Cut and Paste 3: Opening a Major Cut

Return of the Original Art Form - Major Force
from 12" on Mo Wax (1997 reissued 2006).

Re-return of the Original Art Form - Cut Chemist
from 12" on Mo Wax (2000).

Closing out the string of posts on funky cut and paste productions, today we've got a great classic and an even better rethinking of that classic. Hopefully, I've given a taste of some of the better examples of this sub-sub-sub-genre, and there are definitely many more examples with varying degrees of quality.

The Major Force track is by Hiroshi Fujiwara and KUDO featuring DJ Milo from the funky breakbeat classic album that has recently been re-released. While there are a bunch of nice downtempo and mid-tempo beat-head tracks on this album, this track stands out as the most inventive and busiest. Evidently other felt the same way because it got the deluxe re-work treatment by Cut Chemist, DJ Format, and DJ Harvey (a "huh, what?" for that last one).

While it isn't a mint Boscoe (sweet Lord, Junior, what a great post), the Re-return is one of my more prized records on the shelf because of (in addition to the great music) the elegant and symmetric sleeve design and nifty clear gold vinyl. Cut laid it on the line aobut this track: "I used 49 records, an old school tape and a homeboy of mine to do this mix." And from that large source set he made one hell of stew.

Boscoe!

Boscoe: We Ain't Free and If I Had My Way
From: Boscoe [Kingdom of Chad, 1974]

Whenever an exceedingly rare record comes up for auction it delivers the same range of responses. Half the people think the album is an overpriced pile of poo, the other half would happily pay the extortionate amount asked to get their hands on what they consider a grail in record collecting. What it seems to break down to is that while the album may not be worth the money asked for it, the knowledge that you can't pick up a reissue in your local store and that you are among the select few lucky enough to have it on vinyl adds extra enjoyment to the pleasure of listening. Sonic elitism in full effect my friends.

A classic example of this is Boscoe's self-titled opus. A private label record on the truly awesomely named Kingdom of Chad that is still to be reissued, the album goes for a staggering amount of money whenever it appears. While it could be debated if any album is worth this much money I am fully convinced that this is an undeniably great recording.

We Ain't Free goes some way to illustrating why people talk about this album in hushed reverence. An 8 minute stomper of funk featuring sweet harmonies, a riff that bangs round your head for days after, and the kind of breaks that make a producer feel like a kid in a candy store this is a blindingly hot track.

While If I Had My Way is less jawdropping than We Ain't Free it's still a great slice of funk with a lovely horns/bass play off. It's always struck me, considering the record is a private press, how superb the production on the album is - crystal clear clarity and deep deep bass.

I can't go out and recommend picking up this album for obvious reasons but hopefully it goes some way to illustrating why some people will drop so much dosh on a 12" piece of round vinyl........

Cut and Paste 2: Lessons Learned

Lesson 4: The Radio - Cut Chemist
from CD Return of the DJ, Vol. 1 on Bomb Hip Hop (1995).

English Lesson - DJ Format
from the English Lesson EP on Bomb Hip Hop (1999).

Like I said last time, the Double Dee & Steinski cut and paste mixes were very influential. They lead to numerous other Lesson's being constructed (of varying quality) in the early 90s and beyond. Most legendarily DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist nearly simultaneously and unbeknownst to each other made a "Lesson 4." Kind of like when Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga separately developed the ground work for Quantum Electrodynamics, right? Well close anyways.

Cut Chemist's "Lesson 4: The Radio" appeared on the B-side of a Unity Committee's (ne Jurassic 5's) 1993 single "Unified Rebelution." The original vinyl is crazy rare and even the bootleggers haven't gotten this out on vinyl much. It also appeared on Bomb Hip Hop's Return of the DJ, Vol. 1 CD, which I recommend to those who aren't turned off by lots of scratchy tricknology. Cut Chemist later went on to make another classic mix-up called "Lesson 6" (from the Jurassic 5 EP) saving him against anyone else simultaneously making a different Lesson 5.

Much later the UK's DJ Format put together the aptly titled "English Lesson." While clearly following in the footsteps, and paying homage to the original Lessons, it is interesting how each producers taste comes into play. Cut Chemist's humor, feel for a good scratch, and taste for instructional records is definitely clear in both "Lesson 4" and "Lesson 6." And Format's passion for ginormous, full bodied breaks and b-boy tracks is definitely also notable.

There are lots of these style of tracks out there although the idea of these kinds of tracks being commerically released with sample clearance as it is today seems unlikely. Still lots are being made by Z-Trip (he has a Motown track that is killer), a few dudes at GAMM, and even the folks taking it to mix CD length execution (I'm thinking of the Three Sinister Syllables mix in particular). For bandwidth purposes a few bonus tracks are stuck over at critical beatdowns. Next look for the major (force) reason I originally decided to post up these tracks.

Cut and Paste 1: Superfly Meets Steinski

Super Fly Meets Shaft - John & Ernest
from 7" on Rainy Wednesday Records (197?).

Lesson 3 (History of Hip Hop Mix) - Double Dee & Steinski
from 12" on Tommy Boy (1985).

Starting off a couple of posts about cut & paste recordings with a bit of the back history. For a much more in depth look into the history check out this article from Neil McMillan (originally featured in Big Daddy Magazine).

First off is one of Dickie Goodman's 70s productions in which he creates a fake new broadcast full of questions he asks and answers supplied by funk and soul snippets. I apologize for the audio quality, but I actually found this in a box of records on the street so mixing cliches finders can't be choosers. Meant more for comedy and satire than moving butts, this record is showcased for historical purposes of early funky cut-ups.

Goodman was cited by Steinski as being a primary influence on his 80s cut-ups with Double Dee, which in turn influenced a legion of DJs who started the turntablist movement. Double Dee & Steinski put together funk, soul, and disco tracks with movie and tv dialogue in their legendary Lesson series. The new twist here is their ability to make a cohesive danceable mix out of all the disjoint pieces. Cut and paste has come along ways since Dickie Goodman and next we'll see what folks have done after Steinski.

Thrust Into The Weekend

McNeal & Niles: Ja Ja and Punk Funk
From: Thrust [Tinkertoo, 1979]

So, after J.'s quickie yesterday I feel a bit guilty about holding back on my own textual diarrhoea, but, due to knowing squat about the artist involved I'm afraid I have no choice. Feel free to use up your allocated reading time with a game of solitaire, a call to someone you love or an extra long dump in your office toilets. You see? It's all love and giving at Ear Fuzz.

McNeal & Niles were a guitar playing husband and keyboard playing wife duo who (to my knowledge) released a single longplayer under their own names. Strangely out of sync with the disco sound of the time of it's release in 1979, its lush synthetic sound gives it more of a timeless feel.

Due to its across the board lack of success on original release the album has long been an eager digger's wet dream but with the recent reissue its class and quality can now be heard by those who don't have 600 dollars lying around and the right connections to get their sweaty paws on an original.

Ja Ja totally pulls all the right strings for me, featuring a simple keyboard melody that burrows deep inside and the kind of throbbing bass and stuttering meaty drums that I get tapped on the shoulder and asked to turn down when I'm rocking it on my Mp3 player. Understated and at the same time epic, I know I harp on about musical perfection in simplicity but, seriously, listen to this and tell me that it isn't absolutely sublime.

Punk Funk is the heaviest track on the record and kicks things off with a hard as nails drum solo - I wish I could give credit to whoever played drums on this album but there's very little info out there. Any knowledge dropped would be appreciated. Again making no errors throughout the piece this funks hard with it's wah wah guitar and distorted synths.

One of those albums I turn to whenever I need reminding that there's still so much great music to be discovered and unleashed, I can't recommend this highly enough.

McRaedy for a Quick Post

Get It Straight (Live) - Carmen McRae
from Carmen Sings Monk on Bluebird (1988).

Money Hustlin' Woman - Amos Milburn
from Bad Bad Whiskey 1946-1950 on EPM Musique (2001).

My advisor, who is great, has this habit of asking questions outloud and answering them to communicate his points. Are you familiar with this habit? Yes you are, it is quite common. So in his honor today's post follows this format.

Is this post thrown together quickly? Absolutely, I've been quite busy this week, but thought 3 days with no new posts was not best.

Do I think anyone cares if I'm busy, since everyone else is also? Not really, but it is the reason for this gimmicky post.

Is there any reasons why the delightful readers of ear fuzz should let this slide? Because there are two good tracks posted and only 30 seconds from their busy day to read this.

Does this Carmen McRae post undermine my claim in the Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross post of not being a fan of vocal jazz? It would appear that way, but a vocal interpretation of Thelonius Monk's "Straight No Chaser" is too intriguing.

Will there be a more intelligent post this weekend? Absolutely.

Having A Spaceball

Larry Young's Fuel: SpaceBall and Moonwalk
From: Spaceball [Arista, 1975]

So I'm still on a bit of a fusion tip and realised I've yet to feature any music by Larry Young, a man who burnt so brightly before dying of pneumonia at the shockingly young age of 38.

An organist of immeasurable talent, Young was involved in the recording of many of the great Blue Note jazz albums of the sixties including those of Grant Green and Joe Henderson before moving into the world of fusion and funk in the early seventies.

Like many jazz artists who moved away from the traditional sound, Young's post Blue Note work is often either overlooked or dismissed out of hand. However, upon listening to it again what strikes you most is how left field it is, even Young's biggest success "Turn Off The Lights" has him going crazy with a synthesiser over the groove heavy track.

Spaceball, released in 1975, was the last album to be published during Young's lifetime and offers up late Larry's usual mix of the good and the bad. While the quality is too varied for me to call this a forgotten classic, when Young struck gold he produced some absolute gems.

The title track displays Young's talents of combining fun with artistic merit as he gives the first two minutes of the record over to a funky scat laced over orgasmic female vocals (this is as good as it sounds, honest) before the instruments kick in with that 70's Young sound of high pitched synths, funky bass and general craziness. Refusing to ever just stick with a groove the track veers from side to side and up and down without ever losing the rhythm. More than a hint of Parliament's influence on this recording as well.

Moonwalk starts with a lovely little break and lots of echoey spaced out effects before the groove sets in. It's undoubtedly one of those tracks that slowly takes hold of the listeners interest as it progresses, the sounds layering up to create an otherworldly feel, the throbbing bass re-verbs that appear late in the track are absolutely killing it as well.

Music to brighten even the dullest day, don't sleep.

TQIF: Will Holland, Take Over The World?!

Image bitten from the funny/informative/hip/not-always-safe-for-work ttl blog

Bliss (Quantic Remix) - Rosie Brown
from 7" on Wah Wah 45s (2003) also on 2CD One Offs Remixes and B-Sides on Tru Throughts (2006).

Bababatteur (Quantic French Remix) - Awa Band f/ Tony Allen
from 12" on Soundway (2005) also on 2CD One Offs Remixes and B-Sides on Tru Throughts (2006).

Bomb In A Trumpet Factory - Quantic
from An Announcement To Answer on Tru Thoughts (2006).

The songs and artists on this site get lots of deserving praise and that makes sence because we're featuring things we think are really feeling. However, when it comes to Will Holland I'm just running out of superlatives. Let's cut it short and say this cat is an absolute genius. He's mad young for how prolific and consistent he's been relasing multiple solo albums as Quantic that have matured from excellent bed-room beat maker into a producer of fine dance tracks featuring uber-layered mutli-rhythmic percussion and great horn, guitar, and vocal work with a funk and(/or) Latin flair. He also composes, plays in, and arranges for live funk act Quantic Soul Orchestra. On top of that he's made a few rare funk mixes and compilations to flex his diggin' skills. And he's a great listen as a DJ (caught him in SF earlier this year). Oh and there's the remix work and the Limp Twins collaboration (whew!). Now he has a new Quantic album that is again fire, so here's three tracks with which to Thank Quantic It's Friday.

The remix of Rosie Brown's breakbeat soul track "Bliss" is so inventive with double-time drums and a time-shifted bass-line that seems to move backwards at times. That beat just controls your dance movements like a puppet: start, shuffle, slow-mo, stop, speed up, groove, on and on. The other remix up is an Afro-beat-ish dance re-work of Awa Band's "Bababatteur." This is one of my favorite pick ups of the last year and the single features the excellent original in English and French as well as both lingual-leanings of Quantic's rework. Tell me these bass-lines and vocals are stuck in your head for the rest of the weekend, and I'll be surprised.

Finally, "Bomb In A Trumpet Factory" if off the just released new album An Anouncement to Answer. It is the most straight up funk sounding of the tracks on that excellent disc, which otherwise has a heavy Carribean and Latin flavor. The opening horn bumps actually have a decidely bop-ish flair to them which fits beautifully with all the jazz I've been listening to recently as well. I'll stop gushing just as soon as I encourage you to take out Quantic's site, which is cleanly and elegantly designed and features a very comprehensive discography for the completist nerderati.

Welcome To The Beginning Of The End

The Beginning Of The End: Come On Down and When She Made Me Promise
From: Funky Nassau [Atlantic, 1971]

It's been a minute since I put up some straight down the line funk fire for you so what better time to give you the righteous funk of a group called ,somewhat topically, the Beginning Of The End.

Beginning Of The End only ever recorded the single longplayer but it's a dancefloor stormer through and through. The band, comprised of the three Munnings brothers and Fred Hedfield, kept their sound tight throughout the set, aided by the production skills of Steve Alaimo, the producer behind artists ranging from Clarence Reid to Timmy Thomas to Betty Wright. By far their most famous (and compiled track) is Funky Nassau pt. 1 but don't sleep on the rest of the album which is dripping with quality funk.

Come Down is a sweet roller with more than a touch of the JBs about it, the Funky Nassau horn section adding their flavour to the funky African influenced riff and bassy vibrations. Protip: The louder you can play The Beginning........ the better they sound.

When She Made Me A Promise takes the band's sound to an even greater height as the highly recognisable introduction brings the track in at a high tempo before the band take what at first seems like an extended jam and turn it into a superbly composed instrumental stormer . Particularly check out the heavy organ chords that phase in for the final section as the band tear it up. This is pure, unadulterated, funky goodness.

Ear Fuzz Competition Time: The Winner

Apologies for the delay in posting up a winner for our July competition to win the Two Atlantic Soul albums, I wanted to give enough time to properly read all entries before making a choice. However, I'm pleased to confirm that the winner is the following entry from Marie in France. Marie's English may not be the best but in a way that chimed with the subject matter and the feeling of the post won over my soppy heart.

Before all sorry for my English, I'm a french woman. But i want to answer to this question.

So what does soul music means to me ? Soul music is not simply a genre of music, it's more that than, it's the life, the emotions which emanate from a music.

Soul music is universal, it is a music, an emotion that no matter who can seize, to feel. If the words we be of a language foreign, we can all the same feel the music, it there have not some barrier, not some border, no matter who can listen to and include it that want do feel this music, quite simply because it calls upon emotion of every days, of thing that each one of we feel.
This music is the most beautiful in this world. Sometimes, when you listen to soul music, you can do an introspection, you can teach yourself about some subject, you can understand certain emotion.
This music is for every one....poor people, rich people... French people, African people, Chinese people... This music is unique. Every one loves her, she is my lover... Like common with hip hop, me it's with soul music.

So, congrats to Marie whose copies of the album will be winging themselves to her shortly. Thanks to everyone who entered, honourable mentions have to go to Richard Washington and Dave Thomas who came very close. I'll have a look round my promos and try and get something to you guys as runner up prizes.

RIP Arthur Lee

March 7, 1945 - August 3, 2006

Love: The Red Telephone and Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale
From: Forever Changes [Elektra, 1967]

Love: She Comes In Colours
From: Da Capo [Elektra, 1966]

Love: A Message To Pretty
From: Love [Elekta, 1966]

It's now confirmed that Arthur Lee, the frontman and songwriter for Love passed away yesterday after a long battle with leukemia. Love's music has had a profound effect on mine and millions of people's lives and will be sorely missed. Forever Changes alone would easily rank in my top five greatest albums ever recorded.

I've deliberated long and hard how best to pay tribute to one of the last great talents of the 20th Century. To be perfectly honest I'd love to put up the whole of Forever Changes but, seriously, if you don't already own it you need to get it right now. So, I've returned from a Friday night out and used my deteriorating state of mind to choose for me.

I've strayed away from Arthur's heavier period and not even touched on his solo albums but hopefully this will give you a first step in appreciating the talent the world has lost.

Each album, which sounds good on first listen, soon reveals a whole nother level of majesty that will entrance listeners for decades to come, from the magnificent trumpets of Maybe The People... to the sweet melodies of She Comes In Colours. I'll let the music speak for itself.

RIP to one of the greats.

Vocalese: What the scat is that?

Twisted, Bijou, and Everybody's Boppin' - all by Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross.
all on Everybody's Boppin' on Columbia (1959).

You can file this under edutainment, all apologies to KRS-1. As to whether it is your edutainment or just mine read on to find out. Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks were both jazz lyricists and vocalists with a heavy interest in the new developments in terms of complex rhythms and free chord changes for solos brought about by the bop revolution in the 40s and 50s. They met up in the mid-50s and quickly formed a trio with female vocalist Annie Ross. They worked together for roughly 5 years primarily in the idiom of Vocalese, which is singing style that uses vocals to mimic instrumental sections from music. Vocalese differs from its similarly inclined cousin by instead of using nonsensical sounds to mimic various instrumental section actually having lyrics sung.

King Pleasure and others were instrumental (no pun intended) to the early development of vocalese, but Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross really became the face(s) of that style as the most popular vocal jazz group from 1958-1962 (when Ross left the group).

"Twisted" is a showcase song for Annie Ross and like many of their songs comes across now as pretty corny. It sounds more like a Broadway tune than something I would think of as jazz. It was arguably the group's biggest hit and shows really advanced vocal dexterity and purity of tone that you won't be hearing on any reality television singing show anytime soon. Meanwhile, "Bijou" is a beautiful track and displays the group's ability to work together very well. Additionally, it has a distinct bop feel that has allowed it to age much better than the other two tracks here. Finally "Everybody's Boppin'" is neat because of its lightning pace and combination of both vocalese and scatting side by side.

I had never heard of vocalese until recently (hence the edutainment), and my initial reaction was that it was horribly dated and corny. Other that "Bijou," I felt it sounded like a more parody of jazz group vocals. While this style certainly isn't my favorite (I'm not a huge fan of jazz vocals or even singing in general), it has grown on me and I've become very appreciative of the talent required for both the singing and lyrical arrangement skills. If you happen to like these tracks, I definitely recommend getting LH&R's Sing A Song of Basie or something by King Pleasure.

Unwind Yourself

Alice Coltrane: Journey In Satchidananda
From: Journey In Satchidananda [Impulse!, 1971]

Alice Coltrane: Turiya And Ramakrishna
From: Ptah The El Daoud [Impulse!,1970]

Life is hectic at the moment people, a job promotion and real world moves leaving less time than I'd like to cuddle up to my vinyl and whisper sweet nothings into its grooves. What better time then to take a moment out and relax and unwind with the audio equivalent of a spiritual and mental cleanse from Alice Coltrane.

Coltrane's fourth solo album after the death of John, Journey in Satchidananda marks a high point in Alice's solo career and proves that she possessed a great musical talent herself. Inspired by the meeting with her guru Swami Satchidananda, Coltrane's playing is expansive and the compositions epic and sweeping in nature. The title track itself is probably my favourite of all of Alice's work, the combination of lush harp playing is offset by some brilliant work by Pharoah Sanders that prevents the music from ever entering the dreaded world of easy listening. This is gorgeous, timeless, music of the highest quality.

Released a year earlier, Ptah The El Daoud offers hints of what's to come on Journey in... but is composed more as one continuous piece, the album's musical themes continuing from one track to the next. Turiya And Ramakrishna showcases Coltrane's piano skills to create a lilting piece that drifts in and out of focus with some excellent bass by Ron Carter carrying the track forward (Coltrane certainly knew how to compose a stellar line up for her albums).

With the insanity going on in the world at the moment take a moment to listen to the pieces, relax your body, and unwind your mind, you won't regret it.