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By Larry, October 11, 2012 11:54 am

Dorothy Morrison performing at the Big Sur Pop festival

Listen/Download Dorothy Morrison – Rain

Greetings all

The end of another week is at hand and that means that once again the airwaves of the interwebs will be shot through with the sounds of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you are unable to join us at airtime, know that you can also subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes or pick up a straight MP3 download here at the blog.

This’ll be a quick one since I wrote most of what you need to know about Miss Dorothy Morrison last year when I posted her version of ‘Spirit In the Sky’.

The short version is that she was a San Franciso Bay area-based gospel singer (part of the Edwin Hawkins Singers of ‘Oh Happy Day’ fame) who also did a few years of secular recording.

The song I bring you today is ‘Rain’ from 1970 (there was also a promo/stereo release of this single in 1972).

On its own merits it is a rousing but of gospel-inflected soul with a great bass/percussion intro, gospel choir in the background and a lead by Miss Morrison herself.

it was co-produced by guitar wizard Lonnie Mack and arranged by Don Gallucci.

What takes this one from the level of interesting on its own merits to very interesting is the fact that it was a staple in David Mancuso’s highly influential Loft parties.

Mancuso included it ‘The Loft Vol 2’ mix released in 2000.

On its own ‘Rain’ might sound a little far removed from conventional ideas about dance floor classics, but it fits perfectly within the vibe of Mancuso’s Loft parties, where eclecticism was as important as danceablity.

I hope you dig the track and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, October 9, 2012 1:39 pm

Listen/Download The Krystal Generation – Unsatisfied With the Merchandise

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another spectacular week.

The tune I bring you today came into my record box via a chance meeting at an unexpected record digging stop a few years back.

I was out with the fam, headed in the direction of some delicious Thai food and we found ourselves with a little time to kill in the vicinity of the old Highland Park Record Sale.

I managed to grab a couple of very cool things that day, and today’s selection was one of those.

Flipping through a box of 45s, I was compelled to stop when I spotted the smiling face of Gene Chandler on the Mr. Chand label, familiar to me via a couple of very tasty Simtec and Wylie* 45s already extant in my crates.

I had never heard of the Krystal Generation before, but since I’m always on the lookout for Chitown soul, and the price was right, I grabbed the record and took it home.

When I finally had a chance to give it a spin I discovered what sounded an awful lot like an attempt by Mr Chandler et al to capitalize on the success of the Honey Cone ( a group that had a number of hits, some of them substantial, for the Hot Wax label between 1969 and 1972.

The Krystal Generation – who actually grazed the R&B Top 50 with an even more blatant grab at the Honey Cone with 1971’s ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’- were a femme vocal ensemble featuring the talents of Joyce Smith, Darlene Arnold, Mary Shelley and Mary Lead.

‘Unsatisfied With the Merchandise’ a very groovy side on its own merits, displays all the marks of a serious attempt to replicate the Invictus/Hot Wax sound, both instrumentally and vocally.

The history of popular music is filled with examples – somemore successful than others – with acts trying to get ahead by “borrowing” the sound and style of another, and the Krystal Generation, though competent, were a pretty obvious example thereof.

‘Unsatisfied With the Merchandise’ falls a few catalog numbers after ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’, so I’d assume that it was either from late 1971 or early 1972.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

* Simtec and Wylie were having their hits for the Mr Chand label at the same time as the Krystal Generation, and Simtec Simmons very own T-Box’s band provides the backing on this 45
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 7, 2012 1:48 pm

Jo Armstead

Listen/Download Jo Armstead – I’ve Been Turned On

Greetings all

Welcome to another week here at Funky16Corners.

I thought it only fitting that we get things off to a start with something upbeat, a certified banger if you will.

Though I’d guess that a lot of you had seen the name Jo (or Joshie) Armstead before, I’d bet fewer of you had actually heard one of her records.

Armstead who was born in Mississippi worked locally until joining the Ike and Tina Turner Revue as an early Ikette.

She ended up in New York City in the mid-60s, where she met Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson. Together, the trio wrote both ‘Let’s Go Get Stoned’ and ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ for Ray Charles.

When Ashford and Simpson headed to Detroit to work for Motown, Armstead and her husband went to Chicago and formed Giant Records.

The Chicago-based Giant label (there were imprints with the same name in Detroit and Texas) issued five singles by Armstead as well as sides by Fenton Robinson, Wayne Bennett, and Little Jimmy Scott.

Armstead’s Giant sides are classics of late 60s soul, moving from fast moving Northern Soul like ‘I Feel an Urge Coming On’ (which I just this weekend scored a copy of!), sweet soul like ‘Stone Good Lover’ and slamming, funky heat like today’s selection ‘I’ve Been Turned On’.

Armstead was a powerful singer who had the added benefit of also being an outstanding songwriter.

‘I’ve Been Turned On’ has a killer arrangement by Mike Terry (is there anything he worked on that didn’t turn out amazing?) and a dynamite vocal by Armstead (those opening lines are breathtaking).

The records is a great example of how funky a record can be without moving into outright ‘funk’ territory. Though there are plenty of strings keeping things classy on top, you have to slap on the headphones and check out those drums. Whoever was playing the drums was working overtime on the kick drum.

‘I’ve Been Turned On’ is one of those 45s that is as good for dancing as it is for listening, so pull down the ones and zeros and do a little of both.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 4, 2012 12:54 pm

Grover, rendered in oils

Listen/Download Grover Washington Jr. – Masterpiece

Greetings all

The end of another week is at hand, so it behooves me once again to alert you to the fact that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot join us at the time of broadcast, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or drop by the blog to grab yourselves an MP3 download.

The track I bring you today is an epic instrumental reading of one of my favorite Norman Whitfield/Temptations (mostly) instrumental tracks, ‘Masterpiece’.

Covered in this very space back in 2010, the original by the Temptations, on their LP of the same name, their second to last collaboration with Whitfield, is an exceptionally groovy piece of long-form wonderfulness (even if the Temps themselves are largely in the background).

It was only after I published that post that someone brought it to my attention that Grover Washington Jr. had done his own version of the song later on in 1973.

Recorded for the ‘Soul Box’ project (released as two separate records, a two-record set and eventually as a single CD), ‘Soul Box’ saw Grover, aided by a who’s who of the CTI roster – including Bob James, Hubert Laws and Idris Muhammad – stretching out on a variety of interesting material.

The best cuts from the project were included on the ‘Soul Box Vol. 1’ album, those being ‘Masterpiece’ and a side-long cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Trouble Man’.

‘Masterpiece’ takes the overall mood of the original version, removes the voices and works out a 13-minute plus soundscape that would work perfectly as a piece of soundtrack music.

The vibe is smooth – but not too smooth, or at least not nearly as smooth as Grover would get later on – but also tight, with some nice bass, drum and guitar work cementing the base under the the horns, strings and voices.

It is very cool indeed, especially if you’re out driving late at night in the rain (it’s that kind of jam).

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 2, 2012 2:08 pm

Hugh Masekela (top) and Hedzoleh Soundz (bottom)

Listen/Download Hugh Masekela/Hedzoleh Soundz – Languta

Greetings all

I hope all is well on your end of the intertubes connection.

It wasn’t all that long ago, during one of my lucky summer digs that I turned up the 45 that you see before you today.

I’ve been a big fan of Hugh Masekela since I was a kid (Grazing In the Grass is one of my all time favorite records).

His story – and the many others that make up the South African musical diaspora of the 1960s – is fascinating, as is the music he made.

I had long heard about his collaboration with the African group Hedzoleh Soundz, but was never lucky enough to turn up a copy of the LP.

That said, I was very happy to find this 45.

Masekela – already a popular artist – returned to Africa in the early 70s with his (then) wife Miriam Makeba. It was there that he met the mighty Fela Kuti, as well as the Ghanian band Hedzoleh Soundz.

Hedzoleh mixed the traditional sounds of Ghana with western jazz and rock.

Masekela recorded the LP “Hugh Masekela Introducing Hedzoleh Soundz’ in 1973 in Lagos, Nigeria.

There’s something poetic about the process of Masekela leaving his homeland and mixing its sounds with those of western jazz and pop, only to return to Africa and re-mix his own fusion with that of Hedzoleh Soundz.

‘Languta’ the opening track of the LP (though the 45 edit is about a minute shorter than the album track) is a perfect example of Masekala’s jazz/Afrobeat fusion, with his echoplexed trumpet wailing over the Hedzoleh Soundz propulsive rhythms.

Masekela would continue to tour and record with members of Hedzoleh Soundz on several albums through the late 70s.

It’s a fantastic piece of music, and I hope you dig it.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 30, 2012 5:40 pm

My name is Monk. Welcome to my crib…

Listen/Download Monk Higgins and the Specialties – Big Water Bed

Greetings all

The beginning of another week is here, and the Funky16Corners fam is coming off of a very interesting weekend.

This Sunday marked the John Theurer Cancer Center Celebration of Life and Liberty at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ. This is an annual event where cancer survivors and their loved ones gather together to celebrate their triumphs over their disease.

The Theurer Cancer Center (based out of Hackensack University Medical Center) does remarkable work treating a wide variety of cancers (including my wife’s leukemia) and this event is a life affirming gathering.

What it also was, was an opportunity to see the Queen of Soul, Miss Aretha Franklin perform a set of favorites – old and new – with her orchestra, which included backing vocalists led by Fonzi Thornton, who in his almost four decade career has graced albums by Chic, Luther Vandross and countless others.

Photos by Jennifer Grogan

It was great to see Aretha and to have my sons see her as well. She was in rare form with her voice as remarkable an instrument as it has ever been.

It was a rare pleasure.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

If you are a collector of records, and an inveterate reader of label – like yours truly – then the name Monk Higgins has surely passed before your eyes.

Higgins – born Milton Bland – got his start in his home state of Arkansas. Folowing his graduation from Arkansas State University, he moved to Chicago to study at the Chicago School of Music.

He eventually went to work as a teacher and a social worker before devoting himself to music full time.

Higgins worked as a saxophonist, composer, producer and arranger on a wide variety of sessions before making it into the R&B Top 40 in 1966 with the instrumental ‘Who Dun It’.

His productions for the One-Der-Ful, St Lawrence and Chess labels (among others) included sessions for Freddy Robinson, Alvin Cash, Cash McCall, Etta James, the Vontastics and many, many others are all worth seeking out (though he was so prolific you won’t have to do much seeking).

The track I bring you today hails from his 1972 LP with his band the Specialties, entitled ‘Heavyweight’.

I picked up a sealed copy of this killer was back in my early digging days in the strength of the Higgins “brand” as it were.

I’ve gone on in depth about the value of reading labels and lodging those ubiquitous producer/arranger/writer credits in your brain. If you do enough of that the connections start to make themselves and before you know it your crates have grown in both size and quality.

‘Heavyweight’ produced Monk Higgins second hit under his own name, ‘Gotta Be Funky’, which grazed the outer edges of the R&B Top 20 in the spring of 1972.

However, it is another, equally groovy track that I bring you today, ‘Big Water Bed’.

‘Big Water Bed’ starts out smooth, with some mellow organ and electric piano, but soon gets funky with the percussion and of course Higgins sax-o-mo-phone. You even get a crazy whistle, as well as some ladies chanting the title of the song, in case you forgot what it was all about.

If the sax sounds familiar it’s because the song was sampled by none other that Big Daddy Kane on his own ‘Ain’t No Half-Steppin’ in 1988.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, September 27, 2012 12:43 pm

The Vibrating Vibrations!

Listen/Download The Vibrations – Expressway To Your Heart

Greetings all

The end of the week is finally here, and so then must be the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which magically appears on Viva Radio every Friday night at 9PM. If you have other plans at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or drop by the blog to pick yourself up an MP3.

The tune I bring you today is one of those familiar song/unfamiliar source deals I like to whip on y’all every now and again.

This is another example of a record that I swept up almost indiscriminately back in the early days of my Philly obsession. Drawn in by the (Gamble/Huff) Neptune label and the familiar name of the Vibrations, I grabbed this 45, and while I can’t say that my memory is 100% reliable in this instance, it is likely that I thought that what I was getting was the “original” version of the song that was a huge hit for the Soul Survivors.

I was (of course) incorrect…

That tune, ‘Expressway To Your Heart’ was among the earliest Gamble/Huff chart hits (maybe THE earliest) in 1967, with the Vibrations version not hitting until two years later.

The Vibrations have one of the longest, most interesting histories in all of soul music.

Hailing not from Philly but from Los Angeles, they got their start in the 1950s as the Jayhawks. It was under that name that they recorded the original version of ‘Stranded In the Jungle’.

They also recorded under the name of the Marathons, with which they hit in 1961 with ‘Peanut Butter’.

Reconstituted as the Vibrations, they spent most of the 1960s recording for Checker and Okeh – with a brief stop at Epic in 1968 – before signing with Neptune in 1969.

They recorded three 45s for the label, including their remake of ‘Expressway’ in 1969.

The Vibrations had worked with Gamble and Huff during their time at Okeh (G&H produced the group’s 1968 hit ‘Love In Them There Hills’ for the label) and member Carl Fisher had some of his songs (like ‘Storm Warning’ and ‘(It’s Against) the Laws of Love’) covered by Philly groups like the Volcanos.

The Vibrations version of ‘Expressway to Your Heart’, arranged by the great Bobby Martin, is taken at a slightly slower, grittier pace than the Soul Survivors OG. You get lots of electric piano, organ, some very cool guitar work and lots of great harmonies by the group.

It’s a very groovy record indeed, and one that ought to be better known.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (5)

By Larry, September 25, 2012 4:48 pm

Curtis Knight

Listen/Download Curtis Knight – Love-In

Greetings all

I hope the middle of the week finds you all well.

The tune I bring you today is something groovy from the slightly later, post-Jimi period of Curtis Knight’s career.

I was giving some thought to how it must have sucked for Knight to be known only via his intersection with Hendrix, but then I thought about how much energy he expended in attempting to capitalize on that connection, and forgot all about it.

Knight was working in NYC with his band the Squires when Hendrix, who had already taken part in what in retrospect seems like a marathon effort to make cameos in the careers of as many other performers as he could before breaking on his own.

As a live performer, Jimi worked stages alongside Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, the Isley Brothers, Carl Holmes and the Commanders, and in the studio with Lonnie Youngblood, Billy LaMont, Don Covay, King Curtis and many others.

He hooked up with Knight and the Squires when he finally landed in New York City in 1965. He recorded sessions with Knight (some legit, some jams) during ’65 and ’66, until he formed his own band, and was eventually spirited off to the UK by Chas Chandler.

Knight and his facilitators spent a lot of time repackaging pretty much anything he recorded with Hendrix (often deceptively), making a great deal of hay (and not a little money).

This is not to say that Knight was without talent himself. He had played and recorded in a variety of R&B, rock and soul settings through the 50s and 60s.

The tune I bring you today hails from a 1969, UK-only (?!?) 45 he recorded for RCA.

The record is an interesting microcosm of Knight as Hendrix mentor-turned-acolyte (parasite?), with a slightly psyched-out number ‘Fancy Meeting You Here’, complete with heavy guitar and echo appearing on the flipside.

The side of the disc we concern ourselves with today is the funky ‘Love In’.

The arrangement and production is very cool, with lots of wah-wah guitar, some oddly echoed horns, sassy female backing vocals and a great performance by Knight (I really dig the bridge too).

I’d love to know the story behind Knight getting a UK only record deal, though I have seen a few later LPs that seem to have only been released in Europe.

As it is, the vast majority of the records released with Curtis Knight’s name on them, had Jimi Hendrix’s right next to (or on top of, or under) it.

I hope you dig the cut, and I’ll see you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, September 23, 2012 11:25 am

Gil Scott-Heron

Listen/Download Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Johannesburg

Greetings all

I first heard Gil Scott-Heron, and today’s selection at exactly the same time, that being sometime after 11:30PM on Saturday night December 13, 1975.

How – you may ask – am I able to pinpoint the moment?

Well, my inquisitive friends, it is because both of these things entered my consciousness via an early episode of Saturday Night Live, broadcast (thanks to the interwebs for the info) on that very day, wherein the host of the show was none other than Richard Pryor.

I was a young lad of 13, but even then I knew a good groove when I heard it, and ‘Johannesburg’ is a good groove indeed.

Recorded – with his musical partner Brian Jackson – for the ‘From South Africa to South Carolina’ album, ‘Johannesburg’ was a call to arms about the apartheid regime years before it became a major cause celebre.

The performance on Saturday Night Live predated the release of the album by a month but the single had already been out, hitting the R&B Top 30 in October of 1975.

Gil is in rare form and the lyrics really hit home:

They tell me that our brothers over there
are defyin’ the Man
We don’t know for sure because the news we
get is unreliable, man
Well I hate it when the blood starts flowin’
but I’m glad to see resistance growin’
Somebody tell me what’s the word?
Tell me brother, have you heard
from Johannesburg?

Gil lays it down on electric piano and the rest of the band – especially the percussionists – is extra tight.

Scott-Heron placed a number of tunes in the R&B charts between 1975 and 1984, as well as appearing as part of the No Nukes concerts in 1979.

He continued to record, on and off for the rest of his life, spending much of that time in a tragic struggle with addiction and poor health.

He passed away in 2011.

See you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 20, 2012 2:00 pm

Joe Simon

Listen/Download Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela (High Life) Pt1

Listen/Download Joe Simon Band – Oon-Guela (High Life) Pt2

Greetings all

The end of the week is within our grasp, which means that the Funky16Corners Radio Show (brought to you every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio) is nigh. Perk up your ears, dial up the old crystal set and drop by for the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all from vinyl. If you cannot join me at the time of broadcast you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 download over at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a real gasser, hepped to me by my friend Don Waller, who sent it along on Facebook as a birthday wish.

Though I certainly knew of Joe Simon, I had no idea that there were any records released under the ‘Joe Simon Band’ name, and certainly nothing as crazy as today’s selection.

‘Oon-Guela (High Life) Pts 1&2’ was released in 1969, and it is like nothing else in the Joe Simon catalog.

What you get here is an amped up take on the Afro funk sound, with lots of hard-edged, funky guitar, percussion (there’s either a kalimba or something trying to sound like one running under the whole record) and bass that almost crosses over into psychedelic territory a few times.

This really is an unusual record, especially considering when it came out (not a whole lot of Afro anything, aside from Hugh Masekela) and that it was released in association with Joe Simon.

Simon had a long string of R&B and Pop hits from 1965 to 1981, hitting R&B #1 a few times (including once in 1969 with his version of the country standard ‘The Choking Kind’, which fell only a few catalog numbers below this very record).

‘Oon Guela (High Life)’ is waaay out of (sonic) character for Simon which leads one to wonder, what – in fact – would be the dealio.

I have not been able to discover that fact, and am currently happy just to groove on the sound of the record.

It is both groovy, and anomalous.

If anyone has anything to add, please do so in the comments.

I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

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

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.