Willie Tee: Loneliness and Bring On The Heartaches From: I'm Only A Man [Capitol, 1970] Apologies for the lateness but I just wanted to put up a post in tribute to Willie Tee who passed away just a little over a year ago now. I've featured music from Tee's band the insanely funky Gaturs before on the site but never really posted up anything from his solo period and can't seem to find anything much on the other blogs I check (believe it or not I'll spend time checking that I'm not duplicating content before I feature any album on the site - you wouldn't believe the number of great albums I've gone to post only to find it featured elsewhere.....). A great indepth article by Larry Benicewicz about Willie's long journey to some kind of commercial recognition can be found here. However, the shorthand version for the txt msg generation is that, before the Gaturs, Willie Tee had quite an eventful recording career spanning a number of cities and collaborators before finally being talent spotted by Cannonball Adderley himself. Adderley took tee to Capitol and before you know it he was recording his 1970 solo album "I'm Only A Man". Now different sources say different things about who produced this album but at least one rumour floating about is that this was produced by Capitol producer at the time David Axelrod. It certainly has hints of Axelrod's style over the recording (particular the drums and grandiose aspect of much of the production) but I'll let you listen and make up your own mind on the matter. Loneliness is probably my favourite track on the album; a proper mini epic as it builds from a rumbling beginning to something full of crashing drums, strings and Willie crying out for an end to his solitude. Quality stuff indeed my friends. Bring On The Heartaches continues the less than happy mood of many of the songs on I'm Only A Man but it's delivered with enough rousing strings and horns that the song definitely ends with a more upbeat feeling than might be expected and I'm a sucker for any song that uses female backing vocals so effectively. Within the year of this being released The Gaturs began to take off and a couple of years later Wille separated from Capitol, frustrated with the way they were taking him. I'd be the last person to ever wish The Gaturs etc had never happened but it's interesting to think what might have happened if Tee had experienced more success with this first real stab at the big time.

The Raw & The Crooked 004 Posted by dstill808

DJ Still Life: The Raw & The Crooked 004 zshare • podcast By now you probably know what you're getting with these mixes. Premium placed on bump, low-end, screeches and wails. The opening track actually comes from the fantastic Presage project, which was the first record I wrote about on this site years ago. As relevant to me now as it was then.

Stoned African Fuzz: The Sound Of Zambia Posted by Junior

Amanaz: History Of Man and Sunday Morning From: Africa [1975] Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Nagozi Family: Fisherman and Trouble Maker From: My Ancestors [1974] You know, I like to think we have a good relationship, we've been discussing music now for near on four years, I've played you my pick of my collection, you've listened politely. Therefore, in the interests of honesty, I'm not going to claim that I own the records featured today on vinyl or have ever even been in the same room as either. However, I couldn't resist featuring them on the site as I was randomly introduced to both by two different people over the course of the last week and they have been my soundtrack of choice ever since. Sometimes you hear an album and it just fits exactly what you were looking for so well that it's almost scary. This is what happened when I first heard Amanaz. From the moment the combination of lo fi production, fuzzy guitars and soulful vocals kicked off I knew I was going to love the album and it didn't disappoint. What was bizarre though was that within two days of hearing this the topic of Chrissy Zembo randomly came up on Soulstrut, I clicked out of curiosity, and found another 1970's Zambian album which fitted the mood just as well if not better. The albums share a theme so well that you could picture Chrissy and Amanaz sharing studio time and recording tips. So, without further ado, first up, Amanaz. Recorded in 1973, the album is delivered in a mixture of English and native tongue Bemba and it's all absolute fire. History of Man is more than a little reminiscent of early seventies rock like Jimi and Cream with a guitar line that is about as fuzzed out as you can humanly get. Sunday Morning is something else entirely, with an air of Velvet Underground about its combination of rough edges, sweet melody and far off vocals it's been the track of choice for me as I prepare for the day on my commute into work. Something I coudl listen to on repeat for hours, it really is spellbindingly beautiful. Chrissy Zebby Tembo's My Ancestors, from the following year, takes the sound of Amanaz even further, with slightly higher production values and a more uptempo approach. Fisherman features the kind of fuzzy guitar line that I spend days flicking through early seventies albums to find and is used to jaw dropping effect on this track with it's lively percussion and heavy bass. You know how I said History Of Man was a fuzzy as you could get? Well Trouble Maker is just a dirty dirty fuzz beast. Sounding like he recorded the music underneath a pile of blankets, the track features the kind of guitars My Bloody Valentine would have given a nut to produce, combined with the much clearer and desperate vocals over the top. This track is facemelting and mind blowing at the same time. I have many grievances from when stuff has been appropriated off the Fuzz without credit so I must take time to mention that you can get Amanaz from the Crotchbat blog and Chrissy from ChrisGoesRock. I also appropriated both their factual titbits so thank you guys, appreciate it. Also cheers to DJ James and bassie for giving me the heads up on these in the first place. That'll probably do before this turns into the Oscars. Enjoy and if you know of any more artists like this please please please please let me know.

The Enigmatic Awesome Dre and the Hardcore Committee Posted by Kevin

Awesome Dre and the Hardcore Committee: Frankly Speaking and Master of Philosophy From: You Can't Hold Me Back [Priority, 1989] Well, in light of Junior and the Dude's recent hip-hop posts, I figured I would add a little hip-hop that first rocked my world in 1989. Awesome Dre and the Hardcore Commitee's You Can't Hold Me Back was released on Priority Records soon after N.W.A.'s gangster rap classic Straight Outta Compton. I remember heading up to the local record store to see what new rap had been released that day, and the album cover instantly caught my attention. Here was this well dressed man with two men kneeling before him with their hands tied behind their back. With a parental advisory tacked on and a band name like the Hardcore Committee, I was expecting something more along the lines of gangster rap. In reality, however, Awesome Dre's style was more like a mixture of Ice-T's stone cold delivery with Rakim's vocabulary. From the opening bars of the first track "Murder Rap", I could tell that Dre was taking hip-hop to the next level. While obviously influenced by the aforementioned Rakim and Ice T, his hardcore rhyming style mixed with intelligent metaphors would predict the direction that hip-hop was headed into in the early 90's. It is evident to me that Dre wasn't interested in glorifying violence. In fact, certain songs would have lines like "slayer of slander" and "I don't do crimes- I commit rhymes" which was using death and violence as a metaphor for the manner in which he was taking care of the competition. I believe his creative use of language played in a part in influencing rappers like El-P and Aesop Rock from the Def-Jux stable, who juxtapose hardcore street-smarts with verbal dexterity. On "Frankly Speaking", Awesome Dre talks about keeping it real and spreading his music to the masses without receiving radio play. His DJ cuts up the "Radio-suckers never play me" line from Public Enemy's "Rebel Without a Pause" to illustrate this point. My favorite track on this album is "Master of Philosophy", because of it's dope bassline, free flowing rhymes and fresh cuts. I'm not really sure where the samples come from on these two tracks, so give me a shout if you recognize them. Thanks to the rest of the crew for keeping the posts rolling over the past two months.

The Power Of The Spoken Word Posted by Junior

Bama The Village Poet: I Got Soul From: Ghettos of the Mind [Aware, 1974] Sarah Webster Fabio: A Mover (Place In The Sun) From: Boss Soul: 12 Poems by Sarah Webster Fabio [Folkways, 1972] Dana Bryant: Margaret (Second Cousin) From: Wishing from the Top [Warner Brothers, 1996] I've long been a fan of spoken word records, when done badly they can be painfully righteous and hard on the ears, when done well they can hit home with a soulful power that is almost unbearably truthful. For the post today I thought I'd avoid the usual examples of artists such as the Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron and instead pick out a few of my lesser known favourites from the collection. Bama The Village Poet is the artist whose sound is most rooted in funk though that's probably as much to do with him being backed by Bernard Purdie than anything else. An eleven track lecture of the ills of modern society that covers everything from racism to drug abuse it's a powerful piece delivered with gravelly intensity by Bama and was released on Chess so it's no surprise that it's mixed beautifully. Addressing his audience in a similar way to Last Poets and Heron, I Got Soul picks apart Bama's experiences as a youth in America and brutally rips away the nostalgia tinged view of what its was like to live in Mid 20th Century America as a black man while at the same time refusing to let it beat him down. Going further back to 1972, Sarah Webster Fabio's Boss Soul is delivered to a more mellow accompaniment and also details the troubled society she saw around her. Although her other album from the same year is more in a funk vein the track that has always hit me hardest is the closer of Boss Soul: A Mover. Starting with a solitary female voice singing in the most mournful way imaginable the track leads in with a male narrator before Sarah spits her lines of poetic imagery over the softest of melodies. Absolutely magnificent. Finally, something from our more recent past. When I first heard Dana Bryant's Margaret I, perhaps foolishly, assumed that this was an old recording from a more mature woman so was somewhat surprised when the album was released and the woman pictured above was standing there (this was in the days before Google my friends, dark days indeed). Although the rest of the album is an interesting combination of poetry and hip hop beats it was always the mixture of traditional spoken word arrangement with raw emotion of Margaret I went back to as Dana takes you from an idyllic childhood tale to something all together darker. I haven't heard anything from Dana since which seems a shame as there was undoubtedly a wealth of ideas and approaches left to explore in her unique way.

Vanglorious: Jake One's White Van Music Posted by Junior

Jake One: White Van Music (Ft Alchemist, Evidence & Prodigy) The Truth (Ft Freeway & Brother Ali) From: White Van Music [Rhymesayers, 2008] It's been a minute since I've featured any new hip hop on here which is mainly down to being pretty uninspired by most of the releases this year (yes, I know, I sound old). However, just like in 2007, the fourth quarter seems to be delivering an unexpected deluge of decent releases; Jeezy has bucked the trend and come back with a very strong third album, previews of TI's album don't sound awful and, from almost out of nowhere, producer Jake One's album looks like it's going to finish near the top of my releases for 2008. A producer whose stock has been rising non stop, Jake is probably still most known for producing the monstrous Rock Co Kane beat off De La's The Grind Date though he's been quietly stealing albums from big name producers for a number of years now (check out his tracks on 50's Curtis for a good example). Considering Jake has worked with everyone from Strange Fruit Project to 50 Cent it's no surprise that the artist roster for White Van Music mixes the mainstream and underground but what's more surprising is how well the artists work together, the album never sounding like a mish mash despite having both MOP and Little Brother on there. This is no doubt aided by the variety of beats on offer with Jake fine tuning his sound to match each artists style. The clean version of the album was leaked a little while back and I've been umming and ahing over which track to feature so thought I'd put up two to give you a taste of the variety on offer. Considering it's not out to buy yet and will no doubt be available to purchase as individual mp3s it only seemed right to stream these rather than put them up for download. Enjoy and be sure to check it out when it hits the shelves (virtual and physical) on October 7th.

Happy Birthday Eddie Bo Posted by Junior

Vibrettes: Humpty Bump Parts 1 & 2 Eddie Bo: Getting To The Middle From: Eddie Bo's Funky Funky New Orleans [Funky Delicacies, 2005] It's been a miserable few weeks for soul and funk fans (I'm still hard at work putting together my Hayes tribute) so now would seem an appropriate time to celebrate some happier news. Awesomely talented NOLA producer Eddie Bo will be celebrating his 78th birthday tomorrow and, all things being equal, will probably be playing a gig to celebrate. I'v ebeen meaning to feature Eddie for a while now but have been suffering from a lack of Bo records to feature. In fact both today's choices come from something you rarely see on Earfuzz - a compilation - but it's a damn fine one and we're living in a recession apparently so give me a break please. One of my favourite Bo productions, Humpty Bump is a mighty fine slice of sixties dance related funk as The Vibrettes kindly talk you through the motions required to successfully pull off the Humpty Bump. Not much more than a minimal rhythm with vocals this track grooves so damn hard. Those drums, those drums... Turns out this isn't a Bo production but is instead the baby of Johnny Otis who I've yet to feature on here (though his son has been featured on this site many times) - great track anyway. Eddie also released a fair bit of quality under his own name as well as anyone whose ever danced to Hook and Sling can testify. Getting To The Middle is a bass heavy beast with that impossible to resist horn hook. True to form Eddie even throws a break in there at the end so everyone's happy. You can find out more about the man's legacy at the ever reliable Funky 16 Corners Happy Birthday Eddie. On a side note, you may have noticed that I'm still playing around with the site's look a bit and am in desperate need of a new banner. Any suggestions to the look of it would be welcomed with open arms, and, possibly, a hug.

Norman Whitfield RIP Part 2 Posted by Junior

Norman Whitfield (1943 – September 16, 2008) Marvin Gaye: That's The Way Love Is and Cloud Nine From: That's the Way Love Is [Motown, 1967] As a follow up to yesterday's post on Whitfield. The news is now sadly confirmed and I wanted to add a couple of tracks from his work with Marvin Gaye throughout the sixties. In my mind at least Whitfield was a major factor in Gaye's transition from being a smooth pop soul singer to the earthier , more experimental singer who became a legend. The obvious choice to prove this would be I Heard It Through The Grapevine (produced and written by Whitfield) but I doubt there's few people who can't hear that song in their heads as soon as the title is mentioned so instead above are a couple of the tracks the two crafted together from Gaye's 1970 album That's The Way Love Is. The title track is a great example of Whitfield taking a song he'd written for one group (in this case the Isleys) and turning it into something entirely different. Gaye's version is swimming with psychedelic soul as Whitfield slows the tempo way down from the original and lets Gaye deliver a great vocal over the top. Gaye's version of Cloud Nine offers an interesting comparison to the Temptations version yesterday and works extremely well in it's own right as Whitfield once again shows his skill at taking his won song and crafting something new out of it. I'll leave it up to you to decide which version you prefer. RIP

Norman Whitfield RIP Posted by Junior

Norman Whitfield (1943 – September 16, 2008) Temptations: I Know I'm Losing You and Ain't No Sun Since You've Been Gone From: With a Lot o' Soul [Motown, 1967] Temptations: Cloud Nine From: Cloud Nine [Motown, 1969] Undisputed Truth: Smiling Faces Sometimes Available on: Smiling Faces: The Best of Undisputed Truth [Gordy, 1971 ] It's a sorry state of affairs that I seem to be posting up an RIP tribute post every other week at the moment and it's particularly distressing when the subject of that post is one of my favourite soul producers of them all, Norman Whitfield. Although I'm still unable to find any reliable news confirmation of this it seems to be spreading round the web so I can only assume the news is sadly true. One of the greats of the Motown producer/songwriters, Whitfield would be up among the titans for his work with the Temptations alone, not even taking into account the brilliance of much of his work with other artists from Marvin Gaye onwards. This news caught me off guard so I haven't got anywhere near enough of Whitfield's extraordinary discography at hand to do him justice (particularly the development of his sound in the early seventies) but I thought I'd put up a few of my favourites that I did have available to give you a taste of the wealth of talent he brought to soul music in the sixties, seventies and beyond. RIP.

Driving Funk Across Europe: Wess & The Airedales Posted by Junior

Wess & The Airedales: Vehicle and Black Out From: Vehicle [Durium, 1972] How's life treating you? Back from holiday I feel the usual mix of refreshment and a reluctance to man up and deal with everyday life again. One bonus about being back was that, just before I left, I finally put down the cash and purchased both The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968 and The Complete Stax-Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 2: 1968-1971 to go with the copy of Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story Of Stax Records I'd been lent by a friend. Needless to say I've been drowning in the label's music and history the last week so expect many posts on the subject in the near future, so many hidden gems and highly recommended. In the meantime, how about some brassy rough and ready funk for the weekend coming out of that well known funk provider Italy? Yes, I know the Italians aren't renowned for straight funk but Wess and the Airedales truly hit the mark with their 1972 album of funky cover versions and not a disco string in sight. Vehicle is the real deal with layered heavy production of guitar, percussion and organ as American born Wess delivers a soulful vocal to great effect over the top. This is an absolute dancefloor monster and has since been featured on Kon, Amir and DJ Muro's quite outstanding The Kings of Diggin' compilation. Black Out is more pedal to the floor funk carried off with enough aplomb to take it far out of the realms of pastiche and cement itself as a great dancefloor track in it's own right. The Italian band mesh superbly throughout the recording and it even has a break in it for an additional Friday treat. Enjoy and I'll see you next week.