Thanks to Eric to an excellent review of Fields' new CD, My World. I have a couple of pieces on Fields being readied for NPR but they don't appear until later this month. In the meantime, I had a few "leftovers" that I thought folks here would enjoy.
Here's the thing you must understand about Fields - he is far, far, far more prolific than you can imagine. Even someone like Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - who have an impressive catalog - pale in comparison to the volume of music that Fields has put out. People who think of Fields as a primarily retro-soul guy don't even realize that this constitutes the minority of his output. Peep the discog. Fields is a monster in the Southern soul/blues scene and while retro-soul fans probably would blanch at the sonic style of that music, there's no denying that Fields has as many fans - if not more - in that regional, thriving scene as he does amongst listeners who like him for his throwback style.
Moreover, even within the retro-soul circles, Fields has been a straight up monster when it comes to output. Peep the track record - he is, by far, the most recorded singer in that community, having worked with: Desco, Soul Fire, Truth and Soul AND Daptone, which doesn't even include all his other contemporary projects.
I assembled a small sampling of Fields work, from his first album through some more current material, though heavy on songs that many probably haven't heard since most of them were only on vinyl 7" or compilations.
This instrumental cooker is off of Fields' debut album back in 1979 but the date is a bit misleading since he had been recording throughout the '70s; he just didn't release a full-length until '79. I don't know for certain but "Flim Flam" certainly sounds like something recorded earlier in the decade though given how hard "Little J.B." rode that '60s raw funk vibe, I wouldn't be surprised if this was his attempt at recapturing some of that magic, even in the heart of the disco era.
Along with Sharon Jones, Fields was the perfect vocalist for Desco back in its heyday. He just had "that sound" that went with their house musicians, most of whom would end up in the Dap-kings. "Steamtrain" came out on 7" as well as the big "comeback" retro-soul album, Let's Get a Groove On. I really dig how the rhythm section here recreates the feel of a rolling train.
Speaking of the Dap-Kings, Fields ended up recording with them too (as well as the Sugarmen 3) for a few singles with the then-nascent Daptone label. This colalbo churned out yet another uptempo funk burner.
"Honey Dove," without a doubt, is my favorite Lee Fields song but while most people have heard his version with The Expressions, the original version of the song came out on his 2002 album, Problems recorded for Soul Fire (the other label, besides Daptone, that came out of Desco's dissolution). Personally, I think the Expressions improved on this song considerably but I wanted people to hear the OG to get a sense of the song's evolution.
I didn't even realize this until very recently, but Fields drew the attention of French DJ/producer Martin Solveig around the same time he was recording with Soul Fire and that's turned into a very fruitful partnership as the two men have recorded (I believe) four songs together thus far, which doesn't include a ton of remixes, especially for their first song together, "I'm a Good Man." The song strikes a fine balance between obviously club/electronic-oriented but Fields helps ground it with his vocals.
(Editor's note: That whole "I'm done with MJ posts"? Ok, so that was premature. Sorry but the hits just keep on coming! This is from James Cavicchia, my favorite "music writer who is not professionally a music writer but better than many music writers who are" and a message board post he is allowing me to reprint. --O.W.)
"When I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever been fully convinced by Michael Jackson, really. Not convinced by the squeaky-clean pre-teen singing about women troubles in every other song, not convinced by the timid good-timer of Off The Wall (though I always think of Michael dancing, I never ever think of him dancing with anyone—do you?), not convinced by the cuddly werewolf/virginal baby-daddy/china-fine gang-war mediator of Thriller, and on and on. He was never convincingly girl-weary as a young boy, and never convincingly romantic, aggressive, or sexual as an adult. He always seemed to be just outside of the real action. And while this made me feel very affectionate toward him—he was so clearly a kid, one of us, who had somehow fooled the right people and infiltrated the adult world—none of his music ever seemed to have any real place in any reality that I was familiar with. I managed to grow up loving his music without it actually meaning anything to me; it felt huge and important, but weightless. Like cartoons.
I know that sounds pretty negative, but what it actually ends up meaning is that Michael Jackson’s music works on me with a purity matched by few. Because for all the levels on which it may be suspect—lyrics, persona, whatever—there is one level on which it always always convinces: the sound. Three certainties in life: You will definitely die, you will always pay taxes, and you will never ever say “Man, that Michael Jackson song doesn’t sound as good as I remember.” It will only ever sound better, I promise you. Whatever suspension of disbelief the songs may require, and however little connection they may have to anything outside their own miniature fantasias, their reign within the borders of their runtime is absolute. They are unalloyed pop-music-production genius galvanized by Michael’s voice, which is not always the most integral piece, but is always, finally, the most necessary one. At the same time their immense commercial success keeps them present and current within culture, their essential unreality and inhuman inner perfection allow them to operate outside of time. They often seem less like actual songs and more like ideas that we’re all having at the same time. To hear them is to think, “Well, yeah—of course.”
And “I Want You Back” is the best Michael Jackson song. It’s not quite my favorite (“The Love You Save” narrowly edges it), but it’s the best, and is one of what I usually consider to be the two archetypal Perfect Pop Songs. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot (I know, right?): The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” and The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” divide the world between them—there is no third.
It starts with that piano curlicue that doubles back on itself before it’s even gone and tagging the guitar at the turn, the two together sounding like they could flip the entire sun like a fucking flapjack. Then the strings come in and then the bongos and then and then and then, and it’s not harmonious, exactly—there’s crisp separation between each instrument, and everything’s in its own space, but the sheer mass of all the pieces gives it this beautiful kind of overfull clatter. There’s a quick sense that not only could there not possibly be anything better, there couldn’t possibly be anything else. Mike glides down in full whine, and from here on out the song stubbornly defies momentum—it stays stopping and starting, the drums jump in place (only on the choruses, though—no drums at all on the verses), and it’s the most glorious parade in the world, too generous, and stopping at every house. It should annoy, but the thing is that after every single stop, it somehow manages—incredibly—to sound even better when it starts back up. You don’t think it will, but it does, every single time. By the end, hearts and ears bulge at the seams from the undiminished return.
And although the song never puts across the sense of loss that you’d assume from the title, it’s okay, because it’s not really trying to. The amiable bass and the daylight guitar and that plinky piano that get sprinkled in seem to understand Michael in a way that Michael doesn’t understand the song (and probably couldn't, at his age): Despite the literal desperation of the lyrics, and even though he works overtime to sell us on it, it’s clear from Michael’s perfect, explosive vocal that he does not believe even for an instant that it won’t all work out, and the genius of the music is that it recognizes that this—the faith and the gold of youth—is the point of the song, not some girl, some…other. The point is the I, not the want. Just listen to the little vocal break before the last chorus: Mike’s trying to preach it on what would ostensibly be the climax of this love-lost song, but behind him is this springy guitar line cake-walking with some easter-bunny bassline. Like I said: There's an understanding. Understanding that when Michael sings “Won’t you please let me / back in your heart?”, it isn’t actually a question.
THE SOUL SIDES KITCHEN-CAST W/ ANN POWERS
posted by O.W.
This is (probably) going to be the last post I'm going to do on M-J-5 for the time being, bringing to a close a rather crazy 5 day period where it was all MJ, all the time.
1) I just recorded this in the morning: The Soul Sides Kitchen-Cast w/ Ann Powers. Besides being a good friend, Ann also happens to be chief pop critic at the L.A. Times and I invited her over to talk about MJ's musical and cultural legacy in my kitchen (for the record, my green room provides Orangina and mixed nuts).
Here's the podcast in streaming form or you can download it here.
2) Wil and I recorded our Boogaloo[la] set from last Thursday which includes a 2 hour opening set that includes a good deal of lesser known J5 and MJ covers/remixes/songs. Then there was our 2 hour MJ5 set which slammed down all the "best ofs" into a party-smashing mix. You can download both:
Tribute set (Just remember this was recorded live!)
P.S.: I've been trying to figure out why I've been so compelled to stay on story over the last five days and it's certainly not out of the tabloid fascination that will only grow (and get uglier) in the weeks to come. It's the music, always the music, that keeps drawing me back in and it finally dawned on me this morning that while MJ certainly wasn't the first pop artist I heard in my lifetime, he was so utterly everywhere at my entry into the pop world that everything I love about music, about its emotional power and reach - MJ was a foremost influence. In other words, his music was one of the most important ways through which I learned to love music. And so, in paying tribute to that musical legacy, I'm really just trying to find a way to express an appreciation for a gift that, 30 years after I first shook my tush to "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough," has continued to enrich my life on a daily basis. For that gift, I will remain forever thankful for MJ's music, regardless of what I may think of the man behind them.
If at first you don't succeed... well, you know the rest. Lee Fields lives the mantra. During the 70s he released several 7”s and a full length but never made it big. Thanks to crate diggers, he never left the conscience of the soul faithful. Truth & Soul, true to their name, signed him and released his latest album earlier this month.
“Honey Dove” is quite representative of the album. With a lazy-summer-day guitar strum, it floats along like a gentle breeze. Fields fills the track with pleas to a lover who has gone and is begging her to come back. Toward the end of the track, horns gently blare echoing his yearning for his lover's return.
Production is helmed by Jeff Silverman, who, before T & S made a name with the too-short-lived Soul Fire, and Leon Michels (of El Michels Affair fame) along with their coterie, and Fields takes to the mic and serves up a batch of goodness. “My World” is a smoothed-out and sublime work. The album even exhibits a couple of instrumental numbers, a rare feature of a vocal LP these days. Fields also mellows out the Supremes/HDH classic “My World Is Empty Without You.” Vocally, the album is a honey-tinged exhibit, a lesson in doing what you can do well. You don't need bells and whistles when you know how to make music sweet like this.
Last Thursday, Wil and I put together a night o' Michael, capped with a two hour set of straight M-J-5 songs that pretty much had the dance floor filled from start to finish.
Anyone who has every DJed any party, anywhere knows that when everything else fails, you can always put on some MJ and it's like Insta-Party. As a fellow DJ wrote, "MJ has always been the most "guaranteed go-to" artist for DJs in the history of DJs." True that.
The thing is...it's so easy to get the party started with MJ, it's like an unfair advantage over the audience. It's so easy that I've usually avoided playing anything too obvious by MJ simply because...it's too easy.
And I was thinking: who else comes close to having that kind of power? The only artist even in the conversation is Prince but even then, we're talking about Purple Rain-era Prince mostly whereas with MJ, you can drop everything from "I Want You Back" (1970) to "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (1979) to "Billie Jean" (1982) to "Smooth Criminal" (1987) and it's on like Donkey Kong.
But this post actually isn't about those songs. You don't really need me waxing poetic about "Billie Jean" or "I Want You Back." I'm here to dig beneath the #1 hits and offer up a playlist of some of my favorite M-J-5 related songs/covers/remixes that bring out the full spectrum of the artist and group's styles.
I learned about "Big Boy" gigging with some excellent soul selectors up in San Francisco and it's been a favorite "end of the night" ballad to throw on. What's remarkable here is that Jackson is...what? 9? 10? And yet listen to him try to sell his "age ain't nothin' but a #" smooth mack game. This song was evidently re-recoreded (or released with a separate mix) but I prefer the original 7" version. It's less cluttered which allows the vocal's poignancy to shine forth.
An odd choice I know, least of which is the disturbing relationship to Song of the South and Disney's minstrel embrace. But forgive me for just finding this cover to be strange and kind of compelling. I mean, it's the Jackson 5 covering "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah". 'Nuff said.
"ABC" is a cold classic, no doubt, but personally, I find myself bumpin' its numerical kin more often. I suppose Motown thought it'd be too shameless to drop this as a single too but for a formulaic song, it's irrepressibly catchy, no?
Jackson 5: Darling Dear From Third Album (Motown, 1971)
Pet peeve: no one in the Jackson camp or Motown brain trust could come up with a better title than Third Album? That aside, "Darling Dear" is one of those hidden gems from the MJ5 catalog that I only discovered recently (more on that later) and *whistle* what a beauty of a song.
Nancy Holloway: Un Amour Aussi Grand From 7" (Barclay, 1971)
Ah yes, the lovely Nancy Holloway, singing the big hit off of the Maybe Tomorrow album in français. Frankly, this song would probably work in Klingon but if you had to pick a non-English language for this, French is not a bad way to go.
Jackson 5: I Wanna Be Where You Are From In Japan! (Motown Japan, 1973)
Jackson's first solo album, released when he was all of 13, made a clear statement that he was as competent and capable rolling on his own as he was surrounded by his brothers. "I Wanna Be Where You Are" is one of the three big singles off this album (though I think far less people remember "Rockin' Robin" as compared to the title song) and has one of the most memorable opening lines in any pop song I can think of: "can it be I stayed away so long?" (Note: I love how it pops up on this song).
Hua first put me up on this live version of the song, recorded during the Jacksons tour for Japan in 1973. I actually like 1) how they take out the guitars, which I always found a bit overpowering in the mix and 2) the audience handclaps in the background. (Zulema also does a great version of this song, which I included for an NPR.com piece that should run early next week.
Michael Jackson: We've Got a Good Thing Going From Ben (Motown, 1972)
Let's first say - best album featuring a rat on its cover, ever. Second, of all the songs I've been revisiting, this is the one that has me in straight rewind mode. Love the production - The Corporation execute beautifully on the rhythms and textures of this ballad and the songwriting is memorable without being overly simplistic. This song doesn't just "work" - it (and god help me, I really couldn't find a better phrase to use here even if it sounds like total boilerplate)...sings.
DJ Bobo James: Good Thing Goin' Michael Jackson: We're Almost There (DJ Spinna Remix) Both from Soul Source: Jackson 5 Remixes, Vol. 2 (Universal, 2001)
I should give credit - the main reason I know anything about either "We've Got a Good Thing" or "Darling Dear" is because I first heard the two songs combined in an awesome remix by DJ Bobo James. The first part of the song is playing off of "We've Got a Good Thing," especially the piano melody and then, midway through, he shifts to work off the strings of "Darling Dear." Put together, it's just a beaut of a song and it fueled my desire to hear the originals.
On the same album, DJ Spinna drops another incredible remix, this one for "We're Almost There," from Jackson's slept-on Forever, Michael LP (his last for Motown). Wil ended our MJ tribute with this song and it was perfect. Dare I say but I think Spinna actually improves on the original here by stripping things down and building around the intense mix of hope and melancholy sublimated into Michael's vocals.
Not all demo versions are necessarily worth a listen but in this case, the demo reveals so much about the musical process that resulted in one of the best songs off of Off the Wall. I really like how it sounds here, all stripped down and unglossy.
For my NPR.com piece, I included the fantastic Derrick Laro and Trinity version of this song.
SWV: Right Here (Human Nature Duet, Demolition Mix) From Remixes EP (RCA, 1994)
Ok - we've arrived at Thriller (and I skipped over quite a few M-J-5 albums prior to this, I'll try to revisit those in a later post). Remember when SWV was kind of running sh-- back around '93/'94? Their remix EP finally cobbled together some of their stronger material, including that Wu-Tang remix of "Anything" that caught serious play for a hot minute. But you really couldn't front on the smoothness that was the "Human Nature Duet" mix which blended together "Right Here" and "Human Nature." To this day, I've wondered if they actually cleared the MJ and if so, what it cost them to do so.
In no way does this trump the awesomeness of the album version but it's interesting just to hear this super-quiet storm approach to the song in its infancy stages.
Floetry: Butterflies (demo) From Floetic (Geffen, 2002)
I didn't realize until now that "Butterflies," my favorite MJ song post-Thriller (and featured on his 2001 Invincible album) was actually, originally, a Floetry song, recorded by them in 1997 which MJ then basically re-recorded his vocals over. The tracks are almost identical except that the original Floetry version has that doubling of the snare every two bars or so which sounds somewhere between "cool" and "clunky." Otherwise, if you put this and MJ's up, side to side, you can hear how close they are. And I have to say...I think Jackson has the better vocal performance here (but hey, it's Michael).
For a change, I did a basic mix of everything above. You can stream below or DL.
As I started to compose my thoughts for this piece, my jotted notes alone were close to a page-and-a-half, and I’m sure that even in those, I’m forgetting a couple of points I want to touch upon. Some people you just expect to live forever as they are almost larger than life. It’s perhaps, to me, my “where were you when you heard about Elvis’ death?” moment. With Farrah Fawcett - whose same-day death was only a matter of when given her ongoing struggle with cancer - or with legends such as James Brown or Isaac Hayes, whose careers were equally as defining and defying, but whose time out of their heyday was long gone, the announcements were not totally unexpected. Michael’s death, seemingly, came out of nowhere. There was Michael the person, and then there was Michael as a mythos, as bigger than life, as a FORCE, only one of which has expired.
A showstopper in any definition of the word, he transcended generations and racial barriers. From oldies fans who were there from the start of his career in Gary to today’s young teens, whose attention span and too-cool-for-even-last-week’s-number-one-hit musical tastes rarely wander from the MTV playlists, he rocked them all. Even as I talked to a co-worker today, she told me about her 6-year-old son who goes to bed each night playing the Jackson 5’s greatest hits CD. That’s what you call IMPACT.
He was from an ilk who could sing and perform a song with his own style and master it to a T. Perhaps most remembered for his performances, videos, and dance moves, he was a truly underappreciated singer. He sang songs with conviction (“Scream”), attitude (“Dirty Diana”), desire (“Heal The World”), a sense of longing (“Someone In The Dark”), and heartbreak (“She’s Out Of My Life”). His aforementioned style, shown in his vocal trademark hee-hees and grunts, was truly his own.
“Someone In The Dark,” an oft-forgotten song from the E.T. audiobook/soundtrack, is from his most fruitful period (the Thriller days) and may perhaps be his best vocal performance on wax as it is sung with such passion and longing of someone needing a best friend. Even today as I listened to it on my drive to work, it brought on goosebumps, the surefire sign of a remarkable performance. It was the ‘80s version to his ‘70s “Ben” in that it was based on a film whose characters, in an alien and a rat, respectively, were misunderstood creatures, not unlike Michael himself.
Even in the poignant, if a bit saccharine, “Gone Too Soon” (from Dangerous), you couldn’t help but marvel at his ability to take you to another place. The song was dedicated to fellow Hoosier Ryan White, whose battle with AIDS and being socially shunned from his small Midwestern community brought a hailstorm of national coverage, and was a subject with which Michael was all too familiar - a boy who never got to fully enjoy growing up. It’s no surprise that at song’s end you can literally hear his voice crack.
Then there are the dance hits too plentiful to name. My DJ friend Apollo calls the breakdown in “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” one of the baddest breakdowns in pop music history. My personal favorite dance hit “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” has an undeniable energy and its African-influenced Makossa chant is the enchanter to even a non-dancer.
There was the famous moonwalk that Michael debuted at the Motown 25 Live televised celebration. Even watching it to this day KNOWING what’s about to happen, I am just as spellbound. “What? No he didn’t just do that! But how?” * Rewind * Jaws dropped worldwide and everyone was trying to learn that step the next day. I, too, tried for hours on end to learn to moonwalk, not as a child, but as a mid-20s young adult.
When was the last time you were at a party/club/wedding where you DIDN’T see someone emulate a Michael move? Several years ago at a wedding reception, family friend Chad Decker and another attendee did the entire dance sequence of the “Beat It” video, streetfight scene and all. I’m sure they hadn’t done it in years but it was so ingrained in their memories that they nailed it. The entire party seemed to stop for those 4 minutes. Afterward, people high-fived and were basking in the influence of Michael’s glow.
When talking about him, you can’t forget how he changed what a music video could be, from short form to long form. You could make an entire movie like Moonwalker. It was only earlier this week that I was talking about Captain EO. Until seeing Up 3-D, Captain EO was the last 3-D film I had seen.
I’m not even sure that the word “awesome” can encompass his talents. He was that big. But in attaining such great heights, you only have further to fall. Alluding to a follow-up comment to O.W.’s article yesterday by av2ts, it’s a country (and world) where people love to watch your meteoric rise but revel in watching the trainwreck and fall back to Earth and beyond. Too many people are eager and willing to uncover your dirt only to bury you in it, even if that means burying you alive.
His level of fame was a two-sided coin where people didn’t fully want to let go of the great memories but couldn’t quite resist to bring him down a notch or three, especially of a figure who doesn’t quite fit into their idea of normalcy. If someone has such glaring eccentricities, then surely the rumor mills can’t all be untrue. At least, that’s how we’d like to rationalize it to ourselves.
That being said, this may only be the case during his lifetime. In death, I believe the future will be kind to his legacy. For while his image was tarnished for the last 10-15 years of his life, people also love a resurrection and redemption of great icons. For all the joy he gave the world by making you feel ALIVE, these feelings can be too emotionally overbearing to dismiss. The eccentric behavior, the neverending surgeries, and the circus that was his life may end up being an asterisk on a career, and more importantly a life, that is too expansive to be summed up in a few words or thoughts.
His lonely death is symbolic in that there was perhaps no musical artist still alive who was more revered but who lived in such an ensconced world. His world was like a travelling zoo except there was no cage to protect him from the onlookers and gawkers who wanted a piece of him. While he was ultimately responsible for himself and his actions, I, for one, could never accost him as he had so much burden to bear that it made me feel a bit sorry for him. For no one gained – or lost – quite as much as he did in his lifetime.
STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF SIBLINGS
posted by O.W.
Don't mean to compete with all the MJ5 content out there today (esp. since I'll be contributing to it) but my NPR Song List on soul siblings just ran yesterday.
Update: On second thought, I think I was premature in suggesting that MJ's music couldn't outpace MJ's scandals. I've spent the afternoon and evening - like most people - revisiting his music and legacy and all the personal craziness more or less seems like someone else entirely. In other words, there was MJ on record and there was MJ the man but my emotional response to his music hasn't let the two blend together.
That is the transcendent power of music, something that MJ, with few peers to match, excelled at throughout the best years decades of his career. Later this week, I'll try to do up something more proper in terms of a selection of some of my personal favorites from his catalog.
By the way, I have to say, it is strange and sad to be in a world where Isaac Hayes, James Brown and Michael Jackson are no longer with us (amongst so many other legends).
RIP to them all. If the news is indeed true that Michael Jackson has died today, a mere 50 years old, it's hard to greet the news with anything but a mixture of sadness and ambivalence.
After all, how many other artists have seemingly done more damage to their own legacy than MJ? He went from one of the greatest talents that pop music has ever known to a surreal freak show to an accused pedophile. This is someone who's contributions to music should have transcended most of his personal foibles (pedophilia excepted) but instead, his tabloid exploits managed to become an inseparable part of his image and thus, memory.
Marvin Gaye was apparently a real disturbed man and Miles Davis admitted to slapping his wives but those details are often treated as distinct from their musical lives. In MJ's cause, his "career" has become a conflation of everything; music takes up only part of it.
That's hardly unique to MJ - Elvis comes to mind immediately too - but Elvis' musical majesty, in my opinion, never ran as long or as consistent as MJ in his prime, a period of time that at least begins as early as the first Jackson 5 singles (and that's pre-Motown, mind you), lasting to undeniable triumphs of Off the Wall and Thriller, and including a few key, post-Thriller songs.
I don't enjoy those songs any less but there's always a stain below the surface, a reminder that simultaneously invokes a memory of "damn, he was good" immediately followed with, "damn, what a shame." I don't think there's much he could have done, had he lived longer, to escape that taint (let alone redeem it). I suppose it's out of sheer affection for his music that I wish it could have been different even though some might argue he didn't deserve such a salvation of his reputation. History will tell. For now, I'm content to simply listen.
In lieu of a more organized/formal post, here's a rush job on tunes to listen to.
("Big Boy," an early, early J5 single on Steeltown)
("2 4 6 8." The numeric sequel to "ABC" recorded for the Jackson 5's second Motown LP.)
("Never Can Say Goodbye." Stone. Cold. Classic.)
("I Wanna Be Where You." Off of Jackson's solo debut, produced by Hal Davis and Willie Hutch.)
("I Can't Help It." Quiet storm at its best.)
("Butterflies." From his 2001 Invincible and one of the last great songs I heard from Jackson. Shout out to Floetry for the OG).
JOHN LEGEND SUMMER TOUR TICKET GIVEAWAY WINNERS
posted by Eric Luecking
Here are the winners for the cities/dates for which the contest was run. Thank you to all who participated and to Creative Artists Agency for sponsoring the contest!
June 30 – St. Louis, MO (Fox Theatre) - Cheryl Jackson – WINNER! July 5 – Atlanta, GA (Chastain Park Amphitheatre) – Martina Efeyini – WINNER! July 21 – Chicago, IL (Ravinia Festival) – Julian Rosenberg – WINNER!
Questions:
1. What song from Evolver did John sing at the 2008 Democratic National Convention? 2. True or False: John Legend graduated from an Ivy League school. 3. What is John Legend's real name?
Answers:
1. If You're Out There 2. True. John graduated from Upenn 3. John Stephens
NUMERO IS COOKING UP THE GOODS AGAIN
posted by Eric Luecking
A few weeks ago I posted about Numero 25 being a book and 2LP set. Well, plans have changed as there has been a reshuffling of catalog numbers, and the results are even better than you can imagine.
The book and 2LP release has now been given a new catalog number as Numero 33. You can view a promo of it here with Ricky Allen's “No Better Time Than Now” as a musical backdrop. The coffee table book features a photo collection as shot by Michael Abramson of Chicago nightlife in the mid-70s. The exciting thing is that with a pre-order you can get a download of the music now (yes, NOW!) and your book will ship in September (the street date is in November). Also, the first 250 pre-orders from Numero's site get a signed and hand-numbered print from the photographer as well as a bonus 45 (only 1000 pressed).
So where does that leave Numero 25? Oh, all they did was rescue 6 tracks that were crumbling from the reels of the sophomore 24 Carat Black album that has never seen the light of day. Stay tuned as we'll be doing coverage closer to its release date (July 28).
UPDATE: The Dillanthology 2 and Lushlife albums have been pushed back to July 7.
Who honestly doesn't like some Dilla in their life? Rapster's second volume in collecting his work in the cleverly-named Dillanthology series focuses on the remixes of the dearly-departed James Yancey. Did you miss that CD single/12” that had the “Woo Ha” remix? Did you, like me, not know that a Dilla remix of Lucy Pearl's “Without You” ever existed? If so, then this compilation is for you.
You get a sense of the musicality that Dilla possessed as he reimagined tracks from jazz, hip hop, electronic and soul from artists from nearly all coasts and overseas on this release. Even more impressive you get different sounds such as a little boom-bap on De La to more mellow jazz-chord filled beats Mood's “Secrets Of The Sand.” This release hits stores Tuesday, July 7th.
Also that Tuesday, you can pick up Lushlife's “Cassette City.” Lyrically, it's standard hip hop fare but the production is what really shines on this album. “In Soft Focus” has some nice DJ cut work while the horn-heavy “Another Word For Paradise” has a summer feel to it (while also bringing back long-lost Camp Lo). My personal favorite on the album is the laidback “The Kindness” with its nice chopped vocal sample with its screwed-vocals hook. Overall, it has a late-90s indie hip hop feel to it as you can hear on his Myspace page.
The last of the bunch sounds like it might be bad on paper but excels in execution. Wham has become the butt of many jokes, but you know somewhere deep inside you dig a few of their songs. The ReBel Yell, who is being produced by none other than James Poyser, comes through with this synthy dancefloor stepper remake of the snarky “Everything She Wants.” This is only a teaser of The ReBel Yell's upcoming album “Love & War,” and as of now, this song isn't set to be on the album, which releases this August.
BRAZILIAN SOUL CONTEST WINNERS
posted by Eric Luecking
The winners of the Black Rio 2 CD are:
Ruben Mendoza of California Ian Taylor from the Windy City Jason Villani from Connecticut Bill Belanger from Massachusetts Brad Shapiro from The Big Apple
Again, thank you to Strut for the giveaways, and to you, our readers, for your continued support of Soul-Sides! Answers are below.
Questions:
1. The Batmacumba is a club where DJ Cliffy spins Brazilian music in what city? 2. Name the world-famous landmark seen here. 3. What is Brazil's official language?
Answers:
1. London, UK 2. O Cristo Redentor (aka Christ The Redeemer) 3. Portuguese
I had never heard of Reuben Bell until ten years ago, when DJs Shadow and Cut Chemist made "Superjock" one of the more memorable tunes off their Brainfreeze mix as a song about, well, DJing. Which disc jockey doesn't aspire to be describe as such: "he's number one/he's the turntable king/he's number one/when he's doing his thing/he really gets down with it"?
By the time "Superjock" had come out though, Bell was already in mid-career, having kicked things off as more of a deep soul crooner beginning in the mid/late 1960s. I only recently got a copy of his very first single, "It's Not That Easy" feat. Bell and the Casanovas (thanks Mao!) and this is so quintessentially "deep soul" (emphasis on "deep").
This is like heartbreak distilled into a record and what's especially powerful is how Bell was barely into his 20s when he recorded this; you can hear the youthfulness of his woes here...it's not a older man's more seasoned pain but carries a young man's earnestness - all the more devastating. Props to the Casanovas here - they do a phenomenal job of setting the tone with those bottomless basslines and the haunting, unsettling guitar.
I've been working on a 4 hour Southern soul set for a private party and it's been an enjoyable challenge sifting through what seems like an endless stream of tunes from across the great Southern soul cities - especially Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Jackson, Miami, etc. New Orleans figures prominently but what I'm continually struck by is how distinct that NOLA sound is. Obviously, the South is hardly monolithic but while some influences are shared between, say, Fame and Stax Studios, much of what you heard coming out of New Orleans was so distinct, there's no confusing it for anywhere but there. Here's two NOLA-flavored cuts that exemplify what I'm talking about.
Covay isn't from Louisiana (South Carolina, as it were) but thanks to a journeyman career that saw him bouncing around on Atlantic, Columbia, Janus, Mercury, even Philly Int'l, Covay recorded throughout the south, especially his time with Atlantic that tended to jump from Southern studio to another thanks to Jerry Wexler's fickle tastes (and calculated business decisions). This album, recorded during Covay's brief stint on Janus, was recorded at the famed Malaco Studios in Jackson, MS and there's no question that for "Standing On the Grits Line," (a Covay composition), he's borrowing heavily from New Orleans' second line traditions - if the voice was just a bit gruffer, you could easily confused this for a Dr. John cut. This cut's long been a personal favorite of mine - I'm genuinely surprised I never posted this (last time I gave Covay some shine was for "If There's a Will, There's a Way", a cut from the same album)>.
"Big Chief" is a stone cold New Orleans classic and considered by many a clear sign of the city's proto-funk innovations. Obviously, the Professor's jangling piano stands out prominently here but try to pay some attention to what Smokey Johnson is doing here on the drums. His polyrhythm is incredible - there's all kinds of seemingly off-beats here (except of course, sounding "off" is how you sound "on"). No wonder then that Smokey would become of the most important session drummers in New Orleans in the 1960s, alongside James Black.
June 23rd sees the release of the second volume in the Black Rio series. The first in the series is now out of print. Compiled by DJ Cliffy, an expert in the field of Brazilian music, the set explores an explosive period in Brazilian soul and funk.
The album features a wide range of style with two of my favorites I've posted above. The first by Guiamaraes E O Grupo Som Sagrado starts off with a wicked rhythm guitar and some nice percussion.
The second by Os Diagonais has a very funky and heavily American-influenced feel (called Soul Brasileiro) that grabs the funky bass lines of the James Brown sound, and, in the middle section, a gruff voiced singer jumps in and reminds you of Kool & The Gang's “Jungle Boogie.” This song knocks about as hard as any of its American brethren.
I may not know what they're singing about in all the songs (my Portuguese never was what it should have been), but I can dig the groove. It's not all foreign tongues. There was a group of singers known simply as The Brazilian Singers such as Otavio Augusto Fernandes Cardoso (aka Peter Dunaway), Jose Eduardo Franca Pontes (aka Joe Bridges), and Mauricio Alberto (aka Morris Albert) that were well known in Brazil for singing in English, even if it meant being castigated by local critics. But as it was, times were changing and this was one of the best ways for them to get heard on radio.
With summer upon us, it's definitely a good pick up when you're out record shopping later this month. Courtesy of Strut, Soul-Sides is giving away FIVE copies that you can win before you can even buy it! Answer the three questions below for your chance to win. Many thanks to Strut for the giveaways, and to you, our readers, for your continued support of Soul-Sides!
Even if you don't think you know all the answers, give it a shot. You can't win if you don't enter!
Contest Rules:
1. Contest ends at midnight on Friday, June 19, 2009. Entries that arrive after that time are ineligible. 2. Only US addresses are eligible. Sorry international readers! 3. Should there be more than five contestants with all correct answers, five names will be chosen in a drawing of those who answered correctly. Should fewer than five people answer correctly, then winners with all correct answers will automatically win with the remaining winners to be chosen by a random drawing. 4. Your first response is your official and final response. 5. You are only eligible to win one of the five CDs.
Questions:
1. The Batmacumba is a club where DJ Cliffy spins Brazilian music in what city? 2. Name the world-famous landmark seen here. 3. What is Brazil's official language?
E-mail your responses to soulsideseric AT gmail.com and put Black Rio in the subject line.
JOHN LEGEND SUMMER TOUR TICKET GIVEAWAY
posted by Eric Luecking
This summer John Legend is embarking on a tour of the US to promote his latest album, Evolver, and we have a pair of tickets for several shows for you to win! If you can't stand the thought of missing his show in your town, you can purchase tickets through his official site. But if the budget's tight and you live in one of the cities below, you and a guest can go for free! All you have to do is answer the trivia questions below to enter.
Here are the cities/dates we are giving away a pair of tickets to each show for:
June 30 – St. Louis, MO (Fox Theatre) July 5 – Atlanta, GA (Chastain Park Amphitheatre) July 21 – Chicago, IL (Ravinia Festival)
Contest Rules:
1. Contest ends at midnight on Friday, June 19, 2009. Entries that arrive after that time are ineligible. 2. Eligible contestants MUST be able to attend the show for which they win. Tickets will be left at will call of the venue and can only be picked up with the winner's ID (driver's license, etc.). 3. Should there be more than one contestant (per show/city) with all correct answers, one name will be chosen in a drawing of those who answered correctly. Should no one answer correctly, a name will be chosen at random from all the entries (per show/city). 4. The first response is the official and final response. One entry per contestant. 5. You are only eligible to win one set of tickets for the entire contest.
Questions:
1. What song from Evolver did John sing at the 2008 Democratic National Convention? 2. True or False: John Legend graduated from an Ivy League school. 3. What is John Legend's real name?
E-mail your responses to soulsideseric AT gmail.com and put John Legend – (City Name you're entering for) in the subject line.
As always, even if you don't think you know all the answers, give it a shot. You can't win if you don't enter!
The Budos Band, your favorite Staten Island soul stalwarts return to satiate you with a selection of scintillating songs. Available on June 23 on digital, vinyl, and CD (CD from Daptone's site ONLY), this EP covers ground between their debut and sophomore albums. Two tracks you may have heard previously - “Mas O Menos,” which was on The Budos Band II, and “The Proposition,” which was on a Budos Band 45 from 2006.
The material here continues forth from their first album and gives you a sense of how they ended up with their second album – namely chunky bass riffs and solid horns. Some members of the band also perform with the Dap Kings, El Michels Affair, and the Menahan Street Band such as Tommy 'TNT' Brenneck and David Guy to name a few.
Featured on the EP are six killer tracks and a short half-minute bonus track thrown in for good measure to give you a lucky seven. Tempo-wise, the album remains fairly constant. “Hidden Hand,” the opener, bubbles up with thick bass. “Smoke Gets In” sounds as if it's sneaking around an unfamiliar tomb. “Ephra,” named after the goddess who bestowed powers upon the knights of old Budonia, perhaps seized control of the band and gave them the power to create a playful rhythmic backbone that is overlaid by majestic horns. You almost feel like a harem should appear from around the corner and perform a ritualistic dance.
For completists, this is a no-brainer purchase. For those who haven't yet gotten into the Budos Band I must ask, “What are you waiting for?” The Budos Band's sound reminds you of something you'd hear in an African or Middle Eastern bazaar where it would stand face-to-face with a snake charmer. If you don't watch out, you, too, could get bitten with their potent venom.
As I mentioned a few weeks back, I had the immense pleasure to meet Asha Puthli and hopefully will be working with her on a future project. That encounter encouraged me to revisit her substantial catalog and that's been such a fun, revelatory experience.
It starts with a song by her I had never heard before but Asha was kind enough to burn a copy for me - her singing with the Peter Ivers Group back in the early 1970s, covering Marvin Gaye's big Motown classic, "Ain't That Peculiar." This wasn't her first recording but it was (I believe) her first US release, recorded for a full album that was meant to be Ivers' follow-up to his well-regarded 1969 LP, Knight of the Blue Communion (I'll have to post up about that LP at some point too). For reasons I'm not clear about, the album feat. Asha, entitled Take It Out On Me was never released by Epic but the single did make its way out. It's definitely not something that will remind people instantly of Gaye's iconic version - Ivers adds a strong funk element to the rhythm section and it's actually quite a sparse song in many ways (despite the surprise harmonica) and Asha's voice - light but distinct - works nicely here, especially as she plays with the arrangement most of know through Marvin. I like this one a lot - it reminds me of Smith's "Baby, It's You" in terms of how a rock band interprets an R&B tune.
Asha's second full-length solo album was She Loves to Hear the Music, released in 1974, with production principally from disco master Teo Macero and Paul Phillips (I'm assuming he of later Hi Tension fame?). I'm not 100% clear who produces "You've Been Loud Too Long," but I've loved this song for years - it's a spunky bit of Southern fried funk that seems to mesh Wardell Quezergue with Van McCoy (who works on this album so for all I know, he produced it!). I played this out at Boogaloo[la] the other week and one of the guys working security asked if it was Minnie Riperton; I hadn't thought of that before but there's definitely an affinity shared between singers like Puthli, Riperton and Linda Lewis.
The one album that was new to me was The Devil Is Loose and I'm not even certain why it took me so long to listen to it but it is good. Very very good. Rush-out-and-get-this-now good. For starters, I think it showcases the possibilities of what disco could bring to pop music that defies all the haters and naysayers - the gloss and glean in the production (all by Dieter Zimmerman) isn't window dressing but an integral part to sonic texture of the album. It's subtly lush, with Zimmerman and Puthli smartly keeping things a bit cool and controlled rather than give into sweeping excess. Moreover, the diversity of styles here are impressive, ranging from the quiet ballad "Let Me In Your Life" (the last song on the sampler) to the slinky funk of "Flying Fish" to the sheer pop charm of "Hello Everyone." The album's best known song (also released on 12") however is "Space Talk," another funky excursion, and arguably, a big influence of the evolution of European disco. If it sounds familiar to some, it may be because the song's been popular sample fodder, including for Biggie.
DONNIE – SOUL BROTHER FROM ANOTHER
posted by Eric Luecking
Donnie: Big Black Buck + Rocketship From The Colored Section (Giant Step/Motown, 2002)
Donnie: Interview From 1st Impression (MP3.com, 1999)
Can an album that was released during this decade already be considered a lost treasure? That's the question to consider with Donnie's debut album, The Colored Section, from 2002.
My first introduction to the man's work came from perusing Dusty Groove's website and seeing the cover art for his 2001 pre-album EP. Some people think I'm crazy for being able to look at an album cover and being able to tell if I'll like its contents. This time my “gift” didn't fail me. There was something about the watermarked image of Donnie with his unkempt afro that told me to cough up the $7. A few days later the UPS man dropped off a package that included this EP and several other goodies.
After an initial listen, my appetite had been whet. I went on a quest to find more Donnie music wherever I could. At that time, MP3.com was a new venture and Donnie had an EP you could buy (both digitally and on CD) called “1st Impression,” which is no longer available, that predated the previously mentioned EP by a couple years. Included on the mp3.com EP was an interview (linked above) as well as alternate/demo versions of “Heaven Sent” and “You've Got A Friend,” both of which ended up on The Colored Section. When his debut full-length was released by Giant Step in the fall of 2002, I was on cloud nine. What a gift... to me and to the soul lovers this world over.
To say the album is topical is an understatement. He covers consumerism (“Big Black Buck”), national pride (“Our New National Anthem”), black pride (“Cloud 9”), and loving both others (“Rocketship”) and oneself (“Beautiful Me”) and that's not even half of the album. Take this lyric section from “Big Black Buck,” for example.
"Mama's little baby is nothing but a consumer Never making a profit Rendering empty pockets Mama's little baby is trendy on the rumor Buying, never investing While they're busy in market testing On your town look around it's the first of the month US economy will get its usual jump We're creatures of habit, modern slaves Guaranteed to spend it all in just one place Mama's little baby is a dancer and a crooner Making dough for the man Whipping that big black buck again"
Heavy stuff? I'd say so. The song continues by making other references to modern day society and slaves on the auction block, driving its point home further with a clarinet-heavy Dixieland backdrop.
Where most soul artists introduce themselves to the world with a basic love-themed album (not that there's anything wrong with that), Donnie came out with an album that was as socially conscious as any album in the last 30 years. That's quite telling of an artist's confidence in himself and in his message.
Take Donnie's ode to his afro, a refreshing turn in black pride that doesn't resort to stale or literal metaphors, as another example of artistry with a message.
"Happy to be nappy, I'm black and I'm proud That I have been chosen to wear the conscious cloud And I'm fine under cloud 9"
Consciousness, while heavily prevalent, isn't the only message on the album. “Rocketship” is a lover's plea. Included here is an alternate take of the song than what appears on the album. I've always wondered why this version didn't appear on the album as it packs a bigger punch. You've got an inspired vocal, but it has a funky track to back it (check the soul breakdown 3 minutes in).
The album is very Stevie Wonder-esque in approach. Sure, you have lyrics where you don't pick up every nuance on the first bite, but there's also a varied assortment of musical styles by Steve “The Scotsman” Harvey. There's the aforementioned Dixieland on “Big Black Buck,” the gospel fervor of “Wildlife,” the jaunty, Bobbi Humphrey-inspired flute-tinged “Do You Know,” and the reflective, almost lament-filled closer “Welcome To The Colored Section.” Donnie and Harvey bring an album to the table that is neither a singular appetizer, main course, or dessert – it's the full-course meal.
While I won't go so far as to say that the album is a classic – although it's close - (as I reserve such a title for albums that reshape how we think about music and even society – think Marvin's What's Goin' On) as its influence hasn't been as widespread as it deserves to be, I will say that it is an essential document in the soul canon that has every right to stand proud with some of the best the genre has to offer. The album may not make you want to get up and dance (although that's not to say it doesn't have tempo), but it's more likely to make you want to join a local volunteer group or help with voter registration. The Colored Section may not be well-known to mainstream society, but it is perhaps the most important soul album of the last 10-15 years, surpassing albums by modern day legends such as D'Angelo, Jill Scott, John Legend, and Alicia Keys.
EVERY NIGHT I HAVE THE STRANGEST DREAMS
posted by O.W.
No disrespect to Dave Mason and Traffic but to me, "Feelin' Alright" has become one of those rock-era standards where the covers > the original (see also: "Spinning Wheel"). I suppose that's a testament to Mason's songwriting that it drew so many fans amongst fellow artists and I've enjoyed how broad its base of popularity has been.
I'm only skimming the surface of the total number of possible versions of this song but pulled out a quartet of personal favorites.
6680 Lexington: Feelin' All Right From S/T (MGM, 1971)
I always assumed, from the sound of the band, that 6680 Lexington were originally from Louisiana or Arkansas but as it turns out, they were Southern...Southern Californian that is (though I've also seen the band referred to as a Bay Area group). Wherever they're from, they bring a distinctly blues-rock approach to their cover. I dig the opening piano especially (courtesy Dave Garland) and I believe Canned Heat's Chris Morgan is on guitar here.
Rustix: Feelin' Alright From Bedlam (Rare Earth, 1969)
One of the things that's always struck me about covers of the song is that groups bring in a real funk-flavaored element that I don't really hear in the original. That's very obvious with the aggressive brass and drum beginning to Rustix's version. The group apparently was one of the first white bands signed to Motown's Rare Earth subsidiary. (Ok, what's a bit weird to me is that the label was named after the group Rare Earth yet the Rustix were signed to the label first...not sure how that chronology quite works out but ok...) As you can hear, the group is going for a big sound - blaring banks of horns and it sounds like they're recording in a cavern (in a good way). I like the LP cover for this too - it's die-cut on the top.
West Coast Revival: Feelin' Alright From S/T (LA International, 1977)
Thus far, this is my favorite version (as evidenced by the fact that I put it out on Soul Sides Vol. 2 - it's so funky and slinky. Not surprisingly, the album was produced by Jerry Goldstein of WAR fame but I don't actually know much about the group itself - they only ever put out this LP and maybe one or two 45s.
Kenny Smith Trio: Feelin' Alright From For Bassists Only! (Music Minus One Bass) (Music Minus One, 1970)
We end with a lively, instrumental version of the song by the Kenny Smith Trio, featured on a "Music Minus One Bass" instructional album. The A-side (what you hear here) has the bass part included; the flipside is the same identical song with - you guessed it - the bass "minused" so you, the aspiring plucker, can practice over it.
Joyo Velarde: Take You Home From Joyo Velarde EP (Quannum, 2009)
Joyo Velarde. You may have heard the name but not quite sure where. Chances are it was from the Latyrx cut "Balcony Beach," a Cali classic. Joyo has also has performed and written tracks with with her husband, Lyrics Born (who pops up in the video), on his numerous album releases. Now she steps out on her own with her self-titled EP, available this Tuesday, May 26, from all digital distributors.
The vocal arrangements hearken to some '80s steppers. The hook on “Take You Home” reminds me a lot of Exposé's “Come Go With Me” vocally. The EP's opener, “Build This World,” has a slinky, brooding bass line. Closing out the EP is the reggae-tinged Bobby Digital-produced “I Need You Boy.” Kinda makes me feel like I'm back at a festival at the Holiday Inn in Montego Bay on my honeymoon.
Her voice is crisp and full (what else would you expect from someone who trained in opera in Rome) and reaches low, although not quite to Anita Baker or Toni Braxton levels. The EP is a nice opener into Joyo's world, and I can only imagine that this will sell well in sunny areas as it has a nice laidback summer sound. It's perfect beach music or to listen to in a droptop convertible while driving down Highway 1. Later this year, her full length “Love And Understanding” will be released by Quannum. Until then, this should tide you over quite nicely.
It took me much longer to track down a copy of this LP that I thought it would but I'm so glad to finally be able to pair it with its sibling, This Is My Country. Both albums share much in common musically and conceptually and track for track, they arguably constitute two of the most consistent albums in the Mayfield-era of the Impressions.
Despite its more esoteric title, there's a rich earthiness to Young Mod's appeal. The album has a smart balance of ballads ("Soulful Love"), mid-tempo power tracks ("Young Mod's Forgotten Story") and a couple of proto-funk slammers ("Mighty Mighty"). The two songs that stay on my mind (pun intended) include "The Girl I Find," the album's best known slow jam, a beautiful ballad distinguished by Mayfield's signature voice playing off the stirring string accompaniment in the back. I love the swell of horns that enter in around 1:20 and transform the tune's intimacy into something more epic. (What's up with the bird coos though?)
"Seven Years" would be a great groover just on the basis on its infectious swing but what seals the deal here for me are the background vocals "woo wooing" behind Curtis as the song opens; it adds this fantastic layer of harmony that showcases the marvelous intricacy of the Impressions' vocal interplay.
Ernie Story: Chain Gang/Disco City From Meditation Blue (Legend, 1977)
This strange, private press album out of Minnesota came via the Groove Merchant earlier in the year. It was one of those cases where I had credit to burn so I took a chance on an eclectic LP and once I really sat with it, I'm glad I did.
From the title and look of the album, you'd think Ernie Story was some kind of Christian/New Age folk singer but on the LP, it boasts that Story was a songwriter for mostly R&B groups such as The Impressions and Chi-Lites and this seems true - he wrote "Simple Message" for the Impressions' Preacher Man album though I can't seem to find which Chi-Lites song he did.
For his own album however, Story's styles are varied, to say the least, a contrast best captured on these two songs which close out Side A. "Chain Gang" reminds me of Rodriguez's soulful, folksy rock in one moment, but then it drops into a funkier, fuzzed out sound just a few beats later and then there's that unexpected transition into "Disco City" as Story puts together what you might call a "garage disco" joint.
It must be said - Story might have skills as a songwriter but he's not really a very good singer but given that this is a private press album, I suppose that fact is more endearing than annoying (that said, if you don't like his singing on "Disco City," you'll much prefer the B-side's "The E Groove" which is a fantastic little disco instrumental.
I'm curious what Story is doing these days - he doesn't seem to have had an extensive musical career after '77...
Daptone's latest release by Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens, out Tuesday, May 26, is a little bit Sam Cooke, a lot '60s soul, and all in servitude to the Lord. “What Have You Done, My Brother” is such a fine record. Lyrically, it's all gospel but numerous tracks sound straight out of the '60s soul bin. While that may sound foolish knowing it's a Daptone record, credit Cliff Driver and the various Dap-Kings members that play on this record for really giving it a nice soundbed. Also, credit the Gospel Queens - Edna Johnson, Bobbie Jean Gant, and Cynthia Langston - as they really enliven the call-and-response with Shelton.
Driver, the musical director of the group, is a pianist who has backed numerous soul legends such as the R and B of R&B... Ruth Brown, Solomon Burke, and even had a stint in Latin music working with the Johnny Ortega Band. If you recognize the lead vocalist, it's because she appeared on the Desco 45 “41st St. Breakdown” by Naomi Davis and the Knights of Forty First Street and on The Sugarman Three's “Promised Land.”
The album was culled mainly from sessions in the summer of 2007 with some even predating that. The title track is the most secular of the material and has a distinct Daptone sound, which may be the reason why it was chosen as the lead single. Elsewhere “I'll Take The Long Road” and “I Need You To Hold My Hand” really dig deep into the gospel roots and are the two showcases on the album. The former leads with the same guitar lick as Cooke's “That's Where It's At” and is a slow gospel burner. Shelton sings with passion about walking side-by-side on her journey to redemption.
While she's not the firecracker that Sharon Jones is, Naomi exudes a confidence that more than makes up for the lack of sass. After all, who says you have to have attitude to make a good album? With the opening chords on “What Is This,” which resemble the opening of Cooke classic “A Change Is Gonna Come” (which is also the album closer), you get a sense that you'll be on a long but righteous road of glory. If you have a set of headphones for your walk, be sure to bring this album with you.
Over the last couple of years, I've noticed that Stax Records has been finding new ways to package their back catalog. For example, there's the Soulsville Sings Hitsville comp as well as the Stax Does the Beatles album.
The most recent offering takes a page from Blue Note's older, successful Break Beats series by combing through the Stax catalog and pulling out 14 songs that have found second life as hip-hop sample sources. (The funny thing is, I always thought this was the original Stax sample compilation.)
To be candid, this particular comp feels like it's arriving about 10 years late, especially since sampling Stax really hit its zenith in the '90s, but you can't fault the selections.
1. 24-CARAT BLACK – “Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth” 2. THE EMOTIONS – “Blind Alley” 3. BOOKER T. & THE MGs – “Melting Pot” 4. THE BAR-KAYS – “Humpin’” 5. THE DRAMATICS – “Get Up and Get Down” 6. ISAAC HAYES – “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” 7. ISAAC HAYES – “Hung Up On My Baby” 8. DAVID PORTER – “I’m Afraid the Masquerade Is Over” 9. WENDY RENE – “After the Laughter (Comes Tears)” 10. CHARMELS – “As Long As I’ve Got You” 11. THE SWEET INSPIRATIONS – “Why Marry” 12. RUFUS THOMAS – “Do the Funky Penguin (Part 1)” 13. LITTLE MILTON – “Packed Up and Took My Mind” 14. WILLIAM BELL - “I Forgot To Be Your Lover”
What I like here is how these choices reflect the vast diversity of Stax/Volt in terms of the styles and artists they embraced in their heyday. It's certainly filled with some personal favorites, including "Blind Alley" and "As Long As I've Got You" and, of course, "I Forgot to Be Your Lover. I picked out the Little Milton song because it's was one of the few tracks on here that I hadn't heard before, but it had such a classic Memphis feel to it (could have totally been a Syl Johnson song!). Seems only right that Ghostface would have used it - the Wu + Stax = winning combo every time.
As a bonus, I pulled out one song that could certainly qualify for a Vol. 2 - Ernie Hines' "Our Generation" which originally came out on We Produce, a Stax subsidiary that was also home to the Temprees.
Ernie Hines: Our Generation From Electrified (We Produce, 1973)
I was interviewing Mayer Hawthorne today for an upcoming piece that will run around whenever his album drops (sounds like August or Sept. at the latest) and he was remarking how surprised he was that "young kids" (meaning teenagers) have been into his songs and I suggested that it was the "slow jam factor." For all the stereotypes of teens liking angry, rebellious music, there's also the contingent that likes the bump n' grind groovers they can get their red light dance on to or the kind of sweet, lowrider ballads you hear them dedicating to one another on Art Laboe's Sunday Special.
(Note: slow jam fans - which is to say...everyone - will dig Mayer's upcoming LP. Some killer stuff on there, as good if not better than what's already in circulation).
Anyways, as anyone who's ever been to Boogaloo[la] knows (and thanks to everyone who turned out last night), we always try to end the evening on the slow jam tip and I decided to pull out three cuts that have been patiently waiting in queue to get some late night spin:
Steve Parks: Still Thinking of You From 7" (Reynolds, 197?)
Patti and the Lovelites: Love So Strong From 7" (Love Lite, 1973)
Young Billy Cole: Sitting In the Park From 7" (Audio Connection, 1976)
I've posted about Steve Parks before but that was from slightly later in his career than this 7" above. It's a classic amongst Bay Area record heads, part of the small but excellent catalog on Reynolds Records (which is still waiting for a proper anthologizing at some point) and is an unforgettable piece of heartbreakingly melancholy song craft.
"Love So Strong" sounds like something Alicia Keys has spent time studying, doesn't it? (Note: this is a compliment). This Chicago-based group is one of those who skated with limited success for a number of years, ending up on nearly half a dozen labels, including Uni and Cotillion though this single was on what I assume was their own imprint, Love Lite. I am so feeling the whole style of this track, just how laid back and damn soulful it is, especially with the background singing "whoo-hoooing".
Lastly, what's a slow jam without a nod to Billy Stewart's "Sitting In the Park," this cover done rocksteady-style by Young Billy Cole. I don't know full story here but Cole's real name is Winston Francis and he changed it to Billy Cole to record a 1975 song, "Extra Careful" and apparently, the name stuck enough for Cole to continue recording under that name. The version of "Sitting In the Park" here follows closely to the original and you can hear how natural a conversion it is to take Stewart's original and give it a reggae makeover.
Mothers don't get their due when it comes to passing along the gift of music. So many times I've read articles where an interviewer asks an artist or producer about their influences only to get a response like, “Pops played in a local funk band,” or “My dad gave me a bunch of his LPs that we used to listen to at the house when I was growing up.” This isn't THAT story. I'm no artist or producer, although I can play a little bit of piano and a carry a beat on drums. What I am is a guy who LOVES music of all kinds, and it all started with my mother.
I couldn't tell you a lot about my dad's musical tastes other than he liked Neil Diamond according to my mom. He died when I was only a few months old. My stepdad wasn't much into music either. But my mom? She loves her some music, especially something that makes her want to dance or just flat out makes her feel good.
As a kid, I didn't care for “her” music much. There were a few songs that were okay, but given the chance I would have much rather listened to 96 WSTO, the local pop station. My older brother and I went nuts when Janet Jackson's “Nasty” or Prince's “Kiss” came on. We liked our MJ, too. When I was in my teens and we'd visit the big city, I couldn't wait to turn on the hip hop station, and did my mom ever hate it! She was a good sport, though, as she put up with as much as she could before saying she couldn't take it anymore. It was just “cool” to hear the latest jams – and to like something my mom didn't, in part to have my own identity. My mom's old fuddy-duddy music? Not so cool, or at least I didn't think so at the time.
My mom never has been much of an albums kind of lady. The songs she likes aren't all that obscure. Most of the cassettes/CDs/LPs she has are greatest hits or compilations. It was only a couple months ago she wanted to upgrade to CD versions of the 70s Preservation Society's “Disco Fever” 2-CD comp she had on cassette, which she can no longer play in her car since it only has a CD player. The only problem was that the comp was out of print. So after a few minutes of scouring eBay, I scored a good price and she was happy as could be. I mean seriously elated. You should have seen the smile on her face. Priceless.
In our house, it was always a party when we heard some Brothers Johnson “Stomp” (a song that was not uncommon to rewind and do it all again) or do some rock-soul growling with Mitch Ryder's version of the Purify's “Shake A Tail Feather.” We used to promenade through the living room to “Double Dutch Bus” and do “The Hustle” right along with Van McCoy. We played air guitar to Ray Parker, Jr.'s, “The Other Woman.” We even got a little righteous with it to Gil Scott-Heron's “Johannesburg” - pretty hip stuff for a white family in Small Town, USA.
One of my favorite pictures of our family is a picture that was taken from the balcony above the living room of my mom, with her lovely early '80s coif, and brother each with an air-mic (it may even have been a salt and pepper shaker set) singing – no, make that SANGin' – while the stereo was bumping. And did it ever bump in that house. My friend used to tell me how she could hear the music at her house... 2 houses up the road!
Today, it's hard to turn my mom on to new-to-her old school music. When I hear something today that I think she'd like, it's a hard sell. “I just like the ones I used to play and know,” she tells me. It can be a hard concept to wrap my head around since, to me, the songs may have the same vibe. A good friend of mine, Apollo, who is a club and mobile DJ, told me several years ago it all has to do with nostalgia. For her, it may not have anything to do with the sound of the actual music; it may only be where that music takes her – back to the Victory, a local dance club she went to as a young adult that had a lighted dancefloor that I can only imagine was similar to Saturday Night Fever, or back to an unforgettable New Year's Dance, or a song that got her in the mood. The music was just the soundtrack to her life. With each listen, she can time travel back.
That musical tradition carried forth when my brother, who has run his own mobile DJ business for nearly 20 years, and I threw a surprise 60th birthday party for her a few years ago. With a few drinks and a few friends in attendance at the local Elks Lodge, we had a blast. Those friends didn't just include those couples with whom my mom always hung out. Also in attendance were friends such as Roy Orbison, Aretha Franklin, Bob Seger, and Vicki Sue Robinson, who made their way via CDs and speakers. Had we ever met those folks? Absolutely not, but we certainly spent a lot of time with them at our house, and they meant a lot to us, even if it was in a more indirect, but no less important, relationship than with our actual family friends.
As I got older, I started to appreciate how much work goes into music and started to piece together of how the “science” of music (how it is constructed), how it makes me feel, and how those interrelate. Nostalgia is a funny creature. Much of the music I love now I wasn't alive to hear when it was made, but it takes me back to a fun time growing up in a household where music, dancing, and expression were almost as important as eating dinner together. But this story isn't about me. It's about a mother – my mother – who wasn't trying to teach us anything about music; she was just trying to have a good time, and in the process she passed along something that I'll certainly always cherish. Just like my mom.
Andy Loore (aka Janko Nilovic): Opium Du Diable + Mixed Drums From Ambiance Rhythmes Vol. 5 (Neuilly, 1970)
Andy Loore is one of the nearly dozen pseudonyms used by French composer Janko Nilovic, arguably that country's finest purveyor of funky library-style recordings in the 1960s and '70s. These two songs come off of one of his more obscure recordings - a 1970 10" (yeah, weird, right?) for the library imprint Neuilly and the entire side B is basically a series of sick drum, bass and organ workouts. As befits a song that translates into "Opium of the Devil," "Opium Du Diable" has a slow, druggy feel to it in the beginning and then gradually switches up into more of a psychedelic, mod-soul tune once the organ winds its way in. (Drugs were apparently big on Nilovic's mind since this same EP also has a song called "Enfer Et Marijuana" on it).
For pure minimalist funk though, it's hard to find too many songs better than "Mixed Drums," a tune most have either heard through the Beatnuts' using it for "It's the Nuts" or else on one of the Dusty Fingers volumes that comped it. As one of my friends like to put it, "this tune is hip-hop before there was a hip-hop." I feel that.
Betty Padgett: Sugar Daddy (Pt. 1) + Rocking Chair From Betty Padgett (Luv N' Haight, 2009)
Sounds like my man DJ Sureshot was partially responsible for bringing this LP back into light, almost 25 years after its original release. Betty Padgett is part of the South Florida soul scene - a rich site indeed - and that's where she met Milton Wright back in the early '70s. That encounter eventually produced (literally and figuratively) this album in 1975 and it's easy to hear why there'd be interest in re-releasing this so many years later.
The album has intriguing mix of several styles - disco most obviously, but also reggae and modern soul - and Padgett's bright voice helps contrast with the earthiness of the rhythm section. "Sugar Daddy" was also released on 12" and it's a fun listen, not the least of which is due to the lyrics which finds Padgett singing to her benefactor about trips to Italy and diamond rings. Get that gold, girl!
As for "Rocking Chair," it's one of at least two cover songs dedicated to Padgett's contemporaries in the Miami soul scene - in this case, Gwen McCrae (the other is a cover of Betty Wright's "Tonight's the Night"). Personally, I love any cover of "Rocking Chair," especially one with a heavy ska influence on the bass. Jam on it!
Ohio Players: Ecstasy From Ecstasy (Westbound, 1973)
It's always a nice surprise to engage a song you've known for years but never really listened to until you happen upon it again and realize: holy sh--, this is awesome."
That happened when I was scrolling through the "Beat Deconstruction" of Reasonable Doubt written by Dan Love and posted to Jef Weiss' blog. I was flipping through the various songs and arrived at the Ohio Players' "Ecstasy," which I've owned for years but I realized, at best, I probably listened to the track at "the middle distance," (i.e. a song you hear in a room someplace, not quite in the background but not in the car or on headphones either).
I'm not sure why, this time, I stuck with the song but by about a minute in, I was convinced this was possibly one of the greatest things ever. I know I avoided going all formalist deconstruction on "Maybe So, Maybe No," but I feel compelled to go all hyper-dissection on "Ecstasy," mostly because I marvel over how this song manages to work so well with its subtle touches.
For one, the main rhythmic/melodic cycle is in five bars, not the conventional four (if I recall, that's why "Brooklyn's Finest" has Jay-Z and Biggie switching off every five bars, which is pretty unusual in a rap song). And I like the call-and-response in the rhythm section between the first three beats in each measure and that heavy emphasis on the "one". That's most obvious during the part of the song where the back-up singers cry out "oh!" but even before that, the squeal of the guitar on the first beat of each bar already sets up that relationship. And do you catch how a tambourine comes in for the first time, midway through the song? It's not that prominent but texturally, it adds another layer of sonic dynamics.
And hell, what can you say about Sugarfoot on the vocals? He's halfway incomprehensible (I suppose, overcome with ecstasy), not to mention inexplicably going from talking to the audience, "let me tell you about my baby," to talking to his lover, "loving you is ecstasy to me", and while it'd be a serious mistake to try to copy his vocals, you find yourself trying to hit those falsetto notes as he screams and hollers his way through the his half of the song. And heck, I haven't even gotten to talk about how great the back-up singers are here or the beauty of the piano melody.
In short, I just love how with every five bars, this song evolves and shifts, with a new set of surprises awaiting. The only part that doesn't work is the sax that comes in at the end - a bit too "cheesy sax" for my taste but then again, the song pretty much ends before it gets too grating so hey, even that one weak point is quickly swept away.
I had an Almost Famous moment earlier this week and alas, it did not involve anyone resembling a young Kate Hudson.
I was in a commuter plane from Chicago to Champaign, in the middle of a rain storm, and we hit a long patch of turbulence where it felt like we lost altitude with every bump. I'm not, by nature, a paranoid person and I generally am very zen about flying but for whatever reason, this had me a bit spooked, long enough to start contemplating my mortality.
Of course, being me, I also thought, "wait, so what will my last song be?" And at the time, I was listening to the Laura Nyro/Labelle album, Gonna Take a Miracle and given how calming the album was, I felt, "well, if I'm going to out go out listening to Laura and Labelle...that's ok by me."
In all seriousness, I can't believe I slept on this album for so long (esp. since I was actually posting about it a year ago but I didn't bother to actually check out the album at the time.
It's good. I mean really good. I mean awesomely great. And it strikes me too - it's a retro-soul album of sorts, an homage to the girl groups and crossover R&B/pop hits of the mid-1960s. Whatever the case, it is lovely.
Since I just posted the title track the other week, I went with just one more song, this time their cover of Martha Reeves' "Jimmy Mack" which is so ebullient and cheery, it even makes a really bad plane trip seem a bit more bearable. To be honest, it was incredibly hard to figure out what to post here - "The Bells" was also in leading contention as was "I Met Him On A Sunday." In the end, it doesn't really matter - anything off of here wins.
I've been meaning to post about the Eddie and Ernie 7" for a while - the A-side is one helluva soul jam from the early '70s - explosive right out the gate with those horns and one of the more memorable titles you'll come across (bullets, indeed, don't have eyes. Or any other facial features!) The pic cover 45 comes with a beautiful heartbreak ballad on the flip, "These Very Tender Moments," originally from 1967. Ernie Johnson and Eddie Campbell were originally a duo out of Phoenix but apparently were impressive journeymen around the U.S. R&B circuit during the '60s and '70s.
The group is so nice, Daptone put out "Bullets" twice, the second copy being a website exclusive with a new B-side, "You Make My Life a Sunny Day" which was a previously unreleased track, discovered by the folks at Kent in the studios of San Francisco's Loadstone (if this sounds familiar at all, it's because Jacqueline Jones put this song out, also on Loadstone). Great, great, great tune.
Meanwhile, the folks at the Menahan Street Band have a new 7" out, not available on anything except 7" (more reason for you to get that record player). The MSB and Budos Band join forces here (which makes sense since Tom "TNT" Brenneck is a member of the latter and creator of the former. As a result, that MSB sound gets a Ethio-makeover on both sides for a mellow, hypnotic ride. A nice little slice of instrumental soul to tide things over until that Charles Bradley LP is ready.
(And that reminds me, the long-awaited Lee Fields album is coming soon, stay tuned).
El Michels Affair: Shimmy Shimmy Ya From Enter The 37th Chamber (Fatbeats Records, 2009)
“Music inspired by the Wu Tang,” listed in the corner of the new release by the El Michels Affair, sums up nicely what you get from this fine release. With a vibe similar to the Menahan Street Band, due in part because of Michels involvement with them, you know what to expect. While it would be easy to dismiss the tracks as not having enough thump in comparison to the Wu songs, it would also be a disservice to the exemplary interpretations that Michels and crew have brought to these “covers.”
Most of the tracks performed on the album are from the seminal Wu release, to which the title pays homage, and Raekwon's “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.” The remaining songs are from other peppered Wu-related releases, although none are from albums newer than 2001 – signifying the golden era of the Wu Tang Clan. From the lament in “Heaven and Hell” to the darkness of “Duel of the Iron Mics,” El Michels Affair showcases a real talent for delving into the soul the resides within the melodies. They even sprinkle in some Shaolin sampled bits of wisdom lending even more credence to flow of the album given its purpose.
OW's excellent NPR article on the Charmels song that serves as the inspiration for “C.R.E.A.M.” showcases the song's back-to-its-roots history. To me, it's the album's highlight. That piano lick still sends shivers up my spine. Unlike the Wu song, where the piano takes center stage, here it plays a more complementary role with the rest of the melody. There's a thudding bass that keeps resounding throughout and the horns help spice up the song adding just the right flair.
Elsewhere, you get the frenetic rework of the late ODB's “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” complete with a kids chorus. So while paying tribute to the Wu Tang, it also pays tribute to a technique Stax, always a RZA favorite, used in songs such as “Sang and Dance” by the Bar-Kays (made famous by Will Smith's “Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It”). As a bonus on the CD, you even get an instrumental of “Pjs From Afar,” a track on which Raekwon collaborated with El Michels Affair only a few years ago.
Even without the vocals, you can still tell that Wu Tang Clan ain't nothin' to f--- wit'; El Michels Affair pays the Wu a very serviceable homage. It would be interesting to see how El Michels Affair would have fared with material from other Ghostface songs such as “Apollo Kids” with its regal horns or the retrospective “All That I Got Is You,” as it really would play to their sound well. However, with the material that they did choose to cover, it's a very solid affair that gives us a varied plate of goodness to digest. I've certainly been eating it up.
After awhile, it’s hard to know what exactly to write about a Numero release. They’re so ridiculously consistent with their quality of full-length releases – now at 26 total (Note: this is #27; #25, a book/2LP release, is on hold temporarily) and this doesn’t even factor in their Asterisk and Numerophon subsidiaries – it’s really hard to nitpick.
Their latest Eccentric Soul series release, Smart’s Palace, focuses on the Wichita, Kansas, soul scene from the 60s through the mid-70s. The Smarts, who left town for California and came back, get top billing on this album, due to their varied roles in the music scene of Wichita. They played instruments, they played/wrote originals and covers, and owned a restaurant/club.
Two songs from the compilation have previously been featured on the Jazzman label’s Midwest Funk compilation from 2004 (and has since issued in the US by Now Again): “Tell Her” by Fred Williams and The Jewels Band and “A Day In The Life” by Chocolate Snow, led by the Neal family. The latter is a complete revamping , as popularized by Wes Montgomery, of the Beatles tune. Add a synth to the mix, and you'd have a tune that rivals 9th Creation's “Bubble Gum” with its groove.
Accompanying the instrumental of the Chocolate Snow track is its vocal treatment, previously only available on a test press, entitled “Inflation,” although the lyrics were completely changed from the Fab Four version. This go-round, “A Day In The Life,” featuring C.C. Neal rapping (in the early 70s sense of the word) hard times and job hunting, features a subject that may hit close to home for many in today’s economy.
Different songs have different reasons of why they're enjoyable. L.T. And The Soulful Dynamics' first cut on the album has a nifty bass riff while “Barefoot Philly” by the Smart Brothers has a funky sax including a strange popping trick John Smart did with his reed to imitate a drum.
Other songs fall flat such as Hard Road's “If You Really Love Me.” The second offering from Fred Williams and The Jewels “The Dance Got Old,” a song that mentions popular dances of the day and how they got, well, old is not a particularly original spin on the concept as it even tries to riff on the Tighten Up. If the dance got old, then why play a spin on it? Chocolate Snow's Christmas tune, a novelty song, is the most uninspiring song on the set. With lyrics like “Let me be your Christmas card,” I can see why they might be left out in the cold for Christmas.
In summary, while it's not the most riveting compilation that Numero has brought forth, as some spots shine brighter than others on the disc, it's certainly not a disappointment either. By the end of the Smart's Palace, you'll have clicked your red heels, taken off your headphones, and be back home, all while enjoying the ride you've been on – even if the road was a bit bumpy. So ease on down the road; after all, it's got heart, Smarts, and isn't afraid to fail.
THE TOP OF POP (CONFERENCE THAT IS)
posted by O.W.
As a music scholar/writer, I attend a fair amount of conferences, many of which include interesting and provocative talks and papers on all things musical/cultural but hands-down, my favorite annual event is the Pop Conference at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. I just got back this weekend from it and even after eight years, it's still a constant inspiration and source of much intellectual fodder.
This year's conference "playlist" is even longer. Here's the highlights:
1) Laura Nyro feat. LaBelle: Gonna Take a Miracle From Gonna Take a Miracle (Warner Bros, 1971)
Nona Hendryx was the opening night keynote, interviewed by two dear friends of mine, Daphne Brooks and Sonnet Retman. Hendryx has had an incredible career in pop music, spanning back to the 1960s when she was a member of Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles, to their 1970s incarnation as Labelle and then onto a solo career since the late '70s that has included collaborations with the Talking Heads, Dusty Springfield and Peter Gabriel. It was tough trying to pick one song from her massive discography to highlight but I really loved her story about working Laura Nyro on the Gonna Take a Miracle album for two reasons. First of all, I have been playing the hell out of this song lately (more specifically, Alton Ellis' version) and second, Nona made a poignant comment about how, back then, a collaboration between Labelle and Nyro - unlikely as it may have seemed to folks -could be as easy as saying to one another, "hey, I like your music, you want to do something with me?" No managers, agents or attorneys to fuss about - artists could simply agree to work together (at least, this is the halcyon world that Hendryx painted).
2) Richard Berry and the Pharaohs: Louie Louie From 7" (Flip, 1957). Also on Have Louie Will Travel
Rutgers' Christopher Doll gave a fascinating paper that uses musicology to argue that there's such a thing as a "sexual chord progression." If I'm not mistaken (and I didn't take very good notes here), I think he's talking about the E-A-D progression that you can hear in everything from Neil Diamond's "Cherry Cherry" to "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)" by the Rolling Stones to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Given that I'm not musicologically trained I could be totally misrepresenting all of this so just take it with a grain of salt. In any case, his argument is not that the progression itself has some inherent sexual quality; rather it's that it's come to be associated with the idea of sexual frustration as evinced by its use in many different songs that have similar topical themes, perhaps most famously the Stones.
Doll (if I recall correctly) traces the crossover moment of this chord progression from blues to pop/rock in the form of "Louie Louie," that ubiquitous party song most often associated with the Kingsmen but originating with songwriter Richard Berry and recorded by him with the Pharaohs. I had never heard Berry's original and I totally dig it, especially in how one of the Pharaohs uses his baritone voice to mimic the bassline.[1]
3) Onra: I Wanna Go Back From Chinoiseries (Favorite, 2008)
Van Truong gave an intriguing paper about the role of "migrant sad songs" in linking diasporic subjects with concepts of home, history and memory. She was primarily speaking about her own father and how his love for Vietnamese folk songs of the 1960s is one of the few ways through which he'll speak of the past. As an end example, Truong offered up a few songs from Onra, a Vietnamese French producer (with a notably Dilla-esque sound) who traveled to Vietnam and returned home with both Vietnamese and Chinese records and use that as raw material for last year's Chinoiseries CD. It's not as aggressively stylized as, say, Flying Lotus, but Onra has a nice sense for mood and texture, especially on the soulful "I Wanna Go Back" (plus, peep that industrial vinyl grime creating static!)
Greil Marcus plumbed the depths of Nan Goldin's "Ballad of Sexual Dependency" by focusing on the imagined songs left out of that exhibit[2] and his #1 choice was Lonnie Mack's "Why," a surprisingly underrated deep soul ballad from the veteran Memphis blues man. The conventional wisdom around why Mack's vocal contributions have gone less appreciated is that his Whiteness made him a difficult person to market to the R&B audience of the 1960s and "Why" actually languished for over five years after being initially recorded until the Fraternity label finally decided to put it out.
Not having seen Goldin's exhibit, I can't say if this song does or does not belong within it but I can certainly understand the appeal of a song whose desperation resonates in crack in Mack's voice when he screams "whhhyyyyyyy" on the three choruses, especially the final one where, if I recall properly, Marcus suggests Mack "lets the flood gates open" and you can hear the raw emotion pour fourth with terrifying power.
5) Rhythm Controll/Chuck Roberts: My House From 12" (Catch-a-Beat, 1987)
Some of you might remember Seattle's Michaelangelo Matos from the "Apache" post he graciously reposted for Soul Sides in 2005. That was originally an EMP paper and this year, Matos tackled the returning use of the "dance music's national anthem", i.e. the "My House" acapella (by Chuck Roberts and Rhythm Controll) from a then, small house 12" released in 1987. Apart from his history of the acapella and its continued use throughout dance music, Matos also argues that it is damn near impossible to "train wreck" this in a mix, in other words - you can throw this acapella over practically ANY instrumental and it will still sound good. He even played a few examples to prove his point.
This perked my curiosity enough to try it at home and you know what? He is completely correct. This acapella can "work" with many beats you might try to throw under it. Seriously, try it (play the acapella in a web browser and then load up another song on your computer's mp3 program (iTunes for example) and see how they synch up). Quite impressive!
I have to confess, being a relatively rock-ignorant kind of guy, I've never gotten very deep into Joplin's catalog except to know that she certainly had a thing for covering R&B songs. Maybe it's for facile political reasons, but I suppose I've always leaned more towards listening to her source material than Joplin herself but Lauren Onkey's paper on Joplin made me reconsider my prejudices and I was especially struck at her example of Joplin performing "Maybe," a song originally recorded by R&B girl group, The Chantels. Onkey (whose paper on Black British musicians in Liverpool preceding the British invasion was one of my favorites of 2008's conference) isn't trying to rescue/recuperate Joplin; rather, she's coming from the other direction, arguing that most analyses of Joplin have tended to elide how heavily her performance and musical tastes were taken from Black R&B artists, such as Otis Redding, and especially female artists such as the Chantels, Erma Franklin, and many in Jerry Ragavoy's R&B stable. Joplin's performance of "Maybe" is good vocally - she definitely reforms the song in her style and image - but you should also see how she did it live:
There's just something a little forced and awkward about her movements here, with her violent jerks when she wants to emphasize the rhythm peaks in the song.
7) Asha Puthli: I Dig Love From Asha Puthli (CBS UK, 1973)
To me, the hands-down highlight of the conference was watching Asha Puthli bring down the house (repeatedly) during a lunchtime talk she gave to Jason King. I wrote about Puthli before, way back when, and I've been derelict in not following up sooner given how interesting and eclectic a career she's had. (I'm working on catching back up, very soon).
I decided to pull one of her cuts out of the archives, "I Dig Love," a cover of the George Harrison song but probably flipped in ways that Harrison likely wouldn't have imagined. During the lunch talk, Puthli explained that the bubbling noise was her gurgling champagne. Awesomely flossy.
Surprisingly, Asha's LPs have never had a US release before (they're now available digitally however, which is good). Hopefully, that will be a situation that rectifies itself soon.
8) Before Carl Wilson was introduced for his paper this year, a joke was made about how he's so big, even James Franco is showing him love. The truth is though, Wilson's book on taste and criticism (ostensibly based around writing about Celine Dion) is quite extraordinary. I just started it recently and it's exceptional, heady thinking about how we form our opinions, especially via music. Perhaps it's apropos from an author on a book about Celine Dion to do a paper on Auto-Tune and in the course of describing the history of Auto-tune as a form of technology-assisted voice manipulation, Wilson played this incredible (though also quite creepy) 1939 performance by Alvino Rey performing "St. Louis Blues."
For a less disturbing variation using a similar talk box technology as Rey, there's also Pete Drake's "Forever" from the early '60s which is a haunting composition all its own (even without a steel guitar puppet).
[1] Without trying to confuse the hell out of people here - the intro to "Louie Louie" uses a very common and familiar chord progression of its own, especially within Latin music: a I, IV, V. However, this is NOT the progression that Doll is associating in his argument; he's referring to the more subtle chord progression on the bassline AFTER the intro that you hear on the Kingsmen version of the song. At least, I think that's what he was referring to.
[2] Marcus was specifically talking about the slideshow + soundtrack version of "The Ballad," and not the photo book, which he considered less powerful in the absence of the music that accompanied the slideshow.
The folks at Thirteen/WNET have added even more episodes from the old show Soul to their website, including a killer set with New Birth and the Nite-Liters. You also have to see their "young people's show, especially the last performance where Jimmy Briscoe and the Beavers cover "Hot Pants." Ridiculously good.
Folks really need to appreciate and understand what an incredible resource this is. It's not just that these performances are being brought back from the past, but the quality of the video and audio is pristine and as a time capsule, it's hard to imagine a better preserved scenario. It blows my time every time I visit.
This won't do justice since you really need to watch the performance, but I love, love, love the fact that the Nite-Liters took their awesome funky instrumental "Do the Granny" and then splice in Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands". Here's a snippet from that performance (but watch the video!)
The Nite-Liters: Do the Granny/Grandma's Hands From Soul! (Nov. 1, 1972)
JOHNNY AND THE EXPRESSIONS + BARBARA MASON: HELLO BABIES
posted by O.W.
Johnny and the Expressions: Now That You're Mine From 7" (Josie, 1966)
Barbara Mason: Hello Baby From 7" (Arctic, 1966)
I don't buy enough 7"s. No, seriously; I never got as invested as peers of mine, more out of laziness than interest. I mean, 45s are great because they're small and portable and let's be honest - it's not often you find LPs where the ratio of great album cuts outweigh the good singles. I'd probably rather tote around Ray Barretto's "Right On" given the choice between that an carrying Power but let's also be honest that I'm cheap and sometimes, copping the 45 is massively more expensive than buying the exact same song on LP.
That said, there is an immense pleasure in getting good songs inexpensively on 45; it's a win-win! That's how I feel about these two 7"s, both of which (I think) I picked up at Academy Records during my NYC trip the other week.
The Johnny and the Expressions was a real surprise because my only real familiarity with Josie is via the Meters (who recorded their first three classic albums for the label) but Josie had many other acts signed to them, including this sweet soul group lead by Johnny Wyatt. I don't know a ton about him or the group except that Wyatt, a decade previously, had been part of a doo-wop group in Los Angeles called Rochell and the Candles but neither that group - nor Johnny and the Expressions - ever became consistent national figures. This single, "Now That You're Mine" is pure sweet soul magic, especially with the background harmonies and Wyatt's seductive tenor crooning atop a simple but heavy track. Listen to 1:12, when the two sets of voices crossover one another. Butter.
Barbara Mason I was more familiar with - she recorded heavily with the Arctic label, including at one highly sought-after Northern single but "Hello Baby" is easily the best thing I've heard from her and it's about, oh, 1/26th the price of the other single. Again, the background singers pull their weight here, especially with the antiphonal echo they supply to Mason's own rich voice. I love the happy swing of this but there's also some subtle melancholy overtones running beneath too (or at least, that's how I hear it).
Both of these have been in heavy rotation of late; hope you enjoy them too.
TASTE OF HONEY MIX + A TRIBUTE TO ISAAC HAYES + TWEE FUNK REDUX
posted by O.W.
Big City's Jared Boxx puts together a nice little Latin mix for the UK's Jazzman Records. Recommended!
Tracklisting: 1. El Green Hornet ~ Mauricio Smith (Mainstream) (Latin Jazz) 2. Cat Fish Bag ~ Johnny Zamot (Grande) (Latin Jazz) 3. Mia's Boogaloo ~ Ozzie Torrens (Decca) (Boogaloo) 4. Going Nowhere ~ Freddie Rodriguez (UA Latino) (Latin Soul) 5. Drag Sway ~ Jarito y Su Combo (True) (Shing-a-Ling) 6. Kush ~ Antonio (Chocolate) Diaz Mena (Audio Fidelity) (Latin Jazz) 7. De'se Mismo Trago ~ Pete Bonet & Louie Ramirez (Fania) (Salsa) 8. La Banda Llego ~ Orlando Marin (Fiesta) (Mambo) 9. Echa Pa' Aca ~ Gilberto Sextet (Ansonia) (Descarga) 10. Oh That's Nice ~ Pete Rodriguez (Alegre) (Boogaloo) 11. You've Been Talking About Me Baby ~ The Latin Souls (Kapp) (Latin Soul) 12. La Bruja Negra ~ Joe Torres (World Pacific) (Latin Jazz) 13. Wild Horses ~ Joe Cain (Time) (Latin Jazz) 14. Quiere ~ Jack Costanza (Clarion) (Mambo) 15. Congas Callejeras ~ Conjunto Sensacion (Tropical) (Conga) 16. Descarga A & J ~ Johnny Rodriguez & Angel Rene Orq. (Mardi Gras) (Descarga) 17. Cacumen ~ George Guzman (Fania) (Descarga) 18. Taste of Honey ~ Willie Rosario (Atco) (Boogaloo)
Also, the folks at Truth and Soul have a special Tribute to Isaac Hayes EP they put together, with the El Michels Affair covering songs such as "Shaft," "Walk on By" and "Hung Up On My Baby." Check for it!
And just to complete a trio - Matthew Africa has re-uppped his awesome "Twee Funk" mix of children's soul/funk records again. Don't sleep!
The Impressions: I'm Loving Nothing From This Is My Country (Curtom, 1968)
(From the original post:) "This LP is easily the best thing I've heard in months. I just cannot get enough of it and am marveling at its overall consistency and sheer sublimeness at times. I feel sheepish that it took me this long to get around to listening the Impressions' solo albums but if they're anywhere near this good, I'll be copping the catalog soon.
I've been trying to figure out, in my own head, just what makes the sound of this album so incredible to me and so far, the best I can come up with is: everything. The vocals, the melodies, the rhythm section, the sense of drama, the sense of delicate lightness, the lilt in Mayfield's voice, the hooks that haunt you; take your pick. I haven't been this enamored by a soul album since...I don't know...discovering Eddie Kendrick's People...Hold On (and that's one of my all-time favorites).
Bottomline: if you can't feel "I'm Loving Nothing," well, there's just no hope for you. ;)"
Didn't mean to barrage people with all those 5th Anniv. posts but since I've been gone the last 10 days, I thought I'd make up for lost time. (I'm also thinking that no one's really complaining either).
So...I had a great time spinning at Chairman Mao's Grand Groove party in New York City the other night. As noted, it was a "covers night" theme, with DJ Muro as the headlining guest. I wasn't able to catch most of Muro's set because I ducked out to see some old friends but I did make it back in time to hear him play Penny Goodwin's cover of "What's Going On." It's strange but the song, through headphones, doesn't sound that earth-shattering for some reason. But played loud? In a public space? Good God, it is incredible. Absolutely some life-changing stuff. I can't explain it better than that (and it's also why I wouldn't bother posting the song on here but I will add it to my rotation in any club).
I digress however.
Towards the end of the evening, around 3am or so, I had a revelation and I think I finally understand why I like covers so much. This whole time, I've said it's because "covers are both familiar and different" and sure, that's true and I do think that's part of the appeal - their quirky blend of something you know yet don't know.
But I think the real reason I love covers go much deeper. In participating during a six hour set of cover songs, it occurred to me that while this is a challenge in terms of bringing the best cuts to the (turn)table, it's also rather easy because generally speaking, songs that get covered were good enough to even warrant a cover to begin with. In other words, if someone didn't basically like the original source material to begin with, it's unlikely anyone would have bothered to cover the song at all.
Which, in a sense, means that most of them are, in essence, love songs...not about love, but about the love for songs. Part of the motivation to make a cover song is either 1) a recognition that other people love that song or 2) the artist themselves love that song. Either way, that's a whole lot of love going on.
And so, in that early morning moment, I realized that I love cover songs because I love songs...and if cover songs are love songs about the love for songs then loving cover songs is about loving the loving of songs. Or something like that.
You catch my meaning, I hope.
In any case, in honor of that beautiful revelation, in honor of that great evening, and just because I feel like, here's one cover I did play, one cover I could have played and one cover I may very well start playing.
I am straight-up embarrassed that I never heard this song prior to my Funky Sole gig the other month but goddamn, it is so good, I'd say it's better than James Brown's original. Just listen to how Otis and the band punish this cover. It's become an instant favorite and at less than two and a half minutes, packs a punch every second it plays.
I don't know why I don't play this cut out more...I first learned about it years ago at the Groove Merchant and it's probably one of the best vocal jazz dance cuts I know, up there with Lynn Marino's "Feeling Good" for example. It's a very striking departure from Carole King's original, taking a slow ballad and giving it an uptempo makeover.
Toward the end of the evening (circa 4am), Mao threw on a blank 45 and when those first few piano notes sounded through, I realized, "holy sh--, someone covered the Charmels." The funny thing is, I actually knew about the song from a few weeks back when Hua hepped me to it but at the moment, I totally forgot that I had already heard it and marveled at how completely awesome this cover is.
As it turns out, Mao had the song custom-burned to 45 since it doesn't exist in any actual original vinyl form; the Emotions' album this was supposed to be from, 1972's Songs of Innocence and Experience was never released for reasons not clear...though later, many songs from it ended up on the group's Sunshine album according to Souled On. However, the group's version of "As Long As I've Got You" was not included on there and only surfaced in 2004 when Ace finally put the album out on CD. All history aside - what an incredible cover of an already incredible song.
(Original notes:) "Had a grand time at Bumpshop over last weekend. Here's the thing you have to understand: Bumpshop might start up around the same time (10pm) but they go until 4am. As routine as this might be for any NYer, it's damn near incredible for folks like me, stuck in cities like SF and LA where most nights begin winding down around 1:30am since the bar staff doesn't want to stay there a minute past 2am if they help it.
Better yet, the last 30-40 minutes of Bumpshop winds down all the uptempo funk and just rides out on sweet soul and hand-clapping goodness; some tracks just leave you, head bowed, in reverent contemplation. As you'd expect, resident DJs Chairman Mao and Jared kilt it (you have to respect DJs hardcore enough to put a song - not otherwise available on vinyl - onto acetate, just so they can spin it out. CD lovers will no doubt shake their head at such things).
In any case, there's nothing like listening to four straight hours of soul/funk/jazz/Latin to really 1) bring out the trainspotter in one (, I have no shame in admitting that I was giraffing over the DJ booth more than few times) and 2) make you realize how much insanely good music there is out there. Thus inspires today's post.
...
I had more or less forgotten the Intruders' classic "Together" until Jared played it last night (backed with a cover version that's now parked at the top of my want (nay, need) list) and good god, what an insanely great song. The chorus, especially played loud, is incredible. On a related side note: for many years, I pushed this kind of soul to the background but in the last year or so, it's all I really crave. Musical tastes are strange that way, no?"
(Original post): "I don't use the word "perfect" very often (well, actually, ok, I probably do) but if ever there were a song that should inspire such an honorific - here it is.
I discovered this 45 a few weeks ago, along with my friend Hua - it was some crappy lo-digi-fi copy of the tune but it was still promising enough that we both went out and hunted out the original that evening. Hua got his earlier, digitized that sucker and sent it over. Suffice to say, within minutes, the song quickly became an instant classic in my personal catalog.
Every single part of this song just works: that anchoring piano melody, the background vocals, the rich voice of Fred Bridges singing, "...but I have no regrets" to begin his verses and the changes in the arrangement. The first minute of the song alone makes me want to crawl inside it and live there forever but make sure you get to the end where the sweet soul harmonies of Ben Knight and Robert Eaton come flying in unexpectedly. I tend to throw around terms like "sublime" a bit loosely at times but this song resets the bar and then some. I can't say enough about it.
Soul Sides' readers have heard the group before - in a manner of speaking - on my Ruby Andrews post from October. The BKE collaboration of Bridges, Knight and Eaton were discovered by Zodiac Records' Ric Williams and they ended up one of Andrews' main producers/composers/arrangers for her first album (Everybody Saw You) while Eaton and Williams produced most of her Black Ruby LP. Unfortunately, though the BoS had a few decent hits on 45, they never became major stars on their own and instead, were more successful working with other artists (a pity). That I Guess That Don't Make Me a Loser is the definitive (by virtue of being the only) anthology of their 7"s and is well worth checking out just to hear their slim but grand catalog of music. (It includes their $200+ Northern Soul track, "I'd Be Grateful" which is also amazing). Also, please see Soulful Detroit's long profile of Fred Bridges and the Brothers of Soul, a fantastic resource of information on BKE and their work."
Aretha Franklin: I Can't Wait (Until I See My Baby's Face) From Runnin Out of Fools (Columbia, 1964)
I was originally introduced to this tune by my friend Hua, who put me up on the Sonji Clay version of it. I didn't realize until this year however that the songwriter was actually Jerry Ragavoy (and yeah, I know I just reposted this very same song not that long ago but damnit, it's so nice, I'm gonna post it thrice!).
Not only is the musical arrangement here a thing of beauty but just listen to the songwriting and how Ragavoy flipped the title phrase to go from defiance, to uncertainty, to desperation. Brilliant.
Best of all? There's a music video for the song. Yeah, for real.
The Numero Group has several offshoots within their canon of releases ranging from Eccentric Soul and Cult Cargo to Wayfaring Strangers. Their latest, Local Customs, focuses on custom studios from small areas. This set comprises songs from Ecorse, Michigan, a factory suburb of Detroit.
Many of the songs on the release are gospel recordings featuring members of the Church Of The Living God. These aren't always your grandma's songs of grace, though. While gospel has a long history of organ-based choral compositions, some of those recorded by Double U founder Felton Williams had an almost funky quality to them. If you take out the vocals on tracks such as Shirley Ann Lee's “How Can I Lose,” you have a very groove-based jam. Still, others such as the Pilgrim Wonders' “He Never Failed” vocally sound like R.H. Harris' Soul Stirrers pleas of redemption.
It's not all about the Lord on this set, though, as shown by the Organics very danceable “Foot Stumping” instrumental. With its steady backbeat, it's a guitar-driven track with traces of organ throughout. Elsewhere “Untitled Jam” has a bassline with a slick drumbreak midway through leading its way into some nice organ work and a funky little saxophone.
The really cool thing about Downriver Revival is the companion DVD. Ever wonder what it's like to go on an interview session with the Numero crew? Well you can digitally tag along with them while they interview Felton Williams. You also get to tour his studio, much of which he pieced together himself from various electronics parts! Instead of just seeing the finish product, you get to see a part of the Numero process unfold before your eyes. It's like going to a family reunion and hearing the stories firsthand instead of just reading about them. The second part of the DVD features numerous songs that did not make the CD – everything from completed songs to rough demos and other tinkering – giving you a further look into the breadth of the Ecorse sound.
This is by far the most complete packaging that Numero has put into a release yet, which is saying something considering their penchant for quality assurance. We can only hope that they continue to surprise us with extra goodies, not that the music selections haven't been enough, but adding in some of the best liner notes they've compiled yet along with the visuals in the DVD really put this one over the top. Oliver adds: In case you missed it from the other week, I reviewed this comp for NPR's "All Things Considered." I also can't recommend it enough: an excellent anthology of the highest order.
(Originally written for Side Dishes) And another master passes...
Sad news out of New Orleans today - Eddie Bo, the great singer, songwriter and producer/composer died today of a heart attack; he was age 79.
Born Edwin Bocage, Bo was one of New Orleans' most prolific musicians, with over 50 singles to his credit and a vast number of productions as well. HIs career spanned over 50 years and it's hard to imagine a more stalwart and influential musical figure out of NOLA than Bo - he's certainly up there with the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Fats Domino, etc. (The UK's Soul Generation has a great, visual discography of all the different labels Bo recorded for, many of them of his own creation such as Big 9, Bo-Sound and Scram.)
For my generation of Bo fans, we got into his style and sound thanks to the incredible funk sides he produced in the 1960s through early 1970s. Bo shared - in the most general sense - similarities with the sparse funk style of Allen Toussaint and the Meters since both made heavy use of the famed NOLA second line backbeat syncopation and polyrhythm. However, while the Meters' best-known songs have a density and gravity all their own, Bo's approach was more kinetic and lively - I always associate a subtle swing to this rhythms and especially thanks to constant collaborator James Black on drums, Bo always knew how to engineer a killer drumbreak to keep the crowd's feet in motion.
The songs I chose barely make a dent in his massive catalog but it seems only right to begin with his best known song, "Hook and Sling," a 1969 single that's become commonplace enough to end up in t.v. ads. (Strangely, it's very hard to find on CD though).
"From This Day On" is a strikingly distinctive song - a slick, uptempo NOLA soul song with a Spanish flourish thanks to the horn and guitar. To me, it's one of the best overall songs he ever created (and hey, Pete Rock probably agrees with me so I'm in good company).
As noted, Bo also produced for many other artists, especially female singers, including Mary Jane Hooper and Inell Young. For my money, one of the best sides in this vein was a duet he produced for himself and Inez Cheathem called "Lover and a Friend." Not only does it feature a great exchange of scorching vocals by Bo and Cheatham but the song opens with an incredible, blistering breakbeat, courtesy Bobby Williams. This track, in particular, was picked up for release by Capitol Records and briefly had some national exposure.
Seems oddly appropriate to end with a 1963 song by Bo called "Fare Thee Well," which he recorded for Arrow (then picked up by Chess up in Chicago). Rest in peace Eddie.
Congratulations to Phil Namoc who won the CD of the Whitefield Brothers reissue of In The Raw. We had many entrants and most people had all the correct answers, which you can see below. Thanks to all who participated and continue to read the site!
As an added bonus, take a listen to Sol Walk, above, from the album.
Questions:
1. Jan Whitefield and other Poets Of Rhythm members played on this group's Afrofunk album last year released by Now Again. Name the group.
ANSWER: Karl Hector and the Malcouns
2. Name the country and city where the Whitefield Brothers formed.
ANSWER: Munich, Germany
3. Name the Bay Area MC who the Poets Of Rhythm backed for a track on Quannum's collective album Quannum Spectrum.
"I'm wholly enamored with the Donny Hathaway song. I'm always discovering and appreciating new songs by him and marveling at how me manages to announce his presence with just a two-note hum. You just KNOW a Donny Hathaway song by its sound and feel - it really speaks to the amazing personality he infused into his songs. This track is no exception and that chorus is killing me something wonderful with its chord changes and background vocals. So good. This is one of few songs on the comp that's never been heard before and god bless 'em for that. (It was originally recorded during the Extension of a Man sessions but wasn't released for whatever reason."
A few weeks ago I stopped by Circuit City to check out their deals on CDs where I found a couple of Philadelphia International Records classics for under $6 each! As O.W. says, I was CD'iggin'.
O'Jays: Backstabbers
Remember when popular mainstream groups didn't pussyfoot around the charts? 1972 saw the release of another album rooted in social commentary. While not as politically charged from beginning to end like Marvin Gaye's “What's Goin' On” from the previous year, Eddie Levert confidently preaches about learning to love like we've learned to kill and how that will lead to peace in the land, a sentiment echoed with the album's closer, “Love Train.”
Where the arrangement for “Love Train” has a much more hold-hands-with-your-brothers vibe, Bobby Martin arranges a much more aggressive and funky tone with a riveting bass line and almost rock-like guitar background groove which flows in perfect harmony with its message. And who can deny a call of “Do it to me now,” followed by a killer breakdown by the full band?
As such, the way the album is sequenced, it's perfect that the lead track is “When The World's At Peace,” as it's like the beginning of a rally for social movement and the final track, “Love Train,” is a we're-all-in-this-together moment with the group leading the march to victory.
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes: Wake Up Everybody
While primarily known for its social anthem title track, it has other gems such as “Tell The World How I Feel About Cha Baby,” another foray for the group into disco. It was a sound they had delved into earlier in 1975 with “Bad Luck.” Before Teddy Pendergrass was dodging lacy garments while singing slow jams about closed-door knockout lovemaking sessions, he was singing uptempo numbers like the original version of “Don't Leave Me This Way.”
The highlight for me in “Tell The World How I Feel About Cha Baby” is the drum breakdown with the congas 4:30 minutes in following the horn stab. If only all disco could sound this sweet.
Willie Mitchell: Ooh Baby You Turn Me On/Live At The Royal
Later that week I stopped by FYE to look in the clearance bin and found a Willie Mitchell double set for under $4! Before he was churning out hits for Al Green, Willie Mitchell was an accomplished band leader and trumpeter. In 1968, Mitchell released Ooh Baby You Turn Me On (aka Soul Serenade) featuring some of his own hits as well as covers such as the Bar-Kays “Soul Finger” and Bobby Hebb's “Sunny.”
On “Sunny” you get a little organ and a lot of horns. You don't get any long solos on the album, just a tight-knit sound with each member chipping in making the sum of its parts greater than the whole. Some have questioned whether the Live At The Royal was an actual live album and not just overdubbed crowd noise and clapping. Regardless, it's still a pleasant listen all the way through
The Dells: I Can Sing a Rainbow/Love Is Blue From Love Is Blue (Cadet, 1969).
"What's so great about this song? Three things. 1) The shift from the mellow, almost folksy "I Can Sing a Rainbow" and then the out-of-nowhere dip into the funky soul blast of "Love Is Blue". 2) The call and response between the lead vocalist and the rhythm/brass sections, i.e. "Blue!" BLARE! Blue! BLARE! BLARE!" There's that moment where you know the hammer is about to drop between voice and instruments and you just know it's going to be incredible. 3) Check out the string arrangement that's subtly slipped underneath following that call-and-response. It adds this extra musical layer which turns a really good song into a wholly awesome one."
Dionne Warwick: You're Gonna Need Me From Just Being Myself (Warner Bros, 1973)
"This Dionne Warwick is one of the most amazing songs I've heard in a long, long, long time. I put it on repeat and literally was listening to it over and over for hours. I was trying to figure out how to articulate just what makes it so perfect - Holland-Dozier's amazing arrangement, Dionne's piercing vocals - but really, you just know it's that good when you listen to it. It's catapulted to the very top of my "favorite soul songs of all time." I just can't believe I never heard it until recently (thanks HHH for putting me up on it)."
(2009 update + preemptive comment - yes, I know Dilla and Just Blaze and others have sampled it.)
Few American pop figures were as complete as Curtis Mayfield; not only was he an oft-imitated singer, gifted songwriter and visionary producer, but Mayfield also understood the importance of creative ownership. Through his label Curtom and its subsidiaries, Mayfield created a home for not just his and the Impressions music, but for dozens of other artists who came seeking a chance to make their mark too. I recently came upon a compilation, Curtom Funk which looks at - as you might guess - the funkier side of the label. I picked a few choices cuts from the anthology and sprinkled in a few of my Curtom favorites too. Donny Hathaway and June Conquest: I Thank You From 7" (Curtom, 1969). Also available on Curtom Funk.
I'm so used to thinking of Donny as an Atlantic artist that I forget before he ended up there, he was a singer and songwriter for Curtom for several yars. One of the products of his time there was this duet with June Conquest; a snappy, slow soul stomper that showcases Hathaway's beautiful voice and a rousing track with a full bank of horns and strings. Jesse Anderson: Mighty Mighty From 7" (Thomas, 1970). Also on The Curtom Story.
Anderson was a local Chicago artist whose career never quite took fire on a national level despite no shortage of raw talent. His version of "Mighty Mighty," a cover of Baby Huey's song (another Curtom artist) gives it an instrumental makeover, with a heavy hand for both the drums and the funky wah-wah guitar, yet it's all balanced by that sweet touch of the flute which provides the song with its melodic zip. Bobby Franklin's Insanity: Bring It On Down To Me From 7" (Thomas, 1969). Also available on Curtom Funk.
Arguably the hardest funk single to appear in the Curtom family (this one was on the Thomas subsidiary), "Bring It On Down" is all guitar rips and handclaps plus Franklin's rough, bluesy vocals. Not sure where Franklin's original roots were but given that he also recorded for the Detroit-based Eastbound, one assumes he came out of the dense Midwest musical community. Curtis Mayfield: Move On Up From Curtis (Curtom, 1971). Also available on Curtom Funk.
Seems only right to have some actual Mayfield in the mix and it's hard to go wrong with the bright, shiny, inspiration energy of "Move On Up" with those glorious horns and propulsive rhythm. Plus, what better anthem to go with the ascension of another Chicago fast-riser, Barack Obama? Moses Dillard and the Tex-Town Display: I've Got to Find a Way (Part 2) From 7" (Curtom, 1970). Also on Curtom Soul Trippin' II.
I had always assumed Dillard was from Texas but the "Tex-Town" part of his band's name stands for "Textile Town, an allusion to his native city of Greenville, South Carolina (which ran a large textile factory). Dillard originally put the single out of an different label (I'm assuming his own, Textown) but its success in the South encouraged Curtom to acquire it in 1980 and re-release it nationally. For some reason, this song always reminds me of native Chicagoan Syl Johnson and his "Is It Because I'm Black?" - both have a heavy, heavy sound, their funk elements kept dark and moody. I've often called this song the best single Rza never sampled.
>Amerie: One Thing (Siik Remix) From Siik.org (Siik, 2005)
"Given that the 4th of July is already upon us, I'm trying to kick off a mini-meme by asking folks the simple(?) question: What does a summer song sound like to you?
I don't mean songs that happen to become popular during summer, though I respect the institution of the summer hit. I'm talking about songs that invoke summer - the type of song where you could be neck-deep in snow, in the middle of February, with the heat broken but once you hear it, you can almost see the sunset or smell the scent of backyard BBQs or feel the hot, humid air of nights where it's 2am and no one's ready to go home yet.
My favorite memories of summer are droplets of reality dissolved into a vat of fantasy. After all, what else is summer if not a delicious swirl of nostalgia and idealism, a lemonade cup filled with what we want summer to be rather than what it is. The perfect summer songs are the ones that invoke a sensation of innocence, optimism, and beauty yet also tinged with the slightest daub of melancholy. For what else is summer if not the feeling of sadness from knowing that summer will eventually pass, consigned into the darkening days of autumn? I guess that's why my favorite summer songs are rarely brash, loud anthems. I prefer tunes with a hint of fragility in their melody, a vulnerability in their sensibility.
With Siik's remix of Amerie's "One Thing" - I know ya'll are probably sick of the original already but I swear to God/Jah/Allah that hearing this made me think it was a completely new song. Especially compared to the forceful funkiness of Rich Harrison's original, Siik takes it in the other direction with that sublime guitar melody. I can't stop listening to this remix - it is so perfect to me and most definitely on a summer vibe. Makes me want to go trade my Prius in for a drop top just so I can play it out (but alas, foggy as hell right now in S.F.)."
Soul Sides, in conjunction with Stones Throw/Now Again, is excited to present to you – the loyal Soul Sides readers – an opportunity to win the reissue of the Whitefield Brothers “In The Raw” album. The album retails this Tuesday, March 10, in physical and digital formats.
In addition to the 9 tracks that were on the initial Soul Fire release, 3 tracks that were not on the previous release appear: Rampage, Chokin, and Buster (aka The Bastard).
Now onto the contest.
Contest rules:
1. Contest ends at midnight on March 16, 2009. Entries that arrive after that time are ineligible. 2. Only US addresses are eligible due to high shipping costs. (Sorry international readers!) 3. Should there be more than one contestant with all 3 correct answers, a name will be chosen in a drawing from all the contestants with 3 correct responses. Should no one answer all 3 correctly then a winner will be chosen by a random drawing. 4. Your first response is your official and final response.
Questions:
1. Jan Whitefield and other Poets Of Rhythm members played on this group's Afrofunk album last year released by Now Again. Name the group.
2. Name the country and city where the Whitefield Brothers formed.
3. Name the Bay Area MC who the Poets Of Rhythm backed for a track on Quannum's collective album Quannum Spectrum.
E-mail your responses to elueckin AT hotmail.com and put Whitefield Brothers Contest in the subject line.
Patrice Rushen: This Is All I Really Know From Posh (Elektra, 1980)
"I'm definitely no modern soul expert but I've been turning up more songs of late (cleaning out my record stacks helps) that are part of that late '70s, early '80s vibe and I've been loving some of the tunes in that vein.
When I was combing through my jazz stacks, looking for LPs to cut, I gave my Patrice Rushen section a quick review and rediscovered her 1980 album Posh which features this great ballad, "This Is All I Really Know."
(2009 update: jeez, I didn't really have much to say here, did I? Well, let me amend that error - this is an incredible song, especially how it opens with that piano melody and Rushen and her back-up singers give the song and an appealing set of vocal layers and the icing on the cake is the bridge chorus around 2:47 which adds an even richer drizzle of soulfulness. Considering that you can find Posh for super-cheap, it's well worth copping for this alone).
Bill Withers: Can We Pretend From +'Justments (Sussex, 1974)
For some reason, Bill Withers has the reputation as someone whose songwriting was better than his singing. I always found this a strange accusation - Withers was certainly a genius writer ("Ain't No Sunshine" anyone?) but it's hardly as if he had a terrible voice. It's true - he didn't have the range or purity of tone like Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke but Withers was comforting and familiar - like a good friend to share an afternoon with. For some reason, he reminds me of what a happier Chet Baker might have sounded like singing soul.
Anyways, most soul/funk heads I know own two Withers' albums - maybe three, but that's about it: Still Bill, Just As I Am and Menagerie (for "Lovely Day"). But I admit, I've always passed by +'Justments and never thought twice about it. Until I listened to it.
The more uptempo, funkier stuff is ok - definitely not as good as what's on Still Bill but it's ok. However, it's the ballads that really shine. "Can We Pretend" is simply sublime, especially Withers' vocal arrangement. Damn, how did I sleep on this for so long?
This is one of those purchases you just make. Don't think, just buy it. Originally released in 2004 and limited to 3500 numbered copies, this quickly sold out. Subsequently it went for hundreds of dollars on eBay (although you can buy a digital copy of it on iTunes).
However, Hip-O-Select recently switched fulfillment houses. Lo and behold, they found 80 copies of this previously thought-to-be-sold-out album. Note: This is not a repress but is part of the original 3500 allotment which will not be repressed.
The album was intended to be released in 1971 but for reasons unknown was held back. It was given a release number and even had a couple of singles released from it. The material recorded never even appeared on future releases.
Click here to get to the order page. Only 1 per customer.
The Harvey Averne Dozen: You're No Good From Viva Soul (Atlantic, 1968)
""You're No Good" kicks off the Harvey Averne Dozen's Viva Soul and the song is so good, so sublime in its affect, so remarkably not like anything else on the album that you wish Averne had pressed this up on 45 so you could have the song without the clutter of the rest of the LP to deal with. Don't get me wrong, Viva Soul is a decent Latin album in its own right and had "You're No Good" not appeared on here, I would still have found pleasure in songs like the mid-tempo mambo, "The Micro Mini." But "You're No Good" opens the album on such a stupendous note that the desperate desire for the rest of the LP to sound the same can only be met by consecutive waves of disappointment as you skip tracks to realize that "You're No Good" is some kind of aberration - lucky to exist but still alone in the world, at least the world of Viva Soul.
Averne himself isn't a great vocalist here - he belts out a passable but unremarkable performance that reminded me of a Tony Bennett knock-off in a Vegas bar. That's not quite as bad as it sounds but Averne isn't about to topple Otis Redding or Al Green off the top of the canon. What makes "You're No Good" so damn good is the chorus of female singers, sounding like the latter-day Ronettes or similar girl group. Averne sings against them in a call and response between himself and what sounds like a bevy of girlfriends he's cheated on. We hear their grievances first as the song opens on a brassy opening of horns and vibes that gives way to a funky, walking bassline and jabbing piano chords. They sing: "I don't trust you when you're out of sight/like you were last night.
On Averne's reply - "I don't want to hear anymore/enough of that jive/I know the score..." - the song brings the horns back in and the arrangement switches from soul into pop, only to swing back to soul when the women come back: "If you love me/like you say do/then make up your mind". It's a great exchange, not quite as tit-for-tat as, say, Otis Redding and Carla Thomas' "Tramp" but like that classic, "You're No Good," is light and playful in its attitude too.
It's those moments, when the women are seeking their revenge that every element in this song: the arrangement, production and vocals, all come together beautifully. There is something both incredibly soulful and funky about these women's singing and it creates that moment of pop brilliance that so many songs hope for but few attain. I don't know what Averne was thinking in writing this song, insofar as the rest of the album doesn't sound much like this cut, but whatever inspired him is our blessing as well."
(Originally written for Side Dishes) I was reminded about composer, arranger and songwriter Jerry Ragovoy when recently writing about Lorraine Ellison (he wrote Ellison's monster ballad, "Stay With Me") and a friend let me know that there was a recent anthology put out by the UK's Ace Records, highlighting his greatest works. (NPR's Fresh Air recently had a piece on him as well.)
It was quite a revelation for me; I knew Ragovoy was an important part of Philadelphia's music history but never knew the extent of his contributions, least of all that he wrote "Time Is On My Side" made most famous by the Rolling Stones but originally written for Kai Winding. That's just the tip of his vast career accomplishments - little did I know that he was behind some of my favorite old songs and listening to this comp, perhaps some of favorite new ones too: Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters: Cry Baby From 7" (UA, 1963). Also on The Jerry Ragovoy Story -- Time Is On My Side (Ace, 2008)
One of the biggest hits in either Ragovoy or Mimm's respective catalogs, this searing ballad was originally penned by Ragovoy and another songwriting great, Bert Berns. Though billed to the Enchanters, Mimms' usual group actually doesn't even appear on the record. Instead, the voices backing him up included the power trio of the Warwick sisters (Dee Dee and Dionne), along with Estelle Brown. To add insult to injury, with the success of "Cry Baby," a #1 R&B hit, Mimms left the Enchanters soon after to pursue his own solo career. The Enchanters: I Wanna Thank You From 7" (WB, 1964). Also on The Jerry Ragovoy Story -- Time Is On My Side (Ace, 2008)
If the Enchanters missed Mimms, they didn't waste much time in replacing him with William Gilmore and armed with another Ragovoy composition and arrangement, the group struck out with this sublime little, gospel-tinged ballad (check out that ethereal organ in the background). Maybe it's just Gilmore's style or maybe Ragovoy was listening to a lot of Chicago radio at the time but this song has always struck me as being reminiscent of the Impressions' styles from the same era. Great song either way. Aretha Franklin: I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face From Runnin Out of Fools (Columbia, 1964)
Co-written with Chip Taylor, "I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face" was originally recorded by Justine Washington and also recorded by Pat Thomas with Ragovoy arranging. The song would gain several more covers, including by another Ragovoy collaborator, Dusty Springfield, but personally, I'm most partial to this 1964 version by Aretha Franklin. Check out this rare video footage of Aretha performing the song. What is so impressive about the songwriting here is how that title phrase is turned around in meaning as the song evolves. Erma Franklin: Piece of My Heart From 7" (Shout, 1967). Also available on Soul Sides Vol. 1.
Janis Joplin may have made the song famous but like many of her best known hits (including several written by Ragovoy), "Piece of My Heart" originated first in the world of R&B, in this case, with Erma Franklin, older sister of Aretha. Erma's performance here is one of the all-time soul-crushers - she unleashes such an unstoppable force of passion and wretched pain. Love the piano on the arrangement too; those keyboard strokes match Franklin's own hammer strokes. (Note: this was another of Ragovoy's songwriting collabos with Bert Berns). Irma Thomas: The Hurt's All Gone From 7" (Imperial, 1966). Also on The Jerry Ragovoy Story -- Time Is On My Side (Ace, 2008).
While I consider myself a fan of the "sweet soul queen of New Orleans," I had never heard this 1966 recording of a Ragovoy written and arranged song for Imperial and it absolutely blew me away. It's not just that Thomas' vocals are predictably on fire but the arrangement here is absolutely aces, especially in how it subtly builds to the chorus where Thomas and the backup singers light things up to a whole next level of greatness.
This is perhaps one of the most unlikely of Ragovoy's hits - he had been hired to work with Makeba to singing American/English material but the night before they recorded, he had seen Makeba perform mostly African songs at a gig and was awestruck at the possibilities of having her record something closer to her own roots rather than simply tackling an American songbook. From that, "Pata Pata" was born and Makeba had a signature hit that also became a major smash in the Latin music world.
This is ridiculously awesome. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings appear on the latest Red Hot compilation, called Dark Was the Night and they are covering...Shuggie motherf---ing Otis and "Inspiration Information," quite possibly one of the greatest songs ever recorded. Ever.
I learned about the old NY public television show Soul! from my friend and colleague Gayle Wald (she of that great Sister Rosetta Tharpe book). Her new book is focused on the history of Soul! which was broadcast beginning in the late 1960s through the early 1970s, first on NY public TV and it had a brief national run too. It was one of the first African American variety shows of its kind, during, arguably, one of the richest eras for Black culture and politics and amazingly, hosted by Ellis Haizlip, an openly gay television and theatre producer.
The performances and interviews from Soul! are incredible; their shows are such a profound archive but for many years, they simply languished in the vaults...until now.
This new site from WNET looks like it's going to start sharing clips and full episodes from the Soul! archive. I can't tell you how incredibly exciting this is (though I did note everything they have up right now is from 1972 and '73...I hope they get permission for stuff from earlier in the show's run. Haizlip has a mind-blowing interview with Louis Farrakhan and asks him, point blank, what the role of gays are in the Black Nationalist movement.
I'm real happy they put up the November 15, 1972 episode, featuring Tito Puente playing salsa and Felipe Luciano breaking down the evolution of Afro-Cuban music in New York City.
MYRON AND E: DON'T LET THIS GET AWAY
posted by O.W.
Myron and E w/ the Soul Investigators: I Can't Let You Get Away From 7" single (Timmion, 2008)
Myron and E are vocalists from my old hometown of Oakland, CA and they've somehow connected with the Soul Investigators of Finland (yeah, the same ones who back Nicole Willis). The result is their first 7", an intriguing slice of retro-inspired goodness that highlights the early/mid-60s R&B scene. "Cold Game," the A-side (hear a snippet here) has been getting more blog-play but personally, I really dig the flipside, a striking ballad that balances the Soul Investigators' heavy rhythm section with Myron and E's fragile vocal touches. To be sure, they don't have the strongest voices but there's something about the lo-fi, almost fragile texture of their singing that really works on this song.
I hear the group is working on their first full-length and if the Soul Investigators track record is any indication, this could definitely be one to watch in 2009. By the way, between these guys and LA's Mayer Hawthorne, looks like Cali's building quite the throwback soul scene.
DJ Shadow: This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way) From The Outsider (Universal, 2006)
Joe: Untitled (This Time) From studio tape (Music City, 197?)
Fans of DJ Shadow will likely remember this great single he put out in 2006 (also on his Outsider CD) called "This TIme" which features a male vocalist knocking out a soulful tune about self-realization.
There's a larger backstory to that song, beginning with a friend of mine in S.F., Justin Torres, who has been a serious record digger in his time and he found a series of enigmatic studio tapes from the vaults of Music City, an old Bay Area studio that had liquidated much of its holdings. On one of those tapes was an untitled song, attributed only to "Joe" and as you can hear above, it's a near-acapella, except for the light acoustic guitar accompaniment that went with the song.
I'm not quite clear on the process through which that original song made its way over to Shadow (though Justin and Josh are friends so that helps, I'm sure) but the good Mr. Davis took that studio tape and added a full musical arrangement.
The folks over at Solesides.com (our brothers from another mother) are "sponsoring" an informal remix contest to flip some new tracks to go with the original acapella. I thought that was a great idea and I knew a few of our readers hear at Soul Sides make beats and this could be a fun way for them to do some of that "added value" thing we hear so much about with the Web 2.0. A favor though? Just to save me some bandwidth, if you want to download the original song, do it from here. Danke!
Email me your finished remixes and I'll try to do a post down the line that has all the best ones include.
By the way, I was totally derelict in bringing people's attention to this sooner but Justin put together a killer mix called The Break-Up Letters, hosted by Good Records NYC. If you don't love it, there's something wrong with you; I'm just saying.
Today, I got the chance to speak with Raphael Saadiq to talk to him about his latest album - the Grammy nominated The Way I See It, his upcoming tour, and some of his influences. OW chimed in with a few questions of his own.
You can get a glimpse of what his tour will sound like with this excellent video/mini concert from AOL Black Voices of Saadiq and band doing songs from his new album as well as a Shalamar medley!
EL: You've done a lot to keep the west coast on the map for R&B. You're from the Bay Area originally (and still live out there) and Cali has had legendary acts such as Sly & the FS and Shalamar. What is the most important thing you felt you've contributed for the west coast?
RS: I follow in the footsteps of those who do what they felt, to do what comes from the heart, and keep 100% true to that belief.
EL: Name some of your favorite Bay Area or California soul songs and/or albums. You can include your own, we won't hate you for it!
RS: Tower of Power's “Oakland Stroke;” Sly And The Family Stone's “There's A Riot Goin' On;” the second Carlos Santana album; Digital Underground's “Sex Packets;” 2Pac's “All Eyez One Me:” and Journey's “Lights”
EL: “Kelly Ray,” the iTunes bonus track, has a very 70s Hi Records sound, especially with the emphatic drum backbeat. The Tony! Tony! Tone! song “Thinking Of You” - it hit me recently how much of a Hi Records sound that record had as well, especially the way you draw out some of the lines and your enunciations – very Al Green-like. What kind of influence does the Hi Records sound have on you making music?
RS: It was played throughout my house growing up.
EL: The bonus song “Seven” that was on the FYE version of The Way I See It - some have said it's a reference to Michael Vick. Was that the basis for writing the song? Also, the music is quite reminiscent of the Four Tops “Still Water (Love)” - was that a reference point or inspiration as well?
RS: Not so much on the Four Tops. Michael Vick was the basis of “Seven.” Once something is done, you can't go back. That's where the line comes in about, “I just want to get my life back,” and back on track. You never know the circumstances behind why people do what they do. We never really know what people are going through and why he smoked before his trial. But the way the media portrayed it.... Sometimes I just base my writing off experiences I see (going on around me).
EL: You worked with some famous musicians on The Way I See It (such as Paul Riser and Jack Ashford from The Funk Brothers). What kinds of talks with them did you have involving the sound you were going for?
RS: Paul worked with Motown since he was 18. Jack Ashford did a lot of the percussion such as the bells. I didn't have to really say a whole lot to them. Those guys are legends.
OW: I don't know if you consider your album to be part of the so-called "retro-soul" movement that other groups, like Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings or Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators are a part of, but I am curious to hear any theories you may have about why the vast majority of retro-soul musicians, songwriters and consumers are all White Americans, Europeans and Australians?
RS: Because they believe in the sound. People have short memories. In America, people tear down the building after they build it; other places, they keep the building up. And in America, people don't take chances. There aren't a lot of pubs or band bars for people to play in. That scene is dead. And the overseas, they admire from afar.
OW: And a related question: why do you think more African Americans aren't involved - either as musicians or consumers - in retro-soul, considering that the music itself is so deeply tapped into this integral moment of Black music history? Do you think it's more structural - in other words, limitations in distribution and radio play - or more cultural, that is, some have argued that African Americans aren't nostalgic for this kind of sound the same way it seems like White listeners are.
RS: Black music follows trends. The musicians are trying to feed their families. (And he agreed that African Americans aren't nostalgic for that sound like White listeners are.)
EL: You've got an upcoming headlining tour coming up after doing some dates following the release of TWISI. What kinds of things can we expect to see on the tour? Any tricks in your hat?
RS: There will be a full band with a raw show, raw music, and some of the older stuff as well. No tricks involved.
The fates of the Franklin sisters - Aretha, Erma and Carolyn - comprise a classic American tragedy. One, Aretha, would go onto spectacular fame and worldwide acclaim (big bow and all) while her sisters, Erma and Carolyn, had brief careers as recording artists but never enjoyed anywhere near the same success. Far worse though, both succumbed to cancer - Erma survived into her 60s, but Carolyn passed away at only 43.
The youngest of the three, Carolyn may have been in her sisters' shadows but she also contributed to both their careers as a songwriter. Especially for Aretha, Carolyn helped co-write her enormously successful "Save Me" and was also behind the mesmerizing torch song, "Ain't No Way." This video (alas, the quality is quite degraded) shows Aretha and Carolyn rehearsing an early version of the song and Aretha makes a special point to big up her little sis.
Carolyn released a handful of singles in the mid-1960s but it wasn't until 1968, when she signed with RCA, that she had her first major opportunity to make it on her own. What is readily obvious from any of her recordings in that era is that she was not trying to follow Aretha's footsteps in either singing or sound. Carolyn wasn't blessed with the singular voice that her older sister had but she shows the influence of good training and natural ability to project herself with power and clarity.
"I Don't Want to Lose You" was one of her first singles for RCA and the very beginning reflects Carolyn's deep gospel roots with a slow-building opening of multi-part choral harmonies that then shifts into a slinky mid-tempo funk tune that allows her to demonstrate why her debut LP was called Baby Dynamite.
"You Didn't Really Mean It" comes from Carolyn's second album, Chain Reaction and this power ballad shows some of the creative production and arrangement details her collaborators Wade Marcus, Jimmy Radcliffe and Buzz Willis (amongst others) put into the effort. Listen to the force of the brass section which is used sparingly but wisely and Carolyn flows into the song with passion and intensity.
I end with a song off of Carolyn's 1976 album, If You Want Me. With a feel reminiscent of Aretha's "Rocksteady," Carolyn lays down a slice of funky soul that's become a favorite amongst connoisseurs. Alas, this would be one of her last albums; she stopped recording on her own after this point and within 10 years, she was gone, undersung but not unaccomplished.
Update 2/8/09: Tharpe has a grave marker now! Long overdue but better late than.... I came from a talk at USC on Friday given by one of my favorite music scholars, Gayle Wald of George Washington Univ. Wald was there to talk about her new book, a biography of gospel/blues/rock n' roll/R&B great Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
A gospel powerhouse (overshadowed by Mahalia Jackson) and rock n' roll pioneer ("borrowed from" by Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry), Tharpe transcended easy genre categorizations; perhaps one reason why her legacy hasn't been as widely recognized or cherished as other contemporaries. I think she's a fascinating icon of cultural liminality - someone who never fit cleanly in any one category and as a result, was often too ahead of their time to earn the recognition that, in hindsight, we pay people like her, Betty Davis, Joe Bataan, etc. During the talk, Eric Weisbard suggested during the Q&A that perhaps Tharpe could be better understood as a pioneering pop star - not in terms of her musical sound but because she was so literate in different musical styles and this helped propel her to superstardom in both the U.S. and Europe. (Wald talked about Tharpe's third wedding, a huge public event in Washington D.C., held at a baseball stadium. She was doing arena rock before the term became known!)
There were some interesting parallels between her life and that of blues giant Bessie Smith: both were these larger-than-life musical figures, Black women (and bisexual) who ended up being buried in Philadelphia, in an unmarked grave. Wald is starting to organize a campaign to buy a gravestone for Tharpe; if you're interested in contributing, go here. (See above)
Of the two songs I included, both are available on one of the recent boxsets that have been devoted to Tharpe. One of the songs is "Beams of Heaven," a song that also features Tharpe's long-time musical partner Marie Knight (and Wald selected this as as one of her two favorite Tharpe songs). As for the other...I figure the title is self-explanatory, a statement on the power of Tharpe's presence and legacy. Can't stop, won't stop.
For a great bonus, check out this 1960s video of Tharpe performing "Up Above My Head" on a gospel t.v. show. It's one of the few surviving films of her performing. Dig that guitar solo in the middle! You can see how striking a performer she was, especially in an era where most Black women were seen as torch singers or maybe pianists...here stands Tharpe with an electric guitar, with a raspy, piercing voice, perfectly comfortable seizing center stage.
Chuito and the Latin Uniques: Wish I Could From From the Street (Speed, 1968)
Someone asked for more sweet soul in the vein of Eddie Holman's "This Can't Be True" AND someone else asked for more Soul Children so I figured I'd knock down two requests with one post. I originally was going to do a whole post on the Soul Children but when Isaac Hayes passed, I used that as an excuse to put up a song he penned for them, "The Sweeter He Is" but that left "Move Over," the other song I was going to pair it with, languishing.
Second, man, that piano really is great isn't it? Just the drama of the chord and then how it blends into the incoming horns. I'm assuming that Norman West on the vocals, pouring his heart out before one of his brothers come in to take the reigns (listen to how Norman even tells him, "sing it brother!!!!" around 1:18).
The thing is though: this doesn't really sound like Holman's brand of sweet soul, which is less produced and more haunting - a lonely voice piercing the silence. And if that's the gold standard, then we got to bring back Bob and Gene's "You Gave Me Love," which Daptone Records released in 2007. I mentioned it back then since I wrote about the song for NPR but never did a formal post on Soul Sides for it so...hey, here you go! The backstory of the group is well-worth reading and I won't repeat it at length (it's in that NPR link) but I'll quote this much (from myself): ""You Gave Me Love" conveys all the innocence and yearning of a high-school love letter, and whatever it lacks in gloss, it makes up for in heart."
Both of these songs are also tunes I'd pick to end a gig with which made me look through my "slow jams" section to see what else I could pull out to complete a trio and I went with the song that I ended this past Boogaloo[la] with: "Wish I Could" by Chuito and the Latin Uniques. I have to write a post on Chuito at some point - it's really one of the best Latin soul albums ever recorded, definitely up there with anything from Joe Bataan or Ralfi Pagan's work (in the meantime, read up on it here). The vocalist on this particular song (the album had several English vocalists, including Tony Middleton) is Danny Agosta, who croons with a longing quaking with teenage innocence and earnestness.
By the way, you will have noticed that I've switched using direct links to the songs; I'm doing so because I'm anticipating the forthcoming transfer of Soul Sides from one host to another and it made sense to start putting new songs someplace where they will be "safe" during that transition. Hopefully, it's not an inconvenience for ya'll.
I like Jay-Z as much as the next dude but even I was surprised that Netherlands' producer Umatic took it upon himself to remix the six songs off the American Gangster album (now over a year old) with tracks by the Lefties Soul Connection, a deep funk/retro soul band (also Dutch). The result: Amsterdam Gangster by Jay's Soul Connection. I gotta say, I wasn't the biggest fan of American Gangster originally; a lot of the songs felt underinspired but the beauty of these remix projects is that they sometimes encourage you to listen to the songs with new ears. Case in point - I didn't pay "Party Life" too much attention the first time around - it was a cool enough tune but just didn't leave a major impression. Yet, I found myself appreciating the word play better with this flip - something about the change in production put the lyrics in a new light.
There's also something serendipitous about the idea of mashing these groups together. After all, Jay-Z's "Roc Boys" was built around a retro-soul song, the Menahan Street Band's "Make the Road by Walking," while "Success" (another song that Umatic remixes for the Amsterdam Gangster project) is pretty much built straight from Larry Ellis and the Black Hammer's obscure funk 45, "Funky Thing". Coming from the other side, one of the Lefties Soul Connection's first songs that came to my attention was their remake of DJ Shadow's "Organ Donor."
Given the mesh between funky band tracks and Jay-Z acapellas, I also thought about another mash-up project - a blog-only remix of "99 Problems" done by The Prince of Ballard (a Seattle neighborhood) back in 9/07. He took a loop from a Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings studio performance and threw Jay-Z's verses on top and it totally works. Interestingly enough, that same loop got worked over by Mark Ronson for Solange Knowles' song, "6 O'Clock Blues."
I've been thinking of the Spinners a lot lately, especially since writing about the Philly Int'l boxset which includes a few of the group's big hits with Thom Bell such as "I'll Be Around" and "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love." The group, originally formed in Detroit all the way back in the mid-1950s, charted an interesting course through the R&B world. Considering that their first #1 hit ("I'll Be Around") didn't come until 18 years (and 3 personnel changes) later, you have to admire their perseverance - one that, unlike other groups who never succeeded despite years of struggle, paid off handsomely for the group by the mid-1970s when they rattled off a string of major chart-toppers, especially their duet with Dionne Warwick, "Then Came You."
However, my first introduction to the Spinners came right before their "golden era." They found their biggest success with Atlantic Records (home to Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway and many other soul legends at the time) but previous to that, were part of the Motown family. True, they didn't flourish as much during their stint with Motown (signed to the subsidiary V.I.P. label) but they did produce one magnificent hit which remains, by far, my favorite Spinners song of all time: "It's a Shame."
To be honest, I first heard "It's a Shame" thanks to the Monie Love rap song by the same name which samples it. And once you hear the original, you can see why it was such an enticing thing to sample - that guitar melody is so indelible but beyond such a powerful hook, the complete composition is bursting with all kinds of musical magic, including the multi-part harmonies and sophisticated arrangement. I didn't know this at the time - but looking back, shouldn't have been surprised - that Stevie Wonder wrote the song, which perhaps explains part of what made it so damn good. (Note: Stevie's contributions to other artists' is just one of the many things that make him one of the greatest talents of the last 50 years).
"It's a Shame" appeared on the Spinners' very last album for V.I.P. before jumping ship to Atlantic: 2nd Time Around. It's interesting to think what might have happened had they stayed with the Motown family (not that Atlantic gave them a massively different sound) since the direction the group was moving in on this album could have put them in line with other groups like the Four Tops or Temptations who were also evolving at a rapid pace in the early '70s with Motown. One could imagine what a producer like Norman Whitfield might have done with the group or the sweet sound of The Corporation who helped make the Jackson 5 so successful.
Just to give listeners a sense of how Motown was shaping the group in that moment, I also included "I've Got To Find Myself a Brand New Baby" from the same album; it wasn't one of their better known songs off the LP but I've always liked its snap and you can definitely hear the Motown influence resounding through this particular song.
(Pure) Essence: Third Rock From WEBN Album Project #2 (Circle Communications, 1977). Also on the Pure Essence 12".
Four Tops: Still Water (Love) From Still Waters Run Deep (Motown, 1970)
Los Fabulosos Festivals: Can I Change My Mind? From 7" (?, 1970)
Hot off on the tail of the Pure Essence post, I just got in the only other song that Cincinnati group ever recorded: "Third Rock." You can hear how similar the vibe is between the two songs; pity they never recorded more given how great their funk sound was. This appears on the second volume in WEBN's very successful Album Project series - a charity LP project that brought together many then-unknown Cincinnati acts together on each compilation. Back in 2005, I actually posted up a song by Roger Troutman (then in the band Roger and the Human Body) that appeared on the inaugural WEBN album.
And Tim Wallen, aka the Bay Area's DJ Tim, recently hepped me to the Four Tops' "Still Water (Love)" which I probably should have been up on years ago but upon hearing it, I suddenly realized why it sounded so familiar: Raphael Saadiq uses the song's rhythm track behind his bonus song, "Seven." While I applaud Saadiq's excellent taste in early '70s Motown, I was a bit surprised "Seven" wasn't an original composition. Either way, listening to "Still Water" makes me appreciate just how interesting Motown was getting in those transition years between the decades. I slept and am still awakening to those new styles.
Last but not least, Beto let me know that Los Fabulosos Festivals' cover of "Can I Change My Mind?" is not, in fact, coming out on the next Panama! comp and he gave me his blessing to share it. I have to say, I really love how this cover manages to stay true to the original but is different enough to grab your attention. For example, the opening is fantastic, with the two bar guitar line plucking its way into the wall of horns that come bursting force. And the Festivals' singer, Ernie King, is great on vocals here (Beto reminded me that King, now named Kabir, appears on the Quantic Soul Orchestra's Tropidelico, singing a cover of Marion Black's "Who Knows?"
SHARON JONES AND THE DAP-KINGS @ CLUB NOKIA
posted by O.W.
Just got back from seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. Decent crowd for a Sunday night - about 2000 in attendance - including ?uestlove who was down in the main bar area, eating Rice Krispies treats.
This is the third time I've seen them perform in a little over a year (last two times were at the El Rey and Hollywood Bowl) and even though their stage show is fairly consistent, tonight was especially cool because they debuted at least three new songs from whenever their upcoming new album (not sure on when that's dropping but one would assume later this year). Sharon also added "A Change Is Gonna Come" to her set list which I thought was awesome given 1) the obvious timing of it and 2) the fact that she pulls it off competently[1].
Speaking of which, I have to say that the single best song in her live repertoire is "Let Them Knock." I don't know why I never paid that much attention to it on the album itself, but in concert, the song is amazing. See/hear for yourself:
After this LA gig, she's headed up to the Warfield in S.F., then Portland, Seattle and back home to New York for two shows at the Nokia in Manhattan. After that, it looks like they're probably hunkering down to finish the album since they don't have any more tour dates (aside festivals) listed.
By the way, I was just thinking about this tonight but for all the built-up drama of Amy vs. Sharon back in 2007, that all has more or less petered out to be nada given that Amy is now milkbox material while Sharon's still out there, doing her thing, and paving a way that, in 2008, saw artists like Raphael Saadiq, Solange Knowles and several others following closely behind. Notch a few wins there for the Dap-Kings.
Before I forget - new Daptone's 45 (on their Ever-Soul subsidiary) is available soon: Eddie and Ernie's "Bullets Don't Have Eyes." I'll blog about this eventually but you can sample it here in the meantime.
Also, while I have your attention. If you're into hip-hop, in the LA area and are looking for something to do on a Monday night, come out to Claremont McKenna tonight for a panel discussion that includes my friend Jeff Chang and colleague Ebony Utley.
And while we're on the topic of upcoming shows, if you're not already up on the Timeless Series (which kicks off next weekend), don't waste time, getting tickets. Mulatu! J-Dilla tribute! Verocai! Axelrod! All backed by orchestras! Holy sh--!
[1] I regret to inform that I was excited to see that Lorraine Ellison does the song on her Heart and Soul LP (which is where "Stay With Me debuted) but it's a pretty terrible version - the arrangement is ill-fitting which forces Ellison to sound somewhat shrill in the process.
I'm definitely not that well-versed in Tyrone Davis' career - most of what I knew about him for a long time was what he recorded in the mid to late 1970s rather than - as requested - his Brunswick/Dakar output. On paper, I would have thought I'd really be into that era of his career; I've generally found Brunswick very reliable in the early 1970s, especially when you have producers like Carl Davis and Willie Henderson in the mix. But overall, Davis' years at Brunswick didn't knock me off my feet - he was certainly a good enough singer but song-for-song, there's a lot there I never really got into.
I would certainly make an exception for one of his first big hits for Brunswick: "Can I Change My Mind" which is, by far, my favorite Davis song (thus far): the horns are fantastic here and there's such a great "boogie on down" swing to both the vocal and musical arrangements. One way in which you can see how far Davis got with it is by looking at the number of covers that followed. One of the best I've probably heard is out of Panama and should be coming out on a forthcoming compilation (props to Beto for sharing) but on the reggae soul tip, you could do a lot worse than Alton Ellis' cover, once again proving that Ellis wasn't only a brilliant songwriter and musician in his own right...he had impeccable taste in music writ-large.
What's interesting about Davis' original, thematically, is how similar it is to one of his other songs from the same era: "Let Me Back In." Of course, there's probably a billion songs about boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wants-girl-back, etc. but given that these singles came very close to one another and even sound alike, you do have to wonder a bit.
Hope I'm not blasphemous in saying this too but I think Jesse Anderson's version pretty much destroys Tyrone's original - a better arrangement, stronger rhythm section and Anderson manages to out-Davis in a Davis-esque singing style. I may simply be biased because I heard Anderson's version before I heard the original but I still think Jesse's got the jam with this one.
I'll end with Davis' deep soul single "A Woman Needs To Be Loved." Doesn't this one have "power ballad" written all over it? Davis is swinging for the fences with that growling, shouting performance and the music keeps in step with its dramatic force and bluesy intensity. Mercy!
Pure Essence: Wake Up (Edit) From 7" (Mantra, 1976). Also available on 12".
Long before L.A. Reid became, well, L.A. Reid, he was one of the countless aspiring musicians to come out of Cincinnati, arguably one of the most talent-rich cities in America. Back then, he was a drummer and ended up claiming one of his first recordings with the band Pure Essence, lead by Steve Tucker. Short-lived (they only ever recorded two songs), Pure Essence still has made quite the splash when their "Wake Up" 7" was "discovered" a couple years back and for quite a while, the single held down holy grail status, with only a literal handful in circulation.[1]
Stonesthrow decided that this song - a masterful example of mid-70s funk with a modern soul touch - was worth reissuing and they went the extra distance, first by combining parts 1 and 2 into one single mix (my edit does the same thing but cuts it off much sooner). They also add the group's other recording, "Third Rock" on the B-side, basically giving you the group's entire output on a single 12".
I don't have much in my collection in this same vein but I can see why this style of funk has become so big amongst DJs - that bubbling bassline, Reid's chattering drums, and (Tucker's?) sweetly smooth vocals, plus that change-up towards the end of Part 1 where the song goes into that infectious chorus: perfection.
[1] I'd like to say I found this after spending 13 hours in a basement outside of Toledo but the truth is...I got it off eBay. Bless you, Buy-It-Now!
The year 2008 found me actually buying less music than in years past, although I'm sure my wife would disagree. While 2K8 wasn't a stellar year for me musically speaking, it did have some standout moments, with some coming unexpectedly.
For instance, I was sure I was going to hate the 808s & Heartbreak album. That damn autotone has been played out this year. I had heard the lead single on the MTV awards show when Kanye premiered the song and liked it, but I wondered how he would pull off an entire album of it. The guy isn't exactly Percy Sledge; for that matter, he's not even Chris Brown. Then I heard the album and was blown away. For an artist to give a middle finger to what convention says they have to release, those are the moments that people remember. The minimalism of the 808s album gave the music room to breathe. I'm not sure another “hip hop star” could have pulled off an album like this.
James Pants: Cosmic Rapp From Welcome (Stones Throw, 2008)
The second album I thought I was going to hate but ended up being one of my favorites of the year was the James Pants debut. When I saw the initial press release about Mr. Pants and heard the lead single, if I'd had a remote control, the channel up button would have been pressed right away. Electro hip hop isn't typically my bag. But Egon was kind enough to sneak in a promo of the album, and I couldn't just throw it away. So one day on my drive to work, I popped it in. Had I not been driving, I'd have busted out some cardboard and cut some moves – even if I can't really breakdance. Something about this album makes me wanna pop and lock.
Then there were the albums I never would have given a chance had it not been for more surprises in the mailbox. Both came courtesy of World's Fair, the distribution group that releases Daptone material.
Curumin: Misterio Stereo From Japanpopshow (Quannum, 2008)
This gem is a hypnotizing little number. Brazilian native Curumin serenades his objet du coeur. I'd never heard of Curumin previously, although this was his sophomore effort. Chief Xcel and Gift Of Gab liked him so much after meeting him during a tour stop that they were able to help him get signed. This song goes to show they knew what they were talking about. Such a beautiful song.
Postmarks: One Note Samba From By The Numbers (Unfiltered, 2008)
When I saw last month's femme pop post, I immediately thought of this album. Lead singer Tim Yehezkely and her ethereal voice took me somewhere I hadn't been since Goldfrapp's “Pilots (On A Star).”
Q-Tip ft. Norah Jones: Life Is Better From The Renaissance (Motown, 2008)
On the hip hop front, Q-Tip roared back from the majors ostracizing his previous efforts. Some of the material was combed from shelved projects Live At The Renaissance and Open and either used as-is or re-recorded. However, one of the standout cuts was his shout out to hip hop history with the haven't-heard-her-this-funky-since-maybe-ever Norah Jones. Tip shouts out Dilla, Busy Bee, Rakim, Nikki D, and Lauryn Hill to name a few over a slinky keys and plucky bass guitar.
People Under The Stairs: Anotha BBQ From Fun-DMC (Gold Dust Media, 2008)
Perhaps one of the most criminally underrated and consistent hip hop acts, Thes One and Double K released another funky outing. “Anotha BBQ” is the perfect way to describe their music. It truly feels like the soundtrack to a Saturday barbecue. You can always expect PUTS to cook up something funky. While word wizardry might necessarily be their strong suit, the lyrics perfectly marry the music.
And although this artist normally wouldn't get categorized for this blog, John Mayer has really been doing some great bluesy styled work over the last couple of years getting nods from legends such as B.B. King and Albert King. If you were fortunate enough to catch one of his shows this summer, you got to hear him perform a sweet blues version of the Duffy hit “Mercy” with the backing band doing some nice brass work.
John Mayer: Mercy Unreleased (but recorded with the artist's permission for archive.org)
Top Albums (in no particular order):
1. Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It 2. The Final Solution – Brotherman OST 3. Q-Tip – The Renaissance 4. Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band – Take your pick of their reissues on Warner UK or the live set and jams albums that Rhino Handmade issued 5. Kanye West – 808s and Heartbreaks 6. People Under The Stairs – Fun DMC (honorable mention to their Om Years 2-disc set) 7. James Pants – Welcome
Mophono, aka DJ Centipede, is a Bay Area DJ and producer whose put out three very cool 7" projects on CB Records so far. His first was more of a downtempo experiment from 2005, the I Cry EP but his last two have both been remix projects. My favorite has been his reworking of Bob and Earl's 1963 hit, "Harlem Shuffle" which strips down the song's basic parts and reassembles them with a funk (and psych) edge that gives the song a completely new feel - far more raucous and dark than its original inspiration. I liked it even more than the A-side, a remix of Archie Bell's classic "Tighten Up."
On his latest 7", Mophono tackles two hip-hop classic sample sources - including "Groovin" by Allen ToussaintWillie Mitchell which should be familiar to Wu Tang fans the world over. On the A-side, he plays with "The Edge," by David McCallum (but produced by David Axelrod) but first begins with an impressive chop job of Sly Stone's pre-Family Stone single "Rock Dirge" and its glorious drums.
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires: My Sweet Lord From Reggay Splashdown (Dynamic, 1971). Also on Hot Reggae Splashdown.
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires: Live and Let Die From Reggae Fever (Dynamic, 1972). Also on Trojan Beatles Tribute.
I am really derelict for not getting to this sooner. Byron Lee, one of most prolific artists in Jamaican history, died on November 4th, 2008 (alas, not long after one of his contemporaries, Alton Ellis, also passed away). I should have had a dedication post up weeks ago but it slipped my mind until recently.
Lee's always had a special place in my heart since he was one of the first reggae-artists-not-named-Bob that I ever discovered and his album, Reggae Splashdown was probably one of my early introductions to reggae soul (it doesn't hurt that he was also half-Chinese). It's one reason why I wanted to put Lee's cover of "Express Yourself" on Soul Sides Vol. 2.
"Slow Run" comes from Lee and the Dragonaires' self-titled album from the late '60s - long after the band had become legendary in the Caribbean but before the founding of Lee's own Dynamic label where most of the albums in the '70s and beyond would appear. It captures well the burgeoning "funky reggae" sound sweeping through Jamaica in the era; a real slick instrumental.
"My Sweet Lord" is one of my favorite of Lee's covers - a beautifully rendered version of an already classic song. And heck, since we were already on a Beatles tip, I figured I'd throw in another cover - this of "Live and Let Die" (best James Bond song ever?). First time I heard this, I figured it'd be kind of cheesy but the reggae-reworking of the main melody is surprisingly effective.
One of the upsides to Lee's prolificness was that his albums are still easily found in any record stores with a half-decent reggae section. Find your own and celebrate this late great's catalog.
THE YEAR IN MUSIC: PART 2 (THE NEW)
posted by O.W.
(from l-r: Alicia Keys, Estelle, Cool Kids, Lil Wayne Chico Mann, Menahan St. Band, Q-Tip Robin Thicke, Solange Knowles, Mayer Hawthorne, Raphael Saadiq)
(This post began life on Side Dishes and has "evolved" since).
As I suggested in PART 1, my tastes in 2008 were decidedly retro. Even the new songs I liked still sounded like they were recorded in 1968. But I'm not going to artificially stack my list below to make it seem like I wasn't stuck in some weird throwback mode for most of the year. Here's my favorite new songs of the year:
When I first heard this in early summer, I kept thinking, "it's got the build-up of a Supremes song but then never delivers. The Neptunes' beat just felt weird as a result and I initially dismissed it. Yet, each time I'd hear it, I'd just want to keep listening longer, maybe subconsciously waiting for the "real" beat to drop, but whatever the case, I soon enjoyed it for what it was - infectious pop in the best tradition of Ross and her Supremes. This was, much to my surprise, my favorite pop single of the year.
Estelle: No Substitute Love From Shine (Atlantic, 2008)
Of course, Solange was hardly the only femme getting her retro-twist on. Besides her, there was also Little Jackie and Estelle, whose Shine album was one of my favorite of the year (see below). I had a hard time choosing which of her various songs were my favorite - I guess I could just have easily gone with the ragga-fied "Magnificent" or the swinging, uptempo "Pretty Please" (produced by Jack Splash, aka my new favorite producer). But "No Substitute Love" (produced by Wyclef) lingers a touch longer in the ear for some reason - it's really all about the hook and the way Estelle pulls her notes out and milks those long vowels.
Not that I haven't alreadywritten enough about Q-Tip this year but I'm still marveling at how good a comeback he's made. It's one thing to want to champion an artist, it's another thing when they exceed your expectations. Q-Tip's return was set off by the excellence of this first single that told you some of his ol' magic was back.
The Cool Kids: 88 From The Bake Sale EP (Chocolate Industries, 2008)
Rappers for the hypebeast generation, I like the Cool Kids even if I have little interest/love for their hyper-hipster consumerism. But hey, I'm not that into the crack trade either and that never stopped me from enjoying rappers who only seem to rhyme about Pyrex and fish scales. In the end, pair two decent flows and production that sounds like Magic Mike-meets-Rick Rubin-meets-Salih Williams and that's a good combination.
Raphael Saadiq: Seven From The Way I See It (FYE Exclusive) (Columbia, 2008)
For all my reservations, I still think Saadiq pulled off one of the best crafted albums of the year, bringing together a masterful blend of '60s soul styles onto one album. However, my favorite song of his this year was actually a bonus cut from the "FYE exclusive" version (who the hell is FYE?): "Seven." I was told that this song is actually a veiled reference to Michael Vick (#7) and if you listen to the lyrics with that in mind, you can hear it. Even without that weird, pop culture nod though, I like how everything on this song comes together: the reverb on the melancholy guitars, the tap of the tambourine, and most of all, that synthesizer that comes in on the chorus with its buzzy texture. (Thanks to Eric L. for the hook-up).
Chico Mann : Dilo Como Yo From Analogue Drift (forthcoming)
Captain Planet: Boogaloo From Jazz Loves Dub (Rudiments, 2008)
My DJ partner, Murphy's Law, put me up on both of these by playing them at Boogaloo[la]. Of course, one could cite nepotism in the case of Captain Planet's tune since the two of them are brothers but hey, family relations aside, "Boogaloo" is a great, catchy instrumental that moves with a snappy step and some deft drum programming (love the fill that takes the song out of the bridges). Likewise, the yet-to-be-officially-released "Dilo Como Yo" ("as I say") has a slick Afro-flavored rhythm section and speaks the universal language of tooty-synthesizers.
Funk instrumental albums are a relatively rare breed but Brooklyn's Menahan Street Band pulled off one of the slickest albums in that vein this side of the James Brown Band circa Popcorn. Off that, I couldn't stop listening to "Home Again!" which has this beautifully laid-back feel thanks to the mellow guitar and horn section. Not sure why they put a ! on the title of such a languid composition but I'm more than happy to shout its praises.
Lil Wayne: Let the Beat Build From The Carter III (Cash Money, 2008)
I still think Carter II was the better album but hey, I'm not going to begrudge Wayne his success this year (the record industry needed some good news). But even if Carter III didn't quite exceed expectations, Wayne still came with some killer cuts. "A Milli" made a huge impact but the song that I kept coming back to was "Let the Beat Build." What can I say? Gospel-tinged vocals + Wayne's verses + slowly evolving beat = untouchable. So sick it gave birth to ill twins (see Honorable Mentions below).
Mayer Hawthorne and the County: Just Ain't Gonna Work Out From 7" single (Stones Throw, 2008)
This Detroit native turned L.A. transplant takes Allen Toussaint's drums and lays it under a simple but catchy melody and then unleashes that soulful falsetto to get the groove right. Heartbreak rarely sounded so achingly sweet.
Erykah Badu: Honey (DJ Day Remix) From 7" (Day1, 2008)
Take one of the best songs from one of year's best albums and then give it a fantastically smart and intuitive remix and you get this. In hindsight, it probably seems obvious to remake Badu's "Honey" with Delegation's "Ooh Honey," but Day gives the pairing a natural depth (something he excels in as heard previously in that Marvin Gaye edit) that, dare I say, makes his remix sound better than the original.
Robin Thicke: Ms. Harmony From Something Else (Interscope, 2008)
As I wrote in the L.A. Weekly, Thicke's sweetest confection off his third album was “Ms. Harmony,” a bossa nova-flavored blend of dreamy guitar melodies, Latin percussion and Thicke’s own, mojito-cool vocals. I don't much more to add except to say that I've been playing this as an "end of the night" song for parties and my, my, my, does it work nicely.
STUFF THAT'S RELATIVELY RECENT BUT I ONLY DISCOVERED THIS YEAR:
Alicia Keys: Teenage Love Affair From As I Am (J Records, 2007)
I know this album came out in 2007 but, um, I just started to listening to it this past week and "Teenage Love Affair" has been on constant rotation since. Single-song-repeat rotation. Part of why I'm so taken by it is how Jack Splash juices up the loop from the Temprees and gives Keys' tune such a richness and catchy drive. The other half is how Keys handles this song with just the right blend of burgeoning sexuality and chaste coquettish-ness. I think I have a school boy crush on "Teenage Love Affair."
Quantic and Nicodemus: Mi Swing Es Tropical From Ritmo Tropical EP (Tru Thoughts, 2005). Also on Shapes.
Like the Ray Barretto I wrote up on Part 1, I owe my discovery of this to Rani D. I love both songs for the same reason: electric piano + Afro-Latin sabor = unbeatable combination. That and, on this song, Nicodemus' vocals lend a gruff contrast to the soothing sweetness of the melody. I can't believe I never heard this until this past year since I'm a big fan of Quantic. This is easily my favorite track of all his tunes.
1. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War 2. Cool Kids: The Bake Sale EP 3. Estelle: Shine 4. Final Solution: Brotherman OST 5. Kanye West: 808s and Heartbreaks 6. Q-Tip: The Renaissance 7. Raphael Saadiq: The Way I See It 8. LIl Wayne: The Carter III 9. Menahan Street Band: Make the Road By Walking 10. V/A: Verve Remixed 4
Although the Donny track is quite well-known, it's one of those songs that just can't be overplayed. In fact, I find myself playing it year round. Sure, it has its checklist of Christmas references – fireside, trimming trees, caroling – but it never feels forced like so many non-traditional Christmas songs. The production is excellent with its uplifting horn arrangements and even that teaser fade out/fade in ending. I'm assuming it's an Arif Mardin production, although I don't have the liner notes handy. It's amazing how little information there is available on not only this song, but a more in-depth look into Hathaway's career as a whole.
On “Jesus, What A Wonderful Child,” John Legend channels his church background for a holy spirit-filled exercise. With just 88 keys at his fingers is where he really excels. This track is available on the 2006 Target-only release; if you're lucky you might still be able to catch it at Target during the holiday season. Glory Hallelujah, indeed! If you can find the EP, I highly recommend getting it as it's got other stripped renditions, including a beautiful performance of “Oh Holy Night.”
THE YEAR IN MUSIC: PART 1 (THE OLD)
posted by O.W.
(from l-r, Alton Ellis, Edwin Starr, Labi Siffre, The Impressions Joe Bataan, Stevie Wonder, the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band Bobby Matos, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Skye 7")
(This post began life on Side Dishes and has "evolved" since).
I had a strange realization the other week: 2008 might be the first year where I spent more time listening to older music than new music. This hasn't been out of nowhere - it's been a long-term shift but it hit me, when I was trying to come up with the standard "Top 10" list that I'm not even sure if I actually listened to 10 new albums in '08.
Not just that: even the new music I did like tended to overwhelmingly be music that sounded like it was from another era - Raphael Saadiq, Solange Knowles, Mayer Hawthorne, etc. For real - if there was one big presence in my 2008 year-in-review, it was Motown! Not only do quite a few Motown artists fill up my "old music I discovered this year list," amongst the new artists, several of them ride off the Motown sound and one of them (Q-Tip) is actually signed to Motown. I turned 36 this year but why do I feel like my tastes are that of a 66 year old?
On one hand, your tastes are your tastes and if that's the direction I'm leaning, maybe I should just shrug and enjoy it. I don't have the professional pressure to have to stay as current as my colleagues do but as I said last year, I also don't want to be a born-again baby boomer (even though my fascinating with the 1960s has only grown this past year).
So here's my New Year's Resolution For 2009: I shall listen to more new music and ideally, not new music that sounds like old music. (We'll check back a year from now and see where I'm at).
This all said, here's Part 1 of my year-in-review, beginning with old music I (re)discovered.
Edwin Starr: Running Back and Forth From War & Peace (Gordy, 1970)
I get music recommendations from all sorts but no one is more influential than my friend Hua who has probably put me up on more of my more recent "new favorite songs" than any other single source I know. It helps that he has kick ass taste as well as a circle of friends in NY who have equally good taste and so I get some of these recommendation second, even third hand but heck - I ain't too proud!
Case in point: this lesser known single off Starr's big selling War and Peace album. It's easy enough to forget that there was any other songs from that LP given how successful and iconic the "War" single became but when I first heard "Running Back and Forth," I had a proverbial jaw-drop over how good it was and that it'd be from the same album. This song oozes with classic Motown production strengths of its era (RIP Norman Whitfield!), especially in its brass and the driving push of the sound bed. Seriously, try to piece apart all the little bits of the music; it is dense yet comes off sounding clean and simple. In contrast to Starr's forceful polemicizing on "War," here, he's in classic love man mode, trying to kick some game. (Bonus points for the Sam Cooke nod on the bridge).
Labi Siffre: A Little More Line From S/T (Pye, 1970)
This British singer, songwriter and poet has a voice you can't soon forget - it's not the most powerful, nor the most dynamic - but it is so distinctive and soothing, it stays with you long after the song's end. I especially love how this song builds from an almost hymnal opening only to swell in size and sound with the string orchestration and some killer work on the drums. Siffre's entire catalog from the '70s is classic material (even if many of you probably have never heard of him). This was from his debut album and it's just as good of a place to start as any to enjoy his gifts.
Alton Ellis: What Does It Take To Win Your Love From Sunday Coming (Coxsone, 1971)
There is something humbling discovering this song the year of Ellis' death. My awareness of him preceded his passing but I had been giving Ellis' cover of Jr. Walker's hit much spin in the first part of the year that when Ellis passed away in October, I found myself coming back to his catalog again and again. Ellis was arguably reggae's finest soul man, not just with his covers but also original compositions.
The Impressions: I'm Loving Nothing From This Is My Country (Curtom, 1968)
In a year of Obama's ascendency, there are no doubt more apropos songs from the Impressions' catalog but the song of theirs that will haunt me is "I'm Loving Nothing." Its beauty seems almost profane given that this is all about the death of love. Not something you'd want as a first dance at your wedding but doesn't it sound like an embrace rather than slow turn away?
Bonnie and Shelia: You Keep Me Hanging On From 7" (King, 1971). Also on New Orleans Funk Vol. 2.
King is best known as the home of James Brown for many of his pivotal funk productions of the late 60s but at least for this single, the Cincinnati-based label picked up a slice of NOLA funk thanks to this excellently produced tune from Wardell Quezerque. One of my new favorite femme funk tracks, "You Keep Me Hanging On" reminds me a lot of the snap and sass of Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff." Hang with it.
Ray Barretto: Pastime Paradise (Good Parts Edit) From La Cuna (CTI, 1981)
Gotta thank my man Rani D for hepping me to this Barretto song. As big of a fan I am of the late master's work, I had never listened to anything he did past the early '70s and I was mightily drawn to how good this cover of Stevie Wonder's song is. The sound of this song is just so gorgeous, especially the first few minutes but I did have to admit I wasn't quite as enamored with the vocals...and cheesy sex...and bad, Santana-wannabe rock guitar. So I just cut all that out and left you with a 1/3rd length "best of" edit from the song. Like Bobby B. - it's my prerogative.
Joe Bataan: Ordinary Guy (7" version) From 7" (Fania, 1967)
"Ordinary Guy" has been Joe Bataan's enduring hit for over 40 years but this version, which only appeared on 7" single, isn't well known and when I first heard it, I was instantly enamored. It's not entirely clear what Fania's thinking was but they brought in pianist Richard Tee to give the song a a subtle new dynamic, most obviously heard in how different the new intro is. Tee's piano has a strong presence, especially with an arrangement that sounds very much like the beginning of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Precious Love." This is probably my favorite version of the song, precisely for that intro which gives the tune such a rich, soulful feel to it.
Bobby Matos: Nadie Baila Como Yo From My Latin Soul (Phillips, 1968)
I've owned Bobby Matos and Combo Conquistadores' incredible My Latin Soul album for years, but I had somehow totally overlooked the incredible charm of "Nadie Baila Como Yo" (nobody dances like me). It wasn't until I heard the Boogaloo Assassins play it at their shows that I was reminded of how damn good it is; it's since become, easily, one of my favorite Latin songs ever. Love how it changes up from a guanguanco into a son montuno and has those beautiful keyboard chords anchoring.
Skye: Ain't No Need (Unity Mix) From 7" (Ananda, 1976)
When I was out in New York earlier this year, Jared at Big City Records slipped a reissue of this 45 into my hand and I was hooked (and then later, managed to procure an original from the Groove Merchant). Sometimes all you need is a good groove and this obscure disco single from the mid-70s delivers a one helluva great groove that just goes on and on and on. Under other circumstances, I'd find the whole thing repetitious but somehow, I don't tire of it. Ever. (I created this "Unity Mix" which combines the original mix and disco mix in a simple edit).
Stevie Wonder: Send Me Some Lovin' From I Was Made to Love Her (Motown, 1967)
Heck, I could have filled this list with Stevie Wonder songs I've been rediscovering but "Send Me Some Lovin'" has stood in front of that line. I love the small touches of funk to the arrangement, especially those pianos at the very beginning. This has a fantastic groove to it and you put Stevie's distinctive vocals on top of that and you have an unbeatable combination.
Songs that are technically new (i.e. that just came out) but are based on older recordings:
This was a real gem from the Puckey Puckey anthology that I wrote the liner notes for. It's a completely alternate recording of the Watts 103rd's big hit, "Express Yourself." Compared to the original, this one is far more languid, like the group was nearing the end of their recording day and just wanted to something to chill out to, maybe smoke a bowl to (as they were known to).
Final Solution: I Don't Care From Brotherman (Numero Group, 2008)
Provided - their name was terrible. No one wants to think of the Holocaust while groovin' to sweet soul - but even if the Chicago band formerly known as the Kaldirons probably could have chosen a better name for themselves, at least the music speaks for itself. The album - a soundtrack for a blaxploitation film never made - has an interesting backstory all its own but for now, all you need to know is how damn good "I Don't Care" is. Especially when paired with that melancholy but heavy guitar melody by newcomer Carl Wolfolk, there's something sublime about how the group's falsetto voices come coasting in on top of the track. It's a mix of slow-building drama with an angelic set of voices, lending a gospel-like quality to the music's otherwise dark undertones.
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On (DJ Day Edit) From 7" single (MPM, 2008)
This single just came out a week or so ago and it finds California's DJ Day reworking an alternative version of Marvin Gaye's classic "What's Going On" in a way so clean and organic that even Motown fanatics would swear it was a lost tape from the label's vaults. I don't know why it sounds so perfect with the season but there's something warm and comforting about this that makes you want to wrap yourself in it.
Frankly, this song had three killer remixes that I found almost equally commendable including Diplo's remix of Marlena Shaw's "California Soul" and the smoky Chris Shaw remix of Sarah Vaughn's "Tea For Two". But if I had to pick amongst that trio, this Nina Simone reworking took the slimmest of leads, possibly because it's so damn happy (which is not an adjective I often associate with Her High Priestess. Seriously though, this whole album is nice.
ALICIA KEYS + TEMPREES: A MATTER OF EXTREME IMPORTANCE
posted by O.W.
Alicia Keys: Teenage Love Affair From As I Am (J Records, 2007)
The Temprees: (Baby) I Love You From The Lovemen (We Produce, 1972)
If people thought my recent discovery of Lorraine Ellison was surprising, get this: I basically slept on the entire last Alicia Keys' album until, um, now. Provided, being 15 months late (Keys) may not seem much compared 40 years (Ellison) but considering that Keys' album is multiple times platinum and she's not exactly an obscure pop figure, it's understandably strange that I would have missed the boat on this one...especially since I genuinely like Keys. But somehow, I totally missed the release of As I Am back in Sep. of 2007 and with the exception of "No One" (which was inescapable), I hadn't heard anything else off it.
So it's pretty funny that suddenly, "Teenage Love Affair" has been on constant rotation. It's rarely that I dig a new pop song that much...in fact, the last tune to have earned the "repeat 1" button was...Keys' "You Don't Know My Name." You would have thought I would have learned the last time!
So yeah, yeah, I get the late pass. I don't really care though - better late than never to discover one of your favorite songs of the year...a year late. Few thoughts:
1) 'Nuff respect to Jack Splash for hooking up this Temprees song. Ironically, I posted on the very album this song appears on earlier this year but I never really gave "Baby, I Love You" much spin and it took Splash's track to make me better appreciate the O.G. tune (viva sampling!). Dare I say though: he gives the original loop a boost that makes this a rare case where the progeny >>> progenitor. Specifically, the way he makes the guitar even more prominent and milks the keys are what help give Alicia's song such a memorable musical hook. Nice work and it also made me look up Splash's overall credits which, I was pleased to note, included some of my favorite songs off Estelle and Solange Knowle's albums. (Jack - if you ever want to do a summer songs post, holler).
2) Some have accused Keys of going too far towards the "big diva" vocal over-singing and while I can see that applied to "No One," I found her performance here more nuanced. The high point comes with the bridge towards the end where she slips into her "First base, second base" countdown. And while it may be in keeping with the song's "high school love" theme for her to "pump the brakes" on third base, it was refreshing to hear a pop song that wasn't drowning in sexuality. Not that I mind the latter but maybe as a parent now, I find a touch of chasteness to be charmingly chaste.
I was cleaning out one of my folders and realized that I had digitized a few Bo Diddley songs for a post meant to commemorate his life after his passing this year...but then forgot to put them up. Oops. Please file under "better late than never."
The first two come off of DIddley's Another Dimension, an album he recorded for Chess in the early '70s. I have no idea how these went over with Diddley's older fans but for funk heads, it's always been one of his best albums, largely thanks to the drum work by John Birganti who just nails a few ace breaks on this album. Birganti (I've also seen his name spelled Briganti) is a curious figure; he only appears on a few albums, including a Ben E. King LP, but he actually helped write "Go For Broke" and certainly adds a defining touch to many of the songs on this album.
"Bad Side of the Moon," I was surprised to learn, was originally an Elton John song; you would have sworn it was some Dr. John tune given that its swamp funk feel. Once again, Birganti laces this song with a beaut of an opening break, especially as it drops in from that echo effect at the intro.
"I've Had It Hard" is one of the many Bo songs to use his much vaunted, clave-influenced "Bo Diddley beat." It's so much a part of his musical signature that once you hear that little "bam-bam-bam...bam-bam" shuffle come in, you instantly think of Diddley. This one's from Where It All Began (always loved the cover art for it), another one in his early '70s catalog, though this one leans back towards his blues material compared to Another Dimension.
The movie had its problems but of course, it's an early cut so hopefully, they'll iron those out. The more important thing is that, thanks to it, I heard, for the first time, this song:
Mary Wells: Two Lovers Marvin Gaye: I'll Be Doggone The Supremes: The Happening Eddie Kendricks: Shoeshine Boy T.G. Shepherd: Devil in the Bottle Brenda Holloway: You've Made Me So Very Happy All from The Complete Motown #1s (Motown, 2008) As for many children of baby boomers, Motown was my introduction to soul music thanks to what I'd hear my dad listen to in the car. But even though I - like millions of Americans - would become intimately familiar with Motown's train of hits over the years, it took much longer for me to actually, truly appreciate the label's musical aesthetic.
I think partially that's because even though Motown was my entryway into R&B, it was Southern soul - Al Green, Aretha Franklin with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Stax, etc. - that was my first love when it came to rhythm and blues. And while the whole Detroit vs. Memphis dichotomy is overbaked (the two unquestionably inspired one another through the years), for a long time, by throwing my camp in with Soulsville, that meant a frostier relationship to Hitsville. Motown's sheer ubiquity certainly didn't help, especially when I wanted my musical tastes to run deeper than The Big Chill soundtrack.
But once you get past the snobbery of not wanting to like what a billion other people like, it's hard to deny the beauty and polish of Motown, whether you're talking about the incredible songwriting from folks like Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder to Holland-Dozier-Holland's expert writing and production to the musical mastery and output of the Funk Brothers. Alas, I don't have the space to rap rhapsodic about the complexities of Motown's grandeur, but you can readupon your own.
Just in time for the holidays, Motown has put out an impressive new, 10 CD boxset called The Complete Motown #1s which compiles, from 1960's "Shop Around" (The Miracles) to 2000's "Bag Lady" (Erykah Badu), all 191 of Motown's chart-topping hits (plus 10 bonus songs). All this is packaged inside a stunning box designed to look like the original house Motown called its home. Good packaging may feel like a lost art these days but I have to say; this one knocks it out the park.
This said, I do have some nitpick critiques to make and I'll just get these out of the way first. To begin, organizing an anthology by focusing exclusively on #1 hits is normally the compilation equivalent of preaching to the choir. You're basically selling people the songs they already know. It's lucrative, to be sure (just ask these guys), but musically speaking, it's not meant to be adventurous.
Moreover though, it also raises the question of how you define what a "#1 hit" is and the compilers deployed some creative means in order to arrive at 191. Most of these songs were #1 on either the Billboard pop or R&B charts and that's perfectly reasonable, but at times, they also dip into other magazines like Cash Box and Record World when the Billboard charts are not, shall we say, cooperative? The biggest stretches are for songs like the Commodores' "Lady (You Bring Me Up)" which was #1 in the late summer of 1981...in New Zealand. At that point, you have to wonder if they're just trying to pad the numbers.
That said, in all fairness, this boxset isn't trying to be anything more than it is: the greatest of greatest hits collections and Motown hasn't exactly slumped in plumbing the full depths of their catalog through other means, including the incredibly, exhaustive "Complete Singles" series, which (so far) has stretched from the first volume which covered 1959-61 up through the upcoming volume 11a which is just for the first half of 1971. (These series also fill in my other beef with the Complete #1s: the lack of liner notes in the booklet (which does have great photos and full discographic info). That's not to mention the equally compelling Cellarful of Motown series of unreleased and rare vault selections.
As for the upsides of the boxset, the first is that despite having what you would think is song after song of "obvious" hits, it's easy for even a seasoned Motown fan to get reacquainted with more than a few songs that weren't always as monster as, say, The Supremes' "Baby Love" or the Temptations' "My Girl." For example, I had forgotten about how excellent Mary Wells' smoky ballad, "Two Lovers" was or how Marvin Gaye's "I'll Be Doggone" was so subtly funky and melodic at once. And then there were songs I had never heard before, including The Supreme's "The Happening" (a #1 pop hit in May 1967) or Eddie Kendricks' "Shoeshine Boy", a slick 1975 R&B hit. You also get the idea that the compilers probably had a kick in including Motown's two country hits, both by T.G. Shepherd who recorded for the Motown subsidiary, Melodyland and scored #1s in 1974 and '75.
Appealing to my desire to want to go beyond just the top of the charts, I appreciate the bonus tracks, which were all Motown songs recorded by other artists who then hit #1 with them. This includes a few songs which you would have thought were #1s originally, such as Martha and Vandellas' "Dancing in the Streets" (which later would become a #1 hit - albeit done astoundingly cheesy - for David Bowie and Mick Jagger in 1985). But that also included a few songs that I didn't realize originated with Motown, such as "You've Made Me So Very Happy" which I've always associated with Blood, Sweat and Tears in 1969 but was first recorded by Brenda Holloway in '67 (and done beautifully, I may add).
Analyzed by chronology, one of the things that surprised me about the Complete #1s was how quickly the comp is done with the '60s, which I've always considered to be the label's halycon era; by midway through Disc 3 (and this is a 10 disc set, remember), we're already into the '70s. Of course, those first three discs also contain probably the best known Motown hits within America's collective memory, in terms of what we think of when we think "Motown."
I was also struck at how strongly the sound of Motown shifted even as early as 1969 or so. New artists like the Jackson 5 with "I Want You Back" or producers like Norman Whitfield, working with the Temptations were radically shifting the style of Motown, partially in a nod to the changing sounds around them but also as a result of infusing the label with new blood. Equally striking is what ends up missing from Motown's 1970s era - many songs you might associate with the label's talented roster weren't, in fact, ever #1 singles, such as Stevie Wonder's "Love's In Need Of Love Today", arguably one of the greatest composition he ever recorded. Likewise, while Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" is duly represented, he doesn't appear very often after that (only twice) but it's not as if Gaye's career ended in 1973. What you realize is that Motown's great achievement wasn't based around singles any more (even though the label enjoyed a slew of those still); it was really about albums at that point - a quality of Motown's greatness that, unfortunately, this comp can't capture given its basic concept.
This has to be contrasted against the vast breadth of the offerings though - even if just looking at singles isn't the most accurate way to appreciate Motown's evolution, it is awe-inspiring to realize that the same label that brought you the Marvelette's "Please Mr. Postman," would be the same one to also drop Obama's favorite, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder, Rick James' "Superfreak" and Boyz II Men's "End of the Road."
In the end, the Complete #1s is designed for the populist Motown fan, the one who will be drawn to its consolidation of 40 years of chart-topping smashes nicely boxed (and seriously, it is nicely boxed) into a neat, simple package. Ideally though, it's meant to serve as a starting point rather than end. Once you cross the recreated door on the box's front, it's easy enough to lose yourself within Motown's sprawling house of hits.
THE VAN DYKES: SINGIN' IT LIKE IT IS
posted by O.W.
The Van Dykes: No Man Is An Island The Van Dykes: Hey Lonesome Man From Tellin' It Like It Is (Bell, 1967)
I first heard "No Man Is An Island" at the Groove Merchant and was instantly mesmerized by it though I couldn't put my finger on it at the time. Musically, this Forth Worth, TX vocal trio is backed by such a minimalist accompaniment - there's that low hum of the organ and a little electric guitar and that's about it - no drums, no bass, no piano, etc. But there is Rondalis Tandy's falsetto - oh yes, there is that. And backed with Wenzon Mosley and James Mays, the whole package manages to distill a pure essence of soulfulness that it is forever haunting.
The song was originally recorded for their producer Charles Stewart's label, Hue, but was quickly picked up by Mala Records where the group enjoyed a run of about half a dozen singles (most of them are expensive and in-demand). In 1967, Bell (which Mala was a subsidiary of) compiled most of these singles together for the Tellin' It Like It Is LP and then also added "Mr. Lonesome Man" (which hadn't appeared on single before). On that song, Stewart (I presume) adds "more" of a musical accompaniment but even with the addition of a bass, it still comes back to the piercing vocals to give the song its biggest impact.
Alas, the group didn't last for very long, apparently breaking up by 1968, with two of the members staying in TX while Tandy moved off to California. Despite their relatively short career, the group has attracted a serious following over the years, with several compilations dedicated to their material. Take a listen and understand why.
Perhaps the only thing as humbling as incredible music are people who share incredible music. That's why I'm always thankful that people like Matthew Africa have gotten into blogging - his "I Wish You Would" is a must-read; if you're not looking at his site at least as often as you check this one, you're missing out. After all, Matthew is dropping that AAA grade butter tracks like Michael Sardaby's "Welcome New Worth" and Frankie Beverly and the Butlers' "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" on the regular. If folks knew how hard it is to come by songs like that, you'd understand where the humbling comes in.
Along these lines: a truly, devastatingly humbling song is what some call face-melters:
It requires more of a song than to be merely "good" to qualify as a face-melter. It has to be something so unexpectedly awesome that its inherent greatness is enough to slough flesh off your skull (metaphorically speaking). Here's a trio of my favorites:
Most people were introduced to Black Rock's thunderous "Yeah Yeah" thanks to the now-legendary Chains and Black Exhaust mix-CD from 2002 and I had been put up on it a couple years earlier by DJ Om. The face-melt part comes partly from how the song opens so enigmatically, with its deep, booming "Blaaaaaaaack Rooooooooock" and those strings that build towards the unexpected hammer drop of piano, guitar and drums that come crashing in at about 30 seconds in. Hold ya head! This is still one of the best funk instrumentals I've ever heard (in fact, if you got ones that top it, comment please and share the wealth of knowledge).
"Caramelo A Kilo" is a bit of flamenco funk from a pair of Barcelona brothers. I can't quite tell if "Caramelo A Kilo's" origins are Spanish or Afro-Cuban (I'm inclined to say the latter) but regardless, Los Amaya give the song the rumba catalana make-over with those wicked gypsy guitars, heavy bongo beats and a swinging set of vocals: the sonic embodiment of caliente. Way too short at less than two minutes!
As for "Godofallofus"...*whistle* I've heard plenty of excellent gospel funk but New Hope finds some next level with a song that sounds like it was made for hip-hop use, just 30 years ahead of time. Those drums! That tuba! Those horns! Those crazy, Hair-era arrangements and ARP synths. As DJ Format and Mr. Thing knew to call it: Holy. Sh--. This whole song is one long mind-blower. (Props to Young Einstein for the hook-up on this LP).
NAT TOWNSLEY JR. AND THE LIGHTHOUSE ENSEMBLE: SHINE ON
posted by O.W.
Nat Townsley Jr. and the Lighthouse Ensemble: Sunshine of My Shoulders Nat Townsley Jr. and the Lighthouse Ensemble: I Know Love From I Fell In Love With God (Peacock, 1975)
Asked...and ye shall receive.
By popular demand, people wanted to hear the full version of Nat Townsley Jr. and the Lighthouse Ensemble's "Sunshine On My Shoulder" - perhaps one of the last songs you'd ever predict would get a gospel makeover but Townsley Jr. and crew do a marvelous job with drenching this song in suitably sunny joy and verve. This is what I love about gospel soul...despite being a devout agnostic (if not reluctant atheist), I appreciate how gospel aims for the transcendent and ecstatic. After all, if you're trying to commune with God through music, ain't no half steppin'!
That's not to say every gospel soul song works aesthetically but they do tend to aspire towards the big and bold and you can certainly say that about both "Sunshine on My Shoulder," as well as "I Know Love" which is on the B-side of the same album. I can't say I enjoy the entirety of its 6+ minutes but there's that long passage that begins around 2:30 that is this high point you want to stay inside as long as possible.
I should have blogged about this prior to last night, when there was an event and book signing in Santa Monica around the above book but hey, you still have a few days to Hanukkah/Xmas/Kwanzaa to cop this tome.
I should first include the following disclaimer: Josh Kun, one of the co-authors, is one of my mentors and a good friend and I also appear in the book, having contribute a short essay on David Axelrod's The Auction (see below). That conflict-of-interest alert aside, here's some thoughts on this.
Trail of Our Vinyl is a different kind of album cover book. On the surface, it would seem to share much in common with books like Cocinando! or The Book of Hip Hop Cover Art - hundreds of album covers, interspersed with contextual essays. However, the point of divergence comes with the core purpose of the book, revealed in its subtitle: "The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We Have Loved and Lost." This book is all about collective memories as encoded in records and thus the range of themes are sprawling and complex (like memories are). In essence, this is less a book about music than it is a book about Jewish American identity as told through music, and more specifically, made material in the form of LPs and their evocative covers.
Thematically then, the book has a very loose chronological organization but is far more based around particular areas of Jewish-ness, ranging from "Men's Warehouse: The Changing Sartorial Styles of the Great Cantors" to "Go Down Moses: The Music of Black-Jewish Relations" to "The Sound of Suffering: Holocaust, Soviet Jewry, and Martyrdom on Vinyl" to "Stop Singing Our Songs: Non-Jewish Masters of the Jewish Melody."
Each accompanying essay is less about the album covers depicted after and more about discussing slices of Jewish American history and/or cultural/community dynamics, all "documented" by the 400 or so album covers included therein. It's a level of thought and engagement that's considerably more sophisticated - but still quite readable - compared to similar books which tend to be more about chronicling music genres rather than the communities behind them.
However, like many album cover books, there isn't as much discussion about album covers. The artwork is the obvious visual draw but though we get a few in-depth essays about specific albums or artists (such as what I contributed), a lot of these images lack context and that's one thing I personally have always wanted more of - a discussion about how artists (or their labels) choose certain images or styles (this is something, for example, the Blue Note books do better, but again, not really on an LP by LP basis.
The grand thing about our internet age though is that the limitations a book places on that kind of in-depth discussions can be, instead, moved online and indeed, on the Trail of Our Vinyl blog, Bennett and Kun add those deeper anecdotes. (Be sure to check out the interview with Johnny Yune, Koraen American performer of Ose Shalom fame.
As you may guess, my two favorite sections were about cross-cultural adventures in Jewish music, namely the chapters on Black-Jewish relations and "Me Llamo Steinberg: The Jewish Latin Craze." Part of me is just drawn to the long-standing kind of inter-ethnic/racial dialogues that are created through music and certainly, for Jewish American musicians, there is no shortage of examples to point to.
Orchestra Harlow: Horsin' Up From Presenta A Ismael Miranda (Fania, 1968)
Harvey Averne: You're No Good From Viva Soul Atlantic, 1968)
David Axelrod: The Auction From The Auction (Decca, 1972)
We start with the El Judio Maravilloso, the "marvelous jew" Larry Harlow whom I wrote about a few months back. Undoubtedly the most influential Latin artist of Jewish descent in the NY Latin scene of the '60s and '70s, Harlow seemed to be one of those born-again Puerto Ricans who were such a vital part of the Nuyorican Latin scene (you can put Joe Bataan and possibly Jimmy Castor in that same category). "Horsin' Up" seemed like an apt selection given its own cross-cultural references - the song is a boogaloo-ed mash-up between Archie Bell's "Tighten Up" and Cliff Nobles' "The Horse". I should add: this is a strange album too since it was recorded in 1968, right in the middle of Harlow's (reluctant) boogaloo period but Fania didn't release the album until 1972 (go figure).
Apart from Harlow, the other major Jewish artist in the same circles was smooth singing Harvey Averne who found modest success recording for Atlantic, Fania and Averne's own Coco label. Averne's Viva Soul has long been a favorite of mine (and his self-titled LP on Fania is another one for a later post), especially "You're No Good" (which I blogged about way back in 2004) which benefits beautifully from the use of the female back-up singers and Averne's own rich vocals.
Lastly, I included the title song from David Axelrod's The Auction, which, like almost all of Axelrod's 70s albums, was a concept LP. This one was in reference to American slavery (the "auction was not in reference to eBay) and this is what I had to say about it in Trail of Our Vinyl:
"the slick, funky sound of Adderley's band gives way to the gravely voice of lead Billie Barnum who sings of "young girls...helpless in their shame" while soloist Gwendolyn Owens speaks of "little children sold...while masters traded them for gold." It's a heavy, bleak sentiment - oddly contrasted against Adderley's gliding grooves - but it's also the kind of eclectic and provocative work that Axelrod excelled at."
And since this is a book of album covers, I picked out a few of my favorites:
I went for images that appealed to me visually and/or had an intriguing comment to make on visuals alone. For example, The Immortals album by Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson is very striking for its simple but unambiguous reference of blackface - a popular convention amongst the group of vaudeville singers that included Cantor and Jolson and a practice whose inherent racism was also complicated by its popularity amongst immigrant Europeans.
Speaking of duality, the cover of Two Sides of Pinchik captures the cantor's crossed identities perfectly - one as the religious figure, one as a quasi-pop hopeful. As Kun joked at this week's talk, which identity Pinchik chose came with its own hat.
The Star of David housing a raised fist is the sole image on Rabbi Meir Kahane's minimalist spoken word album, a stark but loaded exercise in saying less with more, design-wise.
Lastly, how can you not like the groovy cover for Israel Hit Parade 2? Party on dude!
1. Jing Jing A Ling ~ Honey and the Bees (Chess) 2. Merry Christmas, Baby ~ Otis Redding (Atco) 3. This Christmas~ Donny Hathaway (Atco) 4. Stevie Wonder Drop (Motown) 5. Snowflakes~ Betty Lloyd (Thomas) 6. What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas? ~ The Emotions (Volt) 7. The Gift of Giving ~ Bill Withers (Sussex) 8. Eddie Kendricks drop (Motown) 9. Soul Santa~ Funk Machine (Creative Funk) 10. Silent Night Chant~ Rotary Connection (Cadet Concept) 11. Christmas in Vietnam~ Private Charles Bowen (Rojac) 12. Let's Make This Christmas mean Something This Year ~ James Brown (King) 13. Without The One You Love ~ The O'Jays (Neptune) 14. Gwendolyn Berry (The Sisters Love) Drop 15. Let's Get It Together This Christmas ~ Harvey Averne Band (Fania) 16. Gee Whiz, It's Christmas ~ Carla Thomas (Atlantic) 17. Back Door Santa~ Clarence Carter (Atlantic) 18. I Wanna Spend Christmas With You ~ Lowell Fulsom (Kent) 19. Mr. Santa Claus (Bring Me My Baby)~ Nathaniel Mayer (Munster) 20. It's That Time of the Year ~ The Manhattans (Starfire) 21. Santa's Got A Bag of Soul ~ The Soul Saints Orch. (Jazzman) 22. Pull My Sled ~ Raindeer Runners (Soul Fire) 23. Merry Christmas Baby ~ Charles Brown & Johnny Moore's 3 Blazers (Hollywood) 24. Smokey Robinson Drop
The Delfonics: Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time Spinners: I'll Be Around O'Jays: Give the People What They Want Teddy Pendergrass: Love TKO All from Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia (Sony, 2008)
'Tis the season for Philly soul. Right now, a series of media forces are all converging around the release of Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia, a new 4-CD boxset which came out in October. Last week, the engineers of the Philly sound, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff were on NPR's Fresh Air, talking about their legacy and right now, various PBS stations are carrying a two-part television special (check your local listings; PBS.org was surprisingly of little help).
Maybe it's because I listen to Philly soul joints quite often and maybe it's because I had started reading John Jackson's exhaustive biography of Philadelphia soul, A House on Fire, but I was surprised to learn this recent attention is unusual. Motown/Detroit and Stax/Memphis have had lavish compilations, books and documentaries showered upon them over recent years but apparently, not so much Philadelphia Int'l Records (PIR), the label founded by Gamble and Huff that would become the prime engine (though not the only one) behind the Philly sound.
Love Train is meant to rectify that - at least partially - and its 71 songs, many of them now familiar to us as soul classics, are meant to remind us of how big an impact PIR has left on the pop music world. Certainly, there's no shortage of incredible hits on here; a few personal favorites would include The Delfonics' masterful sweet soul ballad, "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time," The Spinners' catchy, "I'll Be Around," William Devaughn's summertime cruising classic, "Be Thankful For What You Got", the O-Jay's crackling bit of funk, "Give the People What They Want," Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' magnificently mellow, "Hope That We Can Be Together Soon," and Teddy Pendergrass' monster slow-jam, "Love TKO."
I'll come back to the merits of Love Train as a boxset in a moment but to riff on just the sound of PIR...I always thought Philly soul was almost like a logical progression directly out of the Motown sound, in other words, if you took what Holland-Dozier-Holland was doing circa '66 and imagined what it'd sound like in '71, voila! Gamble-Bell-Huff. It's not that the latter were derivative - or better said, what R&B outfit wasn't influenced by Motown in that era? - but rather, there's something in the clean arrangements and glossy production that reminds me of Motown's style (with a healthy dose of Chicago's multi-harmony vocals sprinkled in). It also doesn't hurt that PIRPhilly producers inherited a few acts from Motown, including the Jackson 5 for a quick spell, but especially the Spinners, who had a solid career with Motown but then blew up even bigger with PIRThom Bell working with them on behalf of Atlantic.
But whatever general stylistic differences may have existed between the two cities, in the 1970s, it's hard to deny that the success of a label like PIR - and I don't just mean in sales - easily rivaled that of the Motown juggernaut. Motown's '70s output really peaked around 1971, the year PIR began recording in earnest and in terms of overall consistency, PIR took a big part of the lead in shaping the sound of soul throughout the rest of the 1970s, especially up through the much maligned disco era.
In capturing the breadth of that sound, Love Train does as good a job as you can ask but at the same time, it is - after all - a greatest hits compilation. As such, it suffers from the same problem as all boxsets of this nature; it's preaching to the choir by serving up the songs you already know. That's not meant to be a harsh criticism - a set like this is a great point to begin with and therefore, a necessary first step - but as a soul fan, I'm more looking forward to a future anthology that goes deeper into other songs beyond the chart-toppers. That's what's happened in recent years with labels like Motown and Stax, where there has been a massive effort to plumb the depths of both to find new material to assemble (on that note, so far, Motown's been killing it, especially with their Cellarful of Motown series, but given Stax some credit for their whimsical, Soulsville Sings Hitsville which compiles Stax artists covering Motown songs).
As I said, I'm hoping Love Train isn't a high-point for exploring the magic that is TSOP; let all this new attention be the starting line for far more explorations in the years to come.
Mr. Chop: The Infinity Machine From Lightworlds EP (Now Again, 2008)
Three years ago when you thought of Now Again, progressive wasn't the first word that came to mind. Sure, they have a different approach than the majors - sell what you would want to buy yourself, not what you think the consumer wants. That's the luxury of having a core audience who, at the very least, samples most of your releases because they respect your label. But when you thought of Now Again, you thought of soul reissues and lost treasures unearthed. It was like finding that $5 in a pair of jeans in your laundry basket and thinking, "Oh yeah, glad I found that again!"
With labels like Numero doing their own brand of stellar reissues, as well as the boys across the pond at Jazzman releasing some wonderful compilations, and Daptone forging their own way down Soul Street with retrosoul, you began to wonder where Now Again fit into the market. Although it's doubtful that they will abandon the reissue field altogether, they're looking to expand their sound.
Last year, we were introduced to the self-described "Out There" sounds of The Heliocentrics. This year - enter, Coz Littler, aka Mr. Chop. Featuring some of the same personnel from The Heliocentrics along with other UK session musicians, you're taken on a journey to the center of nowhere... and everywhere. And maybe even beyond that. It's too encapsulating to call it electronica because it blends the sounds of electronica with psychedelia and so much more
Malcolm Catto comes with some of the hardest hitting drums this side of the Milky Way and Jake Ferguson's bass is just as aggressive. On the opener "The Infinity Machine," it feels like a space chase. The sound is coming at you from all directions. With synthy strings and steady bass, you are taken on an epic sonic journey. "Zoid" has a slow build while "Conversations" is less song and more musical thought and tinkering, which is not to say "Conversations" is bad; it fits right in place with the rest of the EP.
Are you in a spy thriller? Have you been hit by a bus - or about to be? Have you been abducted by aliens? The answer to all three feels like a resounding yes. It's not that you feel like you're scared for your life; it's just that your heart is racing like it.
I'm in another one of those "swamped by work" times but here's a trio of Motown tracks that have been keeping my spirits groovin' along of late.
The Stevie is one of the gazillion album cuts that he has that help you realize: dude was limitless in his talents in the '60s through '70s. Any given album would have all kinds of great songs that never made it to single (and those that did, usually became hits). Check out that ridiculously funky backing track the Funk Brothers lay down here.
Likewise, the Marvelettes song is one of their funkier outings; a smoky, mid-tempo stepper that shows off some of the group's multi-harmony magic.
Vocally though, it's hard to beat this incredible Brenda Holloway song that comes from the unreleased vaults of Motown. Absolutely stunning arrangement and performance from Holloway (and those back-up singers put the icing on).
SALE SALE SALE ON DAPTONE CATALOG
posted by Eric Luecking
Per Daptone newsletter:
Daptone Catalog on Sale! For a limited time, the entire Daptone Records .mp3 catalog is on sale at Amazon.com for $6.99 each. You can also download a FREE sampler featuring a track from every one of our full-lengths. Daptone Records Digital Sampler on Amazon.com.
1. The Sugarman 3 Feat. Naomi Shelton "Promised Land" 2. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "100 Days, 100 Nights" 3. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Pick it Up, Lay it in the Cut" 4. The Budos Band "Chicago Falcon" 5. The Mighty Imperials "Thunder Chicken" 6. The Budos Band "Up From the South" 7. The Daktaris "Eltsuhg Ibal Lasiti" 8. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "How Long Do I Have to Wait for You?" 9. The Sugarman 3 "Chicken Half" 10. The Sugarman 3 "Turtle Walk" 11. The Poets of Rhythm " More Mess On My Thing" 12. Bob & Gene "I Can Be Cool" 13. The Como Mamas Feat. Mary Moore "Trouble In My Way" 14. Menahan Street Band "Make the Road by Walking"
Recently I had the opportunity to chat with John Legend about his new album Evolver as well as where he's been and where he's going.
EL: It's great to see a superstar artist in this day and age who is multi-talented. You can write, sing, and play instruments. Why do you think there aren't more artists that labels can promote as superstars like they have with you?
JL: Every situation is unique. This is a difficult business. Some times it's the choices that the artist makes. But the labels are chasing what the consumer wants, and that doesn't always line up with the type of artist who can do all that.
EL: How do you balance artistic expression with both fan and label expectations. For John Legend, where does music meet business and still come out honest?
JL: First and foremost, I have to be proud of the music and make the best music I can. If I'm excited about it, the label is going to be excited about it. I try to think of the fans, because I want them to be pleased, more than thinking about what the label expects of me.
EL: So album #3... Evolver has a more pop, radio-oriented sound. You stated during an interview with Chris Douridas for New Ground last year, "By not sticking to the script for the second album, it allows me to not stick to the script for the third." Talk about why you decided to present an album such as Evolver as opposed to a more conventional, soul album.
JL: I just want to keep pushing and challenging myself. Making the same album over and over gets boring. The world keeps moving, and I want to keep moving with it.
EL: I think "If You're Out There" off the new album is a great call to power song and might be more fitting as a theme song to your Show Me Campaign than what "Show Me" is/was. It's like the 2008 version of "We Are The World" without the oversaturation of artists in the song. Can you talk about your inspiration for this song and how it resonates with the average American's psyche right now?
JL: It's perfect for now. I think there is a hunger for change, and you have to inspire people to move. People got out to vote who hadn't previously. People got involved. But I also hope that people are inspired to get out to work with charities and get informed with decisions that their congressmen are making.
I think that "If You're Out There" is a more fitting song for the campaign, but "Show Me" was a big inspiration to start it.
EL: What does it mean to you as a person and as an artist to be able to be the opener for a presidential nominee national convention to sing "If You're Out There"? That's not an honor bestowed upon many.
JL: I am honored to be a part of history. It was great to back a candidate who I think was the most qualified.
EL: Back to Evolver... The Sunday Times, a UK publication, reviewed Evolver and had the following to say:
"...his contemporary soul, lovely though its melodies are, suggests facility rather than passion, skill instead of instinct.... You suspect Legend aspires to be a modern Stevie or Marvin. He has ended up as the 21st-century Lionel Richie."
How do you respond to that?
JL: Well it definitely sounds like a diss, but it's their right to make that assessment. While I'm not as familiar with Lionel's work as I am with Marvin and Stevie's, Lionel has written some great material. So while they're trying to make it sound like a diss, I feel like my work stands on its own.
EL: You've written your own songs as well as for others, much like Isaac Hayes. It seems like the singer/songwriter tag has been lost on the black artist when being spoken about by mainstream publications. Do you consider that a disservice to you and other black singer/songwriters?
JL: I don't see it as a slight. Some times they do label me as a singer/songwriter but not necessarily in the sense of a guy who picks up a guitar and sings folk songs. I think they use it as a genre categorization. So, no, I don't see it as a slight.
EL: The lost artform: the original movie theme song. The AP wrote a terrific article last year about studios/directors selecting previously recorded material to create their soundtrack as opposed to having artists create new works to set mood throughout the film. You've recorded some very beautiful, yet below-the-radar material for the 2007 films Pride and August Rush, both of which you either wrote or co-wrote. Why do you think original songs have become less common? Is a full soundtrack something you'd be interested in doing?
JL: Right now, the market for soundtracks is down so studios don't want to spend as much money commissioning an artist for original works. Plus, movies sell better when they use a more familiar song during the commercial. It comes down to what the studios want to spend.
A full soundtrack is definitely something I'd be interested in if the right project came along.
EL: You're one of the few artists that I've heard who can seamlessly switch from a full band show to a one-man band show. Some examples include the Knitting Factory live CD and a show from the Jazz Cafe that the BBC broadcast online before the Get Lifted album came out, both of which were just you and a piano. Have you considered releasing an acoustic album of either new material or compiling acoustic versions of previous material such as some of the Live At VH1 sessions?
JL: I definitely want to do it and have had a lot of requests from the fans for an album like that; so look out for that in the future.
EL: You performed a cover of "I Won't Complain" on Oprah a couple of years ago. Any chance you'll pull a reverse Sam Cooke and go from pop (back) to some gospel roots?
JL: Anything can happen. I'm comfortable with a lot of styles, and "I Won't Complain" was a lot of fun to perform.
EL: Is there any album session you wish you could have been a part of as a session writer or musician, oldies or current?
JL: The first thing that comes to mind is the "What's Going On" album. It's such a great album.
EL: With all the soul greats essentially dying off year by year (Barry White, Ray Charles, and James Brown a couple of years ago; Isaac Hayes, Norman Whitfield, and Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops this year), each having left his indelible mark not only on soul music, but popular music in general, what mark do you hope to leave on popular music and how will you go about approaching it?
JL: I just want to be remembered as a great songwriter and performer. I'd like to be remembered as an artist who made some classic songs. Hopefully I'll continue to perform for a long time.
EL: Speaking of performing, I've seen you live a couple of times - from your Get Lifted tour in 2005 and this past summer at Indy Jazz Fest in addition to your DVD releases. I've noticed you've gotten more comfortable with being out front dancing and not necessarily being tied to the piano.
JL: I have become more comfortable with being out front. It's an expression of the music, I think, and the fans come to connect with you. So I want to connect with them. Some of it, too, is that certain songs don't call for a piano, and so it wouldn't make sense to just sit there behind a piano on them.
Finally took some time recently to look at two music-related DVDs.
The first is I Got the Feelin': James Brown In the '60s, a 3-DVD set comprised of two concerts (Boston Gardens, 4/5/68 & the Apollo Theater, 3/68), plus a documentary, The Night James Brown Saved Boston.
The latter is in reference to one of the astounding cultural moments of the turbulent late '60s: the day after MLK's assassination, Brown came to Boston and it was decided that not only would the show go on, but WGBH would broadcast the show throughout the city as a way to "keep the peace." To that degree, it was successful as Boston did not suffer the same levels of rioting or arrests as other major American cities.
Here's some video from one of the tensest moments from that evening:
The doc is by director David Leaf (same guy who made John Lennon vs. the U.S.) and I have to say; it's worth the price of the box-set itself. I thought the film did an excellent job of not just framing the events leading up to and following the April 5th show, but more importantly, it contextualizes the complexities and contradictions of James Brown as a civic, cultural and political leader of the time. I think there's a conventional wisdom that Brown was a shrewd opportunist - which he was - but in an era of such remarkable strife in America, Brown also tried to step up in the social realm as well and while he certainly wasn't the most consistent of activists (see: endorsing Nixon, oof!), is complexities help make him a richer character study; something this documentary drives how very, very well. To boot, it has superior production values and some incredible footage of the time.
So good in fact that I wasn't as invested in watching the actual show itself though, at some later point, I'll probably go back to it. The Live at the Apollo '68 footage was compelling as well, especially since it's intercut with segments of James Brown reflecting on the state of America while being filmed, walking around uptown New York. It's not, in my opinion, his most scintillating concert (you need to find his Olympia, 1971 show, holy mother of god) but it's shot and recorded well. The extra bonus footage of him performing with the Famous Flames from 1964 is especially killer. For one, his performance presence was well-honed from early on and second, his performance of "Out of Sight" is such a clear predictor of his future funk innovations. The other DVD I watched was Joe Bataan: Mr. New York Is Back from Vampisoul, the Spanish label that released Joe's comeback album, Call My Name. I have to confess, much as I wanted to really like this - and I'm obviously a big fan of Joe - it does feel kind of slapped together. For one, the video relies on a single interview done with Joe with poor lighting and apparently, no boom mic so the sound isn't great. It's not unwatchable but it also doesn't feel particularly professional. Overall, the documentary has its moments, especially with all the vintage photographs that they dug up for it but especially having just seen The Night James Brown Saved Boston, the difference in production is easily seen.
Here's a trailer for the doc:
Second, the English version hires someone for whom English isn't his first language and while he's intelligible, his sense of English's spoken cadence and pronunciations is off enough that it proves to be a distraction.
Third, among the bonus material, there's a discography that's full of wrong dates and albums that aren't actually part of Joe's formal discography; sloppy stuff.
Ok: the good stuff? Also on the bonus material are two different videos, filmed in Europe I believe, for "Rap O Clap O," Joe's big hip-hop hit from 1979. Just as time capsule, both are great and can be enjoyed both genuinely and ironically. The bonus material also includes a somewhat poor recording of a 1995 show at S.O.B.s but also has better footage from a 2005 show in Spain (though again, the audio quality is notably thin).
Here's a bonus video (not one of the ones on the DVD) of one of Joe's European appearances:
In short, I'm glad something like this is out there but it also suggests that there's room for improvement for a future Joe Bataan documentary to tackle.
Call it the gift that keeps on giving (well, ok, more like a smart marketing idea) but while Saadiq's new album has been gaining all sorts of fans with each passing week, he's helping maintain interest by putting up several bonus tracks on different versions of the album. (Thanks to Eric Luecking for keeping me up to date).
Both keep true, more or less, to the sound and style of the album itself, especially "Kelly Ray" which clearly nods to the aesthetics of the Hi Records Rhythm section (down to the that signature, heavy Al Jackson backbeat). However, I'm a bigger fan of "Seven," which doesn't hew so closely to any single style though the fuzzy guitar reminds me of something out of Motown's early '70s, psychedelic-influenced years. And unlike the light, pop-y lyrics of "Kelly Ray," this song is both personal and topical - powerful stuff.
Little Eva Harris: Get Ready - Uptight From 7" (Spring, 1968). Also on The Spring Story.
Bonus: Mighty Mo: The Next Message (Version) From 7" (Peace Find, 2007)
Today's pick six follows on the Latin Party Starters post I made a few weeks back; this time, I offer up a selection of funk tracks. I, by no means, have that impressive of a funk 45 collection but I tend to collect for efficacy rather than rarity.
That's why James Brown is such a blessing - much of his better material is easily attainable since he was so popular and prolific. "The Chicken" is a great example of his late '60s funk styles, more minimalist than his '70s output which tended to be more dense and involved. Something like "The Chicken" is such a clean, simple funk instrumental and no doubt, an inspiration to the dozens of bands who began to churn out similar funk tunes to this and other stuff off the excellent Popcorn LP.
The Sugar Pie DeSanto cut comes from a few years earlier - it's a great example of "proto-funk," one of the many sides from the early 1960s which clearly foresaw the kind of rhythmic energy that the end of the decade would be awash in. Though this song appears on the James Brown's Original Funky Divas anthology, the Brown connection here is somewhat tenuous - he didn't produce the single but his former drummer Nat Kendrick did lead her backing band here. Also, the version here is the original 1962 release (which to me was far superior). The version on the comp was actually an alternate take from 1964 which was much faster but loses something in the trade-off. (Thanks to Cool Chris and the Groove Merchant for this one).
I first heard the John Ellison cut at Miles Tackett's long-running "Funky Sole" party and the first thing it reminded me was Don Gardner's "My Baby Likes to Boogaloo" because of that hard, gritty guitar line that comes in after the intro. That is so my sound. Ellison was one of the Philly soul/funk artists to come out on the Phil L.A. of Soul label but this one, alas, isn't as easy to catch as, say, the People's Choice. I'd love to get any recommendations for other stuff with "that sound".
Lou Courtney's "Hey Joyce" is one of those frustrating 45-only cuts from an artist who has quite a few LPs under his belt but didn't manage to put this song onto any of them. Between Pete Rock and Brainfreeze, this single has had a following for years and you can hear why; it's got everything - an opening breakbeat, killer horns, an absolute gem of a rhythm section and two sets of background singers. Are you kidding me? They don't get much better than this.
The Toussaint McCall might be one of the greatest funk instrumentals (outside of James Brown and Meters) that's so easy to come by, you should be asking yourself why you don't already have this (if you don't already have this). I mean - this thing has what? Two parts: organ and drums but it sounds like a monster.
The Little Eva Harris is probably something I first heard at Funky Sole as well - you know me and covers - the moment I heard this, I knew I had to have it. Seriously - she is killing the "Get Ready" cover and you medley-mix that with Stevie's "Uptight"? Holy s---, that's hot. Her backing band tears this whole track up. Great, great, great stuff.
For a bonus, I added this sort-of new 45 from Finland that Jared Boxx hepped me to last time I was in NYC. The A-side is a cover of Grandmaster Melle Mel's "The Message" but I'm actually partial to the "version" mix on the flipside. Even though the melody from "The Message" isn't as obvious here, the sparser approach appeals to me more but both sides bring down the hammer. Copies of this may be hard to grab still but do your best; you'll be happy you did.
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