New Orleans Music is a year round obsession here at Funk or Die, so the fact that Fat Tuesday has passed, and the necklaces and vomit have been cleaned up, doesn't mean a thing to me. The bon temps continue to roullez.
Mostly because, New Orleans is the well that America draws its music legacy from, and the depth of NOLA's contribution to American music is more than just historical..it lives and breathes. The city has music coursing through it today, and if you are from there or have visited, you know this. A few weeks of focus on the music of New Orleans once a year is simply not enough. Mardi Gras, of course, is an important part of NOLA culture. Mardi Gras is all about parades, many parades. One of the long time participants in these colorful affairs are the Mardi Gras "indian" tribes.
The first Wild Magnolias record ▲...Go get It Smoke My Peacepipe (Smoke It Right)
(I watched HBO's Treme with great interest, especially the story thread on keeping the "Indian" Tradition alive)
I'm not gonna go into the cultural and historical significance of the tribes, but if you would like to, I suggest picking up the Wild Magnolia's package that was reissued a few years back. It is about the funkiest history lesson you'll ever get. In person, at the parades, you'll see these incredibly costumed social clubs marching, banging on numerous percussion intruments, and chanting generations old Mardi Gras tunes.
In the 70's a French producer who absolutely fell in love with these songs decided he wanted to get the music out to the world. He felt that in order to gain acceptance, he'd have to pair the chants with modern musical stylings. To my (and I'm guessing many funk/NOLA fans) great joy, the fusion here is with funk. Not just any old funk either..Willie Tee (Leader of the Meters-esque instrumental outfit, The Gaturs) Funk. The 2 albums Phillipe Rault and Willie Tee (Wilson Turbinton)cut with The Wild Magnolias and Chief Bo Bollis were re-issued in absolutely deluxe fashion by my new best friends at Sunnyside Records. Not only are these ultra funky albums sounding better than ever, the second CD also features a downloadable 62 page book! If you are into New Orleans and/Or Mardi Gras in any way the book alone is worth the price of admission. Essential Stuff. New Suit
The second Magnolias record...Go Get It
I stuffed that booklet pdf in this file.
Finally ,for now, and just for completeness sake (although there are many other Wild Magnolias records you can get of more recent vintage), here's a Funky Delicassies re-issue of some Gaturs singles under the title Wasted..
"A lot of those New Orleans drummers would come through, and I got a lot of stuff from those guys"- John "Jabo' Starks (Drummer-James Brown)
Some might say James Brown invented funk..some (including Earl Palmer himself) would say Earl Palmer was the man who brought the funk first, melding the New Orleans second line into pop tunes for Dave Bartholomew and Fats Domino. Still others look to cat who replaced Earl in Bartholomew's ensemble, Smokey Johnson, as the man who birthed funk. Fact is funk has always been with us, but Smokey might've found it first..(Earl King-Trick Bag '62).
Until recently, I thought it was the Meters Ziggy Modeliste who defined NOLA funk (and therefore funk in general), but a site called Home Of The Groove clued me into the fact that Ziggy (and Idris Muhammed, another funky drummer) were mentored by none other than Smokey Johnson. It's no surprise either, that many of Smokey's laid baid NOLA funk sides were produced by Wardell Quezerque (another highly underrated innovator in the soul funk field.)
Smokey was mostly a session cat, but below you'll find a few of his singles as a leader, including It Ain't My Fault from '64, a tune that might be the first funk tune on record and one that has become a Mardi Gras standard..Also see Funkie Moon for an example of where Ziggy Modeliste might have learned a few of his signature licks..
In the web link above there's a story about how Smokey and a bunch of NOLA cats went up to Motown to audition..they cut a bunch of demos, but it was Smokey who impressed the most and stayed on for two months of production line work in the snakepit. Earl King said," part of the reason why they got in the door was Motown's fascination with Smokey Johnson, who could do more on a trap set by himself than any two of the label's session drummers." I dunno if that's just legend, but if it isn't it makes a lot of sense. From the beginning of recorded music in the US innovation has always spread from NOLA north...
Smokey suffered a stroke in '93 so he no longer plays..he lost his home in Katrina and currently lives in Musicians' Village, a Habitat for Humanity project in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
Tuff City has reisuued Smokey's solo work originally recorded for the NOLA label in the 60's on a comp called It Ain't My Fault. Definitely worth a look.
I don't do a traditional year end top 10 or 20 anymore. I just don't gather round the internet water cooler every Tuesday chatting up new releases like I used to, so I don't think my list for 2010 would mean a whole lot. That is not to say that I don't listen to new music, I just don't do it with the kind of urgency I used to. It is also not to say that I don't look for new (or,especially, new to me) sounds.
(OK,OK here's my 2010 Top 10, and yes, some of these are reissues and yes, some may have been released in '09)
In the last ten years I've probably listened to more new and new-to-me music than any ten year period of my 30+ years of music junkiehood. I also listen differently than I used to. Because of the staggering volume of music that is available, I'm just not able to spend as much time with a new record as I used to, because there is so much at my fingertips. I still buy albums, but they just aren't the same to me..not because they are any better or worse than they used to be, but because after I spin an LP once, that's usually it. I may playlist a few songs or include a track on a mix tape or two, but rarely do I return to an entire album. I'm more likely to give certain playlists or mix CD multiple spins, than I am to listen to an album repeatedly (as was my MO in previous years).
So, what I have here are songs that really grabbed me over the last ten years. These are tunes that caused me to back off the internet fueled music gorging I've been doing and hit the rewind button...again and again. Some are relatively new, some are ancient. I'm not saying these are the best songs I heard in the last ten years, but, at least for me, these tunes rose above digital din and reminded me why I keep looking for new records.
You can skip around the tracks in this divshare list (you can also hear them in order) or check out the mix at 8tracks (below). If the track has a link, that means I wrote about it on MOG and you can click through to those words if you like.
1.Inell Young- What Do You See In Her
Rumored to be a kiss off tune aimed at Eddie Bo, who produced 4 of the 6 sides she waxed A cool slice of NOLA Soul.
2. On Verra Ça - Orchestra Baobob
Everybody told me Pirates Choice was the Baobob record to get, but this track from their American debut, Specialist in All Styles, was the keeper for me.
3. I Got Loaded - Lil Bob & The Lollipops I came to this NOLA classic very late via the Los Lobos version. Soundmen may wince when they hear the squeaky hi hat, but that's just one of the many endearing things about his tune..another being that I've got my 9 year old singing it.
4. Gary Song -Alice Smith I worked as a distributor for this record in 2006. After listening to it once (like I do), I passed it on to my wife. She flipped a gasket over Ms. Smith and reintroduced it to me. Alice can sing, whisper, and belt, often in the same tune and with great authority. Her only album to date, For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me, got caught up in music biz hell and Alice has not gotten the recognition she deserves. A singing specialist in all styles.
5. Hey Ya!- Outkast (Andre 3000) Nope, I wasn't immune to the charms of this tune. It kept me from driving off the road on the long trip I used to make from Albany to Brooklyn and back, which I did every couple of weeks for a year or so back in the middle of the decade.
6.God Is A Good God-Campbell Bros. W/Katie Jackson
Burning pedal steel track with booming vocals from the essential Sacred Steel-Live! album on Arhoolie. Religious and Rocking, but this ain't Stryper.
7. Come Down Now- Passing Strange(Broadway Cast)
I finally got around to liking Stew in 2008. He and his writing partner, Heidi Rodewald had been making music as The Negro Problem for over 10 years, but it was this musical (their first) that opened the door to their music for me. What took me so long? My old boss had been telling me to go there for years and he wasn't lying. Stew and Heidi, in whatever guise their music appears, are always a revelation.
8. Awufuni Ukulandela Na?- Izintombi Zasi Manje Manje The whole compilation that this tune appears on, Next Stop...Soweto, is choice South African pop, but the sheer joy of this track (not to mention the guitar and drums), easily crack through the language barrier. The first time I heard this tune I hit rewind at least 10 times.
9. Raw Spitt- Raw Spitt (Charlie Whitehead) The compilation, Songs To Sing-The Charlie Whitehead Anthology, houses the output of a journeyman soul singer who worked with legendary, iconclast producer/artist Swamp Dogg (Jerry Williams). Their 1970 album was billed simply as Raw Spitt..need I Say more? 10. Shake Daddy Shake - Eula Cooper Don't know if this got so popular that Northern Soul DJ's leave it alone, but this Georgia based Soul singer cut a heap of sharp tracks for the Note and Tragar labels. Easy to find nowadays thanks to the Numero group's Eccentric Soul series. 11.If You Believe Your God Is Dead, Try Mine- The Swan Silvertones
Now, I love Gospel Quartet music from it's heydey in the 50's and before, but this 1969 cut from the long running Silvertones is more Godfather of Soul, than God the Father, if you know what I'm sayin'..
12.Long Time - The Roots I also missed the boat on The Roots until I came across this track from their 2006 Game Theory LP. When I started music blogging in 2006, it was one of the first songs I wrote about (badly,too). Black Thought's first verse was staggering to me. I'm sure fans of the band were not surprised and going back through their stuff, I can see why.
13. Kokoriko-T.P. Orchestre Poly Rhythmo The incredible Soundway label introduced me to Benin's T.P. Orchestre Poly Rhythmo back in 2005. The band has released over 50 albums in their home country and the comp, Kings Of Benin Urban Groove 1972-1980, distills it all down to an almost perfect 13 song primer of their intricate,layered,pan-continental Funk.
14. Roll Call - Oliver Morgan
A New Orleans party on wax, with an excellent back story to boot. Check the link.
15. Rudi- Butch Cassidy Sound System
Here's one my six year old (at the time) son and I could agree on. A mix of live instruments, cut and paste tech, and loads of reggae vibes.
16. Another New Day-Jazzanova A post-2K record, but with a drum and conga breakthat reminded me of James Brown and Dennis Coffey. I couldn't get enough of this tune.
17. Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu- Alhaji K. Frimpong
A 1976 cut from Ghana's highlife master finally reached me in 2006. I've subsequently searched out everything I could find on Mr. Frimpong, but I never found anything quite this good. The slippery organ is one key, but the 2+ minute intro is what keeps me coming back to this one.
18. This Broken Heart - The Sonics
As far as I know the Funkadelic version of this tune from, Cosmic Slop, is the only commercially released cover song P-Funk ever waxed. A sweet late period doo wop cut from the Chess Rhythm and Roll box set.
19. I Can Feel the Ice Melting- The Parliaments Althoughit isn't the most danceable cut in the P-Funk canon, it was the first cut my wife and I danced to at our wedding, which was almost 10 years ago. When we first met, I was obsessing over this tune and I brought my wife along for the ride.
20. How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?- Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
After a few years of raw funk from Sharon and the boys, in 2005 they released a record that showcased a more soulful sound...and the rest is neo-retro-soul history. It's funny that I discovered the Inell Young cut (track 1) around the same time..I find the sound and vibe of the tunes eerily similar.
So there they are, in all their highly subjective, thoroughly un-scientific, glory. After almost 10 years of digital gluttony, I'm still not sold on the way I listen to music these days, but I sure as hell don't like music any less.
