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.