Manzel - Midnight Theme (Dopebrother - 2004)

Manzel - Midnight Theme

Midnight Theme is a compilation gathering instrumental tracks composed between 1973 and 1978 by a US army lieutnant, Manzel Bush, and some of his friends in small Kentucky studios. Manzel Bush never got signed by a major label despite his producer, a guy named Shad O'Shea, efforts and only three of his songs, Midnight Theme, Space Funk and Jump Street were indepentely released as 45 rpm. 30 years later, Midnight Theme is one the most sampled breakbeat of hip hop, being used by the likes of Golden Age legends Eric B & Rakim, Cypress Hill, De La Soul or Grand Puba. Manzel sounds a bit like what the Mizell brothers did for Blue Note in the 70's or Roy Ayers albums of the same period: a very cool spacey jazz funk. This 2004 reedition was supervised, mixed and remixed by Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez himself for a top notch result.

David Axelrod - Heavy Axe (Fantasy - 1974)

David Axelrod - Heavy Axe

I know, I know, another David Axelrod post for the third time in less than a month. Even if Heavy Axe is not as good as Songs Of Experience or Song Of Innocence, it's still a very good effort from David Axelrod, with one certified masterpiece, the last track, Everything Counts. Everything Counts is the closest song on the album to what you can expect from an Axelrod track: killing breakbeat, a heavy bass, a scorching production with a melancolic twist and tearjerking strings. The rest of the album is more in an easy listening/jazz/soft R&B mode, with the help of Cannonball Aderley on the saxophone. Curiously the later is featured on the worst tracks, especially a cheesy cover of Stevie Wonder, Don't You Worry About A Thing.

Donna Hightower - This World Today Is A Mess b/w Dreams Like Mine (Decca - 1972)

Finding informations about Donna Hightower on the internet is not that easy. Maybe because This World Today Is A Mess is her only real commercial success. It's a nice piece of uptempo, singalong, feel good, easy listening soul song, despite lyrics that are not that optimistic. The B side, Dreams Like Mine, is a gorgeous soul downtempo number.

Donna Hightower - This World Today Is A Mess b/w Dreams Like Mine

David Axelrod - Songs Of Exprience (Capitol - 1969)

David Axelrod - Songs Of Experience

Songs Of Experience is the second part of David's Axelrod homage to William Blake after Song Of Innocence, record I posted last week. Songs Of Experience is a little less dark and slightly more cinematographic, heavy on a rich psyche and sexy instrumentation and a bit less on breaks. It reminds me a lot of soundtracks Ennio Morricone made at the same time. This album stays as well as one of hip hop producers favorite samples mine, especially DJ Shadow who largely used parts of The Human Abstract to make his masterpiece, Midnight In A Perfect World.

David Axelrod - Song Of Innocence (Capitol - 1968)

David Axelrod - Song Of Innocence

What to say about this record? This is the kind of album that made me want to start this blog. Just to make it discover to someone that never heard of it. It is so good that it's hard to say which song is the better. Song Of Innocence is a pure breakbeat paradise. Each single track has been sampled a gazillion of times, especially Holy Thursday. Song Of Innocence was thought as an hommage to William Blake, the 18th century poet. But you will find no classical music here. It's an instrumental psychedelic funky jazzy trip. Strings and horns are used in a very cinematographic way, aswering to funky drums and a jazzy bassline with from time to time an electric guitar. Play it and you'll be hooked to the last single note.

Chocolate Milk - Action Speaks Louder Than Words (RCA - 1975)

Chocolate Milk - Action Speaks Louder Than Words

Session band from Allen Toussaint, Chocolate Milk (strange name isn't it, not that far away from Strawberry Pancake when you think about it), is a jam band, at their best live on stage and not necessary in the studio. Not that Action Speaks Louder Than Words is a bad jazz funk album, but you feel that the energy of the band transcends the lack of real songwriting skills and allows this album to be an afrocentric breakbeat paradise. The title song has been sampled numerous times by Eric B & Rakim (Move The Crowd), Stetsasonic (Don't let your...) or the Geto Boys (Action Speaks Louder Than Words). The demonstration of what I write lies here bellow with two versions (album and live) of Action Speaks Louder Than Words.

Ronn Matlock - Love City (Cotilion - 1979)

Ronn Matlock - Love City

The guys at Rhino made a really nice work for this 2007 CD reedition. The liner notes, signed by Charles Waring from MOJO, are really complete and make you learn anything about the genese of Love City. Ronn Matlock was already a seasoned Detroit songwriter for the Motown or Invictus imprints when he got signed on Atlantic subsidiary, Cotilion via his long time songwriting partner Michael Stokes’ production company, Skytower Music. The recording process of Love City was not really long. Ronn Matlock started writing songs in 1978, hired his top notch studio musicians pals (Funk Brother Eddie Willis on guitar, Johnny Allen on strings arrangements, Michael Stokes on piano) and Love City was ready to rumble in 1979. It unfortunately flopped on the charts, Ronn Matlock regreting a lack of label support and a bad single choice, the average disco stomper Let Me Dance. The strongest points of Love City, what make of this album a rare groove connoisseurs all time favorite, are indeed the mid tempo tracks, especially I Can’t Forget You. I Can’t Forget About You sounds, with Ronn Matlock baritone voice, like a very good Barry White song not sung by Barry White and is absolutely outstanding with other cuts like Take Me To The Top (Of Your Mountain) and You Got The Best Of Me . Uplifting and inspiring, Love City deserves plainly its classic status.

Kay-Dee Records - Volume 2 (Kay-Dee Records - 2008)

Kay-Dee Records - Volume 2

When Kenny Dope and Keb Darge associates to create a rare groove label you obtain one hell of a label, Kay-Dee. Kay-Dee is mostly specialized in vinyl reedition of Kenny and Keb soul and deep-funk obscure favorites but it also released two excellent compilations of their gems for the (relatively) not initiated, Kay-Dee Records Volume 1 & 2. On Volume 2, all the songs have been mixed, edited or remixed from the original master tapes by master Kenny himself and except a Kashmere Stage Band song already resurrected by Now Again, are rather rare and sure killers. The master at work mixed the compilation as well.

Gwen Guthrie - Padlock (Garage Records - 1983)

Gwen Guthrie - Padlock

I’m back from well deserved summer vacations with the satisfaction to see that more and more good music lovers are visiting this blog. This is a personal satisfaction and gives me the energy necessary to continue posting. So today I exhumed this wonderful Gwen Guthrie 12”EP, Padlock, recently reedited in CD. I made a post a few month ago about the fantastic Strut compilation, Funky Nassau, that shedded light on the music produced at the end of the 70’s and the beginning of the 80’s at Compass Point studios in the Bahamas. Padlock was recorded over there combining the magic touch of reggae moguls Sly & Robbie with the voice of soul diva Gwen Guthrie, all of them feeling in a disco mood. It was then released on the Paradise Garage own label, Garage Records, and mixed by Larry Levan himself, anouncing the house and garage revolution to come. Surprisingly, the album that was supposed to follow the release of the EP, called Portrait, never enjoyed much success.

Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons - My Eyes Adored You & Other Hits (Flashback - 2001)

Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons - My Eyes Adored You & Other Hits

If you read Frankie Valli bio, you might get scared at first. Born Francis Stephen Castelluccio in New Jersey, Frankie Valli was the frontman of the 4 Seasons, a pop band he created with three other Jersey italo-americans, Tommy De Vito, Nick Massi and Bob Gaudio. But believe me or not, those guys and especially Frankie Valli are not mob affiliated wannabe Frank Sinatra for your grandma for three reasons. Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons benefited at first of Bob Gaudio and producer Bob Crewe brilliant songwriting habilities. The pair knew well how to craft a blue eyed soul song and use big ass production techniques. Secondly, those guys could sing anything and didn't sound corny, form tear jerking ballads (My Eyes Adored You) to disco (Decembre, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) covered and burned out by cheesy French disco singer Claude François). At least, Frankie Valli acting career lead him to play Rusty Millio in, what else, The Sopranos. And that itself deserves the uppermost respect.

Bohannon - Disco Stomp b/w East Coast Groove (Brunswick - 1975)

Bohannon - Disco Stomp b/w East Coast Groove

Session player for Motown, Hamilton Bohannon didn'it follow the label to Detroit, signed to Brunswick but enjoyed only limited solo success. I never understood why. East Coast Groove and Disco Stomp are two hypnotic scorchers based mainly on the bassline, a big disco beat and a funky guitar riff. No lame lyrics or cheesy orchestration on that 7" but only raw funky rythm.

Heatwave - Too Hot To Handle (Epic - 1976)

Heatwave - Too Hot To Handle

What's the difference between British disco funk and American disco funk? If you listen to Heatwave, they ain't any. Maybe because Heatwave was a multicultural combo (4 American guys, one Brit, one Czech, one Spanish) and they all spoke fluently the funk language.Too Hot To Handle, their first album, grooves from the begining to the end and never sounds corny or near anything cheesy. The harp intro, the strings and chorus on Boogie Nights are by example closer to jazz than to a suburbian hotel nightclub. It is just the perfect kind of album you can listen to very loud while driving your car all glasses opened and still don't look like a perfect idiot.

Rose Royce - Car Wash b/w Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is (MCA - 1976)

A/ Car Wash


B/ Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

I just found this original 7" at a yard sale and I couldn't resist to post it, even if the vinyl cracks a little bit. Produced by Norman Whitfield, Car Wash and Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is are both classics for one damn good reason: they have that raw funky groove. that make you smile anyway, anytime. I never saw the movie Car Wash and I don't know if the trailer really makes me want to try the adventure.

Joe Hicks - Mighty Joe Hicks (Enterprise - 1973)/Jimmy Hughes - Something Special (Volt - 1969)

Joe Hicks, Jimmy Hughes - Something Special

Called Something Special, this 1993 bargain reedition gathers two excellent and during a long time ultra rare records released on Stax subsidiaries Enterprise and Volt by artists unfortunately staid confidential. The first one, Joe Hicks, produced and arranged hiw own and only album, Mighty Joe Hicks, the music and the voice deeply rooted in that form of bluesy soul only found below the Mason-Dixon line but melted with contemporary influences in the construction of the breaks. Jimmy Hughes album, Something Special, is bit less raw and benefited from the help of Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & The MG's and The Memphis Horn, the kind of help that had written deep soul masterpiece makers all over on it. And indeed they succeeded one more time. And for loop diggers, Jimmy Hughes last track, Did You Forget, properly sampled, cut and pitched, could do very well the trick.

Black Rio 2 - Original Samba Soul 1968-1981 (Strut - 2009)

Black Rio 2

Compiled by British DJ Cliffy, Black Rio 2 digs deep in the samba soul dusty crates, chasing rare groove and obscure gems at every corner of Brazil. Samba soul is a generic terminology covering a lot of styles, from funk to soul or disco, but all with a distinctive brazilian flavor and representing "an important moment when blacks came down from the shanty towns and (...) were accepted by the music industry making music other than samba" as state the liner notes. Needless to say that DJ Cliffy made a brilliant work and that all the tracks are catchy and sure floor fillers, able to turn the most boring BBQ into a dancing drunken revel. My favorite track on this compilation is Supermarket by Otavio Augusto Fernandes Cardoso aka Pete Dunaway. With its bassline, its beat, its wah wah guitar and its melody full of gloomy strings, it's the kind of song that, even if Pete Dunaway sang with an English accent worst than mine, makes you realise that you live, for god's sake, and that your life is not that bad !!!

The Class Of Mayfield High - Billy Butler - Major Lance - Otis Leavill (Demon-Westside - 1999)

The Class Of Mayfield High

The Class Of Mayfield High is an excellent compilation digging 60's and 70's singles of Billy Butler, Major Lance and Otis Leavill released on the Brunswick and Dakar Chicago imprints. The three guys shared a common master, Curtis Mayfield, who was barely their age but was affirming himself already as the undisputed leader and choice songwriter of the chicagoan soul scene. If Billy Butler, Major Lance or Otis Leavill had a voice a bit too common, to pretend to Curtis throne, they nonetheless scored a handful of smoking deep soul scorchers, backed by Brunswick and Dakar first class studio musicians, as good as the Funk Brothers ,while Willie Henderson Carl Davis were sharing the producer seat. Really, really good.

Billy Eckstine - Senior Soul (Enterprise - 1972)/If She Walked Into My Life (Enterprise - 1974)

Billy Eckstine - Senior Soul/If She Walked Into My Life

Billy Eckstine was already a well established jazz artist when he signed on Stax subsidiary, Enterprise. He was singing since at least 1944, when he formed his own big band, and had recorded his first album in 1950. Before Stax, he even released three albums on Motown, being probably one of the only singers releasing albums on both labels, Motown AND Stax. But with his baritone, the lush and sultry orchestrations of his songs, Billy Eckstine Stax tenure was closer to The Rat Pack and Tom Jones tries and far away from your usual raw deep soul Stax moments. That's what made the true originality of those two albums. Senior Soul is a pure great moment of singalong Brill Building soul, Mr Eckstine showing to his label mates who the boss is. If She Walked Into My Life is a bit less good and a bit too slow for me.

L.T.D. - Love To The World (A&M - 1976)

L.T.D. - Love To The World

This record was a bit of a disapointment. I was a big fan of Larry and Fonce Mizell production work, especially their Blue Note period for the likes of Donald Byrd or Bobby Hutcherson but I didn't find the cool funkyness of the previous artists on L.T.D. (for Love, Togertheness & Devotion) third album. The ingredients were the same (funky songs with a jazzy feeling or jazzy songs with a funky feeling) and it works extremely well on the first track, Love To The World, as well as on two fantastic ballads, Love Ballad and Love To The World Prayer. But on the rest of the album, the recipe doesn't work. It's not that Love To The World is a bad record, it just that it doesn't really stand out amidst other records produced by the Mizell brothers. Maybe I was expecting too much...

Psych Funk 101 - 1968-1975 - A Global Psychedelic Funk Curriculum (Now Again - 2009)

Psych Funk 101

Once again, Egon is at the control for a trip around the psychedelic nuggets from his huge record collection. Coming from the 4 corners of the earth, from Turkey (Husnu Ozkartal Orkestrasi) to Nigeria (Kukumbas), from South Korea (Kim Sun) to Iran (Mehr Pooya), passing by Lebanon, (Wadih Essafi) Italy (The Group, Armando Sciascia) or Russia (George Garaninan With The Melodiya Jazz Ensemble), this collection of 14 unknown 60's and 70's bands, selected for their talent to mix their native original musical roots with the innovation of American and British psychedelic funk (?) of the same era, will fill with enthusiasm even the most bored looking gentrified western city inhabitant. Fuzzy, funky, moogy, devilish psyche mayhem that changes from punk funk, krautrock or cosmic disco but is in fact not that far away from it...

The Sylvers - The Best Of (EMI - 2003)

The Sylvers - The Best Of

The Sylvers are not really worth more than a greatest hits album. They had those uge Afro haircuts, have the reputation to be a Jackson 5 ripoff and sang harmless but catchy disco funk songs made for young teens in the 70's.