Wonder For The Weekend

Minnie Riperton: Perfect Angel
From: Perfect Angel [Epic, 1974]

Syreeta: Spinnin' And Spinnin'
From: Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta [Motown, 1974]

Spinners: We'll Have It Made
From: Essential Collection [Motown, 1971]

G.C. Cameron: If You Don't Love Me
From: Love Songs & Other Tragedies [Motown, 1974]

Yeah, I know, the title, it's bad, sorry. Anyway, forget that and concentrate on the music.

I've wanted to do a post on Stevie Wonder for as long as I've been doing this but the problem is that when you're as well loved as the Wonder there's very little material that hasn't been featured to death already. Therefore I'm going round this problem by focusing on some of the song's he wrote for other artists during his golden seventies period.

I've featured songs by both Minnie and Syreeta in my blogging past (over three years ago? Damn!) and my feelings on both haven't changed. Perfect Angel off the album of the same name is a great example of Stevie forcing Minnie to showcase a different style of vocal gymnastics as the melody switches up and around.

Syreeta was in many ways Wonder's perfect muse, contributing to his song writing as well as seeming to inspire him to pen stunning tracks. Spinnin' And Spinnin' off her second album, Stevie Wonder Presents...... is just an absolutely amazing track in every way - from Syreeta's wonderfully delivered vocal to the hook to the production. If you don't already own her first two albums then can I make it your one essential purchase for the weekend please.

Speaking of Stevie/Syreeta writing together they actually joint penned the massive massive It's A Shame for The Spinners which I won't post up here for you today. However they also penned the far less well known We'll Have It Made which is a lovely little tune in it's own right and worthy of wider appreciation.

Finally to wrap it up, keeping with the Spinners, I give you their lead singer G.C. Cameron's If You Don't Love Me off his widely ignored album Love Songs & Other Tragedies. This song is pure upbeat funky Wonder at his best and Cameron delivers a great vocal to do it justice. Still not widely known, this song really needs to become more of a staple in people's playlists.

Apart from the above I know of Wonder's work with Ramsey Lewis and Smokey though apparently he also delivered some songs for Martha and The Vandellas that I'm yet to track down. Any other recommendations?

Unique Music By Common People

Common People: Soon There'll Be Thunder and I Have Been Alone
From: Of The People/For The People/By The People [Capitol 1968]

Myth busting on the Fuzz today as we switch up styles once more and enter the world of sixties psych music. For as long as I've known the music of The Common People it's been linked to a major what if. As the story has always gone, David Axelrod was signed up to be the producer of the album and completed three tracks with the group before his wife was injured in a serious car accident. Axelrod then left the recording and the band completed the rest of the album without him.

The reason the story has never been questioned is that the first three songs on the album sound like classic late sixties Axelrod; full of swirling strings, lush percussion and a certain signature depth of sound. The rest of the album, though by no means bad, is a more standard set of sub-Love style recordings without any of the mournful beauty of the album's opening.

However, when reading up about the group recently I stumbled across the following website which managed to locate some of the original band for a revealing interview. In this article the band members debunk the myth, stating categorically that Axelrod left the production before a single note had been recorded. The band are so sure of this it makes it hard to question though it also makes the contrast between the two wildly different styles on the record even more confusing.

Whatever you believe, there's no confusion over why these tracks were held up as masterful Axelrod productions. As mentioned previously their combination of beauty and sorrow are up there with most of his releases from the period and make you long for lost recordings carried out with a similar sound. I've posted two of the three songs for your pleasure and they really are something special.

For a long time a lost gem of the sixties that never even got a domestic release in the US, the album has now been reissued on CD and by all accounts Fallout have done a cracking job. I've been meaning to pick up my own copy for a while now as it will no doubt do far greater justice to the recording than my crackly vinyl rip. Enjoy and feel free to wonder what if with me.......

Bay Area BUMS

West Coast Smack and Can You Do Without?
from the album Lyfe 'N' Tyme on Priority / All City (1995).

Following up the recent post on The Nonce with an even greater album from the same era, today I'd like to provide you with two tracks from the legendary Lyfe 'N' Tyme from The B.U.M.S. (the capitalizationally inventive Brothas Unda MadnesS: comprised of rappers Evocalist and D.Wyze). This album is amazing with a jazzy vibe throughout that recalls that golden age I production of ATCQ and Pete Rock, but gets a laid back slant from these two Bay Area, CA, area rappers (Hayward, what?!). In fact they even have these sweet little interlude samples a la Pete Rock + CL Smooth albums. Overall, start to finish a fantastic hip hop album. Credit where credit is very much due, I originally got turned on to these cats by O-Dub's Soul-Sides.

I've put up two tracks that are similar in that they are built on a bouncy, old-timey jazz boogie sample. Additionally, I noticed after the fact that they are interesting in that neither are produced by the great Joe Quixxx, who produced many of the gems of this album. Absolutely nothing against Quixxx, it just surprisingly turned out that way. First up is "West Coast Smack," produced by the Baka Boyz. A foul-mouthed pontification on how The B.U.M.S. (in particular) and the west coast (in general) dominates the game. Lots of people copied Das Efx's rhyme style, but only a few like the B.U.M.S. could bring enough to the table to not sound like copying herbs. This track is lots of fun. I played this at a party recently and while I wish I could say it blew the roof off, truth is it didn't but I got a very knowing nod from one of the heads in the audience (ten points to Ravenclaw for that cat's knowledge).

Next up is a harder "Can You Do Without?" produced by King Tech (of Sway and King Tech, who executive produced and released this via their label All City Prod). Again we get the boogie horns, but now they are chopped down to just a short augmentation to color the pounding kick drums and cymbal ride. Both MCs run on with forceful, hip hop reference filled rhymes that ride the beat even when it drops out for almost too quirky samples.

Enjoy...this is a fantastic album with an overall quality and complexity these two tracks and this post do fully represent. Sadly, this album and the two related singles are the only releases from this group. Correct me if I'm wrong, I definitely want to find more.

Nobody Can Live Forever: The Music Of Tim Maia

Tim Maia: Nobody Can Live Forever and Me Enganei
From: Tim Maia [Philips, 1976]

Following on from J.'s post about mixes that have caught the ear, I've recently been playing DJ Ferrari's America Du Sol mix to death. Available as a free download from his website or from Waxing Deep, this mix has been constantly reminding me that I really, really, need to step up my Latin American music game.

While my collection and knowledge is shamefully small, I can claim to be familiar with the work of Tim Maia whose Nobody Can Live Forever is featured on the mix.

One of those larger than life characters who occasionally bless the music industry with their unique take on the world, Maia's life was one lived to extremes; taking in everything from heavy cocaine and alcohol abuse to a couple of years spent in an extra terrestrial cult. I'm still waiting for a definitive biography to come out and give his story the write up it deserves though I've heard that Waxpoetics may be doing a feature on him soon.

However, the highs and lows of Maia's personal life shouldn't distract the attention away from his impact on Brazilian music and world music in general. Often credited as the man who brought soul music to Brazil, Maia put out a great collection of soul/funk albums in the seventies which covered a wide range of musical tastes and styles, unhelpfully self titling many of them Tim Maia.

My favourite two of Maia's albums are Tim Maia from 1970 and Tim Maia from 1976 though I thought I'd focus on the latter today with it's link to Ferrari's mix.

Nobody Can Live Forever is a tune built round a monster of a bass riff with Maia switching to English to offer up his thoughts on life, religion, and anything else that comes into his head. Ably supported by his band, Maia mixes up the instrumentation just enough to ever stop the groove getting stale - a real headnodder of a tune.

Me Enganei operates in that lovely place where disco and funk met and cohabited for a short while. An uplifting melody is combined with vocal harmonies and strings that assist rather than overpower the tune to craft a song that was a perfect fit for my walk from the station this morning as spring sunshine blessed the pavement around me.

Flicking through his albums while preparing this post, I'd forgotten just how much good music this man crafted so be prepared for another ode to Maia sometime soon.......

Darondo Vs Rene Costy: Didn't I Scrabble

Darondo: Didn't I Scrabble

Quickie today with a blend that hasn't left my playlist for a week now. If you don't know about Darondo by now you must get familiar as a matter of urgency. The original Didn't I is undoubtedly one of the sweetest soul songs I've ever cupped my ear to and is night on perfect in itself. What makes this blend work so well is that the constructor recognises that less is most definitely more in this case and matches the song beautifully with Rene Costy's Scrabble to deliver a slightly faster Darondo perfect for the dancefloor. So simple and yet so good.

I've been asking around about where this originated from but no one seems to want to own up for it. Happy to give credit if someone wants to step up (and a higher quality mp3 wouldn't go amiss either).

Nonce, Twice, Track Three Features Ladies

The Nonce: Mix Tapes, Good To Go, and On The Road Again
from the album World Ultimate on Wild West Records (1995).

For a long time the post-Common's Resurrection, pre-Jurassic 5's Quality Control period of the late 90s was a hip hop waste-land. While I still find that time frame to be a real dry spell in terms of amazing albums, I keep uncovering albums from that era to help redeem it. One of my more recent discoveries is the underground championed The Nonce.

This duo (the fantastically named Nouka Basetype and the late Yusef Afloat) from Los Angeles released two albums and an EP between 1995 and 1999, and their debut album World Ultimate is a consistently pleasing listening experience. Start to finish, it is all easy, lazy head nod in effect and the rappers trade off with comfortingly familiar flows that can tend to melt into the hazy background. "Mix Tapes" was released as a single, and it definitely can appeal to the heads with the tapes of making, trading, and getting tapes. The bassline and two note piano sample create a rather haunting vibe for such a nostalgic song, but I chill just listening to this.

A little more interesting in terms in of the production is my favorite track from the album "Good To Go." The flutter that pans around stereo sets off the lovely boom bap and piano loop. Sounds like the production that inspired early Fat Jon to me. Beautiful stuff that you seldom hear with rappers anymore. And finally, the most commercial track off the album is "On The Road Again," which is again a slice of life for a hip hop head. Here we get Figures of Speech providing the background vocals and a more uptempo track (or as uptempo as these mellow cats get). Overall The Nonce's 1995 album full of their own nostalgia, has reached me more than a decade later and filled me with my memories of this type of music and the days when it was all around us.

Something Smooth For The Weekend: Lamont Dozier

Lamont Dozier: Shine and All Cried Out
From: Black Bach [ABC, 1975]

Lamont Dozier: Trying To Hold On To My Woman
From: Out Here On My Own [ABC, 1974]

Switching up styles today with some downtempo delights to smoooooooooth you into the weekend. Maybe it's the 6 month British winter or just a general shift in tastes but I've found myself getting into the groove of mid seventies lush soul more and more over the last couple of months. I'm well aware that one listener's soul is another listener's shite so I'm not going to submerge you in it but did feel an overwhelming urge to post up some solo output from Lamont Dozier.

Originally making an impact as part of the Motown golddust team Holland-Dozier-Holland, Lamont's solo output is best known nowadays for the unfadeable Going Back To My Roots. However, Dozier actually had a pretty successful solo career which isn't bad going considering that most members of groups have a hard time making an impact after the split and when you're part of one of The Great Teams it must be even more of a bitch to prove your own worth.

Part of this is no doubt down to Dozier's role as the production wizard within the team, a talent he shows no sign of having lost on his 1975 album Black Bach. The most obvious parallel Dozier seems to be pulling with his album title is in the lushness of the musical structure he brings to the table and you can't fault him in this department.

Shine kicks off the album with aplomb as the artificial crowd calms down and the music begins, starting with a crescendo of strings Dozier switches up the melody with supreme confidence, reducing the layers of sound down before bringing it back up for the chorus.

All Cried Out hits me in my saccharine week spot. A track that hooks me from the get go and featuring a melody that rises and falls with the lead guitar I could just listen to a loop of this all day.

As a bonus I just couldn't resist featuring Trying To Hold On To My Woman from Dozier's earlier Out Here On Our Own. I forgot to crop off the interlude so you get a nice minute or so of string laden funk before the tear jerker kicks in. I'm a big big fan of "I've screwed up please give me another chance" ballads, the more overblown the better, and think this holds it's own commendably. This song is also a great example of the expressive set of pipes Lamont has as he delivers his vocal absolutely beautifully.

As it goes I've just noticed that Art Decade posted up Going Back To My Roots two weeks ago (great minds etc etc) so consider that an additional bonus track here. Also, while the originals seem tricky to come by you can pick up a best of Lamont pretty cheap from the usual places.

There you go, my ode to sweet smooth soul. Be interested if any readers want to step up to rep their own private mellow gems.........

Well Fertilized Funk: Compost

Compost: Thinkin and Take Off Your Body
From: Take Off Your Body [Columbia, 1971]

Back with the funk in a big way today my friends. We've featured Jack DeJohnette's percussion work in various groups a number of times on EarFuzz previously but today I'm turning the spotlight on to one of his earliest works leading a group with the 1971 album Take Off Your Body by Compost.

Also featuring the talents of Bob Moses and Jack Gregg, the album offers up a wide range of styles from softly softly jazz soul ballads to all balls to the floor manic funk.

Thinkin is undoubtedly the highlight of the record but it's fair to say that it would be the highlight of many records released in that period. An absolutely fantastic example of how to do a great funk tune the DeJohnette penned piece starts off slowly via the bass and builds up to speed in no time. I particularly love the breakdown two minutes in which works brilliantly as the drums come back in over the horn section.

I mentioned balls to the floor manic funk earlier and here it is. Take Off Your Body, written by Bob Moses, is a tune filled with hard as they come double time drumming, horns, congas and multitude of other instruments while the band plead with their muse to undress. It sounds like it could be a mess, hovering on the edge a number of times, but I'm a big fan of tracks with this chaotic energy and think this pulls it off with some to spare.

The record's yet to be reissued and seems to be pretty rare though when it does turn up on ebay it doesn't pick up much of a hefty price (seen it go for $10 more than once). I've yet to get my hands on the only other album Compost put together, Life is Round, any heads up on whether it's worth checking out would be much appreciated.

Get Your Rachmaninoff

Preludium Cis Moll
from the album Variations On Classics on Supraphon Records (1982).
Also appears on the compilation Strange Breaks and Mr. Thing on BBE Records (2008).

All The Things You C# - Charles Mingus
from the live album Mingus At The Bohemia on Debut Records (1955).

After spending 10 years in my youth playing classical piano, you would think I would know more about classical music. However, I spent probably 9.9 of those years thinking I'd rather learn to play jazz piano and Frank Sinatra ditties. More the shame for me I guess, but I will say I what little I know I enjoy. And everything I know is decidedly older than Sergei Rachmaninoff (the latest of anything I ever played was Tchaikovsky). Luckily, many others studied where I never ventured and today here's two "covers" of Rachmaninoff's famous Prelude in C# minor (check out this wikipedia entry with audio of Rachmaninoff being recorded by Thomas Edison).

First up is jazz-funk version of the prelude by Josef Vobruba with his Orchestra. It is possible this is the Prague Dance Orchestra with whom Vobruba is most often associated, but regardless the conductor is leading a big, funky group. The growing lore of Eastern European breaks is has been upheld by this track, which I had only recently discovered and then was delighted to hear in super clean form on Mr. Thing's recent compilation for BBE. The sound is huge and the number of elements and instruments contributing is astonishing to me, or probably to many listeners who do not often venture into orchestra territory. And just listen to whomever is attacking that piano, that is fierce, brother Christian.

One of the reasons I liked the Josef Vobruba version so much is my deep love for Charles Mingus's composition "All The Things You C Sharp," which is a juxtaposition of the jazz standard "All The Things You Are" with Rachmaninoff's prelude. Here the themes mix and match throughout lending an entirely new sound to the converted whole (a blend for the ages). High school performance piano piece du jour "Claire de Lune" even gets a little love on the piano lines occasionally, even if it was not able to make it into Mingus's brilliant title. Recorded live in 1955 (hence the less than stellar audio quality) at the Cafe Bohemia, this version is from early in Mingus's brilliant run as one of the most influential and far reaching jazz composers. He had not yet matched up with drummer Dannie Richmond, and I do miss DR's snappy drumming on this one, but overall the horns perform beautifully and Mingus pushes the players around with big, grounded bass. Pianist Mal Waldron, in his solo before Mingus's amazing bass solo, most clearly states the comparisons of the two composite songs. Deep, enjoyable listening. As a side note, Mingus attempted another "mash-up" on this album playing "Tenderly" against "September In The Rain" for his "Septemberly."

(Too) Long Time Coming: Best Mixing of 2007.

Thanks to Junior for getting us back online. Way back in January I was exploring my inner obsessive nerd and compiling "best of" lists for all the most important categories: album, movie, book, science paper, etc. So while I get some more posts in order and inspired by Matt W's mix from the previous post, I wanted to hit you all with my list for the five best mixes of 2007. (I know, I know...my God it's March and all...still I hope you find something good).

The criteria: I had to hear these for the first time in the calendar year of 2007, regardless of when they were made. Everything is rate on a five star scale, with five being the best. To put things in perspective, I've only ever give a ***** rating to maybe half a dozen mixes in my whole life (for what that's worth), an average mix is ***, and DJ Trainwreck is a 0.0. So after having made my way through 83 mixes in 2007, without further ado:

Number Five: ****.5 Monk One's Wax Poetics Mix from the Scion sampler Vol. 14.

Monk One makes some smooth mixes, and he really kills this collection of neo-funk and soul and instrumental hip hop. Butter smooth transitions and super dope track selection (choosing so much from the Daptone label is dangerous but genius). I probably dug this mix out of my CD stacks more often than any other in 2007 because of how often it fit the mood I was in or wanted to be in, namely serenely happy and open minded. Plus it is always good to hear a Diverse and Prefuse 73 track, which is what this snippet starts out as (note, you'll have to turn up the sound as the gain was accidentally low when i recorded these snippets).

Number Four: ****.5 Arthur King's Pop S#!+

My better half and I do not see eye to eye on many things music wise, but we both agree that the best thing for riding in the car are these ironic mix and mash CDs. Hollertronix, The Rub, and lots of other talented and cheeky folks get PT from us while we're burning fossil fuels. And this mix where Frenchy Arthur King puts together hip hop and the 80s pop confections that "inspired" them. Blends, sample references, lyrical references, all connections get play. But King's skills are on display for the opening cut-up in the snippet and then we get into a B.I.G. run captures the spirit of the CD well. Some how AK let's all the 60 odd tracks on this mix have their time in the sun alone and still fit in lots of dense transitions.

Number Three: ****.6 Play Anything by Sound Advice

Speaking of dense transitions, Brooklyn's Sound Advice made the independent-mobile mix of the year with their all styles and blends spectacular loosely linked to 80s stalwart / extreme skiing enthusiast John Cusack. Elsewhere and K.Ross made this mix years ago, but somehow it only got around to me early in 2007. Fun and inventive, and filled with great stuff from every source you can imagine. I don't even mind that they have a U2 track in there briefly and I hate U2 with such a fervently holy passion you would not believe. You can get the whole bloomin' mix at the duo's website.

Number Two: ****.6 Special Herbs Box Set by MF Doom

Something totally different from the other mixes on here is the 3 disc mix of beats MF Doom has produced for his long and well (internet fan boy) chronicled career. Doom is an exciting MC and in concert comes across as the most talented, brilliant homeless man you've ever stopped to talk with. But the genius of his beats never fully hit me until I was nodding along to collection, which is somewhat loosely mixed together by Doom with little to no cutting or blending. Maybe it is more of a compilation, but it is something beautiful. Doom beats are instantly recognizable as Doom beats and for that reason they can get lumped together and somewhat ignored, but for me it really clicked the subtle variation and cohesive vision throughout his work. Unique and yet extensive, now that is hard to do. This snippet is from the middle of the first CD, but maybe I should have picked something from the third CD which focuses on his time in KMD. Get your own copy.

Number One: ***** Gaslamp Killers by Gaslamp Killer

And finally the mix of the year. And a ***** effort to boot, maybe J Rocc should be nervous? Evidently this mix is also a few years old, but I'd never heard of GK until starting blowing my mind last year. His production has super tight drum programming while often pushing those drum samples to the point of distortion, but he kills with the intricate upper layer of melody or tone recalling early DJ Shadow (less introspective maybe) or RJD2 (but harder). This mix is hard core drums for over an hour, just blasting away at you with the lovely percussion. Some of them you'll recognize easily, others are from records I've never sniffed and probably never will.

Honorable mention mixes: Mason and DJ Zeph - Hip Hop Bebop; DJ FaceMe - Bingo Wings; J Rocc - Taster's Choice 5; and DJ Platurn - Best of ATCQ.

It's good to be back. Lots more posts coming. I hope you enjoy this.