.

Though the 45 lists the piece as only ‘Soul of a Village’, the music you’re hearing is actually an edited version of ‘Soul of a Village Pt2’, having been preceded on the album by just over two minutes of prepared piano and strings droning in an approximation of an Indian raga.

The 45 version of ‘Soul of a Village’ has such a perfect, self-contained vibe that I’m torn as to whether you need to hear both parts. The album is overall a much more challenging listening experience than the 45, but if serious jazz is your bag, I’d suggest you seek it out.

That said, the 45 version of ‘Soul of a Village’ (roughly one and a half minutes shorter than the Pt2 on the LP) is a slice of groove perfection. It opens (again) with the drone, before Zawinul comes in with the electric piano, followed by funky drums (either Roy McCurdy or Freddie Waits), Jimmy Owens’ muted trumpet, and even more strings, and the really groovy thing is that the string section actually swings along with the drums.

The tune was written (like almost every track on the album, save one) by saxophonist/arranger William Fischer, who as far as I can tell was first and foremost a classical composer/musician, and as a result ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Stream’ must be considered a  collaborative work between Fischer and Zawinul (a prolific composer in his own right).

This is serious ‘head’ music, in that it both spins around the inside of the cranium for full, mystical effect, but also compels the head to nod with the rhythm. I wouldn’t go as far as to suggest that anyone not sufficiently intoxicated might get up to dance, but it’s not entirely out of the question.

A truly unique and captivating record, and I hope you dig it.

Peace

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for a cool Nilsson cover.

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By Larry, August 29, 2010 3:22 pm

Ray Barretto

Listen/Download – Ray Barretto – A Deeper Shade of Soul

Greetings all.

I hope everything’s groovy at your specific GPS location, and anywhere else you choose to roam.

Summer is winding down, slowly, and while the weather is still warm (some might say hot) the days of summery freedom are also coming to an end, with the wife and kids headed back to school, and the rhythm of life changing once again.

To present a brief ‘state of the Corners’ address, things are mainly cool hereabouts. The Funky16Corners Radio Show has developed into something more satisfying (at least for me, hopefully for you all too) over the summer, and I’m having a lot of fun doing it.

The DJing opportunities around here have, for a variety of reasons (some that I am not privy to), all but vanished, but I will be heading down to DC again toward the end of September to spin with my man DJ Birdman (more details to follow soon), so hopefully I’ll be able to touch base with some of the Capitol City heads who have always been so cool.

Other than that, things should continue on a steady course, with new mixes (regular old Funky16Corners and Soul Club) coming, as well as a steady stream of funk, soul, jazz and rare groove to soothe your troubled mind (and mine too, if I’m lucky).

The tune I bring you today is something I came to in a roundabout way.

The first time I had any inkling of Ray Barretto’s ‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ was back in 1989, when I heard it sampled by the Dutch group Urban Dance Squad in their song of the same name. Of course even though I knew it was probably a sample, I had no idea who it was, and pretty much left it at that.

Flash forward a few years and my buddy Haim lends me the CD reissue of  Barretto’s 1968 ‘Acid’ album, and I’m listening to it (wishing I had an OG) and all of a sudden ‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ comes pouring into my ears and I’m all WTF?!? and the lightbulb goes on over my head, and then (of course) blows up.

Now these many years later, and I’m all hip to Ray Barretto and all of that good mid-to-late 60s Latin soul and funk, and while I had a couple of his 45s and LPs, an OG of ‘Acid’ (possibly THE essential Latin soul LP) had still eluded me.

Well, another one of those Asbury Lanes garage sales rolled around, and it was a particularly rewarding one, and I’ve just about run my way through all my ready cash, and then some dude I’ve never seen before sets up a table full of LPs, and before I know it me and about a half dozen other heads are pulling all kinds of OG Latin LPs out of his crates. As I mentioned, I was just about tapped out, and when I discovered that these LPs (while affordable) were not cheap I had to put back a couple of very nice things, including an OG Lat-Teens LP, but I walked away with a nice, clean copy of ‘Acid’.

While I still dig the Urban Dance Squad tune (it has a kind of stoney groove that I like) there’s just no comparison with Barretto’s original.

‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ is an absolutely perfect slice of soulful boogaloo, with prominent piano, percussion (natch…) and a horn chart that digs into ‘Knock On Wood’ for inspiration. The arrangements were handled by none other than Harvey Averne, so you know it’s good.

‘Acid’ was Barretto’s first LP for Fania, following his earlier chart success (on labels like Tico and UA) with tunes like 1963’s ‘El Watusi’.

If you haven’t heard ‘Acid’ (which also includes ‘Soul Drummers’, ‘Mercy Mercy Baby’, and ‘Teacher of Love’ among others) you should grab yourself a reissue (or an OG if you can find it) since it’s a great album from start to finish.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back in the middle of the week.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a cool Nilsson cover.

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By Larry, August 26, 2010 4:37 pm

The Commodores

Listen/Download – The Commodores – Machine Gun

Greetings all.

The week is at an end, and if I’m lucky, by the time you’re reading this the fam and I will be away on the vacay, as it were (thus I’m canning and vacuum sealing this one a few days in advance).
I meant to drop this one a while back, since I picked up the 45 last year when I was spinning with DJ Birdman down in DC. Unfortunately, which is often the case around here as my mind deteriorates more rapidly each day, I neglected to take a picture of the 45, then I filed it away in the giant heaving mass of vinyl that sits behind me while I type this. However, recently, while I was pulling some records for to be digimatized, I happened upon the Commodores Greatest Hits LP, so in essence what you’re hearing is the 45, what you’re seeing is the LP, but since it’s all the Commodores, you’ll have to bear with me.
I have to admit that I wrote the Commodores off for years, thanks in large part to the lame, middle of the road and largely un-soulful solo career of Lionel Richie.
No matter that ‘Brick House’, the official funk song of elderly relatives (which they all dance to at weddings), is actually quite good, it all blended together for me into one big, unpleasant heap.
My bad.
Years back, I’m sitting there watching the movie ‘Boogie Nights’, and all of a sudden a very groovy song comes on the soundtrack in a discotheque scene, and I’m all ‘What’s that?” and then the credits rolled around and I was all “The Commodores, eh?” and therein lies a minor re-evaulation thereof.
That, and the fact that a cursory listen will set your ears a-tingling when you recognize the sample from the Beastie Boys ‘Hey Ladies’ pop in.
All that aside, ‘Machine Gun’ is a badass number packed end to end with enough clavinet to blow your mind, some very tasty wah-wah guitar and – if I might – not a single note of Lionel Richie’s melodious voice to screw things up.
The Commodores came together in the late 60s at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and signed to Motown releasing their first album (also titled ‘Machine Gun’) in 1974. The title track (written by guitarist Milan Williams) was a hit in 1975, and despite the presence of synthesizers (or maybe because of it) ‘Machine Gun’ manages to be solidly funky, and eminently danceable (without being stereotypically disco-ey, though it was clearly a hit on the dance floor).
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some groovy mid-60s pop.

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By Larry, August 24, 2010 5:28 pm

Howard Roberts

Jackie Cain and Roy Kral

Listen/Download – Howard Roberts – Crystal Illusions

Listen/Download – Jackie & Roy – Crystal Illusions

Greetings all.

When I left you on Monday, I promised that I would return with something mellow.

Back in the day, when I was falling in love with the sounds of Tropicalia, I happened upon a reissue CD of an album by a singer who’s name was familiar, but who’s music I’d never actually heard.
That man was Edu Lobo, and the album was ‘Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo’.

This is not to say that Lobo was part of the Tropicalia movement, but rather that I was seeking out any and all Brazilian music from the late 60s and early 70s in the hopes that I would discover sounds of a similarly progressive bent that mixed Brazilian music with contemporary pop from other points of the musical landscape.

It was this search that led to to Edu Lobo, and folks like Dom Salvador and Tamba 4.

‘Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo’ was recorded in the United States (in 1970) with a number of Brazilian musicians (including several members of Brasil 66), and includes rerecorded versions of a number of songs that had appeared (generally sung in Portuguese) on Lobo’s ‘Cantiga de Longe’ LP (which has also been reissued).

Lobo’s sound at the time was an updated take on MPB, which was already a mixture of traditional Brazilian music and other Western pop and rock styles. Lobo also whipped jazz into the mix, though you kind of get into a chicken/egg situation when it comes to jazz and Brazilian music at the time in that it’s not always clear whether what your hearing is the influence of Brazil on jazz or vice versa.

I was completely captivated by the ‘Sergio Mendes Presents…’ album, and it quickly became a favorite. Among the many great songs on that album (which I’ve never been able to score an original copy of) is the sublime ‘Crystal Illusions’.

I haven’t been able to nail down when ‘Crystal Illusions’ was first recorded, but there are a number of versions from 1969 and 1970, including those by Brasil 66 (who’s singer Lani Hall is credited with co-writing the song) and jazz saxophonist Paul Desmond, who’s ‘From the Hot Afternoon’ album is composed entirely of covers of songs by Lobo and Milton Nascimento.

That said, the tune was clearly getting around.

The first of the two versions of ‘Crystal Illusions’ I bring you today is from guitarist Howard Roberts’ 1970 album ‘Spinning Wheel’. I grabbed this record following the diggers credo of ‘never pass up a version of either ‘Spinning Wheel’ or ‘Get Out Of My Life Woman’ because of the possibility of drums’, and was pleasantly surprised when I found the version of today’s selection.

Featuring a young band that included Dave Grusin on keys, John Guerin on drums (nice drums on this one) and Tom Scott on sax, Roberts’ version of the song applies some sharper edges than the song is usually played with. It is unlike anything else on the album and is a real gem.

The second take on the song is from a 1980 album by hip singers Jackie Cain and Roy Kral.

Though Jackie and Roy go back to the big band era (where they recorded as part of Charlie Ventura’s band) through the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s they perfected a light, swinging style touching on wide ranging sounds like Bob Dorough, Mark Murphy and Lambert Hendricks and Ross, that while something of an acquired taste (there‘s a supper club/cabaret feel to some of their work), I happen to dig a lot.

Their take on ‘Crystal Illusions’ comes from their ‘Star Sounds’ album, which was devoted largely to the sounds of Brazil. You get a little more of a feel for Lobo’s delicately crafted melody in the Jackie and Roy version. The arrangement may be a little ‘light’ for some of you, but it’s all about the song.

Both ‘Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo’ and ‘Cantiga de Longe’ can be obtained via iTunes. If you want either of the versions presented here today (in solid, vinyl form), you’re going to have to start digging, since I don’t think either one has been reissued.

I hope you like the tunes, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a Lennon/McCartney tune.

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By Larry, August 22, 2010 1:18 pm

Earl King

Listen/Download – Earl King – Tic Tac Toe

Greetings all.

I’m sitting here, and it’s early. No one (except the kids, natch) has had enough sleep, but it’s relatively quiet so I figured I’d better get some writing in before the day gets rolling.
The summer – bracketed by Memorial Day and Labor Day – is almost over, and that, surprisingly enough, is a good thing.

Labor Day is approaching, and with it comes the exodus of the tourists. This glorious occasion is followed by a month of great weather, a serious drop in traffic and crowds, and with it the gradual restoration of my peace of mind (which seems in constant danger of extinction).
The tune I bring you today is a kicking slice of New Orleans funk, with as solid a pedigree as these things ever have.

The artist in question is the mighty Earl King.

You do not know him?

I say ‘au contraire, mon frere!’, because while Earl King may not have had any big hits, he was directly or indirectly responsible for many great pieces of music, including Professor Longhair’s legendary ‘Big Chief’ (which King wrote and sang on), the blues/soul standards  ‘Come On’ (which Jimi Hendrix covered on ‘Electric Ladyland’) and ‘Trick Bag’, in addition to being an indispensable part of New Orleans music in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

One need only dip into their New Orleans crates (you can substitute theoretical boxes of New Orleans 45s if you don’t have real ones) and see how many great records were either recorded by King, or bear the mark of his pen and/or performance (often under his real name, Earl Johnson).

The tune I bring you today is one of the few vinyl remnants of a 1970 King session, helmed by no less a light than Allen Toussaint and backed by a certain local combo called the Meters. This conglomeration recorded an album’s worth of material, but since a satisfactory deal never materialized, all that ever saw the light of day at the time was a few 45s.
One of these, ‘Street Parade’ (on the hard-to-find Kansu label) was featured in this space back in ought-seven. As Mardi Gras tributes go, they don’t get much better (or funkier) than ‘Street Parade’.

‘Tic Tac Toe’ which hails from the same sessions is lyrically uninspiring (pretty much standard issue dance craze boilerplate) but King is in fine voice, and the backing band featuring most of the Meters (Dan Phillips at the mighty ‘Home of the Groove’ noted previously that Art Neville’s keyboards seem to be MIA) is tight.

There’s a great, repeated bass guitar riff that kind of pushes the rhythm, Zig Modeliste’s snappy drums, and a nice horn chart riding in the background.

Despite the uninspired lyrics, it’s always great to hear King’s voice, and in the end what you are supposed be doing with this record is dancing, not parsing the meaning of the words, so take it all as a very groovy whole, and shake your thing a little bit.

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

Peace

Larry

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a Lennon/McCartney tune.

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By Larry, August 19, 2010 6:44 pm

Ivan Joseph Jones aka Boogaloo Joe

Listen/Download – Boogaloo Joe Jones – Right On

Greetings all.
I hope everyone has had themselves a nice Funky16Corners Radio kind of week, filled with the dulcet, flute-y tones of this weeks mix.

I was going to double down on the flute-stravaganza and post a funky flute 45, but I couldn’t find the label pic, so it’ll have to keep.

Instead, may I request that you all get your hot pants on and your get-down shoes zipped up, because the track I’m going to whip on you today requires both.

I don’t suspect that those among you not enrolled in the crate digging or jazz collecting fraternities know the name Ivan ‘Boogaloo Joe’ Jones (how could you forget a name like that if you had?) but once you pull down the ones and zeroes on this one you shant soon forget it.

One might assume that he attached the ‘Boogaloo’ to his extremely common name merely to separate himself from the drummers Papa Jo and Philly Joe (both prominent Joneses) and that’s probably true to an extent, but if anyone ever deserved to be referred to as ‘Boogaloo’-anything, Ivan Joseph Jones was the man.

‘Right On’, one of my favorite Prestige jazz funk 45s (and they are legion) is as close to an all-star session as you’ll find with these things, plus you get that bad-ass, iconic Prestige blue-label 45 to stare at.

It’d be all groovy gravy if it was just Boogaloo Joe burning it up on the gee-tar, but you also get Charlie Earland on the Hammond, Pretty Purdie socking the shit out of his drums, Rusty Bryant on the sax and Jimmy Lewis on the bass.

And you REALLY have to dig the guitar. Boogaloo Joe winds his way in and out of the rhythm like a Ferrari on a race course.

All star-power aside, ‘Right On’ is an ass-whooper of the first order, with the head nod, and the hip slip, and all the rest of the involuntary anatomical expressions that go along with records that are this funky.

Funky, right, tight and outta sight, with enough chops for the jazzers and enough groove for the dancers, ‘Right On’ is a frequent flier in my DJ box, and though it’s a little on the crackly side (I tried to diminish the sound of sizzling bacon fat  as much as I could), this record is so hot you forget about it pretty quickly, unless you’re some kind of Hi-Fi hobbit nestled in the shire alongside a million dollars worth of audio equipment, in which case this isn’t for you anyway, so go have an herbal tea and come back when you’re feeling funky.

I know you’ll dig it, so do so, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

PS Make sure to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio Friday night at 9PM. Your ears will thank you.

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some hippie rock with a Native American twist.

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By Larry, August 15, 2010 1:58 pm

Funky16Corners Radio v.87 – Wind of Change

Playlist

Listen/Download 106MB/256KB Mixed MP3

Listen/Download 83MB Zip File

How are the closing days of summer treating you?
I know we’ve got lots of good weather ahead, but it’s only a few weeks until the mass exodus of the tourists, when I will once again be able roam free amidst traffic that is just ‘bad’, not mind-bogglingly so.
The mix I bring you today is a continuation of a minor series of sorts, in which the Funky16Corners Radio thingy takes time out to focus on a specific instrument. We’ve already surveyed the vibes and the electric piano, and I’m sure that there are a few more such collections huddling in the crates awaiting release.
This time out we take a look (listen) to the much maligned, but very groovy sounds of the (mostly) jazz flute.
As I said when I wrote about the vibes, there are those among us for whom the sound of the flute is too ‘cool’, which naturally is why I dig it so much.
I love the sound of the flute in the hands of a great musician, and what you’re getting in this mix is 15 examples of that very thing.
Of course, not every single cut contains a virtuoso performance, on account of that would be boring and a few steps away from the prog sound of my teenage years that I have come to despise.
The vast majority of the players here (although one of them is anonymous) are at least tangentially connected to the world of jazz, with a few having crossed over into pop and rock and one (yes, you know the one…the one who’s name sent a shiver up your spine when you saw it, unfairly I might add) solidly camped out in rock and roll.
This one took a while to assemble, if only because a few of the artists in question have appeared in this space frequently (Koffman, Steig, Wess, Mann), their dulcet tones gracing other Funky16Corners Radio playlists.
Things get off to a serious start with Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s epic reading of Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. Kirk, a master on many wind instruments – often simultaneously – had a pronounced influence on two of the other players in this mix, namely Jeremy Steig and Ian Anderson (more on him later). His frequent use of ‘overblowing’, and vocalizing through the flute make him one of the most dynamic stylists the instrument has ever produced.
Paul Horn is best known for his pioneering new age recordings like ‘Inside’, but in the early to mid-60s he was still working a straight ahead jazz style. The Eastern-influenced ‘Paramahansa’ (which he re-recorded years later) appeared on his 1967 ‘Monday Monday’ LP, alongside a number of contemporary pop and rock covers. The tune sees Horn playing over a big band producing something that sounds like it’s from the soundtrack to a spy thriller.
Moe Koffman, who has been featured here a number of time is one of those cats that started out as a pretty ‘straight’ jazz player and as the 60s progressed he got further out. In addition to the flute Koffman was a proponent of the electrified saxophone (like Eddie Harris and Sonny Stitt) and he made some very cool, au go go flavored stuff during the era. His take on Bob Dorough and Ben Tucker’s “Coming Home Baby’ has a relaxed swing to it, sounding once again like something lifted from era-specific TV or movie soundtrack.
Bobbi Humphrey’s ‘Sad Bag’ has a mournful sound, with some very nice, reverbed flute.
David ‘Fathead’ Newman is better known for his sax playing, especially in his association with the mighty Ray Charles. I first heard ‘The 13th Floor’ on an early-90s comp called ‘Heavy Flute’, shortly after which I grabbed myself a copy of the 45. The tune originally appeared on Newman’s 1968 ‘Bigger and Better’ LP and is a great illustration of that fact that he certainly knew his way around the flute.
‘Teenage Chase’ is a Keith Mansfield penned cut from the KPM sound library album ‘Beat Incidental’. Like many of the cuts it was intended to be used as a ‘theme’, and so it is relatively short. I have no idea who the flute player us, but it sure as hell sounds like the same cat blowing on the Hawkshaw/Parker tune ‘Hot Pants’ (also a KPM selection).
Hubert Laws went on to great success with radio friendly R&B in the 70s with the CTI label, but in the mid-60s he was recording powerful soul jazz sessions for Atlantic. ‘Bloodshot’ is the opening track from his 1966 ‘Flute By Laws’ LP, and is driven by Laws’ flute, powerful brass and spot on Latin percussion.
Jerome Richardson is best known as a prolific studio musician, but he spent decades playing bop and soul jazz. His take on Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ is from his 1968 ‘Groove Merchant’ album, which features Richardson on a variety of wind instruments, including a few different kinds of flute (more than one on this track!). Aside from an odd, intermittent chime, this version of ‘Ode…’ is pretty cool, including some well placed harpsichord.
Like many of the players here, Joe Thomas doubled (tripled) on a variety of wind instruments. ‘Big Heart, Giant Soul’ from his 1970 Cobblestone album ‘Comin’ Home’ is indicative of the high quality of that funky soul jazz session. You get to hear Thomas (who also played in Rhoda Scott’s trio) vocalizing on what sounds like a Varitone (maybe attached to the flute), and then playing it straight. Thomas went on to record funkier stuff (even disco) in the 70s.
Ernie Fields’ ‘Watch Your Step’ is one of my favorite 45s, period. I’ve never been able to find out much about Fields, but ‘Watch Your Step’ is so high-concept, so soulful yet psychedelic and well-arranged, that you can only hope that he did more stuff like this.
If you were to put together a list of cats with serious jazz chops who spent most of their career trying to reach a mass audience (and sometimes succeeding) Herbie Mann would have to be at the top of the list. Mann started out working in a Latin bag, but went on to record a serious grip of soul jazz and even pop through the 60s and 70s. The title track of his 1971 ‘Push Push’ album shows that Mann was very comfortable in a funky bag (where he spent most of the early 70s), eventually having his biggest hit with 1975’s ‘Hijack’.
Jeremy Steig is beloved by crate diggers/beat heads for his track ‘Howling for Judy’ which was the main sample behind the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sure Shot’. Steig’s late 60s/early 70s stuff for Solid State and Blue Note is generally pretty far out, and skipping right along the border between funky and ‘out’. ‘Alias (ALi’as)’ (named for drummer Don Alias) features a wild performance by Steig over bass, drums and percussion., is from the same 1969 LP (‘Legwork’) as ‘Howling…’.
I’ve featured a number of very cool tunes from Frank Wess’s 1970 ‘Wess to Memphis’ LP on the Stax subsidiary Enterprise. Once again I must recommend this album highly, since it’s one of those great sessions where a jazz cat (Wess was well known as a tenor player as well as his work on the flute) really got into a more popular vibe with excellent results. The album, which includes a number of covers is well played and produced, and one I go back to frequently. He wails on his version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed Sealed and Delivered’.
I can’t remember where I first heard of Tim Weisberg’s ‘Streak-Out’, but I know I was surprised because it was the very same Weisberg who had a mid-70s chart hit alongside Dan Fogelberg! ‘Streak-Out’ from 1974 (which he apparently performed on the ‘Midnight Special’, so it must have been a minor hit) is a nice bit of funky rock, with a little bit of a break at the beginning.
This edition of Funky16Corners Radio closes out with what no doubt seems like the oddest of artists, Jethro Tull. All 1970s prog/hobbit-isms aside, when Tull got started in the late 60s they were a jazz inflected heavy blues band, not unlike Cream. The song presented here is, to bring things full circle, a Rahsaan Roland Kirk tune called ‘Serenade to a Cuckoo’. It was reportedly the first song Ian Anderson learned on the flute (Kirk being by far his strongest influence), and he and the band acquit themselves nicely.
I hope you dig this little survey, and I’ll be back later in the week.

Peace

Larry

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By Larry, August 12, 2010 11:28 am

Woody Herman

Eumir Deodato

Listen/Download – Woody Herman and the Herd – Fanfare for the Common Man

Listen/Download – Deodato – Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)

Greetings all.
I hope week is coming to a satisfying close for you all.
My wife has to head out for a few days, and the spuds and myself are bumming, but since we plan to wreck the joint while she’s away, there is a (very) minor silver lining.
We’ll just see if three people can survive on corn chips, frankfurters and slurpees for five days.
If you haven’t already pulled down the ones and zeros for this weeks Funky16Corners Soul Club mix by my man Vincent the Soul Chef, do so now, on account of it’s full of the funk, and will – as the kids say – rock your world.
Also, don’t forget to tune in Friday night at 9PM for this week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show over at Viva internet radio. If you are not already hip/hep, you can click on the Radio Show link in the header and check out the fifteen (!?!) weekly shows that have already been mixed down and archived as MP3s for your listening pleasure.
Today’s post is one of those things that kind of fell together organically over the course of a few months, wherein I was holding something in storage, and then something else climbed over the transom and into the to-be-blogged folder that, how do they say, augmented the existing track in the stylistic and theoretical (figurative/symbolic) sense, and so they came together like beer and stout in a black and tan, blended ever so carefully so that once they pass over the lobes and into the brain the desired effect is one of jazzy, funky wonderfulness (and naturally, as is the style here at Funky16Corners, a tremendous run-on sentence).
Not too long ago one of my Friendface pals posted a video of the mighty Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd working it out on Aaron Copland’s 1942 masterpiece of 20th century classical music ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’. I dug the arrangement a LOT, so I went in search of the vinyl equivalent and found another live recording of a slightly later (I think) version of the Herd laying down the same arrangement at Montreaux.
Back in the olden days, when I was a long-haired, drum mangling stoner type, I had a copy of a certain Emerson, Lake and Palmer album that contained their version of the same piece of music. Having been brought up in a house full of classical music, but then stuffing my head with as much contemporary rock as possible, as well as being your standard teenaged rube, I thought that the ELP ‘Fanfare’ was of a deepness theretofore unheard, and blasted it at high volume many, many times until a seriously untrustworthy fellow bandmember (who, if memory serves was also a  pathological liar of singular talent) stole what was then a fairly expensive record (of course everything is expensive when you have no money).
In reflection, especially after hearing Woody Herman lay it down, the ELP version sounds like a meth-infused synthesizer orchestra trapped in an electrified mudslide. The Copland piece is both sublime and inspirational, and to hear it mangled so seems now to be something approaching a high crime.
Interestingly enough, Herman and his band were playing their Gary Anderson arrangement (recorded in 1974) of ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ a few years before ELP got their hands on it, and as you might have already assumed, the touch is considerably lighter, using funky subtlety to finesse the brassy strains of Copland’s piece where ELP drove through it with a steamroller.
In addition to a hot band – Herman, a master of the original big band era made some serious moves in the fusion era, still with a big band – you get to hear the master working it out on the soprano sax.
If you get your hands on a copy of the ‘Herd at Montreux’ album, you also get to hear them play the Richard Evans arrangement of ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’ and a very tasty version of Billy Cobham’s ‘Crosswind’ that I’ll feature here in the future.
The second track featured today is something I’m sure a lot of you will be familiar with since it was a substantial hit in 1972. That tune is Eumir Deodato’s epic arrangement of Richard Strauss’s 1896 ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’. Better known to one and all as the ‘2001’ music, Deodato’s take on the tune is in addition to being probably the biggest hit CTI ever had, a masterpiece of funky jazz.
Featuring Deodato on electric piano, Airto and Ray Barretto on percussion, Billy Cobham on drums, Stanley Clarke on bass and Jay Berliner on guitar, ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ goes on for nine minutes, and I’m here to tell you (though you should be able to hear it yourselves) that it never lags, never slips into fusion-y masturbation, never loses it’s kick.
The piece builds gradually, with a kind of amorphous tune-up, until the drums kick in at around 48 seconds, then the bass, guitar and of course Deodato’s electric piano (the heart and soul of the tune), followed by what has to be about the best known classical horn line in history, following the structure of the original until it settles down into a funky jam at around the two and a half minute mark. You know I love me some Fender Rhodes, and Deodato goes to town here. The coolest thing of all – and I hope you’ll agree – is that for what is basically a nine minute long jazz fusion interpretation of a piece of classical music (shades of Spinal Tap in Jazz Fantasy), ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ never gets cheesy or heavy handed, which is especially notable in an era when cheesy and heavy handed were the coin of the realm.
I hope you dig both of these cuts, and use them to get down with what the hipsters used to call ‘long hair’ music.
I’ll see you on Monday.

Peace

Larry

PS Make sure to hit up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva internet radio Friday night at 9PM. Your ears will thank you.

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PS Head over to Iron Leg for a tribute to the late Chris Dedrick of Free Design.

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By Larry, August 8, 2010 3:18 pm

F16C Soul Club Presents – Vincent the Soul Chef – I Learned It By Watching You

Playlist

Listen/Download 99MB/192KB Mixed MP3

Listen/Download 100MB ZIP File

I hope the new week finds you all well.
The mix you see before you is the newest installment in the groovy juggernaut known as the Funky16Corners Soul Club.

The name of the mixer should be familiar to fans of soul and funk blogging, that being the mighty Vincent the Soul Chef of Fufu Stew. I’ve known Vincent for a few years now, and can tell you from personal experience that he knows his shit, can handle a couple of turntables with the best of them, and has exquisite taste in music (which when you get down to it is really the bedrock).

What the Soul Chef has cooked up for us is over an hour of tasty funk  – a bouillabaisse if you will – composed of breaks, beats, thumping bass, wah wah guitar and vocals, with ingredients foraged in New Jersey, DC, San Fran, Memphis, New Orleans, Chitown and many points in between.

Vincent uses only the freshest funk, prepared with skill and whisked to your table so you might fill up on the good stuff.

I’ve given this one a couple of spins, and I’m sure you’ll dig it.

So fix yourself a plate, and make sure to head over to Fufu Stew.

See you later in the week.

Peace

Larry

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