Porter Records digs Stark Reality

Natural Food : Siren Song
From Natural Food (Porter)

Birigwa : Yelewa
From Birigwa (Porter)





This is another obscure band project featuring John Abercrombie. Every soul fuzzy sounds crate diggers know about him since the last release (2003) Stark Reality (Now Again). Some said that the albums Now and 1969 were deeply influenced by Soft Machine, Hendrix and Sly Stone. In the early 70s Abercombie was in a jazz rock band called Dreams with drummer Billy Cobham and Blood Sweat and Tears member Randy Brecker. I never heard this before. But I read one day that in the early 70s Miles Davis have to make a decision between drummers Buddy Miles and Billy Cobham. By the way, Dreams first album was released before Miles Davis's Live-Evil. With a doubt, I suggere anybody who like Stark Reality to dig this new Porter Records release : Natural Food. Birigwa is the second release. More afro, jazz, folk. In a sense, some tunes recall me some afro jazz sounds from South Africa like Dudu Pukwana, Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani, Assagai. And the Yelewa some Pharoah Sanders influence.

*** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE ***

With a friend we try to dig some tunes featuring John Abercrombie ***

[mp3]

1. Souljazz Orchestra "Insurrection" Freedom No Go Die (Do Right Music)
2. Mulatu Astatqe "Netsanet" Ethio Jazz (L'Arome)
3. Dogliotti "Negro en sol menor" Candombe (Vampisoul)
4. Dave Cortez with the Moon Peo "Happy Soul With A Hook" (Fania)
5. Orlando Julius and the Modern Aces "James Brown Ride On" Orlando's Afro Ideas 1969-1972 (Soundway)
6. Birigwa "Yelewa" Birigwa (Porter Records)
7. Dreams "Dream Suite: Asset Stop/Jane/Crunchy Granola" Dreams (Columbia) ***
8. Stark Reality "Dreams" Stark Reality (Stones Throw) ***
9. Eddie Fisher & the Next Hundred Years "Either Or" (Chess)
10. Jesse Gresham Plus 3 "Shootin' The Grease" (Head)
11. Jean-Claude Vannier "Le roi des mouches et la confiture de Rouse" L' Enfant Assasin des Mouches (Finders Keepers)
12. Natural Food "Fair Breeze on Buzzard's Bay" Natural Food (Porter Records) ***

+ Dave Liebman "The Iguana's Ritual" Drum Ode (ECM) ***

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1) In February Natural Food and Birigwa will be "Officially" released.

2) Check this post linked by Colin Dilnot - In Dangerous Rhythm.

Sharon Jones is back!

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: 100 Days
From 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone)



Errr... I just wanted to post something about the new Sharon Jones album. But I saw that Junior, earfuzz, do it before me. Nothing different, same trax. Probably the same I receive today. So, excuse-me Junior, if you read this, I haven't stolen this tune but just received a mail that Chris Tams send me today.

Pre-order for this!

"What’s Going On? Everything Soul is New Again"

The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker: Can You Feel It?
From Kaboom! (Outta Sight Records, 2007)

[youtube]

This is extract from a title of NY Times article from February 2007. Says loud and clear: soul music is making a formidable comeback. “More than at any time in recent memory, soul music’s pressing syncopation and stirring hollers are churning within the popular mainstream.”

If the first attention-grabbing horn lines of The Dynamites album Kaboom! evoke a dramatic curtain call from a late ‘60s funk concert at the Apollo Theater, it’s no accident. After all, that’s exactly where Charles Walker, the band’s singer and front man, first cut his teeth as a performer. When the revolutionary ‘new bag’ now known as funk first made the scene, Walker was right there in the thick of it, opening for the likes of James Brown, Etta James, and Wilson Pickett, and imbibing himself in a cultural movement’s genesis.

Walker recorded on many of the most reputed soul labels of the era, including Champion, Chess and Decca. In the early ‘60s, his group ‘Little Charles and the Sidewinders’ became one of the hottest acts on the New York club scene. All this, combined with his Tennessee upbringing, made Walker a natural to be included in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Night Train to Nashville exhibit. As Doyle Davis, now The Dynamites’ manager, milled through the exhibit, curator Michael Gray raved about Walker’s recent performance at an event promoting the exhibit’s Night Train to Nashville release on Lost Highway Records. Davis knew then and there that he’d found the singer that Bill Elder, The Dynamites’ founder, had been searching for. The rest is history.

1957, a new label was founded

Dale Warren & The Wattstax' 72 Orchestra: Salvation Symphony
Lee Sain: Them Hot Pants
The Emotions: Group Introduction/Show Me How and Peace Be Still

From Music From The Wattstax Festival & Film (Stax, 1972)

As I was reading an article on the last issue of Vibrations, Swiss magazine from Lausanne, I think it was a good idea to post something about. This time the review deals with Stax label that was created in 1957. Check out this both web links on official myspace site and also Stax50.com. Tunes here are extracted from the excellent 'Music From The Wattstax Festival & Film' produced by Roger Armstrong. On this, there's songs performed at Wattstax by Albert King, Carla & Rufus Thomas, William Bell, The Soul Children, ..., many others, and of course, Isaac Hayes. Here I focuse on The Emotions because their performance give me the creeps.

On myspace, you could also read an article written by Matt Cibula few days ago. "The Stax story begins in 1957. Jim Stewart, a fiddle player, founded Satellite Records in a north Memphis garage, focusing mostly on country and rockabily. He convinded his older sister, Estelle Axton, to mortgage her home and go into business with him. They released a few singles that didn't go anywhere. In 1960, Stewart and Axton (now on her second re-finance) bought the Capitol Theatre building on McLemore. They built a studio and converted the theater lobby into a combination candy shop and record store. There, they could make some money on the side, and Estelle could play brand new releases and see if they caught the ears of the teenaged clientele---virtually all of them African American."

So Soul Sistas

Gwen Mc Crae feat. The Soulpower Allstars: 90% of Me Is You
From Live In Paris (Hi&Fly Records, 2006)

Lyn Collins feat. Martha High, Marva Whitney & Gwen Mc Crae: Think (about it)
From Mama Feelgood (Hi&Fly Records, 2006)

Even if I didn't yet post soul tunes since the one about Laura Lee, Loaded likes soul music too. And in particular, that kind of music performed in the J.B.'s area. I'll try to post one later. Here I propose you two classic tunes of two great soul divas: Gwen Mc Crae and Lyn Collins. Lyn died last year in February 2005... rest in peace. Recently Hi&Fly Records issued this live recording and... maybe... the label will reissue other live of other soul divas. But I can't assure it. So I can't only imagine that Hi&Fly is preparing a collection. If you have any information, write below a comment.

Chess Session Pt. 2

Laura Lee : It Ain't What You Do (But How You Do It)
From ? (Cadet, ?)
Laura Lee : As Long As I Got You
From 7" (Cadet, 1968)

Dans la lignée de Betty Wright, Betty Davis et Millie Jackson, Laura Lee peut être considérée comme une pionnière tant elle aura contribué à libérer le message féminin. A l'époque ses albums étaient produits par Billy Davis et arrangés par Charles Stepney, qui s'occupera bientôt du Rotary Connection. C'est en 1966, à l'âge de 21 ans, que Laura Lee, native de Chicago, rejoignait Chess records, où elle signera des morceaux, devenus ses classiques, comme 'What A Man' 'Dirty Man', 'A Man With Some Backbone' et 'Wanted: Lover, No Experience Necessary'. Son répertoire est parfois inspiré des Impressions, mené par Curtis Mayfield et sa voix la rapproche plutôt des divas comme Marva Withney et Lyn Collins.
Le son clavier sur 'As Long as I Got You' me fait penser à celui utilisé par Timmy Thomas dans l'album Why Can't We Live Together, tandis que le refrain 'I Don't Know What the World Is Coming To' me rappel un titre de Bobby Womack.

D'autres blogs parlent aussi de Laura Lee : Soul Sides et Funky 16 Corners.

Vibrations Soul

The Rebirth : Evil Vibrations
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings : This Land is Your Land
From Rewind 4 (Ubiquity, 2005)

Ca serait peut-être trop caricatural de définir la scène soul actuelle menée par des jeunes talents issus de deux écoles opposées, l'une électro-soul, l'autre plus traditionnaliste. N'empêche que cette nouvelle scène montante est en phase de conquérir son public. De New York à Londres ou Paris, The Rebirth et Sharon Jones, dans la liste des scènes les plus prometteuses, annoncent néanmoins une nouvelle manière d'aborder la soul. L'une réussissant des enregistrements à la limite du meilleur son des sixties, et l'autre, pour moi, l'un des meilleurs crus du genre actuellement. Cela ne va pas empêcher pas non plus aux Rebirth d'aller chercher dans le vieux répertoire disco de l'année 1978 avec le morceau 'Evil Vibrations' des Mighty Ryeders.


The Rebirth - 'This Journey In' & 'Shake It' clips

"I never let them forget it"

Ray Charles : What Kind Of Man Are You
From What'd I Say (Atlantic, 1959)

The Impressions : I'm So Proud
From The Never Ending Impressions (Paramount, 1964)


Des années 1950 jusqu'en 1967, année du décès d'Otis Redding, les groupes Soul se succèdent et d'autres rentreront dans les mémoires. Ce style intègre parfois jazz, rythm'n blues, l'électricité comme Ray Charles l'avait plutôt bien réussi, en 1959 il atteint la rançon de son talent. Tandis qu'à la suite de la séparation des Impressions en 1970, groupe formé en 1957 à Chicago de Sam Gooden, les frères Brooks et Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield sera plus proche d'un Marvin Gaye, utilisant les nouvelles sonorités funk chez Motown, que des sons propres aux années 1950-60. Ici, deux standards de Ray Charles et des Impressions, très largement repris à l'époque de la grande vague soul.


The Impressions - Woman's Got Soul