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I’m going to try to get a better post up soon but I did want to say that one of the things I liked about Castor is that he was one of the young Black musicians from uptown who go fascinated with Latin boogaloo and ended up recording a few of them on his debut album in 1967, including this cover of Joe Cuba’s “Bang Bang”:
By sheer coincidence, I had just picked up a Spanish-language version of the song from Amoeba the other week (and believe me when I say: I very rarely find much by way of good used records from Amoeba). It’s on a 7″ EP of four songs, from a band that I think is Guatemalan in origin: Opus 3: Otra Vez Solo + Sanson Y Daila Converted to Spanish here, “Otra Vez Solo” isn’t a huge departure from Sullivan’s original but there are these small changes which catch your attention, such as that spooky organ that’s mixed into the background. And the lead singer hits the right tone to match Sullivan’s laconic style. The surprise for me came on the quality of the rest of the EP, especially the jaunty, jangling “Sanson Y Daila” which I presume is an instrumental cover of a vocal song. Overall, a fun and snappy tune, like a dessert you weren’t expecting to get but completes the meal perfectly.
I’m very proud to direct people to this podcast between two good friends, Andy Zax and Simon Reynolds, talking about Simon’s Retromania, which has gotten praise for being one of the best music/culture books of the past year. I didn’t conduct the interview but I did all the post-production editing (and believe me, this one was a challenge) but all in all, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and I think many of my Soul Sides readers will get something out of the convo. Check out both parts of the podcast, here.
To wit, there’s a feature on them in The Atlantic (which I haven’t had a chance to read yet) and then there’s this self-produced video as well: Congrats to Daptone on their 10 years; here’s to another 10 and beyond.
James Royal: House of Jack Mark Martin: In the Good Old Topless Time I previously wrote about “instrumentals-made-into-vocal” covers in 2010, and now have three more to add into the mix. Sarah Vaughn’s “Bye Bye” obviously riffs on Mancini’s hugely famous “Peter Gunn Theme”. I’m on the fence with this one…you don’t really need to throw vocals on one of the best frickin’ t.v. themes of all time but then again: this is Sarah Vaughn we’re talking about. 1 The James Royal is a pretty good vocalization of Keith Mansfield’s “Soul Thing” – this is a case where I wouldn’t necessarily think vocals would work over the track but Royal totally nails it. However – and this is a big point – Mansfield’s original is just so monster, it’s hard to put vocals on it without diminishing the power of the instrumental. And look – I threw the Martin in here just for kicks. It’s one of the most bizarre vocalizations…a strange and pretty weak set of verses put atop “Champ.” You gonna try to vocalize “Champ” (itself an instrumentalization of “Tramp”)? Can’t be done. Nope. Bonus: Mark Murphy: The Red Clay I can’t believe I never posted this up before – Mark Murphy (a really great vocalizer) over one of Freddie Hubbard’s most classic compositions. As far as I know, this has never been sampled and that always surprised the hell out of me.
Amongst certain circles of Afro-funk fans, “Kelen Ati Len” is probably the best-known song by this Dakar band but this LP is hardly a one-tracker 1 No doubt, “Kelen Ati Len” is killer with its crashing drums and angular guitar work. It’s like Bawobab/Baobab members had spent a few years jamming with the Kashmere Stage Band before returning to Senegal. However, I included “Jarraf” because you get a whole other sense of cross-cultural play with its Latin touches. That’s the whole thing about Afro-Caribbean music styles – West African traditions ended up in the Caribbean via the slave trade and then took root and evolved…and once Latin music blew up in the 1950s onward, you can hear how African groups blended it back into their music. Polyculturalism, made manifest?
I picked this up on my last trip to the Groove Merchant, in November. The track itself would have been enough to draw my attention…like Funky16Corners described it: “downtempo Crescent City funk.” Indeed, the instrumental version of this appears as the flipside to Ernie and the Top Notes’ funk classic, “Dap Walk” but to me, Winnfield’s vocal version is considerably superior (maybe I just have a bias against the overuse of sax-as-vocal-replacement). Indeed, what sealed the deal for me to cop this NOLA 7″ was hearing Winnfield sing “you always try to pull me down” over and over, to devastating effect. It’s not always easy to pull off a good “end of romance” song but Winnfield nails the vibe perfectly here.
This 7″ came from Nydia Ines Davila (who works at Daptone Records) and though she warned me that the sound quality was a bit “muffled” I thought this sounds great. Of course, I am a total sucker for a good soul track built around an opening piano. I fell for this single just from the first four bars with the piano, guitar and drums already crafting something wonderful before you even hear Raye crooning “look at me, girl…cryiiiiiiiiiiiing” with some glorious doo-wop stylings. In fact, I may not even needed the song to have any more than just those elements but the song continues to unfold beautifully, especially the (overdubbed?) falsetto backing the baritone lead. Best of all, compared to some of Raye’s other singles, this one is an absolute steal at $20 or less. |
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